-
Isaac Newton is born
Born Jan. 4, 1643 ("Isaac Newton Biography"). Isaac Newton was born in Woolsthorpe Manor to Hannah and Isaac Newton. Isaac Newton Sr. had died in October, before Isaac Newton Jr. was born (Christianson 10). Isaac Newton Jr. was born an hour or two after midnight, and premature ("Isaac Newton Biography"). Two servants were sent out to fetch medicine for him, but they didn’t believe he would survive until they got back, so they decided to dawdle. However, he did survive (Christianson 10). -
Ming Dynasty Ends In China
The Ming dynasty had many great accomplishments, one of which was porcelain. They also finished building the Great Wall, and restored the Grand Canal. The Manchurians are the people that managed to end teh Ming Dynasty by attacking them (Grun 292). -
Newton is sent to school
At age 12, Newton was sent to King’s School in Grantham (Byers 369). It was there where Newton learned of his love for science. His mother pulled him out of school for a bit to farm, but once she saw that he was in absolute misery farming, she sent him back to school where he finished basic education ("Isaac Newton Biography"). -
Newton goes to college
Newton is accepted into Trinity College, located in Cambridge (Byers 369). His uncle saw Newton's potential, and convinced Newton's mother to let him enroll in Trinity College ("Isaac Newton Biography"). Newton showed great interest in math while he was at ollege, submitting multiple papers from 1665 - 1666, and he was declared the most advanced mathematician in 1666 when he was 24 (Christianson 36). -
Robert "King" Carter is born
Although Robert Carter is a simple Virginia planter, he is the ancestor of 6 U.S. Presidents. Without him, we would not have had those presidents, and the U.S. as we know it may have been drastically different. He got the nickname "King" because of his wealth and business etiquitte (Grun 303). -
White Light and Rainbows
Newton started testing how prisms affected white light. He discovered that when the white light was refracted certain ways, it would project a color (or many colors) of the rainbow. He tested this by darkening a room, and poking a hole through the shutters. He placed a prism so that the light hit it, and when it was refracted through the prism, it turned into different colors. He proved that white light contained multiple colors as well as made up of particles (Anderson 41). -
Newton invented Calculus
When Newton first invented calculus, he referred to them as "fluxions" (Christianson 36). Although he came up with it in 1666, it wasn't until 1675 when Gottfried Wilhem Leibniz came up with and shared his own version of calculus. This lead to a big debate, which ended when Leibniz died (Hall). Calculus is used in many things, such as analysis and many other tools in everyday use. -
Newton Forms the Idea of Gravity
After seeing an apple fall to the ground, Newton wondered why it fell down, rather than up or sideways. This led to him thinking that there was some force causing the apple to be pulled to the ground. Turns out this force was gravity (Anderson 32). Newton experimented with gravity, figuring out that the weight of the object had an effect on gravity, and that the moon was stuck within Earth's orbit and that the moon controlled the tides, which gravity plays into (Hall). -
Built Refelcting Telescope
Starting in 1667, Isaac Newton started building a reflecting telescope based on James Gregory's design . The telescope Newton built did not have chromatic acerration, which is the hazy-rainbowlike light around the edges of the glass on the telescope, causing it to be unfocused. The reflecting telescope helped support Newton's theory of light and color with how white light produced a rainbow (Christianson 50). -
Publishing of Opticks
The Royal Society convinced Newton to publish his works on white light and how it is made up of color particles. The paper he published was called "Opticks". However, not everyone agreed with the things said in his paper, one of whom was Robert Hooke. Hooke believed that light was made out of waves, instead of particles. But Newton quickly shut him down, after he had other members of the Royal Society tell him otherwise ("Isaac Newton Biography"), -
Czar Peter the Great is born
Czar Peter the Great was crowned the czar in 1682, when he was only 10. While he was czar, he built up Russia's army and navy to form a strong fighting force. St. Petersburg in Russia is named after him (Grun 306) . -
"Declaration of the People of Virginia"
Nathaniel Bacon (famous for Bacon's Rebellion) wrote this paper to gain support for his rebellion. He was going against William Berkeley, the govener of Virginia at the time. Bacon's rebellion took place because of high taxes and resentment toward the Govener (Grun 308). -
China Ports Open to Foreign Trade
China is one of the world's largest manufacturing countries out there today. The ports officially opened in 1685, allowing China to trade with other countries. This started the growth of manufacturers, as China traded for materials it needed from other countries (Grun 312). -
Publishing of Principia
The publishing of "Principia" was a great accomplishment for Newton. Prinicipia is a collection of all his important works on math, gravity, dynamics, and many more. Although written in latin, it contained the solutions to some problems involving motion which had stumped some scientists of before. It also had how things in space followed the laws of dynamics and gravity. Principia was written in a total of 3 books, and is one of Newton's most important works (Anderson 370). -
Delaware becomes its own Colony
Delaware separated from Pennsylvania in 1703, becoming it's own colony. Although founded in 1638 by Peter Minuit, it didn't become it's own colony until 1703. James (the Duke of York) had recieved the plot of land as a gift from the king of England, and he appointed Peter Minuit to take care of the new colony (Grun 322). -
Isaac Newton dies
By the time he died, Newton was very wealthy. He was almost 84 when he died, and he had developed severe digestion problems. This caused him to change his diet and he wasn't as mobile. On March 30, Newton felt a sharp pain in his abdomen before he blacked out and never regained conciousness. He died the next day on March 31st ("Isaac Newton Biography").
