Chlorine - 17Cl: historical information
Chlorine was discovered in 1774 by Carl Wilhelm Scheele. He obtained it through the reaction of the mineral pyrolusite (manganese dioxide, MnO2) with hydrochloric acid (HCl, then known as muriatic acid). Scheele thought the resulting gas contained oxygen. Sir Humphry Davy proposed and confirmed chlorine to be an element in 1810, and he also named the element.