The renaissance

By Drake harrison
  • Jan 1, 1449

    Birth of Lorenzo de’ Medici

    The most powerful patron of renaissance culture in Italy.
  • Jan 1, 1455

    Gutenberg prints the first Bible

    Johann Gutenberg holds the distinction of being the inventor of the movable-type printing press
  • 1473

    Nicolas Copernicus publishes On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres

    published just before his death, placed the sun at the center of the universe and argued that the Earth moved across the heavens as one of the planets.
  • 1501

    Michelangelo sculpts the David

    he perfection of the most famous statue in Florence and, perhaps, in all the world: Michelangelo's David.
  • 1503

    Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa

    The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci that has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world"
  • 1517

    Martin Luther posts 95 Theses on the door of Castle Church

    Martin Luther approaches the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and nails a piece of paper to it containing the 95 revolutionary opinions that would begin the Protestant Reformation.
  • 1534

    King Henry VIII begins Protestant Anglican church

    Under King Henry VIII in the 16th century, the Church of England broke with Rome, largely because Pope Clement VII refused to grant Henry an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. ... Upon Henry's death, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer began changes that allied the Church of England with the Reformation.
  • 1551

    Thomas More writes Utopia

    Sir Thomas More, venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist.

  • Galileo invents a thermometer

    Galileo, the thermometer described in this article was not invented by him. Galileo did invent a thermometer, called Galileo's air thermometer

  • William Shakespeare 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 greatest dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon".