The Scientific Revolution Timeline By sarah.gardner19 1514 Appearance of the heliocentric theory of Nicholas Copernicus 1522 Ferdinand Magellan famously completes the first circumnavigation of the globe. 1569 The cartographer Gerard Mercator publishes his justly famous cartographic projection system. 1584 A talented clockmaker, Joost Brugi (1552-1632) invents a novel 1585 In mathematics, Simon Stevin proposes the use of decimals. 1608 The telescope is invented in the Netherlands; 1637 Rene Descartes published his Discours de la methodé, which was the beginning of geometry.