The document summarizes the history and key discoveries related to cells, including:
1) Robert Hooke was the first to observe cells in 1665 when examining a cork sample under his homemade microscope and described the structures as "little boxes".
2) Anton van Leeuwenhoek later observed microorganisms in pond water in 1673 which he called "animalcules", including some of the first observations of bacteria.
3) In the 1830s-1850s, Matthias Schleiden, Theodore Schwann, and Rudolf Virchow developed the three main principles of the cell theory - that all organisms are made of cells, the cell is the basic unit of living things, and all cells