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Jan 1, 1485
Richard III is killed in battle
Richard III was King of England from 1483 until his death in 1485 in the Battle of Bosworth Field. His defeat at Bosworth Field, the last decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses, marks the end of the Middle Ages in England. He is the subject of the play Richard III by William Shakespeare. -
Jan 1, 1492
Christopher Columbus reaches the Americas
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 1, 1503
Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait of a woman by 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
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. -
Jan 1, 1543
With the Supremacy Act, Henry VIII proclaims himself head of Church of England
Besides his six marriages, Henry VIII is known for his role in the separation of the Church of England from the 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 -
Jan 1, 1558
Elizabeth I becomes queen of England
Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Ireland from 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. -
Jan 1, 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. -
Globe Theater is built in London
The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men. -
Shakespeare writes King Lear and Macbeth
(1605-1606) Shakespear wrote 2 of his numerous tragedies in a soan of only about a year. Macbeth is still considered one of his darkest and most disturbing pieces of work. -
First permanent English settlement in North America is established in Jamestown, Virginia
Jamestown is where the British Empire began. Established by the Virginia Company of London and considered permanent after brief abandonment in 1610, it followed several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke. Jamestown served as the capital of the colony for 83 years, from 1616 until 1699. -
Shakespeare's sonnets are published
Shakespeare's sonnets are a collection of 154 sonnets, dealing with themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality. -
King James Bible published
The King James Version is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England begun in 1604 and completed in 1611. First printed by the King's Printer Robert Barker, this was the third translation into English to be approved by the English Church authorities. -
The Mayflower lands at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts
The Plymouth Colony was, along with Jamestown and other settlements in Virginia, one of the earliest successful colonies to be founded by the English in North America, and the first sizable permanent English settlement in the New England region. -
Newspapers are first published in Lonodn
The emergence of the new media in the 17th century has to be seen in close connection with the spread of the printing press. -
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. It is considered by critics to be Milton's major work, and helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of hi -
Puritan Commonwealth ends; monarchy is restored with Charles II
The term commonwealth took on more specific political meaning between 1649 and 1660 when England had no monarch, but was ruled by a Lord Protector, the Puritan Oliver Cromwell. His government was called the Commonwealth of England. The restoration of the monarchy marks the end of the Renaissance
