Historical Archives & Public Figures

Jöns Jacob Berzelius

Sweden

1779 – 1848 (68 years old)

Swedish chemist revered as a founder of modern chemistry who created modern chemical notation and discovered cerium, selenium, and silicon.

Solna, Stockholm, Sweden

3,526 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

8

🕯️ 880

Caroline Herschel

Caroline Lucretia Herschel

Germany

16 March 1750 – 9 January 1848 (97 years old)

First woman to receive a salary as a professional scientist, who discovered eight comets (including periodic comet 35P/Herschel-Rigollet) and compiled the definitive NGC nebula catalogs.

Hanover, Germany

8 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

2,849

🕯️ 105

John Dalton

Kingdom of Great Britain

1766 – 1844 (77 years old)

English chemist and physicist who introduced the modern atomic theory into chemistry and pioneered research into color blindness.

Manchester, United Kingdom

2,849 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

4,329

🕯️ 80

André-Marie Ampère

Kingdom of France

1775 – 1836 (61 years old)

French physicist and mathematician who founded electrodynamics and formulated Ampère's circuital law.

Paris, France

4,329 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

4,262

🕯️ 92

Marie-Anne Paulze Lavoisier

Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze

Kingdom of France

1758 – 1836 (78 years old)

French chemist, scientific translator, and artist revered as the 'mother of modern chemistry' alongside Antoine Lavoisier.

Paris, France

4,262 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

1

🕯️ 0

Adrien-Marie Legendre

Kingdom of France

1752 – 1833 (80 years old)

French mathematician who invented the method of least squares, formulated Legendre polynomials, and made foundational contributions to number theory and the law of quadratic reciprocity.

Paris, France

1 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

2,761

🕯️ 48

Joseph Fourier

Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier

Kingdom of France

1768 – 1830 (62 years old)

French mathematician and physicist who created Fourier analysis for heat transfer and discovered the greenhouse effect.

Paris, France

2,761 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

4,352

🕯️ 93

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck

Kingdom of France

1744 – 1829 (85 years old)

Pioneering French naturalist who proposed the first coherent theory of biological evolution and coined the term 'biology'.

Paris, France

4,352 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

2,074

🕯️ 105

Humphry Davy

Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet

Kingdom of Great Britain

1778 – 1829 (50 years old)

Brilliant British chemist and inventor who isolated sodium, potassium, and calcium via electrolysis, and invented the miner's safety lamp.

Geneva, Switzerland

2,074 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

10

🕯️ 920

Alessandro Volta

Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta

Italy

18 February 1745 – 5 March 1827 (82 years old)

Italian physicist who invented the voltaic pile (the first continuous electrochemical battery) in 1799, discovered methane gas, and had the electrical unit of potential—the 'Volt'—named in his honor.

Como (Lombardy), Italy

10 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

8

🕯️ 890

Pierre-Simon Laplace

Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace

France

23 March 1749 – 5 March 1827 (77 years old)

'The French Newton' whose Traité de mécanique céleste proved the gravitational stability of the solar system, proposed the nebular hypothesis of planetary origin, and defined determinism (Laplace's Demon).

Saint-Julien-de-Mailloc (Calvados), France

8 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

9

🕯️ 980

Edward Jenner

Great Britain

17 May 1749 – 26 January 1823 (73 years old)

'Father of Immunology' who developed the world's first successful vaccine in 1796 using cowpox matter to confer immunity against lethal smallpox, saving hundreds of millions of lives.

Berkeley (Gloucestershire), United Kingdom

9 Full Record →

William Herschel (Sir Frederick William Herschel)

Sciences & Discovery

7

🕯️ 910

William Herschel (Sir Frederick William Herschel)

Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel

Germany

15 November 1738 – 25 August 1822 (83 years old)

Astronomer and telescope builder who discovered planet Uranus in 1781 (the first planet found with a telescope), discovered infrared radiation, and mapped the Milky Way galaxy.

Upton (Slough, Berkshire), United Kingdom

7 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

10

🕯️ 940

James Watt

Scotland

30 January 1736 – 25 August 1819 (83 years old)

Scottish mechanical engineer whose invention of the separate condenser transformed the steam engine from an inefficient pump into the universal rotary prime mover of the Industrial Revolution.

Birmingham, United Kingdom

10 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

1

🕯️ 0

Gaspar Monge

Gaspard Monge, Comte de Péluse

Kingdom of France

1746 – 1818 (72 years old)

French mathematician who invented descriptive geometry—the mathematical basis of modern technical drafting and engineering design—and co-founded the Ecole Polytechnique.

Paris, France

1 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

7

🕯️ 850

Joseph-Louis Lagrange

Giuseppe Lodovico Lagrangia / Joseph-Louis Lagrange

Italy

25 January 1736 – 10 April 1813 (77 years old)

Italo-French mathematical colossus whose Mécanique analytique transformed mechanics into pure analysis without diagrams, invented the calculus of variations, and discovered Lagrange points.

Paris, France

7 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

9

🕯️ 840

Henry Cavendish

France

10 October 1731 – 24 February 1810 (78 years old)

Eccentric English natural philosopher who discovered hydrogen ('inflammable air'), proved water is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen, and measured the mass and density of the Earth in 1798.

Derby, United Kingdom

9 Full Record →