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Sept. 16, 1736: One Degree of Separation — Fahrenheit Dies
The inventor of the mercury thermometer and the Fahrenheit scale gives up the heat.
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Oct. 29, 1675: Leibniz ∫ums It All Up, Seriesly
1675: Gottfried Leibniz writes the integral sign ∫ in an unpublished manuscript, introducing the calculus notation that’s still in use today. Leibniz was a German mathematician and philosopher who...
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Jan. 12, 1665: Fermat’s Last Breath
1665: French mathematician Pierre de Fermat dies, perhaps age 57 (his birth year is unknown). Journal des Sçavans declared in a February obituary that he “was one of the finest minds of the century.”...
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Oct. 22, 4004 B.C.: Universe Usshered In
4004 B.C.: It’s the beginning of time, according to 17th century Irish bishop and theologian James Ussher — and not just any old moment on that fateful date, but “on the beginning of the night.”...
View ArticleMarch 16, 1926: Goddard Launches Rocketry
Robert Goddard's folly becomes fact with the first successful launch of a liquid-fueled rocket, performed at his Aunt Effie's farm in Connecticut.
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March 30, 240 B.C.: Comet Cometh to Cathay
240 B.C. Chinese astronomers observe a new broom-shaped “star” in the sky. It’s the first confirmed sighting of Halley’s Comet. Some have made the case that a sighting in the third millennium B.C. is...
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April 15, 1726: Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From Physicist
1726: Isaac Newton tells a biographer the story of how an apple falling in his garden prompted him to develop his law of universal gravitation. It will become an enduring origin story in the annals of...
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