The Renaissance

  • Birth of Lorenzo de’ Medici
    Jan 1, 1449

    Birth of Lorenzo de’ Medici

    An Italian Statesman
  • Gutenberg prints the first Bible
    1455

    Gutenberg prints the first Bible

    Johann Gutenberg holds the distinction of being the inventor of the movable-type printing press. In 1455, Gutenberg produced what is considered to be the first book ever printed: a Latin language Bible, printed in Mainz, Germany.
  • Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa
    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"
  • Michelangelo sculpts the David
    1504

    Michelangelo sculpts the David

    Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni or more commonly known by his first name Michelangelo was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet of the High Renaissance born in the Republic of Florence, who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art.
  • Thomas More writes Utopia
    1516

    Thomas More writes Utopia

    Sir Thomas More, venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councillor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532.
  • Martin Luther posts 95 Theses on the door of Castle Church
    1517

    Martin Luther posts 95 Theses on the door of Castle Church

    On this day in 1517, the priest and scholar Martin Luther approaches the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and nails a piece of paper to it containing the 95 revolutionary opinions that would begin the Protestant Reformation.
  • King Henry VIII begins Protestant Anglican church
    1534

    King Henry VIII begins Protestant Anglican church

    Under King Henry VIII in the 16th century, the Church of England broke with Rome, largely because Pope Clement VII refused to grant Henry an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. ... Upon Henry's death, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer began changes that allied the Church of England with the Reformation.
  • Nicolas Copernicus publishes On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres
    1543

    Nicolas Copernicus publishes On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres

    Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance-era mathematician and astronomer who formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than the Earth at the center of the universe, in all likelihood independently of Aristarchus of Samos, who had formulated such a model some eighteen centuries earlier.
  • William Shakespeare is born
    1564

    William Shakespeare 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 greatest dramatist.
  • Galileo invents a thermometer

    Galileo invents a thermometer

    Galileo Galilei was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Galileo has been called the "father of observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", the "father of the scientific method", and the "father of modern science".