Annus mirabilis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Annus mirabilis is a Latin phrase meaning "wonderful year" or "year of wonders" (or "year of miracles"). It is used particularly to refer to the years 1665–1666.
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[edit] The Year of Wonders (1666)
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known written usage of the latin phrase "Annus Mirabilis" is as the title of a poem composed by English poet John Dryden about the events of 1666 C.E. The phrase "annus mirabilis" translates as "wonderful year" or "year of miracles". In fact, the year was beset by great calamity for England (including the Great Fire of London), but Dryden chose to interpret the absence of greater disaster as miraculous intervention by God, as "666" is the Number of the Beast and the year 1666 was expected by some to be particularly disastrous.
The fire is recorded to have killed only 16 people despite its destructiveness. In addition to this, the English fleet defeated a Dutch fleet in the St James' Day Battle, for a great victory at sea. (However, in 1667 the Dutch burned much of the English fleet in the raid on the Medway and Charles II was forced to sue for peace.)
[edit] Isaac Newton, 1666
In the year 1666, Isaac Newton made revolutionary inventions and discoveries in calculus, motion, optics and gravitation. As such, it has later been called Isaac Newton's "Annus Mirabilis". It is this year when Isaac Newton observed an apple falling from a tree, and hit upon gravitation (Newton's apple). He was afforded the time to work on his theories due to the closure of Cambridge University by an outbreak of plague. Going to his country home, he thought about many things that, in Cambridge, he did not have the opportunity to do with such devotion.
[edit] Albert Einstein, 1905
The year 1905, has very much been linked to the term "annus mirabilis", as Albert Einstein made equally revolutionary discoveries concerning the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion and the special theory of relativity.
[edit] Other
This phrase has since been used to refer to other years.
- Annus Mirabilis has been used to describe 1989 and the political events which took place in Eastern Europe, which saw the end of communist governments in several countries including Poland, East Germany and Czechoslovakia.
- The phrase "Annus Mirabilis" was also used by Philip Larkin in 1967 as the title for one of his best known poems – Between the end of the Chatterley ban / And the Beatles' first LP – celebrating the onset of more relaxed sexual mores in 1960s Britain.
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de:Annus mirabilis he:שנת הפלאות pt:Annus mirabilis sv:Annus mirabilis
