Mathematicians Of The Day
29th July
On this day in 1808, François Arago escaped from prison in Mallorca where he had been imprisoned as a spy, and started his journey back to France carrying his logbook of measurements of the meridian. After some misadventures he reached France 11 months later.
Click on Ⓟ for a poster.
Born:
- 1786: Jean-Nicolas Nicollet Ⓟ
- 1858: Francesco Gerbaldi
- 1912: Noel Slater Ⓟ
- 1920: Alison Falconer Ⓟ
- 1923: Zofia Szmydt
Died:
- 1839: Gaspard de Prony Ⓟ
- 1944: David Eugene Smith Ⓟ
- 1962: R A Fisher Ⓟ
- 1996: Marcel-Paul Schützenberger Ⓟ
- 1999: Pedro Abellanas Ⓟ
- 2004: Walter Feit Ⓟ
- 2016: Jock Hoe Ⓟ
Quotation of the day
From David Eugene Smith
The field of mathematics is now so extensive that no one can [any] longer pretend to cover it, least of all the specialist in any one department. Furthermore it takes a century or more to weigh men and their discoveries, thus making the judgment of contemporaries often quite worthless.