PreviousDays✦THE WIKI
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1500–1799

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MOMENTS FROM THIS ERA

Meet the moments.

5 illustrated stories · growing daily
Workers uncover a large circular carved basalt monument during improvements to colonial Mexico City’s main square.Science & discoveries

Rediscovery of the Mexica Sun Stone in Mexico City

Found on December 17, 1790, the Sun Stone became a major subject of Mexican archaeological study. Its calendar signs belong to a wider vision of creation, solar movement and successive cosmic ages.

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An eighteenth-century observer uses a wooden reflecting telescope in a lantern-lit garden in Bath.Science & discoveries

William Herschel’s observation of Uranus on 13 March 1781

On 13 March 1781, William Herschel noticed an object that looked different from nearby stars. Its eventual identification as Uranus extended the known planetary system beyond Saturn and showed how observation and interpretation can unfold at different times.

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A seventeenth-century Dutch observer holds a small brass microscope close to his eye beside a vial of pepper-infused water.Science & discoveries

Leeuwenhoek’s 1676 letter on microscopic life in water

On 9 October 1676, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek dated a detailed letter describing living organisms in water and spice infusions, bringing an unseen world into scientific correspondence.

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Galileo looks through a long, narrow telescope beside an open window above Padua's rooftops.Science & discoveries

Galileo's first observations of lights beside Jupiter

On 7 January 1610, Galileo recorded three small lights near Jupiter and initially interpreted them as stars. Repeated observations revealed a system of orbiting moons, challenging the assumption that every celestial body revolved around Earth.

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A spectacle maker examines two lenses at a workbench beside an early spyglass and plain spectacles.Science & discoveries

Hans Lippershey applies to patent an early telescope

On 2 October 1608, Hans Lippershey sought a Dutch patent for an instrument that made distant objects appear nearby. The application anchors the early history of the telescope in a document, while leaving broader questions of invention open.

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