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Aug 22, 1485
Richard 3rd is killed in battle
Richard 3rd was born in October 2, 1452. He was the King of England and reigned from 1483 – 1485. He died at age 32 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”, marked the end of the Middle Ages in England. -
May 1, 1492
Christopher Columbus reaches the Americas
Christopher Columbus was born on October 21, 1451. Columbus was not the first European explorer to reach the Americas, his voyages led to the first lasting European contact with the Americas, inaugurating a period of European exploration, conquest, and colonization that lasted for several centuries. -
Jan 1, 1503
Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa
The Mona Lisa is a 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, and the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world.” The painting was believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506. It is now on permanent display at the Louvre Museum in Paris since 1797. -
Jan 1, 1516
Thomas More's Utopia is published c
Utopia is a work of fiction and political philosophy by Thomas More which published in 1516 in Latin.The book is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. -
Jan 1, 1543
With the Supremacy Act, Henry 8th proclaims himself head of the Church of England
King Henry the 8th of England was born on June 28, 1509. Henry 8th is known for his role in the separation of the Church of England from Roman Catholic Church. His disagreements with the pope led to his separation of the Church of England from papal authority, with himself, as king, as the Supreme Head of the Church of England and to the Dissolution of the Monasteries. -
Jan 1, 1558
Elizabeth 1st becomes queen of England
Elizabeth 1st was born on September 7, 1533. She reign from November 17, 1558 to March 24, 1603. She was sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, the childless Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. -
Apr 1, 1564
William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, is born
He was born on April of 1564Shakespeare was called the Bard of Avon, because he is considered to the greatest poet that ever lived. The word "Bard" means poet and bards were traveling poets in medieval times, who made a living performing and telling stories. -
Globe Theatre is built in London
The Globe Theatre in London was built in 1599 by Shakespeare’s playing company, the Lord Chamberlain’s men, and it was destroyed by fire on June 29, 1613. A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site by June 1614 and closed in 1642. -
Shakespeare writes King Lear and Macbeth
King Lear was written in 1605 and it was published in 1608 in a quarto of uncertain provenance and the genre is Tragedy. Macbeth was believed to have been written in 1606 and was published in 1623 from a prompt book. The play dramatizes the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. -
First permanent English settlement in North America is established at Jamestown, Virginia
The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. Jamestown served as the capital of the colony for 83 years, from 1616 until 1699. Mortality at Jamestown itself was very high due to disease and starvation, with over 80% of the colonists perishing in 1609-1610 in what became known as the “Starving Time”. -
Shakespeare’s sonnets are published
Shakespeare’s sonnets is the title of a collection of 154 sonnets (although sonnets 138 and 144 had previously been published in the 1599, miscellany The Passionate Pilgrim) accredited to William Shakespeare which cover themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality. -
King James Bible is published
King James Bible is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England that began in 1604 and was completed in 1611. The translation is widely considered a towering achievement in English literature, as both beautiful and scholarly. -
The Mayflower lands at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts
The Mayflower was the ship that transported the first English Separatists, known today as the Pilgrims, from Plymouth to the New World in 1620. There were 120 passengers, and the voyage has become an iconic story in some of the earliest annals of American history, with its story of death and of survival in the harsh New England winter environment. -
Newspaper are first published in London
The first English-language newspaper was published in Amsterdam in 1620. A year and a half later it was published in England by an “N.B” (Nathaniel Butter). When the English started printing their newspaper in London, they reverted to the pamphlet format used by contemporary books. The era of these news-books lasted until the publication of the Oxford Gazette in 1665. -
John Milton begins Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse and the first version, was 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 note on the versification. -
Puritan Commonwealth ends; monarchy is restored with Charles 2nd
The Commonwealth was the period from 1649 onwards when England, along later with Ireland and Scotland, was ruled as a republic following the end of the Second English Civil War and the trial and execution of Charles 1st. During the period, fighting continued, particularly in Ireland and Scotland, between the parliamentary forces and those opposed to them.
