#14: Giordano Bruno (January 1548 – February 17, 1600)
Italian philosopher and former Dominican friar Giordano Bruno challenged accepted ideas about astronomy, religion, and the universe. He argued that the stars were distant suns and believed the universe stretched far beyond what most scholars imagined. Church authorities imprisoned him for years before convicting him of heresy. Bruno refused to renounce his beliefs, and they executed him in 1600. Today, many remember him as a symbol of intellectual freedom and the courage to question accepted truths.
