Johannes Kepler (27 Dec 1571 – 15 Nov 16)

Two events that took place during Kepler’s lifetime:

1) 1571 – Battle of Lepanto, in which the Holy League defeated the Ottoman navy.

2) 1618 – The Thirty Years War begins in Europe.

Kepler’s contributions

Kepler’s chief and most well-known contribution were the three laws of planetary motion, also referred to as Kepler’s Laws.

Kepler also produced some of the first reliable estimates of the distances between the earth and the Sun.  

His other major contribution was the telescopic discovery of moons around Jupiter with the telescope he invented himself.

My personal reflections:

I found it interesting because in the past I learned the history separately. My teacher or the textbook often categorizes historical events with respect to their geological location, not the time they took place. So, it is interesting to realize that these things happened at a close period. And it is astonishing that in the same era, some countries are having fights, and some countries are living in peace. And to be honest, my history grade was not high back in high school, so I just realized how early astronomers calculated the distances in our solar system, though not that accurately.