Johannes Kepler – Born: December 27; 1571, Died: November 15, 1630. Want to learn more? Click HERE.

Virginia. This was the era where the United States did not exist yet, and the English were just beginning to cross the Atlantic and settle in the territory. Jamestown’s settlement was very important to establishing the future of the land. Want to learn more? Click HERE.

In 1611 the King James Version of the Bible was published in England. This was a huge revolution for the Church because before this point only elect members of the clergy had everyday access to the scriptures. Since the time of this publication, the Bible has become the most circulated and read book of all time. According to Wikipedia there has been an estimated 5 billion copies sold and distributed worldwide. Want to learn more? Click HERE.

1564-1616; the life of William Shakespeare. Shakespeare is one of the most famous playwrights of all time. Works of his like: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and MacBeth live on to this day and are still taught in classrooms around the world. He is credited with some of the first prominent uses of prose in drama. He set a whole new standard for what a play or drama can be. Want to learn more? Click HERE.

It’s important to understand the context that someone is operating out of in order to fully appreciate the progress they made. For example, simply hearing “Alex Smith completed an Iron Man race” would not tend to bring much inspiration to anyone. But when you look at the context of his life, that he completed the Iron Man while pulling his 5-year-old son suffering from muscular dystrophy along with him the entire time, the story brings with it much more power. Likewise, in the context of the astronomers and the history of science, it’s helpful to know the context from which they made their discoveries. For Kepler, he was establishing the basis of long-lasting mathematical principles, at the same time that modern prose was first beginning to evolve through the works of Shakespeare.