On what date were Rosalind Franklin's DNA papers published in Nature?

Rosalind Franklin’s DNA papers were published in Nature on 25 April 1953. That issue contained three closely connected papers: James Watson and Francis Crick’s model of DNA, Franklin and Raymond Gosling’s X-ray diffraction study, and Maurice Wilkins, Alex Stokes, and Herbert Wilson’s supporting analysis.

Franklin and Gosling’s paper, “Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate,” presented experimental evidence from DNA fibers, including observations relevant to the molecule’s helical structure. Their work appeared immediately after Watson and Crick’s theoretical paper, with continuous pagination that reflected an agreement among the collaborating laboratories.

The date is sometimes confused with 17 March 1953, when Franklin and Gosling drafted an important manuscript on B-DNA, or with the date of the experiments behind Photo 51. Photo 51 was made in 1952, while the Nature publication came the following year. Franklin had already moved to Birkbeck by the time the landmark issue appeared.