Max Müller born (6/12/1823)

Did you know? His father, Wilhelm Müller, is the poet of Schubert's _Winterreise_ and _Die schöne Müllerin_.
Friedrich Max Müller studied at the University of Leipzig, was good at a lot of things, including languages, studied Sanskrit with Friedrich Schelling and Franz Bopp, first visited England in 1846 and by 1850 was Deputy Professor of Modern European Languages at Oxford.
"He was defeated in the 1860 election for the position of Boden Professor of Sanskrit, which was a "keen disappointment" to him. Müller was far better qualified for the post than the other candidate, Monier Monier-Williams, but Müller's theological views, Lutheranism, German birth, and lack of practical first-hand knowledge of India spoke against him." (Wiki)
So they created the Chair of Comparative Philology for him, which he occupied from 1868 until his death.
His "Lectures on the Science of Language", first published in the 1860s, were very widely read and introduced the British to the new comparative linguistics coming out of Germany.
He was also deeply interested in comparative religion, and started a 50-volume translation project called _Sacred Books of the East_.
We have him to thank for the (deliberately) silly-sounding names for theories of the origin of language which had been put forward by his time: "ding-dong", "bow-wow", "pooh-pooh" etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_M%C3%BCller