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Jan 1, 1485
Richard III is Killled
Richard is born at Fotheringay Castle, Northamptonshire on 2 October 1452 to Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, and Lady Cecily Neville. He is the 12th of 13 children, seven of whom survive to adulthood. On 22 August 1485, Richard was killed at Bosworth Field, the last English King to die in battle, thereby bringing to an end both the Plantagenet dynasty and the Wars of the Roses. Henry Tudor was crowned King Henry VII. -
Jan 1, 1503
Leonardo da Vinvi Paints the Mona Lisa
Leonardo’s Mona Lisa is one of the most famous paintings in the world. Today it is in the Louvre in Paris, but it was produced in Florence when Leonardo moved there to live from about 1500-1508. It is sometimes called La Jaconde in French (or in Italian, La Giaconda) because it is believed to be the portrait of the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, whose name was Lisa. -
Jan 6, 1516
Utopis is Published
Utopia (published in 1516) attempts to offer a practical response to the crises of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by carefully defining an ideal republic. Unlike Plato's Republic, a largely abstract dialogue about justice, Utopia focuses on politics and social organization in stark detail. The books begin a conversation between Thomas More and Raphael (Hebrew for 'God has healed'). Raphael is a traveler who has seen much of the world yet is impressed by little of it. -
Jan 1, 1543
Henry VIII Head of the Church
The title was created for King Henry VIII, who was responsible for the Engliish Catholic church breaking away from the authority of the Roman Catholic Church after the Pope excommunicated Henry in 1533 over his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. By 1536, Henry had broken with Rome, seized the church's assets in England and declared the Church of England as the established church with himself as its head. The Act of Supremacy of 1534 confirmed the King's status as having supremacy over the church. -
Jan 1, 1558
Elizabeth I Becomes Queen
Elizabeth was born at Greenwich, London on 7 September 1533. She was well educated in several languages. During her Roman Catholic half-sister Mary's (Mary I) reign, Elizabeth's Protestant sympathies brought her under suspicion, and she lived in seclusion at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, until on Mary's death she became queen. Her first task was to bring about a broad religious settlement. Many unsuccessful attempts were made by Parliament to persuade Elizabeth to marry or settle the succession. -
Jan 1, 1564
The Bard of Avon
Strictly speaking, a bard is an exalted national poet, and the "Bard of Avon" remains for millions the greatest English playwright and poet of all time, penning 37 plays and 126 sonnets. Some scholars believe he was incapable of writing the majestic prose and poetry, arguing Christopher Marlowe, Sir Francis Bacon or even good Queen Bess herself penned the plays and poems. -
Globe Theatre
The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, on land owned by Thomas Brend and inherited by his son, Nicholas Brend and grandson Sir Matthew Brend, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613.A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site by June 1614 and closed in 1642. -
The Mayflower Lands
The claim was made by 94-year-old Thomas Faunce, a church elder who said his father, who arrived in Plymouth in 1623, and several of the original Mayflower passengers assured him the stone was the specific landing spot. When the elderly Faunce heard that a wharf was to be built over the rock, he wanted a final glimpse. He was conveyed by chair 3 miles from his house to the harbor, where he reportedly gave Plymouth Rock a tearful goodbye. Whether Faunce’s assertion was accurate oral history. -
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Shakespear writes King Lear and Macbeth
The story of King Lear and his three daughters is an old tale, well known in England for centuries before Shakespeare wrote the definitive play on the subject. The Tragedy of Macbeth is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, and is considered one of his darkest and most powerful works. -
The First Permanent English Settlement
On May 14, 1607, the Virginia Company explorers landed on Jamestown Island to establish the Virginia English colony on the banks of the James River, 60 miles from the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. The colony was sponsored by the Virginia Company of London, a group of investors who hoped to profit from the venture. -
King James Bible is Published
The commissioning of the King James Bible took place in 1604 at the Hampton Court Conference outside of London. The first edition appeared in 1611. The King James version remains one of the greatest landmarks in the English tongue. It has decidedly affected our language and thought categories, and although produced in England for English churches, it played a unique role in the historical development of America. -
Printing Press
There were twelve London newspapers and 24 provincial papers by the 1720s. The Public Advertiser was started by Henry Woodfall in the 18th century. The first English journalist to achieve national importance was Daniel Defoe. In February 1704, he began his weekly, printed three times a week and was a forerunner of The Tatler. -
The Being of Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consisted of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, arranged into twelve books with minor revisions throughout and a note on the versification. It is considered by critics to be Milton's major work, and helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of his time. -
Monarchy is Restored
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The term Restoration is used to describe both the actual event by which the monarchy was restored, and the period of several years afterwards in which a new political settlement was established. -
Shakespeare's Sonnets are Published
Shakespeare's sonnets are a collection of 154 sonnets, dealing with themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality, first published in a 1609 quarto entitled. Never before imprinted. (although sonnets 138 and 144 had previously been published in the 1599 miscellany The Passionate Pilgrim). The quarto ends with "A Lover's Complaint", a narrative poem of 47 seven-line stanzas written in rhyme royal. -
Chirstopher Columbus Reaches the Americans
Columbus led his three ships - the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria - out of the Spanish port of Palos on August 3, 1492. His objective was to sail west until he reached Asia (the Indies) where the riches of gold, pearls and spice awaited. His first stop was the Canary Islands where the lack of wind left his expedition becalmed until September 6.
