benjamin banneker

French - English

Definition of benjamin banneker in French English dictionary

Benjamin Banneker, (1731-1806) African American astronomer and mathematician, member of the planning committee which designed the city of Washington DC, writer and publisher of an annual farmer's almanac

English - English

Definition of benjamin banneker in English English dictionary

{i} (1731-1806) African American astronomer and mathematician, member of the planning committee which designed the city of Washington DC, writer and publisher of an annual farmer's almanac

born Nov. 9, 1731, Ellicott's Mills, Md. died Oct. 25, 1806, Baltimore, Md., U.S. American astronomer, compiler of almanacs, and inventor. A free black who owned a farm near Baltimore, Banneker was largely self-educated in astronomy and mathematics. In 1761 he attracted attention by building a wooden clock that kept precise time. He began astronomical calculations about 1773, accurately predicted a solar eclipse in 1789, and published annually from 1791 to 1802 the Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia Almanac and Ephemeris. (He sent an early copy of the almanac to Thomas Jefferson to counter a contention that blacks were intellectually inferior.) In 1790 he was appointed to the commission that surveyed the site for Washington, D.C. He also wrote essays denouncing slavery and war

English - French

Definition of benjamin banneker in English French dictionary

{n} Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806), mathématicien astronome américain-africain, auteur d'un almanach qu'il publia