Pierre-Simon Laplace (In Our Time)
1796 · Resource
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Laplace (1749-1827) who was a giant in the world of mathematics both before and after the French Revolution. He addressed one of the great questions of his age, raised but side-stepped by Newton: was the Solar System stable, or would the planets crash into the Sun, as it appeared Jupiter might, or even spin away like Saturn threatened to do?
On these timelines: In Our Time (BBC podcast), Resources: Combined
Around 1796
- Seven Years' War (1756)
- Great Famine of Ireland (1845)
- Presidency of George Washington (1789)
- Industrial Revolution (1760)
- American Declaration of Independence (1776)
- American Revolution (1765)
- Greek War of Independence (1821)
- Haitian Revolution (1791)
- Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 (Choral) (1824)
- Opium Wars (1839)