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Aug 29, 1485
Richard III is killed in battle
Polydore Vergil, Henry Tudor's official historian, recorded that "King Richard, alone, was killed fighting manfully in the thickest press of his enemies".Richard's naked body was then carried back to Leicester tied to a horse, and early sources strongly suggest that it was displayed in the collegiate Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady of the Newarke, prior to being buried at Greyfriars Church in Leicester. -
Oct 12, 1492
Christopher Columbus reaches the Americas
Known as 'the man who discovered America', Columbus was in fact trying to find a westward sea passage to the Orient when he landed in the New World in 1492. This unintentional discovery was to change the course of world history. -
Jan 1, 1516
Thomas More's Utopia
Utopia is a work of fiction and socio-political satire by Thomas More, published in Latin. The book is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. Many aspects of More's description of Utopia are reminiscent of life in monasteries. -
Apr 26, 1564
William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, born
William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright and actor, regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of 38 plays,154 sonnets, two long narrative poems and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more than those of any other playwright. -
Globe Theater 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. 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'
Both are tragedies featuring a hero king who falls from favor. Macbeth focuses on a world like that under the Reign of King James I. King of Lear stars a king based off of mythological Leir of Britian. -
Shakespeare's sonnets are published
Shakespeare's sonnets is a collection of 154 sonnets, which covers themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality. The first 126 sonnets are addressed to a young man; the last 28 to a woman. -
King James Bible is published
The King James Bible is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, begun in 1604 and completed in 1611. The books include the 39 books of the Old Testament, an intertestamental section containing 14 books of the Apocrypha (most of which correspond to books in the Vulgate Deuterocanon adhered to by Roman Catholics), and the 27 books of the New Testament. -
Newspapers are first published in London
Corante: or, Newes from Italy, Germany, Hungarie, Spaine and France, was published by the printer Nathaniel Butter, in London. The earliest of the seven surviving copies is dated September 24, 1621, but it is thought that this single page news sheet began publication earlier in 1621. Corante was the first private newspaper published in English. As a result of a 1586 edict from the Star Chamber, it carried no news about England. -
John Milton begins 'Paradise Lost'
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. The first version, published in 1667, consisted of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition from 1674, arranged into twelve books (in the manner of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout and a note on the versification. It is considered by critics to be Milton's major work, and it helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of his time.
