PreviousDays✦THE WIKI
← All historyTHE ARCHIVE · 15 STORIES

1500–1799

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MOMENTS FROM THIS ERA

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15 illustrated stories · growing daily
A Renaissance scholar studies a book, a celestial globe and brass astronomical instruments beside an autumn garden.Timekeeping & Astronomy

Gregorian calendar reform takes effect in October 1582

On 15 October 1582, Rome and several other early adopters began using the Gregorian calendar after skipping ten date numbers. The reform corrected accumulated drift and changed the rules governing leap years.

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A weathered sixteenth-century sailing ship approaches a low estuary shoreline.Exploration & World Connections

Victoria returns to Sanlúcar after the first circumnavigation

Victoria reached Sanlúcar de Barrameda on 6 September 1522 under Juan Sebastián Elcano. The ship's arrival completed the first recorded voyage around the world and joined ocean crossings into one continuous route.

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An Indian rhinoceros stands beside its keeper on a Lisbon quay, watched by early-sixteenth-century dockworkers.Animals & Cultural Curiosity

A rhinoceros arrives in Lisbon as a royal gift in 1515

On 20 May 1515, a living Indian rhinoceros arrived in Lisbon as a gift for King Manuel I. Its sensational appearance generated reports and images across Europe, including Albrecht Dürer's influential woodcut of an animal he had never seen.

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