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Biography
Károly Nagy (6 December 1797 – 2 March 1868) was a Hungarian astronomer, mathematician, chemist and politician. His observatory in Bicske was one of the most well-equipped observatory of Europe in the 19th century. It was destroyed during World War I. Only its main tower stands now.
His proponent was Kázmér the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet of Bertalan Szemere, the Prime Minister of Hungary at that time. After the Hungarian Revolution of 1848-1849, Nagy was imprisoned in the "Hungarian Bastille" Újépület. He offered his estate and his observatory to the Austrian emperor. Soon after he emigrated to Paris. He was the first Hungarian scientist who met an American president, Andrew Jackson, and the first Hungarian traveler, who wrote detailed coverage of the life of the Native Americans.
