1. RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION Timeline
1452-1519 ----- Leonardo da Vinci
1453 ---------- Constantinople falls to the Turks
1455 ---------- Johann Gutenberg invents movable type; Gutenberg Bible printed
1455-1485 ----- Wars of the Roses
1461-1483 ----- Louis XI rules France
1469-1492 ----- Lorenzo de' Medici ("the Magnificent") rules Florence.
1475-1564 ----- Michelangelo Buonarroti
1478 ---------- Spanish Inquisition persecutes Jews, Muslims, and heretics.
1484 ---------- Bull condemns withcraft. Inquisitors sent to Germany
1485 ---------- Botticelli paints The Birth of Venus
1487 ---------- Bartholomew Diaz sails around Cape of Good Hope-
1492 ---------- Christopher Columbus reaches the West Indies.
1494 ---------- Treaty of Tordesilla.
1494 ---------- At Sforza's invitation, Charles VIII of France invades Italy.
1495 ---------- French capture Naples
1495-1497 ----- Leonardo da Vinci paints The Last Supper.
1498 ---------- Vasco da Gama reaches India
1499 ---------- Louis XII of France seizes Milan.
1501-1504 ----- Michelangelo sculpts statue of David
1503 ---------- Leonardo da Vinci paints Mona Lisa
1508-1512 ----- Michelangelo paints ceiling of Sistine Chapel in Rome
1517 ---------- Raphel paints The Transfiguration
1517 ---------- Luther posts his 95 Theses in Wittenberg.
1519 ---------- Charles of Spain becomes Emperor Charles V.
1519-1521 ----- Magellan's ship first to sail around the world
1519-1521 ----- Hernan Cortes conquers the Aztecs.
1521 ---------- Diet of Worms. Luther refuses to back down.
1521 ---------- Suleiman II, the Magnificent, takes Belgrade
1527 ---------- Imperial troops sack Rome.
1529 ---------- The Turks besiege Vienna
1534 ---------- Henry VIII of England breaks with Roman Catholic Church.
1535 ---------- Jacques Cartier sails up the St. Lawrence River.
1538 ---------- Titian paints Venus of Urbino
1540 ---------- St. Ignatius Loyola founds the Society of Jesus
1540 ---------- Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi River.
1543 ---------- Copernicus publishes heliocentric theory
1541 ---------- John Calvin founds "City of God" in Geneva.
1545 ---------- Council of Trent begins. Aims to reform Catholic Church.
1555 ---------- Peace of Ausgburg.
1556 ---------- Charles V of Spain abdicates.
1556 ---------- Son, Phillip II, rules Spain; brother, Ferdinand I, is Emperor.
1559 ---------- Peace of Cateau-Cambresis ends Franco-Spanish war.
1562-1578 ----- French religious wars between Catholics and Protestants.

2. 1564 ---------- William Shakespeare born
1571 ---------- Italian painter, Caravaggio born in Milan
1577-1580 ----- Francis Drake sails around the world.
1584 ---------- Sir Walter Raleigh founds first English colony in Virginia.
1587 ---------- Mary, Queen of Scots executed.
1588 ---------- Spanish Armada defeated by England.
1592 ---------- Galileo invents the thermometer
1599 ---------- Spanish painter Diego Velazquez born in Seville
1599 ---------- Original Globe Playhouse built
1600 ---------- First performance of Hamlet at the Globe.
1607 ---------- John Smith founds colony of Virginia at Jamestown.
1608 ---------- French colony of Quebec founded.
1609 ---------- Henry Hudson sails up Hudson River.
1609 ---------- Johann Kepler suggests explanation of planetary movement
1613 ---------- The Globe burns down
1616 ---------- Shakespeare dies.
1618-1648 ----- Thirty Years' War begins in Germany.
1620 ---------- Pilgrim Fathers sail from England in the Mayflower
1625 ---------- Dutch found New Amsterdam (later New York).
1628 ---------- William Harvey publishes his work on the circulation of blood
1633 ---------- Galileo is taken before the Inquisition in Rome
1640 ---------- Dutch painter Rubens dies
1642 ---------- The Globe is closed by The Puritans
1648 ---------- Peace of Wetphalia ends war in Germany.