Jean-Charles Houzeau

Houzeau was born in 1820 in Havré (a small city near Mons); at the time it was within the Netherlands, and was later included in the independent nation of Belgium.

After being removed from the Belgian Royal Observatory for "outspoken political views", Houzeau migrated to the United States.

He believed in the abolition of slavery and aided the escape of some notable unionists from San Antonio before the American Civil War.

During a period of fierce intraparty rivalries, Roudanez lost outside support and the newspaper closed after the election in 1868 of a Northern Republican as governor of Louisiana.

He led a scientific expedition, accompanied by Albert Benoît Lancaster and Charles Emile Stuyvaert, to San Antonio to observe a locally visible transit of Venus across the face of the sun.