Antoine Lavoisier was born on 26 August 1743 in Paris. A French chemist and nobleman, Lavoisier is often called the father of modern chemistry. By careful quantitative experiments he showed that matter is conserved in chemical reactions, identified and named oxygen, and demonstrated its role in combustion and respiration, overturning the phlogiston theory. He also showed that water is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen, and with colleagues devised a systematic chemical nomenclature. His Elementary Treatise on Chemistry of 1789 served as the first modern chemistry textbook. As a member of the Ferme générale, the private tax-collection company, he was arrested during the Reign of Terror and guillotined in 1794.
Before and after
- 13 April 1742Handel's Messiah premieres in Dublin
- 14 August 1742Birth of Pius VII
- 2 April 1743Birth of Thomas Jefferson
- 27 June 1743Battle of Dettingen
- 26 August 1743Birth of Antoine Lavoisier
- 9 December 1743Discovery of Great Comet of 1744
- 1744Rise of House of Saud
- 1 August 1744Birth of Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck
- from 7 August 1744 to 25 December 1745Second Silesian War
More in Science & technology
- 1543De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
- 27 December 1571Birth of Johannes Kepler
- 1637Descartes publishes La Geometrie: algebra meets geometry
- 8 January 1642Death of Galileo Galilei
- 21 June 1646Birth of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- 15 April 1707Birth of Leonhard Euler
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.