Nicolaus Copernicus was born on February 19, 1473 in Torun, Poland. When Copernicus was ten years old, his father died and his uncle, the Bishop of Varmia Lucas Watzenrode, took him in with his brothers and sisters. He attended several universities during his life, including the University of Krakow, the University of Bologna, the University of Padua and the University of Padua. from Ferrara. In 1494 he took up the post of canon at Frombork Cathedral, which he held for the rest of his life. Thanks to this position, it gave him the opportunity to finance the continuation of his studies in different fields. Then in 1496, he went to Italy and met an astronomer and teacher, Domenico Maria Novara. They exchanged ideas and astronomical observations. Later, in 1508, he began to develop his own celestial model, a heliocentric planetary system. By creating the heliocentric planetary system, he brought about changes that transformed people's way of thinking. Originally, people thought that the earth was the center of the universe, but Copernicus proved that the sun was in fact the center of the universe. It was an important event in the history of science because it sparked the Copernican Revolution and contributed to the Scientific Revolution. Copernicus also rejected the long-accepted Aristotelian/Ptolemaic view of the universe, asserting that the earth was at the center. Then, on May 24, 1543, Nicholas Copernicus died. (Ravetz, JR) Copernicus' major achievement was to develop his own celestial model of a heliocentric planetary system. His model was simple but apparently no better at predicting how the planets moved than the model before his. However, his model remained easier to use and understand. Part of what the model provided was that the center of the Earth is not the center...... middle of paper ......ation of the Quincentenary of Nicolaus Copernicus 1473-1543 (January 15, 1974) , pp. 5 -9Shaer, Matthew. “How Nicolaus Copernicus rewrote the rules of the solar system.” The Christian Science Monitor: February 22, 19, 2013. ProQuest. Internet. December 2, 2013. Tenn, Joe. “The Copernican Revolution”. The Copernican Revolution. Sonoma State University, January 19, 2007. Web. December 3, 2013. “Nicolaus Copernicus”. 2013. Biography Channel website. December 2, 2013, 04:39 http://www.biography.com/people/nicolaus-copernicus-9256984. “Copernicus, Nicolaus” April 23, 2009. HowStuffWorks.com. December 2, 2013. "Copernicus, Nicholas, Mikolaj Kopernik (Pol) (1473 - 1543)." The Cambridge Dictionary of Scientists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Reference Credo. Internet. December 4 2013.