-
Jan 1, 1485
Richard III is killed in battle
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. He is the subject of the play Richard III by William Shakespeare. -
Jan 1, 1492
Columbus sailed the ocean blue and reached the Americas.
Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, navigator, and colonizer. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. Those voyages initiated the Spanish colonization of the New World. -
Jan 1, 1503
Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa
The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait of a woman 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 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.
Henry VIII was responsible for the Engliish Catholic church breaking away from the authority of the Roman Catholic Church after the Pope excommunicated Henry in 1533. The Act of Supremacy of 1534 confirmed the King's status as having supremacy over the Church of England which he created. -
Jan 1, 1558
Elizabeth I becomes queen of England.
Under the long reign of Elizabeth, England had become a major world power in every respect, and Queen Elizabeth I passed into history as one of England's greatest monarchs. -
Jan 1, 1564
Willian Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, is born
Over the course of 20 years, Shakespeare wrote plays that capture the complete range of human emotion and conflict. -
Globe Theatre is built in London
The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company. -
Period: to
Shakespeare writes King Lear and Macbeth
King lear and Macbeth were both tragedies written by Shakepeare -
First permanent English settlement in North America is established at Jamestown, Virginia.
William Kelso says Jamestown "is where the British Empire began ... this was the first colony in the British Empire." -
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, first published in a quarto entitled SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS. -
King James Bible is published.
The King James Version (KJV), commonly known as the Authorized Version (AV) or King James Bible, is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England. -
The Mayflower lands at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts
Pilgrims seeking religious freedom from England traveled to the New World of North America and colonized. -
Newspapers are first published in London
The London Gazette claims to be the oldest surviving English newspaper and the oldest continuously published newspaper in the UK, having been first published on 7 November 1665 as The Oxford Gazette. -
John Milton begins Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse. It is considered by critics to be Milton's major work, and helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of his time. -
Puritan Commonwealth ends; monarchy s restored with Charles II
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.
