1300
1326 Founding of universities at Oxford and Cambridge
1348 Boccaccio’s Decameron
1349 Bubonic Plague kills one-third of England’s population
1387 Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
c.1440 Johannes Gutenberg invents printing press
1472 Dante’s Divine Comedy first printed
1492 Christopher Columbus lands at Cuba
1497 Vasco da Gama sails around Cape of Good Hope
1500
1501–4 Michelangelo’s David sculpture
1503 Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa
1512 Copernicus’s Commentarioulus published, theorizing that Earth and other planets revolve around sun
1518 License to import 4,000 African slaves to Spanish American colonies granted to Lorens de Gominzot
1519 Ferdinand Magellan’s trip around the world
1519 Conquest of Mexico by Cortez
1522 Luther’s translation of the New Testament
1525
1531 Henry VIII recognized as Supreme Head of the Church of England
1533 Henry VIII secretly marries Anne Boleyn, and is excommunicated by Pope
1539 Hernando de Soto explores Florida
1540 G.L. de Cardenas “discovers” Grand Canyon
1541 Hernando de Soto “discovers” the Mississippi
1550
1558 Coronation of Queen Elizabeth I
1562 John Hawkins begins slave trade between Guinea and West Indies
1564 Birth of William Shakespeare and Galileo
1565 Pencils first manufactured in England
1570 Pope Pius V excommunicates Queen Elizabeth
1573 Francis Drake sees the Pacific Ocean
1575
1576 Mayor of London forbids theatrical performances in the City
Burbage erects first public theater in England (the “Theater” in Shoreditch)
1577 Drake’s trip around the world
1580 Essays of Montaigne published
1582 Marriage license issued for William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway
Daughter Susanna Shakespeare christened
1585 Christening of son Hamnet and twin Judith
1587 Mary Queen of Scots executed
1588 Destruction of the Spanish Armada
1592 Shakespeare listed with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men
1593–4 Plague closes London playhouses for 20 months
1595 Coat of arms granted to Shakespeare’s father, John
1596 Death of son Hamnet, age 11
Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene
1597 Shakespeare, one of London’s most successful playwrights, buys New Place, one of the grandest houses in Stratford-upon-Avon
1599 Globe Theatre opens, as home to the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, with Shakespeare as part-owner
1600
1602 Oxford University’s Bodleian Library opens
1603 Death of Queen Elizabeth, coronation of James I; Lord Chamberlain’s Men become the King’s Men upon endorsement of James I
1603–11 Plague closes London playhouses for at least 68 months (nearly 6 years)
1605 Cervantes’ Don Quixote Part 1 published
1607 Marriage of Susanna Shakespeare to Dr. John Hall; Founding of Jamestown, Virginia, first English settlement on American mainland
1608 A true relation of such Occurances and Accidents of Note as hath passed in Virginia by John Smith; Galileo constructs astronomical telescope
1609 Blackfriars Theatre, London’s first commercial indoor theater, becomes winter home of the King’s Men
1611 The Authorized “King James Version” of the Bible published
1613 Globe Theatre destroyed by fire
1614 Globe Theatre rebuilt
1615 Galileo faces the Inquisition for the first time
1616 Judith Shakespeare marries Thomas Quinney
Death of William Shakespeare, age 52
1618 Copernican system condemned by Roman Catholic Church
1619 First African slaves arrive in Virginia
1623 The First Folio, the first compiled text of Shakespeare’s complete works published
1625
1625 James I dies, succeeded by Charles I
1632 Ai due massimi sistemi of Galileo
1633 Galileo recants before the Inquisition
1636 Harvard College founded at Cambridge, Massachusetts
1642 Civil War in England begins
1642 Parlimentarians (Puritans) close theaters throughout England until the Restoration of Charles II, 18 years later
1649 Charles I beheaded
1649 Commonwealth declared