Search Results: Gdansk

Johannes Hevelius (1611-1687) was a Polish astronomer based in Danzig (Gdańsk). He worked from his own privately funded observatory, creating maps of the Moon's surface, discovering the first variable star, and spotting several new comets...

A 1677 portrait by Daniel Schultz of Johannes Hevelius (1611-1687), the Polish astronomer. (Library of Polish Academy of Sciences, Gdańsk)

An 1870 oil-on-canvas painting by Wilhelm August Stryowski showing Rudolf Freitag sculpting a bust of the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius (1611-1687). (National Museum, Gdańsk)

The Visigoths were the western tribe of the Goths (a Germanic people) who settled west of the Black Sea sometime in the 3rd century CE. According to the scholar Herwig Wolfram, the Roman writer Cassiodorus (c. 485-585 CE) coined the term...

The Goths were a Germanic tribe who are frequently referenced for their part in the fall of the Roman Empire and their subsequent rise to power in the region of northern Europe, initially in Italy. Prior to their contact with Rome they must...

The Scientific Revolution (1500-1700), which occurred first in Europe before spreading worldwide, witnessed a new approach to knowledge gathering – the scientific method – which utilised new technologies like the telescope to observe, measure...

The Ostrogoths were the eastern tribe of the Goths (a Germanic people) who rose in power in the area north of the Black Sea. The designation, Ostrogoth, taken to mean 'Eastern Goth', actually means 'Goths glorified by the rising sun' and...

Edmond Halley (1656-1742) was an English astronomer, mathematician, and cartographer. Halley's Comet is named after him since he accurately predicted its return in 1758. One of the early globetrotting scientists, Halley led several maritime...

The War of the Fourth Coalition (October 1806 to June 1807) was a major conflict during the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). The Fourth Coalition consisted of Russia, Prussia, Saxony, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, against the First French Empire...

The Treaties of Tilsit were two peace treaties signed in July 1807 by Emperor Napoleon I of France (r. 1804-1814; 1815) and the monarchs of Russia and Prussia in the aftermath of the Battle of Friedland. The treaties ended the War of the...