Copernicus is famed for being the one to come up with the idea of heliocentricity. This means he was the one to first propose the idea that the universe revolved around the Sun rather than around the world. Galileo is often thought of as the father of this idea, but he was actually a follower of Copernicus and he simply popularized the idea.

Due to the plethora of scientific and academic fields that the Scientific Revolution help to create, there was a major upswing in the number of people who returned to academic study, thus giving rise to the Enlightenment, which saw the educational systems of Europe become more widespread.

The Scientific Revolution was the birth of modern science. It came in the wake of the Renaissance, and the revival of the arts and academic thought that came with it. Notable thinkers of the Scientific Revolution included Isaac Newton and Galileo.

Following the Renaissance in the 1400's academic thought was reborn in Europe. This combined with the modern tool of the Printing Press, which allowed academics to read the works of others from far away, and the legacy of Alchemists, who sought to expand human understanding, helped to push great academics of the time to discover and create. The Enlightenment was an 18th century philosophical movement that included such seminal thinkers as Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Sir Francis Bacon is the man who pioneered the scientific method. It was meant to serve as a pathway for all scientists to objectively observe, and theorize reasons for, natural phenomena in the world.

Galileo was the man who championed the idea of Heliocentricity. While he often gets credit for first proposing the theory, it was actually Copernicus who first proposed the theory. Galileo was an ardent believer in the theory though, and pushed it publicly, causing the backlash from the Catholic Church which made him even more famous.

Sir Isaac Newton was one of, if not the, defining academic of all time. He is credited with the invention of many academic fields including Physics and Calculus. He is not, however, credited with the invention of trigonometry, which has a history too diverse and complicated to be credited to a single person. Trigonomic functions have been found in the artifacts of numerous ancient civilizations, including Egypt, China, and India.

The Guillotine was the machine used to behead the people of France who were put to death during the French Revolution. The Guillotine remained the primary method of execution in France until 1981 when Capital Punishment was abolished in France. The other methods listed here were used, but not in France.