Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his Inquisition trial (1633), and Israel gains four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls (1955). Born on this day: Thomas Malthus, William B. Shockley and Paul Biya. Died: Richard Wagner, Catherine Howard and Charles X Gustav.
27 events, 77 births and 73 deaths on this date.
Galileo reached Rome to face the Inquisition over his support for the Copernican view that the Earth moves around the Sun. The trial would end with him forced to recant and spend the rest of his life under house arrest.
Justus Sustermans · Public domainIsrael took possession of four of the seven known Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient manuscripts found near the lowest point on Earth. The acquisition gave the country a large share of a collection of early texts that scholars around the world were eager to study.
Taiwan's opposition leader stepped down from the Kuomintang chairmanship after being indicted over funds allegedly misused while he was mayor of Taipei. He used the same day to announce he would stand in the 2008 presidential election.
While working on electric lamps, Edison noticed that a heated filament gave off electrons that could cross a vacuum. The effect, later called the Edison effect, became the basis of the vacuum tube and early electronics.
A blaze broke out in the North Tower, one of the two Twin Towers that were then the tallest buildings in the world. The complex, which symbolised American economic power, was later destroyed in the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The government of British India completed its move from Calcutta to New Delhi, the new capital built to replace it. The shift marked the end of Calcutta's long role as the seat of colonial rule.
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Thomas Malthus was an English economist and clergyman who argued that population growth tends to outrun food supply. His 1798 Essay on the Principle of Population shaped debates on poverty and demography for generations.
John Linnell · CC BY 4.0
William Shockley led the Bell Labs team whose work on the transistor earned him a share of the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics. His later years were marked by his public support for racist and eugenic ideas, which damaged his reputation.
Chuck Painter / Stanford News Service · CC BY 3.0
Paul Biya is a Cameroonian politician who has led the country as president since 1982, after serving as prime minister. Critics call his rule authoritarian, and he is among the longest-serving leaders in Africa.
United States Department of State Africa U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit: Photos and Videos · Public domain
Richard Wagner, the German composer, died in Venice in 1883. He rewrote opera by writing both the words and music of his stage works, most famously the four-opera Ring cycle.
Franz Hanfstaengl · Public domain
Henry VIII's fifth wife, a teenage cousin of Anne Boleyn who was made queen in 1540 after catching the king's eye at Anne of Cleves's court. Stripped of her title in 1541 and accused of adultery and treason, she was beheaded in February 1542.
Hans Holbein the Younger · Public domain
Charles X Gustav ruled Sweden from 1654 and led it through the Second Northern War, which enlarged the Swedish realm. He was the first monarch of the Caroline era, whose peak came under his son, Charles XI.
Sébastien Bourdon · Public domain
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