19 February
1473: On 19 February 1473, Nicolaus Copernicus was born.
Copernicus was the Polish astronomer who proposed that the planets move around the Sun and that Earth is a planet which, besides orbiting the Sun annually, also turns once daily on its own axis.
Through this 'heliocentric theory', he became one of the most important figures in the history of scientific thought. He died on 24 May 1543.
