X-Rays Announced: Röntgen's Discovery Stuns the World
Röntgen had discovered X-rays in November 1895 but told almost no one. On January 5, 1896, a Vienna newspaper broke the story — complete with an image of his wife's hand showing the bones and her wedding ring. The medical community grasped the implications immediately. Within weeks, hospitals across Europe and North America were experimenting with the technology. Within a year, X-ray machines were being used in field hospitals. Within a decade, they were standard. Röntgen refused to patent the discovery, saying it belonged to humanity. He won the first Nobel Prize in Physics in 1901.
January 5, 1896
130 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on January 5
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