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May 11, 1453
Byzantine capital of Constantinople conquered and renamed Istanbul by the Muslim Ottomans
The capital of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, which occurred after a siege by the invading Ottoman Empire, under the command of 21-year-old Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, against the defending army commanded by Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos. -
Dec 17, 1460
Prince Henry founds navigation school in Portugal
He was responsible for the early development of European exploration and maritime trade with other continents. -
Dec 17, 1467
Erasmus writes "praise of folly"
In Praise of Folly starts off with a satirical learned encomium, in which Folly praises herself, after the manner of the Greek satirist Lucian, whose work Erasmus and Sir Thomas More had recently translated into Latin, a piece of virtuoso foolery -
Apr 5, 1475
Michelangelo's painting of the Sistine Chapel
The Sistine Chapel was built between 1475 and 1483 -
Dec 17, 1494
Treaty of Tordesillas
The Treaty of Tordesillas was agreed upon by the Spanish and the Portuguese to clear up confusion on newly claimed land in the New World. The early 1400s brought about great advances in European exploration. In order make trade more efficient, Portugal attempted to find a direct water route to the India and China. By using a direct water route, Arab merchants, who owned land trade routes, were not able to make a profit off of the European trade merchants. -
Feb 3, 1500
Renaissance begins
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the period roughly from the 14th to the 17th century. -
Mar 4, 1501
Michelangelo's "David"
The statue David was sculpted from 1501 to 1504. -
Jul 15, 1503
Leonardo da Vinci paints the "Mona Lisa"
The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait of a woman by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, 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. -
Dec 17, 1519
Columbus' first voyage
In the early modern period, the voyages of Columbus initiated European exploration and colonization of the American continents, and are thus of great significance in world history. Christopher Columbus was a navigator and an admiral for Spain. He made four voyages to the Americas, the first being in 1492, which resulted in the Discovery of America from a European point of view. -
Dec 17, 1521
Cortez conquers the Aztecs
The Spanish conquest of the Aztecs in 1521, led by Hernando Cortes, was a landmark victory for the European settlers. Following the Spanish arrival in Mexico, a huge battle erupted between the army of Cortes and the Aztec people under the rule of Montezuma. The events that occurred were crucial to the development of the American lands and have been the subject of much historical debate in present years. -
Dec 17, 1532
Pizzaro conquers the Inca
One of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. After years of preliminary exploration and military skirmishes, 168 Spanish soldiers under Francisco Pizarro and their native allies captured the Sapa Inca Atahualpa in the 1532 Battle of Cajamarca. It was the first step in a long campaign that took decades of fighting but ended in Spanish victory and colonization of the region as the Viceroyalty of Peru. -
Dec 17, 1543
Nicolaus Copernicus developed heliocentric theory
The Sun is the center of the universe. -
Dec 17, 1578
William Harvey discovered circulation of the blood
Harvey focused much of his research on the mechanics of blood flow in the human body. Most physicians of the time felt that the lungs were responsible for moving the blood around throughout the body. Harvey's famous "Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus", commonly referred to as "de Motu Cordis" was published in Latin at Frankfurt in 1628, when Harvey was 50 years old. The first English translation did not appear until two decades later. -
Shakespeare writes "the tragedy of Julius Caesar"
Shakespeare wrote the play around 1599, just after he had completed a series of English political histories. -
Johannes Kepler discovered planetary motion
Kepler obtained Brahe's data after his death despite the attempts by Brahe's family to keep the data from him in the hope of monetary gain. There is some evidence that Kepler obtained the data by less than legal means; it is fortunate for the development of modern astronomy that he was successful. Utilizing the voluminous and precise data of Brahe, Kepler was eventually able to build on the realization that the orbits of the planets were ellipses to formulate his Three Laws of Planetary Motion. -
Galileo Galilei used telescope to support helicentric theory
Galileo Galilei pioneered the experimental scientific method, and was the first to use a refracting telescope to make important astronomical discoveries. He is often referred to as the "father of modern astronomy" and the "father of modern physics". Albert Einstein called Galileo the "father of modern science." -
Taj Mahal built
The Taj Mahal is widely recognized as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage. -
Isaac Newton formulated law of gravity
Newton's law of universal gravitation states that any two bodies in the universe attract each other with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. -
The restoration of Charles II
After the death of Oliver Cromwell in Sept., 1658, the English republican experiment soon faltered. Cromwell's son and successor, Richard, was an ineffectual leader, and power quickly fell into the hands of the generals, chief among whom was George Monck, leader of the army of occupation in Scotland. -
Oliver Cromwell and the execution of Charles I
This event is one of the most famous in Stuart England's history - and one of the most controversial. No law could be found in all England’s history that dealt with the trial of a monarch so the order setting up the court that was to try Charles was written by a Dutch lawyer called Issac Dorislaus and he based his work on an ancient Roman law which stated that a military body (in this case the government) could legally overthrow a tyrant. -
Louis XIV builds palace of Versailles
One of the most beautiful achievements of 18th-century French art. -
Peter the Great builds St. Petersburg
The first structure to be built in the new city was the Peter and Paul fortress. Althout it was originally designed to protect the area from possible attacks by the Swedish army and navy, the fort did not actually take part in any fighting. -
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689 replaced the reigning king, James II, with the joint monarchy of his protestant daughter Mary and her Dutch husband, William of Orange. It was the keystone of the Whig (those opposed to a Catholic succession) history of Britain. -
English Bill of Rights of 1689
An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown
