Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa, oil painting on a poplar wood panel by the Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer Leonardo da Vinci, is probably the world’s most-famous painting.
Arts, music, literature & entertainment
Hieronymus Bosch paints “The Garden of Earthly Delights”
The Garden of Earthly Delights is considered Bosch’s seminal masterpiece and the most successful and outstanding of his creations.
Nichiren, founder of Nichiren Buddhism, inscribes the Dai-Gohonzon
The Dai Gohonzon is a venerated Mandala image inscribed with both Sanskrit and Chinese logographs on a median log trunk of Japanese camphorwood. It is worshipped in Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism.
The ancient Chinese of the Tang Dynasty invent fireworks
In China, pyrotechnicians were respected for their knowledge of complex techniques in mounting firework displays. Chinese people originally believed that the fireworks could expel evil spirits and bring about luck and happiness.
The Heian period begins in modern-day Japan
The Heian period is considered the peak of the Japanese imperial court and noted for its art, especially poetry and literature.
Humans of Han Dynasty in modern-day China transform calligraphy into art
Calligraphy is considered as one of the four best friends of ancient Chinese literati, along with playing stringed musical instrument, the board game “go,” and painting.
Sophocles completes the Oedipus trilogy of tragic plays
Sophocles (c. 496 – c. 406 B.C.E.) was one of the most famous and celebrated writers of tragedy plays in ancient Greece and his surviving works, written throughout the 5th century B.C.E., include such classics as Oedipus the King, Antigone, and Women of Trachis.
Humans in ancient Chinese invent the sheng, an early polyphonic reed instrument
The sheng is a Chinese mouth-blown free reed instrument consisting of vertical pipes. It is a polyphonic instrument and enjoys an increasing popularity as a solo instrument. It is one of the oldest Chinese instruments
Humans in ancient Iraq invent musical notation
The earliest form of musical notation can be found in a cuneiform tablet that was created at Nippur, in Sumer (today’s Iraq), in about 1400 B.C.E.
Hunter-gatherers of the Wilton stone age culture inhabit Twyfelfontein in modern-day Namibia
Displaying one of the largest concentrations of rock petroglyphs in Africa, UNESCO approved Twyfelfontein as Namibia’s first World Heritage Site in 2007.