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.

's work was continued by and

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

and investigated linear differential equations of second order and higher with variable coefficients.

contributed his Lie's Theory of Continuous Groups revealed a connection between techniques which had previously been believed to be disconnected.

Graphical considerations were developed by, and.

extended these methods to the results of and.

Numerical methods were developed by, among others.