The document provides a historical overview of differential equations, which were independently invented by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz. It discusses that differential equations began being studied in the 1680s by Leibniz, Bernoulli brothers, and others. Differential equations contain variables, constants, and derivatives of the variables. The document then discusses Newton and Leibniz's early work in more detail in the 1670s and 1680s, including Newton's classification of differential equations into three classes. It notes that the study of differential equations is generally considered to have begun in 1675 when Leibniz wrote his first differential equation.