Big Bang Day

This is a big day in the course of human events according to a fellow named Johannes Kepler.  About the time this area became a destination voyage (the wag in us wanted to say destination getaway) Herr Dr. Kepler was something of a key player in the history of science and we bring him up because he calculated that on this day, April 27 in the year 4977BC, the universe, or at least what was known of it, was created. Big Bang Day.

In 1600, Kepler was in Prague doing work on planetary motion.  He corresponded with Galileo, even bought one of his telescopes. His work was a good deal of the basis for Newton's work on gravity. In short, he was something of a big cheese in the history of science.

We bring this up because at the time all this stuff was going on, our little neck of the woods was being settled.  That we find interesting.  When our founders were scratching out settlements here - right here mind you - folks in Europe were doing the work of scientific genius. That is the point of this little thread. 

We think of history as a straight line set of events.  We think chronologically, like Kepler did when he traced things backwards and came up with 4977BC.  What we don't think about very often is that when Kepler was doing his thing, Shakespeare was doing his in London, Monteverdi was doing his in Italy and our friends to the northeast were standing by a rock thinking about where to go next.  Most of these folks and their proteges were alive and contributing when the church in Southold (picture) was founded, people were exploring Shelter Island and Greenport was identified as a very "fair harbor".


Kepler of course was more than a little off in calulating April 27, 4977BC as "day one".  We can forgive him for that.  He was right in perspective.  He tried. He gave it his best shot. That was certainly one thing all had in common.