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On This Day

  • 6-13-1676

    Newton corresponded with Leibniz, sending Henry Oldenburg the "Epistola prior" for transmission to Leibniz. It contained the first statement of the binomial theorem for negative and fractional exponents, among other things.

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    Isaac Newton
    Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
    Binomial Theorem

  • 6-13-1865

    Sir William Rowan Hamilton became the first Foreign Associate of U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Only three months before his death, Hamilton received a letter from the American astronomer, Benjamin Gould, informing him that the newly created NAS had elected him first on its list of Foreign Associates, thereby signifying that the Academy considered him the greatest living scientist.

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    William Rowan Hamilton
    Benjamin Gould

  • 6-13-1878

    Thomas Craig received his Ph.D. under the direction of J. J. Sylvester at Johns Hopkins University for a dissertation on "The representation of one surface upon another; and on some points in the theory of the curvature of surfaces." He was one of the four to receive his degree on this day (the philosopher Josiah Royce was another). These were the first Ph.D.s granted by JHU, a university founded in 1876 in Baltimore, Maryland, to advance graduate education.

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    Thomas Craig
    J.J. Sylvester
    Josiah Royce
    Curvature