Christiaan Huygens

Christiaan Huygens, Lord of Zeelhem, was a Dutch mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor who is regarded as a key figure in the Scientific Revolution. In physics, Huygens made seminal contributions to optics and mechanics, while as an astronomer he studied the rings of Saturn and discovered its largest moon, Titan. As an engineer and inventor, he improved the design of telescopes and invented the pendulum clock, the most accurate timekeeper for almost 300 years. A talented mathematician and physicist, his works contain the first idealization of a physical problem by a set of mathematical parameters, and the first mathematical and mechanistic explanation of an unobservable physical phenomenon.

14 April 1629

Born on the same birth day (14 April): Abraham Ortelius • Barthélemy Catherine Joubert • Blake Costanzo • Chase Young • Joseph de Villèle • Marie-Thérèse Fortin • Martin Kaalma • Nate Fox • Peter Capaldi • Roberto Ayala • Shizuka Kudo • Tuilaʻepa Saʻilele Malielegaoi • V. Gordon Childe • Valerie Hobson

Born in the same month (April 1629): Jean-Henri d'Anglebert