1600
The Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno is burned at the stake in Rome for heresy, including his support for Copernican theory.
English physician and scientist William Gilbert publishes "De magnete" (On magnetism), the first work of physical science based completely on experimentation. In it he argues that the earth acts like a giant magnet with poles near the geographic poles.
1601
Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe dies at Benasky, near Prague, Czechoslovakia. Johannes Kepler succeeds him as court astronomer to Emperor Rudolph III.
Coffee, introduced to England by traveler Anthony Shirley, is sold for 5 pounds per ounce.
1602
German astronomer Johann Bayer's celestial atlas "Uranometria" introduces a new system for naming and describing the locations of stars that is still in used today. In this system a star is named by a Greek letter and its constellation.
Hugh Platt discovers coke, the residue left after distillation of coal, which later becomes an important fuel.
1604
Korean and Chinese astronomers independently from Johannes Kepler at Prague, observe a supernova in the constellation Ophiucus that lasts 12 months.
Galileo observes that a falling body increases its distance as the square of time.
1608
Dutch spectacle maker Hans Lippershey invents the first telescope
to attract public notice. Military telescopes had been used secretly
by the Dutch for about 20 years.
1609
Johannes Kepler's "Astronomia nova" (The new astronomy) published this year, contains both his first law (that the orbit of a planet around the sun in an eclipse) and second law (that these orbits sweep out equal areas in equal period of time).
English mathematician Thomas Harriot uses a telescope to sketch the moon.
Independently from Zacharias Janssen Dutch scientist Hans Lippershey invents the compound microscope, a central tube with lenses attached to both ends.
1610
Galileo becomes the first to make significant astronomical observations using the telescope. He sees 4 of Jupiter's moons, the phases of Venus, and the individual stars of the Milky Way. He notes that Saturn has an odd appearance, later found to be rings.
Galileo uses the microscope to study insect anatomy.
1611
Galileo, Thomas Harriot, Johannes Fabricius, and German astronomer Father Christoph Scheiner independently discover sunspots.
English physician John Woodall recommends citrus fruit for protection against scurvy on long sea voyages.
1612
German astronomer Simon Marius is the first to study the Andromeda galaxy.
1614
Scottish mathematician John Napier publishes a table of logarithms based on powers of 2.
Italian physician Sanctorius publishes his studies on body weight, food, and excreta - the first metabolic balance studies.
1615
Rubber is introduced to Europe from south America, but its uses will not be fully developed for centuries.
The use of coal in England grows in popularity, owing to rising timber costs.
1616
In a rebuff to Galileo, the Roman Catholic church issues a decree stating that the Copernican doctrine is "false and absurd" and should not be held or defended. Copernicus's book is placed on the church's "Index of prohibited books" where it will remain until the 19th century.
English physician William Harvey lectures to the Royal college of Physicians about the circulation of the blood.
1617
English mathematician Henry Brigg's "Logarithmorum chilias prima" (Logarithms of numbers from 1 to 10) introduces logarithms based on power of 10, or common logarithms.
Dutch mathematician Willebrod Snell develops a technique for finding distance by trigonometric triangulation.
French clergyman St. Vincent de Paul organizes the 'Dames de Charite', women who visit the sick and dying, administering nursing services.
1619
In his "Harmonice mundi" Johannes Kepler propounds his third law, that the squares of the times of revolution of any two planets are proportional to the cubes of their distances from the sun. Kepler also publishes "Epitome astronomiae copernicae" (Epitome of the Copernican astronomy), a defense of the Copernican doctrine. The Roman Catholic church places it on its 'Index of prohibited books'.
1620
Francis Bacon points out that the outlines of Africa and South America generally mesh, an observation that will become important in the development of plate tectonics.
In London, Dutch inventor Cornelis Drebbel constructs the first submarine, using greased leather over a wooden form. Powered by rowers, the vessel cruises beneath the surface of the Thames.
1621
English mathematician William Oughtred invents the slide rule.
Dutch mathematician Willebrod Snell formulates Snell's law, which concerns refraction of light. It states that the ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction is equal to the ratio of refracting medium's index of refraction to the original medium's index of refraction.
1623
Botanist Gaspard Bauhin of Switzerland classifies some 6000 plants and introduces the practice of using 2 names - one for the genus another for the species - to classify living things.
French mathematician, scientist, and religious philosopher Blaise Pascal is born. He will become the founder of probability theory, discover many properties of the cycloid, and lay the groundwork for the hydraulic press.
1628
William Harvey published a description of the circulation of blood that is largely coorect, in contrast to the many erroneous ideas extant on blood movement.
A rudimentary version of the steam engine is developed by English engineer Edward Somerset.
1629
French mathematician Pierre de Fermat discovers a method of finding maximum and minimum values for functions which represents the genesis of differential calculus.
1630
Italian natural philosopher Niccolo Cabeo observes that electrically charged bodies first attract, then repel each other. He is the first to use the term "lines of force" to describe the curves assumed by iron filings on a sheet of paper above a magnet.
1631
Mathematician Thomas Harriot's posthumously published work, "Artis analyticae praxis", introduces a raised centered dot for multiplication and the symbols > and < for "greater than" and "less than".
English mathematician William Oughtred introduces the X sign for multiplication.
1632
Galileo's "Dialogue on the two great world systems" is published in Italian, not Latin, to reach a general audience. The Roman catholic church promptly ban on it that will not be lifted until 1822.
1633
Galileo, at age 69, is called before the inquisition in Rome on charges of heresy. Pleading guilty, he recants his views and is sentenced to house arrest for the remainder of his life.
1635
English astronomer Henry Gellibrand presents evidence that the Earth's magnetic poles shift position over time.
Inland mail delivery by wheeled coaches is inaugurated between London and Edinburgh.
1637
In an appendix to his "Discourse on method", French mathematician Rene Descarted introduces analytic geometry, a branch of geometry in which all points are represented with respect to a coordinate system. Descartes's work also introduces a system of exponential notation.
Pierre de Fermat formulates, but does not prove, Fermat's Last Theorem, so called because for centuries it remains the last proposition of Fermat's to go unproven. It states that the expression x^n + y^n = z^n has no positive integral solutions if n is an integer greater than 2. In 1993 British mathematician Andrew Wiles will finally prove it.
1639
In his work known as "Brouillon project", French mathematician Girard Desargues develops projective geometry.
Descartes claims that human body functions as a machine, a system of mechanical devices.
1640
Fermat develops modern number theory.
1642
French scientist Blaise Pascal invents the adding machine and also contributes to the development of differential calculus.
1644
Dutch explorer Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the continent of Australia.
Descartes explains the reflex action, the involuntary response to a stimulus.
1645
German physicist and engineer Otto von Gericke invents the first practical air pump.
1648
Pascal formulates what is termed Pascal's Law, that in a confined fluid, externally applied pressure is transmitted uniformly in all directions and pushes at right angles to any surface in or surrounding the fluid. This principle will be the basis for the hydraulic press.
The Taj Mahal, a massive marble and sandstone mausoleum, is built in Agra, India, by Mughal leader Shah Jahan.
1650
Anglican bishop James Ussher calculates from biblical genealogies that the creation of the world took place in 4004 BC, a finding that will later be contradicted by geology.
1651
English philosopher Thomas Hobbes publishes his "Leviathan", which provides a ratinalistic explanation for the existence of governments.
In it he argues that humans voluntarily submit to absolute authority in order to protect themselves from each other's violent tendencies.
Hobbes will be considered the father of political science.
1654
French mathematicians Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat found probability theory, developing methods for judging the likelihood of ourcomes in games of dice.
1655
A book by Isaac de la Peyrere is publicly burned for hypothesizing that unusually chipped stones found in France were made by humans before the time of Adam.
1656
Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens discovers the rings of Saturn, explaining the oddness of the planet's shape identified by Galileo in 1610.
English physician Christopher Wren is the first to successfully
inject drugs into veins.
Hyugens invents an accurate pendulum clock, ushering in a new era of precision in timekeeping.
1657
Dutch naturalist Jan Swammerdam announces the discovery of the oxygen-carrying element of the blood, red blood corpuscles (red blood cells or erythrocytes).
1659
The modern sign for division (:) is introduced by German mathematician Johann Hienrich Rahn.
1660
Dutch biologist Anton van Leeuwenhoek develops the single-lens microscope, able to magnify nearly 200 times.
Italian physician Marcello Malphigi discovers capillary circulation, an important missing link in William Harvey's 1629 discovery of blood circulation.
1661
Irish chemist Robert Boyle publishes "The skeptical chymist",
a work distinguishing scientific chemistry from medieval alchemy
and defining elements as substance that cannot be converted into
anything simpler.
1662
British mathematicians John Graunt and William Petty compile the
first book on statistics, including the first mortality table for
London residents.
British king Charles II charters the scientific association known
as the Royal Society.
Robert Boyle discovers Boyle's law, that the volume of a mass of
gas at a constant temperature is inversely proportional to its
pressure. This argument is also called Mariotte's law, after its
independent discovery by French physicist Edme Mariotte in 1676.
1663
Girolamo Cardano's Book "On games of chance" is the first known work on probability theory.
1664
Italian astronomer Giovanni Alfonso Borellu discovers that a comet's orbit is parabola.
1665
Isaac Newton discovers the general binomial theorem.
In his classic landmark book "Micrographia", English biologist
Robert Hooke publishes the first drawings of cells and is the first
to use the word "cell" to describe the living fibers he sees under
a compound microscope.
Blaise Pascal's "Treatise on Figurtive Numbers", published posthumously this year, widely disseminates the process of mathematical induction.
Issac Newton has his 2 most fertile years (1665-1666) of discovery.
During this time he discovers the general method of the calculus,
which he call 'the theory of fluxions', and achieves his most
important insights into gravitation and the composition of light.
Publication of his discoveries will await the Principia (1687) and
later works of 1704 and 1736.
In a posthumous publication, Italian physicist Francesco Maria
Grimaldi reveals his discovery of the diffraction of light, the
bending of light waves as they pass through an aperture or around a barrier.
1666
English physician Thomas Sydenham uses Jesuit's bark, containing quinine, to treat malaria.
While working in his garde at Woolsthorpe, England, Isaac Newton observes an apple falling from a tree and begins the train of thought that will lead to his theory of universal gravitation.
Experimenting with a prism, Newton discovers that color is a
property of light, and that white light is composed of a spectrum
of colors.
1667
English physician and microscopist Robert Hooke demonstrates the function of the lungs by exhibiting the process of artificial respiration.
French physician Jean-Baptiste Dennis carries out the first
modern blood transfusion by infusing 12 ounces of lamb's blood
into a 15-year old boy. The boy's health improves after the
procedure.
1668
Isaac Newton invents the reflecting telescope.
Italian naturalist and physician Francesco Redi experiments with meat, both uncovered and covered in jars, and disproves that maggots comes from decaying issue. Although his results refute the theory of spontaneous generation, they go unacknowledged by his peers.
James Gregory discovers what is later called Gregory's series,
the series for arctan x.
English mathematician John Wallis articulates the law of conservation of momentum, stating that the total momentum (mass times velocity) of a closed system remains unchanged.
1669
Newton writes "De analysi per aequationes numero terminorum
infinitas", first published in 1711. It contains his infinite
analysis and the first systematic account of calculus. Also for
the first time and area is found through the inverse of what is now
called differentiation.
Danish geologist Nicholas Steno proposes that fossils are the
petrified remains of ancient creatures, a view that is eventually
accepted.
1670
Using a pendulum French astronomer Jean Richer concludes that the diameter of the earth is greater around the equator than from pole to pole.
English mathematician Isaac Barrow develops a method of tangents quite similar to that used in the differential calculus
clocks are built with minute hands for the first time
A decimal-based system for measurement is developed by French cleric Gabriel Mouton.
1671
Newton writes a second account of the calculus titled "Method of fluxions". In it he also proposes 8 new types of coordinate systems, including what is known as Newton's method for approximate solutions of equations.
German mathematician Wilhelm Leibniz invents a calculating machine that multiplies and divides.
1673
Working independently from Newton, German mathematician Leibniz begins to develop the calculus.
Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens publishes "Horologium oscillatorium", a work on pendulum clocks that contains several important laws of mechanics, including the law of centripetal force, Huygen's law for pendular motion, and the principle of conservation of kinetic energy.
1674
British chemist John Mayow identifies the action of Oxygen in
burning, or oxydizing, metals and in respiration.
Tourniquet is invented to arrest hemorrhage.
Between now and 1675, French philosopher and physicist Nicholas de Malebranche expresses the belief that the human soul has 2 kinds of faculties: the understanding and the will. The understanding is passive, including sensory impressions, imagination, and memory, while the will consists of attitude and inclinations.
1675
Danish astronomer Olaus Roemer makes the first reasonable estimate of the speed of light: 141000 miles per second, abouth 3/4 of the actual value.
1676
Newton writes a third account of the calculus "De quadratura
curvarum", in which he introduces the concept of prime and ultimate
ratios.
English physicist Robert Hooke articulates what has become known
as Hooke's law, saying that within the limit of elasticity the
stress applied to a material is proportional to the strain that
results in its change in dimension or stretch.
1677
van Leeuwenhoek describes spermatozoa
van Leeuwenhoek discovers microscopic organisms.
1678
Brick, formerly used only for ovens and fireplaces, is used for
an entire house in Boston.
1679
Robert Hooke becomes the first to formulate the movement of
planets as a mechanical problem.
French physicist Denis Papin invents the pressure cooker, the
first practical application of steam power.
1682
Edmund Halley observes the comet that will be named for
hime after his correct prediction, in 1705, that it will return
in 1758.
1683
van Leeuwenhoek discovers bacteria in the human mouth.
1684
Leibniz publishes his first paper on the calculus with a
second following in 1686. He coins the terms differential
calculus and integral calculus (with Jacques Bernoulli).
1687
Newton publishes his greatest work, "Philosophiae naturalis
principia mathematica" (Mathematical principles of natural
philosophy), known as the Principia. This work outlines the
law of universal gravitation and the three laws of motion.
It also includes the first published documentation of Newton's
discovery of the calculus and several new theorems on conics.
1690
The oldest mathematical society still in existence, the
Mathematische Gesellschaft, is founded in Germany.
John Locke publishes "Two treatises on civil government",
in which he offers an alternative to Thomas Hobbes's view
of the origin of governments. In it Locke argues that human
nature is good, that people are born equal, free, and with
certain inalienable rights, and that people form a 'social
contract' to guarantee those rights. Locke's view will
influence centuries of political theory and practice, notably
in the US Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
1694
Botany professor Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, considered at
this time to be the leader of French botanical thought,
publishes "Elemens de botanique". It inventories and describes
more than 8000 plants and devises an artificial classification
system that will be accepted until the work of Carolus Linnaeus
in 1735.
1696
Swiss mathematician Johann Bernoulli discovers L'Hopital's
rule on indeterminate forms, named for French mathematician
Guillaume de L'Hopital, who publishes it this year in the
first printed textbook on the differential calculus, "Analyse de infiniment petits".
1698
The London Stock Exchange opens. The New York Stock Exchange will follow in 1792.
Champagne is invented by French cellarer Dom Pierre Perignon in the abbey of d'Hautviliers.
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