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Jan 1, 1347
Bubonic Plauge Begins
The Black Plauge killed about 1.5 million people from the total 4 million in Europe in that time. Since there was no medical knowledge about the disease, there was no way of stopping it from spreading and killing. -
Jan 1, 1350
Renaissance Begins
The age of the Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the period roughly from the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. Also included a huge artistic movement. -
Jan 1, 1420
Brunelleschi creates linear perspective
Brunelleschi is famous for two panel paintings illustrating geometric optical linear perspective made in the early 1400s. His biographer, Antonio Manetti, described this famous experiment in which Brunelleschi painted two panels: the first of the Florentine Baptistery as viewed frontally from the western portal of the unfinished cathedral, and second the Palazzo Vecchio as seen obliquely from its northwest corner. -
Jan 1, 1428
Joan of Arc and the Siege of Orleans
The Siege of Orléans (1428–1429) marked a turning point in the Hundred Years' War between France and England. This was Joan of Arc's first major[5] military victory and the first major French success to follow the crushing defeat at Agincourt in 1415. -
Jan 1, 1445
Johann Gutenberg invents the printing press
Johann's invention of mechanical movable type printing started the Printing Revolution and is widely regarded as the most important event of the modern period.It played a key role in the development of the Renaissance, Reformation, the Age of Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution and laid the material basis for the modern knowledge-based economy and the spread of learning to the masses. -
Jan 1, 1464
Cosimo de Medici Dies
Cosimo died on August first, 1464 he was the first of the Medici political dynasty, de facto rulers of Florence during much of the Italian Renaissance; also known as "Cosimo 'the Elder'" and "Cosimo Pater Patriae" (Latin: 'father of the nation'). After his death the Signoria awarded him the title Pater Patriae, "Father of his Country" -
Jan 1, 1478
Spanish Inquisition Begins
The Spanish Inquisition was used for both political and religious reasons. Following the Crusades and the Reconquest of Spain by the Christian Spaniards the leaders of Spain needed a way to unify the country into a strong nation. -
Jan 1, 1486
Sandro Botticelli paints Birth of Venus
Painting Sandro Botticelli. It depicts the goddess Venus, having emerged from the sea as a fully grown woman, arriving at the sea-shore (which is related to the Venus Anadyomene motif). The painting is held in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. -
Jan 1, 1492
Columbus Discovers the America's
At 2am on October 12th 1492, a sailor aboard the Pinta by the name of Rodrigo de Triana shouted, “Tierra! Tierra!” For his sighting of land, he should have received a yearly pension for the rest of his life. But the Admiral of the three-ship fleet would later tell his benefactors, Ferdinand and Isabella, that he had himself seen a light the evening before and claimed the reward for himself. Thus, inauspiciously, began Christopher Columbus’s “discovery” of the New World -
Jan 1, 1511
Raphael paints The School of Athens
One of the most famous frescoes by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. It was painted as a part of Raphael's commission to decorate with frescoes the rooms now known as the Stanze di Raffaello, in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. The School of Athens the second painting to be finished there, after La Disputa, on the opposite wall. The picture has long been seen as "Raphael's masterpiece and the perfect embodiment of the classical spirit of the High Renaissance." -
Jan 1, 1514
Michelangelo paints the Sistine Chapel
The painting is a cornerstone work of High Renaissance art. The ceiling is that of the large Papal Chapel built within the Vatican The ceiling's various painted elements form part of a larger scheme of decoration within the Chapel, which includes the large fresco The Last Judgment on the sanctuary wall, also by Michelangelo. -
Jan 1, 1514
Thomas More Utopia
The book, written in Latin, is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. A 'Utopia"' refers to a perfect society or world. (so no war, poverty etc. So this book is about a perfect place more or less. -
Jan 1, 1517
Martin Luther 95 Theses
The Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences also known as, The Ninety-Five Theses, was written by Martin Luther, 1517 and is widely regarded as the primary catalyst for the Protestant Reformation. The disputation protests against clerical abuses, especially the sale of indulgences. -
Jan 1, 1524
Start of European Wars of Religion
The European wars of religion were a series of wars waged in Europe from ca. 1524 to 1648, following the onset of the Protestant Reformation in Western and Northern Europe. Although sometimes unconnected, all of these wars were strongly influenced by the religious change of the period, and the conflict and rivalry that it produced. -
Jan 1, 1530
Ivan the Terrible is born
Ivan was Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 until his death. His long reign saw the conquest of the Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia, Ivan managed countless changes in the progression from a medieval state to an empire and emerging regional power, and became the first ruler to be crowned as Tsar of All Russia. Historic sources present disparate accounts of Ivan's complex personality: described as smart, but had a bad temper and mental illnesses. -
Jan 1, 1532
Machiavelli writes The Prince
The book is a political treatise by the Italian diplomat, historian and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli. From correspondence a version appears to have been distributed in 1513, using a Latin title, De Principatibus (About Principalities). But the printed version was not published until 1532, five years after Machiavelli's death. -
Jan 1, 1533
Henry VIII of England Excommunicated
The pope excommunicated Henry VIII because he refused to submit to papal authority. He challenged the church's decision not allowing him to divorce Catherine of Aragon, and in doing so proclaiming himself leader of the church in England, thus being able to make his own decisions regarding his divorce. -
Jan 1, 1536
Desiderius Erasmus dies
Erasmus was a classical scholar who wrote in a pure Latin style. He was an early proponent of religious toleration, and enjoyed the sobriquet "Prince of the Humanists"; he has been called "the crowning glory of the Christian humanists." Using humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament -
Jan 1, 1543
Jesuit Order founded by Ignatius Loyola
Ignatius Loyola founded the Jesuits (the Society of Jesus). The Jesuits were one of the major spearheads of the Counter-Reformation. The work done by Ignatius Loyola was seen as an important counter to Martin Luther and John Calvin. -
Jan 1, 1543
Scientific Revolution / Copernicus
The scientific revolution began in Europe towards the end of the Renaissance era and continued through the late 18th century, the later period known as The Enlightenment. It was sparked by the publication in 1543 of two works that changed the course of science: Nicolaus Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) and Andreas Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human body). -
Jan 1, 1557
Spain declares Bankruptcy for the first time
Philip II of Spain had to declare four state bankruptcies in 1557, 1560, 1575 and 1596. Spain became the first sovereign nation in history to declare bankruptcy. -
Jan 1, 1558
Coronation of Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I was crowned Queen. She was the third of Henry VIII’s children to become monarch and she was the last of the Tudor dynasty.Elizabeth had inherited the throne from her half-sister Mary I, who had died on the 17th November 1558. -
Jan 1, 1572
Saint Bartholomew's Massacre
The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations, followed by a wave of Roman Catholic mob violence, both directed against the Huguenots, during the French Wars of Religion. Traditionally believed to have been instigated by Catherine de' Medici. The Massacre is unknown to exactly how many deaths it caused, but the guess is anywhere between 5,000 and 30,000 -
Edict of Nantes
Issued by Henry IV of France, granted the Calvinist Protestants of France (also known as Huguenots) substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic. In the Edict, Henry aimed primarily to promote civil unity.The Edict separated civil from religious unity, treated some Protestants for the first time as more than mere schismatics and heretics, and opened a path for secularism and tolerance. -
Da Vinci paints the Last Supper
A 15th century mural painting in Milan created by Leonardo da Vinci for his patron Duke Ludovico Sforza and his duchess Beatrice d'Este. It represents the scene of The Last Supper from the final days of Jesus as it is told in the Gospel of John 13:21, when Jesus announces that one of his Twelve Apostles would betray him.
