Enrico Fermi publishes the article “Tentative Theory of Beta Rays,” published in Italian in Zeitschrift fur Physik. The article contains all the basic elements of weak interactions. Following Hitler’s rise to power in Germany, the Via Panisperna Boys had decided to boycott German scientific journals, so the article was initially sent to the English journal Nature, which rejected it, finding it “too far from physical reality.” It was then sent to “Nuovo Cimento” and “Zeitschrift fur Physik,” both of which accepted it. Nature later recognized the rejection as “one of its gravest errors.” Only decades later would the brilliance of the article be appreciated, in which Fermi hypothesized the presence of a new fundamental force (the Weak Nuclear Force), which would later lead to over a dozen Nobel Prizes and the most astonishing discoveries in physics (such as Parity Violation).
