19 April 26

As chemists and physicists produced new elements from the 1940s through today, there have been frequent controversies over the official names for the additions to the periodic table. These were mostly tied to rival claims for discovery and identification. Element 106 was first created in 1974, and was initially known as "unnilhexium," a Latin-based string for the number 106. To honor the nuclear chemist Glenn Seaborg, who had been a pioneer for plutonium and several other elements, the American discoverers proposed the name seaborgium, but there was a standing rule against names for living scientists. Twenty years later that rule was relaxed, and the name seaborgium was officially recognized in 1997. My periodic table tie honors Glenn Seaborg's birthday on this date in 1912. He died in 1999.