Gregor Mendel 189th Birthday
Gregor Johann Mendel July 20, 1822 – January 6, 1884 was an Austrian Augustinian friar and scientist, who gained posthumous fame as the founder of the new science of genetics for his study of the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants. Gregor Johann Mendel showed that the inheritance of these traits follows particular laws, which were later named after him. The significance of Gregor Johann Mendel's work was not recognized until the turn of the 20th century. The independent rediscovery of these laws formed the foundation of the modern science of genetics. Gregor Johann Mendel was born into an ethnic German family in Heinzendorf bei Odrau, Austrian Silesia, Austrian Empire (now Hynčice, Czech Republic), and was baptized two days later as Johann. He was the son of Anton and Rosine (Schwirtlich) Mendel, and had one older sister (Veronica) and one younger (Theresia). They lived and worked on a farm which had been owned by the Gregor Johann Mendel family for at least 130 years...