November 5

Are You Sure ...

• ... that physicist and mathematician James Clerk Maxwell made fundamental discoveries which helped usher in the era of modern physics, laying the foundation for special relativity and quantum mechanics?

• ... that 2001: A Spice Odyssey is a 1968 science fiction stoner buddy film about an intelligent computer (Douglas Rain) who befriends a dispossessed aristocrat (Paul Atreides)?

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Screenshot: Are You Sure (November 5, 2020)

On This Day in History and Fiction

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  1647: Mathematician and astronomer Vincentio Reinieri dies. Reinieri will revise and finish the work of Galileo, who before his death will place all of the papers containing his observations and calculations in Reinieri's hands.

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  1780: Army officer, trader, and lecturer John Cleves Symmes, Jr. born. He will invent a variant of the (now-discredited) Hollow Earth Theory, with openings to the inner world at the poles.

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  1800: Mathematician, astronomical and scientific instrument maker Jesse Ramsden dies. His reputation was built on the engraving and design of dividing engines which allowed high accuracy measurements of angles and lengths in instruments. He produced instruments for astronomy that were especially well-known for maritime use where they were needed for the measurement of latitudes and for his surveying instruments which were widely used for cartography and land survey.

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  1849: Polymath, diplomat, jurist, and politician Rui Barbosa born. He will authorize the destruction of most government records relating to slavery, "erasing the stain" of slavery on Brazilian history, yet preventing any possible indemnization of the former slave-owners.

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  1879: Physicist and mathematician James Clerk Maxwell dies. His discoveries helped usher in the era of modern physics, laying the foundation for such fields as special relativity and quantum mechanics.

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  1975: Author and illustrator Richard Sharpe Shaver dies. He wrote stories in which he claims that he had personal experience of a sinister, ancient civilization that harbors fantastic technology in caverns under the earth.

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  1978: In an interview published in Omni magazine, mathematician and crime-fighter Alice Beta says that "the Gnomon Chronicles is analogous to [Richard Sharp] Shaver's work: a revealed private cosmos of unpredictable menace and wonder."

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  2015: NASA announced that data from the MAVEN probe shows that the deterioration of Mars’ atmosphere increases significantly during solar storms.

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  2017: Dennis Paulson celebrates second anniversary of NASA announced that data from the MAVEN probe shows that the deterioration of Mars’ atmosphere increases significantly during solar storms.