1450

1451

1452

1453

1454

1455

1456

1457

1458

1459

 Johann Guttenberg produces an edition of the Bible using moveable type.

1475

 William Caxton prints the first book in England.

1478

Thomas More born in London.

1485

 Henry Tudor defeats Richard III at Bosworth; ascends the throne as Henry VII.

1492

 Columbus reaches the Caribbean.

1497-1498

 Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope and opens the way to India.

 Columbus's third voyage identifies the mainland of South America.

1499

Thomas More meets Erasmus.

1505

 Amerigo Vespucci publishes New World.

1506

More and Erasmus collaborate on a translation into Latin of Lucian's Dialogues.

1507

 Amerigo Vespucci publishes Four Voyages.

1509

Erasmus publishes In Praise of Folly.

 Henry VIII ascends the throne.

1510

More enters Parliament and is appointed under-sheriff  of London.

More publishes a translation of  The Life of John Picus Erle of Myrandula.

1515

More travels to Bruges on a diplomatic mission.

Erasmus publishes The Education of a Christian Prince.

Map of Utopia

1516

Utopia published in Louvain.

1517

More appointed to the King's Council.

Martin Luther nails 95 Theses to the church door at Wittenberg Castle.

1521

A Defence of the Seven Sacraments by Henry VIII (assisted by More) wins the Papal title 'Defender of the Faith'.

1523

  More's Responsio ad Lutherum.

 1529

  More's A Dialogue Concerning Heresies.

More appointed Lord Chancellor.

1532-1564

Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais.

1536

Thomas More executed.

Nicholas Copernicus

1543

De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium by Nicholas Copernicus.

1552

I Mondi by Anton Francesco Doni.

1558

Accession of Elizabeth I.

1561

Francis Bacon is born.

1571

Battle of Lepanto begins slow decline of Ottoman Empire.

1573

12-year-old Francis Bacon attends Trinity College, Cambridge.

1574

A Right Excellent and Pleasaunt Dialogue, betwene Mercury and an English Souldier by Barnaby Rich.

William Bullein incorporates a utopia about 'Taerg Natrib' into his plague book A dialogue bothe pleasaunt and pietifull, wherein is a godlie regiment against the feuer pestilence with a consolation and comforte againste death.

A perfit description of the Celestial Orbes by Thomas Digges

1576

Prognostication Everlasting by Thomas Digges.

1579

A Pleasant dialogue betweene a lady called Listra, and a pilgrim, concerning the government  and common weale of the great province of Crangalor by Thomas Nicholas.

1580

Siquila, Too Good to Be True by Thomas Lupton.

'On Cannibals' by Michel de Montaigne.

1581

The Second Part and Knitting Up of the Book Entitled, Too Good to Be True by Thomas Lupton.

Arcadia by Sir Philip Sidney.

1587

News of the disappearance of the colony at Roanoke, Virginia, reaches England.

1588

Probable first performance of The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe.

Defeat of the Spanish Armada.

1589

The principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English nation by Richard Hakluyt.

1590-1596

The Faerie Queen by Edmund Spencer.

1591

John Lyly’s play Endymion, the Man in the Moone is performed.

1595

Michael Drayton’s poem ‘Endimion and Phoebe’ (later revised as ‘The Man in the Moone’, 1606).

1597

John Lyly’s play The Woman in the Moone is performed.