By Richard T. Cartwright, PE, CHMM, (IHMM, AHMP and APICS) Fellow. Richard died April 21, 2025; honoring the work he did with hazmat history is one small way to keep his memory alive.
The saying, “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it” is more than a cliché. It is a reminder that we must constantly be learning from the past. Here’s a look back at major historical events that happened today in the world of hazardous materials.
September 12, 2007
Russia tested the world’s largest non-nuclear explosive. It was four times more powerful than the USA’s equivalent device. It was dubbed “father of all bombs” by its creators.
September 12, 2006
California passed a new emissions control bill, which called for a 25% decrease of carbon dioxide emissions by 2020.
September 12, 1962
In response to progress made by the Soviet Union in the space race, President Kennedy announced that America will place a man on the moon and safely return him before 1970. The text of his speech at the Rice University Stadium in Houston included these memorable lines: “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the Presidency.”
September 12, 1915
During a research study, a volunteer Mississippi prisoner developed a rash associated with pellagra disease. He was part of a study designed by Dr. Joseph Goldberger to provide a protein-deficient diet for several months to 12 volunteer inmates. This was proof that the cause of the deadly disease pellagra was a result of poor diet, and that it was not contagious. For the inmates, it earned them a pardon.
September 12, 1897
Irène Joliot-Curie, French physicist and physical chemist, was born. Daughter of Nobel Prize winners Pierre and Marie Curie, she shared a Nobel Prize for Chemistry “in recognition of their synthesis of new radioactive elements.” Her research team discovered that aluminum atoms exposed to alpha rays transmuted to radioactive phosphorus atoms. Like her mother, Irène died of leukemia resulting from radiation exposure during research.
September 12, 1866
The Texas petroleum industry began its first commercial production well near Nacogdoches. The oil well was 106 feet deep and produced 10 barrels per day.
September 12, 1859
Florence Kelley, American social and political reformer, was born. As a leading public health advocate, she was instrumental in bringing the case of the radium girls to light and ensuring that they had proper medical and legal help. At a watch manufacturing company, young girls mixed up glue, water and radium powder into a glowing greenish-white paint, and carefully applied it with a camel hairbrush to the watch dial numbers. After a few strokes, the brushes would lose their shape, and the women couldn’t paint accurately. “Our instructors told us to point them with our lips. I think I pointed mine with my lips about six times to every watch dial. It didn’t taste funny. It didn’t have any taste, and I didn’t know it was harmful.”
September 12, 1818
Richard Gatling, American inventor, was born. He invented agricultural devices including rice-sewing machines and steam plows. Gatling is best remembered as the creator of the rapid-firing gun that was the precursor of the modern machine gun.
Historical hazardous materials management events are posted 365 days a year at this LinkedIn discussion group.
