Mendel's peas
A monk found the laws of heredity, and nobody noticed
Augustinian friar Gregor Mendel spent eight years crossing peas in his monastery garden and worked out the laws of heredity. A local natural history journal printed his paper, which went almost uncited for 34 years until three botanists independently rediscovered it in 1900.
Wikipedia (English) · 19th century
Did you know
The founding work of genetics went unnoticed for 34 years. Mendel published his laws in 1866 in a provincial natural history journal, and the world learned of them only in 1900, when three botanists rediscovered them almost at once. Share →
The father of genetics failed his exam to become a science teacher, more than once. Mendel flunked it in 1850 and failed the oral again in 1856. He kept teaching without the certificate, starting his pea experiments in those same years. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1853–1856 Crimean War — 13 years earlier
- 1861 Emancipation of the serfs in Russia — 5 years earlier
- 1867 Alaska Purchase — 1 year later
- 1869 Tolstoy's War and Peace — 3 years later
- 1877 Premiere of Swan Lake — 11 years later
Middle East
- 1876–1878 The first Ottoman constitution — 10 years later
Africa
- 1847 Liberia declares independence — 19 years earlier
- 1869 Opening of the Suez Canal — 3 years later
- 1879 Battle of Isandlwana — 13 years later
- 1885 The Mahdists take Khartoum — 19 years later
- 1885–1908 The Congo Free State — 19 years later
Asia
- 1853–1854 Commodore Perry's Black Ships — 13 years earlier
- 1868 Meiji Restoration — 2 years later
- 1876–1878 Great Famine in India — 10 years later
- 1883 Eruption of Krakatoa — 17 years later
- 1885 Founding of the Indian National Congress — 19 years later
Americas
- 1864–1870 Paraguayan War — 2 years earlier
- 1865 Assassination of Abraham Lincoln — 1 year earlier
- 1867 Canadian Confederation — 1 year later
- 1876 Invention of the telephone — 10 years later
- 1879 Edison's incandescent lamp — 13 years later
Oceania
- 1851 The Australian gold rushes — 15 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Charles Darwin (aged 57)
- Karl Marx (aged 48)
- Queen Victoria (aged 47)
- Fyodor Dostoevsky (aged 45)
- Leo Tolstoy (aged 38)
- Dmitri Mendeleev (aged 32)
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (aged 26)
- Thomas Edison (aged 19)
- Vincent van Gogh (aged 13)
- Nikola Tesla (aged 10)