Today’s Almanac-February 6, 2010
Joseph Priestly by Rembrandt Peale
On February 6, 1808 British chemist, philosopher, theologian, and dissenting clergyman Joseph Priestley died in his home in Northumberland, Pennsylvania. He was the most celebrated scientist of his day and the discoverer of oxygen-he called it “dephlogisticated air” and an early experimenter with electricity. As one of the founders of English Unitarianism and a political radical who had championed both the American and French Revolutions, Priestley was forced to flee England after mobs-encouraged by the authorities-burned his Birmingham laboratory and Church in 1791. With a letter of introduction from his friend and admirer, Thomas Jefferson, he came to Philadelphia where he was welcomed by the patriot, physician and Universalist Dr. Benjamin Rush. While in the city, Priestley assumed the pulpit of the first avowedly Unitarian church in America. He moved to Northumberland where he opened a school and chapel and hoped to found a university. He consulted with Jefferson on the founding of the University of Virginia. His home, Priestley House is a national landmark and Museum and is used today by the American Chemical Society for important occasions.