John Bardeen, W. H. Brattain, and William Shockley invent the pointcontact transistor.

Chemist Karl Folkers isolates vitamin B12.

Peter Goldmark's long-playing record is first marketed.

The largest existing telescope, the two-hundred-inch Hale telescope, is completed at Mount Palomar Observatory at the California Institute of Technology.

20 Nov.

The U.S. Army Signal Corps sets a new balloon altitude record of 26.5 miles.