Thales of Miletus was the one of the first to suggest that Ursa Minor should be the benchmark for navigation and not the Ursa Major constellation. He predicted that a solar eclipse in 585 B.C will end the battle between Lydia and Medes. He was the teacher of the famous pre-Socratic scholar Anaximander. Thales also popularized the ‘Flat Earth theory’, where he said earth is a flat surface floating on sea.
