Newton made his greatest discoveries during a plague lockdown.

1665 · 1666 · apart: 1 year

When the plague of 1665 closed Cambridge, he went home to his village and worked on calculus, optics and gravity.

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The event

• 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.

17th century

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