Blackbeard and Isaac Newton were contemporaries.
When the pirate was killed off North Carolina in 1718, Newton was running the Royal Mint and the Royal Society — and had more than eight years still to live.
The events
- Blackbeard blockades Charleston1718 · Charleston. In May 1718 Edward Teach, known as Blackbeard, blockaded the port of Charleston for about a week, seizing ships and hostages. For ransom he demanded not gold but a chest of medicines — and got it. Six months later he was killed in a fight off Ocracoke Island.
- Newton's Principia1687 · London. Isaac Newton published the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, setting out his three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation. One mechanics for heaven and Earth became the foundation of classical physics.
More amazing facts
- 1716 · 1718 History's most famous pirate was a pirate for only about two years.
- 1717 George I liked Handel's Water Music so much he had it played three times in a row. In July 1717 some 50 musicians performed it on a barge following the king along the Thames.
- 1718 Blackbeard held the people of a whole city hostage — and asked for a chest of medicine.
- 1720 Pirates had their own injury insurance.
- 1720 Two women pirates escaped the gallows because they were pregnant.
- 1720 Isaac Newton lost a fortune in a stock bubble.