On August 23, 1769, French naturalist and zoologist Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier aka Georges Cuvier was born. He was a major figure in natural sciences research in the early 19th century, and was instrumental in establishing the fields of comparative anatomy and paleontology through his work in comparing living animals with fossils.
On this day in 1959, Anthropologist Mary Leakey discovered fossils of the Paranthropus boisei, which was falsely called the 'Nutcracker Man' for many years.