d'Alembert, Jean Le Rond

1717 - Born in Paris, on the 16th of November, d'Alembert was the illegitimate child of the writer Claudine Guérin de Tencin and the chevalier Louis-Camus Destouches, an artillery officer.

1739 - At the age of twelve he entered the jansenist Collège des Quatre-Nations.

1735 - Graduated bachelier in philosophy, law, and the arts at jansenist Collège des Quatre-Nations.

1783 - He entered law school for two years, and was nominated avocat.

1739 - His first contribution to the field of mathematics, pointing out the errors he had detected in L'analyse démontrée.

1740 - Submitted his second scientific work from the field of fluid mechanics Memoire sur le refraction des corps solides.

1745 - D'Alembert was engaged as co-editor for mathematics and science with Diderot.

1740 - He entered the Académie des sciences.

1741 - Joined the Académie de Berlin at 28.

1754 - Elected as member of the Académie française.

1772 - Became Permanent Secretary of Académie française on 9th of April.

1738 - He died of a bladder illness on the 29th of October and was in a common unmarked grave.

In France, the fundamental theorem of algebra is known as the d'Alembert/Gauss theorem.

He created his ratio test, a test to see if a series converges.