During world war ii, security concerns in the united states prompted

in his book, the riddle of the rosetta stone, james giblin talks about how there was a young british polymath and physician named thomas young who made a lot of advances on the deciphering of the rosetta stone. he says that even though young made a lot of mistakes because he was working under false assumptions, he also made huge contributions like deciphering three out of the seven symbols (more than anyone else before him). young published his findings and continued his good work but he wasn't able to progress much further due to some unfavorable situations, he still laid the basis for many other scholars and of course for the man who has been generally known to have deciphered it, jean-françois champollion

mount st. helens in washington erupts, causing a massive avalanche and killing 57 people on this day in 1980. ash from the volcanic eruption fell as far away as minnesota. seismic activity at mount st. helens, which is 96 miles south of seattle, began on march 16.