[Wikipedia Daily Article] July 15: Johannes Kepler

[Faraaz Damji]

   Johannes Kepler was a German Lutheran mathematician, astronomer and
   astrologer, and a key figure in the 17th century astronomical
   revolution.  He is best known for his eponymous laws of planetary
   motion, codified by later astronomers based on his works Astronomia
   nova, Harmonices Mundi, and Epitome of Copernican Astronomy.  Before
   Kepler, planets' paths were computed by combinations of the circular
   motions of the celestial orbs.  After Kepler, astronomers shifted their
   attention from orbs to orbits—paths that could be represented
   mathematically as an ellipse.  Kepler's laws also provided one of the
   foundations for Isaac Newton's theory of universal gravitation.  During
   his career Kepler was a mathematics teacher at a Graz seminary school,
   an assistant to Tycho Brahe, the court mathematician to Emperor Rudolf
   II, a mathematics teacher in Linz, Austria, and an adviser to General
   Wallenstein.  He also did fundamental work in the field of optics and
   helped to legitimize the telescopic discoveries of his contemporary
   Galileo Galilei.

Read the rest of this article:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Kepler


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Today's selected anniversaries:

1410:
   The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeated the
   Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of Grunwald, the
   decisive engagement of the Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Grunwald)

1685:
   James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, was executed for his role in the
   Monmouth Rebellion, an attempt to overthrow the King James II of
   England.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Scott%2C_1st_Duke_of_Monmouth)

1799:
   French soldiers uncovered the Rosetta Stone in the Egyptian port
   city of Rashid.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone)

1823:
   A fire destroyed the ancient Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the
   Walls in Rome.  The church would later be restored by 1840.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_Saint_Paul_Outside_the_Walls)

1974:
   Greek-sponsored nationalists overthrew Archbishop Makarios,
   President of Cyprus, in a coup d'état and replaced him with Nikos
   Sampson.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makarios_III)


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Wiktionary's Word of the day:

   coy: Pretending shyness or modesty.
   (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/coy)


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Wikiquote of the day:

   Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than
   oneself is real.  Love, and so art and morals, is the discovery of
   reality.  -- Iris Murdoch
   (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Iris_Murdoch)