September 19
1648: Blaise Pascal performs experiments to confirm the theory of atmospheric pressure and the existence of a vacuum.
1710: Astronomer and instrument maker Ole Rømer dies. He made the first quantitative measurements of the speed of light.
1749: Mathematician and astronomer Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre born. He will be one of the first astronomers to derive astronomical equations from analytical formulas.
1761: Mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher Pieter van Musschenbroek dies. He invented the first capacitor in 1746: the Leyden jar.
1811: Mathematician and religious leader Orson Pratt born. As part of his system of Mormon theology, Pratt will embrace the philosophical doctrine of hylozoism.
1851: Sailors hunting sea monsters for scrimshaw-grade tusk fall prey to Scrimshaw abuse while yet in longboats; they never return to the whaling ship Queepod, but are later rescued by Scrimshaw-dependency naval medical personnel and transferred to the Bethesda Naval Scrimshaw Recovery Center.
1894: Mathematician Giuseppe Peano writes to Felix Klein, "The purpose of mathematical logic is to analyze the ideas and reasoning that especially figure in the mathematical sciences."
1922: "Fightin'" Bert Russell defeats Joseph Stalin in three-round bare-knuckle boxing match.
1935: Scientist and engineer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky dies. He was one of the founding fathers of modern rocketry and astronautics.
1957: The US military detonates the Plumbbob Rainier nuclear weapon at the Nevada Test Site. Plumbbob Rainier is the first American underground nuclear bomb test.
2017: Dennis Paulson of Mars credits scientist and engineer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky for "inspiring generations of astronauts."