The Renaissance

By emeli.wright
  • Jan 26, 1485

    Richard 3rd is killed in battle

    Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 1483 until his death in 1485, 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.
  • Jan 26, 1492

    Christopher Columbus reaches the Americas

    Christopher Columbus Discovers America, 1492. Columbus led his three ships - the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria - out of the Spanish port of Palos on August 3, 1492. His objective was to sail west until he reached Asia (the Indies) where the riches of gold, pearls and spice awaited.
  • Jan 26, 1503

    Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa

    Leonardo da Vinci began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503 or 1504 in Florence, Italy. Although the Louvre states that it was "doubtless painted between 1503 and 1506", the art historian Martin Kemp says there is some difficulty in confirming the actual dates with certainty.
  • Jan 25, 1516

    Thomas More's "Utopia" is published

    Utopia is a work of fiction and political philosophy by Thomas More published in 1516 in Latin. The book is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. Published in english 1551.
  • Jan 26, 1543

    Supremacy Act, Henry vlll proclaims himself head of Church of England

    The title was created for King Henry VIII, who was responsible for the English 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.
  • Jan 15, 1558

    Elizabeth 1 becomes queen of England

    Two months after the death of her half-sister, Queen Mary I of England, Elizabeth Tudor, the 25-year-old daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, is crowned Queen Elizabeth I at Westminster Abbey in London.
  • Jan 26, 1564

    William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, is born

    Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare is both his story and that of a great art rediscovered in the modern world.

  • Globe Theatre is built in London

    The Globe Theatre The original Globe was an Elizabethan theatre which opened in Autumn 1599 in Southwark, on the south bank of the Thames, in an area now known as Bankside. It was one of several major theatres that were located in the area, the others being the Swan, the Rose and The Hope. ( Most of Shakespeare's post-1599 plays were staged at the Globe.)

  • Shakespeare write "King Lear" and "Macbeth"

    After murdering King Duncan (David Thewlis) and seizing the throne, Macbeth (Michael Fassbender) becomes consumed with guilt and paranoia as the tyrannical ruler of Scotland. King Lear is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. 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.

  • First permanent English settlement, Jamestown, Virginia

    The Jamestown[1] settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. William Kelso says Jamestown "is where the British Empire began ... this was the first colony in the British Empire."[2] Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 4, 1607

  • Shakespear's sonnets are published

    Shakespeare's Sonnets is the title of a collection of 154 sonnets accredited to William Shakespeare which cover themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality. It was first published in a 1609 quarto with the full stylised title: SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS. Never before Imprinted.

  • King JAmes Bible is published

    The King James Version (KJV), also known as the Authorized Version (AV) or King James Bible (KJB), is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England that began in 1604 and was completed in 1611.

  • The Mayflower lands

    Plymouth Rock is the traditional site of disembarkation of William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620.

  • Newspapers are first published in London

    Corante: or, Newes from Italy, Germany, Hungarie, Spaine and FranceOffsite Link was published by the printer Nathaniel ButterOffsite Link in London. The earliest of the seven surviving copies is dated September 24, 1621, but it is thought that this single page news sheet began publication earlier in 1621.

  • 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, published in 1667, consisted of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse.

  • Puritan Commonwealth ends: monarchy restored

    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.