Pierre-Simon Laplace

Born on 23 March 1749, Pierre Simon Laplace was a renowned French mathematician, astronomer, and physicist. At age 19 Laplace left his studies at the University of Caen to become a professor of mathematics at the École Militaire in Paris. There Laplace embarked on an ambitious program of original research. Between 1770 and his election to the French Academy of Sciences in 1773, he submitted 13 papers to the academy, on such subjects as integral calculus, mechanics, and physical astronomy. His in-depth study of the motions of the planets and the stability of the solar system formed the basis of his seminal work, the five-volume Traité de Mécanique Céleste (Celestial mechanics; 1799–1825). Because of the social and political upheaval brought on by the French Revolution, which began in 1789, Laplace left Paris with his wife and children. Unlike many of his colleagues, such as Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier, Laplace managed to avoid being guillotined during the Reign of Terror. In 1795 the academy was reopened, and Laplace helped found the Bureau des Longitudes. Meanwhile, he continued his research and made important contributions to probability and statistics with the 1812 publication of Théorie Analytique des Probabilités. Laplace continued to produce papers well into his 70s before dying at age 77 in 1827. (Photo credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Brittle Books Collection)

Date in History: 23 March 1749