About 1540 -- Francis Drake born near Tavistock, Devonshire.
1550s -- Drake learns seafaring as a youth.
1556 --- Philip II becomes king of Spain.
1558 -- Henry Vill's daughter Elizabeth becomes queen of England.
About 1564 -- Drake is purser on a trading voyage to Spain.
1566-1567 -- Drake is an officer in the Lovell expedition to Africa and the Caribbean.
1567 -- Drake is an officer in the Hawkins expedition to Africa and the Caribbean and becomes captain of the Judith.
1568 -- Hawkins expedition is attacked in San Juan d'Ulua, Mexico; Drake escapes in the Judith, Hawkins in the Minion, both returning to Plymouth In 1569.
1569 -- Drake marries Mary Newman.
1570 -- Drake raids the West Indies with two ships.
1571 -- Drake raids Panama with one ship.
1572-1573 -- Drake raids Panama with two ships and takes a mule train with treasure.
1575 -- Drake serves under the Earl of Essex off the coast of Ireland.
1577 -- Drake sails for the Pacific by way of the Straits of Magellan.
1579 -- Drake raids the Pacific coast of South and Central America, captures a treasure ship, then sails far north, sees Oregon, and refits In California before crossing the Pacific and Indian oceans.
1580 -- Drake returns to Plymouth, completing the circumnavigation.
1581 -- Queen Elizabeth knights Drake on the deck of his ship, the Golden Hind.
1581-1582 -- Drake is mayor of Plymouth.
1581-1586, 1593 -- Drake is a member of Parliament.
1583 -- Mary Drake dies.
1585 -- Drake marries Elizabeth Sydenham.
1585-1586 -- Drake takes Santiago, Cape Verde Islands; Santo Domingo, Hispaniola; Cartagena, Columbia, and St. Augustine, Florida, with twenty-five ships and two thousand men. He rescues the Roanoke colonists.
1587 -- Drake burns Spanish ships in Cadiz, Spain, and along the Portuguese coast with twenty-four ships and three thousand men, then takes a treasure ship off the Azores Islands.
1588 -- Drake is vice-admiral of England in the campaign of the Spanish Armada.
1589 -- Drake takes Corunna, Spain, and attacks Lisbon unsuccessfully with 180 ships and seventeen thousand men.
1593-1595 -- Drake is deputy lord lieutenant for Devon.
1595 -- Drake and John Hawkins sail for the West Indies with twenty-seven ships and twenty-five hundred men. Hawkins dies, and Drake's attacks are repulsed at San Juan, Puerto Rico, and in Panama.
1596 -- On January 28, Drake dies off Panama and is buried at sea.
1598 -- King Philip II of Spain dies.
1603 -- Queen Elizabeth dies.

Home
The Guild
Drakes's Life
Drake's Portrait
Circumnavigation
California Landings
Guild Booklet
Press Release
Publications

Drakes Bay NHL
NHL Dedication