This page gives some perspective on what
was going on in the world during the lives of some of the people in the
family.
| 1601 | Danish Astronomer Tycho Brahe dies |
| 1603 | Queen Elizabeth the First dies. Sir Walter Raleigh is tried and convicted of treason. |
| 1604 | Shakespeare's Othello is first performed |
| 1605 | The first newspaper is published by Johann Carolus in Strassburg, Germany. |
| 1606 | Rembrandt vanRijn is born. The first Union Jacks are flown over British ships |
| 1607 | Jamestown Virginia founded |
| 1608 | The first refracting telescope demonstrated in the Netherlands. |
| 1611 | The King James Bible is first published. The first cows arrive in North America (Jamestown). |
| 1616 | William Shakespeare dies. |
| 1617 | Pocahontas dies |
| 1618 | First slaves brought to the Americas. |
| 1620 | The Mayflower reaches America. The first modern violin is created. |
| 1624 | Construction begins on the Palace of Versailles. |
| 1625 | The First reported case of a white man scalping an Indian. |
| 1626 | Manhattan Island is purchased by Dutch for 60 guilders. Sir Francis Bacon dies. |
| 1628 | Salem Massachusetts is settled by the Puritans. |
| 1630 | English colonists are introduced to popcorn by Native American Quadequine. |
| 1632 | Construction begins on Taj Mahal. |
| 1633 | Galileo put on trial by Catholic Church for heresy for the grievous sin of being right. |
| 1634 | The State of Maryland is founded. |
| 1635 | Oldest public school in United States (Boston Public Latin School) is founded. |
| 1636 | Cambridge College (later renamed Harvard University) is founded. |
| 1637 | Blunt-tipped table knife invented by Cardinal Richelieu. |
| 1638 | New Sweden, the first settlement in Delaware, is
setteled. Symon Renfrow arrives in North America prior to this date. |
| 1640 | The first North American book The
Bay Psalm Book is printed. Robert Renfrow is born. |
| 1642 | Galileo dies while under house arrest. Isaac Newton is born. |
| 1644 | End of China's Ming Dynasty. Beginning of China's Qing Dynasty. |
| 1648 | The Taj Mahal is completed. |
| 1650 | The Quaker religious order is founded. |
| 1653 | New Amsterdam (later renamed New York) is incorporated. Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord High Protector of England. |
| 1656 | Miles Standish dies. The first pendulum clock is invented. |
| 1665 | The Great Plague begins in Britain. John Renfrow, Sr. is born. |
| 1666 | The Great Fire of London occurs over a five day period. |
| 1667 | John Milton's Paradise Lost is first published. |
| 1670 | Minute hands are first added to clocks. |
| 1675 | The first "Indian War" occurs in New England. |
| 1676 | Calculus is "invented" independently by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz. |
| 1679 | Pressure Cooker is invented by Denis Papin. |
| 1680 | The first documented tornado in North America occurs. John Renfrow, Jr. is born. |
| 1681 | The colony of Pennsylvania is founded. The last dodo bird is killed. |
| 1682 | Peter the Great becomes Czar of Russia. |
| 1685 | Johann Sebastian Bach is born. |
| 1690 | The first newspaper in North America "Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick" is published. |
| 1692 | The Salem Witch Trials begin. |
| 1695 | The Amish religious order is formed. |
| 1698 | The first practical steam engine is patented by Thomas Savery. |
| 1700 | The Cascadia Earthquake occurs in North America, the
effects of which are felt as far away as Japan. |
| 1701 | War of Spanish Succession begins. |
| 1705 | Peter Renfrow, Sr. is
born. Elizabeth Hollingsworth is born. |
| 1706 | Benjamin Franklin is born |
| 1709 | The first accurate thermometer is developed. The piano is invented. |
| 1711 | The tuning fork is invented. |
| 1713 | The War of Spanish Succession ends. |
| 1716 | Blackbeard the pirate begins raiding ships in the Caribbean Sea. |
| 1718 | The City of New Orleans is founded. |
| 1725 | The first reported scalping of a white man by an American Indian. |
| 1732 | George Washington is born. Peter Renfrow, Jr. is born. |
| 1733 | The first North American Freemasons lodge opens. |
| 1734 | Daniel Boone is born. |
| 1735 | Paul Revere is born. John Adams is born. |
| 1737 | Thomas Paine is born. John Hancock is born. |
| 1738 | The cuckoo clock is invented. |
| 1740 | Alaska is 'discovered'. |
| 1743 | Thomas Jefferson is born. |
| 1750 | Galley slavery is abolished in Europe. |
| 1752 | Benjamin Franklin invents the lightning rod. Betsy Ross is born. |
| 1756 | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born. Mayonnaise is invented. |
| 1759 | George Washington and Martha Dandridge Custis marry. |
| 1760 | George III is crowned King of England. |
| 1761 | The song Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is published. |
| 1765 | Great Britain begins taxing the American colonies. The first true restaurant opens - in Paris. |
| 1768 | Encyclopaedia Britannica is first printed |
| 1769 | Napoleon Bonaparte is born. Daniel Boone begins exploring Kentucky. |
| 1770 | Ludwig van Beethoven is born. The pencil eraser is invented. |
| 1771 | The first steam powered vehicle is built. |
| 1773 | The Boston Tea Party protest occurs. |
| 1775 | King George III issues a Declaration of Rebellion
against the American Colonies. George Washington takes command of the Continental Army. |
| 1776 | The Declaration of Independence is signed. The American Revolutionary War begins. |
| 1778 | Louisville, Kentucky is settled. The term thoroughbred is coined in Kentucky. |
| 1779 | Benedict Arnold is court-martialed. Mark Renfrow, Sr. is born between this year and 1789 |
| 1780 | Benedict Arnold is cleared of all but two minor charges, but is reprimanded by George Washington. |
| 1781 | The planet Uranus is discovered. Peter Renfrow, Sr. is killed by Indians in Tennessee. |
| 1784 | The American Revolutionary War ends. |
| 1786 | Davy Crockett is born. |
| 1788 | The U.S. Constitution is ratified. |
| 1789 | The French Revolution begins. George Washington becomes President of the U.S. Anna Wooldridge is born. |
| 1790 | George Washington gives the first State of the Union
Address. George Rowe, Sr. dies. |
| 1795 | The canning jar is invented. |
| 1796 | The first Smallpox vaccine is developed. |
| 1792 | The French Revolution ends. The Rosetta Stone discovered. Peter Renfrow, Jr. dies. |
| 1800 | Washington D.C. becomes the U.S. capital. Earth's human population reaches 1 billion. |
| 1801 | Great Britain and Ireland "unified". Russia's Tsar Paul I is assassinated. The asteroid Ceres is discovered. |
| 1803 | The Louisianna territory is purchase from France for $15,000,000.00. |
| 1806 | The coffee pot is invented. |
| 1807 | Napoleon attacks Russia. Mark Renfrow, Sr. and Anna Wooldridge are married |
| 1808 | The elements Boron and Magnesium are discovered. |
| 1809 | Abraham Lincoln is born. |
| 1812 | The War of 1812 begins. |
| 1816 | The Stethoscope is invented. |
| 1821 | Mexico becomes independent from Spain. |
| 1823 | Karl Marx is born. George Rogers Clarke dies. The Monroe Doctrine is established. |
| 1825 | The first passenger train opens in England Roller skates are invented. The element aluminum is discovered. |
| 1826 | Winnie the Pooh
is published. Elizabeth Woosley is born. |
| 1828 | Louisville, Kentucky is incorporated. |
| 1833 | Slavery is abolished in the British Empire. |
| 1836 | The Mexican Army defeats Texian forces in the Battle of the Alamo. |
| 1837 | Daguerreotype photography is developed. Victoria is crowned Queen of England. |
| 1840 | Upper and lower Canada are united. |
| 1844 | First public teletype message is sent. |
| 1845 | Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven is published. |
| 1846 | The planet Neptune is discovered. |
| 1847 | Thomas Edison is born. George Washington Renfrow, Sr. and Elizabeth Woosley are married. |
| 1848 | The Communist Manifesto is published. |
| 1849 | Edgar Allan Poe dies. |
| 1850 | The first modern guitar created in Spain. |
| 1852 | Henry Clay dies. |
| 1855 | Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass is published |
| 1856 | The tintype photographic process is patented in the U.S.. |
| 1857 | Hollywood, California is founded. Mark Renfrow Sr. dies |
| 1858 | The Lincoln-Douglas debates are held. Anna Wooldridge dies. |
| 1859 | Abolitionist John Brown is hanged. |
| 1861 | The U.S. Civil War begins. Starlin Renfrow is born. Susan Emily Blunk is born. |
| 1865 | Slavery is abolished in U.S.. Abraham Lincoln is assassinated. |
| 1866 | The first successful transatlantic telegraph cable is
placed. The first U.S. Nickel is coined. |
| 1867 | Alaska is purchased from Russia for $7,200,000.00. |
| 1869 | The U.S. Trancontinental Railroad is completed. |
| 1870 | Charles Dickens dies. |
| 1872 | The first mail-order catalog business: Montgomery Ward & Co. issues it's first catalog. |
| 1874 | Ehrich Weiss (Harry Houdini) is born. Winston Churchill is born. |
| 1875 | Aristides wins the first Kentucky Derby. Edgar Rice Burroughs is born. |
| 1876 | The U.S. Centennial is celebrated. The Battle of Little Big Horn is fought. |
| 1879 | The first practical incandescent lighting system is invented. |
| 1882 | Jesse James is killed. |
| 1883 | The Brooklyn Bridge opens. Starlin Renfrow and Susan Emily Blunk are married. |
| 1885 | The rabies vaccine is developed. |
| 1886 | The Statue of Liberty is dedicated. |
| 1888 | The body of Jack the Ripper's first known victim (Mary
Ann Nichols) is found. Coca-Cola is introduced |
| 1889 | Spanish - American War begins. Adolph Hitler is born. |
| 1892 | The Diesel Engine is patented. The existence of viruses is discovered. George Washington Renfrow, Sr. dies |
| 1893 | New Zealand becomes the first nation to give women the right to vote. |
| 1895 | X-radiation is discovered. Babe Ruth is born. |
| 1897 | The Cathode Ray Tube (TV picture tube) invented. Oldsmobile is founded. |
| 1898 | The elements Neon and Krypton are discovered. |
| 1899 | The paper clip is invented. William Herbert Renfrow is born. |
| 1900 | The Wonderful Wizard
of Oz is published. The American (Baseball) League is formed. The Boxer Rebellion begins. |
| 1901 | The Boxer Rebellion ends. Walt Disney is born. Instant coffee is invented. Estella Pearl Renfrow is born. |
| 1902 | Cuba becomes independent from the U.S. 'The Electric Theater', the first movie theater in the U.S. opens. James Eldon Parrish is born. |
| 1903 | The first non-toxic wax crayons are invented. The first 'Teddy Bears' are produced by the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company. |
| 1904 | The U.S. Army Engineers begin work on the Panama Canal. Frederick Gillian Renfrow is born. Katie Elizabeth Anderson is born. |
| 1905 | The Special Theory of Relativity is proposed. Henry Fonda is born. |
| 1906 | The San Francisco Earthquake occurs. The Boy Scouts of America incorporate. Eva Rowe is born. |
| 1908 | The first of 15,007,034 Model T's roll off of the assembly line. |
| 1909 | The first military airplane is purchased from the
Wright Brothers. The Pearl Harbor Naval Base is founded. The first rugby match is played. |
| 1911 | IBM is incorporated Chevrolet begins making automobiles. Starlin Renfrow is born. |
| 1912 | The HMS Titanic sinks. Life Savers candy are invented. |
| 1914 | World War I begins. The Panama Canal is completed. |
| 1915 | The first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is placed. |
| 1917 | The U.S. enters World War I. |
| 1918 | World War I ends. |
| 1919 | Theodore Roosevelt dies. Prohibition begins. William Herbert Renfrow and Katie Elizabeth Anderson are married. |
| 1920 | Women's suffrage passed in the U.S. |
| 1922 | Alexander Graham Bell dies. The Eskimo Pie is patented. |
| 1924 | Gershwin's Rhapsody
in Blue is first performed. James Eldon Parrish and Estella Pearl Renfrow are married. Frederick Gillian Renfrow and Eva Rowe are married. |
| 1925 | The Scopes "Monkey Trial" begins. The Grand Ole Opry's is broadcast on the radio for the first time. Mein Kampf is published. |
| 1928 | Penicillin is discovered. |
| 1930 | The Great Depression begins. Scotch tape is marketed. Hostess Twinkies are invented. |
| 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevely is elected to his first of four terms as President. |
| 1935 | The Social Security Act is signed. Canned beer is introduced. Kodachrome film is introduced |
| 1937 | The Hindenburg explodes over Lakehurst, New Jersey. Aviatrix Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disapper. The last Bali Tiger dies, and the species is declared extinct. |
| 1939 | World War II begins John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is published. Gone with the Wind premieres. |
| 1941 | The U.S. enters World War II. The keel is laid for the USS Missouri. Bob Hope performs his first U.S.O. show. Cheerios introduced. |
| 1942 | Anne Frank is given a diary for her 13th birthday. Walt Disney's Bambi is released. 'The Voice of America' begins broadcasting. Franklin Roosevelt signs an executive order directing the internment of Japanese Americans. |
| 1943 | Jacques-Yves Cousteau co-invents tha aqua-lung. General Dwight Eisenhower becomes Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. Chiang Kai-shek becomes president of China. |
| 1944 | Pippi Longstocking
is published. Tennessee William's The Glass Menagerie premieres. D-day. |
| 1945 | First atomic weapons used. Anne Frank dies in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Arthur C. Clarke first describes the concept of communication satellites. World War II ends. 50 - 70 million dead. |
| 1946 | The Bikini is introduced. The movie It's a Wonderful Life premieres. |
| 1948 | Mahatma Ghandi is assassinated. Presidential Executive Order 9981 ends racial segregation in the U.S. Armed Forces. |
| 1950 | Development begins on the fusion bomb. Peanuts premieres |
| 1951 | Robin Williams is born. Frederick Gillian Renfrow dies |
| 1953 | The Salk Polio Vaccine undergoes mass trials. Color televisions go on sale. |
| 1954 | The first McDonalds opens. The words "under God" are added to Pledge of Alliegiance. The first Godzilla move premieres in Japan. |
| 1955 | Albert Einstein dies. Disneyland opens. The Montgomery Bus Boycott begins. |
| 1957 | Sputnik I is launched. John Lennon and Paul McCartney meet for the first time. |
| 1959 | The Twilight Zone
premieres. The first Barbie is manufactured. The first documented AIDS-related death occurs. |
| 1961 | The Bay of Pigs Invasion fails. The Berlin Wall goes up. The U.S. enters the Vietnam War. |
| 1963 | President John F. Kennedy is assassinated. ZIP Codes are introduced in the U.S.. The first X-Men comic is released. |
| 1965 | The Watts Riots occur. Malcom X is assasinated. The Compact Disc is invented. |
| 1968 | Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated. The Beatles' White Album is released. |
| 1969 | The Eagle
crewed by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin lands on the Moon. The first Internet (Arpanet) is invented. The ATM is introduced. |
| 1972 | The Magnavox Odyssey: the first home video game system
goes on sale. The Watergate break-ins are commited. The Price is Right premieres. |
| 1974 | 148 tornadoes struck 13 states, and one Canadian
province over an 18 hour period, killing as many as 330 people, and
injuring thousands. President Richard Nixon resigns. |
| 1975 | The Vietnam War ends. Rod Serling dies. Moe Howard dies. Larry Fine dies. The first digital camera is built |
| 1976 | The United States celebrates the Bicentennial. The first laser printer is marketed. |
| 1977 | The Apple II computer goes on sale. Star Wars premieres. William Herbert Renfrow dies |
| 1979 | The U.S. embassy in Iran is taken hostage. The first cell phones are produced. Smallpox is declared extinct in nature. |
| 1981 | The IBM Personal Computer is introduced. Anwar Sadat is assassinated. President Reagan fires over 11,000 Air Traffic Controllers. The first functional Space Shuttle, the Columbia, is launched. |
| 1982 | The Falklands War occurs. The ATT monopoly is broken up. Michael Jackson's album Thriller - the biggest selling album, ever - is released. |
| 1985 | Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released. The cruise ship Achille Lauro is hijacked. New Coke is released and doesn't last three months before being withdrawn. Eva Rowe Renfrow dies. |
| 1986 | The Space Shuttle Challenger explodes shortly after
launch. The first PC virus is spread. James Eldon Parrish dies. |
| 1987 | The Simpsons
first appear on The Tracy Ullman
Show. Construction on the Channel Tunnel between England and France begins. |
| 1989 | The Berlin Wall comes down. The Exxon Valdez spills 11 million gallons of oil into the waters of Prince William Sound, Alaska. The Tianamen Square Massacre occurs. Pete Rose is banned from baseball for life. |
| 1990 | The Hubble Space Telescope is placed in orbit. The first HDTV program airs. Michael Gorbachev is elected president of the U.S.S.R. |
| 1991 | The European Union is formed. "Desert Storm" begins. The idea of a World Wide Web is published. |
| 1993 | Roman Catholic Church retracts the 1663 excommunication
of Galileo. The Doom computer game is released. The Holocaust Memorial Museum is dedicated in Washington D.C. |
| 1995 | The Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City is bombed
and destroyed. eBay.com is founded. Estella Pearl Renfrow Parrish dies |
| 1997 | Dolly the Sheep is cloned. The USS Constitution celebrates her 200th 'birthday'. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is published Diana, Pricess of Wales, dies. |
| 1998 | India and Pakistan conduct nuclear weapons tests. Matthew Shepard is murdered. Google Inc. is founded Katie Elizabeth Anderson Renfrow dies |
| 2000 | The last Peanuts
comic strip is published. Montgomery Ward closes. A world full of people that can't count celebrate the "Bi-Millenium" one year early. The U.S. Supreme Court stops the counting of ballots, thereby selecting George W. Bush to be the new President of the United States. |
| 2001 | A Presidential Daily Brief entitled Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.
is ignored. Four passenger aircraft are used as terror weapons. Weaponized anthrax is used as a terror weapon against news agencies and members of government. The PATRIOT Act is passed - unread -undebated. The U.S. government and media begin selling fear. |
| 2003 | The Space Shuttle Columbia breaks apart during re-entry. Iraq is invaded, for reasons that turn out to be half-truths and whole lies. The Human Genome Project is completed. |
| 2004 | The prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib is revealed. The Oldsmobile division of General Motors closes. A 9.3 magnitude earthquake and tsunami kills nearly 200,000 people in many nations around the Indian Ocean. |
| 2005 | New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast is all but destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, monumental incompetence and a healthy dose of indifference. |
| 2008 | Michael Phelps wins 8 Olympic Gold Medals. Arthur C. Clarke dies. Paul Newman dies. Deregulation, greed and incompetence leads to a world-wide economic crisis. Barack Obama, the first African American President of the United States, is elected, and looks forward to being handed an unimaginable mess to fix. |
| 2009 | General Motors enters into, and somehow exits
bankruptcy - by borrowing their way out - eh? Kodak ends production of Kodachrome Starlin Renfrow dies Roy Delbert Renfrow dies |
| 2010 | Earthquakes ranging from 6.9 to 8.8 hit China, Haiti
and Chile, killing over 230,000 people. British Petroleum, Transocean, and Halliburton combine their unbridled corporate greed and incompetence which caused a tremendous oil eruption in the Gulf of Mexico, (killing 11 people outright) causing what may be the largest man-made ecological disaster in history. Eric Alan Veltri dies |
| 2011 | Arab Spring Japan has an earthquake, tsunami, and multiple nuclear meltdowns - all at once. Osama Bin Laden killed The US Space Shuttle fleet is retired |
| 2012 |
The Higgs Boson is discovered
The final print issue of Encyclopaedia Britannica is released Neil Armstrong dies Gary Vincent Williams dies |
| 2013 |
Jonathan Winters dies
Peter O'Toole dies Edward Snowden reveals mass surveillance program by U.S. |
| 2014 |
One World Trade Center opens
Shirley Temple dies Mickie Rooney dies Robin Williams dies Pete Seeger dies Ebola epidemic hits West Africa |
| 2015 |
New Horizons Probe reaches Pluto / Charon
Cuba and the U.S. resume diplomatic relations Elizabeth II sit's the throne for a record breaking 63 years Cristopher Lee dies |
| 2016 |
Serial adulterer, racist, pathological liar, thief, accused rapist, Adderall addict, and Putin puppet, elected president* with 3 million fewer votes than his opponent.
David Bowie dies John Glenn dies Bob Dylan wins Nobel Prize in literature Martha Sue Renfrow dies |
| 2017 |
Brexit referendum passes
Jerry Lewis dies Glen Campbell dies Tom Petty dies Special Council Robert Mueller appointed |
| 2018 |
Aretha Franklin dies
Stephen Hawking dies "Me Too" movement begins Last male white rhinocerous dies American President* openly laughed at during his self-aggrandizing speech to the UN Loretta Burden dies "History doesn't repeat itself - but it does rhyme" -Mark Twain |