ASTRONOMER

Edmond Halley

1656 - 1742

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Edmond (or Edmund) Halley (; 8 November [O.S. 29 October] 1656 – 25 January 1742 [O.S. 14 January 1741]) was an English astronomer, mathematician and physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720. From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena in 1676–77, Halley catalogued the southern celestial hemisphere and recorded a transit of Mercury across the Sun. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Edmond Halley has received more than 1,396,334 page views. His biography is available in 88 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 86 in 2019). Edmond Halley is the 23rd most popular astronomer (down from 19th in 2019), the 253rd most popular biography from United Kingdom (up from 263rd in 2019) and the most popular British Astronomer.

Edmond Halley is most famous for his comet that orbits the sun and reappears every 76 years.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.4M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 68.93

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 88

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 6.06

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 5.87

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among ASTRONOMERS

Among astronomers, Edmond Halley ranks 23 out of 644. Before him are Giovanni Domenico Cassini, Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Charles Messier, Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers, and Avempace. After him are Roger Joseph Boscovich, Charles Greeley Abbot, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Giuseppe Piazzi, Robert Luther, and Caroline Herschel.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1656, Edmond Halley ranks 1. After him are Marin Marais, Ulrika Eleonora of Denmark, Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, Anton Florian, Prince of Liechtenstein, Nicolas de Largillière, Guillaume Dubois, Robert de Cotte, Kateri Tekakwitha, Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer, and Guru Har Krishan. Among people deceased in 1742, Edmond Halley ranks 1. After him are Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans, Charles III Philip, Elector Palatine, Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco, Pylyp Orlyk, Arvid Horn, Luigi Guido Grandi, Friedrich Hoffmann, Jean-Baptiste Dubos, Carlos Seixas, and John Augustus, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst.

Others Born in 1656

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Others Deceased in 1742

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, Edmond Halley ranks 253 out of 8,785. Before him are Roger Taylor (1949), James II of England (1633), Alan Parker (1944), Brian Jones (1942), David Lloyd George (1863), and Ian Fleming (1908). After him are Lady Jane Grey (1537), Arthur Evans (1851), Peter Ustinov (1921), Gary Oldman (1958), Æthelred I, King of Wessex (837), and Olivia Newton-John (1948).

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Among ASTRONOMERS In United Kingdom

Among astronomers born in United Kingdom, Edmond Halley ranks 1. After him are Jocelyn Bell Burnell (1943), Martin Ryle (1918), Arthur Eddington (1882), Fred Hoyle (1915), William Lassell (1799), Antony Hewish (1924), John Flamsteed (1646), James Bradley (1693), Stephen Gray (1666), George Darwin (1845), and Adelard of Bath (1075).

British born Astronomers

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