Tycho Brahe discovers the 'New Star' in the Milky Way |
1573 | Francis Drake sees Pacific Ocean from Panama Isthmus before raiding Nombre de Dios and seizing Spanish gold and silver | Sir Francis Walsingham becomes Secretary of State | Peace of Constantinople ends war between Turks and Venice, Spanish capture Haarlem |
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1574 | | | Charles IX dies and is replaced by Henry III, Spain loses Tunis to Turks, Juan Fernandez discovers islands in the Pacific Ocean which are named after him | Longleat House completed | Conrad Dasypodius builds Strasbourg Clock |
1575 | | Freedom from arrest is granted to Members of Parliament and their servants | Luanda is founded by Portuguese in Angola, Moghuls capture Bengal, Fighting in Netherlands and Lowlands | El Greco arrives in Spain from Crete, William Byrd and Thomas Tallis' Cantiones Sacrae
| Tycho Brahe builds observatory at Uraniborg, First European imitations of Chinese porcelain constructed in Venice and Florence |
1576 | Martin Frobisher discovers Frobisher Bay and Baffin Island whilst searching for the North-West Passage | | Peace of Chastenoy ends fifth War of Religion in France, Spanish forces on rampage in Antwerp, Congress of Ghent | Death of Titian | Francois Viete introduces decimal fractions, Robert Norman discovers magnetic 'dip' or 'variation', Clusius' Flowers of Spain and Portugal which helps create modern botany |
1577 | Francis Drake starts Circumnavigation of the World (completed in 1580) | | Henry of Navarre recognised as Huguenot champion, Peace of Bergerac ends Sixth War of Religion | Palestrina is told to restore the purity of Gregorian Chant in church music | |
1578 | Levant Trading Company founded in London for trading with Ottoman Empire, Francis Drake passes through Straits of Magellan and enters Pacific Ocean, Elizabeth grants Humphrey Gilbert permission to take and colonise 'all remote and heathen lands not in the actual possession of any Christian Prince', Martin Frobisher returns from Canada without discovering North-West Passage | James VI takes over as King of Scotland from his regents | Otomo Yoshishige becomes first Japanese Lord to convert to Christianity, Portuguese sign peace treaty with Munhumutapa kingdom in the south Zambesi basin, King of Portugal is killed fighting Moors in North Africa | Catacombs of Rome discovered | |
1579 | Second Desmond Rebellion (until 1583), The Eastland Company or North Sea Company was formed to trade with Scandanavia and the Baltic, Father Thomas Stephens becomes first English person to settle in India in Goa | | | | |
1580 | Francis Drake returns to Plymouth on completion of his Circumnavigation laden with Spanish treasure | | Portugal united to Spain, Seventh French War of Religion breaks out, Venice imports Coffee from Turkey | Death of Palladio | |
1581 | | | Mughals conquer Afghanistan, Russia begins its conquest of Siberia | First known appearance of 'Greensleeves' | Gallileo discovers isochronous property of the pendulum, William Borough's Discourse on the Variation of the Compass or Magneticall Needle |
1582 | | James VI kidnapped by Protestant nobles | Mughal Emperor Akbar seeks toleration between major religions of Indian sub-continent, Portuguese Matteo Ricci begins intensive study of Chinese language and culture at Macao, Japanese Christian delegation travels to Rome to seek an audience with Pope | Richard Hakluyt's Divers Voyages Touching the Discovery of America and the Islands Adjacent | Urbain Hemand investigates the anatomy of teeth |
1583 | Humphrey Gilbert claims Newfoundland whilst searching for the North-West Passage, He dies on return voyage, Expedition to Mesopotamia, India and Persian Gulf led by Ralph Fitch and John Eldred | First life insurance policies in England, Throgmorton plot for Spanish invasion of England | Burmese invade Yunnan province, | | Andre Cesalpino's De Plantis the first modern classification of plants |
1584 | Walter Raleigh despatches a reconnoitering expedition to North America as a precursor to sending English colonists to Virginia, they bring back two American Indians to the Court of Elizabeth | | William of Orange assassinated on the orders of Philip II, Dutch trading post founded at Archangel in Russia | | |
1585 | Roanoke Colony founded, , Ralph Lane discovers Chesapeake Bay, The Primrose affair sees English vessels in Spanish ports attacked and seized, Francis Drake leads expedition to Caribbean, John Davis discovers the Davis Strait whilst searching for a North-West Passage | Elizabeth decides to send an army to help the Dutch in their war against the Spanish | Another Religious war breaks out in an attempt to stop Henry of Navarre becoming the King of France | Death of Thomas Tallis | Jamaican Ginger is the first Oriental spice to be grown in the New World and then successfully imported into Europe, Simon Stevin's La Disme which uses decimal fractions and the law of equilibrium, Bartholomew Newsam constructs first English travelling and standing clocks, Lucas Janszoon Waghearen's Spiegel der Zeevaart detailing sailing directions and techniques, Potatoes appear in England for first time |
1586 | Francis Drake attacks Santa Domingo, Drake stops off at Roanoke and brings back most of the colonists including Ralph Lane, Thomas Cavendish begins his Circumnavigation of the World (until 1588) | Babington Plot | Widespread fighting in Low Countries, Mughals annex Kashmir, Pope agrees financial aid to Spanish to help send an Armada against England | El Greco's Burial of Count Orgaz | |
1587 | John White leads second attempt at establishing a colony at Roanoke, First English child born Virginia Dare at Roanoke Colony, John White returns to England leaving colonists in place | Mary Queen of Scots executed by Elizabeth, Francis Drake attacks Cadiz | Emperor Hideyoshi banishes Portuguese missionaries from Japan, Pope Sixtus V proclaims Catholic Crusade for an invasion of England | Monteverdi's First Book of Madrigals
| Richard Hakluyt's Notable History, Containing Four Voyages made by Certain French Captains into Florida |
1588 | Return of Thomas Cavendish from his Circumnavigation of the World | Spanish Armada | Henry of Guise claims French throne for Catholic League but is murdered | Christopher Marlowe's The Tragedy of Dr Faustus, Palestrina's Lamentations
| Hortus Camerarius' Hortus Medicus |
1589 | | Francis Drake leads expedition to Portugal | Russian Orthodox Church splits from Constantinople Patriarchy creating new Russian Patriarchate, Henry III of France killed replaced by Henry IV, Forks used for the first time in Eurorpe at the French Court | William Byrd's Songs of Sundrie Natures
| Richard Hakluyt's Principal Navigations and Discoveries of the English Nation, William Lee invents first knitting machine |
1590 | Walter Raleigh organises attempt to search for remnants of Roanoke Colony but they find it abandoned | Francis Drake, John Hawkins and Martin Frobisher attack Spanish and Portuguese Coast | Emperor of Morroco takes Timbuktu, Persians and Turks end war, Civil War in France | Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, El Greco's St. Jerome | Galileo's De Motu describing experiments on dropping of various bodies |
1591 | James Lancaster leaves Plymouth on first voyage to East Indies, Ralph Fitch returns from eight year overland journey through the Middle East and India | | Brazil is closed to all immigration accept from Portugal | William Shakespeare's Henry VI | Francois Viete's In artem analyticum isagoge on using letters for algebraic quantities |
1592 | James Lancaster rounds Malay peninsula, Elizabeth supplies Sultan of Morroco with arms to attack Songhai Empire in Africa | | Portuguese settle in Mombasa, Spanish navigator Juan de Fuca explores the Pacific Coast of North America, Japanese invade Korea, Mughals take Sindh | Tintoretto's The Last Supper | Ruins of Pompeii discovered, Galileo's Della Scienza Mechanica explaining the problems of raising weights |
1593 | | Coal mining becomes increasingly popular as firewood becomes scarce | Henry IV becomes a Catholic, Chinese forces enter Korea to repel Japanese, Spanish Franciscans arrive in Japan | Shakespeare's Richard III | Giambattista della Porta describes binocular vision |
1594 | James Lancaster loads up with Spices in India challenging the Portuguese monopoly on trade there, Lisbon closes its spice market to English traders as a consequence, Death of Martin Frobisher, Sir Richard Hawkins sails around Cape Horn and plunders Valparaiso before being taken prisoner at San Maeto Bay | | Mughals take Kandahar, Edict of St. Germain-en-Laye grants freedom of worship to Huguenots | Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Christopher Marlowe's Dido | Galileo's Golden Rule |
1595 | Walter Raleigh explores Orinoco River in South America whilst searching for El Dorado, O'Neill Rebellion (until 1601), Francis Drake and John Hawkins' final expedition to the Caribbean and Panama, Death of John Hawkins at Puerto Rico | Spanish land force in Cornwall to attack Penzance and Mousehole | Dutch begin sending out ships to challenge Portuguese control of the spice trade | Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream
| Mercator's Atlas published posthumously |
1596 | Death of Francis Drake off Panama, Pacification of Ireland intensifies | English sack Cadiz, Tomatoes arrive in England, England and Netherlands make alliance with France against Spanish | William Barents discovers Spitzbergen and Barents Sea, Spanish capture Calais, Peace between China and Japan | Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice | Galileo invents Thermometer, Ludolph von Ceulen calculates ratio of the diameter to the circumference of a circle to twenty places |
1597 | Death of Francis Drake off Panama, English Act of Parliament prescribes sentences of transportation to colonies for convicted criminals for first time, English merchants expelled from Holy Roman Empire, Robert Devereux sails to Azores to capture Spanish treasure fleet but fails | Second Spanish Armada scattered by storms | Dutch arrive at Batavia, William Barents dies in Arctic Ocean whilst searcing for North-East Passage, 26 Japanese Christians crucified | Francis Bacon's Essays | |
1598 | O'Neill's Victory at Yellow Ford | | Dutch take Mauritius, France and Spain end war, Philip II dies and succeeded by Philip III | Shakespeare's Henry V | Carlo Ruini writes manual on Veterinary Science, Tycho Brahe's Astronomia Instaurata, Korean Admiral Yisunsin clads ships in iron, Spain and Netherlands offer large prizes for anyone who can show a reliable way of calculating Longitude |
1599 | Earl of Essex lands in Ireland with 17,000 troops but is defeated at Arklow | Elizabeth sends organ to Sultan of Turkey, She has Essex arrested when he leaves Ireland without permission | Dutch fleet of eight ships arrives at Malacca, Dutch set up trading posts at Banda, Amboina and Ternate | Shakespeare's Julius Caesar | Ulisshi Aldrovandi's Study of Ornithology |
17th Century Timeline
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