1543

Death of Copernicus; printing of his magnum opus Revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri VI

1545-1563

Council of Trient

1546

Birth of Tycho Brahe

1564

Birth of Galileo and Shakespeare

1571 XII 27

Birth of Johannes Kepler in the free city of Weil der Stadt (30 km west from Stuttgart) 

1572 VIII 24

St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre

1572-1581

Netherland’s struggle for freedom

1576

Thomas Digges posits an infinite Copernican universe

1576-1612

Emperor Rudolph II.

1582

Gregorian Calendar

1584

Convent school in Adelberg

1586 XI

Admission to convent school in Maulbronn

1587 X 5

Enrolment at University Tübingen; studies in the artists’ faculty. Michael Mästlin is Kepler’s teacher for mathematics and astronomy

1588

Birth of Thomas Hobbes

1589 IX

Admission to the monastery of University Tübingen; studies in Protestant theology; Matthias Hafenreffer among Kepler’s teachers

1591 VIII 11

Magister Artium

1594 III

Move to Graz; there professor of mathematics at the protestant convent/monastery school

1596

Birth of René Descartes

1597 IV 27

Kepler marries Barbara Müller of Mühleck

1600 II-IV

II-IV in Prague with Tycho Brahe, VIII eviction from Graz, X move to Prague

1600 II 17

Giordano Bruno burnt in Rome for heresy

1601 X 24

death of Brahe; Kepler becomes Imperial Mathematician

1603-1625

James I. King of Great Britain

1604

Astronomiae pars optica

1608

Protestant Union of German Princes and Cities

1609

Catholic League of German Princes

1610

Galileo’s telescope discoveries; Thomas Harriot detects sunspots

1611

Dioptrice 

1611 VII 3

death of Barbara Kepler

1612 V

move to Linz; Professor at school of landscape

1612-1628

Mathematician of Oberösterreichische Stände in Linz 

1613 X 30

Kepler marries Susanne Reuttinger

1614

First logarithms by Neper and Bürgi

1616 III 5

Copernicus’ De Revolutionibus put on “Index of Forbidden Books”

1617 X-XII

First trip to Württemberg after defamation of Kepler’s mother Katharina

1620 IX-1621 XI

Defence of his mother, who had been charged with witchery in Württemberg

1618 V 23

Second Defenestration of Prague; start of  Thirty Years’ War

1619

Emperor Ferdinand II

1623

Birth of Blaise Pascal

1625

(Rationale for Law of Nations)

1626 XII-1627 IX

Stay in Ulm, printing of Tabulae Rudolphinae

1626

Upper Austrian peasant uprising

1628 VII

Move to Sagan; in Wallenstein’s service

1629

Birth of Huygens

1630 X 8

Start of journey to Regenburg

1630

Diet of Regensburg (meeting of the prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire)

1630 XI 15

Death of Kepler in Regensburg

1632

Kepler’s gravesite and cemetery in Regensburg devastated

1632

Birth of Spinoza and Locke

1634

Wallenstein’s assassination

1636 VIII

Death of Kepler’s second wife Susanne in Regensburg

1643

Birth of Newton

1646

Birth of Leibniz

1648 X

Treaty of Westphalia; end of Thirty Years’ War