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Sep 27, 1485
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 27, 1492
Christopher Columbus reaches the americas
Columbus was not the first to 'discover' or even 'explore' the Americas. However, he was the first to create extended interest in the Americas and make it a centerpiece of colonization efforts by first the Spanish and then the French and the English. -
Sep 27, 1503
Leonardo da vinci paints the Mona Lisa
The Mona Lisa portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo 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." -
Sep 26, 1516
Thomas More's utopia is published
Utopia was written (in Latin, for educated people) at a time when Europeans were just beginning to sail across oceans to previously unknown lands. -
Sep 27, 1543
Henry proclaims himself head of church of england
Henry VIII is known for his role in the separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church. Henry's struggles with Rome led to the separation of the Church of England from papal authority, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and establishing himself as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. Yet he remained a believer in core Catholic theological teachings, even after his excommunication from the Catholic Church -
Sep 27, 1558
Elizabeth I becomes queen of England
Queen of England the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Through her Religious Settlement of 1559 she enforced the Protestant religion by law. She had Mary Queen of Scots executed in 1587. -
Sep 26, 1564
William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, is born
When we hear the term ‘The Bard‘ our minds spring immediately to the name ‘William Shakespeare’. That is because he seems to have been given the title in recognition of his stature as ‘great poet’ and the unofficial national poet of England -
Globe Theatre is built in London
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, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613. -
1605-1606 Shakespeare wirtes King lear and Macbeth
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all.The Tragedy of Macbeth (commonly called Macbeth) is a play written by William Shakespeare. It is considered one of his darkest and most powerful tragedies. -
First permanent English settlement in North America is established at Jamestown, Virginia.
A small company of settlers landed at a point on the James River in Virginia and established the settlement of Jamestown. -
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. -
King James Bible is published
The Authorized Version, or King James Version, quickly became the standard for English-speaking Protestants. Its flowing language and prose rhythm has had a profound influence on the literature of the past 400 years. -
The Mayflower lands at plymouth Rock, Massachusetts
When they landed, the colonists called their new home "New Plymouth." The colonists all signed the "Mayflower Covenant" before landing, promising to establish "just and equal laws." -
Newspapers are first published in London
In the beginning of the 17th century the right to print was strictly controlled in England. This was probably the reason why the first newspaper in English language was printed in Amsterdam by Joris Veseler around 1620. -
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, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse. -
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
