The father of genetics failed his exam to become a science teacher, more than once.

1850 · 1856 · apart: 6 years

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.

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The event

• Mendel's peas1866 · Brno. 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.

19th century

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