On February 22, 1632, Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems was published. The manner in which the great scientist chose to marshal the heliocentric theory of the solar system in that work was especially vexing to the Vatican, and it led to his trial by the Inquisition.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was one of the major intellectual figures at the dawn of the modern age, and his treatment by the Catholic Church has served as a marker in the fight for freedom of thought, speech, and press ever since. Galileo, the son of composer and lutenist Vincenzo Galilei, was born on February 15, 1564. He died January 8, 1642.
On the same date in 1819, Spain sold Florida to the United States for five million U.S. dollars. Exactly 70 years later President Grove Cleveland signed a bill to admit North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana