DNA Timeline

Gregor Mendel

Feb 8, 1866

Gregor Mendel publishes "Experiments in planr hybridization" where he experimented on the hereditary traits in peas. He learned that certain traits are passed from parent to offspring. These traits were later known as genes,

Friedrich Miescher

Mar 3, 1869

Friedrich Miescher states that a substance in a cell's nuclei is nuclein. This "nuclein" was later found out to be DNA.

Thomas Morgan

Nov 5, 1911

Thomas Morgan states that genes are located along chromosomes.

Francis Crick

Jun 8, 1916

Francis Crick was born in Weston Favell, United Kingdom.

James Watson

Apr 6, 1928

James Watson was born in Chicago, Illinois.

Phoebus Levene

Feb 25, 1929

Phoebus Levene discovered that deoxyribose sugar is in nucleic acids. He stated that DNA is made up of nucleotides.

William Astbury

Jan 6, 1943

William Astbury takes X-ray diffraction pictures of DNA.

Erwin Chargraff

Aug 11, 1950

Erwin Chargaff discovered base pairs. Guanine connects to cytosine and adenine conects to thymine.

Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin

Apr 4, 1952

Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin photograph DNA crystals by using an X-ray.

James Watson and Francis Crick

Feb 28, 1953

James Watson and Francis Crick discover the double helix.

Human Genome Project

Period: Feb 1, 2000 to Feb 15, 2003

The human genome project was created in 2000 and was completed in 2003. The goal was to determine the sequence of base pairs and identifying and mapping the genes of the human genome,

Francis Crick

Jul 28, 2004

Francis Crick died in San Diego, CA.