| THE SECOND MILLENIA |
| AD 1000 -- AD 2000 |
Michelangelo's painting of the "Creation of Adam" in the Sistine Chapel
1500 A.D. -- 1600 A.D.
1500's
| Aztecs play ollamalitzli, placing a rubber ball through a stone ring, the loser often beheaded. (Basketball?) |
1500
| The first black lead pencils are used in England. |
| The Sikh religious sect is founded in India. |
1502's
| Spain legalizes slave shipments to America. |
1503
| Pocket handkerchief comes into use. |
| Nostradamus, French astrologer, is born. |
1506
| Christopher Columbus dies. |
1507
| Martin Luther is ordained a Catholic monk. |
1509
| The first attempt to restrict the practice of medicine to doctors. |
1513
| Juan Ponce de Leon, searching in vain for a Fountain of Youth, lands on peninsula he calls Florida. |
| Spanish explorer Vasco Nunez de Balboa is first European to set eyes on the Pacific Ocean. |
1514
| Nicolas Copernicus, an astronomer who returned to his native Poland after long studies in Italy, determines that the accepted belief placing the Earth at the center of the universe is wrong. |
Click Here to read about Copernicus.
1519
| Cortes brings Arabian horses from Spain to America. |
| Portugese navigator Ferdinand Magellan leaves Europe to circumnavigate the globe. |
1521
| Pomplona, Spain hold first running of the bulls. |
Click Here to visit with Catherine of Aragon.
1525's
| Rome employs public street cleaners, paid by tax on artisans and tradesmen. |
1526
| Beretta family in Italy makes crossbows, then branches into guns in 1550. |
Click Here For the Incredible Journey of Cabeza de Vaca!
1530
| Opium, known as laudanum, is used to relieve pain. |
| Florence holds it's first lottery. |
1534
| Henry VIII breaks England away from the Catholic church, confiscates monastic property, beginning of the Episcopal Church. |
1536
| Anne Boleyn, married to King Henry VIII of England is beheaded on orders of her husband. |
1538
| Maps published by the great cartographer Geradus Mercator use the word America to refer to the new lands discovered by Christopher Columbus. |
1549
| Court jesters appear in Europe. |
1549 -- 1551
| Introduction of Christianity to Japan. |
1550
| African slaves are shipped to Brazil to work sugar plantations. |
Click Here for Michelangelo -- 1555!
1557
| Flu epidemic spreads across Europe. |
1559
| Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, is crowned Queen of England. |
1571
| Permanent gallows in London draws gawkers, becomes source of entertainment and profit. |
1576
| Trade between the colonies and Europe results in a wide range of new foods in both regions. |
1590
| Opera emerges in Florence as musicians revive ancient Greek theater. |
1595
| Galileo invents the thermometer. |
