1) Dante Alighieri wrote The Divine Comedy in the early 14th century, vividly describing his journey through the nine circles of hell and giving people a perspective on the afterlife. 2) The Black Death pandemic in 1348 killed over 40% of Europe's population and took 150 years for the population to recover, altering feudal systems and inspiring new medical research. 3) Johannes Gutenberg invented the mechanical printing press in the 1440s, which greatly increased the production and spread of texts and ideas.

1. Renaissance Timeline
By Laura Kabbabe (8D Orange)

2. Dante (1265-1321)
Dante Alighieri was an Italian Florentine politician
and poet. He wrote a poem called “Diving
Comedy” which vividly describes his journey
through the nine sins/circles of hell.
He gave his perspective by describing with
precipitation that hell is flames of eternal torment.
This gave a general idea for the people of what
hell is like, as the bible doesn‟t comment on it.
People tried to redeem themselves by paying
money to the priests or monks of the church. The
poem also really helped persuade people to
convert or become a Christian.
A picture of It causes an impact for us now because it gave us
Dante reading a deep insight of what life was like and what
people feared during the Renaissance. It is still the
very foundation of our understanding of hell. His
about the 9 descriptions of suffering, depending on the nature
of the crime are probably still relevant as some
circles of hell crimes are still considered worse than
others, today. A lot of games, movies, and TV
shows are inspired by Dante‟s Inferno.

3. The Black Death
Outbreak (1348)
Even though the Black Death only peaked
in Europe for 2 years, it killed over 40% of
the population and took at least 150 years
for Europe to recover. The Black plague
helped create the time of “rebirth” as by
almost 1/3 of the population dead in
Europe, the feudal system was altered a
little bit as the serfs began to become more
important.
It inspired many doctors and medical
related people to research about medicine
and enhance their knowledge of the human
body. Without this even, this planet might
A medieval painting
not have the vaccines to cue many of the
new viruses that cause sickness today.
of the Black Death

4. Brunelleschi (1410)
Famous Architect, Filippo Brunelleschi
invented the first portable clock in
Florence, Italy.
It impacts us today because before this
time, mechanical clocks were
large, heavy, and chunky, fixed devices.
The spring-driven clock made it possible
to carry the time around with you. It
enabled people to mobile with greater
flexibility and ease instead of being
bound to the nearest clock. Today, we
have the opportunity to know and keep
A replica of track of time more than before, and it has
allowed us to make many other forms of
Brunelleschi’s clocks (that may be shown in devices like
phones for example).
Portable Clock

5. Printing Press (1440)
The printing press is a mechanical device for producing
many copies of text on paper. The German craftsman and
printer, Johannes Gutenberg, invented it. In 1455, the first
book was printed on this machine and is called the
Gutenberg Bible. Gutenberg‟s invention drastically
quickened the pace and quality at which texts were
copied, as before people hand-wrote things such as bibles.
The printing press affects us today because it helped to
publish work and let thoughts be transferred across
generations and countries, worldwide, affordably. Because of
this, Martin Luther created Protestantism, a different group
of Christianity. Back during the time before the press was
The Printing created, the Catholic Church controlled
religion, science, politics, etc. but this changed due to the
Press at work people being able to read the translated bible and realize
that the church was doing things to get people to pay money.
It allowed people to know more information about the
universe and have their own ideas. It also made other
languages to be commonly practiced, rather than just Latin.
Now, books are published in mass distribution, and we don‟t
have monks spending years carving out letters.

6. Christopher Columbus
(1451-1506)
In 1492, Columbus “discovered” America and the “New
World”. He intended to go to Japan for trade, but he
ended up in the Bahamas, Caribbean. Later on, he
made three more voyages and initially explored most of
the western hemisphere. He also discovered that the
world was round when he sailed from the Atlantic and
ended up where he started.
Even though Christopher Columbus wasn‟t really the
first person to go to America (the first were the
Vikings, led by Leif Ericson), he still changed and
Christopher influenced it. Though there was already natives in North
America, Columbus claimed the territory for Spain, and
without the Spanish Colonization, there wouldn‟t be as
Columbus’ much of a Spanish influence, and the culture would be
different. When the people rebelled, it taught them to
route to America fight for their rights. It also spread Christianity and new
foods were found. America is very influential to other
countries too as most products and ideas originate there
(it opens up a world of trade), so if Columbus didn‟t
discover America, we would be living in a very different
world too. Also, in preparation for his voyages, he
created new navigational techniques.

7. Leonardo Da Vinci (1453-
1519)
Leonardo was a very curious Italian polymath. He is known as
the “Renaissance Man” because he was perhaps the most
widely intelligent person who‟s ever lived.
His design of the parachute was way ahead of his time that the
technology was not able to sustain his ideas, and thus the
parachute was only invented in 1783. We can now be dropped
off at nearly any height and safely land to the ground. The
parachute also benefits the economy for some countries that
offer it as a tourist attraction (skydiving). A lot of air flying
machines are inspired by his design.
Leonardo’s The Mona Lisa is a “priceless” world famous painting. She is an
object of curiosity due to her famous smile. The brush strokes
are so well painted that they don‟t look visible. He used the idea
Famous of painting only the top half of the body, which influenced other
artists to do the same.
Mona Lisa (1504) military tanks impacted World War I and II because it
The
saved many men. Leonardo‟s idea was the seed of an invention
that was perfected later on.

8. Niccolo Machiavelli
(1469-1527)
Niccolo is a politician and author from Florence.
He wrote the famous book called “The Prince.”
It‟s about traits of what makes a good leader and
about power. The popular quote, “the end
justifies the means” is very famous and is
extracted from it. He supports the idea of having
power and being sly.
He is an example of human ingenuity because
he is like an inspiration to dictators such as
Hitler, Bin Laden, and Stalin. Machiavelli‟s last
“The Prince,” name has also been made into the adjective,
Machiavellian, which is used to describe
by Niccolo someone malicious. The ideas of how he rules
are still used today by communist leaders across
Machiavelli the world. Without him, this world would not have
any communist political parties to run countries.

9. Girolamo Fracastoro
(1478)
In 1478, Fracastoro coined the word
Syphilis and discovered that some
diseases are contagious. This was a major
breakthrough in both science and medicine
because doctors & scientists found out
where diseases came from (before they
thought God was punishing them). He
came upon the idea during an epidemic
(which later was known as syphilis), and
Portrait of only affected people who worked closely
with the patient. He realized that syphilis is
Girolamo spread through physical contact. This
helped pave a way for prevention by
Fracastoro treatments being made for contagious
diseases. It helped create further
medicines to heal diseases, and helped
educate us on how to know the true cause
when a disease was spread.

10. Martin Luther posted his
95 theses on a Church
(1517)
This is one of the most significant reasons
the Church of England was born. On
October 1517, Luther wrote down 95
statements (these), which reflected his
discontent with the Catholic Church. He
really wanted people to start thinking and
encourage Church leaders to consider
changing their ways.
Luther posting The act of him posting his 95 theses on a
the 95 theses church door in Wittenberg, Germany
guided many people (including Henry
VIII), to the reformation and the birth of the
Church of England, which is still a big part
of Christianity today.

11. Henry VIII divorces
Catherine (1533)
Henry had 6 different wives; Catherine of
Arogon was the first one he divorced. This
divorce caused henry to separate from the
Roman Catholic Church and the Church of
England was reformed to Protestantism, and
he was the head of it as the Catholic Church
wouldn‟t allow him to divorce.
This is very important because a lot of
Henry VIII people are Protestant, which is another
Depicted branch of Christianity. The Church of
with is 6 wivesEngland is still is estimated that there isa500
widespread. It
active today, and it has big
million Protestants.

12. William Shakespeare
(1564-1616)
William Shakespeare is regarded as one of the most
famous writers in the English language. His plays,
poems, and sonnets are very memorable and still
entertain a vast variety of people. They still play a
dominant role in entertainment today.
He has a lasting impact on this world because first, he
has left behind many works. We are still preforming his
plays regularly and students from all levels study them;
copies of the plays still sell briskly in bookstores and
people write new books about them all the time. He has
influenced our language and vocabulary too, for
Portrait of example, if someone uses the expression, „bated
breadth,” they are using something from Shakespeare‟s
William Merchant of Venice.” He also taught many morals such
as love can conquer and destroy, human believes are
Shakespeare easily manipulated, and that people trust what they
cannot see. He inspired people to peruse literature.
Shakespeare established 1,700 English words. He is
one of the most helpful people in history to have grown
another branch of the English language.

13. The Invention of the
Microscope (1590)
When Two Dutch spectacle makers
(Zacharias Jansen and his father Hans)
experimented with several lenses in a
tube, they discovered that nearby objects
appeared enlarged, although blurry and
upside down which was known as the first
microscope.
This impacted a significant change in
history, because without this
invention, many other “scopes”, such as
A replica of the
the telescope wouldn‟t have been
firstmicroscopeinvented or rather would‟ve probably been
invented at a much later time. Therefore
the idea of the Earth being at the center of
the universe would still be believed, and
science wouldn‟t be thought the way it is
today and would be wrong.

14. Flush Toilet Invented
(1596)
The first flush toilet was invented by John
Harrington for Queen Elizabeth I. The
flush toilet is one of the most commonly
used objects in the world today.
It has created a lasting impact because
we use it in our everyday lives. It will help
create a free waste atmosphere and as a
result less infections and diseases will be
Flush toilet spread. Without it, many people would
probably be disgusted by the smell of a
during the non-flush toilet. We would also have to
Renaissan urinate in a pot and throw it (probably out
the window).
ce

15. First Thanksgiving (1621)
Thanksgiving is about thanking the many
people that help you and today it is a festival
of family reunion. A thanksgiving feast has
always consisted of cranberry, roast turkey
and corn.
In the first thanksgiving, the British and the
natives gave food to each other. The British
had helped the Native American‟s that were
starving due to a famine that arised, and
therefore the native Americans showed peace
Thanksgiving and friendship by thanking them with food.
This is the reason they got along well for that
period of time. Without Thanksgiving, America
with the might not be in good terms with the Native
Americans today and without the Native
Native Americans
Americans, the early settlers would not have
survived and the United States, as it is today
would not have existed.