February 23, 1765 - Henry Cavendish discovers hydrogen

To Henry Cavendish, British-French physicist and chemist, considered one of the great precursors of modern chemistry, we owe the discovery of hydrogen, the lightest of the known gases.

On February 23, 1765, he managed to isolate said element and thus discover its properties. To do this, he took zinc particles that he later mixed with chloric acid. This mixture began to bubble, generating a gas, which he called "flammable air" (what we know today as hydrogen).

Cavendish wanted to go a step further and investigate how hydrogen reacted with other elements, such as air. The surprise was the result of this chemical reaction: water! He analyzed it and discovered that it was made up of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen.