West and the World

  • Bubonic Plague beigns
    Jan 1, 1347

    Bubonic Plague beigns

    The black death originated central Asia and spread to Europe. It started because of unclean rodents who had infected fleas.
  • Renaissance Begins
    Jan 1, 1350

    Renaissance Begins

    The Renaissance was considered a rebirth in intellectual and artistic ideas and concepts.
  • Brunelleschi creates Linear Perspective
    Jan 1, 1413

    Brunelleschi creates Linear Perspective

    Linear perspective works by representing the light that passes from a scene through an imaginary rectangle (the painting), to the viewer's eye.
  • Joan of Arc and the Siege of Orleans
    Oct 12, 1429

    Joan of Arc and the Siege of Orleans

    During the Hundred Years' War, the 17-year-old French peasant Joan of Arc leads a French force in relieving the city of Orleans, besieged by the English since October.
  • Johann Gutenberg invents the printing press
    Jan 1, 1439

    Johann Gutenberg invents the printing press

    Johann was a German blacksmith, goldsmith, printer, and publisher who introduced printing to Europe.
  • Cosimo de Medici dies
    Aug 1, 1464

    Cosimo de Medici dies

    Cosimo de' Medici, was the first member of the Medici family to combine running the Medici bank with leading the Republic.
  • Spanish Inquisition begins
    Jan 1, 1478

    Spanish Inquisition begins

    The Spanish Inquisition was used for both political and religious reasons. Spain is a nation-state that was born out of religious struggle between numerous different belief systems including Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism and Judaism.
  • Sandro Botticelli paints the Birth of Venus
    Jan 1, 1486

    Sandro Botticelli paints the Birth of Venus

    It depicts the goddess Venus, having emerged from the sea as a fully grown woman, arriving at the sea-shore. The painting is held in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
  • Columbus discovers the America's
    Jan 1, 1492

    Columbus discovers the America's

    Christopher Columbus was a navigator and an admiral for Castile, a country that later founded modern Spain. He made four voyages to the Americas, with his first in 1492, which resulted in what is widely referred to as the Discovery of America.
  • Da Vinci paints The Last Supper
    Jan 1, 1495

    Da Vinci paints The Last Supper

    A work three years in the making, Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper remains one of the greatest masterpieces of all time.
  • Raphael paints The School of Athens
    Jan 1, 1510

    Raphael paints The School of Athens

    The School of Athens portrays Plato, Aristotle, and other ancient philosophers engaged in philosophic inquiry.
  • Michealangelo paints The Sistine Chapel
    Jan 1, 1512

    Michealangelo paints The Sistine Chapel

    In 1508 the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was painted by request of Pope Julius II, then covered by golden stars on a blue sky. The ceiling measures 40 by 130 feet with the center of the curved ceiling more than 60 feet above the floor creating a space of 5000 square feet.
  • Machiavelli write The Prince
    Jan 1, 1514

    Machiavelli write The Prince

    The Prince is a political treatise by the Italian diplomat, historian and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli.
  • Thomas More Utopia
    Jan 1, 1514

    Thomas More Utopia

    Sir Thomas More, also known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist.
  • Martin Luther 95 theses
    Jan 1, 1517

    Martin Luther 95 theses

    Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen. (posted his 95 theses)
  • Start of the European Wars of Religion
    Jan 1, 1524

    Start of the European Wars of Religion

    The European wars of religion were a series of wars waged in Europe from ca. 1524 to 1648, following the onset of the Protestant Reformation in Western and Northern Europe.
  • Henry VIII of England Excommunicated
    Jan 1, 1533

    Henry VIII of England Excommunicated

    On this day in 1538, Pope Paul III announced that Henry VIII had been excommunicated from the Catholic Church. He was excommunicated because he wanted to divorce his wife and marry Anne Boleyn
  • Ivan the Terrible is born
    Aug 24, 1533

    Ivan the Terrible is born

    Ivan IV, know as Ivan the Terrible, is most known for his brutal ruling, centralised administration of Russia and expantion of the boundaries of the Russian Empire.
  • Jesuit Order founded by Ignastius Loyola
    Jan 1, 1534

    Jesuit Order founded by Ignastius Loyola

    Society of Jesus: a Roman Catholic order founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola in 1534 to defend Catholicism against the Reformation and to do missionary work among the heathen; it is strongly committed to education and scholarship
  • Desiderius Eramus dies
    Jul 12, 1536

    Desiderius Eramus dies

    Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus , known as Erasmus of Rotterdam, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian.
  • Scientific Revolution/ Copernicus
    Jan 1, 1543

    Scientific Revolution/ Copernicus

    The Scientific Revolution was nothing less than a revolution in the way the individual perceives the world. As such, this revolution was primarily an epistemological revolution -- it changed man's thought process. It was an intellectual revolution -- a revolution in human knowledge.
  • Spain declares Bankruptcy for the 1st time
    Jan 1, 1557

    Spain declares Bankruptcy for the 1st time

    Philip II of Spain had to declare four state bankruptcies in 1557, 1560, 1575 and 1596.
  • Corontation of Queen Elizabeth I
    Jan 1, 1559

    Corontation of Queen Elizabeth I

    Elizabeth set out to rule by good counsel, and she depended heavily on a group of trusted advisers led by William Cecil, Baron Burghley. One of her first moves as queen was the establishing of an English Protestant church, of which she became the Supreme Governor.
  • Saint Bartholomew's Massacre
    Aug 23, 1572

    Saint Bartholomew's Massacre

    The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre was a targeted group of assassinations, followed by a wave of Roman Catholic mob violence, both directed against the Huguenots
  • Edict of Nantes

    Edict of Nantes

    Created by Henry IV of France, it gave French Protestants their religious freedom - taken away by Louis XIV of France who then took away the Protestants' religious freedom. It is an example of absolute power because it was created and then taken away on the whim of a king.