Gem from GK Chesterton

"A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it."

From The Everlasting Man

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Project BOTLOS!!

Big Ol' Time Line O' Science

Last Update: 1/26/09 with contributions from Letters from Lausanne and Rocket Scientist.

In order to get a sense for the arc of history for writing my novel, I decided to make a timeline of significant people and events (mostly scientific, but not exclusively). I'm sure there are existing time lines available that are far more complete (and accurate?!)  but it was a wonderful exercise for me to build my own.  My goal was to appreciate the historic back drop of Cambridge University of the late 1800s.  But as I continued to read and research, the timeline project grew.

And now I'd like to enlist your help to put some meat on these bones.  The timeline is very heavy in European science, heavy in physics, especially around the late 19th century.   It also has more holes than Swiss cheese.  I invite you to submit items of that have significant scientific implications  and corrections too.  I won't even mention the tremendous Bonus Point potential here (oops, I just mentioned it!).  Discussions around historical figures and events are more than welcome.   Comment here, or, if you're feeling fiesty, head over to the BOTLOS Boxing Ring for some more debate about the history of science.   I keep a full stock of metaphoric rotten vegetables at the boxing ring to hurl at one another.  

Some items on this timeline are fictional and specific to my novel.  I'm including them here to help me keep things straight.  

  

Date

Item

560 BC

Pythagorus born

530 BC

Pythagorus founded school of philosophy in Croton, Italy.

480 BC

Pythagorus died

460 BC

Hippocrates born

384 BC

Aristotle born (his philosophy governed thinking for almost 2000 years )

370 BC

Hippocrates died

367 BC

Aristotle joined Plato’s Academy

347 BC

Plato died

322 BC

Aristotle died

287 BC

Archimedes born (buoyancy, digits of pi, grains of sand that would fill the universe)

276 BC

Eratosthenes born

248 BC

Date(?) Eratosthenes first accurately measured the circumference of the earth, by determining that there was a difference of 7 1/4 degree between Alexandria and Syene in a distance over land of about 500 miles, leads to an estimated circumference of the earth of 24,500 miles. Actual circumference is 24,840 miles

212 BC

Archimedes died

194 BC

Eratosthenes died

190 BC

Hipparchus born

120 BC

Hipparchus died.

3 BC

Jesus born (date?)

33 AD

Jesus died (date?)

70 AD

Romans arrive in Chester, England

100

Ptolemy born, codified the epicycles in to explain motions of stars and planets.

150

Approximate publication of Almagest by Ptolemy.  Became the astronomy text for the next 1500 years.

170

Ptolemy died

280

Romans depart England, British regain control

859

Al-Karaouine founded in Fes, Morocco.  World’s oldest continually operating university.

875

Bridge across River Cam built

936

Abu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas Al-Zahrawi born, father of modern surgery.

1013

Abu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas Al-Zahrawi died.

1066

The Normans invade England and defeat the English at Hastings

1086

Doomsday survey compiled, the first great census of the land

1087

William I dies, William Rufus becomes king of England

1088

University of Bologna, Italy founded.  Oldest university in the western world.

1135

Convent of St Radegund founded (eventually the site of Jesus College)

1200

Elyon College founded (?).  Sir Joseph Germaine III was the first Master of Elyon

1205

Theodoric Borgognoni born, leading medieval surgeon,  pioneer of antiseptic

1209

Cambridge founded

1231

Henry III issued 3 writs to promote security and privileges of scholars with respect to the town.  One writ gave chancellor and masters the power to act as a legal corporation.

1284

Peterhouse founded

1296

Theodoric Borgognoni died.

1317

Kings Hall founded by Edwards II

1318

Cambridge confirmed as a studium generale  by a June 9 papal bull

1324

Michaelhouse founded

1326

Clare College founded

1337

Kings Hall refounded by Edwards III

1347

Pembroke founded

1349

The Black Death, bubonic plague kills half the population of some towns 

1374

John of Dunwich is chancellor of Cambridge

1381

Townsmen attack university (town vs. gown)

1401

Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury inspected the university

1417

Council of Constance ended the Great Schism of having two popes.

1433

Pope Eugenius IV issued a bull made Cambridge masters free of ecclesiastical jurisdiction

1436

Gutenberg invented the printing press.

1473

Copernicus born in Poland

1491

Copernicus enters University of Cracow.

1496

Copernicus goes to University of Bologna in Italy

1499

Bubonic plague in Europe

1500

Copernicus observes his first lunar eclipse and made observations

1502

John Fisher is 1st Lady Margaret Professor of divinity.

1506

Erasmus first came to Cambridge, was a leader of the northern renaissance.

1509

King Henry VIII, Tudor

1511

St John's founded, Cambridge

1514

Andreas Vesalius born, founder of modern anatomy.

1516

Erasmus, Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, works on his translation of the Greek New Testament and on textbooks which were to become the staple of the ‘new learning’. His work led to him being considered the most important scholar of the Northern Renaissance.

1517

Start of reformation by Luther, he nails his 95 theses to thedoor of the Wittenberg church.

1520

Printing began at Cambridge (date?)

1521

Fire destroys much of Clare College

1527

John Dee  born

1530

Great Gate built, part of Kings Hall, added to Trinity

 

Bookseller Sygar Nicholson was convicted of holding “protestant opinions” and heretical books which were burned “

1534

Anglican Church founded

1535

John Fisher hung for denying royal supremacy

1543

Copernicus died

1545

John Dee gets Bachelors from St. John’s college

1546

Trinity founded by Henry VIII (combined Michaelhouse and Kings Hall)

 

John Dee is one of the original Fellows of Trinity

 

Tycho Brahe born

1547

King Edward VI, Tudor

1548

Emmanuel college founded with chapel defiantly facing north, rather than east.

1551

William Bill Master of Trinity

 

Flu Epidemic

1553

Queen Mary I, Tudor

1556

Commission set up to seek out heresy, search made of college rooms, stationers’ premises and private houses for heretical books.

1558

Queen Elizabeth I, Tudor

1564

Shakespeare born

 

Christopher Marlowe born in Canterbury

 

John Calvin died

 

Trinity accounts for ¼ of Cambridge’s student population

 

Andreas Vesalius died

1566

Thomas Gresham founded the Royal Exchange

1567

Chapel Built

1571

Johannes Kepler born

1577

Sir Francis Drake leaves to circumnavigate the globe (returns 1580)

1580

Christopher Marlowe attends Corpus Christi College until 1587

1583

John Dee leaves Trinity for Bohemia

1584

Cambridge Univ Press founded

1587

Christopher Marlowe is awarded MA from Corpus Christi

1588

Spanish Armada attacks but is defeated by England (supposedly with magical aid of Dee)

 

Isaac Beeckman born, early contributor to the idea of “atomism”

1591

Trinity College Dublin founded.

1593

Thomas Nevile is Master of Trinity

 

Christopher Marlowe disappears (dies????)

1596

Sidney Sussex college founded with chapel defiantly facing north, rather than east.

 

Rene Descartes born

1601

Tycho Brahe died

1603

King James I

1607

Jamestown founded

1608

John Dee died

1609

Kepler published Astronomia Nova (The New Astronomy)

1616

Shakespeare died

1620

Mayflower crosses Atlantic Ocean

1625

John Milton enters Christ’s college

 

King Charles I

1627

John Harvard enters Emmanuel college

 

Robert Boyle born,

1630

Johannes Kepler died

1633

June 22 Galileo before inquisition for asserting the earth revolves around the sun

1637

Isaac Beeckman died.

1642

December 25th, Newton born (God’s gift to the scientific world), at Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England

 

Galileo died

 

English Civil War (Parliamentarians vs. Royalists)

1650

Rene Descartes died.

1654

Louis XIV crowned king of France

1660

King Charles II restored to the throne

 

RSL founded, initial group includes Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, Sir Robert Moray, William Brouncker

 

Geoffrey Spence master of Elyon

1661

Newton comes to Trinity at age 19

1662

John Pearson Master of Trinity

 

William Viscount Brouncker president of RSL

1663

Henry Lucas is first Lucasian Professor of Mathematics

 

June 22, The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galilei to recant his scientific view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe.

1664

The Great Plague in Europe

 

Newton elected “scholar” at Trinity, frees him from his previous menial duties that he had to perform to pay for tuition.  As scholar, Newton has guaranteed financial support.

1665

Cambridge closes temporarily due to Bubonic Plague, Newton returns to Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire

 

Apple fell on Newton (Apocryphal?)

 

Newton gets BA

1666

Great London Fire

1667

Newton becomes Fellow at Trinity

1669

Newton becomes second Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, replaces Isaac Barrow.

1672

Newton elected to RSL

1673

Isaac Barrow is Master of Trinity

1675

Royal Observatory at Greenwich founded by King Charles II

1676

Newton writes to his enemy Robert Hooke, “If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

1677

Isaac Barrow died

 

Sir Joseph Williamson president of RSL

1678

Newton invented calculus (likely at the same time as Wilhelm Leibniz)

 

Newton suffered a severe mental break down over a theory of color battle with the English Jesuits

1679

Uncharacteristically, Newton begins to delve into the disreputable field of alchemy.  A blot on his academic escutcheon.

1680

Sir Christopher Wren president of RSL

1682

Newton established F=GxMxm/d2

 

Sir John Hoskins president of RSL

1683

John Montagu, Master of Trinity

 

Sir Cyril Wyche president of RSL

1684

Samuel Pepys president of RSL

 

Infamous gathering of three RSL members Robert Hooke, Edmond Halley, Christopher Wren to discuss the inverse-square law governing the motions of planets.

1685

King James II

1686

John, Earl of Carbery president of RSL

 

William Whiston entered Clare College

1687

Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica published by Newton, 500 copies of the first edition were published.

1689

Thomas, Earl of Pembroke president of RSL

 

King William III and Mary II

1690

Sir Robert Southwell president of RSL

1691

William Whiston elected Fellow at Clare

 

Robert Boyle died.

1693

Newton suffers another nervous breakdown, withdrew from RSL until Hooke’s death out of spite and hatred.

1695

Nevile’s court completed at Trinity

 

Trinity Library by Sir Christopher Wren built

 

Charles Montagu president of RSL

1696

Newton ends Trinity tenure

1698

John, Lord Somers president of RSL

1700

Richard Bently is Master of Trinity

 

Robert Bernoulli born

1701

Great Britain formed as a union of Scotland and England

1702

William Whiston is 3rd Lucasian Professor of Mathematics

 

Chair of chemistry endowed by university

1703

Newton president of RSL

1705

Newton knighted by Queen Anne.

1707

Leonhard Pual Euler born.

1714

King George I

 

Board of Longitude established by parliament, offered a prize of 20,000 pounds to anyone who could determine longitude at sea to within ½ degree

1726

Geologist James Hutton born

1727

March, Newton died

 

Newton’s library (and his Principia text) was sold to John Huggins, Warden of the Fleet Prison for his son, Charles, Rector of Chinnor, near Oxford

 

Sir Hans Sloane president of RSL

1728

Chair of geology endowed by John Woodward

1730

Cambridge Senate House built

1735

John Harrison made clock able to be used for longitude determination at sea

1737

Luigi Galvani born (he of the “frog leg twitch” fame)

1738

John Wesley founds the Methodist movement

1741

Marin Folkes president of RSL

1742

Robert Smith Master of Trinity

1745

Britain’s last wolf killed (?)

 

Alessandro Volta born.

1747

Math Tripos

1749

Mathematical Bridge” built at Queens College

 

Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace born.

1750

Thomas Postlethwaite Master of Trinity

 

Charles Huggins dies in 1750, Newton’s Library books and Newton’s Principia were sold to the incoming Rector, Dr James Mugrave

 

Start of Industrial Revolution (?)

1752

George, Earl of Macclesfield president of RSL

 

William Whiston died

 

Britain adopts the Gregorian calendar in place of the Julian, September has only 19 days. This is the last year to begin on 25th March, 1752 has only 10 months.

1756

War between Britain and France (lasts 7 years)

1760

James Watt unveils steam engine

1762

Botanical garden founded on Free School Lane (future site of Cavendish)

 

Cambridge Chronicle founded (Tory leaning)

1763

John Harrison wins £20,000 for a chronometer reliable enough to calculate longitude at sea

1764

James, Earl of Morton president of RSL

1767

James Hargreaves’s spinning Jenny automated the production of light cotton yarn

1768

James Burrow president of RSL

1769

William “Strata” Smith Born

 

Start (?) of industrial revolution in England

1772

Sir John Pringle president of RSL

1775

Mathematical exams given called “Tripos”

 

Start of American Revolution

 

André-Marie Ampère born.

1776

Decl. of independence, signatories include Cambridge alumni Thomas Nelson (Trinity), Arthur Middleton (St. John’s), Thomas Lynch (Gonville),

 

April 1, Sophie Germain is born (died June 27, 1831)

1777

Hans Christian Ørsted born.

1778

Sir Joseph Banks became president of RSL

1782

Robert Bernoulli died.

1783

Man’s first flight, the Montgolfier brothers send a servant up in a hot air balloon (?)

 

Leonhard Euler died

1785

Statutes printed

 

Times of London starts printing its newspaper

 

James Hutton shows John Playfair the angular unconformity at Siccar Point in Scotland.

1787

French revolution begins.  Lasts 22 years with climax in 1789.

1788

Steam engines fully operable

 

James Hutton published “Theory of the Earth” with the construct that the past operated under present processes (uniformitarianism) with gradual, infinitesimal changes.

 

Petty Cury, first street in Cambridge, paved

1789

George Simon Ohm born.

1791

Delambre and Mechain begin to survey the Paris meridian to determine the length of a meter (one ten millionth the length of a quarter arc of the earth)

1793

Napoleonic wars (in three phases 1793-1802, 1806-1814, 1815)

1797

James Hutton died

 

Geologist Charles Lyell born

1798

Luigi Galvani died.

1799

Henry Brougham at RSL

1800

Early part of 1800s the industrial revolution occurs in Britain and British empire

1803

First steam powered locomotive built by Richard Trevithick

1804

Napolean takes the throne

1805

Byron Enters Trinity

1807

Trading of slaves abolished

 

London’s Geologic Society founded

1806

Augustus de Morgan born

1811

Charles Babbage enters Cambridge

1812

Charles Babbage begins work on calculating machine (earliest computer) and difference engine

1813

The East India Company lost its monopoly of trade with India

1815

Battle of Waterloo

 

The Hundred Days War

 

William “Strata” Smith published geologic map of England.

1816

Examination for civil law appeared at Cambridge

 

Sophie Germain won French Academy of Science’s prize in mathematics

 

June 22, Edward Groves born (died ???)

1820

William Hyde Wollaston president of RSL

 

Sir Humphry Davy president of RSL

 

Dr. Gideon Mantell discovers giant dinosaur tooth in the Cuckfield quarry in southern England.

 

Cambridge Apostles founded, initially called the Cambridge Conversazione Society

1821

Arthur Caley born

1822

Cambridge Observatory built west of Cambridge

 

Luis Pasteur born.

 

Gregor Johann Mendel born.

1823

Augustus de Morgan enters Trinity

1824

Classical tripos first offered

 

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin born.

 

Portland Cement developed by Joseph Aspdin

1825

New Court Built at Trinity

1827

1st cricket matches at Cambridge, first match with Oxford occurred

 

Davies Gilbert president of RSL

 

Alessandro Volta died.

 

Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace died.

1828

Offices of University Librarian & Protobibliothecarius merged

 

Charles Babbage becomes the Lucasian Professor.

1829

Thomas Chriton born (died ???)

 

First boat race between Cambridge and Oxford (won by Ox.)

1830

H.R.H Duke of Sussex president of RSL

 

Beginning of the railway age

 

Geologist Charles Lyell published Principles of Geology

1831

James Clerk Maxwell born

 

June 27, Sophie Germain dies (born April 1, 1776)

 

December 27, Darwin sails on Beagle (from Christ’s College)

 

December 27, Robin Louis Baack is born (died ???)

 

Faraday’s electrical current

1833

Robin Louis Baack publishes first book

 

Factory owners obliged to provide schooling for workers aged 9 to 13 (two hours per day)

1834

Edward Groves becomes a colleague of Robin Louis Baack

 

October 15th, Robin Louis Baack is knighted, becomes Sir Robin Louis Baack

 

October 16th, Palace of Westminster burns to the ground

 

Slavery abolished in Britain and its colonies

 

Workhouses created by the poor law act

1836

André-Marie Ampère died.

1837

The pillory abolished as punishment

1838

Arthur Cayley enters Trinity

 

Joshua Alwyne Compton president of RSL

 

Edwin Abbott Abbott born (Flatland)

1839

The Electric Telegraph devised by Charles Wheatstone

 

Photography invented (simultaneously by Daguerre in France and Fox Talbot in England)

 

William “Strata” Smith died

1840

Edward Groves disassociates from Sir Robin Louis Baack, falls from academic heights to lowly “shepherd” status

1841

Edward VII born (eldest son of Queen Victoria)

1842

Arthur Cayley graduated Senior Wrangler

 

Cambridge Mathematical Journal 1st published, edited by Duncan Gregory

1843

Theological tripos offered

 

The Morse Code introduced to improve the electric telegraph

1844

Working hours of children (aged 8 to 13) reduced to 6½ hours per day

 

New Botanical Garden opened, moved from Free School Lane

1845

Potato crop fails (1845 to 1849), famine in Ireland, many Irish come to Cheshire

 

Arthur Cayley becomes a fellow of Trinity

1846

First practical sewing machine patented by Elias Howe

1848

William Parsons president of RSL

1849

George Stokes is 13th Lucasian Professor

1850

441 matriculations in Cambridge

 

Royal Commission established to reform universities

 

Telegraph cable laid across the English Channel

1851

Natural Science Tripos

 

Foucault Pendulum demonstration proves earth’s rotation

 

Hans Christian Ørsted died.

 

George Simon Ohm died.

1852

Botanical garden converted to site to house science buildings

1854

John, Lord Wrottesley president of RSL

 

Cigarettes introduced into the UK

1856  

Joseph John Thompson (JJ Thompson) born

 

Cambridge University Act of 1856

1857

Edwin Abbott Abbott enters St. John’s College of Cambridge on scholarship

1858

Sir Benjamin Collins president of RSL

 

First transatlantic telegraph cable laid

 

Max Planck born.

1859

Origin of Species published by Darwin

1861

Alfred North Whitehead born

 

Fellows first allowed to marry, though it was not common

1862

American Civil War  begins,  ends 1865

 

Edwin Abbott Abbott becomes fellow of St. John’s

1863

Arthur Cayley appointed to Sadlerian Professor of Pure Mathematics at Cambridge

 

The Lottie Sleigh, a ship carrying dynamite, blew up in the Mersey shattering many Birkenhead windows.

1865

American Civil War ends

 

Edwin Abbott (Flatland) becomes headmaster of the City of London School

1866

Augustus de Morgan co-founds London Mathematical Society

1867

Marie Skłodowska-Curie born.

1868

Phillipa Garrett Fawcett born

 

Public hanging abolished

1869

Girton woman’s college founded, led by Miss Davies

 

Charles Thomson Rees Wilson Born (cloud chamber)

 

Suez Canal opened, a shorter route to India and Australia

1870

William Cavendish endows lab (£8,450.)

 

The use of stocks as a punishment is abandoned

1871

James Maxwell returns to Trinity as professor  of physics

 

Earnst Rutherford born

 

Augustus de Morgan died

 

Students can first attend University without passing a test in religion but morning and evening prayers for Church of England still offered in college chapels.

 

Newnham woman’s coll. Founded, headed by Miss Anne Jemima Clough

1873

Maxwell published magnetic & electrical work

1874

Cavendish Lab open, established on site of old Botanical Garden (Eden reference?)

1875

Newnham Hall built

 

Geologist Charles Lyell died

1876

Microphone invented

 

JJ Thompson admitted to Trinity as student (£75/year scholar ship, ½ went to his coach)

 

Education act, universal elementary education introduced

1877

Godfrey Harold Hardy born

1878

In 1878 the Newton Library books and his NPM were transferred to Barnsley Park in Gloucestershire (owned by the Musgrave family) where they stayed for 140 years.

 

Internal-combustion engine developed by Nikolaus Otto

1879

James Maxwell died

 

Einstein born

 

Daniel Gregory born, March 23.

 

Lord Raleigh is Cav prof

 

Thomas Edison inv light bulb

 

Alfred North Whitehead took entrance exam for Trinity, won scholarship

 

Sir Timothy Schaeffer master of Elyon College

 

Teachers Training Syndicate established at Cambridge

1880

Alfred North Whitehead enters Trinity

 

Edward Groves begins teaching at Yorkshire

 

School attendance made compulsory up to the age of 10

 

Most towns use Greenwich Mean Time

1881

1st speed of light experiment by Mickelson & Morley

1882

General Board of Faculties established for Cambridge

 

First women examined at Cambridge

 

Darwin died

 

Selwyn opened, one of the first public hostela

 

Robert Hutchings Goddard born

1883

Alfred North Whitehead took math tripos (placed 4th Wrangler)

1884

Lord Rayleigh Resigns as Cav Professor

 

JJ Thompson becomes Cav prof

 

Flatland is published by Edwin Abbott Abbott.

 

Greenwich is adopted as the universal prime meridian, zero longitude and standard time

 

Gregor Johann Mendel died.

1885

July 4, Groves first meets Daniel at age 6

 

Two houses for married fellows built near Jesus College

 

Hughs Hall established, initially the Woman’s Training College

 

Niels Henrik David Bohr born.

1887

Miss Agnata Ramsey, student of Girton, was awarded marks above the Senior Classic but didn’t get official recognition.

1888

Kodak introduces the box camera, photography available to the masses

1890?

A number of attempts were made to provide cheap non-collegiate hostels catering for poorer students, disappeared by 1900. 

 

Philippa Garrett Fawcett, female student at Newnham College, scored the second highest mark in the Mathematical Tripos.  She was placed `above the Senior Wrangler’ (that is, above the top first) because women were not then eligible for the Cambridge BA degree and therefore could not be classed as Wranglers.

 

Four-wheel automobile produced by Benz

1892

Daniel and Clive enter Yorkshire Preparatory School.

 

Fitzwilliam House opened at Cambridge, residence for poorer students

 

Sinaii palimpsest of the old testament discovered

1894

Earnst Rutherford comes to Cambridge on Exhibition Scholarship

 

CTR Wilson makes cloud chamber

 

Wireless telegraphy invented in Italy by Guglielmo Marconi

1895

Rutherford made wireless communication

 

Arthur Caley died

 

Luis Pasteur died.

 

Roetgen discovers xray in Germany

1896

“A Body at Rest” begins

 

Becquerel accidentally discovered radioactivity.

 

Godfrey Harold Hardy enters Trinity (he was a frail boy that many kids picked on in his earlier years), he was assigned coach RR Webb who was more interested in tricks to pass the exams than learning math.

 

January 4André Masson, French artist born (d. 1987)

 

January 12H.L. Smith takes the first X-ray photograph.

 

January 14Martin Niemöller, German theologian and pacifist born (d. 1984)

 

January 18 – The X-ray machine is exhibited for the first time.

 

February 1 – The opera La bohème premieres (Turin).

 

February 14Arthur Milne born (d. 1950), British space physicist.

 

February 18André Breton, French writer born (d. 1966)

 

March 29Wilhelm Ackermann born (d. 1962), mathematician.

 

April 6 – Opening ceremonies of the 1896 Summer Olympics, the first modern Olympic Games.

 

May 8 – Against Warwickshire, Yorkshire sets a still-standing County Championship record when they accumulate an innings total of 887.

 

June 12J.T. Hearne sets a record for the earliest date of taking 100 wickets. It is qualed by Charlie Parker in 1931.

 

June 15 - ? Earthquake and tsunami in Sanriku, Japan, kills 27.000

 

July 9William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of gold speech.

 

August 16Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie discover gold in the Klondike.

 

August 27 – The shortest war in the world – 9.02 – 9.40 between Britain and Zanzibar

 

September 18Hippolyte Fizeau died (b. 1819), physicist.

 

December 10Alfred Nobel, died, inventor of dynamite Nobel Prize (b. 1833)

1897

JJ Thompson discovered electron (foundation of modern physics, the beginning of the massive transformation)

1898

Hardy placed as 4th Wrangler in tripos

1899

Lytton Strachey, Leonard Woolf and Thoby Stephen meet as under-graduates at Trinity and form the nucleus of what was to become known as the Bloomsbury Group.

 

Boer War begins, lasts 3 years

1900

Hardy elected Fellow at Trinity

1901

First transatlantic wireless message, Guglielmo Marconi

1902

Education Act passed by Parliament (subsidized secondary education)

1903

First successful flight by a powered aeroplane, Orville and Wilbur Wright

1904

Charles Rolls and Henry Royce start making cars

1906

JJ gets Nobel

 

Henry Jackson is the Regius Professor of Greek

1907

Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India 1947-1964, enters Trinity

 

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin died

1908

Rutherford get Nobel prize in chemistry

 

Ford starts mass production of his Model T

1909

Labor Exchanges Act passed by Parliament (groundwork for national health insurance)

 

First flight across the English Channel (by Louis Blériot)

 

Last Senior Wrangler classed at Cambridge, system of ranking Wranglers and Optimes dropped.

1910

1,191 matriculations in Cambridge

 

Edward VII died

1911

Rutherford discovers nucleous

1912

Lawrence Bragg discoveredXRD

 

The Titanic sank on its maiden voyage, many died.

 

Public telephone service introduced in the UK

 

Werner von Braun born

1913

Bohr’s theory of atom

1914

WWI (2,470 members of Cambridge University killed), ended 1918

 

Jonas Salk born, developer of polio vaccine

1917

Worldwide flu epidemic

 

Cinema films (silent) are a popular form of entertainment

1918

The vote given to educated women over 30

 

Richard Phillips Feynman born.

1919

JJ Thompson retires as Cav Prof

 

Rutherford becomes Cav professor

 

First state support financially due to impacts of WWI and loss of fees from veteran students.

1920

Newton’s library and NPM text sold, 859 volumes bought by Southeran and Co, including the NPM with Newton’s 1st edition with writing.

1921

E gets Nobel Prize for QM

 

PhD degree introduced

1922

Radio broadcasting starts (British Broadcasting Company, funded by radio manufacturers)

1928

Women given equal voting rights with men in Britain

1929

The Wall Street Crash, October 29th, Black Tuesday, the stock market collapsed

1932

Atom split for 1st time, occurs in Cavendish Lab

1934

Marie Skłodowska-Curie died.

1935

Nicolas Bourbaki society “born” in France  http://www.ega-math.narod.ru/Bbaki/Cartier.htm

1937

Rutherford dies

1939

WWII Starts, lasts until 1945

1940

JJ Thompson dies

1943

Newton’s library and NPM text purchased by the Pilgrim Trust and presented to Trinity.

1945

A-bomb test

 

Robert Hutchings Goddard died.

1947

Women can become full members of the University

 

Alfred North Whitehead died

 

Godfrey Harold Hardy died

 

Max Planck died

1948

Phillipa Garrett Fawcett died

1953

Crick & Watson discover structure of DNA

1954

Newhall women’s  college founded

1955

Einstein died

1960

Churchill women’s college founded

1962

Niels Henrik David Bohr died.

1963

John F Kennedy assassinated in Dallas (22nd November)

1970

Prior to this date gowns were required to be worn on the streets after dark by all junior members of the university.

1969

Man lands on the moon

1974

Cavendish Lab relocates to new place in West Cambridge

1977

Robinson women’s college founded, Cambridge

 

Werner von Braun died

1983

Meter redefined as not the length of France's bar of platinum, but as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 second.

1988

Richard Phillips Feynman died.

 

 

9 comments:

  1. Completely unrelated, did you know I was descended from William the Conqueror and, since his descendant married a descendant of the Anglo-Saxon Kings, I'm descended from Alfred the Great, too.

    I'm going to need a chunk of time to go through this so, um, not tonight.

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  2. No offense to anybody named "Alfred", but that just doesn't sound like a "great" historical figure. Kinda like "Filmore the Fantastic" or "Timmy the Terrific". No offense either to the Filmore's or Timmy's of the world.

    Anybody have thoughts on when the industrial revolution began? I realize that it's not as if there is a discrete moment in time when some Governor said, "Hey! I got a swell idea. Today I'm starting an industrial revolution." But since it is a bit fuzzy, there seems to be some good discussion lurking.

    Other

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  3. Did you mean Edwards II and Edwards III or Edward II and Edward III.

    This entry: King Henry VIII, Tudor - was that when he was born? Ditto kings/queens that followed? Or is it when they took the throne?

    Why mention the Mayflower but not the earlier efforts like the ill-fated Roanoke and the establishment of Jamestown in 1607?

    You might include when Charles I was beheaded (or that he was).

    Which climax of the French Revolution did you mean? The King and Queen were put to death in 1793. Reign of Terror 1793-1794. Napoleon took the throne in 1804.

    Why is the birth of Edward, son of Victoria, noted, but nothing on Victoria's ascension (or the three Georges before her). Also, no mention of End of American Revolutionary War or its beginnings as a nation in 1783.

    Overall, your scientists are heavy into the physics side of things. I'll suggest a list of inportant people that you missed like Descartes, Pasteur, Fleming, Salk, etc.

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  4. Alfred the Great, first "King of the English". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_the_Great

    (I can't believe you dabble in English history and don't know this. For shame!)

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  5. People I would have included but you didn't:

    Hippocrates (ca. 460 BC – ca. 370 BC)
    Abu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas Al-Zahrawi (936 - 1013)
    Theodoric Borgognoni (1205-1296)
    Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564)
    Isaac Beeckman (1588-1637)
    Descartes (1596-1650)
    Robert Boyle (1627-1691)
    Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782)(and father and sibs)
    Leonhard Paul Euler (1707-1783)
    Luigi Galvani (1737-1798)
    Count Alessandro Volta (1745-1827)
    Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace (1749-1827)
    André-Marie Ampère (1775-1836)
    Hans Christian Ørsted (1777-1851)
    Georg Simon Ohm (1789-1854)
    Louis Pasteur (1822-1895)
    Gregor Johann Mendel (1822-1884)
    William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (1824-1907)
    Max Planck (1858-1947)
    Marie Skłodowska-Curie (1867-1934)
    Robert Hutchings Goddard (1882-1945)
    Niels Henrik David Bohr (1885-1962)
    Wernher von Braun (1912-1977)
    Jonas Salk (1914-1995)
    Richard Phillips Feynman (1918-1988)

    There's more, of course, but this should help.

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  6. The answer to all of the "Why did/didn't you include..." questions is the same. When I went to the grocery store of history, I was looking for a few snacks and didn't walk down every isle.

    The answer to all of the "Did you mean..." questions is also probably the same. Much of this has been kluged over the last 6 years and frankly I don't know/remember what I meant by much of this.

    Thanks for filling in some blanks. I'll be adding these to the BOTLOS. Also, I moved the discussion items over to the BOTLOS Boxing Ring, which in no way should imply that battles must occur there. It just as easily could've been called the BOTLOS cafe or gathering, but I was looking for an alliterative name.

    The list is certainly heavy in physics because the novel centers on the Cavendish Lab at Cambridge, which was primarily concerned with physics. I'd like to add other disciplines though.

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  7. The problem with making my comments on the other list is that I went back and forth from your list and what I was recommending adding to make sure I didn't duplicate your stuff. It will be more difficult to do so on a separate article.

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  8. The people have spoken! Comments are open here or in the BOTLOS Boxing Ring. Thanks a truckload for the suggestions above. I'll get them in the time line. Lady Blog Fodder pulls through and goes big!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Industrial revolution... I vaguely remember (i.e. "just skimmed the wikipedia article") two of them, the first one starting in the middle-to-late 18th century with weaving machines (or spinning, not too sure, maybe both) which led to the first uprisings of workers jobless due to new technology, the original luddites (rather ruthlessly quelled by the Empire, I am afraid), which more or less seamlessly went over to the second one in the late 19th century, when steam power and steel manufacture really took off.
    But I don't think there is a definite point (or even several) in history where you count point to and say: This is where it all started.

    ReplyDelete

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