ON THIS DAY IN 1781: Astronomer William Herschel discovered Uranus. Or more precisely, he discovered that the tiny point of light that was visible to the naked eye was not a star (though at first he thought it was a comet).

Herschel wanted to name it for his patron, King George III. Had that name caught on instead of the one that did, it would have deprived generations of schoolboys of much-needed amusement.