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Jan 1, 1485
Richard III is killed in battle.
Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 1483 until his death in 1485 in the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat at Bosworth Field, the last decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses, marks the end of the Middle Ages in England. He is the subject of the fictional historical play Richard III by William Shakespeare. -
Jan 1, 1492
Christopher Columbus reaches the Americas.
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. -
Jan 1, 1503
Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa.
The Mona Lisa (Monna Lisa or La Gioconda in Italian; La Joconde in French) is a half-length portrait of a woman by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, which has been acclaimed as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world" -
Jan 1, 1516
Thomas More's Utopia is published.
Thomas More's use of dialogue is not only practical but masterly laid out. The text is divided into two parts, the first called "Book One" describes the English society of the fifteenth century. "Book Two" is about the rhetorical, socialist society in detail. -
Jan 1, 1543
With the Supremremacy Act, Henry VIII proclaims himself head of Church of England.
On this date, February 11, in 1531, King Henry VIII of England first asserted he was the ‘Supreme Head’ of the Church in England.
In just a few short years, Henry had ceased being a stalwart defender of the Catholic Church – as he was when he published a small book against Martin Luther in 1521 and received the title of Defender of the Faith from Pope Leo X – and had become an enemy of the papacy and Catholic tradition because of his own licentiousness and his lack of a male heir to the throne. -
Jan 1, 1558
Elizabeth I becomes queen of England.
Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, the childless Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII by second wife, Anne Boleyn, who was executed two and a half years after Elizabeth's birth. Anne's marriage to Henry VIII was annulled, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate. -
Jan 1, 1564
William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, is born.
According to tradition, the great English dramatist and poet William Shakespeare is born in Stratford-on-Avon on April 23, 1564. It is impossible to be certain the exact day on which he was born, but church records show that he was baptized on April 26, and three days was a customary amount of time to wait before baptizing a newborn. -
Globe Theatre is built in London.
The first Globe Theatre was built in London in 1599. It was built on the Southbank of the river Thames in Southwark, London in close proximity to the Bear Garden. The land had been owned by the Bishop of Winchester and this estate was called the Liberty of the Clink. -
Shakespeare writes King Lear and MacBeth.
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The titular character descends into madness after disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. Macbeth (full title The Tragedy of Macbeth) is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, and is considered one of his darkest and most powerful works. -
First permanent English settlement in North America is established at Jamestown, Virginia.
On May 14, 1607, a small company of settlers landed at a point on the James River in Virginia and established the settlement of Jamestown. It was the first permanent English settlement in the New World. The Spanish were already well-established in Florida by this time, having founded the city of St. Augustine in 1565. While that city holds the true title of "first permanent settlement" in the United States, the planting of Jamestown by the English established King James' claim to the North. -
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 SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS. -
King James Bible is published.
The King James Version (KJV), commonly known as the Authorized Version (AV) or King James Bible (KJB), is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England begun in 1604 and completed in 1611.[a] First printed by the King's Printer Robert Barker, this was the third translation into English to be approved by the English Church authorities. The first was the Great Bible commissioned in the reign of King Henry VIII (1535), and the second was the Bishops' Bible of 1568. -
The Mayflower lands at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts.
Plymouth Rock is the traditional site of disembarkation of William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. It is an important symbol in American history. There are no contemporaneous references to the Pilgrims' landing on a rock at Plymouth, and it is not referred to in Edward Winslow's Mourt's Relation (1620–21) or in Bradford's journal Of Plymouth Plantation (1620–47). -
Newspapers are first published in London.
There were twelve London newspapers and 24 provincial papers by the 1720s (the Daily Courant was the first daily newspaper in London). The Public Advertiser was started by Henry Woodfall in the 18th century. -
John Milton begins Paradise Lost.
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. 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 (in the manner of Virgil's Aeneid) 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. -
Puritan Commonwealth ends; monarchy is restored with Charles II.
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.[1] It is very often used to cover the whole reign of Charles II (1660–1685) and often the brief reig
