1637 - René Descartes quantitatively derives the angles at which primary and secondary rainbows are seen with respect to the angle of the Sun's elevation,
1833 - Heinrich Lenz[?] states that an induced current in a closed conducting loop will appear in such a direction that it opposes the change that produced it (Lenz's law),
1845 - Michael Faraday discovers that light propagation in a material can be influenced by external magnetic fields,
... choreographer (+ 1983)
January 26 - Ancel Keys, scientist
February 1 - S. J. Perelman[?], humorist, author
February 4 - MacKinlay Kantor[?], historian (+ 1977)
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