Michele Mercati

Michele Mercati was a physician who was superintendent of the Vatican Botanical Garden under Popes Pius V, Gregory XIII, Sixtus V, and Clement VIII. He was one of the first scholars to recognise prehistoric stone tools as human-made rather than natural or mythologically created thunderstones.

8 April 1541

Born on the same birth day (8 April): Allen Butler Talcott • Brian McDermott (footballer) • Carlos Deltour • Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma • Carmen McRae • Cedi Osman • James Lockhart (historian) • John Arbuthnott (microbiologist) • Khaled Badra • Kisho Kurokawa • Manuel Díaz (fencer) • Michael Jones (rugby union) • Paddy Lowe • Pascal Lamy • Roquan Smith • Taylor Kitsch • Viktória Forster