1501 CE
The Renaissance sculpture, the statue of David, was created between 1501 and 1504, by Michelangelo.
1503
Leonardo da Vinci begins painting the Mona Lisa and three years later, completes it.
1505 CE
The Ming dynasty was the ruling dynasty of China, from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. Zhengde Emperor ascended the throne of Ming Dynasty.
1506 CE
The first Muslim kingdom in Java, called Demak, in Indonesia, built by Sultan Trenggono.1506 CE
The Catholic Church arrived in the Kingdom of Congo shortly after the first Portuguese explorers reached its shores in 1483. Catholicism becomes state religion in 1506.
1508-12
Michelangelo paints the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
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| The Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Alex Proimos |
The Battle of Diu in 1509, was the culmination of global trade and the beginning of Portuguese dominance of the Spice trade and the Indian Ocean.
1509 CE
The “great plague" afflicted various parts of England in 1509.
511 CE
The Portuguese annexed Malacca in August 1511.
1512 CE
Copernicus proclaims the sun the center of the solar system.
1513 CE
Niccolò Machiavell writes, "The Prince", a treatise on political power.
1513 CE
Jorge Álvares is the first European to reach China by sea during the Age of Discovery.
1516-17 CE
The Ottomans gain control of Egypt, Arabia, and the Levant.
1517 CE
Martin Luther nailed a list of grievances against the Catholic Church to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, 31 October 1517. The catalyst for the Protestant Reformation.1518 CE
The documented outbreak of smallpox in 1518, in Hispaniola, was “the first epidemic of record”.
1518 CE
The dancing plague, possibly a psychogenic illness, caused people to dance in the streets in Strasbourg, Alsace (now modern-day France). Between 50 and 400 people danced for days.
1519-22 CE
An expedition led by explorer Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Elcano is the first to Circumnavigate the Earth.
1519 CE
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire begins.
1521 CE
The fall of Belgrade to the Ottoman Empire.
1519 CE
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire begins.
1521 CE
The fall of Belgrade to the Ottoman Empire.
1521 CE
The Portuguese attempt to invade Ming Dynasty China.
1524 CE
Great Peasants' Revolt in some German-speaking areas in Central Europe from 1524 to 1525.
1526 CE
The Ottomans defeat the Kingdom of Hungary.
1526 CE
The Ottomans defeat the Kingdom of Hungary.
1527 CE
The sack of the city of Rome and the end of the Italian Renaissance.
1529 CE
The Austrians defeat the Ottoman Empire.
1534 CE
The Ottomans capture Baghdad.
1536 CE
Between 1536 and 1541, Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries, in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their income and disposed of their assets. The Church of England breaks away from the Roman Catholic Church.
1536 CE
The Inquisition was formally established in Portugal in 1536, after beginning in Spain some years earlier.William Tyndale is burned at the stake for translating the Bible into English.
1562 CE
The French Wars of Religion between Catholics and Huguenots (Reformed/Calvinist Protestants) rage in the Kingdom of France between 1562 and 1598.
1563 CE
Between 1563 and 1665, London experienced four plagues that each killed one fifth of the city's inhabitants. Bubonic plague epidemics originated in China in 1331.
1579
1563 CE
Between 1563 and 1665, London experienced four plagues that each killed one fifth of the city's inhabitants. Bubonic plague epidemics originated in China in 1331.
1565 CE
Colonisation of the Phillipines began when Spanish explorer Miguel López de Legazpi arrived from Mexico in 1565.
1566-1648
Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Netherlands.
1566-1648
Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Netherlands.
Sir Francis Drake was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world.
1583 CE
Located in Klampenborg, North of Copenhagen (Denmark), Bakken opened in 1583 and is the oldest operating amusement park in the world.
1585 CE
Colony at Roanoke founded in North America.
1586 CE
The Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) was an intermittent conflict between the kingdoms of Spain and England.
1588 CE
The English defeated the Spanish Armada's fleet of 130 ships sent by Spain in 1588 to invade England.
1588 CE
The English defeated the Spanish Armada's fleet of 130 ships sent by Spain in 1588 to invade England.
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| Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 8 August 1588, c 1796 |
1590 CE
Shakespeare is believed to have written his very first play, Henry VI, Part One, 1590-91.
1592-1598 CE
Korea, with the help of the Chinese Ming Dynasty, repels two Japanese invasions.
1600 CE
The East India Company received a Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600.
1601 CE
The Russian famine of 1601–1603 kills about one-third of Russias.
1603
First permanent Dutch trading post is established in Banten, West Java.
1606 CE
Captain Willem Janszoon and his crew aboard the ship Duyfken becomes the first recorded Europeans to sight and make landfall in Australia.
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| The 1999 replica of Duyfken under sail in c. 2006, Rupert Gerritsen |
1607 CE
The first permanent English colony in North America is settled, at Jamestown, Virginia.
1609 CE
The Dutch East India Company establish a factory in Hirado, Japan.
1609 CE
The Dutch East India Company establish a factory in Hirado, Japan.
1611
The first publication of the King James Bible.
1616 CE
In 1616, Dirk Hartog, sailing off course, en route from the Cape of Good Hope to Batavia, landed on an island off Shark Bay, West Australia.
1625 CE
New Amsterdam, a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan. In 1664, the English took over New Amsterdam and renamed it New York City.
1626 CE
St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican completed.
1627 CE
In 1627 the south coast of Australia was accidentally discovered by François Thijssen, a Dutch explorer.
1632 CE
The Taj Mahal was built around 1632.
1640 CE
Torture is outlawed in England.
1642 CE
The Roman Inquisition tried Galileo in 1633 and found him "vehemently suspect of heresy", sentencing him to indefinite imprisonment. Galileo was kept under house arrest until his death in 1642.
1616 CE
In 1616, Dirk Hartog, sailing off course, en route from the Cape of Good Hope to Batavia, landed on an island off Shark Bay, West Australia.
1619 CE
In 1619, the first 19 or so Africans to reach the English colonies arrived in Point Comfort, Virginia, near Jamestown, brought by English privateers, who seized them from a captured Portuguese slave ship.
1620
The first English Puritans, known today as the Pilgrims from Plymouth, arrive on the Mayflower, to the New World in 1620.
1620
The first English Puritans, known today as the Pilgrims from Plymouth, arrive on the Mayflower, to the New World in 1620.
1622 CE
Algonquian natives kill 347 English settlers outside Jamestown, Virginia (one-third of the colony's population).1625 CE
New Amsterdam, a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan. In 1664, the English took over New Amsterdam and renamed it New York City.
1625 CE
Charles I, was the king of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1625, until his execution in 1649.1626 CE
St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican completed.
1627 CE
In 1627 the south coast of Australia was accidentally discovered by François Thijssen, a Dutch explorer.
1632 CE
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| Taj Mahal, Agra © Yann Forget / Wikimedia Commons |
Torture is outlawed in England.
1641 CE
The Irish Rebellion of 1641 led to sectarian killing, which still shapes Anglo-Irish politics today.
1641 CE
The first major philosopher of the early modern era, René Descartes, publishes Meditations on First Philosophy.
1642 CE
Abel Tasman, during his voyage in 1642, was the first known European expedition to reach Van Diemen's Land (later Tasmania) and New Zealand and to sight Fiji.
The Safavid conversion of Iran to Shia Islam took place from the 16th through 18th centuries and turned Iran, which previously had a Sunni majority, into a Shia Islam majority.
1642 CE
1642 CE
Beginning of English Civil War, conflict that will end in 1649 with the execution of King Charles I.
1643 CE
1648 CE
The Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Years' War and marks the ends of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire as major European powers.
1643 CE
Louis XIV crowned King of France. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest recorded of any monarch of a sovereign country in European history.
1644 CE
The Manchu conquer China ending the Ming dynasty. The subsequent Qing dynasty rules until 1912.
1645-1669 CE
Ottoman war with Venice. The Ottomans invade Crete and capture Canea.
1647 CE
Seven-year-old Mehmed IV becomes sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
1647 CE
The Great Plague of Seville (1647–1652) was a massive outbreak of disease in Spain that killed up to a quarter of Seville's population.1648 CE
The Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Years' War and marks the ends of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire as major European powers.
1649-1653 CE
The conquest of Ireland by the forces of the English Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell.
1652 CE
Cape Town founded by the Dutch East India Company in South Africa.
1660 CE
The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland took place in 1660, when King Charles II returned from exile in Europe.
1660 CE
The Royal Society of London, for Improving Natural Knowledge, was founded on 28 November 1660.1660 CE
The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland took place in 1660, when King Charles II returned from exile in Europe.
1662 CE
Blaise Pascal invented the first public transit system in Paris in 1662, using horse drawn buses.
1662 CE
Sylva, by the English writer John Evelyn, was first presented in 1662, as a paper to the Royal Society. It was published as a book two years later in 1664, and it is recognised as one of the most influential texts on forestry ever published.
1665 CE
In 1665, Robert Hooke used a microscope about six inches long with two convex lenses and discovered cells.
1665 CE
The Great Plague, lasting from 1665 to 1666, was the last major epidemic of the bubonic plague to occur in England. Originated in China in 1331.
1666 CE
The Great Fire of London swept through the central parts of the English city from Sunday, 2 September to Thursday, 6 September 1666.
1667-1699 CE
The Great Turkish War stops the Ottoman Empire's expansion into Europe.
1670 CE
The Hudson's Bay Company, a fur-trading enterprise headquartered in London, began operations on the shores of Hudson Bay in 1670. Founded in New France (Modern-day Canada).
1673 CE
Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek, using a single-lensed microscopes of his own design, was the first to experiment with microbes.
1675 CE
The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, UK, was commissioned in 1675 by King Charles II.
1682 CE
La Salle, a 17th-century French explorer and fur trader in North America, claims Louisiana for France.
1683 CE
China conquers the Kingdom of Tungning and annexes Taiwan.
1687 CE
Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, a work in three books by Isaac Newton, in Latin, first published 5 July 1687, states Newton's laws of motion, forming the foundation of classical mechanics; Newton's law of universal gravitation; and a derivation of Kepler's laws of planetary motion.
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| Title page of "Principia", first edition (1687). Zhaladshar |
1688 CE
The Revolution of 1688, was the deposition and subsequent replacement of James II and VII as ruler of England, Scotland and Ireland by his daughter Mary II and his Dutch nephew and Mary's husband, William III of Orange.
1689 CE,
A Letter Concerning Toleration, by John Locke, argues that having more religious groups actually prevent civil unrest. Locke also publishes Two Treatises of Government, which outlines Locke's ideas for a more civilized society based on natural rights and contract theory.
1689 CE
A border established between Russia and China.
1690 CE
The Battle of the Boyne, was a battle in 1690, between the Catholic James II and the Protestant William III, who had overthrown James as king of England.
1692 CE
Salem witch trials in Colonial Massachusetts.
1692-94 CE
Famine in France kills 2 million people.
1694 CE
The Bank of England was established in 1694.
1696-7 CE
Famine in Finland wipes out almost one-third of the population.
1698 CE
Thomas Savery invented the first commercially used steam powered device.
