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Sep 28, 1458
Richard III is killed in battle
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. -
Sep 28, 1492
Christopher Columbus reaches Americas
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, navigator, and colonizer, born in the Republic of Genoa, in what is today northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents. Those voyages, and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola -
Sep 28, 1503
Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. -
Sep 28, 1516
Thomas More's Utopia is published
Utopia is a work of fiction and political philosophy by Thomas More published in 1516. -
Sep 28, 1543
Henry VIII proclaims himself head of Church of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France. Henry was the second monarch of the House of Tudor, succeeding his father, Henry VII. -
Sep 28, 1558
Elizabeth I becomes queen of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called "The Virgin Queen", "Gloriana", or "Good Queen Bess", Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. The daughter of Henry VIII, she was born a princess, but her mother, Anne Boleyn, was executed two and a half years after her birth, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate. -
Apr 26, 1564
William Shakespeare, The Bard of Avon, is born
William Shakespeare was born on April 26th, 1564 and died at the age of 52 on April 23rd, 1616 in England. -
Globe Theatre was built in London
The Globe Theatre was built in London in the year 1599. It was designed by William Shakespeare. -
Shakespeare writes King Lear and Macbeth
He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. -
First permanent English settlement in NorthAmerica is established at Jamestown, Virginia
Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 14, 1607. -
Shakespeare's sonnets are published
Published in 1609, the Sonnets were the last of Shakespeare's non-dramatic works to be printed. Scholars are not certain when each of the 154 sonnets was composed, but evidence suggests that Shakespeare wrote sonnets throughout his career for a private readership.[ -
King James Bible published
The King James Bible is an English translation of the Christian Bible by the Church of England begun in 1604 and completed in 1611. First printed by the King's Printer Robert Barker, this was the third official translation into English. The first was the Great Bible commissioned by the Church of England in the reign of King Henry VIII, and the second was the Bishop's Bible of 1568. -
The Mayflower lands at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts
The Mayflower departed Plymouth, England on September 6/16, 1620, with 102 passengers and about 30 crew members aboard the small 100-foot ship. During the first month of the voyage, the seas were not severe, but by the second month the ship was being hit by strong North Atlantic winter gales, causing the ship to be badly shaken, with water leaking from structural damage. -
Newspapers are first published in London
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register. -
John Milton begins Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books. -
Puritan Commonwealth ends; monarchy is restored with Charles II
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th century, and from 1630 to 1660 in the 17th century, including, but not also limited to, English Calvinists.
