MacTutor
Mathematicians Of The Day
15th October
On this day in 1698, King William III commissioned Edmund Halley as Royal Naval Captain of the HMS Paramour and provided him with a complete set of instructions:
The postage stamp of one of today's mathematicians at THIS LINK was issued in 1958.
Whereas his Majesty has been pleased to lend his pink the 'Paramour' for your proceeding with her on an Expedition, to improve the knowledge of the Longitude and variations of the Compass, which ship is now completely manned, stored and victualled at his Majesty's charge for the said Expedition ...See a picture at THIS LINK.
The postage stamp of one of today's mathematicians at THIS LINK was issued in 1958.
Click on Ⓟ for a poster.
Born:
- 1608: Evangelista Torricelli Ⓟ
- 1735: Jesse Ramsden Ⓟ
- 1776: Peter Barlow Ⓟ
- 1797: Pierre-Joseph-Étienne Finck
- 1837: Leo Königsberger Ⓟ
- 1846: Platon Sergeevich Poretsky Ⓟ
- 1861: Heinrich Burkhardt Ⓟ
- 1875: Andre-Louis Cholesky Ⓟ
- 1890: Jakob Nielsen Ⓟ
- 1909: Bernhard Neumann Ⓟ
- 1927: Hans Wussing Ⓟ
- 1931: Eléna Kreindler
Died:
- 1100: al-Zarqali Ⓟ
- 1914: Mildred Sanderson Ⓟ
- 1959: Lipót Fejér Ⓟ
- 1965: Abraham Fraenkel Ⓟ
- 1980: Mikhail Alekseevich Lavrent'ev Ⓟ
- 1990: Wilhelm Magnus Ⓟ
Quotation of the day
From Evangelista Torricelli
Many have argued that a vacuum does not exist, others claim it exists only with difficulty in spite of the repugnance of nature; I know of no one who claims it easily exists without any resistance from nature.
