The Renaissance

By nayhasiareed
  • 1449

    Birth of Lorenzo de’ Medici

    The powerful and wealthy Florentine branch of the Medici family.
  • 1455

    Gutenberg prints the first Bible

    holds the distinction of being the inventor of the movable-type printing press.
  • 1473

    Nicolas Copernicus publishes On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres

    , written by Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus
  • 1501

    Michelangelo sculpts the David

    David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created in marble between 1501 and 1504 by the Italian artist Michelangelo.
  • 1503

    Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa

    The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait of a figure believed to be the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, Lisa Gherardini.
  • 1516

    Thomas More writes Utopia

    Thomas More is known for his 1516 book Utopia and for his untimely death in 1535, after refusing to acknowledge King Henry VIII as head of the Church of England.
  • 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.
  • 1534

    King Henry VIII begins Protestant Anglican church

    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.
  • 1564

    William Shakespeare is born

    Shakespeare is widely considered the world's greatest dramatist

  • Galileo invents a thermometer

    Galileo did invent a thermometer, called Galileo's air thermometer