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1952:
The Midwestern Universities Research Association (MURA) is formed with the goal of designing a large accelerator.
1959:
MURA considers the conceptual design of a several-hundred GeV machine, including Robert R. Wilson's idea of cascading accelerators.
June 21, 1965:
Under contract from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), Universities Research Associates, Inc. (URA) incorporates to build and operate a new “truly national” accelerator laboratory.
December 16, 1966:
After considering more than 200 proposals, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission selects Weston, Illinois, 30 miles west of Chicago, as the site for the new laboratory.
March 1, 1967:
URA appoints Robert R. Wilson as Fermilab's first director.
June 15, 1967:
Operations begin at Oak Brook, Illinois.
November 21, 1967:
President Lyndon Johnson signs bill authorizing the National Accelerator Laboratory
September 1968:
A flag raising ceremony marks the move of operations from Oak Brook to “The Village” on site.
December 1, 1968:
Groundbreaking for Linac
October 3, 1969:
Groundbreaking for Main Ring
Spring 1971:
Groundbreaking for the Central Laboratory Building, later named Wilson Hall
March 1, 1972:
First 200 GeV proton beam passes through Main Ring.
December 14, 1972:
Main Ring energy doubled to 400 GeV.
April 5, 1973:
Construction workers pour the last bucket of concrete on top of what becomes Wilson Hall
October 10, 1973:
Robert R. Wilson receives the National Medal of Science
May 11, 1974:
NAL dedicated and renamed as Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
September 7, 1976:
The first cancer patient receives neutron therapy treatment using the Linac.
June 30, 1977:
Fermilab experimenters announce discovery of bottom quark.
October 19, 1978:
Leon Lederman appointed director.
November 15, 1978:
Decision is made to double the energy in the Main Ring, leading to the Energy Doubler.
February 9, 1980:
First stochastic cooling of a beam at Fermilab
September 18, 1980:
Central Laboratory Building renamed Wilson Hall
March 15, 1981:
Main Ring sets world record of 3E13 protons per pulse at 400 GeV
January 17, 1983:
Groundbreaking for the central building of the Industrial Building Center
July 3, 1983:
Tevatron accelerates protons to world record of 512 GeV
August 16, 1983:
Groundbreaking for Antiproton Source
October 1, 1983:
Start of the Tevatron fixed-target program at 400 GeV with five fixed-target experiments
February 16, 1984:
Acceleration of Tevatron beam to 800 GeV.
April 23, 1984:
Dedication of the Energy Doubler, also known as the Energy Saver and later named the Tevatron
December 1984:
Robert R. Wilson receives the Enrico Fermi award
October 13, 1985:
First observation of proton-antiproton collisions by CDF collider detector at 1.6 TeV center-of-mass energy.
December 1986:
Stanley Livingston, former associate director of the laboratory, receives the Enrico Fermi award
October 21, 1986:
Acceleration of Tevatron beam to 900 GeV.
November 30, 1986:
First proton-antiproton collisions at 1.8 TeV.
October 19, 1988:
Leon Lederman is one of three recipients of the 1988 Nobel Prize for Physics.
December 2, 1988:
Dedication of the Feynman Computing Center
April 20, 1989:
John Peoples appointed director.
October 18, 1989:
Helen Edwards, Dick Lundy, Rich Orr and Alvin Tollestrup receive the National Medal of Technology for their work in building the Tevatron.
February 14, 1992:
DZero collider detector commissioned.
June 1992:
Leon Lederman receives the Enrico Fermi award
August 31, 1992:
Collider Run I begins
September 25, 1992:
Dedication of Lederman Science Education Center.
March 22, 1993:
Groundbreaking for Main Injector accelerator.
September 4, 1993:
New 400 MeV Linac commissioned.
April 26, 1994:
Announcement of first direct evidence for top quark.
February 2, 1995:
Tevatron sets world record for number of high-energy proton-antiproton particle collisions.
March 3, 1995:
Experimenters of the CDF and DZero collaborations announce discovery of top quark.
February 20, 1996:
End of Collider Run I. The Tevatron has delivered 180 inverse picobarns to both CDF and DZero.
November 18, 1996:
Observation of antihydrogen atoms at Fermilab
August 5, 1997:
The Tevatron delivers a record intensity 800 GeV beam for fixed-target experiments: 2.86E13.
September 11, 1997:
Fermilab switches off Main Ring accelerator for dismantling
December 8, 1997:
U.S. and European officials sign an agreement for U.S. participation in the Large Hadron Collider
March 1998:
Discovery of B c Meson.
June 8, 1998:
Sloan Digital Sky Survey achieves first light.
March 1, 1999:
Observation of direct CP violation in neutral Kaons (epsilon prime is nonzero)
March 5, 1999:
Michael Witherell named Fermilab's fourth director.
March 17, 1999:
Groundbreaking in Argentina for the southern hemisphere site of the Pierre Auger Observatory
June 1, 1999:
Dedication of the Main Injector accelerator
July 20, 1999:
Groundbreaking for the MINOS far detector in Soudan, Minnesota
January 16, 2000:
Former director Robert R. Wilson dies at age 85.
January 2000:
End of the Tevatron fixed-target program, which provided beam to 43 experiments
April 13, 2000:
SDSS observes the most distant object ever observed at red shift 5.8
May 31, 2000:
Groundbreaking for the NuMI project at Fermilab
July 20, 2000:
The DONuT experiment reports first evidence for the direct observation of the tau neutrino
March 1, 2001:
Start of Tevatron Collider Run 2
November 7, 2001:
The NuTeV collaboration reports an unusually high value for sin^2 theta W of 0.2277
September 12, 2002:
MiniBooNE experiment begins taking data
August 14, 2003:
The MINOS far detector starts data taking with cosmic rays
November 12, 2003:
Launch of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search at the Soudan Underground Laboratory
May 11, 2004:
Fermilab ships first LHC focusing magnet to CERN
July 16, 2004:
Tevatron achieves a peak luminosity of 1E32 cm -2sec -1.
October 7, 2004:
Fermilab Arts Series celebrates 30 th anniversary
December 6, 2004:
NIU launches Institute for Neutron Therapy at Fermilab
March 4, 2005:
Launch of the first neutrino beam from Fermilab to Minnesota
May 5, 2005:
Fermilab celebrates 25 years of Saturday Morning Physics
June 24, 2005:
Run 2 achieves one inverse femtobarn of integrated luminosity
July 1, 2005:
Pier Oddone becomes Fermilab’s fifth director
July 9, 2005:
First observation of electron cooling of antiprotons in the Recycler Ring
July 11, 2005:
Phase II starts for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
January 12, 2006:
SDSS-II reports the discovery of 139 new type 1a supernovae
February 10, 2006:
The Antiproton Source exceeds for the first time a stacking rate of 20 mA per hour
March 30, 2006:
MINOS presents its first measurement of delta m^2
April 21, 2006:
Proclamation of Illinois Particle Accelerator Day
September 25, 2006:
Discovery of B_s matter-antimatter oscillations: 3 trillion times per second
October 23, 2006:
Discovery of Sigma-sub-b baryons (u-u-b and d-d-b)
January 7, 2007:
CDF announces the most precise measurement of the W boson mass by a single experiment
April 11, 2007:
MiniBooNE refutes LSND result and idea of fourth neutrino
June 2007:
Discovery of the cascade-b baryon (down-strange-bottom combination)
June 28, 2007:
SDSS II releases images of roughly 287 million celestial objects, including 197 type 1a supernovae
November 8, 2007:
Pierre Auger Observatory discovers non-uniform distribution of UHE
March 17, 2008:
The Tevatron achieves a peak luminosity in excess of 3E32 cm -2sec -1.
March 25, 2008:
The Tevatron delivers 50 inverse picobarns in a single week
July 30, 2008:
Observation of ZZ diboson production at the Tevatron
September 10, 2008:
Pajama party at Fermilab to witness the first beam of the LHC from the ROC
September 2008:
Both CDF and DZero reach five inverse femtobarns of luminosity
November 14, 2008:
Inauguration of the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina
March 9, 2009:
Discovery of single top quark production
March 11, 2009:
DZero announces the world’s best measurement of W boson mass
March 18, 2009:
Discovery of a new quark structure named Y(4140)
May 1, 2009:
Groundbreaking for the NOvA experiment in Ash River, Minnesota
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