March 5: The Book of Nicholas Copernicus' On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres "is prohibited by the Catholic Church in 1616.

Cover of the first edition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, printed in Venice in 1564

Copernicus was born in Poland on February 19, 1473 and died on May 24, 1543, at 70 years old, in Prussia. He is considered the father of the heliocentric theory. That is, that the all stars rotate around the sun. In the terrestrial case, Copernicus formulated the astronomical theory in which he explained that the planets revolved around the sun and against the geocentric belief that he believed that all the planets revolved around the Earth, center of creation of the universe, according to the Catholic Church during the Renaissance.

(The sphere of the fixed stars) is followed by the first of the planets, Saturn, which completes its circuit in 30 years. After Saturn, Jupiter accomplishes its revolution in 12 years. Then Mars revolves in 2 years. The annual revolution takes the series’ fourth place, which contains the earth, as I said (earlier in I, 10), together with the lunar sphere as an epicycle. In the fifth place Venus returns in 9 months. Lastly, the sixth place is held by Mercury, which revolves in a period of 80 days.

Copernicus refrained from publishing his work until his death, despite having the ecclesiastical support, and who was also a Catholic priest. However, after his death, his works were included in the "Index librorum prohibitorum" or "Index of Forbidden Books" by the Catholic Church, which excommunicated all who read these works.

   On The Revolutions of The Heavenly Spheres, inside cover.

The Catholic Church banned his book on the 5th of March, 1616. It was not until February 8th, 1966, that Pope Paul VI accepted that the Church was mistaken about Copernicus.