Events
2003 - The Spirit Rover is launched, beginning NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover mission.
Births
1706 - John Dollond, English optician
1710 - James Short, Scottish mathematician
1803 - Henry Darcy, French scientist
1804 - Hermann Schlegel, German ornithologist
1861 - Pierre Duhem, French physicist
1929 - E. O. Wilson, American biologist (above)
Deaths
1836 - André-Marie Ampère, French physicist
1944 - Willem Jacob van Stockum, Dutch physicist