We all know that Isaac Newton developed the gravitational theory (as is often told) when an apple fell on his head.
But my question is, didn't anyone before him notice it?
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As stated in Rijul Gupta's answer, the Newton - apple story is likely apocryphal, but there is a grain of truth in it.
As explained well in this exposition here, Newton's crucial idea was not that there was a force of gravity, a concept that is obvious to anyone, but that gravity might reach to the very tallest of apple trees, and, if so, that it might reach into space and affect the moon itself. In other words, Newton's insight was one of unification: that the same laws that describe an apple's (or other Earthly, everyday object dropped to the ground) also describe the moon's and all other heavenly bodies' motions. This, unlike gravity itself, is rather far from obvious, for the moon's and an apple's motion are at first glance very different.
Selene Routley
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That's a myth.
He actually discovered gravity while trying to explain the motion of planets. He extrapolated the theory used to explain planetary motion to the "now" well known fact that "Every body attracts every other body..." this enabled him to explain the falling of apples and lot more.
Many scientists before him were also trying to explain planetary motion, but as far as my knowledge of scientific history goes (and it was also said so in cosmos) that he first made an accurate theory.
Rijul Gupta
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To add some more information to the existing answers: Newton was aware that planets are moving in the space along curved trajectories. Using his first law he deduced that there must be some force acting on the heavenly bodies, otherwise they would be moving along straight lines or stay motionless.
His discovery was in connecting this force (curving paths of planets) with the force attracting apples towards the Earth and formulating it mathematically.
mpv
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