-
The Crusades were military campaigns sanctioned by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages. Pope Urban II authorized the First Crusade in 1095 with the goal of restoring European access to the Holy Land, and an intermittent 200-year struggle ensued.
-
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people and peaking in Europe in the years 1346–53.
-
“Renaissance” means “rebirth” in the French language. The Renaissance was a rebirth in many different ways. It began in Northern Italy about 1350 right after the Black Death had ravaged the country, killing from a third to half the population.
-
Joan, 19 years old, was burned at the stake at the Place du Vieux-Marche in Rouen. Because she gave into the church without their will
-
It is not known exactly when the movable type printing press was invented. It appears to have been invented around 1439 or 1440. Gutenberg's invention was profoundly important. It launched a revolution in printing.
-
The Hundred Years' War was a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the House of Valois, rulers of the Kingdom of France, for control of the latter kingdom.
-
The painting, thought to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, is in oil on a white Lombardy poplar panel, and is believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506.
-
Michelangelo at first refused, protesting that he was a sculptor, not a painter. However, Pope Julius insisted and finally prevailed. It was arduous work that required the artist to constantly paint while lying on his back atop a scaffold that raised him to within inches of the ceiling. However, Michelangelo not only overcame these obstacles, but after four years, revealed a masterpiece.
-
Popular legend has it that on October 31, 1517 Luther defiantly nailed a copy of his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle church.
