Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day, 1642, ¹ which makes today Newtonmas. Go eat an apple and rejoice. ²
- Yes, I know that Wikipedia says he was born on January 4th, but you have to see it in the proper historical context: up until 1752, England was using the Julian calender, which was ten days behind on the Georgian calender when Newton was born. ³
- Or celebrate it in any other way you see fit. It’s not like there is a canonical way for this not all too popular feast anyway.
- And while we’re one it: yes, I’ve noticed that the footnotes are longer than the whole post.
Photo credit: The law of universal gravitation by Doblonaut