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Jan 26, 1485
Richard III is killed in battle
Richard III was King of England from 1483 until his death in the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. -
Jan 26, 1492
Christopher Columbus reaches the Americas
Columbus led his three ships - the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria - out of the Spanish port of Palos on August 3, 1492 setting sail for Asia, but later stumbled upon what is now America. -
Jan 26, 1503
Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa
The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait of a woman, thought to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, which has been acclaimed as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world". It is on permanent display at the Louvre Museum in Paris. -
Jan 26, 1516
Thomas Moore’s Utopia is published
Utopia is a work of fiction and political philosophy. It is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. -
Jan 26, 1534
The Supremacy Act, Henry VIII proclaims himself head of Church of England
The first Act of Supremacy was legislation in 1534 that granted King Henry VIII of England Royal Supremacy, which means that he was declared the supreme head of the Church of England. It is still the legal authority of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom -
Jan 26, 1558
Elizabeth I becomes queen of England
Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, the childless Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. -
Jan 26, 1564
William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, 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 pre-eminent dramatist. He was given the title "The Bard" in recognition of his stature as ‘great poet’ and the unofficial national poet of England. -
Globe Theatre is built in London
Globe Theatre was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613. -
Shakespeare writes King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy that depicts the gradual descent into madness of the title character, after he disposes of his kingdom giving bequests to two of his three daughters based on their flattery of him, bringing tragic consequences for all. -
Shakespeare writes Macbeth
Macbeth is a tragedy set mainly in Scotland, the play dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. -
First permanent English settlement in North America is established at Jamestown, Virginia
The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. Jamestown served as the capital of the colony for 83 years, from 1616 until 1699. -
Shakespeare’s sonnets are published
Shakespeare's Sonnets is the title of a collection of 154 sonnets which cover themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality. -
King James Bible is published
The King James Version, also known as the Authorized Version is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England that began in 1604 and was completed in 1611. -
The Mayflower lands at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts
The Mayflower was the ship that transported the first English Separatists, known today as the Pilgrims, to Plymouth (the New World). There were 102 passengers, and the crew is estimated to have been about 30. -
Newspapers are first published in London
Corante: or, Newes from Italy, Germany, Hungarie, Spaine and France was the first newspaper printed in England. The earliest of the seven known surviving copies is dated September 24, 1621. -
John Milton begins Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse; the first version consisting of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, arranged into twelve books. -
Puritan Commonwealth ends; monarchy is restored with Charles II
The Restoration of the English monarchy began when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The term Restoration is used to describe both the actual event by which the monarchy was restored, and the period of several years afterwards in which a new political settlement was established
