History of Significant Events
1896: Charles Edouard Guillaume estimates the "radiation of the stars" to be 5.6 K.Ref (PDF)
1926: Sir Arthur Eddington estimates the non-thermal radiation of starlight in the galaxy has an effective temperature of 3.2 K.
1930s: Cosmologist Ernst Regener calculates that the non-thermal spectrum of cosmic rays in the galaxy has an effective temperature of 2.8 K
1931: The term microwave first appears in print: ""When trials with wavelengths as low as 18 cm. were made known, there was undisguised surprise that the problem of the micro-wave had been solved so soon." Telegraph & Telephone Journal XVII. 179/1"
1938: Nobel Prize winner (1920) Walther Nernst reestimates the cosmic ray temperature as 0.75 K
1946: The term "microwave" is first used in print in an astronomical context in an article "Microwave Radiation from the Sun and Moon" by Robert Dicke and Robert Beringer.
1946: Robert Dicke predicts a microwave background radiation temperature of 20 K (ref: Helge Kragh)
1946: Robert Dicke predicts a microwave background radiation temperature of "less that 20 K" but later revised to 45 K (ref: Stephen G. Brush)
1946: George Gamow estimates a temperature of 50 K
1948: Ralph Alpher and Robert Herman re-estimate Gamow's estimate at 5 K.
1949: Ralph Alpher and Robert Herman re-re-estimate Gamow's estimate at 28 K.
1960s: Robert Dicke re-estimates a MBR (microwave background radiation) temperature of 40 K (ref: Helge Kragh)
1960s: Arno Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson measure the temperature to be approximately 3 K. Robert Dicke, P. J. E. Peebles, P. G. Roll and D. T. Wilkinson interpret this radiation as a signature of the big bang.
Read more about this topic: Cosmic Background Radiation
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