The stuff you learn on the History Channel! I was amazed to learn that Copernicus was, in fact, not the first serious astronomer to propose that the Earth revolved around the Sun (and not vice-versa). A Greek philosopher named Aristarchus first brought forward the theory, but was shouted down by his contemporaries as his theories ran against the prevailing thoughts of, among others, Aristotle.

A brief web search brings up several pages [1, 2, 3] which reveal that Copernicus himself initially credited Aristarchus in his seminal work but removed the reference just before its . . . (continued)