American Decades

Important Events in Science and Technology, 1930–1939

On January 25, a new amendment to the Air Commerce Regulations sets five hundred feet as a minimum altitude at which aircraft may fly except during landing and takeoff.
On February 17, Louis Bamberger and his sister, Mrs. Felix Fuld, the widow of his late partner, found the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study.
On February 18, Clyde William Tombaugh confirms the existence of Pluto, the ninth and last planet in Earth's solar system, which had been calculated by Percival Lowell in 1906.
In March, Harlow Shapley calculates the Milky Way galaxy to be 250,000 light years in diameter.
In March, chemist Thomas Midgley Jr. develops the manufacturing process for Freon, a gas used in refrigerators and air conditioners.
On March 10, Eleanor Smith establishes a women's flight altitude record of 27,418 feet.
On April 4, the American Interplanetary Society (later the American...

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