Annus mirabilis (pl. anni mirabiles) is a Latin phrase that means "marvelous year", "wonderful year", or "miraculous year". This term has been used to refer to several years during which events of major importance are remembered, notably Isaac Newton's discoveries in 1665–1666 at the age of 23 and Albert Einstein's papers published in 1905 at the age of 26.[1]
Eight years after the start of the Hundred Years' War, large-scale fighting had died down. Edward III of England decided to renew the war more vigorously in 1345.[2] He despatched a small force to Gascony in south-west France under Henry, Earl of Derby[3] and personally led the main English army to northern France. Edward delayed the disembarkation of his army and his fleet was scattered by a storm, rendering this offensive ineffective.[4] Derby was spectacularly successful, winning victories at Bergerac and Auberoche.[5] The following spring, a large French army, led by the heir to the French throne, John, Duke of Normandy, counter-attacked Derby's forces.[6]
Edward responded by landing an army of 10,000 men in northern Normandy.[7] The English devastated much of Normandy and stormed and sacked Caen, slaughtering the population. They cut a swath along the left bank of the Seine to within 20 miles (32 km) of Paris.[8] The English army then turned north and inflicted a heavy defeat on a French army led by their king, Philip VI, at the Battle of Crécy on 26 August 1346.[9][10] They promptly exploited this by laying siege to Calais.[11] The period from Derby's victory outside Bergerac in late August 1345 to the start of the siege of Calais on 4 September 1346 became known as Edward III's annus mirabilis.[12][13]
That same year, Antonio de Nebrija published his monumental grammar of Spanish, Gramática de la lengua castellana. It is notable as the first work to focus on the grammar of a modern Western European language, rather than Latin.[14]
During the course of [1625] Breda surrendered to the Army of Flanders under the command of the incomparable Spinola; the republic of Genoa, Spain's ally and client, was rescued from the onslaught of the combined forces of France and Savoy; a joint Spanish-Portuguese naval expedition drove the Dutch from Bahia in Brazil; and an English expeditionary force was humiliatingly defeated when it attempted an attack on Cadiz.
In 1665 to 1666, Isaac Newton, aged 23, made revolutionary inventions and discoveries in calculus, motion, optics and gravitation. It was in this year that Newton was alleged to have observed an apple falling from a tree, and in which he, in any case, hit upon the law of universal gravitation (Newton's apple). He was afforded the time to work on his theories due to the closure of Cambridge University by an outbreak of plague.[21][22] He stated and proved the binomial theorem, invented calculus, formulated the universal law of gravitation, and developed a theory of color.[23]
A series of victories by the British armed forces in 1759 in North America, Europe, India, and in various naval engagements caused that year to be referred to, on occasion, as William Pitt's annus mirabilis. It was the turning point of the Seven Years' War.[25][26]
1871 – W. G. Grace
According to Harry Altham, 1871 was W. G. Grace's annus mirabilis.[27] In all first-class matches in 1871, a total of 17 centuries were scored and Grace accounted for 10 of them, including the first century in a first-class match at Trent Bridge.[28] He averaged 78.25 and the next-best average by a batsman playing more than a single innings was 39.57, barely more than half his figure. His aggregate for the season was 2,739 runs and this was the first time that anyone had scored 2,000 first-class runs in a season; Harry Jupp was next best with 1,068.[29] Grace produced his season's highlight in the South v North match at The Oval when he made his highest career score to date of 268.[30]
Portugal is known for being "the country of the 3 Fs" because of Football, Fado, and Fátima, three of the most distinct parts of the Portuguese culture.[39] Portugal managed to clinch a series of historic and unprecedented victories in all of these three aspects in 2016–17. First in football, when the Portugal national team won their first-ever major trophy at the UEFA Euro 2016 on 10 July. Ten months later, on 13 May 2017, Salvador Sobral won the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 for Portugal with the song "Amar pelos dois", and in doing so, he gave Portugal its first-ever win in the contest.[40] On that same day, Pope Francis visited Fátima on the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the Marian Apparition of 1917.[41][42] The period from Portugal's victory at the Euros in July 2016 to the end of Pope Francis's visit to Portugal in May 2017 became known as Portugal's annus mirabilis.[43]
^Sanz Camañes, Porfirio (2018). "Inglaterra y la Monarquía hispana. La guerra anglo-española de 1625-1630 y el conflicto europeo". Manuscrits: Revista d'història moderna (in Spanish) (38): 64.
^"Universal Gravitation – The Physics Hypertextbook". Archived from the original on October 12, 2009. Retrieved December 10, 2012. In the same year [1666] I began to think of gravity extending to the orb of the moon, .... All this was in the two plague years of 1665 and 1666, for in those days I was in the prime of my age for invention, and minded mathematics and philosophy more than at any time since.
^"Newton's Birth Date and The Anni Mirabiles". Archived from the original on October 30, 2023. Retrieved December 10, 2012. In the beginning of the year 1665 I found the Method of approximating series & the Rule for reducing any dignity of any Binomial into such a series. The same year in May I found the method of Tangents of Gregory & Slusius, & in November had the direct method of fluxions & the next year in January had the Theory of Colors & in May following I had entrance into the inverse method of fluxions. And the same year I began to think of gravity extending to the orb of the Moon & (having found out how to estimate the force with which a globe revolving within a sphere presses the surface of the sphere) from Keplers rule of the periodical times of the Planets being in sesquialterate proportion of their distances from the centers of their Orbs, I deduced that the forces which keep the Planets in their Orbs must be reciprocally as the squares of their distances from the centers about which they revolve: and thereby compared the force requisite to keep the Moon in her Orb with the force of gravity at the surface of the earth ... All this was in the two plague years of 1665 and 1666. For in those days I was in the prime of my age of invention & minded Mathematics & Philosophy more than at any time since.
^Berlinski, David (1995). A Tour of the Calculus (1st ed.). New York: Pantheon Books. p. 5. ISBN978-0-679-42645-5.
^Falkner, J., 2006. Ramillies 1706. Havertown: Pen and Sword.
DeVries, Kelly (1998) [1996]. Infantry Warfare in the Early Fourteenth Century: Discipline, Tactics, and Technology. Woodbridge, Suffolk; Rochester, New York: Boydell Press. ISBN978-0-85115-571-5.
