Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Spaceopoly The Countdown to locking thread...

1600 - the Battle of Sekigahara is waged. Also known as the Battle for the Sundered Realm, it was one of the largest and most important battles in Japanese history. It paved the way for the rise of the Tokgawa shogunate, the last shogunate to rule Japan.

1599 - The first performance of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar at the Globe Theatre in London, is reported by Swiss traveller Thomas Platter the Younger.

1598 - Tycho Brahe's star catalogue listing the positions of 1,004 stars is published.

1598 - Henry IV of France issues the Edict of Nantes, granting religious freedom to the Huguenots.

1597 - Jesuit priest John Gerard and fellow Catholic John Arden make a daring escape from the Tower of London

Oops! We're off track.

1596 - René Descartes, French philosopher and Mathematician ("I think; therefore, I am"), is born.

1595 - First probable performance of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Thanks for fixing it, HWL!

1594 - Philip II ordered that the honor and privilege to rule pertaining to native Filipino nobles should be retained and protected. He also ordered the Spanish governors in the islands to show these native nobles good treatment, and even ordered the natives to pay respect and tribute due to these nobles as they did before the conquest without prejudice to the things that pertain to King himself or to the encomenderos.

1593 - The killing of playwright Christopher Marlowe by Ingraham Frizer. Attending a private dinner, Marlowe and Frizer argued over the bill when Marlowe reportedly grabbed Frizer's dagger and was stabbed in self-defense. Frizer was later pardoned by Queen Elizabeth I.

1592 - Pope Clement VIII (born Ippolito Aldobrandini) succeeds Pope Innocent IX, who died one month earlier, as the 231st pope.

1591 - The city of Hyderabad is founded by Quli Quub Shah.

1590 - John White returns from a supply trip to England to find the Roanoke Colony deserted, with only the words "Croatoan" carved into a palisade around the settlement.

The mystery has been unsolved until now; the missing settlers weren't found on Croatoan Island.

1589 - Hiroshima, Japan is founded.

1588 - the datus of Manila, Pampanga and Bulacan engage in the Tondo Conspiracy to overthrow the Spanish colonizers of the Philippines. Unfortunately,they are betrayed and arrested. The ringleaders are executed while the rest are exiled to Mexico.

In Europe, the "invincible" Spanish Armada sails to overthrow Queen Elizabeth of England, but are defeated soundly.

1587 - Virginia Dare, the first baby born to English settlers in America, is born.

Also, massive famine rocks the Ming Dynasty in China.

1586 - Treaty of Berwick is signed between Elizabeth I of England and James VI of Scotland. The two predominantly Protestant countries pledge to mutually defend one another against aggressors like the Catholic Spain and France.

1585 - John Davis enters Cumberland Sound in his quest for the Northwest Passage.

1584 - Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire abandon the Julian Calendar. Bohemia adopts the Gregorian calendar instead.

1583 - Sir Humphrey Gilbert, in what is now the city of St John's, Newfoundland, claims the island of Newfoundland on behalf of England, marking the beginning of the British Empire.

1582 - William Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway. Looks like someone discovered time travel... oh, wait.

1851 - English parliament passes laws against Catholicism

1850 - Los Angeles, California is incorporated as a city.

1849 - The California Gold Rush experiences a boom as word spreads of the discovery of gold in 1848. Migrants would come from Latin America, China, Europe and Australia, hoping to strike it rich. A state constitution was written that very year for California.

1848 - The Washington Monument is established.

1847 - end of the Thai-Vietnam War, which began in 1833 when Thai King Rama III sent troops into Cambodia to expel the Vietnamese troops there.

Yikes! We've jumped forward in time.

[HWL gets in the Wayback Machine and sets it for the appropriate year.]

1576 - End of the Fifth War of Religion in France and beginning of the Sixth.