| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
Born at Paris, he was originally intended for the profession of a painter, but preferred writing tragedies, until attracted to science by the influence of Nicolas de Lacaille. He calculated an orbit for Halley's Comet when it appeared in 1759, reduced Lacaille's observations of 515 zodiacal stars, and was, in 1763, elected a member of the French Academy of Sciences. His Essai sur la theorie des satelliteFor other uses, please see Satellite (disambiguation A satellite is an object that orbits another object (known as its primary . The term is often used to describe an artificial satellite (as opposed to natural satellites, or moons). Because all objects es de Jupiter (Essay on the theory of the satellites of Jupiter, 1766Events January 1 Bonnie Prince Charlie becomes the new Stuart claimant to the throne of Great Britain as King Charles III and figurehead for Jacobitism. March 5 Antonio de Ulloa, the first Spanish governor of Louisiana, arrives in New Orleans. March 18 Am), an expansion of a memoir presented to the Academy in 1763, showed much original power; and it was followed up in 1771Events January 22 Spain cedes the Falkland Islands to England. July 17 Massacre at Bloody Falls: Chipewyan chief Matonabbee traveling as the guide to Samuel Hearne on his arctic overland journey, massacre a group of unsuspecting Inuit. September 8 In Cali by a noteworthy dissertation Sur les inegalites de la lumiere des satellites de Jupiter (On the inequalities of light of the satellites of Jupiter).
Meantime, he had gained a high literary reputation by his Éloges of King Charles V of FranceCharles V ( January 31, 1338 September 16, 1380), called the Wise was king of France ( 1364 to 1380) and a member of the Valois Dynasty. Born at Vincennes, Ile-de-France, France, son of King Jean II and Bonne of Luxembourg. He was the first French heir to, Lacaille, MolièreJean-Baptiste Poquelin better known as Moliere ( January 15, 1622 February 17, 1673), was a French theatre writer, director and actor, one of the masters of comic satire. The son of a Parisian artisan, Poquelin lost his mother when still a child and enter, Pierre CorneillePierre Corneille ( June 6, 1606 October 1, 1684) was one of the three great dramatists produced by France during the 17th century, along with Moliere and Racine. Corneille was born at Rouen, and studied law. He then practiced law for 21 years, meanwhile w and Gottfried Leibniz, which were issued in collected form in 1770 and 1790; he was admitted to the Académie française on ( February 26, 1784), and to the Académie des Inscriptions in 1785, when Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle's simultaneous membership of all three Academies was renewed in him. From then on, he devoted himself to the history of science, publishing successively: Histoire de l'astronomie ancienne (A history of ancient astronomy, 1775); Histoire de l'astronomie moderne (A history of modern astronomy, 3 vols., 1779 - 1782); Lettres sur l'origine des sciences (Letters on the origin of the sciences, 1777); Lettres sur l
The French Revolution interrupted his studies. Elected deputy from Paris to the Estates-General, he was elected president of the Third Estate ( May 5, 1789), led the famous proceedings in the Tennis Court( June 20), and -- immediately after the storming of the Bastille -- became the first mayor of Paris under the newly adopted system of the Commune ( July 15, 1789 to November 16, 1791). The dispersal by the National Guard, under his orders, of the riotous assembly in the Champ de Mars ( July 17, 1791) made him unpopular, and he retired to Nantes, where he composed his Mémoires d'un témoin (published in 3 vols. by MM. Berville and Barrière, 1821- 1822), an incomplete narrative of the extraordinary events of his public life. Late in 1793, Bailly quitted Nantes to join his friend Pierre Simon Laplace at Melun, but was there recognized, arrested and brought ( November 10) before the Revolutionary Tribunal at Paris. On November 12 he was guillotined amid the insults of a howling mob. In the words of the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica, "He met his death with patient dignity; having, indeed, disastrously shared the enthusiasms of his age, but taken no share in its crimes."