 | ||
Einstein s annus mirabilis 1905 professor raymond flood
Annus mirabilis is a Latin phrase that means "wonderful year", "miraculous year" or "amazing year". This term was originally used to refer to the year 1666, and today is used to refer to several years during which events of major importance are remembered. Prior to this, however, Thomas Dekker used the phrase mirabilis annus in his 1603 pamphlet The Wonderful Year, "Wherein is shewed the picture of London lying sick of the plague."
Contents
Annus mirabilis by philip larkin read by philip larkin
1492 – Catholic Monarchs
The Catholic Monarchs (Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon) built in 1492 the most powerful monarchy in the Western World by the conquest of Granada (January 2) and (though this wonder began to manifest only upon the return of Columbus the next year) discovery of America (October 12). On March 31 they expelled the Jews from Spain. 1492 is also the year of construction of the first grammar of a modern language: Gramática de la lengua castellana; the author, Antonio de Nebrija (a prominent counselor of the Monarchs) said in it, comparing Spanish with Latin: siempre la lengua fue compañera del imperio ("language was always the companion of empire").
In the history of the Hispanic monarchy there were arguably other anni mirabiles. John H. Elliott proposes 1625, in the middle of the Thirty Years War.
1543 – The year of science
The beginning of the Scientific Revolution when
John Dryden's poem
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known written usage of the Latin phrase "Annus Mirabilis" is as the title of a poem composed by English poet John Dryden about the events of 1666. The phrase "annus mirabilis" translates as "wonderful year" or "year of miracles". In fact, the year was beset by great calamity for England (including the Great Fire of London), but Dryden chose to interpret the absence of greater disaster as miraculous intervention by God, as "666" was then regarded as the Number of the Beast, and the year 1666 expected by some to be particularly disastrous.
In addition to this, the English fleet defeated a Dutch fleet in the St James' Day Battle, for a great victory at sea. (However, in 1667 the Dutch burned several major warships of the English fleet in the raid on the Medway and Charles II was forced to sue for peace.)
Isaac Newton
In the year 1666, Isaac Newton made revolutionary inventions and discoveries in calculus, motion, optics and gravitation. As such, it has later been called Isaac Newton's "Annus Mirabilis." It was in this year that Isaac Newton was alleged to have observed an apple falling from a tree, and in which he in any case hit upon the law of universal gravitation (Newton's apple). He was afforded the time to work on his theories due to the closure of Cambridge University by an outbreak of plague.
1759 – William Pitt
A series of victories by the British military in 1759 in North America, Europe, India, and in various naval engagements, is occasionally referred to as William Pitt's annus mirabilis, and was the decisive year of the Seven Years' War.
1776 – The Liberty year
For this year the term annus mirabilis is often used. David Hume died in August, but could experience The Wealth of Nations from Adam Smith and the Declaration of Independence by the later United States. Already on January 10 the famous pamphlet Common Sense, written by Thomas Paine, was published anonymously and became an immediate sensation.
1905 – Albert Einstein
The year 1905 has often been linked to the term annus mirabilis, as it was in this year that Albert Einstein made important discoveries concerning the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion and the special theory of relativity which included the famous E = mc2 equation. His articles, collectively known as his Annus Mirabilis papers, were published in Annalen der Physik, all in 1905.
Other
This phrase has since been used to refer to other years. The examples here are primarily from the English-speaking world.