Deaths on August 12

James B. Sumner

Died on August 12, 1955

James B. Sumner, American chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)

James Batcheller Sumner (November 19, 1887 – August 12, 1955) was an American chemist. He discovered that enzymes can be crystallized, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1946 with John Howard Northrop and Wendell Meredith Stanley. He was also the first to prove that enzymes are proteins.

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Events on 1955

7 Jan

Metropolitan Opera
Contralto Marian Anderson becomes the first person of color to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera.
13 Feb

Dead Sea Scrolls
Israel obtains four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls.
18 Feb

Nevada Test Site
Operation Teapot: Teapot test shot "Wasp" is successfully detonated at the Nevada Test Site with a yield of 1.2 kilotons. Wasp is the first of fourteen shots in the Teapot series.
14 May

Warsaw Pact
Cold War: Eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact.
23 Oct

State of Vietnam referendum, 1955
Prime Minister Ngô Đình Diệm defeats former emperor Bảo Đại in a referendum and founds the Republic of Vietnam.

Deaths on August 12

James B. Sumner

Died on August 12, 1955

References

Choose Another Date

Events on 1955

Metropolitan Opera

Dead Sea Scrolls

Nevada Test Site

Warsaw Pact

State of Vietnam referendum, 1955