Linnaeus – a tidiness freak
I don’t know if Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus had obsessive-compusive disorder but he certainly knew how to keep things well-organised and super tidy. Today in 1753 he published Species Plantarum which marked the birth of plant taxonomy, a boring name for a brilliant way of organising plantlife, always using two Latin names (for the genus and the species, like Homo Sapiens). Brainboxes and scientists refer to this as binomial nomenclature And now you’ve read this, you can too!
Remember Captain Fitzroy
Dear Robert Fitzroy….think of him today on the anniversary of his suicide in 1865. He took HMS Beagle on its famous journey with Charles Darwin onboard as a gentleman companion for the voyage. He was a pioneer of weather forecasting – sounds boring but it was actually ground-breaking at that time. The Royal Navy made him a Vice-Admiral but he suffered from depression and this led him to kill himself at only 59. An undeserved ending of a meaningful life. Read This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson, one of the best books I’ve ever read. Full stop.
Naming the Pacific
Spare a thought for the brilliant and tenacious navigator, Ferdinand Magellan! He gave the Pacific Ocean its name which means peaceful. It was! Compared to the big seas he’d sailed through. He died today in 1521 in the Philippines, a long way from his home in Portugal. But his ship and crew finished the journey he started, and became the first people ever to sail all the way around the world. They almost starved to death on the way. Check out his life story and then grab a colouring page!
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