Edmond Halley (1656-1742)

Edmond Halley was born on October 29, 1656 in the village of Haggerston, England, which today, has been engulfed by the City of London. Edmond's father, Edmond Sr., was by some accounts a soapboiler and a salter. Whatever his true profession was, though, he was a rich man, and eventually possessed land from which he extracted rent which allowed his family to live a relatively prosperous lifestyle.

Halley attended the prestigious St. Paul's school, where in 1671, he was appointed captain; a position resembling today's student body president. He was an excellent student, and in 1673, attended Queen's College, Oxford. At this young age, Halley already possessed, "... the basic facts and computations not only of navigation but also those which the practical astronomer is concerned when he sets about the delicate task of measuring the positions of celestial bodies in the sky."(Ronan, pg. 6)