1. Important People from the Renaissance, Reformation, Age of Discovery, and the Enlightenment

2. William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was born in April of 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.
Shakespeare was one of the worlds greatest writers and playwrights.
Two of his most famous plays are Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet.

3. Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452, in the small Tuscan town of Vinci.
Leonardo was a scientist, artist, inventor, and engineer.
Leonardo was the original “Renaissance man.”
He was great at everything he tried.

4. Michelangelo Michelangelo was born March 6, 1475 in Tuscany, Italy.
Michelangelo was one of the great artists of the Renaissance.
His most famous work in the painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

5. Johann Gutenberg Johann Gutenberg was born in Germany in 1398.
Gutenberg invented the printing press in Europe in the 1450’s.
The first book he printed was the Bible.

6. Martin Luther Martin Luther was born November 10, 1483 in Germany.
Martin Luther protested against the Catholic Church by nailing a list of 95 complaints to a door of a church.
Luther is credited with starting the Reformation.

7. John Calvin John Calvin was born July 10, 1509 in France.
Calvin was an important Christian thinker during the Reformation.
Calvin began a new system of Christian thinking called Calvinism.

8. Galileo Galileo was Pisa, Italy in 1564.
Galileo used instruments to observe nature.
He was able to prove that the earth moves around the sun by using a telescope.

9. Christopher Columbus Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy in 1451.
In 1492, Columbus to led the first expedition to cross the Atlantic Ocean, discovering the New World for Europe.

10. Ferdinand Magellan Ferdinand Magellan was born in Portugal in 1481.
Magellan led the first crew to sail all the way around the world.

11. Isaac Newton Isaac Newton was born on December 25, 1642.
Isaac Newton was a scientist and mathematician.
Newton studied the laws of motion and gravity.

12. Prince Henry the Navigator
Prince Henry was born in Portugal in 1394.
Prince Henry opened a navigation school and sent many voyages from England to Africa.
He was nicknamed “the Navigator” because he was responsible for sending so many voyages.

13. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella
The King and Queen of Spain financed the voyages of Columbus to the “New World.”

14. Henry VIII King Henry VIII was born on June 28, 1491 in England.
Henry is famous for his six wives and starting his own church of England when the pope forbid him to divorce his wife.

15. Queen Elizabeth I Queen Elizabeth I was born in England in 1533.
She is recognized as the best queen England ever had.
Here reign saw many accomplishments including Shakespeare’s plays and Drake’s explorations.

16. Francisco Pizarro Francisco Pizarro was born in Spain in 1475.
Pizarro was an Italian explorer and conqueror of the Incas.

17. Hernando Cortes Hernando Cortes was born December 2, 1485 in Spain.
Cortes was the conquistador who conquered the Aztecs and Mexico for Spain.

18. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born on June 28, 1712 in Switzerland.
Rousseau was a philosopher who said that man was essentially good by nature.

19. Voltaire Voltarie was born November 21, 1694 in Paris, France.
Voltaire was the greatest French author and philosopher.

20. John Locke John Locke war born August 29, 1632 in England.
Locke was the father of liberal philosophy.
His ideas helped lead to the American Revolution.

21. Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus was born February 19, 1473 in Poland.
Copernicus was the first astronomer who said the earth moved around the sun.