Historical Background

1642-1646,1647-1648 English Civil Wars or Puritan Revolution Ex-King Charles 1

of England executed: Oliver Cromwell set up republican Commonwealth.
1660 English monarchy restored
1661 English acquired Bombay; trade with India increased
1665 Great Plague of London, one of many outbreaks in Europe in 2 nd half of the
country.
1688 English King James II expelled; replaced by William and Mary; victory of
Protestantism and rue of Parliament confirmed.
IN France the Sun King
Louis XIV ruled 1643-1715
1704 Duke Marlborough led defeat of French at Blenheim in major battle of War of
Spanish Succession.
1707 Act of union between England and Scotland
1713 By Treaty of Utrecht, Britain emerged as a possessor of worlds largest
empire.
1720s Britains first prime minister Robert Walpole

Newtons Scientific Work

1543 Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) announced the Sun centered theory of

cosmology
1588 Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) Danish astronomer, showed by his observations that
the Aristotelian description of planetary motions is inadequate
1609-1617 Johannes Kepler (1571-1630). German astronomer and mathematician,
suggested three laws of planetary motions based on Brahes observations.
KEY
Calculus
Gravitation astronomy/mechanics
Optics

1665-1666 Developed scientific ideas on calculus, optics and gravitation while at

home.
1668 Invested reflecting telescope.
1672 Published his research into the spectrum: this led to controversy with Robert
Hooke.
1675 Proposed corpuscular theory of light
1679 (or 1684)Successfully tested inverse square law of gravitation against Moons
motion.
1687 Published Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica.
1704 Published Opticks
1705 Controversy with Leibniz over the development of the calculus.

Life Public and Private

25 December 1642 1545 Issac Newton born at Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire

1645-1655 Newton raised largely by his grandmother, after his widowed mother
remarried.
1655-1658 Studied at Kings School Grantham.
1661 Entered Trinity Collage, Cambridge
1665 Owing to plague in Cambridge, returned to Woolsthorpe: worked at home
developing his scientific ideas.
1667 Became fellow at Trinity College
1669 Appointed Lucasian professor of Mathematics at Cambridge
1672 Became a fellow of the Royal Society
1684 Following a visit by Edmond Halley, began writing the Principia.
1687 Represented Cambridge University in controversy with James II
1689 Became Member of Parliament for Cambridge University
1696 Appointed warden of the Mint
1701 Resigned from Cambridge on reelection as Member of Parliament for the
University.
1703 Elected president of the Royal society, remaining president until his death.
1705 Received knighthood
20 March 1726 Died in London.

Scientific background
1620 Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, proposed inductive scientific
method, in place of a priori reasoning
1642 Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) French mathematician and physic, invented as
adding machine: studied hydraulics, probability theory: confirmed (1646)
atmospheric air has weight.
1638 Galileo (1564-1642)Italian mathematician and physicist , published work on
laws of how bodies fail.
1643 Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647), Italian physicist and mathematician ,
invented the mercury barometer.
1644 Reme Descartes (1596-1650), French mathematician and philosopher,
published works on motion of bodies and fluids.
1654 Otto Von Guericke (1602-1286), German Physicist inventor of vaccum pump,
showed 16 hoses unable to separate 2 halves of an evacuated hollow sphere.
1657 Accademia del Cimento Florence, founded, the first scientific research institute
1657 Christian Huygens (1629-1695), Dutch physicist and mathematician, made
pendulum clock.
1660s Paris Observatory established.
1662 Royal society, London incorporated
1663 James Gregory (1638-1675), Scottish mathematician, suggested possibility of
a reflacting telescope.
1664 Posthymous publication of Descartes picture of the universe
1665 Robert Hooke (1635- 1703), English scientist, discussed motion in a circular
orbit prior to Newton and suggested a wave theory of light.
1665 First issue of journal des scavans and Philosophical Transacions
1666 Academy of Sciences, founded.
1667 Gregory published important work relating to the calculus

1673 Huygens worked on laws of bodies movies in circular orbit.

1675 Royal Observatory, Greenwich, built
1675 John Flamsteed (1646-1719), became first Astronomer Royal at Greenwich. His
observations were used by Newton.
1684 Gottfried von Leibniz (1646-1716), German mathematician and philosopher,
having invented calculus independently of Newton, published his discovery.
1690 Huygens puts forward a wave of light.
1691 John Locke (1632-1704) English philosopher, published Essay Concerning
Human Understanding.
1700 Berlin Academy founded.
1705 Edmond Halley (1656-1742), English geophysicist and astronomer, having
discussed motions in a circular orbit prior to Newton and helped him publish the
Principia, applied Newtons ideas to comets.

1733 Letters Concerning the English Nation published by exiled philosophe Voltaire
(1694-1778), leader of French Enlightenment; imbued with ideas of Newton and
Locke.
1730s French expeditions to South America and Lapland confirmed Newtons
prediction that Earth bulges at equator.
1788 Joseph Lagrange (1736-1813), French mathematician, applied calculus to the
study of motions ofbodies and fluids.
1800 Thomas Young (1773-1829) in England championed a wave theory of light.
1814 Jasef von Fraunhofer (1787-1826), German physicist, developed Newtons
work on the spectrum.
c. 1815 Augustin Fresnel (1788-1827) French physicist established wave theory of
light.
1827 Leonhard Euler (1707-1783), Swiss mathematician, began to develop his
study of orbits, fluid motion and optics.

1905 Albert Einstein (1879-1955), German physicist, overturned Newtons ideas on

time and space.