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Harlow Shapley
Harlow Shapley · Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Person

Harlow Shapley

1885 – 1972 · aged 87

American astronomer (1885-1972)

Born
2 Nov 1885 · Nashville
Died
20 Oct 1972 · Boulder

Life timeline

Their life from birth to death. On the timeline, world events of the time are shown faintly.

Showing 100 years
  1. 2 Nov 1885BornBorn in Nashville
  2. 1926AwardHenry Draper Medal
  3. 1933AwardPrix Jules Janssen
  4. 1933AwardRumford Prize
  5. 1934AwardGold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
  6. 1939AwardBruce Medal
  7. 1940AwardJanssen Medal
  8. 1945AwardFranklin Medal
  9. 1950AwardHenry Norris Russell Lectureship
  10. 1951AwardHonorary Doctorate from the National Autonomous University of Mexico
  11. 20 Oct 1972DiedDied in Boulder

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Meanwhile in the world

Major world events during their lifetime (1885 – 1972).

  1. 18961896 Summer Olympics
  2. 1898Spanish–American War
  3. 1904 – 1905Russo-Japanese War
  4. 1914 – 1918World War I
  5. 1915 – 1923Armenian genocide
  6. 1917Balfour Declaration
  7. 1917February Revolution
  8. 1917October Revolution
  9. 1917 – 1922Russian Civil War
  10. 1919 – 1920Paris Peace Conference
  11. 1920Treaty of Versailles
  12. 1933 – 1945The Holocaust
  13. 19341934 FIFA World Cup
  14. 19361936 Summer Olympics
  15. 1937 – 1945Second Sino-Japanese War
  16. 19381938 FIFA World Cup
  17. 1938Munich Agreement
  18. 1939 – 1940Winter War
  19. 1939 – 1945World War II
  20. 1940 – 1945Auschwitz concentration camp
  21. 1941Attack on Pearl Harbor
  22. 1941 – 1945Eastern Front
  23. 1941Operation Barbarossa
  24. 1942 – 1943Battle of Stalingrad
  25. 1945Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
  26. 1945 – 1946Nuremberg trials
  27. 19501950 FIFA World Cup
  28. 1950 – 1953Korean War
  29. 1953 – 1959Cuban Revolution
  30. 19541954 FIFA World Cup
  31. 1955 – 1975Vietnam War
  32. 1956Hungarian Revolution of 1956
  33. 1956Suez Crisis
  34. 19581958 FIFA World Cup
  35. 1959Antarctic Treaty System
  36. 19621962 FIFA World Cup
  37. 1962Cuban Missile Crisis
  38. 19661966 FIFA World Cup
  39. 1966 – 1976Cultural Revolution
  40. 1968Prague Spring

Biography

Harlow Shapley (November 2, 1885 – October 20, 1972) was an American astronomer, who served as head of the Harvard College Observatory from 1921–1952, and political activist during the New Deal and Fair Deal.

Shapley used Cepheid variable stars to estimate the size of the Milky Way Galaxy and the Sun's position within it. In 1953 he proposed his "liquid water belt" theory, a concept now known as a habitable zone.

Text from the Wikipedia article Harlow Shapley, CC BY-SA 4.0

About this information

Dates and life events come from this person’s Wikidata entry.

We only show events that the sources give a date for. Anything without a date is left out rather than guessed.