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On This Day

  • 5-31-1503

    Copernicus received his doctoral degree in canon law from the University of Ferrara, Italy.

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    Nicolaus Copernicus

  • 5-31-1813

    Louis Poinsot, inventor of geometrical mechanics, elected to the mathematics section of the French Academie des Sciences, replacing Lagrange.

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    Louis Poinsot
    Joseph-Louis Lagrange

  • 5-31-1832

    Galois died of peritonitis from a gunshot wound received during a duel the previous day.

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    Evariste Galois

  • 5-31-1926

    John Kemeny born in Budapest, Hungary. A mathematician and philosopher, he (with Tom Kurtz) invented the BASIC computer programming language and computer time-sharing and (with Laurie Snell) introduced Markov chains and other probabilistic ideas to general education students.

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    John Kemeny