Life & Times

1625

Charles I 1625 to 1649

1627

Robert Boyle born 25th January

1632

Christopher Wren born 20th October

1635

Born 18th July in Freshwater, Isle of Wight

1638

Nov 24, A 2nd predicted transit of Venus occurred. Jeremiah Horrocks of England predicted and observed the event with his friend William Crabtree

1642

Civil War 1642 - 1651

King Charles I and his family fled London for Oxford.

Aug 22, Civil war in England began as Charles I declared war on the Puritan Parliament at Nottingham

Aug 13, Christian Huygens discovered the Martian south polar cap

Jan 8, Astronomer Galileo Galilei (77) died in Arcetri, Italy

Dec 25, (OS) Isaac Newton (d.1727), English physicist, mathematician and scientist, was born in Woolsthorpe

1643

Jul 27, Cromwell defeated the Royalists at the Battle of Gainsborough.

1644

Jul 2, Lord Cromwell crushed the Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor near York, England

1646

Charles I surrenders to the Scots at Newark

1647

1648

Charles I arrives on the Isle of Wight

Oxford surrenders

Father dies October. Robert moves to London to study under Peter Lely the renowned portrait painter but this does not suit him. He also had some instruction in drawing from Samuel Cowper. Enters Westminster School

1649

Jan 30, King Charles I of England, who ruled from 1625-1649, was beheaded for treason at Banqueting House, Whitehall, by the hangman Richard Brandon

Council of State 1649 to 1653

Enters Westminster School and the house of the famous Dr. Busby. He learnt to play the organ. He mastered six books of Euclid in a week

1653

Establishment of the Protectorate

Apr 20, Oliver Cromwell dissolved the English parliament

Apr 12, England, Ireland and Scotland united.

He takes up a poor scholar’s choristers place at Christ Church Oxford and becomes a friend of Christopher Wren who had entered Wadham College three years earlier and was also from Westminster School

1655

Mar 25, Christiaan Huygens, Dutch inventor and astronomer, discovered Titan, Saturn's largest satellite.

Studies Astronomy with Seth Ward and assists Thomas Willis in Chemistry

1656

Christiaan Huygens interpreted Saturn’s “ears” as a simple flat ring

Christian Huygens invented the first pendulum clock, as described in his 1658 article "Horologium". It was built by Solomon Coste

Chris Huygens' pendulum clock was regulated by a mechanism with a "natural" period of oscillation and had an error of less than 1 minute a day

Starts assisting Robert Boyle having been recommended by Willis

1658

Richard Cromwell

Contrived and perfected a working air pump for Robert Boyle and conducted experiments on combustion with Robert Boyle. Describes the balance spring applied to a circular pendulum for pocket watches

1659

Christien Huygens of Holland used a 2-inch telescope lens and discovered that the Martian day is nearly the same as an Earth day

The British Parliament invoked law that made it a crime, punishable by burning at the stake, to forecast the weather.

1660

Restoration of Charles II

Foundation of The Royal Society

September 25 – Samuel Pepys has his first cup of tea

1661

Apr 23rd - English king Charles II crowned in London

Jan 30th - Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England is ritually executed after having been dead for two years

May 3rd - Johannes Hevelius observes 3rd transit of Mercury ever to be seen

Jun 5th - Isaac Newton admitted as a student to Trinity College, Cambridge

Jun 23rd - Marriage contract for Charles II of England & Catharina of Portugal

Moves to London with Robert Boyle. Publishes a pamphlet on capillary attraction presented on 10th April

1662

Oct 17th - Charles II of Great Britain sells Dunkirk to France for 2.5 million livres (£320,000 )

Feb 13th - Elisabeth Stuart, of James I of Scotland and England, dies at 65

The Royal Society 1st Charter 15th July

Sep 12th - John Flamsteed sees partial solar eclipse, stirs his interest in astronomy

Appointed Curator of Experiments at The Royal Society on 12th November. Conducted experiments on “weight” at the top of Westminster Abbey

1663

The Royal Society 2nd Charter 23rd April

Nominated for MA at Oxford. Elected to Fellow of The Royal Society on 3rd June

1664

Observed and recorded spot on Jupiter moving from east to west by about half a diameter in two hours on the evening of 9th May. Discovers 5th star in Orion. Proposed that the freezing point of water be zero on the thermometric scale.

1665

Jan 26th - France declares war on England & Munster

Aug 4th - Sea battle between Netherlands & England

Aug 5th - English fleet beats Dutch under Michiel de Ruyter

Aug 9th - Rear Admiral Robert Holmes leads a raid on the Dutch island of Terschelling, destroying 150 merchant ships in the Vlie estuary, and pillaging the town of West-Terschelling, an act later known as "Holmes's Bonfire".

Great plague of London

Nov 14th - Samuel Pepys reports on 1st blood transfusion (between dogs)

His post as Curator of Experiments at The Royal Society made permanent together with rooms at Gresham College in Bishopsgate Street London. Nominated Professor of Geometry at Gresham College. His mother Cecellie dies at Newport on the Isle of Wight. Publishes Micrographia. Demonstrates his spring balance pocket watch to The Royal society. Hooke and Wren study two comets.

1666

Sept 2nd - Great Fire of London begins at 2.00 am in Pudding Lane, 80% of London is destroyed.     Sept 5th - Great Fire of  London ends leaving 13,200 houses destroyed and eight dead.

Presents a paper on planetary motion. Publishes Cometa.

1667

Presents a lecture on earthquakes. Develops his ideas on fossils and the changing shape of the earth. Appointed a City Surveyor for the rebuilding of London in partnership with Christopher Wren after the “Great Fire”.

1668

Jul 7th - Isaac Newton receives MA from Trinity College, Cambridge

1669

31 May - Citing poor eyesight, Samuel Pepys records the last entry in his diary

29 October - Isaac Newton appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge

Robert Boyle discovers the chemical element now known as phosphorus.[2]

Christopher Wren appointed Surveyor of the King's Works.

Attempts to measure the parallax of a fixed star

1670

Appointed Assistant to Christopher Wren for the rebuilding of 51 London churches

1671

Presents a paper to The Royal Society on the Motion of the Earth

1672

Publishes a paper on the diffraction of light

1673

Produces an “Arithmetric Machine” better than Leibniz’s

1674

Publishes “An Attempt to Prove the Motion of the Earth from Observations”, he had previously read a paper on this subject to the Royal Society in 1671. Publishes “Animadversions” which criticises Helevius but also contains a clear description of Hooke 's Universal Joint. Designs a clock driven telescope and a gear wheel cutting engine. Architect for the design and construction of The Bethlehem Hospital (Bedlam). Sets out the theory of the Arch. Building of St. Paul's Cathedral with Christopher Wren.

1675

Publishes “Descriptions of Helioscope

”. Constructs the first Gregorian telescope. Architect for Montague House. Had some input with the building of The Greenwich Observatory

1677

Hooke takes over as Secretary to The Royal Society on the death of Oldenberg. Designed The Monument to The Great Fire of London. His elder brother commits suicide

1678

Presented “Lectures de Potentia Restitutiva” giving the first statement of Hooke’s Law as applied to springs, elasticity and kinetic theory of gases. Observed that a falling barometer was an indicator of bad weather. Artichitect for The Royal College of Physicians.

1679

Wrote to Isaac Newton suggesting an inverse Square Law for Planetary Motion.

1680

Christopher Wren Appointed President of The Royal Society

1682

Hooke steps down as Secretary to The Royal Society in November and is replaced by Richard Waller.

1685

James II

1687

Hooke’s niece and housekeeper dies

1689

William III

Mary II of Scotland

1691

Robert Boyle dies 30th December

Created Doctor of Physic

1696

Hooke’s heath failing

1702

Anne

Hooke becomes blind and bedridden

1703

Isaac Newton appointed President of The Royal Society until his death

Hooke dies on 3rd March in his rooms at Gresham College. He was buried at St. Helen’s Bishopsgate, London.

1704

1714

George II

1723

Christopher Wren dies 25th February