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Sep 26, 1485
Richard III is killed in battle
Richard III was King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 during the Battle of Bosworth Field. -
Sep 26, 1492
Christopher Columbus reaches the Americas
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, navigator, and colonizer, born in the Republic of Genoa, in what is today northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents. -
Sep 26, 1503
Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. -
Sep 26, 1516
Thomas More's Utopia is published
Utopia is a work of fiction and political philosophy by Thomas More published in 1516. English translations of the title include A Truly Golden Little Book, No Less Beneficial Than Entertaining, of the Best State of a Republic, and of the New Island Utopia (literal) and A Fruitful and Pleasant Work of the Best State of a Public Weal, and of the New Isle Called Utopia (traditional). -
Sep 26, 1543
Henry VIII proclaims himself head of Church of England
In November 1534, Parliament passed an act that stated that Henry VIII was now the Head of the Church of England. -
Sep 26, 1558
Elizabeth I becomes queen of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called "The Virgin Queen", "Gloriana", or "Good Queen Bess", Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. The daughter of Henry VIII, she was born a princess, but her mother, Anne Boleyn, was executed two and a half years after her birth, and Elizabeth was declared illegitimate. -
Sep 26, 1564
William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, is born
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), `The Bard of Avon', English poet and playwright wrote the famous 154 Sonnets and numerous highly successful oft quoted dramatic works including the tragedy of the Prince of Denmark, Hamlet. -
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, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613. A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site by June 1614 and closed in 1642. -
Shakespeare writes King Lear & Macbeth
William Shakespeare wrote the play King Lear in 1606. It was first performed in 1608. -
First permanent English settlement in North America is established at Jamestown, VA.
Jamestown Settlement is a name used by the Commonwealth of Virginia's portion of the historical sites and museums at Jamestown. Jamestown was the first successful English settlement on the mainland of North America. Named for King James I of England, Jamestown was founded in the Colony of Virginia on May 14, 1607. -
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 1609 quarto entitled SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS.: Never before imprinted. -
King James Bible is published
The Authorized Version, commonly known as the King James Version, King James Bible, AV, KJB, or KJV, is an English translation of the Christian Bible by the Church of England begun in 1604 and completed in 1611. -
The Mayflower lands at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts
The Mayflower was the ship that transported English and Dutch Separatists and other adventurers referred to by the Separatists as "the Strangers" to Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. -
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. -
John Milton begins Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse. -
Puritan Commonwealth ends; monarchy is restored with Charles II
The next eleven years saw the rule of the Commonwealth (1649-60). Ostensibly Parliament was in control, but the real power lay with Cromwell and the army. It was just as well that the army was still standing, for Charles' son landed in Scotland, had himself declared Charles II, and invaded England. He was defeated by Cromwell at Worcester (1650) and forced to hide in a tree to avoid capture, before successfully fleeing to France.
