Appendix A Chronologies A.1 Chronology of Fermi’s life 1901. Enrico Fermi is born on 29 September in Rome, via Gaeta 19. 1911. He enrolls at the “Umberto I” high school. 1915. His brother Giulio dies. 1918. Graduates from high school one year ahead; on 14 November takes the admission test to Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and passes it. Enrolls in mathematics and after some time passes to physics. 1921. In January he publishes his first scientific work. 1922. On 7 July he graduates in Physics defending a thesis on X-ray diffraction. After three days he graduates from Scuola Normale (advanced degree in physics). On 20 March the March on Rome takes place. On 30 October Fermi is awarded a grant for a visit abroad. 1923. First stay abroad, at Göttingen in Max Born’s institute. 1924. Charged of teaching Mathematics for Chemists at the University of Rome. On 8 May his mother dies. He is awarded a second grant for a visit abroad. Goes to Leiden. Charged of teaching mathematical physics at the University of Florence. 1925. On 2 March he is awarded “Libera Docenza” in mathematical physics. 1926. At the opening of a Mathematical Physics Professorship at the University of Cagliari, the committee in March 1926 awards the position to Giovanni Giorgi. He gets the first professorship in Theoretical Physics at the University of Rome. Moves to Rome, in the Physics Institute in Via Panisperna, where he joins the Roman physics school. 1927. His father dies on 7 May. In September, to commemorate the 100th anniver- sary of Alessandro Volta’s death, an important physics conference takes place in Rome. The conference decrees Fermi’s authoritativeness. 1928. On 19 July he marries Laura Capon. 1929. Appointed as member of the Italian Academy. © Giulio Einaudi Editore S.p.A. 2016 263 G. Bruzzaniti, Enrico Fermi, Springer Biographies, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4939-3533-8 264 A Chronologies 1930. First visit to the United States, to give a summer course in theoretical physics in Ann Arbor. 1931. On 31 January Nella, his first daughter, is born. The first international conference on nuclear physics takes place in Rome. 1932. Discovery of the neutron, and little after, of the positron and deuterium. Invited in Paris at the 5th International Conference on Electricity, to give a talk on the state of the theory of the atomic nucleus. 1933. On 30 January Hindenburg appoints Hitler as Chancellor of the Reich; on 27 February the Nazis set the Reichstag on fire; on 28 February Hitler forces Hindenburg to sign a document which cancels the individual and civil rights from the Constitution. In October Fermi attends the 7th Solvay Conference, devoted to nuclear physics. In December he writes the fundamental paper on ˇ decay. 1934. First experiments on the neutron-induced radioactivity. On 22 October the effects of slow neutrons are discovered. 1936. On 16 February his son Giulio is born. The Berlin-Rome Axe is established. 1937. On 23 January Orso Maria Corbino suddenly dies. On 20 July Guglielmo Marconi dies. 1938. In July the Manifesto della razza is published; the anti-semitic campaign starts in Italy; first racial laws promulgated. On 10 December Fermi receives the Nobel Prize for his researches on slow neutrons. On 24 December he sails to America with his family. In December the uranium fission is discovered. 1939. On 2 January he lands in New York. Starts working at Columbia. On 1 September the German troops invade Poland; World War II starts. 1940. On 11 June Italy enters the war. Roosevelt establishes the National Defense Research Committee, whose aim to promote war-related research. 1941. On 17 December the Japanese Air Force attacks Pearl Harbor. 1942. He moves to Chicago, together with many other physicists. He coordinates the project for the construction of an atomic pile. In June Roosevelt starts the Manhattan Project; in September its direction is entrusted to General Groves. On 2 December Fermi and his group start the first self-sustained chain reaction; the pile works for 28 minutes. 1943. In March Groves starts the Los Alamos laboratory for the construction of the first prototype of the fission bomb. 1944. In late summer Fermi moves to Los Alamos. 1945. On 12 April Roosevelt dies and is replaced by Truman. War ends in Europe on 8 May with Hitler’s death. On 16 July the Trinity experiment takes place in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The first fission bomb explodes, releasing a power of 13 kton. On 6 and 9 August Little Boy and Fat Man, the first atomic bombs, are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 1947. Fermi is appointed in the General Advisory Committee. He maintains that charge until 1950. Together with Teller and Weisskopf he interprets the Conversi-Pancini-Piccioni experiment. 1948. Works on the origin of the cosmic rays and resumes the systematic study of a new formulation of quantum electrodynamics. A.1 Chronology of Fermi’s life 265 1949. Together with Yang he formulates the composite pion model. In the Fall he goes to Italy, attends the Como conference, and gives a series of nine lectures in Rome and Milan (the Donegani Lectures). 1950. Participates in the design and construction of the H bomb. 1951. The first pion-nucleon resonance is discovered. 1952. Starts a collaboration with Chandrasekhar on some problems in astrophysics. 1953. He is appointed as President of the American Physical Society. Works with Ulam on the dynamics of nonlinear systems. 1954. On 18 July he is in Varenna, Italy, to deliver a series of lectures. Dies in Chicago in the early morning of 28 November. A.2 Main events in 1939–42: from fission to the chain reaction 266 A Chronologies Day and Actions taken by the Initiatives of International Year month Scientific activity scientists administrations or political events committees 1939 16 Feb Anderson, Booth, Dunning, Fermi, Glasse, and Slack repeat the experiments on the fission of uranium; measurements of the cross-sections 16 Mar Anderson, Fermi, and Wigner, Szilard, Pegram, Hitler declares the Hainstein prove and Fermi informed the German protectorate experimentally that fission is authorities of the possibility on Czechoslovakia associated with neutron of a chain reaction production 17 Mar Fermi, with Pegrams’ First governmental funding; reference letter, meets a thanks to the intervention of delegation of the one of the two scientists Government in Washington present in the meeting, Admiral Bowen allocates $1500 for the researches on uranium 1939 17 May Anderson and Fermi study neutron absorption by U238 3Jul Anderson, Fermi, and Szilard realize the first experiment to prove the feasibility of the chain reaction; evidence that water is not a good moderator A.2 Main events in 1939–42: from fission to the chain reaction 267 Day and Actions taken by the Initiatives of International Year month Scientific activity scientists administrations or political events committees Jul-Aug Intense correspondence between Fermi and Szilard; decision to use graphite as moderator 2Aug Einstein, after Szilard, Wigner, and Teller’s request, writes the celebrated letter to Roosevelt 15 Aug Einstein’s letter is given to A. Sachs, but it reaches Roosevelt only in 11 October 1Aug Hitler invades Poland. World War II starts 19 Oct Roosevelt’s answer to Einstein; L. J. Briggs chairs the new Uranium Committee (UC) 1940 Feb Peierls and Frisch compute Peierls and Frisch send the critical mass for a Oliphant a report which uranium bomb describes the effects of an atomic bomb, and the techniques to assemble it; Oliphant passes the report to Tizard 268 A Chronologies Day and Actions taken by the Initiatives of International Year month Scientific activity scientists administrations or political events committees 20 Feb Allocation of the requested 6,000 $ 2Mar Dumming gives an experimental proof of Bohr’s hypothesis that slow neutrons only give rise to fission in uranium 235 Apr The Thomson Committee is established in Great Britain to assess the feasibility of an atomic bomb, the effects of its deployment, and the possibility of allocating resources to that project 7Apr Szilard, in letter to Pegram and Fermi, raises the question of secrecy 9Apr Hitler invades Denmark and Norway 10 Apr First meeting of the Thomson Committee 27 Apr UC’s second meeting; decision to stop the experiment on the uranium-carbon pile till the small-scale laboratory experiments are completed A.2 Main events in 1939–42: from fission to the chain reaction 269 Day and Actions taken by the Initiatives of International Year month Scientific activity scientists administrations or political events committees 10 May Hitler invades the Netherlands, Belgium, and France Jun F. Simon starts the A committee chaired by L. P. The Thomson Committee separation of isotopes by Eisenhart is established to changes name to “Maud means of gas diffusion control all publications Committee” having potential relevance to the war 12 Jun Roosevelt establishes the National Defense Research Council (NDRC), chaired by Vannevar Bush, to coordinate war-related research 1Jul NDRC takes on the responsibility for the Uranium Project and incorporates the UC; Briggs asks 140,000 $, Bush agrees for 40,000 25 Sep Anderson and Fermi measure the cross-section for the absorption of slow neutrons by graphite, which turns out to be a good moderator 1Nov The construction of the pile The 40,000 $ approved in starts at Columbia July are assigned 270 A Chronologies Day and Actions taken by the Initiatives of International Year month Scientific activity scientists administrations or political events committees Dec The Maud Committee discusses a report by Simon