Joseph-Louis Lagrange was born on 25 January 1736 in Turin. A mathematician and astronomer born in Turin as Giuseppe Lodovico Lagrangia, Lagrange made lasting contributions to analysis, number theory and classical and celestial mechanics. His Analytical Mechanics reformulated Newtonian mechanics using the calculus of variations, and introduced what are now called Lagrange equations and the Lagrangian. He also studied the three-body problem and found the points, now called Lagrange points, where small bodies can stay in stable positions relative to two larger ones. At the invitation of Frederick the Great he worked in Berlin, and later in Paris, where he took part in the creation of the metric system.
Before and after
- 19 October 1735Birth of John Adams
- from 1736 to 1796Afsharid dynasty
- from 1736 to 1739Fifth Russo-Turkish War
- 19 January 1736Birth of James Watt
- 25 January 1736Birth of Joseph-Louis Lagrange
- 14 June 1736Birth of Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
- 29 January 1737Birth of Thomas Paine
- 8 May 1737Birth of Edward Gibbon
- from 1738 to 1861Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
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.