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  3. April
  4. 19
  5. Percy Lavon Julian

Deaths on April 19

1975Apr, 19

Percy Lavon Julian

Percy Lavon Julian, American chemist and academic (b. 1899)
Percy Lavon Julian (April 11, 1899 – April 19, 1975) was an American research chemist and a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants. He was the first to synthesize the natural product physostigmine and was a pioneer in the industrial large-scale chemical synthesis of the human hormones progesterone and testosterone from plant sterols such as stigmasterol and sitosterol. His work laid the foundation for the steroid drug industry's production of cortisone, other corticosteroids, and birth control pills.He later started his own company to synthesize steroid intermediates from the wild Mexican yam. His work helped greatly reduce the cost of steroid intermediates to large multinational pharmaceutical companies, helping to significantly expand the use of several important drugs, including synthesizing cortisone.Julian is a "part of a small group" of African-American Inventors and Scientists; he received more than 130 chemical patents. He was one of the first African Americans to receive a doctorate in chemistry. He was the first African-American chemist inducted into the National Academy of Sciences, and the second African-American scientist inducted (after David Blackwell) from any field.

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Events on 1975

  • 26Jun

    Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

    Two FBI agents and a member of the American Indian Movement are killed in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota; Leonard Peltier is later convicted of the murders in a controversial trial.
  • 15Aug

    Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

    Bangladeshi leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is killed along with most members of his family during a military coup.
  • 15Aug

    Yasukuni Shrine

    Takeo Miki makes the first official pilgrimage to Yasukuni Shrine by an incumbent prime minister on the anniversary of the end of World War II.
  • 27Aug

    Dili

    The Governor of Portuguese Timor abandons its capital, Dili, and flees to Atauro Island, leaving control to a rebel group.
  • 1Oct

    Ellice Islands

    The Seychelles gain internal self-government. The Ellice Islands split from Gilbert Islands and take the name Tuvalu.

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