* EVENTS
1504 Leonardo paints Mona Lisa
1506 St Peter's basilica begun in Rome (right)
1509 Michelangelo takes three years to paint ceiling of Sistine Chapel
1517 Martin Luther defies the pope with Wittenberg theses
1521 Edict of Worms condemns Luther
1522 Ferdinand Magellan sails around the world
1531 Henry VIII breaks with Rome
1540 Jesuits founded
1545 Roman Catholic Council of Trent spearheads opposition to Protestant Reformation
1553 Mary Tudor becomes queen of England
1555 Peace of Augsburg settles Protestant-Catholic conflicts
1558 Elizabeth I becomes queen
1571 Christians control eastern Mediterranean following defeat of Turks at Lepanto
1572 King Charles IX of France orders St Bartholomew's Day massacre of Huguenots
1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada (above, right)
1599 First known production at Globe Theatre (right) is Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
* IDEAS
1516 Erasmus edits Greek New Testament
1522 Luther translates Bible into German(above)
1532 Italian political theorist Machiavelli (left) writes The Prince
1543 Copernicus founds modern astronomy with De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium
1564 William Shakespeare born
1571 Galileo Galilei born