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Galileo Galilei
  
 
Timeline
February 18, 1564: · birth of Galileo Galilei in the Tuscan city of Pisa
1574: · Galilei family moves to Florence
Summer 1581: · Galileo enrolls in the University of Pisa to pursue a degree in medicine
1585: · Galileo leaves the University of Pisa without having obtained a degree
Summer 1589: · Galileo hired as a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Pisa
1589-1592: · Galileo teaches in Pisa, and reportedly makes his famous velocity experiment, dropping objects off the leaning tower to disprove Aristotle's theory that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones
1591: · Death of Vincenzo Galilei, Galileo's father
Autumn 1592: · Galileo takes post at the University of Padua
1600: · Galileo's first daughter, Virginia, born in Padua
1601: · Galileo's second daughter born
1604: · Appearance of Kepler's Nova in the sky; Galileo debates its significance with conservative scholars.
1606: · Birth of Galileo's third child, a son
Summer 1609: · News of the invention of the telescope reaches Italy; Galileo develops his own device in August.
Autumn 1609: · Galileo makes his first observations using his telescope, discovers uneven surface of the moon.
January 1610: · Galileo discovers four moons orbiting Jupiter
March 1610: · Publication of Sidereus Nuncius, dedicated to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo II
June 1610: · Galileo leaves Padua to take a new, more lucrative position in Tuscany
Spring 1611: · Galileo travels to Rome, where he is cordially received by the Jesuit astronomers and Pope Paul V
December 1614: · Father Tommasso Caccini attacks Galileo in sermon in Florence, and later denounces him to the Inquisition
December 1615: · Galileo goes to Rome
March 1615: · Papal commission issues edict against Copernican theory; Cardinal Bellarmine orders Galileo to cease in his support of heliocentricity
June 1615: · Galileo leaves Rome
September 1621: · Death of Cardinal Bellarmine
June 1623: · Urban VIII becomes Pope; Galileo visits him in Rome
October 1623: · Galileo's treatise on comets, The Assayer, is published with Urban VIII's blessing
1624-1629: · Galileo works on his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems from his home outside Florence
February 1632: · Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems published in Florence, with tentative Papal approval
August 1632: · Inquisition bans further printing of the Dialogue
September 23, 1632: · Galileo summoned to Rome
February 13, 1633: · Galileo arrives in Rome
April 12, 1633: · Galileo interrogated for the first time. Afterwards, he is imprisoned in the Vatican for three weeks.
April 30, 1633: · Galileo interrogated again, and allowed to return to the home of the Tuscan ambassador
May 10, 1633: · Third interrogation; Galileo begs for mercy.
June 21, 1633: · Final interrogation. The following day, Galileo is officially charged with heresy; he is forced to confess his errors, renounce the Copernican system, and accept the Church's judgment. He is sentenced to imprisonment "for a period determinable at our pleasure."
December 1633: · Galileo is allowed to return to the village of Arcetri, outside Florence, where he lives under house arrest
April 2, 1634: · Death of Virginia, now Sister Maria Celeste.
1637: · Galileo's eyesight begins to fail.
1638: · Galileo's Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences is published in Holland. John Milton visits Galileo in Arcetri.
January 8, 1642: · Death of Galileo
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