This Day in History: Jul 25, 1920: Rosalind Franklin, famous for X-ray diffraction images of DNA, is born

Born in 1920 in London, Rosalind Franklin earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Cambridge University. She learned crystallography and X-ray diffraction, techniques that she applied to DNA fibers. One of her photographs provided key insights into DNA structure. Other scientists used it as the basis for their DNA model and took credit for the discovery. Franklin died of ovarian cancer in 1958, at age 37.

Early Years

 

British chemist Rosalind Elsie Franklin was born into an affluent and influential Jewish family on July 25, 1920, in Notting Hill, London, England. She displayed exceptional intelligence from early childhood, knowing from the age of 15 that she wanted to be a scientist. She received her education at several schools, including North London Collegiate School, where she excelled in science, among other things.

 

Rosalind Franklin enrolled at Newnham College, Cambridge, in 1938 and studied chemistry. In 1941, she was awarded Second Class Honors in her finals, which, at that time, was accepted as a bachelor's degree in the qualifications for employment. She went on to work as an assistant research officer at the British Coal Utilisation Research Association, where she studied the porosity of coal—work that was the basis of her 1945 Ph.D. thesis "The physical chemistry of solid organic colloids with special reference to coal."

In the fall of 1946, Franklin was appointed at the Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'Etat in Paris, where she worked with crystallographer Jacques Mering. He taught her X-ray diffraction, which would largely play into her discovery of "the secret of life"—the structure of DNA. In addition, Franklin pioneered the use of X-rays to create images of crystalized solids in analyzing complex, unorganized matter, not just single crystals.

Scientific Discoveries and Credit Controversy

 

In January 1951, Franklin began working as a research associate at the King's College London in the biophysics unit, where director John Randall used her expertise and X-ray diffraction techniques (mostly of proteins and lipids in solution) on DNA fibers. Studying DNA structure with X-ray diffraction, Franklin and her student Raymond Gosling made an amazing discovery: They took pictures of DNA and discovered that there were two forms of it, a dry "A" form and a wet "B" form. One of their X-ray diffraction pictures of the "B" form of DNA, known as Photograph 51, became famous as critical evidence in identifying the structure of DNA. The photo was acquired through 100 hours of X-ray exposure from a machine Franklin herself had refined.

John Desmond Bernal, one of the United Kingdom’s most well-known and controversial scientists and a pioneer in X-ray crystallography, spoke highly of Franklin around the time of her death in 1958. "As a scientist Miss Franklin was distinguished by extreme clarity and perfection in everything she undertook," he said. "Her photographs were among the most beautiful X-ray photographs of any substance ever taken. Their excellence was the fruit of extreme care in preparation and mounting of the specimens as well as in the taking of the photographs."

Despite her cautious and diligent work ethic, Franklin had a personality conflict with colleague Maurice Wilkins, one that would end up costing her greatly. In January 1953, Wilkins changed the course of DNA history by disclosing without Franklin's permission or knowledge her Photo 51 to competing scientist James Watson, who was working on his own DNA model with Francis Crick at Cambridge.

 

Upon seeing the photograph, Watson said, "My jaw fell open and my pulse began to race," according to author Brenda Maddox, who in 2002 wrote a book about Franklin titled Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA.

 

The two scientists did in fact use what they saw in Photo 51 as the basis for their famous model of DNA, which they published on March 7, 1953, and for which they received a Nobel Prize in 1962. Crick and Watson were also able to take most of the credit for the finding: When publishing their model in Nature magazine in April 1953, they included a footnote acknowledging that they were "stimulated by a general knowledge" of Franklin's and Wilkins' unpublished contribution, when in fact, much of their work was rooted in Franklin's photo and findings. Randall and the Cambridge laboratory director came to an agreement, and both Wilkins' and Franklin's articles were published second and third in the same issue of Nature. Still, it appeared that their articles were merely supporting Crick and Watson's.




According to Maddox, Franklin didn't know that these men based their Nature article on her research, and she didn't complain either, likely as a result of her upbringing. Franklin "didn't do anything that would invite criticism … [that was] bred into her," Maddox was quoted as saying in an October 2002 NPR interview.

Franklin left King's College in March 1953 and relocated to Birkbeck College, where she studied the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus and the structure of RNA. Because Randall let Franklin leave on the condition that she would not work on DNA, she turned her attention back to studies of coal. In five years, Franklin published 17 papers on viruses, and her group laid the foundations for structural virology.

Illness and Death

In the fall of 1956, Franklin discovered that she had ovarian cancer. She continued working throughout the following two years, despite having three operations and experimental chemotherapy. She experienced a 10-month remission and worked up until several weeks before her death on April 16, 1958, at the age of 37.

Rosalind Elsie Franklin. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/rosalind-franklin-9301344 [Accessed 25 Jul 2013].

This Day in History: Jul 25, 1993: The Saint James Church massacre occurs in South Africa.

The Saint James Church massacre was a massacre perpetrated on St James Church in Kenilworth, Cape Town on 25 July 1993 by four cadres of the Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA). 11 members of the congregation were killed and 58 wounded. In 1998 the attackers were granted amnesty for their participation by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Massacre

 The attack occurred during the Sunday evening service. Sichumiso Nonxuba, Bassie Mkhumbuzi, Gcinikhaya Makoma and Tobela Mlambisa approached the church in a vehicle stolen by Mlambisa and Makoma beforehand. Nonxuba, who commanded the unit, and Makoma entered the church armed with M26 hand grenades and R4 assault rifles.^[1] They threw the grenades and then opened fire on the congregation, killing 11 and wounding 58.^[2]

One member of the congregation, Charl van Wyk, who wrote a book about the event (Shooting Back), returned fire with a .38 special revolver, wounding one of the attackers. At this point they fled the church. Mkhumbuzi had been ordered to throw four petrol bombs into the church following the shooting, but abandoned this intention as all four fled in the vehicle.^[2]

 

Members of the congregation killed were Guy Cooper Javens, Richard Oliver O'Kill, Gerhard Dennis Harker, Wesley Alfonso Harker, Denise Gordon, Mirtle Joan Smith, Marita Ackermann, Andrey Kayl, Karamjin Oleg, Varaksa Velentin and Pavel Valuet.^[2] The last four on this list were Russian seamen attending the service as part of a church outreach programe. Another Russian seaman, Dmitri Makogon, lost both legs and an arm in the attack.

 

Similar attacks

APLA cadres were held responsible for several similar attacks. Among these were the attack on King William's Town Golf Club on 28 November 1992 in which four people were killed, and the attack on the Heidelberg Tavern in Observatory, Cape Town on 31 December 1993, in which four people were killed. Ballistic tests showed that the same rifles were used in the St James and Heidelberg Tavern attacks.

Arrest and trial

 

Makoma was arrested ten days later and convicted for 11 murders. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
Nonxuba, Mlambisa and Mkhumbuzi were subsequently arrested and charged in 1996. They had in the meantime joined the South African National Defence Force as part of the integration of APLA operatives into the new national defence force.^{[citation needed]}

In 1997, while on trial, Nonxuba, Mlambisa and Mkhumbuzi appealed to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for amnesty, together with Makoma. They were granted bail pending their appearance before the TRC. Nonxuba died in a car accident while on bail.

Amnesty

Makoma, Mkhumbuzi and Mlambisa were all granted amnesty for the St James Church attack by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).^[2] As a result, Makoma was freed after serving only 5½ years of his sentence, and the trial of Mkhumbuzi and Mlambisa was never completed.^{[citation needed]}

In this and other APLA amnesty hearings, APLA operatives claimed that they were following their orders and that they regarded all whites as legitimate targets as they were complicit in the government's policy of apartheid. In statements made to the representatives of St James church they did however say that they were unaware that the selected target was a church until they arrived in Kenilworth. Dawie Ackerman, husband of one of the victims, noted that perhaps 35–40% of the congregation were people of colour, with the counsel for the APLA saying they had assumed all congregants would be white as the church was in a white area.^[2]

 

 

Letlapa Mphahlele, national director of operations for APLA, took responsibility for ordering the attacks as part of his application for amnesty. He claimed that he had authorised attacks on white civilians following the killing of five school children by the Transkei Defence Force in Umtata.^[3]

 

Amnesty in such cases was typically granted in terms of the TRC's mandate because the crimes were politically motivated, with the perpetrators following the orders of the APLA commanders, and full disclosure was made to the TRC.

Although amnesty was granted to the individual perpetrators, the TRC found that the act itself, along with other APLA/PAC attacks specifically targeting civilians, were "a gross violation of human rights" and a "violation of internal [sic] humanitarian law".^[4]

 

Reconciliation

Several of the church members who were injured or who lost family members in the attacks, as well as Charl van Wyk, who had returned fire on the attackers, later met and publicly reconciled with the APLA attackers. ^[5]

Later developments

On 27 August 2002, Gcinikhaya Makoma was arrested along with six others following a cash-in-transit heist of a Standard Bank cash van in Constantia, Cape Town, in which R1.8 million was stolen.^[6] He and the others were later acquitted, with the magistrate finding that the prosecution case had been badly put together and that documents had been falsified by an investigating officer.^[7] Gcini­khaya Makoma was eventually found guilty on 16 February 2012^[8] of murder and robbery and sentenced to life and 46 years in prison for his role in a December 2007 cash van heist in Parow, Cape Town.

In Oct 2004, Charl Van Wyk became one of the founding members of Gun Owners of South Africa, (GOSA), an online Civilian Gun Rights ownership group, which is also involved in public demonstrations against the Firearms Control Act.

References

1.        ^ ""Churches were used to oppress blacks, says amnesty applicant"" (Press release) (in English). South African Press Association. 9 July 1997. Retrieved 2008-09-01.

2.        ^ ^{a b c d e} "Decision AC/98/0018". Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa (Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa)). 11. Department of Justice and Constitutional Development's Website

3.        ^ Hands that unleashed Thunder

4.        ^ "The Liberation Movements from 1960 to 1990" (PDF). Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa Report (Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Africa)) 2: 692. "The commission finds that the targeting of civilians for killing was not only a gross violation of human rights of those affected but a violation of internal humanitarian law"

5.        ^ Department of Justice and Constitutional Development's Website

6.        ^ IOL Gang fled R1,8m heist 'at speed of lightning'

7.        ^ IOL 'Badly presented' case frees 8 heist accused

8.        ^ IOL Ex-Apla man gets life in prison for cash van heist

 
Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_James_Church_massacre [25.07.2013] & pictures from: http://www.slideshare.net/frontfel/the-st-james-massacre

The Day in History: Jul 25, 1978: The Cerro Maravilla Incident

 

The Cerro Maravilla Incident, also known as the Cerro Maravilla Case or the Cerro Maravilla Killings (Caso del Cerro Maravilla or Asesinatos en Cerro Maravilla in Spanish, respectively) is the name given by the Puerto Rican public and media to describe the events that occurred on July 25, 1978 at Cerro Maravilla, a mountain in Puerto Rico, where in two young Puerto Rican pro-independence activists were killed in a police ambush. The event sparked a series of political controversies where, in the end, the police officers were found guilty of murder and several high-ranking local government officials were accused of planning and/or covering-up the incident.

Originally declared a police intervention against terrorists, the local media quickly questioned the officers" testimonies as well as the only surviving witness for inconsistencies. Although reluctant, the Governor of Puerto Rico at the time Carlos Romero Barcel? ordered the local Justice Department to launch various investigations, and asked the FBI and the US Justice Department to aid in such investigations, which concluded that there was no wrongdoing on the officer"s part. However, after the local opposing political party launched its own inquiries, new evidence and witness testimonies uncovered gross negligence and murder on the officers" part, as well as the possibility of a local and federal cover-up. Local trials were held, and a total of 10 officers were convicted of various crimes.

The incident and subsequent events have become one of the most controversial moments in Puerto Rico"s political history. The event is often referred to by local independence activists as an example of political oppression against the Puerto Rican independence movement. To this date, most public figures, including those which were not involved in the case, rarely comment on the incident.

The incident

On the night of July 25, 1978 Carlos Soto Arriv and Arnaldo Daro Rosado, two independence activists of the Armed Revolutionary Movement (Movimiento Revolucionario Armado in Spanish), along with undercover police officer Alejandro Gonzalez Malavé posing as a fellow group member, took taxi driver Julio Ortiz Molina hostage and ordered him to drive them to Cerro Maravilla where several communication towers were located. Their original plan was to set fire and sabotage the towers to protest the imprisonment of Puerto Rican nationalists convicted of the 1950 assassination attempt on U.S. President Harry S. Truman and the 1954 shooting at the United States Capitol where five members of Congress were injured. State police officers were alerted of their plan prior to their arrival and the activists were ambushed and shot. The undercover agent received a minor bullet wound during the shooting, while the taxi driver was left unharmed.

Aftermath

 

The second investigations led to 10 officers being indicted and found guilty of perjury, destruction of evidence, and obstruction of justice, of which 4 were convicted of second-degree murder during 1984.

 

The convicted officers, which were not on active duty at the time due to various reasons, were:
Col. ?ngel Pérez Casillas (head of the PR Police Department’s Intelligence Division during the incident; suspended)
Lieut. Nelson Gonz?lez Pérez (resigned),
Lieut. Jaime Qu?les Hern?ndez (suspended),
Officer Juan Bruno Gonz?lez (suspended),
Officer William Col?n Berr?os (suspended),
Officer Nazario Mateo Espada (suspended),
Officer Rafael Moreno Morales (suspended),
Officer Luis Rever?n Mart?nez (on disability leave),
Officer Jose R?os Polanco (suspended), and
Officer Rafael Torres Marrero (on disability leave).

That same year, in the general elections held in November, Romero Barcel lost his gubernatorial seat against former governor and opposing party rival Rafael Hernandez Colin (PPD). It is widely accepted that Romero Barcel lost the elections because of this case, since his public opinion rating had deteriorated substantially during late 1984 as the investigations progressed, and since his political rivals used his defense of the officers as an indication of a possible conspiracy.

Undercover agent murdered

 

Alejandro Gonzalez Malavé, the undercover agent who was accompanying the activists, was not indicted for his part in the slayings because he was granted immunity for testifying against other officers, but was removed from the police force due to public pressure. In February 1986, he was acquitted of kidnapping the taxi driver. His lawyer had argued that he was acting under orders and, therefore, it was the government who was actually guilty of kidnapping, even though testimony from officer Carmelo Cruz testified that it was Gonzalez Malavé who recklessly endangered the hostage’s life. The prosecution had provided evidence that he threatened the hostage at gunpoint, drove the car, and, when the car approached the mountaintop, refused to free the hostage despite suggestions from the activists. These actions, according to officer Cruz, were contrary to standard police procedures since his primary concern should have been the safety of the hostage. Nevertheless, the PR Police Department did not reinstate Gonzalez as an active police officer, a fact that he publicly expressed resentment over, and subsequently threatened to provide incriminating evidence to the media about other individuals involved in the shootings unless reinstated.

On the evening of April 29, 1986, just two months after his acquittal, Gonzalez Malavé was assassinated in front of his mother"s house in Bayamon. He received three gunshot wounds while his mother was slightly injured. A few hours later, a group identifying itself as the “Volunteer Organization for the Revolution” called local news agencies claiming responsibility. In their statements they swore to kill, "one by one", all the policemen involved in the deaths in Cerro Maravilla. The FBI considered it one of the most dangerous terrorist organizations in the United States at the time, given that it was the same organization that claimed responsibility for an attack on a Navy bus in Puerto Rico on December 3, 1979 where two Navy men were killed and 10 people injured, as well as an attack on a U.S. National Guard base on January 12, 1981 where six fighter-jet planes were destroyed. To this day, no one has been identified as a possible suspect in Gonzalez Malavé"s murder, and the case remains unsolved.

Source: encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com [25.07.2013]