Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek | Timeline

Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek (24 October 1632 – 26 August 1723) was a Dutch businessman, scientist, and one of the notable representatives of the Golden Age of Dutch science and technology. A largely self-taught man in science, he is commonly known as "the Father of Microbiology", and often considered to be the first acknowledged microscopist and microbiologist. Van Leeuwenhoek is best known for his pioneering work in the field of microscopy and for his contributions toward the establishment of microbiology as a scientific discipline. (Intro from Wikipedia)

October 24, 1632 - Delft, Netherlands - Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek is born

January(?) 1(?), 1639 - Warmond, near Leiden - After his father's death, Van Leeuwenhoek is sent to grammar school

January(?) (1), 1648 - Amsterdam - 16-year old Van Leeuwenhoek becomes a bookkeeper's apprentice at a linen-draper shop

July 29, 1654 - Amsterdam - Van Leeuwenhoek marries Barbara de Mey =(START)

August(?) 1(?), 1654 - Delft - Van Leeuwenhoek opens a draper's shop

January(?) 1(?), 1660 - Delft - Van Leeuwenhoek takes the lucrative job of Chamberlain for the assembly chamber of the Delft Sheriffs in the City Hall

January(?) 1(?), 1666 - Delft - Barbara de Mey dies

January(?) 1(?), 1668 - Gravesend | Rochester, Kent - First foreign trip

January(?) 1(?), 1669 - Delft - Van Leeuwenhoek is appointed as a land surveyor by the Court of Holland, which he combines with another municipal job - being the official "wine-gauger" of Delft and in charge of the city wine imports and taxation

January(?) 1(?), 1671 - Delft - Van Leeuwenhoek begins developing the idea of the glasses used by drapers to inspect the quality of cloth, he constructed his first simple microscopes of magnifying glasses, consisting of a minute lens, ground by hand from a globule of glass, clamped between two small perforated metal plates. To this apparatus he fixed a specimen holder that revolved in three planes.

January 25, 1671 - Delft - Van Leeuwenhoek marries Cornelia Swalmius

September 7, 1674 - Delft - Letter describing observations on lake water, including an excellent description of the green charophyte alga "Spirogyra"

January(?) 1(?), 1676 - Delft - Discovery of Bacteria  (e.g., large Selenomonads from the human mouth)
November 7, 1676 - Delft - Letter to Constantijn Huygens

November 1(?), 1677 - Delft - Discovery of Spermatozoa
December 26, 1678 - Delft - Letter to Constantijn Huygens
May 21, 1679 - Delft - Letter to Constantijn Huygens

January 12, 1680 - Delft - Letter to the Royal Society describing the elements that make up several kinds of wood

February 1(?), 1680 - Delft - In London, Van Leeuwenhoek is elected to the Royal Society on the nomination of William Croone, a then-prominent physician. Van Leeuwenhoek was "taken aback" by the nomination, which he considered a high honor, although he did not attend the induction ceremony in London, nor did he ever attend a Royal Society meeting

January(?) 1(?), 1682 - Delft - Discovery of the banded pattern of muscular fibers

September 17, 1683 - Delft - Leeuwenhoek writes to the Royal Society about his observations on the plaque between his own teeth

January(?) 1(?), 1687 - Delft - Apparently , Leeuwenhoek discovers modern coffee, by roasting the bean, pressing it and boiling it with water

January(?) 1(?), 1694 - Delft - Cornelia Swalmius dies

January(?) 1(?), 1698 - Antwerp - Visit to Jesuit scholar Daniel Papenbroek

April(?) 1(?), 1698 - River Schie, outside Delft - Van Leeuwenhoek is invited to visit the Tsar Peter the Great on his boat. On this occasion van Leeuwenhoek presented the Tsar an "eel-viewer", so Peter could study blood circulation whenever he wanted

December 25, 1702 - Delft - Letter describing many protists, including this ciliate, "Vorticella"

October 26, 1723 - Delft - Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek dies, aged 90 =(END)

Copernicus | Timeline

Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance mathematician and astronomer who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe. The publication of this model in his book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) just before his death in 1543 is considered a major event in the history of science, triggering the Copernican Revolution and making an important contribution to the Scientific Revolution. (Wikipedia)

February 19, 1473 - Torun, Royal Prussia - Mikolaj Kopernik is born - Royal Prussia, Kingdom of Poland

October(?) 1(?), 1491 - Kraków - Copernicus matriculates at the University of Kraków =(START)

September(?) 1(?), 1495 - Kraków - Without taking a degree, Copernicus leaves the University of the court of his uncle, Prince-Bishop of Warmia

November(?) 1(?), 1495 - Lidzbark Warminski - The Prince-Bishop obtains a post in the Warmia Canonry to his nephew, Copernicus

June(?) 1(?), 1496 - Lidzbark Warminski - Copernicus' installation is delayed and he departs to Bologna to study

October(?) 1(?), 1496 - Bologna - Arrival in Bologna

January 6, 1497 - Bologna - Copernicus matriculates at the University of Bologna

March 9, 1497 - Bologna - Copernicus conducts a memorable observation of the occultation of Aldebaran, the brightest star in the Taurus constellation, by the moon

October 20, 1497 - Bologna - While at Bologna, Copernicus receives the News that he formelly succeded to the Canonry of Warmia which was granted to him two years earlier

April(?) 1(?), 1500 - Rome - Copernicus goes to Rome for an apprenticeship at the Papal Curia

November 6, 1500 - Rome - Copernicus observes a lunar eclipse at the Papal Curia

April(?) 1(?), 1501 - Bologna - Copernicus stops briefly at Bologna on his way to Poland

June(?) 1(?), 1501 - Lidzbark Warminski - Copernicus returns to Poland

July 28, 1501 - Lidzbark Warminski - Obtains a license to study another two years in Italy

September(?) 15(?), 1501 - Padua, Italy - Copernicus arrives in Padua.
January 10, 1503 - Padua - Copernicus adds a sinecure at the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross in Wrocław, Silesia.
May 31, 1503 - Ferrara - journeys to Ferrara where, after passing the obligatory examinations, he is granted the degree of doctor of canon law
July 1, 1503 - Padua - End of his studies in Padua
September(?) 1(?), 1503 - Lidzbark Warminski - Definitive arrival to Poland. Copernicus becomes secretary and physician of his uncle

January(?) 1(?), 1506 - Malbork - Visits the town with his uncle
January(?) 1(?), 1507 - Elblag - Visits the town with his uncle
January 24, 1507 - Kraków - Copernicus attends the Coronation of Sigismund I
January 1(?), 1510 - Poznan - Visits the town with his uncle
January(?) 1(?), 1512 - Frombork - Copernicus moves to Frombork - house outside the city walls
January 19, 1512 - Sztum - Visits the town with his uncle. They receive delegates from Danzig
April 1(?), 1512 - Frombork - Participates on the election of Fabian of Lossainen as Prince-Bishop of Warmia (after his uncle's death)
January(?) 1(?), 1514 - Frombork - Copernicus purchases the northwest tower in the Frombork Fortress
January 1, 1516 - Olsztyn - Copernicus starts residing at the Olsztyn Castle, as an economic administrator of Warmia
January 1(?), 1520 - Frombork - The fortress of Frombork is attacked by the Teutonic Knights. Copernicus' instruments are destroyed.
January 1(?), 1521 - Olsztyn - Siege of Olsztyn by the Teutonic Knights. Copernicus directs the town's defences
February 1(?), 1521 - Olsztyn - End of the siege of Olsztyn
July 1, 1537 - Frombork - Copernicus participates on the election of a succesor Prince-Bishop of Warmia
April 13, 1541 - Königsberg - Copernicus is summoned by Duke Albert to attend his counsellor George von Kunheim, who had fallen gravely ill.
May 3, 1541 - Königsberg - Copernicus departs to Frombork
June 1, 1541 - Frombork - Returns to Frombork
May 24, 1543 - Frombork - Mikolaj Kopernik dies, aged 70 =(END)