1502 - Columbus sails, on his fourth and last voyage, to Honduras and Panama (-1504). Vasco da Gama founds Portuguese colony at Cochin, India.  Joao de Nova discovers St. Helena. Vespucci, after his second voyage, concludes that S. America is an independent continent, not identical with India. Second voyage of Anglo-Portuguese Syndicate to Newfoundland. Peter Henlein of Nuremberg constructs the "Nuremberg Egg", the first watch. The Council of Regency loses its effectiveness. Peasants' revolt in the bishopric of Speyer, Germany.

1503 - Pocket handkerchief comes into use. Leonardo da Vinci completes the "Mona Lisa". Michel de Notredame (Nostradamus), French prophet and astrologer, born.

1504 - Henry VII places English guilds and trade companies under Royal supervision.

1505 - Portuguese found factories on east coast of Africa.

1506 - Jakob Fugger, Augsburg merchant, imports spices from E. Indies to Europe by sea. Niccolø Machiavelli creates "Florentine Militia", the first National army in Italy, at age 37.

1507 - Palazzo Strozzi completed in Florence. Martin Luther ordained a Priest. Orlando Galla of Venice improves the manufacture of glass mirrors.

1508 - Maximilian I assumes title of Emperor without being crowned; Pope Julius II confirms the fact that the German King from now on automatically becomes "Holy Roman Emperor". Miryam (Mary) recognized as the "Mother of God" by the Roman Catholics. Jakob Fugger, Augsburg merchant, dubbed a hereditary Knight of the Holy Roman Empire.

1509 - Henry VII of England, dead; succeeded by his son, Prince of Wales, as King Henry VIII, marries Catherine of Aragon, his brother's widow. Earthquake destroys Constantinople. France declares War on Venice. Jakob Fugger lends Emperor Maximilian I 170,000 Ducats to finance War against Venice. Bartolomé de Las Casas, Roman Catholic bishop, proposes that every Spanish settler should bring Negro slaves to the New World (America).

1510 - Leonardo da Vinci designs the horizontal water wheel (forerunner of the water turbine). Hamburg becomes a free city of the Holy Roman Empire.

1511 - Pope Julius II forms the Holy League with Venice and Aragon to drive the French out of Italy. Portuguese conquer Malacca.

1512 - War between Russia and Poland.

1513 - Niccolo Machiavelli writes The Prince, the most celebrated guidebook to power politics.

1514 - The first European (Portuguese) ships in Chinese waters. Pineapples first arrive in Europe. Anglo-French Truce: Louis XII marries Mary Tudor, sister to Henry VIII; Louis XII's daughter marries Francis, Duke of Angouléme.

1515 - "Treaty of Vienna" between Emperor Maximilian I, Sigismund of Poland, and Vladislav of Hungary.

1516 - Ferdinand II of Spain dead; succeeded by Archduke Charles (later Emperor Charles V).

1517 - The Reformation begins.

Martin Luder (Luther), a revolutionary priest and university professor, protests against the church's sale of indulgences and absolutions, posts his famous 95 theses on the church doors (Oct.). His followers later begin the Lutheran denomination, after Luther's doctrines. The Reformation leads to further diversification of Christianity, with the formation of Protestantism. New denominations branch out later.

Archduke Charles grants "monopoly of Negro slave trade" to Fl. merchants.

1518 - Pope Leo X summons Luther to Rome to answer for his Theses.

1519 - Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese navigator in the service of Spain, leaves Europe (Sept.20) to circumnavigate the globe. Noteable achievements: discovered the Strait of Magellan and the Phillipine Islands.

Charles I of Spain decrees: "Fornication Under Consent of the King" Emperor Maximilian I dead; succeeded by his grandson, Charles I of Spain; becomes Holy Roman Emperor as Charles V. End of the Aztec Empire's control of Mexico. Cortes brings Arabian horses from Spain to N. American continent. Leonardo da Vinci, universal genius of the Italian Renaissance, dead.

1520 - The letter "J" first comes into use, derived from the Hebrew "YOD", and the Greek "IOTA". Chocolate first imported to Spain from Mexico.

1521 - Ferdinand Magellan dead. Manufacture of silk introduced to France.

1523 - The Portuguese are expelled from their settlement in China.

1524 - Turkeys from S.America eaten for the first time at the English court.

1525 - Martin Luther marries former nun Katherine von Bora.

1528 - Severe outbreaks of the plague in England.

1530 - Beginning of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, organized by the Portuguese. Some African Kings and merchants sold their own people as slaves.

1531 - The "great comet" (later Hailey's comet) arouses a wave of superstition.

1532 - Suger cane first cultivated in Brazil.

1533 - First lunatic asylums (without medical attention). Henry VIII secretly marries Anne Boleyn.

1534 - Decree forbidding English farmers to own more than 2,000 sheep.

1535 - "Statute of Uses" curbs power of English landowners.

1539 - First "Christmas Tree" at Strasbourg Cathedral. A public lottery held in France. Spain annexes Cuba.

1541 - Henry VIII assumes titles of "King of Ireland" and "Head of the Irish Church". Queen Catherine Howard sent to the Tower on "suspicion of immoral conduct"; her alleged paramours were executed.

1542 - 250,000 Native Americans exterminated, including the entire Arawaq tribe.

1543 - Nicolaus Copernicus challenges scientific and religious belief, by postulating a sun-centered galaxy.

1544 - Silver mines of Potosî, Peru, discovered.

1545 - Roman Catholics add new dogma to Council of Nice.

1546 - Civil war in Germany. Martin Luther dead.

1547 - Moscow destroyed by fire. First predictions of Nostradamus. French replaces Latin as official language of the French authorities.

1549 - "Court jesters" (dwarfs, cripples) first appear in Europe. Jesuit missionaries in S. America.

1550 - "Billiards" played for the first time in Italy.

1553 - Beginning of the reign of "Bloody" Mary Tudor, begins persecution of Protestants. Catholicism is restored (-1558).

1555 - Tobacco first brought to Spain from America. "The Peace of Augsburg" in Germany. The Reformation sweeps Europe.

1557 - Influenza epidemic all over Europe.

1558 - Portuguese introduce the use of "snuff" to Europe.

1560 - Tobacco plant imported to Western Europe by Jean Nicot. Madrid becomes the Capital of Spain. Creed of Pope Pius IV.

1561 - forerunners of hand grenades made for the first time. Tulips first imported to Western Europe from the East.

1562 - France attempts to colonize Florida. John Hawkins begins slave trade between Guinea and West Indies. Plague in Paris.

1563 - Plague kills over 20,000 people in London.

1564 - Horse-drawn coach introduced in England from Holland.

1565 - Pencils manufactured in England. Sir John Hawkins introduces sweet potatoes and tobacco to England.

1566 - Nostradamus dead.

1567 - 2 million Indians die in S. America of typhoid fever.

1569 - 40,000 die in Lisbon of Carbuncular fever epidemic.

1572 - Supernova is first observed.

1580 - Pope declared to be "Lord God" by the Roman Catholics.

1582 - Pope Gregory XIII introduces the Gregorian Calendar, by dropping 10 days from the year; which is followed by the papal states.

1586 - Decimal fractions used. Pope Sixtus V promises Spain aid to finance Armada against England.

1587 - Mary Queen of Scots, is beheaded at Fotheringay. Pope proclaims Catholic crusade for invasion of England.

1592 - Plague kills 15,000 in London. Windmills used in Holland to power mechanical saws. Author William Shakespeare emerges as a successful English dramatist.

1593 - "Ave Maria" adopted by the Roman Catholics. Birth of author, Isaac Walton.

1595 - English army retires the bow and arrow as a weapon of War.

1596 - Tomatoes introduced in England.

1597 - English Acts of Parliament prescribes sentences of banishment to the colonies for convicted criminals. Galileo Galilei, future Italian physicist and astronomer, invents the thermometer.

1599 - Plague in Spain.

1600 - Tokugawa Ieyasu is the victor at the Battle of Sekigahara against the last Momoyama era Shogun. Kabuki theater opens in Kyoto, Japan. Wigs and dress trains come into fashion in Europe.

1603 - Tokugawa Ieyasu becomes new Shogun and achieves peace and unification in feudal Japan; beginning of the Edo period in Japan (-1867). Revival of the Arts and a cultural renaissance in Japan. Queen Elizabeth I of England dies. Sir Walter Raleigh, arrested for suspected complicity in the plot which sought to dethrone James I, is tried for high treason. Heavy outbreak of Plague in England.

1605 - Small pox, measles, dysentery, typhoid, and tuberculosis spreads among Native American populations, contracted via the European colonies.

1606 - Juan de la Cabezade de Altimirano visits St. Augustine, the first bishop to visit North America.

1607 - Christopher Newport establishes the colony of Jamestown at the mouth of the James River on the Virginia coast. Captain James Smith is exhonerated of all charges of conspiracy to mutiny, and awarded 200 pounds in the first jury trial in America.

1608 - Quebec founded in Canada, first permanent French colony in America.

1609 - Galileo invents the telescope, makes the first astronomical observations. Colonists in Jamestown facing harsh winter conditions and barricaded in their fort out of fear of attacks from hostile natives; starve and are forced to eat dogs, toadstools, and horsehides.

1610 - Galileo discovers Jupiter's moons. The bagel is invented in Krakow, Poland.

1611 - First authorized version of King James Bible is published. Marco de Dominis publishes scientific explanation of the rainbow. Pedro de Peralta is named Governor of the colony of New Mexico and establishes Santa Fe as it's new capital. (First capital city in the New World.)

1612 - Tobacco is planted in Virginia.

1616 - Galileo is condemned by the Pope and summoned to Rome to face the Inquisition for his scientific theories that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and that the Earth and the heavens follow the same Laws. William Shakespeare dies, and lay to rest in Stratford Cemetary. 

1618 - Sir Walter Raleigh, poet, explorer, scientist, and a once-favored courtier of Queen Elizabeth I, is beheaded at Westminster Palace. He wrote poetry on the eve of his execution.

1619 - The first African slaves arrive in Virginia.

1620 - 149 Pilgrims leave Plymouth, England, aboard the "Mayflower" for N.America; land at New Plymouth, Mass., to found Plymouth Colony, with Miles Standish as their leader. Bacon introduces inductive reasoning. Dutch-born Cornelius Drebbel tests submarine, cruises 15 feet under the Thames River.

1621 - After a winter of deprivation and disease, Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony celebrate their survival at an autumn feast and give thanks to God. This first feast of Thanksgiving celebrated the successful harvest of the native corn crop (the European wheat had failed). Honored guests included Chief Masasoit of the Wampanoag tribe and 99 of his braves.

1622 - A hurricane overruns a Spanish fleet bound from Havana to Cadiz, sinking the prize galleon Atocha. Five men are rescued, 260 drown off the coast of the Florida keys.

1623 - Plymouth colonists establish the system of jury trials by 12-man juries in the American colonies.

1625 - Hackney coaches appear on the streets of London.

1626 - Following negotiations, a Dutch group led by Peter Minuit agrees to pay the Conarsee Indians the value of $24 in beads and trinkets for the 22-square mile island of Manhattan. The Conarsees reportedly were not interested in being paid in gold or silver.

1628 - Construction of the Taj Majal begins (-1648), one of the 7 wonders of the world, the famous mausoleum built by Shah Jahan for his favorite wife in Agra, India. Blood circulation studied: physiology founded.

1631 - Mt. Vesuvius erupts. Crowds in Boston Harbor celebrate the first launching of an American-built sailing ship, the "Blessing of the Bay".

1632 - Galileo brought before the Inquisition.

1633 - Galileo forced to recant the Copernican theory. The challenge of his new ideas greatly influenced the preeminenece of science and reason during the period of "The Enlightenment".

1636 - Harvard University founded.

1637 - Desdartes creates analytical geometry. Fermat's last theorem asserted.

1640 - Portugal becomes independent under John IV of Braganza.

1641 - Arsenic prescribed for medicinal purposes for the first time. Rise of Sweden's iron industry.

1642 - English Civil War begins with raising of royal standard at Nottingham. All theaters in England closed by order of the Puritans (until 1660).

1643 - "Confederation of New England" formed by Connecticut, New Haven, Plymouth, and Massachusetts Bay Colony. Improved conditions in England slow the steady stream of colonists to the New World. Coffee becomes popular in Paris.

1644 - Connecticut unites with colony at Saybrook, Providence with Newport, Portsmouth with Rhode Island.

1645 - Turkish-Venetian war over Crete (lasts until 1669).

1646 - First projection lantern built in Germany.

1647 - English Civil War continues: Commons votes to disband most of the army; Charles I taken prisoner; army marches into London; the king escapes, is recaptured, and is imprisoned at Carisbrooke Castle; he agrees to abolish episcopacy and restore Presbyterianism.

1648 - Scots begin Second Civil War, and are defeated at Preston; Parliament votes to bring Charles I to trial.  Population of Germany has sunk from 17 million in 1618 to 8 million, due to war, famine and plague.

1649 - The Assembly of Maryland approves a guarantee of perfect toleration to all religious sects. Charles I tried and beheaded by Parliament; succeeded by Charles II, crowned king by the Scots. England declared a Commonwealth.

1650 - World population is 500 million. First coffee house opens in England. Tea first drank in England. Leather upholstery being used for furniture. Beginnings of extermination of North American Indians.

1651 - First public comedy house in Vienna. Charles II crowned King of Scots; flees to France after his defeat by Crowell at Worcester.

1652 - First London coffee house opens.

1654 - Portuguese expel Dutch from Brazil.

1657 - Drinking chocolate introduced in London. Oliver Cromwell rejects title of "King". Creation of new House of Lords.

1658 - Red corpuscles discovered. Cromwell dissolves Parliament.

1659 - Richard Cromwell resigns as "Lord Protector".

1661 - Coronation of Charles II in England. Tokanoshi family of Japan becomes known for its soy sauce.

1665 - Great Plague of London kills approx. 67,000.

1666 - Great Fire of London (Sept.2-6) Light spectrum discovered.

1667 - "Truce of Andrusovo" ends 13-year War between Russia and Poland.

1668 - "Conservation of momentum" proposed.

1669 - Exploration of the American continent continues as religious missionaries and adventurers chart new territory in the west. Calculus invented.

1670 - First minute hands on clocks. Bostonian taverner Dorothy Jones advertised "cuchaletto," a drink made from ground and roasted South American beans.

1671 - Turks declare War on Poland.

1672 - Britain declares War on the Dutch.

1673 - Roman Catholics excluded from holding office in England.

1674 - Fur trader Louis Joliet and Father Jacques Marquette return from their epic four-month 2,500 mile journey on the Mississippi river.

1675 - Speed of light is first calculated.

1676 - A new fashion catches on in London when it's first coffee house opens.

1677 - Ice cream becomes popular dessert in Paris.

1681 - The Dodo bird goes extinct.

1682 - Weaving Mill in Amsterdam, Holland.

1683 - Bacteria discovered. Ashmolean Museum, first public museum built for that purpose, rises in Oxford, England, to display natural history artifacts. Wild Boars go extinct in Great Britain.

1684 - First attempts in London to light the streets.

1685 - Imaginary numbers defined.

1686 - "Federation of New England" is formed in N.East America.

1687 - Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, intrepid explorer of the Mississippi River, is killed by his own men while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

1688 - Dom Perignon invents champagne, later invents the "cork stopper" to hold bubbles. Plate glass.

1689 - Massacre of French settlers near Montreal, Canada by the Iroquois Indians (July).

1690 - Population of England is 5 million.

1691 - Paris prints first directory of street addresses to aid firefighters.

1692 - Last of the infamous Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts.  Earthquake in Jamaica.

1693 - Calculating machine invented. Carolina divides into north and south.

1694 - The Bank of England founded.

1696 - English Habeas Corpus Act suspended.

1697 - Last remains of Mayan civilization destroyed by the Spanish in Yucatan.

1698 - Paper manufacturing in N.America.

1700 - Andalusian, Francisco Romero, becomes the first famous bull fighter in Spain. Unmarried women taxed in Berlin.