Isaac Newton's "Year of Wonders" 1665-1666

  

Isolated during the Great Plague of London, Newton engaged in groundbreaking discoveries marked as his Year of Wonders.

The Great Plague of 1665-6 was the last major plague in England. The outbreak began in London in February 1665. Within seven months 100,000 Londoners (20% or one-fifth of the population) were dead. Many fled the capital to escape the disease. Victims were shut in their homes and a red cross was painted on the door with the words ‘Lord have mercy upon us’. Theatres and other public entertainments such as football were banned to stop the disease spreading.

Isaac Newton, a student at Trinity College, Cambridge retreated to his family's country home, Woolsthorpe in Lincolnshire and remained there for two years. Whilst escaping the Great Plague, Newton’s enormously productive time at Woolsthorpe is often called the Annus Mirabilis, or the “Year of Wonders’.

Freed from the restrictions of the limited curriculum and rigours of university life, Newton had the time and space to develop his theories on calculus, optics and the laws of motion and gravity.

Is this your Annus Mirabilis? What can you achieve in these times of isolation? 

Brewster, David, Sir. (1835). The life of Sir Isaac Newton  [online image]. Internet Archive. URL (https://archive.org/details/56010330R.nlm.nih.gov/mode/2up)