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Jan 31, 1485
Richard III is killed in battle
King of England for two years, from 1483 until his death in 1485 in the Battle of Bosworth Field -
Jan 1, 1492
Christopher Columbus reaches the Americas
Set out sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sights a Bahamian island, believing he has reached East Asia. -
Jan 31, 1503
Leonardo Da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa
Half-length portrait of a woman -
Jan 1, 1516
1516 Thomas More's Utopia is published
The book is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. -
Jan 31, 1543
With the Supremacy Act, Henry VIII proclaims himself head of Church of England
Responsible for the English church breaking away from the authority of the Roman Catholic Church after the Pope excommunicated Henry in 1533 over his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. -
Jan 31, 1558
Elizabeth I becomes queen of Enland
Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of theTudor dynasty. The daughter of Henry VIII, she was born into the royal succession, but her mother, Anne Boleyn, was executed two and a half years after her birth. -
Jan 1, 1564
1564 William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, is born
He was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. -
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. -
Shakespear writes King Lear and Macbeth
Shakespearean scholars, beginning with Edmond Malone in 1778, have attempted to reconstruct the relative chronology by various means -
First permanent English settlement in North America is established at Jamestown, Virginia
Jamestown was the first successful English settlement on the mainland of North America. -
Shakespeare's sonnets are published
collection of 154 sonnets, dealing with themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality, first published in a 1609 quarto entitled SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS. -
King James Bible is published
A team of scholars produced an English Bible translation unsurpassed in linguistic beauty and longevity. -
The Mayflower lands at Plymouth Rock, Massachussetts
The Mayflower was the Pilgrim ship that in 1620 made the historic voyage fromEngland to the New World. -
Newspapers are first published in battle
Britain's press can trace its history back more than 300 years, to the time of William of Orange. Berrow's Worcester Journal, which started life as the Worcester Postman in 1690 and was published regularly from 1709, is believed to be the oldest surviving English newspaper. -
John Milton begins Paradise Lost
Epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton -
Puritan Commonwealth ends; monarchy is restored with Charles II
The Commonwealth, or Commonwealth of England, was the period from 1649 onwards when England, along later with Ireland and Scotland.
