{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,24]],"date-time":"2026-09-24T23:01:08Z","timestamp":1790290868217,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"Georg Thieme Verlag KG","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,24]],"date-time":"2026-09-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790208000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-nd\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Rofo"],"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>November 8, 1895, is widely considered the date when Wilhelm Conrad R\u00f6ntgen (1845\u20131923) supposedly first noticed the glimmer that led to the discovery of X-rays.<\/jats:p>\n                  <jats:p>Henry Jackson Wells Dam (1856\u20131906), an American playwright and journalist with a checkered biography, forced his way in \u2013 through blatant dishonesty \u2013 to obtain an interview with R\u00f6ntgen at the end of January 1896. His report based on this interview was published in the April issue of two illustrated monthly periodicals in New York City and London. Dam indicated that R\u00f6ntgen discovered the X-rays on November 8, 1895, and this date has been reproduced consistently in the radiological literature. However, R\u00f6ntgen himself neither published any detail related to his discovery nor took notice of Dam\u2019s assertion. Dam\u2019s alleged date has never been certified by any source. When one considers Dam\u2019s unsavory background dating from his San Francisco and London sojourns and his misleading of R\u00f6ntgen \u2013 combined with R\u00f6ntgen\u2019s disdain for the press and his lifelong silence on the topic \u2013 the well-founded suspicion is raised that the journalist obtained no date from the physicist. Instead, the unscrupulous reporter likely added a date of his own speculation aiming for a deliberate journalistic impact. The innovative in-depth examination of Dam\u2019s past and the transcript of R\u00f6ntgen\u2019s interview strongly supports our conclusion. November 8 is incompatible with R\u00f6ntgen\u2019s indirect indications and Zehnder\u2019s calendar calculation.<\/jats:p>\n                  <jats:p>The second-hand quality of the date reported and the one-time publication of November 8 as the date of the discovery of X-rays by a journalist with a criminal background and a history of unethical professional behavior, cannot be verifiably confirmed. An individual\u2019s isolated testimony does not meet the criteria of historic fact.<\/jats:p>\n                  <jats:p>The date of November 8, 1895, lacks proof of historical authenticity.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1055\/a-2932-6244","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,24]],"date-time":"2026-09-24T22:58:10Z","timestamp":1790290690000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Professor R\u00f6ntgen and \u201cJack the Ripper\u201d: Were X-rays Discovered on November 8?"],"prefix":"10.1055","author":[{"given":"Jean-Francois","family":"Monville","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University Hospital, Belgium","place":["Li\u00e8ge"],"department":["Department of Breast Diseases"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Robert F.","family":"Dondelinger","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University Hospital, Belgium","place":["Li\u00e8ge"],"department":["Department of Medical Imaging"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"194","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref3","first-page":"154","volume-title":"The life of Wilhelm Conrad R\u00f6ntgen discoverer of the X ray","author":"WR Nitske","year":"1971"},{"key":"ref4","first-page":"107\/b:126","volume-title":"Dessauer Friedrich. 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An interview with professor James Dewar","volume":"I","author":"HJW Dam","year":"1893","journal-title":"McClure\u2019s Magazine"},{"issue":"04","key":"ref25","first-page":"303","article-title":"Food in the year 2000: Professor Berthelot\u2019s theory that chemistry will displace agriculture","volume":"III","author":"HJW Dam","year":"1894","journal-title":"McClure\u2019s Magazine"},{"issue":"05","key":"ref26","first-page":"460","article-title":"Inoculation against snake poison? Dr. Calmette\u2019s experiments at the Pasteur Institute, Paris","volume":"III","author":"HJW Dam","year":"1894","journal-title":"McClure\u2019s Magazine"},{"issue":"02","key":"ref27","first-page":"148","article-title":"The Maxim airs-hip. 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