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On This Day

  • 12-4-1409

    The University of Leipzig established in Saxony, Germany, with many of its original faculty coming from the University of Prague. It is the second oldest university in Germany after the University of Heidelberg.

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    University of Leipzig

  • 12-4-1574

    Georg Joachim Rheticus died in Kassa, Hungary. He is famous for publishing Copernicus's work, including De revolutionibus, and extensive trigonometric tables.

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    Georg Joachim Rheticus

  • 12-4-1679

    Philosopher Thomas Hobbes died, thus ending his 25 year feud with John Wallis over Hobbes's attempt to square the circle in 1655. It began when Hobbes called Wallis's Arithmetica Infinitorum a "scab of symbols."

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    Thomas Hobbes
    John Wallis
    Quadrature of the Circle