--- title: Read Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Birthday Message to Isaac Newton description: The tweet was shared over 68,000 times canonical: https://time.com/3647786/neil-degrasse-tyson-sir-isaac-newton-twitter/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-27T19:50:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T03:08:43.730Z article:section: Science og:title: Read Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Birthday Message to Isaac Newton og:description: The tweet was shared over 68,000 times og:url: https://time.com/3647786/neil-degrasse-tyson-sir-isaac-newton-twitter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4167878ee0a49d60/69877748e20a87d8b1a843c3/450132218.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: StarTalk Radio's Climate Change Panel Discussion And Reception og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Birthday Message to Isaac Newton twitter:description: The tweet was shared over 68,000 times twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4167878ee0a49d60/69877748e20a87d8b1a843c3/450132218.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Birthday Message to Sir Isaac Newton Makes Big Bang on Twitter by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Dec 27, 2014 7:50 PM UTC  Physicist/TV host Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson in New York City, June 5, 2014. Physicist/TV host Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson in New York City, June 5, 2014.Andrew Toth—Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Dec 27, 2014 7:50 PM UTC As Christians celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ on Thursday, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson noted the birth of another notable man: Sir Isaac Newton. > [](https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/548140622826459136) Tyson’s tweet was met with some praise and some ire—many felt the tweet was disrespectful to those observing Christmas on Dec. 25\. But many cheered Tyson’s wit. The anti-Christian furor was stoked by Tyson’s follow-up tweet, which read: > [](https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/548144728693551106) Late Friday, Tyson wrote a [Facebook message](https://www.facebook.com/notes/neil-degrasse-tyson/my-most-retweeted-tweet/10152533257800869) explaining his tweet, which he says is his most retweeted ever. “Everybody knows that Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25th,” Tyson wrote. “I think fewer people know that Isaac Newton shares the same birthday. Christmas day in England – 1642\. And perhaps even fewer people know that before he turned 30, Newton had discovered the laws of motion, the universal law of gravitation, and invented integral and differential calculus.” Tyson also addressed the idea that his posts were somehow anti-Christian, saying, “If a person actually wanted to express anti-Christian sentiment, my guess is that alerting people of Isaac Newton’s birthday would appear nowhere on the list.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3647786/neil-degrasse-tyson-sir-isaac-newton-twitter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3647786/neil-degrasse-tyson-sir-isaac-newton-twitter/"},"headline":"Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Birthday Message to Sir Isaac Newton Makes Big Bang on Twitter","datePublished":"2014-12-27T19:50:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:08:43.730Z","description":"It was shared over 68,000 times","url":"https://time.com/3647786/neil-degrasse-tyson-sir-isaac-newton-twitter/","keywords":["History","People"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4167878ee0a49d60/69877748e20a87d8b1a843c3/450132218.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4167878ee0a49d60/69877748e20a87d8b1a843c3/450132218.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"StarTalk Radio's Climate Change Panel Discussion And Reception","caption":"StarTalk Radio's Climate Change Panel Discussion And Reception","creditText":"Andrew Toth—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3647786/neil-degrasse-tyson-sir-isaac-newton-twitter/","name":"Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Birthday Message to Sir Isaac Newton Makes Big Bang on Twitter"}}]}] ```