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Established first English colony
Jamestown, Virginia, established the first permanent English colony on the American mainland. On May 13 they picked Jamestown, Virginia for their settlement, which was named after their King, James I. The settlement became the first permanent English settlement in North America. -
Galileo Galilei sees the moons of Jupiter through his telescope
Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei discovered, using a homemade telescope, four moons orbiting the planet Jupiter. Looking at what he thought were a group of stars, he realized the objects appeared to move in a regular pattern. -
Start of the Thirty Years' War
Though the struggles of the Thirty Years War erupted some years earlier, the war is conventionally held to have begun in 1618, when the future Holy Roman emperor Ferdinand II attempted to impose Roman Catholic absolutism on his domains, and the Protestant nobles of both Bohemia and Austria rose up in rebellion. -
The first African slaves are brought to Jamestown
First enslaved Africans arrive in Jamestown, setting the stage for slavery in North America. On August 20, 1619, “20 and odd” Angolans, kidnapped by the Portuguese, arrive in the British colony of Virginia and are then bought by English colonists. -
Pilgrims from England arrive at Plymouth, Massachusetts, on the Mayflower
Mayflower arrived in New England on November 11, 1620 after a voyage of 66 days. Although the Pilgrims had originally intended to settle near the Hudson River in New York, dangerous shoals and poor winds forced the ship to seek shelter at Cape Cod. -
The Spanish Inquisition forces Galileo Galilei to recant his belief in Copernican theory
Church teachings contended that Earth, not the sun, was at the center of the universe. In 1633, Galileo was brought before the Roman Inquisition, a judicial system established by the papacy in 1542 to regulate church doctrine. This included the banning of books that conflicted with church teachings. Galileo spent the rest of his days at his villa in Arcetri, near Florence, before dying on January 8, 1642. -
Taj Mahal completed
The monument, begun in 1632, was finished in 1648. unverified but nonetheless, tenacious, legends attribute its construction to an international team of several thousands of masons, marble workers, mosaicists and decorators working under the orders of the architect of the emperor, Ustad Ahmad Lahori. -
End of the Thirty Years' War
German population about half of what it was in 1618 because of war and pestilence. The power of the Holy Roman Emperor was broken and the German states were again able to determine the religion of their lands. -
Great Plague in London kills 75,000
In 1665, the Great Plague of London killed more than 75,000 people in the space of a year, almost a quarter of the city's population back then. It caused 8,000 deaths per week during its peak in September 1665. -
Pennsylvania founded by William Penn
English reformer William Penn, born on October 14, 1644, in London, England, named it in honor of his father. Persecuted in England for his Quaker faith, Penn came to America in 1682 and established Pennsylvania as a place where people could enjoy freedom of religion.