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William Gilbert who was a physician to Queen Elizabeth comes to the conclusion that the Earth is a magnet and coins the term "magnetic pole"
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The Yoruba develop their empire on Oyo in Southern Nigeria
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Electricity was given its name by William Gilbert
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Queen Elizabeth I grants a charter to a "Company of Merchants trading into the East Indies"
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The Dutch East Indian Trading Company is founded, with a tax-free monopoly for twenty-one years.
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Tokugawa Ieyasu earns the title of shogun, starting almost three centuries of the Tokugawa shogunate
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James VI of Scotland peacefully inherits the crown of Queen Elizabeth after her death and becomes James I of England.
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The Accession of James I and VI unites the crowns of England and Scotland
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James I attacks tobacco and the smoking of it, he considers it a disgusting custom
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King James I commissions an authorized version of the Bible
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False Dmitry I marches into Russia and claims the throne
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The assassination attempt against King James I fails.
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Galileo improves his telescope
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Colonists establish the first British settlement in the New World
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A second false Dmitry appears and marches into moscow
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The earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnel sail from Ireland with their families
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A lucky accident reveals the principle of the telescope to Hans Lippershey in Middelburg
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A shipload of Puritans sail from Boston to Lincolnshire to seek religious freedom in Holland
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Captain John Smith claims that he was saved from execution by Pocahontas
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Quebec is founded by Samuel De Champlain as a centre for fur trade.
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Johannes Kepler suggests his radical proposition that the planets move in elliptical rather than circular orbits
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The Blue Mosque is commissioned by Ahmed I and begins to rise.
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Despite being written ten years earlier Shakespeare's sonnets are published
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A flintlock design in France becomes the standard firing mechanism for muskets
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Henry Hudson reaches the New York Bay and explores the river
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Henry IV is assassinated in Paris, France
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Henry Hudsons crew turns against him and sets him adrift in present-day Hudson Bay
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Geneva wins independence from duchy of Savoy after repelling a midnight assault on the city.
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The first Baptist Church is established in London
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Pocahontas is taken captive by Jamestown colonists
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Pocahontas is baptized, given the name Rebecca, and marries John Rolfe
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Sir Thomas Roe arrives at the court of the Mughal emperor Jahangir
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John Smith publishes A Description of New England, an account of his exploration of the region in 1614
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William Shakespeare dies at New Place, and is buried in Holy Trinity Church
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The Thirty Years War begins after Bohemian nobles throw regents out of the castle in Prague
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Protestant Frederick V is elected king by bohemian nobles
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The battle of white mountain was fought and put an end to King Frederick V reign
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William Bradford begins a journal of the Pilgrims' experience in New England
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The Pilgrims sail in the Mayflower to the new world
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The Pilgrims on the Mayflower select a place for their settlement, and give it the name of Plymouth
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William Bradford, one of the Pilgrims from the Mayflower, is elected governor of the new Plymouth Colony
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The Dutch West India Company is chartered to trade and found colonies anywhere along the entire American coast
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A sudden attack by Powhatan Indians results in the death of more than 300 settlers
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The English settlers in Virginia arrange a peace conference with the Powhatan Indians and use it as an opportunity to murder the Powhatan delegates
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After the death of his father, James I and VI, Charles I becomes king
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Gustavus II, king of Sweden, begins to train an army more mobile than those of his rivals
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Charles I establishes Britain's Royal Mail
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A British colony is founded in Barbados
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John Winthrop starts writing what is eventually published as The History Of New England
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John Winthrop sails from England with 700 settlers
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John Winthrop picks Boston for the first Massachusetts settlement
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Williamsburg is founded in Virginia
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North America's first university is founded at Cambridge in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
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Rhode Island is founded by Roger Williams
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Needing funds Bishops' War in Scotland, Charles I summons parliament to come to Westminster
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Parliament denies Charles I's request for funds
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The first book published in England's American colonies is Bay Psalm Book
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Charles I's financial crisis has him to summon another parliament to Westminster
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The new parliament impeaches Charles I's two closest advisers
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Louis XIV inherits the throne of France at four years old
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Mazarin becomes principal minister in France
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The Powhatan leader, Opechancanough, launches another surprise attack on the Virginia settlements
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The Powhatan leader Opechancanough is captured by the English and executed
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Charles I puts hands himself over to the Scottish army
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The Scottish army holding Charles I makes peace with parliament, and hands him to the parliamentary commissioners
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Charles I goes to a secret arrangement with a group of Covenanters in Scotland, and wins their support
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Scottish Covenanters invade England in support of King Charles I
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Parliamentary forces defeat the Scottish invaders
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Charles I is beheaded in London's Whitehall
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After a week-long trial in Westminster Hall, Charles I is convicted of treason for fighting a war against parliament
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Charles II inherits the English and Scottish thrones
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Parliament in London abolishes the monarchy in England
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Charles II returns to Scotland and is crowned king of Scots
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Charles II is defeated by Cromwell escapes to France
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Scotland and England are merged under parliamentary rule into a forced union
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The first coffee house opens in London
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Robert Blake introduces a system of signalling at sea with flags
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George Fox begins preaching in England which develops into the Quakers movement
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The British in Jamaica turn the island into a major slave market
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Dutch physicist Christiaan Huygens makes the first pendulum clock
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The Conventicle Act restricts worship in England to Anglican churches if more than a few people are present
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The first recorded attempt at blood transfusion proves that it's possible
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The Great Plague of London causes around 7000 deaths in only a week
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New Amsterdam is renamed New York
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The first successful human blood transfusion is performed in Paris by Jean Baptiste Denis
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Paradise Lost is published
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England's East India Company is granted a lease on Bombay by Charles II
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The Bank of Sweden is founded
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Charles II issues a Declaration of Indulgence
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Parliament in England passes a Test Act which excludes Catholics and Nonconformists from public office
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Anton van Leeuwenhoek builds a microscope powerful enough for him to observe red corpuscles in blood
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Danish Astronomer Ole Roemer calculates the speed of light with only a 25% error
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With his microscope Leeuwenhoek observes spermatozoa in dog semen
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The Canal du Midi is completed in France
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Robert de la Salle travels down the Mississippi to the mouth of the river and claims the region for France, naming it Louisiana
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William Penn approves the Great Law, allowing freedom of religion if Pennsylvania
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William Penn achieves peace for Pennsylvania by negotiating a treaty with the Lenape tribe
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John Ray begins publication of his Historia Plantarum
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Newton publishes Principia Mathematica
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The French scientist Denis Papin develops the first steam engine to use a piston
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Salem, Massachusetts begins witch-hunting
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Twenty people are convicted of witchcraft and hung in Salem
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Gold is found in Brazil, beginning the first great American gold rush
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The Bank of England is founded
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Fort St William is built by the East India Company
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Poland, Russia and Denmark attack Sweden
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Samuel Sewall publishes The Selling of Joseph