Born Today in 1571 - Johannes Kepler

He's the guy who came up with these rules of planetary motion:

1. All planets move about the Sun in elliptical orbits, having the Sun as one of the foci.
2. A radius vector joining any planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal lengths of time.
3. The squares of the sidereal periods (of revolution) of the planets are directly proportional to the cubes of their mean distances from the Sun.

That last one is probably the most beautiful thing I've ever read.

Science. It's true even if you don't believe in it.