Newton Describes Gravity at Woolsthorpe
1666
According to Newton's own later account, he sat in his mother's garden at Woolsthorpe that summer, watched an apple fall, and wondered whether the same force that pulled the apple to the ground might extend to the moon. The story is probably true in outline, if not in apples, and the insight it represents would eventually unify terrestrial and celestial mechanics.
In context
Also in 1666 (3 other events on record)
- Great Fire of London · Europe · Politics
- Sabbatai Zevi Converts to Islam · Middle East · Religion
- Academy of Sciences Founded in Paris · Europe · Science
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Science
Era
Enlightenment (1651–1800), one of 696 events from that era on Saeculum.