On this day in mathematics and science.
1. Roger Cotes was elected first Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at Cambridge at age 26. He is best known for his meticulous and creative editing of the second edition (1713) of Newton's Principia. He was also an important developer of integral calculus.
2. Gauss recorded in his diary that he had discovered a new proof of the Pythagorean Theorem.
3. William Rowan Hamilton discovered quaternions while walking along the Royal Canal in Dublin and immediately scratched the multiplication formulas on the side of the Brougham Bridge with his knife. A memorial plaque of that event is still at the bridge.
Via: Mathematical Association of America
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