Timeline: TOWNSEND, John: Byrne and Asimov Genealogy and Family Histories

1579 -

	Date	Event(s)
1	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.
2	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
3	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
4	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
5	1590	1590: Zacharias and Hans Janssen combined double convex lenses in a tube, producing the first telescope.
6	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.
7	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)
8	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
9	1601	1601: Elizabethan Poor Law charges the parishes with providing for the needy; Essex attempts rebellion, and is executed
10	1603	1603: Elizabeth dies; James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England
11	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
12	1605	1605: Gunpowder Plot; Guy Fawkes and other Roman Catholic conspirators fail in attempt to blow up Parliament and James I
13	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
14	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
15	1610	1610: Hudson Bay discovered
16	1611	1611: James I's authorized version (King James Version) of the Bible is completed; English and Scottish Protestant colonists settle in Ulster
17	1614	1614: James I dissolves the "Addled Parliament" which has failed to pass any legislation
18	1616	1616: Italian philosopher Lucilio Vanini suggests that humans descended from apes. For this heresy, he is burned alive three years later.
19	1618	1618: Thirty Years' War begins, lasts until 1648
20	1620	1620: Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the "Mayflower"; found New Plymouth
21	1622	1622: James I dissolves Parliament for asserting its right to debate foreign affairs 1622: Weekly News, first English newspaper, published.
22	1623	1623: Wilhelm Schickard built a six digit calculator, driven directly by gears, which could add, subtract, and indicate overflow by ringing a bell.
23	1624	1624: Alliance between James I and France; Parliament votes for war against Spain; Virginia becomes crown colony
24	1625	1625: Charles I, King of England (to 1649); Charles I marries Henrietta Maria, sister of Louis XIII of France; dissolves Parliament which fails to vote him money
25	1627	1627: William Harvey was able to confirm his observation that the blood circulates throughout the body, which he inferred from the structure of the venal valves. The following year, in Exercitatio Anatomica, he published these conclusions as well as a description of the heart as a mechanical pump.
26	1628	1628: Petition of Right; Charles I forced to accept Parliament's statement of civil rights in return for finances
27	1629	1629: Charles I dissolves Parliament and rules personally until 1640
28	1630	1630: England makes peace with France and Spain
29	1636	1636: Tulip mania begins and ceases the following year in a precursor of the 2000 'dot-com' crash
30	1639	1639: First Bishops' War between Charles I and the Scottish Church; ends with Pacification of Dunse
31	1640	1640: Charles I summons the "Short " Parliament ; dissolved for refusal to grant money; Second Bishops' War; ends with Treaty of Ripon; The Long Parliament begins. 1640: Athanasius Kirchner's magic lantern invented
32	1641	1641: Triennial Act requires Parliament to be summoned every three years; Star Chamber and High Commission abolished by Parliament; Catholics in Ireland revolt; some 30,000 Protestants massacred; Grand Remonstrance of Parliament to Charles I
33	1642	1642: Charles I fails in attempt to arrest five members of Parliament and rejects Parliament's Nineteen Propositions; Civil War (until 1645) begins with battle of Edgehill between Cavaliers (Royalists) and Roundheads (Parliamentarians)
34	1643	1643: Solemn League and Covenant is signed by Parliament
35	1644	1644: Battle of Marston Moor; Oliver Cromwell defeats Prince Rupert
36	1645	1645: Formation of Cromwell's New Model Army; Battle of Naseby; Charles I defeated by Parliamentary forces
37	1646	1646: Charles I surrenders to the Scots
38	1647	1647: Scots surrender Charles I to Parliament; he escapes to the Isle of Wright; makes secret treaty with Scots
39	1648	1648: Scots invade England and are defeated by Cromwell at battle of Preston Pride's Purge: Presbyterians expelled from Parliament (known as the Rump Parliament); Treaty of Westphalia ends Thirty Years' War
40	1649	1649: Charles I is tried and executed; The Commonwealth, in which ; England is governed as a republic, is established and lasts until 1660; Cromwell harshly suppresses Catholic rebellions in Ireland
41	1650	1650: Charles II lands in Scotland; is proclaimed king
42	1651	1651: Thomas Hobbes, in 'Leviathan', argued from a mechanistic theory that man is a selfishly individualistic animal at constant war with others. In the state of nature, life is "nasty, brutish, and short." 1651: Charles II invades England and is defeated at Battle of Worcester; Charles escapes to France; First Navigation Act, England gains virtual monopoly of foreign trade
43	1653	1653: Cromwell dissolves the "Rump" and becomes Lord Protector
44	1654	1654: James Ussher, Protestant archbishop of Armagh, determined by a close reading of scriptural genealogies that the events described on the first page of the Book of Genesis occurred in 4004 B.C. 1654: Treaty of Westminster between England and Dutch Republic
45	1655	1655: Christiaan Huygens discovered 'Titan,' Saturn's largest moon, and that what Galileo had thought were moons were actually rings. He was the first to note markings on Mars. 1655: England divided into 12 military districts by Cromwell; seizes Jamaica from Spain
46	1656	1656: Huygens built the first pendulum-regulated clock. Two years later, Huygens, in Horologium, claimed that his clock could establish longitude at sea which was not then possible and had led to many maritime disasters. 1656: War with Spain (until 1659)
47	1658	1658: Oliver Cromwell dies; succeeded as Lord Protector by son Richard; Battle of the Dunes, England and France defeat Spain; England gains Dunkirk
48	1659	1659: Richard Cromwell forced to resign by the army; "Rump" Parliament restored 1659: First cheque drawn in London
49	1660	1660: Convention Parliament restores Charles II to throne
50	1661	1661: Clarendon Code; "Cavalier" Parliament of Charles II passes series of repressive laws against Nonconformists; English acquire Bombay
51	1662	1662: Boyle, using a vacuum pump of his own invention, determined that the volume and pressure of a gas are inversely proportional 1662: John Graunt, in 'Observations upon the Bills of Mortality', using London population data, noted that life expectancy is 27 years, with nearly two/thirds dying before 16 years. 1662: Act of Uniformity passed in England
52	1664	1664: England siezes New Amsterdam from the Dutch, change name to New York
53	1665	1665: Great Plague in London
54	1666	1666: Great Fire of London 1666: First European printed paper banknote issued
55	1667	1667: Dutch fleet defeats the English in Medway river; treaties of Breda among Netherlands, England, France, and Denmark
56	1668	1668: Triple Alliance of England, Netherlands, and Sweden against France
57	1669	1669: Isaac Newton circulated a manuscript, 'De analysi per aequationes numero terminorum infinitas', the first notice of his calculus.
58	1670	1670: Secret Treaty of Dover between Charles II of England and Louis XIV of France to restore Roman Catholicism to England; Hudson's Bay Company founded
59	1672	1672: Third Anglo-Dutch war (until 1674); William III (of Orange) becomes ruler of Netherlands
60	1673	1673: Test Act aims to deprive English Roman Catholics and Nonconformists of public office
61	1674	1674: Hennig Brand discovered phosphorus in a distillation of human urine 1674: Anton van Leeuwenhoek reported his discovery of protozoa, using his newly-devised microscope 1674: Treaty of Westminster between England and the Netherlands
62	1677	1677: William III, ruler of the Netherlands, marries Mary, daughter of James, Duke of York, heir to the English throne
63	1678	1678: Popish Plot' in England; Titus Oates falsely alleges a Catholic plot to murder Charles II
64	1679	1679: Act of Habeas Corpus passed, forbidding imprisonment without trial; Parliament's Bill of Exclusion against the Roman Catholic Duke of York blocked by Charles II; Parliament dismissed; Charles II rejects petitions calling for a new Parliament; petitioners become known as Whigs; their opponents (royalists) known as Tories
65	1681	1681: Whigs reintroduce Exclusion Bill; Charles II dissolves Parliament
66	1685	1685: James II of England and VII of Scotland (to 1688); rebellion by Charles II's illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, against James II is put down
67	1686	1686: James II disregards Test Act; Roman Catholics appointed to public office
68	1687	1687: James II issues Declaration of Liberty of Conscience, extends toleration to all religions
69	1688	1688: Edward Lloyd's coffee house opens in England 1688: England's 'Glorious Revolution'; William III of Orange is invited to save England from Roman Catholicism, lands in England, James II flees to France
70	1689	1689: Convention Parliament issues Bill of Rights; establishes a constitutional monarchy in Britain; bars Roman Catholics from the throne; William III and Mary II become joint monarchs of England and Scotland (to1694), Toleration Act grants freedom of worship to dissenters in England; Grand Alliance of the League of Augsburg, England, and the Netherlands 1689: Parliament draws up the Declaration of Right detailing the unconstitutional acts of King James II. James' daughter and her husband, his nephew, become joint sovereigns of Britain as King William III and Queen Mary II. Parliament passes the Bill of Rights. Toleration Act grants rights to Trinitarian Protestant dissenters. Catholic forces loyal to James II land in Ireland from France and lay siege to Londonderry

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