Anders Celsius was born on 27 November 1701 in Uppsala. A Swedish astronomer, physicist and professor at Uppsala, Celsius devised the temperature scale that bears his name. In 1742 he proposed a scale with the boiling point of water at zero and the freezing point at one hundred, which was inverted shortly after his death to the form used today. He took part in an expedition to Lapland that measured the length of a degree of the meridian, confirming Newton's prediction that the Earth is flattened at the poles. He also studied the aurora borealis and built an observatory in Uppsala, and was among the first to note the link between auroras and magnetic disturbances.
Before and after
- from 22 February 1700 to 10 September 1721Great Northern War
- 1701Founding of Yale University
- from 18 January 1701 to 9 November 1918Kingdom of Prussia
- from March 1701 to September 1714War of the Spanish Succession
- 27 November 1701Birth of Anders Celsius
- 1703Founding of Amherst
- 16 May 1703Founding of Saint Petersburg
- 1704Founding of Gibraltar
- 13 August 1704Battle of Blenheim
More in Science & technology
- 24 February 1582Pope Gregory XIII reforms the calendar
- 1642Invention of Pascal's calculator
- 25 December 1642Birth of Isaac Newton
- 1654Magdeburg hemispheres
- 9 October 1676Leeuwenhoek discovers microorganisms
- 1735Linnaeus publishes Systema Naturae
The era
This moment belongs to the Early modern world (1500 CE to 1760 CE), voyages, printing and new ideas. You can also browse everything in the 18th century.