German geographer and explorer (born 1769)

Alexander von Humboldt

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher, and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835). Humboldt's quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography, while his advocacy of long-term systematic geophysical measurement pioneered modern geomagnetic and meteorological monitoring. Humboldt and Carl Ritter are both regarded as the founders of modern geography as they established it as an independent scientific discipline.

Born

1769

September 14

Died

1859

Era

1760s

Country

—

About

Alexander, in brief

Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher, and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835). Humboldt's quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography, while his advocacy of long-term systematic geophysical measurement pioneered modern geomagnetic and meteorological monitoring. Humboldt and Carl Ritter are both regarded as the founders of modern geography as they established it as an independent scientific discipline.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

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  1. 1769 Born
  2. 1859 Died

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Same-year contemporaries

Also born in 1769

Robert Stewart 1769–1822 Viscount Castlereagh, Irish-English politician, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (born 1769) William Smith 1769–1839 English geologist and engineer (born 1769)

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