Galileo was born three days before Michelangelo died, and Newton in the year Galileo died: Galileo on 15 February 1564, Michelangelo dying on the 18th, and Newton on Christmas Day 1642 by England's Julian calendar.
The events
- Sistine Chapel ceiling1508–1512 · Rome. Commissioned by Pope Julius II, Michelangelo spent four years painting the chapel's vault with scenes from Genesis. The frescoes, including the Creation of Adam, became a summit of High Renaissance art.
- Galileo's telescopic discoveries1610 · Venice. In The Starry Messenger, Galileo Galilei described mountains on the Moon, countless new stars and four moons of Jupiter seen through his telescope. The observations became powerful evidence for the Copernican system.
- Newton's Principia1687 · London. Isaac Newton published the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, setting out his three laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation. One mechanics for heaven and Earth became the foundation of classical physics.
More amazing facts
- 1561 · 1632 St Basil's Cathedral is more than 70 years older than the Taj Mahal: it was consecrated in 1561, and work on the Agra mausoleum began only in 1632.
- 1564 In 1564 Ivan Fyodorov printed the Apostol in Moscow, and Shakespeare was born in England.
- 1565 · 1572 Ivan the Terrible's Oprichnina (1565–1572) and France's St Bartholomew's Day massacre (1572) were bloody purges of the same decade.
- 1566 · 1601 The great astronomer Tycho Brahe wore a metal nose.
- 1569 Most online maps use a projection from 1569.
- 1570 · 1582 Ivan the Terrible asked Elizabeth I for asylum in England in case his boyars overthrew him. The queen agreed, provided he paid his own way. Later he even sought to marry her relative Mary Hastings.