Timeline August 1868

Events in August 1868 2

• 1792 – 1868 Thaddeus Stevens (1792-1868) Died 11 August 1868, aged 76 Stevens was a US Congressman from Pennsylvania and a leading Radical Republican who championed abolition and Reconstruction. He led the impeachment prosecution against President Andrew Johnson earlier that year. He was buried in a racially integrated cemetery by his own request.
• 1868 Discovery of helium New element identified in the Sun's spectrum French astronomer Pierre Janssen observed an unknown yellow spectral line in the Sun's chromosphere while studying a total solar eclipse from India. English astronomer Norman Lockyer confirmed the observation and named the new element helium. It was the first element discovered in space before being found on Earth.