Definition:Differential Equation/Historical Note

Historical Note on Differential Equations
According to, the first person to solve a differential equation was , which he did in $1676$ by use of an infinite series, $11$ years after he had invented the differential calculus in $1665$.

These results were not published till $1693$, the same year in which a differential equation occurred in the work of, whose own work on differential calculus was published in $1684$.

However, states that the term differential equation was first used by  (as æquatio differentialis) also in $1676$, to denote a relationship between the differentials $\d x$ and $\d y$ of two variables $x$ and $y$.

and reduced a large number of differential equations into forms that could be solved.

Much of the theory of differential equations was established by.

gave a geometrical interpretation in $1774$.

The first existence proof for the solutions of a differential equation was provided by.

He proved in $1823$ that the infinite series obtained from a differential equation is convergent.

The theory in its present form was not presented until the work of in $1872$.

references the $1888$ work of, but history appears to have forgotten this.

The Method of Successive Approximations was introduced by in $1890$.