1260?-1327----- Meister Eckhart
1276-1337 ----- Giotto
1300?-1349? --- William of Ockham
1309-1378 ----- Papacy at Avignon
1305 ---------- Giotto paints the first realistic frescoes in Padua
1315-1317 ----- Famine in northern Europe
1324 ---------- Marsilius of Padua writes Defensor Pacis
1341 ---------- Petrarch crowned poet laureate at Rome
1346 ---------- Battle of Crecy
1347-1350 ----- Black Death
1348-1351 ----- Giovanni Boccaccio writes The Decameron
1356 ---------- Battle of Poitiers
1374-1400 ----- Jean Froissart writes the Chronicles of the 100 Years' War		                
1378 ---------- Ciompi Revolt in Florence
1378-1402 ----- Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan
1378-1417 ----- Great Schism
1381 ---------- Peasants' Revolt in England
1385?-1440 ---- Jan van Eyck
1386-1400 ----- Geoffrey Chaucer writes Canterbury Tales
1397 ---------- Founding of the Medici Bank
1399 ---------- Henry of Lancaster (Henry IV) seizes English throne
1401-1429? ---- Masaccio
1402-1472 ----- Leon Battista Alberti
1406 ---------- Florence conquers Pisa.
1409 ---------- Council of Pisa
1414-1418 ----- Council of Constance
1415 ---------- Battle of Agincourt
1417 ---------- "Great Schism" ends
1419 ---------- Brunelleschi designs Foundling Hospital in Florence  
1420-1460 ----  Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal
1420 ---------- Portuguese reach the Madeira Islands.
1420 ---------- Brunellischi designs dome of Florence Cathedral
1425 ---------- Thomas a Kempis writes Imitation of Christ
1427 ---------- Portuguese reach the Azores.
1429 ---------- Joan of Arc leads French to break English siege of Orleans. 
1429 ---------- Charles VII crowned king of France.
c. 1430 ------- Creation of the Janissaries
1431 ---------- Joan of Arc burned at the stake
1434 ---------- Cosimo de' Medici establishes rule in Florence
1435 ---------- Donatello's David is completed
1438-1445 ----- Fra Angelico paints San Marco Monastery, Florence
1438 ---------- Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges
1440 ---------- Platonic Academy founded in Florence  
1440 ---------- Johann Gutenberg invents printing from movable type
1449 ---------- Birth of Lorenzo de' Medici.
1450 ---------- Mercenary leader, Francesco Sforza, seizes power in Milan.
1451-1481 ----- Mohammed II, the Conqueror, Ottoman sultan
1452-1519 ----- Leonardo da Vinci
1453 ---------- Constantinople falls to the Turks
1455 ---------- Gutenberg Bible printed
1455-1485 ----- Wars of the Roses
1461-1483 ----- Louis XI rules France
1469 ---------- Marsilio Ficino publishes Theologia Platonica
1469-1492 ----- Lorenzo de' Medici ("the Magnificent") rules Florence.
1471-1484 ----- Pontificate of Sixtus IV
1475-1564 ----- Michelangelo Buonarroti
1476 ---------- William Caxton sets up printing press at Westminster
1478 ---------- Spanish Inquisition persecutes Jews, Muslims, and heretics.
1480 ---------- Lodovico Sforza seizes power in Milan.
1482 ---------- First great Renaissance villa is built for Pope Leo X 
1483-1520 ----- Raphael Santi
1483 ---------- Martin Luther born.
1484 ---------- Bull condemns withcraft. Inquisitors sent to Germany 
1485 ---------- Battle of Bosworth Field
1485-1495 ----- Ivan III brings Italian architects to Moscow t
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.
1496 ---------- Santo Domingo founded 
1497 ---------- John Cabot discovers Newfoundland .
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.
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.