The structure of DNA was first announced in a pub. On 28 February 1953 Francis Crick interrupted lunch at The Eagle in Cambridge to declare that he and Watson had discovered 'the secret of life'.

1953

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The event

• Discovery of the DNA double helix1953 · Cambridge. In April 1953 James Watson and Francis Crick published their double-helix model of DNA in Nature, drawing on X-ray images by Rosalind Franklin. It revealed how heredity works and gave birth to molecular biology.

20th century

More amazing facts

• 1952 Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel.
• 1953 Spring 1953: the structure of DNA was published on 25 April, and on 29 May Hillary and Tenzing reached the top of Everest.
• 1953 The aircraft 'black box' was dreamed up by an Australian.
• 1953 News that Everest had been climbed reached London just in time for the coronation, on the morning of 2 June 1953, as Elizabeth II was crowned.
• 1953 · 1992 Edmund Hillary appeared on a banknote while still alive.
• 1954 In 1954 'the fastest man on Earth' was a doctor.

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