OK. I've narrowed my essential question to something like this:

"On any essential physics concept, what person (or persons) was (were) initially responsible for coming up with the developed idea? What were the historical and scientific circumstances that led this person or persons to develop the idea, and what were the consequences of the discovery?"

This is essentially related to my original idea of adding some sort of Physics Biographies to my classes, but it may avoid the simple copy and pass in syndrome.