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Portrait, attributed to Murillo, of Galileo gazing at the words “E pur si muove” scratched on the wall of his prison cell

Today marks the anniversary of the day the Inquisition condemned Galileo Galilei in 1633.

By the end of his trial, the Italian astronomer and physicist was forced to recant his own scientific findings as “abjured, cursed and detested,” and to proclaim that the Earth did not revolve around the sun.
This renunciation, which led to his house arrest for eight years before his death in 1642 at the age of 77, caused him great personal anguish but saved him from being burned at the stake.

Legend has it that as Galileo rose from kneeling before his inquisitors, he muttered the rebellious phrase “e pur, si muove” — ” and yet it moves“..”

It was only in 1992 that Pope John Paul II officially declared that Galileo was right.