This timeline presents a chronology of religious, political, and scientific events in Europe towards the end of the Renaissance.
| Pictoral timeline from Holt Physics: [1500's], [1600's], [1700's], [1800's], [1900's] | |
| 1474 | Nicholas Copernicus born |
| 1492 | Columbus lands in the New World. Jews and Moslems expelled from Spain |
Pope Alexander VI brings controversy and "debased standrds" to the papacy. He reigns until 1503 |
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| 1509 | Henry VIII ascends the throne of England. He rules until 1547. |
| 1517 | Martin Luther nails his 95 theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. Beginning of the Protestant Reformation. |
| 1520 | Cortez conquers Mexico. |
| 1520-22 | First circumnavigation of the world. |
| 1543 | Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543) publishes De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium. Copernicus dies |
| 1553 | Michael Servetus (1511-1553), who denied the Trinity, burned at the stake in Geneva. |
| 1558 | Elizabeth I of Tudor becomes Queen of England. Her rule lasts until her death in 1603. |
| 1562 | Beginning of wars of religion in France. These last until Henry IV of Navarre ascends the throne in 1589. |
| 1564 | Death of Michelangelo (b. 1475). |
| Birth of Galileo (d. 1642). | |
| Birth of William Shakespeare (d. 1616) and Christopher Marlowe (d. ) | |
| 1571 | Birth of Johannes Kepler (d.1630). |
| 1572 | New star (nova stella, or nova) in Cassiopeia, fully described by Tycho Brahe (hence "Tycho's star"). This was,in fact, a supernova. |
| 1577 | Comet of 1577, fully described by Tycho Brahe. |
| 1582 | Pope Gregory XIII institutes the Gregorian Calendar. |
| 1588 | Spanish Armada defeated by the weather and the English fleet. |
| 1597 | Johannes Kepler publishes Cosmographic Mystery. |
| 1598 | Edict of Nantes, under which Protestants in France are allowed to practice their religion in peace. |
| 1600 | Giordano Bruno burned at the stake in Rome. |
| William Gilbert (1540-1603) publishes On the Magnet. | |
| 1603 | Elizabeth I, Queen of England, dies, and with her the Tudor line. Her successor is James I of the House of Stuart, who ruled until 1625. |
| 1604 | New star (supernova), fully described by Kepler in De stella nova (1606), hence "Kepler's star." |
| 1605 | Francis Bacon (1561-1626) publishes Two Books of Francis Bacon, of the Proficiencie and Advancementof Learning, Divine and Human. |
| 1607 | Foundation of Virginia by the English. |
| 1608 | Foundation of Quebec by the French. |
| 1609 | Kepler publishes The New Astromomy, in which he introduces elliptical astronomy. |
| 1610 | Henry IV, King of France, is murdered. He is succeeded by his son, Louis XIII (d. 1643), during whose reign Cardinal Richelieu ruled France de facto. |
| 1611 | King James Bible is published. |
| 1612 | Foundation of New York by the Dutch. |
| 1619 | First African slaves in Virginia. |
| 1620 | Francis Bacon publishes his New Organum. |
| 1625 | Beginning of the reign of Charles I of England. |
| 1627 | Francis Bacon's New Atlantis is published posthumously. |
| 1636 | Foundation of Harvard College. |
| 1637 | René Descartes (1596-1650) publishes his Discourse on Method. |
| 1642 | Death of Galileo. |
| Birth of Isaac Newton (1642-1727). | |
| Beginning of civil war in England (ended 1649). | |
| 1644 | Descartes publishes Principles of Philosophy. |
| 1649 | Charles I of England beheaded by Cromwell and the "Rump" Parliament. |
| 1660 | Restoration of the English Monarchy. |
| Foundation of the Royal Society of London. | |
| 1661 | Charles II (d. 1685) crowned king of England. |
| 1662 | Robert Boyle (1625-1692) publishes The Skeptical Chymist. |
| 1665 | First issue of Philosophical Transactions published by Henry Oldenburg, secretary of the Royal Society. |
| Robert Hooke (1635-1703) publishes Micrographia. | |
| Fire of London. | |
| 1666 | Foundation of the Académie Royale des Sciences by Louis XIV. |
| London Plague. | |
| 1667 | First issue of Journal des Sçavans published by the French Academy. |
| 1673 | Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) publishes Horologium Oscillatorium. |
| James II ascends the throne of England. | |
| 1687 | Isaac Newton publishes his Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. |
| 1689 | Beginning of the rule of William and Mary in England. |
| 1690 | Publication of Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke (1632-1704) |
| 1694 | Founding of the Bank of England. |
| 1702 | Death of William III of Orange, King of England and stadholder of the Netherlands. Beginning of the reign of Queen Anne in England. |
| 1704 | Isaac Newton publishes his Opticks. |
