Template:Selected anniversaries/December 16: Difference between revisions
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||1828: Alexander Ross Clarke born ... geodesist who made calculations of the size and shape of the Earth (the Clarke ellipsoid) were the first to approximate accepted modern values with respect to both polar flattening and equatorial radius. The figures from his second determination (1866) became a standard reference for U.S. geodesy for most of the twentieth century until satellites could improve accuracy. In 1880, Clarke coined the term "Geodesy" when he published his famous book by that title. Pic. | ||1828: Alexander Ross Clarke born ... geodesist who made calculations of the size and shape of the Earth (the Clarke ellipsoid) were the first to approximate accepted modern values with respect to both polar flattening and equatorial radius. The figures from his second determination (1866) became a standard reference for U.S. geodesy for most of the twentieth century until satellites could improve accuracy. In 1880, Clarke coined the term "Geodesy" when he published his famous book by that title. Pic. | ||
||1849: Gyula Kőnig dies ... mathematician. Pic. | ||1849: Gyula Kőnig dies ... mathematician. His work on polynomial ideals, discriminants and elimination theory can be considered as a link between Leopold Kronecker and David Hilbert as well as Emmy Noether. Pic. | ||
||1849: John Caldecott dies ... East India Company commercial agent, meteorologist and astronomer who worked in the court of the Raja of Travancore at the Trivandrum Observatory. Pic: http://pazhayathu.blogspot.com/2012/05/john-caldecott-born-16-sept-1801-royal.html | ||1849: John Caldecott dies ... East India Company commercial agent, meteorologist and astronomer who worked in the court of the Raja of Travancore at the Trivandrum Observatory. Pic: http://pazhayathu.blogspot.com/2012/05/john-caldecott-born-16-sept-1801-royal.html | ||
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||1907: The American Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world. | ||1907: The American Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world. | ||
||Lambros Demetrios Callimahos born ... US Army cryptologist. Pic search | ||Lambros Demetrios Callimahos born ... US Army cryptologist. Pic search. | ||
||1917: Arthur C. Clarke born ... science fiction writer, science writer and futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. Pic. | ||1917: Arthur C. Clarke born ... science fiction writer, science writer and futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. Pic. | ||
Revision as of 06:37, 8 April 2020
1474: Astronomer, mathematician, and physicist Ali Qushji dies. Qushji contributed to the development of astronomical physics independent from natural philosophy, and provided empirical evidence for the Earth's rotation.
1653: Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1887: Polymath and crime-fighter Francis Galton publishes new class of Gnomon algorithm functions which detect and prevent crimes against mathematical constants.
1905: Mathematician, author, and poet Piet Hein born. He will propose the use of superellipses in architecture; superellipses will become the hallmark of modern Scandinavian architecture.
1947: William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact transistor.
2012: Signed first edition of Electrical Storm voted Image of the Day by the citizens of New Minneapolis, Canada.
2014: Mathematician and academic Tim Cochran dies. He contributed to topology, especially low-dimensional topology, the theory of knots and links and associated algebra.
2017: Steganographic analysis of Red Spiral unexpectedly reveals "at least five hundred and twelve kilobytes, perhaps a thousand and twenty-four" previously unknown shades of the color color red.