''Annus mirabilis'' (pl. ''anni mirabiles'') is a
Latin phrase that means "marvelous year", "wonderful year", "miraculous year", or "amazing year". This term has been used to refer to several years during which events of major importance are remembered, notably Isaac Newton's discoveries in 1666.
1345-1346 — Edward III
Eight years after the start of the
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of England and France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French throne between the English House of Planta ...
large-scale fighting had died down.
Edward III of England decided to renew the war more vigorously in 1345. He despatched a small force to
Gascony in south-west France under
Henry, Earl of Derby and personally led the main English army to northern France. Edward delayed the disembarkation of his army and his fleet was scattered by a storm, rendering this offensive ineffective. Derby was spectacularly successful, winning victories at
Bergerac and
Auberoche. The following spring a large French army, led by the heir to the French throne,
John, Duke of Normandy,
counter-attacked Derby's forces.
Edward responded by landing an army of 10,000 men in northern
Normandy. The English devastated much of Normandy and
stormed and sacked Caen, slaughtering the population. They cut a swath along the left bank of the
Seine to within of Paris. The English army then turned north and inflicted a heavy defeat on a French army led by their king,
Philip VI, at the
Battle of Crécy
The Battle of Crécy took place on 26 August 1346 in northern France between a French army commanded by King PhilipVI and an English army led by King EdwardIII. The French attacked the English while they were traversing northern France du ...
on 26 August 1346. They promptly exploited this by laying
siege to Calais. The period from Derby's victory outside Bergerac in late August 1345 to the start of the siege of Calais on 4 September 1346 became known as Edward III's .
1492 — Catholic Monarchs
The
Catholic Monarchs
The Catholic Monarchs were Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, whose marriage and joint rule marked the ''de facto'' unification of Spain. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being b ...
(
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
The Granada War ( es, Guerra de Granada) was a series of military campaigns between 1482 and 1491 during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, against the Nasrid dynasty's Emirate of Granada. It e ...
, the final step of the
Reconquista, on January 2, and, though this wonder began to manifest only upon the return of Columbus the next year, the
discovery of the Americas
The prehistory of the Americas (North America, North, South America, South, and Central America, and the Caribbean) begins with people migrating to these areas from Asia during the height of an ice age. These groups are generally believed to have ...
on October 12. 1492 is also the year of construction of the first
grammar of a modern language: ''
Gramática de la lengua castellana
() is a book written by Antonio de Nebrija and published in 1492. It was the first work dedicated to the Spanish language and its rules, and the first grammar of a modern European language to be published. When it was presented to Isabella o ...
''; the author,
Antonio de Nebrija
Antonio de Nebrija (14445 July 1522) was the most influential Spanish humanist of his era. He wrote poetry, commented on literary works, and encouraged the study of classical languages and literature, but his most important contributions were i ...
(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").
1543 — The year of science
The beginning of the
Scientific Revolution
The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human anatomy) and chemistry transforme ...
when:
*
Andreas Vesalius
Andreas Vesalius (Latinized from Andries van Wezel) () was a 16th-century anatomist, physician, and author of one of the most influential books on human anatomy, '' De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem'' (''On the fabric of the human body'' ...
published ''
De humani corporis fabrica
''De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem'' (Latin, lit. "On the fabric of the human body in seven books") is a set of books on human anatomy written by Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564) and published in 1543. It was a major advance in the history ...
'' (''On the Fabric of the Human Body'') in
Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS), ...
, which revolutionised the science of human
anatomy
Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...
and the practice of medicine.
*
Nicolaus Copernicus published ''
De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
''De revolutionibus orbium coelestium'' (English translation: ''On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres'') is the seminal work on the heliocentric theory of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) of the Polish Renaissance. The book, ...
'' (''On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres'') in
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
, Germany.
1625 — Spanish Monarchy
A series of Spanish military victories on a global strategic scale obtained in 1625 during the
Thirty Years' War, in important military theaters in Europe and America. These military victories were as follows:
Siege of Breda,
Relief of Genoa,
Recapture of Bahia
The recapture of Salvador ( es, Jornada del Brasil; pt, Jornada dos Vassalos) was a Spanish–Portuguese military expedition in 1625 to retake the city of Salvador, Bahia, Salvador in Brazil from the forces of the Dutch West India Company (WIC) ...
,
Battle of San Juan and
Defense of Cádiz. Those military actions were immortalized in a series of paintings in the
Hall of Realms of the
Buen Retiro Palace
Buen Retiro Palace (Spanish: ''Palacio del Buen Retiro'') in Madrid was a large palace complex designed by the architect Alonso Carbonell (c. 1590–1660) and built on the orders of Philip IV of Spain as a secondary residence and place of recre ...
in Madrid. Thus, the “reputational” policy promoted by the
Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares
Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel, 1st Duke of Sanlúcar, 3rd Count of Olivares, GE, known as the Count-Duke of Olivares (taken by joining both his countship and subsequent dukedom) (6 January 1587 – 22 July 1645), was a Spanish royal favourit ...
,
favourite of
Philip IV of Spain, was apparently confirmed by the initial success, and it was in reference to this ''annus mirabilis'' for Spanish arms that Olivares delivered probably his most famous pronouncement: "God is Spanish and fights for Spain."
1644-1645 — Montrose
The military successes of
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose (1612 – 21 May 1650) was a Scottish nobleman, poet and soldier, lord lieutenant and later viceroy and captain general of Scotland. Montrose initially joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three ...
in Scotland in the
War of the Three Kingdoms during 1644–1645 are sometimes called "annus mirabilis".
1666 — The year of wonders
In 1666,
Isaac Newton, aged 23, made revolutionary inventions and discoveries in
calculus
Calculus, originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the calculus of infinitesimals", is the mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithm ...
,
motion,
optics and
gravitation. It was in this year that 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 law of universal gravitation is usually stated as that every particle attracts every other particle in the universe with a force that is proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distanc ...
(
Newton's apple
''Newton's Apple'' is an American educational television program produced and developed by KTCA of Minneapolis–Saint Paul, and distributed to PBS stations in the United States that ran from October 15, 1983, to January 3, 1998, with reruns con ...
). He was afforded the time to work on his theories due to the closure of Cambridge University by an outbreak of
plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pes ...
.
1706 — Grand Alliance
In 1706, the
Grand Alliance arrayed against
Louis XIV of France won resounding victories (the
Battle of Ramillies
The Battle of Ramillies (), fought on 23 May 1706, was a battle of the War of the Spanish Succession. For the Grand Alliance – Austria, England, and the Dutch Republic – the battle had followed an indecisive campaign against the Bourbon a ...
and
Siege of Turin
The siege of Turin took place from June to September 1706, during the War of the Spanish Succession, when a French army led by Louis de la Feuillade besieged the Savoyard capital of Turin. The campaign by Prince Eugene of Savoy that led to ...
) which, after the previous year's failures, has been termed by James Falkner a "Year of Miracles."
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.
1905 — Albert Einstein
It was in this year that
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
, aged 26, published important discoveries concerning the
photoelectric effect
The photoelectric effect is the emission of electrons when electromagnetic radiation, such as light, hits a material. Electrons emitted in this manner are called photoelectrons. The phenomenon is studied in condensed matter physics, and solid sta ...
,
Brownian motion
Brownian motion, or pedesis (from grc, πήδησις "leaping"), is the random motion of particles suspended in a medium (a liquid or a gas).
This pattern of motion typically consists of random fluctuations in a particle's position ins ...
, the
special theory of relativity
In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory regarding the relationship between space and time. In Albert Einstein's original treatment, the theory is based on two postulates:
# The law ...
, and the famous
E = mc2 equation. His four articles, collectively known as his ''Annus Mirabilis'' papers, were published in ''
Annalen der Physik
''Annalen der Physik'' (English: ''Annals of Physics'') is one of the oldest scientific journals on physics; it has been published since 1799. The journal publishes original, peer-reviewed papers on experimental, theoretical, applied, and mathema ...
'' in 1905.
See also
*
Annus mirabilis (Norway)
*
''Annus Mirabilis'' (poem)
* ''
Annus horribilis
(pl. ''anni horribiles'') is a Latin phrase, meaning "horrible year". It is complementary to , which means "wonderful year".
Origin of phrase
The phrase was used in 1891 in an Anglican publication to describe 1870, the year in which the dogma ...
''
*
List of Latin phrases
Notes
Bibliography
* Blanning, T.C.W.''The Culture of Power the Power of Culture: Old Regime Europe 1660–1789''. Oxford University Press, 2002.
*
*
*
*
Monod, Paul Kléber. ''Imperial Island: A History of Britain and Its Empire, 1660–1837''. Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Annus Mirabilis
Latin words and phrases
Physics papers