François Arago
1786 – 1853 · aged 67
French mathematician, physicist, astronomer and politician (1786-1853)
- Born
- 26 Feb 1786 · Estagel
- Died
- 2 Oct 1853 · Paris
Life timeline
Their life from birth to death. On the timeline, world events of the time are shown faintly.
- 26 Feb 1786BornBorn in Estagel
- 1815AwardHonorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
- 1818AwardForeign Member of the Royal Society
- 1818AwardKnight of the Legion of Honour
- 1824RolePresident of the French Academy of Sciences
- 1825AwardOfficer of the Legion of Honour
- 1825AwardCopley Medal
- 1831 – 1848RoleMember of the Chambre des députés des départements
- 1832AwardFellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 1834AwardCitizen of Edinburgh
- 1837AwardCommander of the Legion of Honour
- 1839AwardHonorary member of the Physics Association (Frankfurt am Main, Germany)
- 1840 – 1844RolePresident of the Société des gens de lettres
- 1841AwardOfficer of the Order of Leopold
- 1842AwardPour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts order
- 1848RoleMinister of War
- 1848 – 1851RoleMember of the French National Assembly
- 1848RoleHead of government of France
- 1849AwardGrand Officer of the Legion of Honour
- 2 Oct 1853DiedDied in Paris
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Meanwhile in the world
Major world events during their lifetime (1786 – 1853).
- 1789 – 1799French Revolution
- 1812 – 1815War of 1812
- 1814 – 1815Congress of Vienna
- 1853 – 1856Crimean War
Biography
Dominique François Jean Arago (Catalan: Domènec Francesc Joan Aragó), known simply as François Arago (French: [fʁɑ̃swa aʁaɡo]; Catalan: Francesc Aragó, IPA: [fɾənˈsɛsk əɾəˈɣo]; 26 February 1786 – 2 October 1853), was a French mathematician, physicist, astronomer, freemason, supporter of the Carbonari revolutionaries, and politician.
In physics, he is known for helping establishing the wave theory of light. The Arago spot, an important experiment in optics that demonstrated this phenomenon, is named after him.
Text from the Wikipedia article François Arago, CC BY-SA 4.0
About this information
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