1495: Birth of Petrus Apianus (Peter Bienewitz), German mathematician, astronomer, and cartographer (died 1552). He remains famous for his masterful work Astronomicum Caesareum and for being one of the first to observe that the tails of comets are always directed away from the Sun.

1838: Birth of Ernest Solvay. More than just an industrialist, he was the architect of knowledge. By inviting Einstein and Curie to his table, he transformed Brussels into the world's capital of intelligence. From the seismology pavilion at Uccle to the mysteries of the atom, his name remains etched upon the pediment of modern science. 

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