Timeline: WILLETS, Thomas: Byrne and Asimov Genealogy and Family Histories

1510 -

	Date	Event(s)
1	1511	1511: Portugal defeats the Arabs in a major naval battle at the Straits of Sunda, taking control of the Spice Islands as the center of Far East trade. (The Straits lie between Java and Borneo, now Indonesia.)
2	1512	1512: Nikolaus Kop?rnik, better known as Copernicus, circulated a manuscript, the Commentariolus, which hypothesized that the Earth was a planet and planets revolved in circles and epicircles around the Sun, that the Earth rotated daily, and regressions in planetary orbits were explained by the Earth's motions. 1512: England begins construction of double-deck warships
3	1513	1513: Battle of Flodden Field (fought at Flodden Edge, Northumberland) in which invading Scots are defeated by the English under their commander, 70 year old Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey; James IV of Scotland is killed.
4	1514	1514: King Manuel I of Portual enhances the menagerie of animals owned by Pope Leo X through the gift of an Indian elephant. Curious crowds follow the beast the entire length of its journey through Italy.
5	1515	1515: Thomas Wolsey, Archbisop of York, is made Lord Chancellor of England and Cardinal
6	1517	1517: The Protestant Reformation begins; Martin Luther nails his "95 Theses" against the Catholic practice of selling indulgences, on the church door at Wittenberg
7	1519	1519: Avocados were introduced to Europe by Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez 1519: Magellan begins his journey to circumnavigate the world with five ships and 270 men. In 1521 Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines. Eventually in 1522, eighteen of Magellan's crew and one ship return
8	1520	1520: Field of Cloth of Gold: Francois I of France meets Henry VIII but fails to gain his support against Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V
9	1521	1521: Henry VIII receives the title "Defender of the Faith" from Pope Leo X for his opposition to Luther
10	1523	1523: Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon publish depictions of a "pope-ass" and a "monk-calf," obscene-looking monsters signifying divine displeasure with the Papacy.
11	1529	1529: Vanilla reaches Europe 1529: Henry VIII dismisses Lord Chancellor Thomas Wolsey for failing to obtain the Pope's consent to his divorce from Catherine of Aragon; Sir Thomas More appointed Lord Chancellor; Henry VIII summons the "Reformation Parliament" and begins to cut the ties with the Church of Rome
12	1530	1530: Turkeys brought to Spain by Pedro Alonso Nino poultry farms by 1530, were in Rome by 1525, were in France by 1538, and then spread rapidly to other parts of the Old World. 1530: Thomas Wolsey dies
13	1532	1532: Sir Thomas More resigns over the question of Henry VIII's divorce
14	1533	1533: Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn and is excommunicated by Pope Clement VII; Thomas Cranmer appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
15	1534	1534: Act of Supremacy: Henry VIII declared supreme head of the Church of England 1534: Jacques Cartier enters the St. Lawrence River. Land in Great Lakes claimed for France
16	1535	1535: Sir Thomas More is beheaded in Tower of London for failing to take the Oath of Supremacy
17	1536	1536: Anne Boleyn is beheaded; Henry VIII marries Jane Seymour; dissolution of monasteries in England begins under the direction of Thomas Cromwell, completed in 1539.
18	1537	1537: Jane Seymour dies after the birth of a son, the future Edward VI
19	1539	1539: Dissolution of Glastonbury Abbey; buildings torched and looted by king's men; Abbot Richard Whiting is executed by hanging atop Glastonbury Tor.
20	1540	1540: Henry VIII marries Anne of Cleves following negotiations by Thomas Cromwell; Henry divorces Anne of Cleves and marries Catherine Howard; Thomas Cromwell executed on charge of treason
21	1541	1541: Giambattista Canano published illustrations of each muscle and its relation with the bones.
22	1542	1542: Catherine Howard is executed
23	1543	1543: Henry VIII marries Catherine Parr; alliance between Henry and Charles V (Holy Roman Emperor) against Scotland and France
24	1544	1544: Tomatoes reach Europe. It is unclear where tomatoes may have been first domesticated but the two main possibilities are Peru and Mexico. The wild forms may have originated in either area, but it was the indigenous peoples of Mexico that first cultivated them. In fact, the common name tomato comes from 'tomatl', the word for this plant in the Nahuatl language of Mexico. 1544: Henry VIII and Charles V invade France
25	1546	1546: Fracastoro published the idea that diseases were caused by disease-specific seeds that could multiply within the body and be transmitted directly from person to person or directly on contaminated objects, even over long distance; moreover, he proposed that variations in the intensity of epidemics could be attributed to changes in the virulence of germs
26	1547	1547: Edward VI, King of England): Duke of Somerset acts as Protector
27	1549	1549: Introduction of uniform Protestant service in England based on Edward VI's Book of Common Prayer
28	1550	1550: Fall of Duke of Somerset:; Duke of Northumberland succeeds as Protector 1550: Wallpaper arrives in Europe from China
29	1551	1551: Archbishop Cranmer publishes Forty-two Articles of religion
30	1553	1553: On death of Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey proclaimed queen of England by Duke of Northumberland, her reign lasts nine days; Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England (to 1558); Restoration of Roman Catholic bishops in England
31	1554	1554: Execution of Lady Jane Grey
32	1555	1555: England returns to Roman Catholicism: Protestants are persecuted and about 300, including Cranmer, are burned at the stake
33	1558	1558: England loses Calais, last English possession in France; Death of Mary I; Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, becomes Queen; Repeal of Catholic legislation in England
34	1559	1559: Pope Paul IV issues Index of Forbidden Books
35	1560	1560: Treaty of Berwick between Elizabeth I and Scottish reformers; Treaty of Edinburgh among England, France, and Scotland
36	1563	1563: The Thirty-nine Articles, which complete establishment of the Anglican Church
37	1564	1564: Peace of Troyes between England and France
38	1565	1565: Lead pencil invented
39	1567	1567: Murder of Lord Darnley, husband of Mary Queen of Scots, probably by Earl of Bothwell; Mary Queen of Scots marries Bothwell, is imprisoned, and forced to abdicate; James VI, King of Scotland
40	1568	1568: Mary Queen of Scots escapes to England and is imprisoned by Elizabeth I at Fotheringay Castle
41	1569	1569: Gerard de Cremer, better known as Gerardus Mercator, published the projection map of the world which bears his name.
42	1577	1577: Alliance between England and Netherlands; Francis Drake sails around the world (to 1580) 1577: Sir Francis Drake sets sail from England. He circumnavigates the globe
43	1583	1583: Cesalpino, in 'De Plantis', classified plants with seeds according to the number, position, and shape of the parts of their fruit. 1583: Galileo Galilei discovered by experiment that the oscillations of a swinging pendulum took the same amount of time regardless of their amplitude.
44	1584	1584: William of Orange is murdered and England sends aid to the Netherlands; 1586 Expedition of Sir Francis Drake to the West Indies; Conspiracy against Elizabeth I involving Mary Queen of Scots
45	1587	1587: Sprouts were believed to have been cultivated in Italy in Roman times, and possibly as early as the 1200s in Belgium but the modern Brussels sprout that we are familiar with was first cultivated in large quantities in Belgium (hence the name) 1587: Execution of Mary Queen of Scots; England at war with Spain; Drake destroys Spanish fleet at Cadiz
46	1588	1588: The Spanish Armada is defeated by the English fleet under Lord Howard of Effingham, Sir Francis Drake, and Sir John Hawkins: war between Spain and England continues until 1603
47	1590	1590: Zacharias and Hans Janssen combined double convex lenses in a tube, producing the first telescope.
48	1596	1596: The work of Dutch cartographer Abraham Ortelius suggests the possibility of continental drift, which will be described more forcefully by Alfred Wegener centuries later.
49	1597	1597: Cultivation of sweet potatoes was tried (probably unsuccessfully) by John Gerarde of London 1597: Irish rebellion under Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone (finally put down 1601)
50	1600	1600: William Gilbert, in 'De Magnete', held that the earth behaves like a giant magnet with its poles near the geographic poles. He coined the word 'electrica' (from the Greek word for amber, elektron), and distinguished electricity from magnetism. 1600: Elizabeth I grants charter to East India Company
51	1601	1601: Elizabethan Poor Law charges the parishes with providing for the needy; Essex attempts rebellion, and is executed
52	1603	1603: Elizabeth dies; James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England
53	1604	1604: Hampton Court Conference: no relaxation by the Church towards Puritans; James bans Jesuits; England and Spain make peace 1604: Cawdrey's A Table Alphabeticall, first English dictionary, is published
54	1605	1605: Gunpowder Plot; Guy Fawkes and other Roman Catholic conspirators fail in attempt to blow up Parliament and James I
55	1607	1607: Parliament rejects proposals for union between England and Scotland; colony of Virginia is founded at Jamestown by John Smith; Henry Hudson begins voyage to eastern Greenland and Hudson River
56	1609	1609: Galileo built a telescope with which he discovered the mountains on the moon, that the Milky Way consisted of innumerable stars, the four largest satellites of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and sunspots. 1609: Henry Hudson explores present-day New York and Hudson River and claims them for the Dutch 1609: Avisa Relation oder Zeitung', world's first regular newspaper is published
57	1610	1610: Hudson Bay discovered
58	1611	1611: James I's authorized version (King James Version) of the Bible is completed; English and Scottish Protestant colonists settle in Ulster
59	1614	1614: James I dissolves the "Addled Parliament" which has failed to pass any legislation
60	1616	1616: Italian philosopher Lucilio Vanini suggests that humans descended from apes. For this heresy, he is burned alive three years later.
61	1618	1618: Thirty Years' War begins, lasts until 1648
62	1620	1620: Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the "Mayflower"; found New Plymouth

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