A meteorologist said the continents were once joined — geologists mocked him for 50 years

In 1912, Alfred Wegener noticed South America and Africa's coastlines fit together like puzzle pieces, and that matching fossils and rock layers spanned both. He proposed the continents had drifted apart over millions of years. Geologists dismissed it for decades since he couldn't explain the mechanism, until seafloor spreading, discovered in the 1960s, vindicated him after his death.

— Alfred Wegener, Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane (The Origin of Continents and Oceans) — 1915
Go deeper: get the book →