Isaac Newton was born in 1642 in Woolsthorpe, England. He attended Trinity College, at Cambridge University, in 1661, and graduated in 1665. After a two year intermission, because of the plague, Newton returned to Trinity College in 1667, and received his master's degree in 1669.
During the period of isolation to avoid the plague, Newton developed the key mathematical methods that constitute calculus, one of the greatest achievements in mathematics. Newton was reluctant to publish the work, however, and consequently Gotfried Leibniz, independently, developed equivalent methods in 1775.
In optics, Newton made fundamental discoveries into the nature of light, showing that light is made up of rays corresponding to different colors.
During the period from 1684 to 1687, Newton developed the universal theory of gravitation. The theory was published in Philosophia Naturalis Principia Mathematicae, one of the most important books ever written, and one that fundamentally changed our understanding of the natural world.
Newton was important to the early development of probability as well, because of his correspondence with Samuel Pepys on gambling problems with dice.
Towards the end of his career, Newton devoted his time more to mysticism, alchemy, and theology.