1696: the birth of optimal control

The history of optimal control starts in 1696 in Groningen, a university town in the North of the Netherlands, with the story of the brachystochrone and Johann Bernoulli. He was Professor of Mathematics at the University of Groningen from 1695 to 1705. The purpose of this talk is to explain the problem, sketch the solution, and tell a bit about the historical context in which it took place.