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Jan 1, 1485
Richard III is killed in battle
Richard was the youngest son of Richard, Duke of York. He had three elder brothers, Edward, Edmund and George. Richard, Duke of York, and his second son, Edmund, were both killed in battle during the Wars of the Roses. The eldest son, Edward, was a very good soldier, and won the throne of England in battle against the reigning king, King Henry VI. Edward then became King Edward IV of England and his two brothers, George and Richard, became very powerful men -
Jan 1, 1492
Christopher Columbus reaches the Americas
Columbus before 31 october 1451 – 20 May 1) was an Italian explorer, navigator, and colonist who completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. He led the first European expeditions to the Caribbean, Central America, and South America, initiating the permanent European colonization of the Americas. Columbus discovered the viable sailing route to the Americas, a continent which was not then known to the Old World. -
Jan 1, 1503
Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci undertook the task of painting the Mona Lisa, an oil painting on canvas, as a commission from Francesco del Giocondo, a wealthy Florentine silk merchant. The painting was to be a portrait of Giocondo's wife, Lisa del Giocondo, which the couple intended to hang in their new home to celebrate the birth of their new son, Andrea. -
Jan 1, 1516
Thomas More's Utopia is published
Sir Thomas More (1477 - 1535) was the first person to write of a 'utopia', a word used to describe a perfect imaginary world. More's book imagines a complex, self-contained community set on an island, in which people share a common culture and way of life. He coined the word 'utopia' from the Greek ou-topos meaning 'no place' or 'nowhere'. It was a pun - the almost identical Greek word eu-topos means 'a good place'. So at the very heart of the word is a vital question. -
Jan 1, 1543
With the Supremacy Act, Henrey VII proclaims himself head of Church of Englans
The Supreme Head of the Church of England was a title created in 1531[1] for King Henry VIII of England, who was responsible for the foundation of the English Protestant church that broke away from the authority of the Roman Catholic Church after Pope Paul III excommunicated Henry in 1538 over his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. The Act of Supremacy of 1534 confirmed the King's status as having supremacy over the church and required the nobility to swear an oath recognising Henry's supremacy. -
Jan 1, 1558
Elizabeth I becomes queen
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. Her half-brother, Edward VI, ruled until his death in 1553, bequeathing the crown to Lady Jane Grey and ignoring the claims of his two half-sisters, Elizabeth and the Roman Catholic Mary, in spite of statute law to the contrary. Edward's will was set aside and Mary was queen -
Jan 1, 1564
William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, is born
illiam Shakespeare (26 April 1564 (baptised) – 23 April 1616)[a] 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".[5][b] His extant works, including collaborations, consist of approximately 39 plays,[c] 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. -
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, on land owned by Thomas Brend and inherited by his son, Nicholas Brend and grandson Sir Matthew Brend, and was destroyed by fire on 29 June 1613.[4] A second Globe Theatre was built on the same site by June 1614 and closed by an Ordinance issued on 6 September 1642. -
Shakespeare writes King Lear and Macbeth
King Lear is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. 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. Macbeth full title The Tragedy of Macbeth) is a tragedy by William Shakespeare; it is thought to have been first performed in 1606.[a] It 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[1] settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the east bank of the Powhatan (James) River about 2.5 mi southwest of the center of modern Williamsburg. William Kelso writes that Jamestown "is where the British Empire began" It was established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 4, 1607 O.S. and was considered permanent after brief abandonment in 1610. It followed several failed attempt -
Shakespears sonnets are published
Shakespeare’s sonnets are considered a continuation of the sonnet tradition that swept through the Renaissance, from Petrarch in 14th-century Italy and was finally introduced in 16th-century England by Thomas Wyatt. With few exceptions, Shakespeare’s sonnets observe the stylistic form of the English sonnet the rhyme scheme, the 14 lines, and the meter Shakespeare’s sonnets introduce such significant departures of content that they seem to be rebelling against well-worn 200 year-old traditions. -
King James Bible is published
It was first printed by Robert Barker, the King's Printer, and was the third translation into English approved by the English Church authorities: The first had been the Great Bible, commissioned in the reign of King Henry VIII (1535), and the second had been the Bishops' Bible, commissioned in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1568).] In January 1604, King James I convened the Hampton Court Conference, where a new English version was conceived in response to the problems of the earlier translation -
The Mayflower lands at Plymouth Rock
Plymouth Rock is the traditional site of disembarkation of William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. The Pilgrims did not refer to Plymouth Rock in any of their writings; the first known written reference to the rock dates to 1715 when it was described in the town boundary records as "a great rock. The first documented claim that Plymouth Rock was the landing place of the Pilgrims was made by Elder Thomas Faunce in 1741, 121 years after the Pilgrims arrived -
Newspaper were first published
During the 17th century there were many kinds of news publications and told both the news and rumours. Among these were pamphlets, posters, ballads etc. Even when the news periodicals emerged, many of these co-existed with them. A news periodical differs from these mainly because of its periodicity. The definition for 17th century newsbooks and newspapers is that they are published at least once a week. Johann Carolus' Relation und gedenckwürdigen Historien, published in Strassburg in 1605 -
John Milton begins Paradsise 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 (in the manner of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout and a note on the versification.[1][2] It is considered by critics to be Milton's major work, and it helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets
