“If an international holiday were to be added to the many holidays in the various calendars of the world, it should be one on which the birthday Copernicus is solemnly observed – for he discovered the universe. – New York Times.” (Science , New Series, Vol. 57, No. 1471 page 303)
Copernicus was born a roman catholic on February 19th, 1473 in Torun, Royal Prussia, Poland. He was considered highly intelligent, and did just about everything. During his lifetime he was considered to be a mathematician, astronomer, jurist, physician, translator, and catholic cleric just to name a few. He was fluent in 5 different languages, but published most of his work in Latin. His work conflicted with many of the beliefs of his time about the universe, even though he was correct. This made it tough on him to publish some of his work. His most renowned piece of work, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, stated that the sun was in the middle and all the planets revolved around it, instead of the common belief of earth in the center. This arose many questions and was hard for
Bibliography: 1) Copernicus, Science , New Series, Vol. 57, No. 1471 (Mar. 9, 1923), pp. 302-303 Published by: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2) "Nicolaus Copernicus." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 23 Sep. 2012. <http://ezpolson.nmu.edu:5067/EBchecked/topic/136591/Nicolaus-Copernicus>. 3) "Copernicus." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Sept. 2012. Web. 23 Sept. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernicus>. 4) "Nicolaus Copernicus." America 7 June 2010: 8. Academic OneFile. Web. 23 Sep. 2012. 5) Hess, Peter M. J. "Copernicus, Nicolaus." Encyclopedia of Religion. Ed. Lindsay Jones. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 1976-1979. Gale Virtual Reference Library. 23 Sep. 2012.