Galileo Born: Father of Modern Observational Science
Galileo Galilei was 17 when he noticed a chandelier swinging in the Pisa cathedral and used his own pulse to time it. Same period regardless of how wide the arc. He never published a paper on pendulums — he just filed it away. That's how his mind worked: watch carefully, measure, remember. He improved the telescope, which he hadn't invented, and turned it on the sky. Jupiter had moons orbiting it. Not everything orbited the Earth. He published that in 1610. The Church caught up with him in 1633. He recanted under threat of torture, went home, and kept working. He discovered the moon's libration while under house arrest. He went completely blind in 1638 and kept dictating science to students until he died.
February 15, 1564
462 years ago
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