February 26th

On this day - February 26th 1616 - Galileo Galilei banned by the Church 

Galileo Galilei was an Italian scientist who contributed in the scientific revolution during the Renaissance. Galilei made major contributions to several sciences and has been called, father of observational astronomy, father of modern physics, and father of science. Galileo is most known for championing the heliocentric (the sun is the center) world view , as apposed to the geocentric ( Earth is center) that was the norm. It was for his new heliocentric world view he was banned by the Roman Catholic church on this day. The Church had asked a group of theologians known as the Qualifiers about the heliocentric worldview and on February 24th they concluded "foolish and absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical since it explicitly contradicts in many places the sense of Holy Scripture...". The Church then sentenced Galilei, and should he not accept the following sentence it would be worse. 

"to abstain completely from teaching or defending this doctrine and opinion or from discussing it... to abandon completely... the opinion that the sun stands still at the center of the world and the earth moves, and henceforth not to hold, teach, or defend it in any way whatever, either orally or in writing."

Galilei abandoned the controversy for many years until he released the book "Dialog concerning the Two Chief World Systems" the book was initially published in 1632 with authorization from the inquisition and papal permission. This writing caused Galilei to be sentenced as a "vehemently suspect of heresy"  and landed him in prison and the book was banned.