Astronomer Galileo on trial for saying Earth revolved around the sun

Today is Feb. 13. On this date in:

1542

The fifth wife of England’s King Henry VIII, Catherine Howard, was executed for adultery.

1633

Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before the Inquisition, accused of defending Copernican theory that the Earth revolved around the sun instead of the other way around. (Galileo was found vehemently suspect of heresy, and ended up being sentenced to a form of house arrest.)

1741

Andrew Bradford of Pennsylvania published the first American magazine. “The American Magazine, or A Monthly View of the Political State of the British Colonies” lasted three issues.

1861

Abraham Lincoln was officially declared winner of the 1860 presidential election as electors cast their ballots.

1920

The League of Nations recognized the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland.

1935

A jury in Flemington, New Jersey, found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of first-degree murder in the kidnap-slaying of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was later executed.)

1943

During World War II, the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve was officially established.

1945

During World War II, Allied planes began bombing the German city of Dresden.

1945

The Soviets captured Budapest, Hungary, from the Germans.

1960

France exploded its first atomic bomb in the Sahara Desert.

1991

During Operation Desert Storm, allied warplanes destroyed an underground shelter in Baghdad that had been identified as a military command center; Iraqi officials said 500 civilians were killed.

2013

Beginning a long farewell to his flock, a weary Pope Benedict XVI celebrated his final public Mass as pontiff, presiding over Ash Wednesday services inside St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.