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Jan 7, 1492
Christopher Colombus reaches America
Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, navigator, and colonizer, citizen of the Republic of Genoa. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. Those voyages, and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola, initiated the Spanish colonization of the New World. -
Jan 7, 1503
Leonardo Da Vinci paints Mona Lisa
The Mona Lisa 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
Work of fiction and political philosophy published in Latin. The book is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. -
Jan 7, 1543
Henry VIII proclaims himself head of Church of England
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. -
Nov 17, 1558
Elizibeth I becomes queen of England
Elizabeth I 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. -
Apr 26, 1564
William Shakespeare
English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist -
Globe Theater
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 -
Period: to
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 is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy, and tells the story of a brave Scottish general named Macbeth who receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. -
First permenant 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. It was the first permanent
English settlement in the New World. -
Shakespeare's sonnets are published
A collection of 154 sonnets, dealing with themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality -
King James Bible
English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England began in 1604 and completed in 1611. First printed by the King's Printer Robert Barker, this was the third translation into English -
The Mayflower lands at Plymouth Rock
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 or in Bradford's journal Of Plymouth Plantation. -
Newspapers arefirst published in London
a publication that appears regularly and frequently, and carries news about a wide variety of current events. Organizations such as trade unions, religious groups, corporations or clubs may have their own newspapers, but the term is more commonly used to refer to daily or weekly publications that bring news of general interest to large portions of the public in a specific geographic area. The United States had 1,611 general-circulation daily newspapers in 1990 -- 14 percent fewer than it had in -
John Milton begins Paradise Lost
An epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet. 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 -
Richard III is killed in battle
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. -
Puritan Commonweath ends: monarchy is restored with Charles II
The Commonwealth, or Commonwealth of England, 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 I. The republic's existence was initially declared through "An Act declaring England to be a Commonwealth", adopted by the Rump Parliament on 19 May 1649. Power in the early Commonwealth was vested primarily in the Parliament and a Council of State. Durin
