1895Reputable sourceWell documented
Röntgen Discovers X-rays
On the timeline · around 1895 ·
What happened
In 1895 the German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, experimenting with electrical discharges in vacuum tubes, noticed a mysterious new kind of radiation that could pass through flesh and photograph the bones of his hand. He called them 'X-rays,' for their unknown nature.
Why it matters
X-rays gave doctors their first way to see inside the living body and revealed a new form of radiation, opening the door to atomic physics. Röntgen received the very first Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1901.