Born #OTD 1858: Max Planck, the accidental and unwitting founder of quantum mechanics. In 1900, Planck made a revolutionary break with classical physics when, in an "act of despair", he conjectured that blackbody radiation comes only in little bits: E = hv

What was simply a curve-fitting exercise for Planck became groundbreaking for science. Planck was a scientific conservative; he did not believe radiation quanta were "real". They were made real by Einstein for radiation and Bohr for matter (both looking badass in this photo).

Planck was a physicist of great dignity. He gave early encouragement to Einstein and tried to keep German science alive in the 30s. He faced great personal tragedy; all four of his children died: two in childbirth, one in WW1, the last executed for the plot to assassinate Hitler.