Famous People Born In 1765

Nicéphore Niépce revolutionized science by inventing heliography and made the first permanent photographic image. He had initially been part of Napoleon’s army but had to quit due to his failing health. The Niépce Prize is awarded to a photographer every year in France, in his honor.

Manuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage was a Portuguese poet who also served in the Portuguese Navy. He is best remembered for his modinhas, which are short, rhyming poems often sung with a guitar. He is also remembered for his interesting lifestyle as he had numerous love affairs.

Andreas Miaoulis was a Greek revolutionary, politician, and admiral. He is best remembered for playing a major role in the Greek War of Independence where he commanded Greek naval forces. His achievements during the Greek Revolution in 1821 are celebrated every year in Hydra in the form of a festival named Miaoulia.

Daniel Steibelt was a German composer and pianist who lived and worked in Paris and London. A prolific composer, Steibelt's works became popular throughout Europe. He also contributed immensely to several dramatic operas, such as Romeo et Juliette which was produced in 1793 at the Théâtre Feydeau.

Karl Ludwig Harding is best remembered for discovering the asteroid or minor planet Juno. The University of Göttingen alumnus later taught at his alma. He catalogued over 120,000 stars in his iconic book Atlas novus coelestis. He was also made a Fellow of The Royal Society.

Paolo Ruffini was at the same time a mathematician and a physician. He was the first to claim that the general quintic equation had no algebraic solution. Ruffini was briefly banned from teaching when he refused to submit to the new republic following the rise of Napoleon.

After quitting school at 14, Matthew Murray apprenticed to be a blacksmith or a whitesmith. He then worked for a Leeds-based flax spinner and later established his own factory, developing innovations in the domain of steam engines. His locomotives for collieries were the first to be commercially successful.

Roman Catholic philosopher Franz Xaver von Baader followed in his doctor father’s footsteps to study medicine initially but soon switched to mining engineering. He later deviated permanently to politics and religion. Rejecting Western philosophy, he propagated the Scholastic school and penned his thoughts in journals and short essays, using mystical symbols.

James Ivory was a British mathematician and astronomer best remembered for developing Ivory's Theorem. In 1814, he was honored with the prestigious Copley Medal for publishing several important memoirs.

Betty Zane is remembered as the heroine of the second siege of Fort Henry that took place in September 1782, during the American Revolutionary War. She volunteered and thrived in carrying gunpowder from her brother’s home to the fort when the garrison was running low on ammunition, thus allowing them to continue to fight and hold the fort.