Strange quark
The first strange particle (a particle containing a strange quark) was discovered in 1947 (kaons), but the existence of the strange quark itself (and that of the up and down quarks) was only postulated in 1964 by Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig to explain the Eightfold Way classification scheme of hadrons. The first evidence for the existence of quarks came in 1968, in deep inelastic scattering experiments at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. These experiments confirmed the existence of up and down quarks, and by extension, strange quarks, as they were required to explain the Eightfold Way.
Quark (Star Trek)
When the Bajoran wormhole was discovered, Quark helped broker deals between several Gamma Quadrant races and the Ferengi. The Alpha Quadrant's first knowledge of the Dominion came through business dealings that Quark and the Ferengi had in the Gamma Quadrant with the Karemma of the Dominion. Quark's role in these dealings came about as a result of the interference of Grand Nagus Zek. Quark became Grand Nagus for a brief period when it appeared that Zek had died; however, Zek's death turned out to be a ruse and Quark was promptly deposed. Along with Commander Sisko, Quark was also among the first to encounter the genetically engineered soldiers of the Dominion, the Jem'Hadar.