Carl Friedrich Gauss
30 April, 1777
Full Name=Carl Friedrich Gauss; Profession= German mathematician, astronomer, geodesist and physicist often honored as the βPrince of Mathematiciansβ for his profound, wide-ranging contributions to pure and applied mathematics and the physical sciences; Nationality=German; Born=30 April 1777; Birthplace=Brunswick (Braunschweig), Duchy of BrunswickβWolfenbΓΌttel, Holy Roman Empire (now in the German state of Lower Saxony); Generation= Late Enlightenment and early Industrial Age scientist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, whose formative years and major works unfolded around the turn of the 1800s; Chinese Zodiac=Rooster (the Chinese New Year for 1777 began on 8 January 1777, marking that year as a Year of the Rooster, so his April 30 birth falls under the Rooster sign). Zodiac Sign=Taurus (all births on April 30 fall under the Western zodiac sign Taurus); Age in 2026=249 (born in 1777, he would have been 249 years old on 30 April 2026 if still alive); Marital Status=Married twice and widowed twice: first marriage to Johanna Elisabeth Rosina Osthoff in 1805, ending with her death in 1809, followed by a second marriage to Friederica Wilhelmine βMinnaβ Waldeck, who died after a long illness in 1831; Children=Six children in totalβJoseph, Wilhelmina, and Louis with his first wife Johanna; and Eugen, Wilhelm, and Therese with his second wife Minna. Description=One of historyβs most influential scientists, Gauss revolutionized number theory through his masterpiece Disquisitiones Arithmeticae and foundational work on congruences, quadratic reciprocity, and the distribution of prime numbers; in analysis and algebra he gave the first rigorous proof of the fundamental theorem of algebra, developed the Gaussian (normal) distribution in probability, and advanced series, complex numbers, and functions; in geometry and differential geometry he laid groundwork for curvature and nonβEuclidean ideas; in geodesy and geophysics he led major land surveys, invented the heliotrope, and helped model Earthβs shape and magnetic field; in astronomy he devised powerful leastβsquares methods to compute planetary orbitsβfamously recovering the lost dwarf planet Ceresβand directed the GΓΆttingen Observatory, while his studies in electricity and magnetism influenced Maxwellβs later work, collectively earning him a reputation alongside Archimedes and Newton as one of the greatest mathematicians and physical scientists of all time; Cause of Death= Complications of longβstanding heart disease, described in medical and historical analyses as arteriosclerotic heart disease with congestive heart failure and heart and lung failure, leading to his death in his sleep in GΓΆttingen on 23 February 1855