Rosalind Franklin, Chemist, Scientist, By the time James Watson and Francis Crick etched their names into molecular biology’s history books, a quieter revolution had already occurred—led by a British chemist whose brilliance radiated not from accolades, but from diffraction patterns.Rosalind Franklin, born in 1920 into an intellectually vibrant London family, was no stranger to scientific rigor. Her early work on the porosity of coal during World War II helped optimize gas masks and earned her a PhD. But it was in the crystalline chaos of DNA that Franklin’s legacy would be forged.In the basement labs of King’s College London, Franklin refined X-ray techniques with near-surgical precision. Her most famous photograph, Photo 51, didn’t just hint at the double helix—it practically screamed it. The image, shared with Watson and Crick without her knowledge, became the cornerstone of their model that would win a Nobel Prize in 1962. Franklin was never nominated.But her scientific journey didn't stall there. At Birkbeck College, she pivoted to viruses, cracking the structure of tobacco mosaic virus and laying groundwork in structural virology. Her meticulous work helped shape our modern understanding of viral architecture.Franklin died of ovarian cancer at just 37—a loss attributed in part to prolonged X-ray exposure. Decades later, she’s remembered not simply as a missed Nobel laureate, but as someone whose mind was calibrated to see patterns where others saw noise.Today, her story is a lens on scientific ethics, gender equity, and the quiet brilliance that often goes unrecognized.

Old AT&T Building (195 Broadway) - 1916 - Sited over the former Western Union Building onIn 1932 a long distance telephone call between the US and Europe was routed through AT&T.It was the site of one end of the first transcontinental telephone call, the first intercity Picturephone call, and the first transatlantic telephone call.
 Though AT&T's headquarters relocated to 550 Madison Avenue in 1984, 195 Broadway remains in use as an office building as of 2020.

1st Transatlantic telephone call - 1927 - A transatlantic telephone service began between New York and London with a phone conversation between Bell AT&T President W.S. Gifford and Sir Evelyn P. Murray, the head of the British General Post Office.

1st transcontinental telephone call - 1914 - A telephone call, which for marketing purposes is claimed to be the first transcontinental telephone call, occurred on January 25, 1915, a day timed to coincide with the Panama–Pacific International Exposition celebrations. However, the transcontinental telephone line was first completed on June 17, 1914, and successfully first voice tested in July 1914. A 1998 U.S. postage stamp commemorates the completion of the line in 1914.

1st public demonstration of inter-city television - 1927 - By 1927 AT&T had created its earliest electromechanical television-videophone called the ikonophone (from Greek: "image-sound"), which operated at 18 frames per second and occupied half a room full of equipment cabinets.An early U.S. test in 1927 had their then-Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover address an audience in New York City from Washington, D.C.; although the audio portion was two-way, the video portion was one-way with only those in New York being able to see Hoover.