Timeline of Shakespeare

	1558 Elizabeth I crowned Queen of England. The new queen was highly educated in the Greek and Roman classics and encouraged culture and learning.
1564 William Shakespeare baptized on April 26 in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. Shakespeare would have attended a grammar school and learnt Latin and Greek.
	1576 London's first theatre, "The Theatre", opened outside the north-east city walls. Plays were often performed previously -- for the masses - in inn-yards. In keeping with the Renaissance, Drama was no longer limited to the enactment of Biblical stories. Morality plays (plays in which the characters represented clear moral values) became popular. Dramatists such as Christopher Marlowe, a contemporary of Shakespeare, wrote imitations of classical Greek plays and began treating historical subjects. The Elizabethan Age was also an age of music.
1582 Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway, a local woman eight years his senior.
1583 Birth of Shakespeare's daughter Susanna.
1584 Shakespeare a rising playwright in London.
1585 Birgt of the twins Hamnet and Judith.
	1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada. England enjoys wealth and freedom from outside threat.
1592 Shakespeare joins The Lord Chamberlain's Men, London's leading theatre group.
1597 Shakespeare purchases "New Place", a large house in Stratford-upon-Avon.
1599 Opening of Globe Theatre, Bankside, built partly with wood from "The Theatre". The Lord Chamberlain's Men become The King's Men with the support of the King.
	1603 Death of Queen Elizabeth I and accession of King James I.
	1607 First English settlement in Jamestown, Virginia.
1608 Birth of Elizabeth Hall, Shakespeare's granddaughter.
1609 First edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets printed.
1610 Shakespeare retires to "New Place"
1613 Globe Theatre destroyed by fire.
1616 Death of Shakespeare on 23 April.
	1618 Beginning of the Thirty Years' War on the continent
1623 First Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays published.