Zack's Scientific Revolution

christopher columbus

Oct 31, 1451

Christopher Columbus (d.1506) is born as is Amerigo Vespucci (d. 1512), explorers.

Nicolas Copernicus

Feb 19, 1473

Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) born.

Georg Joachim Rheticus

Feb 16, 1514

Georg Joachim Rheticus (1514-1574), a friend of Copernicus and the presumed author, provides an account of the heliocentric hypothesis in his Narratio prima (First Account).

Ferdinand Magellan

Feb 20, 1522

Ferdinand Magellan famously completes the first circumnavigation of the globe.

Girolamo Fracastoro

Feb 20, 1530

Girolamo Fracastoro (1475-1553) provides one of the first descriptions of a new disease in a work entitled Syphilis, or the French Disease. As an aside, the Italians called it the French disease, the French called it Italian disease.

Juan Luis Vives

Feb 20, 1531

Juan Luis Vives (1492-1540) in his On the Disciplines argues for the reform of education and a more receptive approach to skills traditionally associated with the craft and trade traditions.

Peter Apian

Feb 20, 1532

Peter Apian (1495-1552) and Fracastoro observe that the tail of the comet his year, later known as Halley's Comet, pointed away from the sun, a detail also recognized by Regiomontanus.

johanne kepler

Feb 21, 1627

Johannes Kepler's Rudolphine Tables, based on Tycho's data and his own laws of planetary motion, provide the most accurate astronomical tables up to that time.

pierre gassendi

Feb 21, 1631

Pierre Gassendi, familiar with Kepler's astronomical tables, becomes the first to observe a transit of the planet Mercury across the disc of the sun. His data for Mercury were used by Boulliau in his Astronomia Philolaïca (Paris 1645).

marcello malpighi

Feb 21, 1661

The Italian Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694) uses the microscope to observes capillaries joining arteries and veins. Malpighi showed in fine detail that blood circulates.