5-Minute Mathematics

On this day in 1633, Galileo, at age 68, left his home in Florence, Italy, to face the Inquisition in Rome. By 22 Jun 1633, he buckled under the threats and interrogation by the Inquisition, and renounced his belief that the Earth revolved around the Sun.

On this day, Janos Bolyai died in what is now Tirgu-Mures, Romania, and was then part of Hungary. Of his discoveries in non-Euclidean geometry, he wrote to his father Farkas, "From nothing I have created another entirely new world."