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German astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus develops the first clear model of the heliocentirc system, where Sun is the center of the universe, contradicting Ptolemy's geocentric theory.
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Galileo tells friends that he believes that the heliocentric model is correct.
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Galileo completes writing his observations and work in his book, "Dialogue Concerning Two Chief World Systems."
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Pope Urban VIII stops the distrubution of Galileo's book, "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems." Pope hosts a commision to scrutinize the book.
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Based on the commision's report, the Pope refers Galileo's case to the Roman Inquisition.
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Three physicians inform that Galileo is too sick to travel to Rome, but the Inquisition denies the statement. They warn that if Galileo does not come to Rome he will be captured and taken in chains.
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Galileo is sentenced to jail for a uncertain period of time. He signs a formal recantation and serves his term in house-arrest in the home of the archbishop of Siena.
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For over two weeks he is imprisoned in an apartment in the Inquisition building. Galileo agrees to plead guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for a more lenient sentence. He declares that the Copernican case was made too strongly in his book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, and offers to refute it in another book.
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Galileo petitions the Inquisition to be freed but the petition gets rejected.
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Galileo dies in Arcetri, Italy.
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The College of Cardinals announces that the "printing and publication of works treating of the motion of the earth and the stability of the sun, in accordance with the opinion of modern astronomers, is permitted."
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Pope Pius VII ratifies the Cardinals' degree.
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"Two Chief World Systems" is pulled off from the Vatican's list of banished books.
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The Catholic Church formally admits that Galileo's views on the solar system are indeed correct.
