WillShakespeare.com
Timeline
A Detailed Timeline of Historically Important Events in Shakespeare's Times
| November 17, 1558 | Queen Elizabeth takes the throne of England. She re-established the Protestant Church. Elizabeth was the daughter of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn (his second wife); Elizabeth succeeded her sister, Mary I, a devout Catholic. |
| 1564 | The Roman Catholic Church publishes its first "Index of Forbidden Books" |
| February 6, 1564 | Christopher Marlowe born |
| April 23, 1564 | Will Shakespeare born |
| April 26, 1564 | Will's baptism recorded in the register of the Holy Trinity Parish Church in Stratford-upon-Avon: "Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakspere" |
| February 12, 1567 | Thomas Campion born |
| September 4, 1568 | Will's father, John Shakespeare, elected as Bailiff (Mayor) of Stratford. |
| June 11, 1572 | Ben Jonson born |
| 1577 | Raphael Holingshed publishes the Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland |
| 1577 | Sir Frances Drake circumnavigates the globe |
| 1580 | John Webster is born |
| November 27, 1582 | Will Shakespeare (18 years old) marries Anne Hathaway (26 years old) |
| May 26, 1583 | Susanna, Will's first child, is baptized (Susanna lives to be 66 years old) |
| 1584 | An English Expedition claims North Carolina for England; Queen Elizabeth I, the "Virgin Queen" names the land Virginia |
| 1584 | The end of Ivan the Terrible's Rule in Russia |
| February 2, 1585 | Will's wife gives birth to twins, who are baptized. Judith (girl) and Hamnet (boy) - Judith lives to be 77 years old. Hamnet died at the young age of 11. The 2 children were named after close friends of Shakespeare: Hamnet and Judith Sadler. |
| February 8, 1587 | Mary Stuart, aka Mary Queen of Scots, is beheaded in England |
| 1587 | Sir Walter Raleigh places 89 men, 14 women, and 2 children on Roanoke Island in North Carolina; becomes known as the "Lost Colony" as they disappear within 2 years. |
| 1588 | England's fleet of ships defeats the Spanish Armada |
| 1588 | The Vatican Library opens |
| 1589 | Will Shakespeare believed to have written his first play at this time: Henry VI, Part 1 |
| May 30, 1593 | Christopher Marlowe dies under very strange circumstances; news said he was killed in an argument over the bill in a tavern. This famous poet was also in England's Secret Service. |
| 1595 | A Midsummer Night's Dream is first performed |
| 1595 | Romeo and Juliet is first performed |
| August 11, 1596 | Hamnet, Shakespeare's son, dies |
| October 20, 1596 | John Shakespeare granted Coat of Arms. The motto read: "Non sans droict" or "Not without right" |
| 1596 | The Merchant of Venice is first performed |
| May 4, 1597 | Will Shakespeare buys New Place, an expensive and extremely magnificent residence. |
| 1599 | Globe Theatre built |
| 1599 | Julius Caesar is first performed |
| 1600 | The East India Company is founded in England |
| 1600 | Hamlet is first performed |
| September 8, 1601 | Burial of Will Shakespeare's father, John Shakespeare |
| May 1, 1602 | Shakespeare buys (for £320) over 100 acres of land in Old Stratford, north of Stratford-upon-Avon |
| 1602 | Shakespeare buys a quarter acre of land with a cottage and garden; this new purchase was located just across from New Place |
| 1602 | Thomas Campion publishes "Observations in the Art of Poesie" |
| March 24, 1603 | Queen Elizabeth dies |
| 1603 | James VI of Scotland is crowned King James I, King of England, upon the death of Queen Elizabeth I |
| 1603 | Shakespeare's acting troupe, The Chamberlain's Men, changes its name to The King's Men. The troupe is under the patronage of King James I. |
| 1604 | Dr. Faustus, by Marlowe, is produced |
| 1604 | Othello is first performed |
| July 1605 | Shakespeare pays £440 for a half interest in a lease for "tithes of corn, grain, blade, and hay" in and around Stratford. This lease brought Shakespeare £60 per year. |
| 1605 | King Lear is first performed |
| 1606 | Antony and Cleopatra first performed |
| June 5, 1607 | Shakespeare's daughter Susanna marries a popular doctor, Dr. John Hall |
| 1607 | Jamestown, Virginia is founded by Captain John Smith and 103 other men and boys |
| February 21, 1608 | Will is a grandfather at the age of 43. Shakespeare's daughter Susanna gives birth to a girl, Elizabeth Hall, who is baptized on this date at the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. |
| September 9, 1608 | Will buries his mother, Mary Shakespeare, age 68, at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. |
| 1608 | Shakespeare's Troupe, The Kings's Men, buys the Blackfriars Theatre |
| 1608 | "The Judgement of a Catholicke Englishman Living in Banishment for His Religion" published by Robert Parsons |
| December 9, 1608 | John Milton born |
| 1609 | Shakespeare's Sonnets are published as a collection. (154 Sonnets in total) |
| 1611 | The King James Version of the Bible is published in England |
| 1611 | The Tempest first performed |
| March, 1613 | For £140, Shakespeare buys a dwelling house in London, near Blackfriars Theatre and across the river from The Globe Theatre |
| June 29, 1613 | The Globe Theatre burns to the ground during a performance of Henry VIII |
| 1614 | The Globe Theatre is rebuilt |
| 1614 | Sir Walter Raleigh publishes "The History of the World" |
| 1616 | Ben Jonson publishes "The Workes of Benjamin Jonson" |
| February 10, 1616 | Shakespeare's daughter Judith marries Thomas Quiney. Shakespeare was unhappy with the marriage and especially disliked Thomas Quiney, who had confessed to impregnating another woman. |
| March 25, 1616 | Will Shakespeare signs his Last Will and Testament |
| April 23, 1616 | Will Shakespeare dies at the age of 52 |
| April 23, 1616 | Miguel de Cervantes dies |
| April 25, 1616 | Shakespeare is buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. |
| 1618 | Sir Walter Raleigh is executed |
| 1618 | The Thirty Years War begins |
| 1619 | The first female English colonists arrive in Jamestown |
| August 20, 1619 | Twenty people, indentured servants, are taken to Virginia, becoming the first African-born bondsmen to arrive in America |
| 1620 | Pilgrims arrive in Massachusetts |
| 1623 | First Folio of Shakespeare's Works published |
| 1623 | Will's wife, Anne Hathaway, dies |
| 1625 | Charles I, Son of James I, is crowned King of Great Britain and Ireland |
| 1626 | New Amsterdam (now New York) is founded by Dutch settlers |
| 1628 | King Charles I of England accepts the Petition of Right |
| 1630 | English Puritans found Boston, Massachusetts |
| 1632 | Galileo publishes his findings in astronomy; found to be controversial at the time - he is arrested and threatened with torture; he recants, and his books are banned. |
| 1632 | Lord Baltimore founds Maryland as a colony for English Catholics |
| 1632 | John Webster dies |
| 1632 - 1653 | The Taj Mahal is built |
| 1635 | Shakespeare's son-in-law Dr. John Hall dies. Hall was married to Will's daughter, Susanna. |
| August 16, 1637 | Ben Jonson dies |
| 1641 | Massachusetts becomes the first colony to legalize slavery by statute |
| 1642 | Globe Theatre closed. The Puritans in England shut down all playhouses. |
| 1642 | English Civil War begins |
| 1643 | Parliament passes the British Licensing Act; requires that British government must approve any books or pamphlets before they are published |
| 1644 | Globe Theatre torn down to build housing in the area. |
| 1644 | King Charles's Royalists are defeated in the first part of the English Civil War |
| 1649 | Muhammad's The Koran is published |
| January 30, 1649 | Charles I is beheaded; was tried before a Cromwellian Court and found guilty of crimes against England |
| 1649 | Shakespeare's beloved daughter Susanna dies at the age of 66. |
| 1650 | Harvard College is founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| April 26, 1660 | Daniel Defoe is born |
| September 13, 1663 | The first slave rebellion in North America occurs in Gloucester County, Virginia |