The Royal Society of London…

• Had its first ‘learned society’ meeting in 1660
• From 1663 on it would be known as The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge
• Published Newton’s Principia Mathematica and Benjamin Franklin’s kite experiment demonstrating the electrical nature of lightning
• Backed James Cook’s journey to Tahiti, reaching Australia and New Zealand, to track the Transit of Venus
• Published the first report in English of inoculation against disease