-
Nov 9, 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. 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 was an Italian explorer, navigator, colonizer, and 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 European colonization of the New World. -
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 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 over his divorce. Henry had broken with Rome, seized the church's assets in England and declared the Church of England as the established church with himself as its head. The Act of Supremacy confirmed the King's status as having supremacy over the church and required the nobility to swear an oath. -
Nov 10, 1558
Elizabeth I becomes queen of England
Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Ireland until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, the childless Elizabeth was the last monarch of the Tudor dynasty.Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, his second wife, who was executed two and a half years after Elizabeth's birth. Anne's marriage to Henry VIII was annulled, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate. -
Nov 9, 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. He is often called England's national poet, and the "Bard of Avon". 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. -
Globe Theatre is built in London
The Globe Theatre, in London, is associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, on land owned by Thomas Brend and grandson Sir Matthew Brend, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613. A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site and closed by an Ordinance issued in 1642.A modern reconstruction of the Globe, named "Shakespeare's Globe", opened approximately 750 feet from the site of the original theatre. -
Period: to
Shakespeare writes King Lear and Macbeth
King Lear is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It depicts the descent into madness of the title character, after he disposes of his kingdom giving bequests to two of his daughters based on their flattery of him. Derived from the legend of Leir of Britain the play has been acted many times. Macbeth dramatises the damaging physical and mental effects of political ambition. Shakespeare wrote Macbeth during the reign of James I, It reflects the playwright's relationship with his sovereign. -
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 as "James Fort" and was considered permanent after brief abandonment. It followed several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke. Jamestown served as the capital of the colony for 83 years. -
Shakespeare’s sonnets are published
The sonnets were first published in a quarto with the full stylised title: SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS. Never before Imprinted. 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 is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England begun in 1604 and completed in 1611. 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. There are no contemporaneous references to the Pilgrims' landing on a rock at Plymouth, and it is not referred to in Edward Winslow's Mourt's Relation or in Bradford's journal Of Plymouth Plantation. A rock traditionally identified as Plymouth Rock, weighing an estimated 20,000 pounds in its original form, has long been memorialized on the shore of Plymouth Harbor. -
Newspapers are first published in London
King Lear was entered into the Stationers' Register by Butter and colleague John Busby. The first quarto edition of the play was published the following year, printed by Nicholas Okes, with Butter listed as publisher. Busby appears to have dropped out of the enterprise prior to publication. -
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 followed in 1674, 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. The term Restoration is used to describe both the actual event by which the monarchy was restored, and the period of several years afterwards.It is very often used to cover the whole reign of Charles II and his brother James II. It may be used to cover the whole period of the Stuart monarchs as far as the death of Queen Anne and the accession of Hanoverian George I.
