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Nov 9, 1485
Richard III is killed in battle
Richard III was King of England , at the age of 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. He is the subject of the historical play Richard III by William Shakespeare. -
Nov 9, 1492
Christopher Columbus reaches the Americas
Christopher Columbus completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. Those voyages and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola initiated the European colonization of the New World. Columbus proposed to reach the East Indies by sailing westward, and this eventually received the support of the Spanish Crown, which saw a chance to enter the spice trade with Asia through a new westward route. -
Nov 9, 1503
Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa
The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait of a woman by the Italian Renaissance 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". -
Nov 9, 1516
Thomas More’s Utopia is published
Utopia is a work of fiction and political philosophy by Thomas More published in Latin. The book is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. Many aspects of More's description of Utopia are reminiscent of life in monasteries. -
Nov 9, 1543
With the Supremacy Act, Henry VIII proclaims himself head of Church of England
The Acts of Supremacy are two acts of the Parliament of England which established King Henry VIII of England and subsequent monarchs as the supreme head of the Church of England.It granted King Henry VIII of England and subsequent monarchs Royal Supremacy, which means that he was declared the supreme head of the Church of England. Royal Supremacy is specifically used to describe the legal sovereignty of the civil laws over the laws of the Church in England. -
Apr 23, 1564
William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon is born
William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.His extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. -
Elizabeth I becomes queen of England
Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Ireland.She depended heavily on a group of trusted advisers. One of her first actions as queen was the establishment of an English Protestant church, of which she became the Supreme Governor. It was expected that Elizabeth would marry and produce an heir to continue the Tudor line. But she didn't, Elizabeth became famous for her virginity. A cult grew around her which was celebrated in the portraits, pageants, and literature of the day. -
Globe Theatre is built in London
The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was builtby Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, on land owned by Thomas Brend and inherited by his son, Nicholas Brend and grandson Sir Matthew Brend, and was destroyed by fire . A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site by June 1614 and closed by an Ordinance issued.. -
Shakespeare writes King Lear and Macbeth
It depicts the gradual descent into madness of the title character, after he disposes of his kingdom giving bequests to two of his three daughters based on their flattery of him, bringing tragic consequences for all. Derived from the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological pre-Roman Celtic king, the play has been widely adapted for the stage and motion pictures, with the title role coveted by many of the world's most accomplished actors. -
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. William Kelso writes that Jamestown "is where the British Empire began ... this was the first colony in the British Empire."Jamestown was established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" and was considered permanent after brief abandonment . Jamestown served as the capital of the colony for 83 years, from 1616 until 1699. -
Shakespeare’s sonnets are published
Shakespeare's Sonnets is the title of a collection of 154 sonnets by William Shakespeare, which covers themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality. The first 126 sonnets are addressed to a young man; the last 28 to a woman. The quarto ends with "A Lover's Complaint", a narrative poem of 47 seven-line stanzas written in rhyme royal though some scholars have argued convincingly against Shakespeare's authorship of the poem. -
King James Bible is published
The King James Version , also known as the Authorized Version or the King James Bible , is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England . The books of the King James Version include the 39 books of the Old Testament, an intertestamental section containing 14 books of the Apocrypha, and the 27 books of the New Testament. -
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 . It is an important symbol in American history. There are no contemporaneous references to the Pilgrims' landing on a rock at Plymouth. The first written reference to Pilgrims landing on a rock is found 121 years after they landed,. A rock traditionally identified as Plymouth Rock, weighing an estimated 20,000 pounds in its original form. -
Newspapers are first published in London
the Corante was translated from a Dutch coranto into English, and as the result of a 1586 edict from the Star Chamber carried no news about England. Unlike those predecessors, however, the Corante was printed locally, instead of being a Dutch import -
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 , consisted of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition , arranged into twelve books with minor revisions throughout and a note on the versification. It is considered by critics to be Milton's major work, and it 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 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.
