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Jan 1, 1485
Richard III is killed in battle
Richard III was the last English king to be killed in battle. Polydore Vergil, Henry Tudor's official historian, recorded that "King Richard, alone, was killed fighting manfully in the thickest press of his enemies". -
Jan 1, 1492
Christopher Columbus reaches the Americas
Columbus and his crew set sail from Spain in three ships: the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria. On October 12, the ships made landfall—not in Asia, as Columbus assumed, but on one of the Bahamian islands. -
Jan 1, 1503
Leonardo da vinci paints the Mona Lisa
The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci that has been described 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 Mores's Utopia is published
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. -
Jan 1, 1542
Elizebeth I becomes queen of england
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 bequeathing the crown to Lady Jane Grey and ignoring the claims of his two half-sisters, Elizabeth and the Roman Catholic Mary, -
Jan 1, 1543
With the supremacy act, Henry VIII proclaims himself head church of England
The first Act of Supremacy was passed on 3 November 1534 (26 Hen. VIII by the Parliament of England. It granted King Henry VIII of England and subsequent monarchs Royal Supremacy, such that he was declared the supreme head of the Church of England. Royal Supremacy is specifically used to describe the legal sovereignty of the civil laws over the laws of the Church in England. -
Jan 1, 1564
William Shakespeare, the bard of Avon is born
William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright and actor, widely regarded as both 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". -
Globe theater is built in London
The Globe Theater was a theater in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company. -
Shakespeare writes king Lear and Macbeth
Macbeth is a tragedy thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatizes the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake.King Lear is a tragedy, It depicts the gradual descent into madness of the title character, after he disposes of his kingdom by giving bequests to two of his three daughters egged on by their continual flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. -
first permanent english settlement in north america is established at Jamestown, Virginia
In 1607, 104 English men and boys arrived in North America to start a settlement. On May 13 they picked Jamestown, Virginia for their settlement, which was named after their King, James I. The settlement became the first permanent English settlement in North America -
Shakespeare's sonnets are published
Shakespeare's sonnets are poems that William Shakespeare wrote on a variety of themes. When discussing or referring to Shakespeare’s sonnets, it is almost always a reference to the 154 sonnets that were first published all together in a quarto -
king James Bible is published
The King James Bible is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, begun in 1604 and completed/published 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
The Mayflower arrived in Plymouth Harbor in 1620, after first stopping near today's Provincetown. According to oral tradition, Plymouth Rock was the site where William Bradford and other Pilgrims first set foot on land -
newspapers are first published in London
During the 17th century there were many kinds of news publications and told both the news and rumours. Among these were pamphlets, posters, ballads. -
John Milton begins paradise lost
paradise lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, 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
Restoration, Restoration of the monarchy in England in 1660. It marked the return of Charles II as king (1660–85) following the period of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth. The bishops were restored to Parliament, which established a strict Anglican orthodoxy.
