Galileo

Galileo Galilei was born on February 15, 1564, in Pisa, Italy. Galileo was the first of seven children of Vincenzio Galilei, a trader and Giula Ammannati, an upper-class woman who married below her class. When Galileo was a young boy, his father moved the family moved to Florence. Galileo moved into a nearby monastery with the intentions of becoming a monk, but he left the monastery when he was 15 because his father disapproved of his son becoming …

…with arthritis. He continued to work on books through the help of his devoted students and friends. Galileo died at home on January 8, 1642. Galileo's former friend Pope Urban VIII refused to allow the grand duke of Tuscany to honor Galileo with a marble monument and a "funeral oration." Later, the Vatican pardoned Galileo and officially admitted that he had been right all along. But it was not until three hundred and fifty years later, in 1992.