Giovanni Battista Riccioli

Giovanni Battista Riccioli, SJ was an Italian astronomer and a Catholic priest in the Jesuit order. He is known, among other things, for his experiments with pendulums and with falling bodies, for his discussion of 126 arguments concerning the motion of the Earth, and for introducing the current scheme of lunar nomenclature. He is also widely known for discovering the first double star. He argued that the rotation of the Earth should reveal itself because on a rotating Earth, the ground moves at different speeds at different times.

17 April 1598

Born on the same birth day (17 April): Aleksander Tõnisson • Arkan • Barnaby Joyce • Billy Fury • Collin McKinney • Jonathan Brown (Welsh footballer) • Lela Rochon • Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria • Mike Stroud (physician) • Nick Hornby • Roberto Jiménez (footballer, born 1983) • Ronald H. Miller

Born in the same month (April 1598): Johann Crüger • Maarten Tromp