Timeline of prehistory

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Prehistory comprises all events which took place before the creation of written records. This
page lists events from the evolution of the universe and the Earth to the origin of life and human
evolution, up to the invention of writing in approximately 4,000 BC. Note that many of these
dates are speculative or very rough estimates. For a timeline of historical events see: Timeline of
world history. For greater detail see the articles on the various geological periods.

Contents
[hide]
 1 Human prehistory
 2 Human evolution
 3 Cenozoic
 4 Complex life
 5 Formation of the Earth
 6 Formation of the universe
 7 See also

 8 References

[edit] Human prehistory

For later events, see Timeline of ancient history.

Timeline from the evolution of modern humans to the invention of writing. All dates are
approximate and conjectural, obtained through research in the fields of anthropology,
archaeology, genetics, geology, or linguistics. They are all subject to revision due to new
discoveries or improved calculations.

 7,000 years ago: late Neolithic civilizations, invention of the wheel and spread of proto-
writing.
 9,000 years ago: Jiahu culture began in China
 9,500 years ago: Çatal Höyük urban settlement founded in Anatolia
 9,000-10,000 years ago: In northern Mesopotamia, now northern Iraq, cultivation of
barley and wheat begins. At first they are used for beer, gruel, and soup, eventually for
bread.[1] In early agriculture at this time, the Planting stick is used, but it is replaced by a
primitive Plow in subsequent centuries.[2] Around this time, a round stone tower, now
preserved to about 8.5 meters high and 8.5 meters in diameter is built in Jericho.[3]
 11,000 years ago: founding of the city of Jericho
 12,000 years ago: land ice leaves Denmark and southern Sweden; start of the Holocene
epoch and Neolithic Age and end of the last Ice Age. Invention of agriculture is the
earliest given date for the beginning of the ancient era
 c. 14,800 years ago: The Humid Period begins in North Africa. The region that would
later become the Sahara is wet and fertile, and the Aquifers are full.[4]
 c. 16,000 years ago: Wisent sculpted in clay deep inside the cave now known as Le Tuc
d'Audoubert in the French Pyrenees near what is now the border of Spain.[5]
 c. 20,000 years ago: Chatelperronian culture in France.[6]
 21,000 years ago: Last Glacial Maximum
 22,000 years ago: the oldest known tally stick (the Ishango Bone)
 25,000 years ago: first colonisation of North America. A hamlet consisting of huts built of
rocks and of mammoth bones is founded in what is now Dolni Vestonice in Moravia in
the Czech Republic. This is the oldest human permanent settlement that has yet been
found by archaeologists.[7]
 c. 26,000 years ago: Women around the world use fibers to make baby-carriers, clothes,
bags, baskets, and nets.
 c. 28,000-20,000 years ago: Gravettian period in Europe. Harpoons, needles, and saws
invented.
 c. 28,500 years ago: New Guinea is populated by colonists from Asia or Australia.[8]
 29,000 years ago: extinction of Homo neanderthalensis.
 30,000 years ago: approximate age of Haplogroup X (mtDNA) and Haplogroup I
(mtDNA). A herd of reindeer is slaughtered and butchered by humans in the Vezere
Valley in what is today France.[9]
 31,000 years ago: oldest known cave paintings
 c. 32,000 years ago: Aurignacian culture begins in Europe.
 35 000 years ago: oldest known figurative art (Venus of Hohle Fels), age of the
Aurignacian culture
 40,000 years ago: Cro-Magnon colonisation of Europe (Upper Paleolithic)
  50,000 years ago: Modern humans spread from Asia to the Near East; age of Haplogroup
B (mtDNA)[10] In the next millennia, these human group's descendants move on to
southern India, the Malay islands, Australia, Japan, China, Siberia, Alaska, and the
northwestern coast of North America.[10]
 60,000 years ago: out of Africa migration of modern humans; approximate age of
Haplogroup N (mtDNA), Haplogroup C (mtDNA) and Haplogroup A (mtDNA)
 c. 75,000 years ago: Toba Volcano supereruption.[11]
 80,000 years ago: approximate age of Haplogroup M (mtDNA)
 90,000 years ago: time of Y-chromosomal Adam
 100,000 years ago: earliest estimate for the domestication of dogs
 125,000 years ago: peak of the Eemian Stage interglacial
 150,000 years ago: time of mitochondrial Eve
 160,000 years ago: split between Homo sapiens idaltu and Homo sapiens sapiens
 200,000 years ago: appearance of Homo sapiens in Africa

[edit] Human evolution

Main article: Timeline of human evolution

Time from the earliest common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees to the emergence of
modern humans

 250,000 years ago: appearance of Homo neanderthalensis

 300,000 years ago: Homo sapiens separated from Homo erectus (Middle Paleolithic);
approximate age of Canis lupus
 500,000 years ago: colonisation of Eurasia by Homo erectus
 700,000 years ago: last reversal of the earth's magnetic field
 790,000 years ago: earliest demonstrable evidence of the controlled use of fire by Homo
erectus
 1.5 million years ago: earliest possible evidence of the controlled use of fire by Homo
erectus
 2.5 million years ago: Pleistocene epoch (Quaternary period) begins; emergence of the
genus Homo
 4 million years ago: start of last ice age
  4.5 million years ago: appearance of the genus Australopithecus
 5 million years ago: Pliocene epoch begins
 5.5 million years ago: appearance of the genus Ardipithecus
 5-7 million years ago: Pan/Homo split
 5.4-6.3 million years—estimated age of the Homo/Pan (human vs. chimpanzee) split, age
of the Hominini tribe
 18-12 million years—estimated age of the Hominidae/Hylobatidae (great apes vs.
gibbons) split.

[edit] Cenozoic
Time from the dawn of the Cenozoic era and the beginning of the age of mammals to the
beginnings of human evolution

 20 million years ago: first forms of grass appear

 24 million years ago: Miocene epoch begins
 26 million years ago: emergence of the first true elephants
 34 million years ago: cats begin to evolve
 36 million years ago: end of Eocene, start of Oligocene epoch
 40 million years ago: age of the Catarrhini parvorder; first canines evolve
 49 million years ago: whales return to the water
 50 million years ago: divergence of cat and dog ancestors.
 55 million years ago: first known bats.
 60 million years ago: evolution of the first primates and rodents.

[edit] Complex life

Time from the beginnings of complex, multicellular life to the beginning of the age of mammals

 65 million years ago: Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous
period (end of the Mesozoic era); start of the Tertiary period (Cenozoic era). End of the
age of the dinosaurs.
 135 million years ago: end of Jurassic and beginning of Cretaceous Period. First birds.
 195 million years ago: end of Triassic and beginning of Jurassic Period; first mammals.
  251.4 million years ago: Permian mass extinction. End of Permian Period and of the
Palaeozoic Era. Beginning of Triassic Period, the Mesozoic era and of the age of the
dinosaurs.
 280 million years ago: end of Carboniferous and beginning of Permian Period.
 315 million years ago: the evolution of the first reptiles.
 340 million years ago: beginning of the Carboniferous and the end of Devonian period
 400 million years ago: beginning of the Devonian and the end of the Silurian period. First
insects.
 420 million years ago: first creature took a breath of air
 435 million years ago: beginning of the Silurian and the end of the Ordovician period
 500 million years ago: e beginning of the Ordovician and the end of the Cambrian period
 540 million years ago: beginning of the Cambrian and the end of the Precambrian period.
Time since the Cambrian explosion the emergence of most forms of complex life,
including vertebrates, arthropods, echinoderms and molluscs.
 575 million years ago: oldest Animal fossils
 580 million years ago: end of a possible Snowball Earth ice age
 600 million years ago: first complex multicelled lifeforms

[edit] Formation of the Earth

Time since the formation of Earth to the beginnings of complex life

 750 million years ago: beginning of a possible Snowball Earth ice age
 1.8-2.1 billion years ago: earliest Eukaryotes
 2.3 billion years ago: first known ice age
 3.9 to 4.1 billion years ago: oldest cellular life (cyanobacteria)
 3.7 to 3.9 billion years: age of the Mare Imbrium, the Lower Imbrian epoch
 3.9 to 4.1 billion years ago: origin of life (cyanobacteria)
 4.5 billion years: age of the Earth (see: Precambrian)

[edit] Formation of the universe

See also: Timeline of the Big Bang
Time from the formation of the universe to the formation of the Earth

 4.6 billion years ago: the solar system begins to form

 13.2 billion years: age of the oldest known star, HE 1523-0901
 13.7 ± 0.2 billion years (4e17 seconds): estimated age of the universe according to the
Big Bang theory

[edit] See also

Timeline of ancient history

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Timeline of Ancient history is the historical events in time of the documented ancient past from
the beginning of recorded history until the Early Middle Ages.

Brief ancient chronology

(Common Era years in astronomical year
numbering)
Contents
[hide]
 1 Prehistory
 2 Bronze Age and Early Iron Age
 3 Classical Antiquity
 4 End of ancient history in Europe
 5 Maps
 6 See also
  7 References

 8 Citations and notes

[edit] Prehistory
For events before recorded history, see Timeline of prehistory

[edit] Bronze Age and Early Iron Age

The Bronze Age refers to a period in human cultural development when the most advanced
metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) included techniques for smelting
copper and tin from naturally-occurring outcroppings of copper ores, and then smelting those
ores to cast bronze. These naturally-occurring ores typically included arsenic as a common
impurity. Copper/tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact that there were no tin bronzes in
western Asia before 3,000 BC. In some parts of the world, a Copper Age follows the Neolithic
and precedes the Bronze Age

The Iron Age was the stage in the development of any people in which tools and weapons whose
main ingredient was iron were prominent. The adoption of this material coincided with other
changes in some past societies often including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs
and artistic styles, although this was not always the case

 4250 BC: the earliest known date, the beginning of the Egyptian calendar.
 4th millennium BC: Sumerian cuneiform, history's oldest writing system.[1] This marks
the beginning of recorded history
 3300 BC: Bronze Age begins in the Near East[2]
 3300 BC: Newgrange Ireland
 3300 BC: Hakra Phase of the Indus Valley Civilization begins
 3200 BC: Cycladic civilization in Greece
 3200 BC: Norte Chico civilization begins in Peru
 3200 BC: Rise of Proto-Elamite Civilization in Iran
 3100 BC: Skara Brae Scotland
 c. 3000 BC: Stonehenge construction begins. In its first version, it consisted of a circular
ditch and bank, with 56 wooden posts.[3]
 c. 3000 BC: Cucuteni-Trypillian culture in the Ukraine
 3100 BC: First dynasty of Egypt
 3000 BC: Jiroft civilization Begins in Iran
 3000 BC: First known use of papyrus by Egyptians
 2800 BC: Kot Diji phase of the Indus Valley Civilization begins
 2800 BC: Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors period in China
 2700 BC: Minoan Civilization ancient palace city Knossos reach 80,000 inhabitants
 2700 BC: Rise of Elam in Iran
 2600 BC: Mature Harappan phase of the Indus Valley civilization (in present-day
Pakistan and India) begins
 2600 BC: Emergence of Maya culture in the Yucatán Peninsula
 2600 BC: Completion of the Great Pyramid of Giza
 2200 BC: completion of Stonehenge.
 2070 BC: Yu the Great established the Xia Dynasty in China
 2000 BC: Domestication of the horse
 1800 BC: alphabetic writing emerges
 1700 BC: Indus Valley Civilization comes to an end but is continued by the Cemetery H
culture; The beginning of Poverty Point Civilization in North America
 1600 BC: Mycenaean Greece
 1600 BC: The beginning of Shang Dynasty in China, evidence of a fully developed
Chinese writing system
 1600 BC: Beginning of Hittite dominance of the Eastern Mediterranean region
 1500 BC: Composition of the Rigveda is completed
 1400-400 BC: Olmec civilization flourishes in Pre-Columbian Mexico, during
Mesoamerica's Formative period
 1200 BC: The Hallstatt culture
 c. 1200 BC: Theorized time of the Trojan War[4]
 c. 1180 BC: Disintegration of Hittite Empire
 1046 BC: The Zhou force (led by King Wu of Zhou) overthrow the last king of Shang
Dynasty; Zhou Dynasty established in China
 1000 BC: Mannaeans Kingdom Begins
  890 BC: Approximate date for the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey
 800 BC: Rise of Greek city-states

[edit] Classical Antiquity

Main article: Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the
Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient
Rome. It refers to the timeframe of ancient Greece and ancient Rome.[5][6] Ancient history include
the recorded Greek history beginning in about 776 BC (First Olympiad). This coincides roughly
with the traditional date of the founding of Rome in 753 BC and the beginning of the history of
Rome.[7][8]

 776 BC: First recorded Olympic Games. The history of the Games is believed to reach as
far back as the 13th century BC but no older written record survives.[citation needed]
 753 BC: Founding of Rome (traditional date)
 745 BC: Tiglath-Pileser III becomes the new king of Assyria. With time he conquers
neighboring countries and turns Assyria into an empire
 728 BC: Rise of the Median Empire
 722 BC: Spring and Autumn Period begins in China; Zhou Dynasty's power is
diminishing; the era of the Hundred Schools of Thought
 700 BC: the construction of Marib Dam in Arabia Felix
 660 BC: purported date of the accession of Jimmu, the mythical first Emperor of Japan
 653 BC: Rise of Persian Empire
 612 BC: Attributed date of the destruction of Nineveh and subsequent fall of Assyria.
 600 BC: Sixteen Maha Janapadas ("Great Realms" or "Great Kingdoms") emerge. A
number of these Maha Janapadas are semi-democratic republics.
 600 BC: Evidence of writing system appear in Oaxaca used by the Zapotec civilization
 c. 600 BC: Pandyan kingdom in South India
 586 BC: Destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem (Solomon's Temple) by the
Babylonians
 563 BC: Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha), founder of Buddhism is born as a prince of the
Shakya tribe, which ruled parts of Magadha, one of the Maha Janapadas
 551 BC: Confucius, founder of Confucianism, is born
 550 BC: Foundation of the Persian Empire by Cyrus the Great
 549 BC: Mahavira, founder of Jainism is born
 546 BC: Cyrus the Great overthrows Croesus King of Lydia
 544 BC: Rise of Magadha as the dominant power under Bimbisara.
 539 BC: The Fall of the Babylonian Empire and liberation of the Jews by Cyrus the Great
 529 BC: Death of Cyrus
 525 BC: Cambyses II of Persia conquers Egypt
 c. 512 BC: Darius I (Darius the Great) of Persia, subjugates eastern Thrace, Macedonia
submits voluntarily, and annexes Libya, Persian Empire at largest extent
 509 BC: Expulsion of the last King of Rome, founding of Roman Republic (traditional
date)
 508 BC: Democracy instituted at Athens
 c. 500 BC: completion of Euclid's Elements
 500 BC: Panini standardizes the grammar and morphology of Sanskrit in the text
Ashtadhyayi. Panini's standardized Sanskrit is known as Classical Sanskrit
 500 BC: Pingala uses zero and binary numeral system
 490 BC: Greek city-states defeat Persian invasion at Battle of Marathon
 483 BC: Death of Gautama Buddha
 480 BC: Invasion of Greece by Xerxes; Battles of Thermopylae and Salamis
 479 BC: death of Confucius
 475 BC: Warring States Period begins in China as the Zhou king became a mere
figurehead; China is annexed by regional warlords
 469 BC: Birth of Socrates
 465 BC: Murder of Xerxes
 460 BC: First Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta
 447 BC: Building of the Parthenon at Athens started
 424 BC: Nanda dynasty comes to power.
 432 BC: Construction of the Parthenon
 404 BC: End of Peloponnesian War between the Greek city-states
 400 BC: Zapotec culture flourishes around city of Monte Albán
 399 BC: Death of Socrates
 331 BC: Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela
 326 BC: Alexander the Great defeats Indian king Porus in the Battle of the Hydaspes
River.
 323 BC: Death of Alexander the Great at Babylon
 321 BC: Chandragupta Maurya overthrows the Nanda Dynasty of Magadha.
 305 BC: Chandragupta Maurya seizes the satrapies of Paropanisadai (Kabul), Aria
(Herat), Arachosia (Qanadahar) and Gedrosia (Baluchistan)from Seleucus I Nicator, the
Macedonian satrap of Babylonia, in return for 500 elephants.
 300 BC: Construction of the world's largest pyramid, the Great Pyramid of Cholula,
begins in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico
 273 BC: Ashoka the Great becomes the emperor of the Mauryan Empire
 257 BC: Thục Dynasty takes over Việt Nam (then Kingdom of Âu Lạc)
 250 BC: Rise of Parthia (Ashkâniân), the second native dynasty of ancient Persia
 232 BC: Death of Emperor Ashoka the Great; Decline of the Mauryan Empire
 230 BC: Emergence of Satavahanas in South India
 221 BC: Qin Shi Huang unifies China, end of Warring States Period; marking the
beginning of Imperial rule in China which lasts until 1912. Construction of the Great
Wall by the Qin Dynasty begins.
 207 BC: Kingdom of Nan Yueh extends from North Việt Nam to Canton
 202 BC: Han Dynasty established in China, after the death of Qin Shi Huang; China in
this period officially becomes a Confucian state and opens trading connections with the
West, i.e. the Silk Road
 202 BC: Scipio Africanus defeats Hannibal at Battle of Zama
 200 BC: El Mirador, largest early Maya city, flourishes
 c. 200 BC: Chera dynasty in South India
 185 BC: Sunga Empire founded.
 149 BC–146: Third and final Punic War; destruction of Carthage by Rome
 146 BC: Roman conquest of Greece, see Roman Greece
 111 BC: First Chinese domination of Việt Nam in the form of the Nanyue Kingdom.
 c. 100 BC: Chola dynasty rises in prominence.
 49 BC: Roman Civil War between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great
 44 BC: Julius Caesar murdered by Marcus Brutus and others; End of Roman Republic;
beginning of Roman Empire
 6 BC: Earliest theorized date for birth of Jesus of Nazareth
 4 BC: Widely accepted date (Ussher) for birth of Jesus Christ
 9: Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, the Imperial Roman Army's bloodiest defeat
 14: Death of Emperor Augustus (Octavian), ascension of his adopted son Tiberius to the
throne
 29: Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
 68: Year of the four emperors in Rome
 70: Destruction of Jerusalem by the armies of Titus.
 79: Destruction of Pompeii by the volcano Vesuvius
 117: Roman Empire at largest extent under Emperor Trajan
 192: Kingdom of Champa in Central Việt Nam
 200s: The Buddhist Srivijaya Empire established in the Malay Archipelago.
 220: Three Kingdoms period begins in China after the fall of Han Dynasty.
 226: Fall of the Parthian Empire and Rise of the Sassanian Empire
 238: Defeat of Gordian III (238–244), Philip the Arab (244–249), and Valerian (253–
260), by Shapur I of Persia, (Valerian was captured by the Persians).
 280: Emperor Wu established Jin Dynasty providing a temporary unity of China after the
devastating Three Kingdoms period.
 285: Emperor Diocletian splits the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western Empires
 313: Edict of Milan declared that the Roman Empire would be neutral toward religious
worship
 325 Constantine I organises the First Council of Nicaea
 335: Samudragupta becomes the emperor of the Gupta empire
 378: Battle of Adrianople, Roman army is defeated by the Germanic tribes
 395: Roman Emperor Theodosius I outlaws all pagan religions in favour of Christianity
  410: Alaric I sacks Rome for the first time since 390 BC
 c. 455: Skandagupta repels an Indo-Hephthalite attack on India.
 476: Romulus Augustus, last Western Roman Emperor is forced to abdicate by Odoacer,
a half Hunnish and half Scirian chieftain of the Germanic Heruli; Odoacer returns the
imperial regalia to Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno in Constantinople in return for the title
of dux of Italy; most frequently cited date for the end of ancient history

[edit] End of ancient history in Europe

The date used as the end of the ancient era is entirely arbitrary. The transition period from
Classical Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages is known as Late Antiquity. Late Antiquity is a
periodization used by historians to describe the transitional centuries from Classical Antiquity to
the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world: generally from the end
of the Roman Empire's Crisis of the Third Century (c. AD 284) to the Islamic conquests and the
re-organization of the Byzantine Empire under Heraclius. The Early Middle Ages are a period in
the history of Europe following the fall of the Western Roman Empire spanning roughly five
centuries from AD 500 to 1000. Not all historians agree on the ending dates of ancient history,
which frequently falls somewhere in the 5th, 6th, or 7th century. Western scholars usually date
the end of ancient history with the fall of Rome in AD 476, the death of the emperor Justinian I
in AD 565, or the coming of Islam in AD 632 as the end of ancient European history.

For later events, see Timeline of mediaeval history.

[edit] Maps

Eastern Hemisphere in 500 BC. Eastern Hemisphere in 323 BC.Eastern Hemisphere in 200 BC.

Eastern Hemisphere in 100 BC. World in AD 1. World in AD 100.

Eastern Hemisphere in AD 200. World in AD 300. |Eastern Hemisphere in AD 476.

Timeline of the Middle Ages

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Timeline of mediaeval history)

Jump to: navigation, search
This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and
removed. (July 2007)

Note: All dates are Common Era.

Centuries: 5th - 6th - 7th - 8th - 9th - 10th - 11th - 12th - 13th - 14th - 15th

the medieval times were from 400–1400

For earlier events, see Timeline of ancient history.

[edit] Early Middle Ages

Further information: Early Middle Ages

[edit] 5th century

Year Date Event Significance

Visigoths, Suevi and Burgundians cross the Rhine Beginning of the collapse of
406
and invade Roman Gaul. the Western Roman Empire.
410 Rome is captured by the Visigoths under Alaric I.
416 Visigothic conquest of Spain.
Roman Empire recognises the Visigothic kingdom of
418
Toulouse.
428 Vandals begin North African conquest.
430 Saint Patrick's Irish mission begins.
The "Groans of the Britons", a last appeal to Roman
444
government.
 Attila the Hun is repelled from Gaul by Roman–
451
Barbarian forces at the Battle of Châlons.
Attila the Hun raids Italy, destroying Aquileia and
452
causing the foundation of Venice by refugees.
455 The Vandals pillage Rome.
The last Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustus, is
476 deposed by Odovacar, conventionally ending the
Western Roman Empire.
481 Clovis becomes King of the Franks.
493 Ostrogothic Kingdom founded in Italy by Theodoric.
496 Clovis converted to the Catholic faith.

[edit] 6th century

Year Date Event Significance

The Franks under Clovis defeat the
507 Visigoths in the Battle of Vouillé,
forcing them to retreat into Spain.
The West Saxon advance is halted by
515 Battle of Mons Badonicus.
Britons.
Justinian is best remembered for his Code
Justinian I becomes Eastern Roman of Civil Law (529), and expansion of
527 August 1
Emperor. imperial territory retaking Rome from the
Ostrogoths.
This compiled centuries of legal writings
529— Justinian I publishes the Code of
and imperial pronouncements into three
534 Civil Law.
parts of one body of law.
The first of twelve monasteries founded by
Benedict of Nursia founds
529 Saint Benedict, beginning the Order of
monastery at Monte Cassino.
Saint Benedict.
Byzantines, under Belisarius, retake
534
North Africa from the Vandals.
This Justinian plague undermines emperor's
Bubonic plague reaches attempts to renew Roman glory through
Constantinople. At least 230,000 conquests. This plague becomes pandemic
542
people die in the city and perhaps and continues to castigate Europe, the
two million in the empire. Middle East, and northern Africa for the
next 200 years, until 750.
The Byzantine conquest of Italy
552
completes.
Saint Columba founds mission in
563
Iona.
The Kingdom of the Lombards is
568
founded in Italy.
 Mohammed is born. Professed
receiving revelations from God,
which were recorded in the Qur'an,
571
the basis of Islamic theology, in
which he is regarded as the most
important prophet.
The West Saxons continue their
577
advance at the Battle of Deorham.
581—
Sui Dynasty in China.
618
590 Gregory the Great becomes Pope.
597 Augustine arrives in Kent.

[edit] 7th century

Year Date Event

605 Grand Canal of China constructed.
Last great Roman-Persian War Long conflict leaves
602-629 both empires exhausted and unable to cope with the
newly united Arab armies under Islam in the 630s
618— T'ang Dynasty in China. The essential administrative
907 system of this dynasty lasts for 1,300 years.
622 Muhammad flees Mecca for Medina.
Joint Persian-Avar-Slav Siege of Constantinople
626 Constantinople saved, Avar power broken and
Persians henceforth on the defensive
Battle of Nineveh. The Byzantines, under Heraclius,
627
crush the Persians.
Death of Muhammed. By this point, all of Arabia is
631
Muslim.
632 Accession of Abu Bakr as first Caliph.
Battle of Heavenfield. Northumbrian army under
633/634
Oswald defeat Welsh army.
638 Jerusalem captured by Muslims.
641 Battle of Nehawand. Muslims conquer Persia.
643 Muslims take Alexandria.
In Japan, the Soga clan falls.This initiates a period of
645
imitation of Chinese culture.
650 Slav occupation of Balkans complete.
 Synod of Whitby. Roman Christianity triumphs over
663
Celtic Christianity in England.
First Arab siege of Constantinople. First time
674-678 Islamic armies stopped, saving Europe from Islamic
conquest.
A country with great
influence in the European
681 Establishment of the Bulgarian Empire.
history in the Middle
Ages.
Battle of Nechtansmere. Picts defeat Northumbrians,
685
whose dominance ends.
687 Battle of Tertry
698 Muslims take Carthage.

[edit] 8th century

Year Date Event Significance

711 Muslims under Tarik invade Spain.
Second Muslim attack on Constantinople, ending in failure. The
718 combined Byzantine–Bulgarian forces stop the Arab threat in
Eastern Europe.
Iconoclast movement begun in the Byzantine Empire under Leo III.
726 This was opposed by Pope Gregory II, and an important difference
between the Roman and Byzantine churches.
732 Battle of Tours. Charles Martel halts Muslim advance.
735 Death of Bede. Bede was later regarded as "the father of history"
750 Beginning of Abbasid Caliphate.
751 Pepin founds the Carolingian dynasty.
Pepin promises the Pope central Italy. This is arguably the beginning
754
of the temporal power of the Papacy.
768 Beginning of Charlemagne's reign.
778 Battle of Roncevaux Pass.
786 Accession of Harun al-Rashid in Baghdad.
793 Sack of Lindisfarne. Viking attacks on Britain begin.
795 Death of Offa. Marks the end of Mercian dominance in England.

[edit] 9th century

Year Date Event Significance

Charlemagne is crowned Emperor
800 of the Holy Roman Empire by
Pope Leo III.
814 Death of Charlemagne.
825 Battle of Ellandun. Egbert defeats
 Mercians. Wessex becomes the
leading kingdom of England.
827 Muslims invade Sicily.
Muslims capture Bari and much
840
of southern Italy.
Division of Charlemagne's
Sets the stage for the founding of the Holy
843 Empire between his grandsons
Roman Empire and France as separate states.
with the Treaty of Verdun.
Kenneth McAlpin becomes king
840 of the Picts and Scots, creating the
Kingdom of Alba.
Viking state in Russia founded
862 under Rurik, first at Novgorod,
then Kiev.
864 Christianization of Bulgaria.
866 Fujiwara period in Japan.
Viking "Great Army" in England.
866 Northumbria, East Anglia, and
Mercia were overwhelmed.
Earliest known printed book in
868
China with a date.
Alfred the Great assumes the He defended England from Viking invaders,
871 throne, the first king of a united formed new laws and fostered a rebirth of
England. religious and scholarly activities.
Harold Fairhair becomes King of
872
Norway.
874 Iceland is settled by Norsemen.
Creation of the Cyrillic alphabet; in the
Arrival of the disciples of Saints following decades the country became the
885
Cyril and Methodius in Bulgaria cultural and spiritual centre of the whole
Eastern Orthodox Slavic World.
885—
Vikings attack Paris.
886
Simeon I becomes ruler of the
893 First Bulgarian Empire in the
Balkans.
Arpad and the Magyars are
896
present in Pannonia.
897 Death of Alfred the Great.

[edit] 10th century

Year Date Event Significance

910 Edward the Elder, son of Alfred, defeats
 the Northumbrian vikings at the Battle of
Tettenhall; they never raid south of the
River Humber again.
Cluny goes on to become the
Cluny Abbey is founded by William I, acknowledged leader of Western
910
Count of Auvergne. Monasticism. Cluniac Reforms
initiated with the abbey's founding.
The Viking Rollo and his tribe settle in
what is now Normandy by the terms of
911
the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte,
founding the Duchy of Normandy.
Battle of Anchialus. Simeon I the Great Recognition of the Imperial Title of
917
defeats the Byzantines. the Bulgarian rulers.
Henry the Fowler, Duke of Saxony Henry I considered the founder and
919 elected German King. First king of the first king of the medieval German
Ottonian Dynasty. state.
Death of Simeon I the Great. Recognition
927 of the Bulgarian Patriarchate, the first
independent National Church in Europe.
Abd-ar-Rahman III of the Ummayad
dynasty in al-Andalus (part of the Iberian Beginning of the Caliphate of Córdoba
929
peninsula) takes the title of Caliph or ruler (929-1031).
of the Islamic world.
Battle of Lechfeld. Otto the Great, son of This is the defining event that prevents
955
Henry the Fowler, defeats the Magyars. them from entering Central Europe.
First historical ruler of Poland and de
c.960 Mieszko I becomes duke of Polans.
facto founder of the Polish State.
Otto the Great crowned the Holy Roman
962
Emperor.
Citizens of Rome promise not to elect
963- Otto deposes Pope John XII who is
another Pope without Imperial
964 replaced with Pope Leo VIII.
approval.
Mieszko I of Poland and his court
965-
embrace Christianity, which becomes
967
national religion.
John I Tzimiskes murders Nikephoros II
969 and is crowned Byzantine co-emperor in
his place.
Death of John I Tzimiskes; Basil II (his Under Basil II zenith of the power of
976
co-emperor) takes sole power. Eastern Empire after Justinian.
Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir becomes de Peak of power of Moorish Iberia under
978
facto ruler of Muslim Al-Andalus. "Almanzor".
Basil II (called "Bulgar Slayer") begins
981 final conquest of Bulgaria by Eastern Conquest finished by 1018.
Empire.
 Eric the Red, exiled from Iceland, begins
985
Scandinavian colonization of Greenland.
Succession of Hugh Capet to the French
987 Beginning of Capetian Dynasty.
Throne.

[edit] High Middle Ages

Further information: High Middle Ages

[edit] 11th century

Year Date Event Significance

Malcolm II defeats the Danes in five battles, Scotland remains free from
1010
including Mortlach and Camuston. the empire of Cnut
The Byzantines under Basil II conquer Bulgaria after
1018
a bitter 50-years struggle.
1049 Pope Leo IX ascends to the papal throne.
The astrolabe, an ancient tool of navigation, is first
1050
used in Europe.
The East-West Schism which divided the church into
1054
Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, invades End of Anglosaxon rule in
1066 England and becomes King after the Battle of England and start of
Hastings. Norman lineage
This begins a period of
1067 Pope Gregory VII elevated to the papal throne.
church reform.
The Seljuks under Alp Arslan defeat the Byzantine Beginning of the end of
1071 army at Manzikert. The Normans capture Bari, the Byzantine rule in Asia
last Byzantine possession in southern Italy. Minor.
Dictatus Papae in which Pope Gregory VII defines
1075
the powers of the pope.
Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV walks to Canossa
This helps establish Papal
where he stands barefoot in the snow to beg
1077 rule over European heads of
forgiveness of the Pope for his offences, and
state for another 450 years.
admitting defeat in the Investiture Controversy.
The tower of London was
1077 The Construction of the Tower of London begins. the ultimate keep of the
British Empire.
The compilation of the Domesday Book, a great land This is the first such
1086 and property survey commissioned by William the undertaking since Roman
Conqueror to assess his new possessions. times.
1098 The Cistercian Order is founded.
First Crusade. Jerusalem is re-taken from the
1099
Muslims on the urging of Pope Urban II.
[edit] 12th century

Year Date Event Significance

The Pacta Conventa is signed by the
Croat nobles and King Coloman of This pact ends independence of Croatia
1102
Hungary uniting the two countries in a until the XX century.
personal union.
Henry I of England defeats his older
brother Robert Curthose, duke of
This victory made a later struggle
Normandy, at the Battle of Tinchebrai,
1106 9/28 between England and the rising
and imprisons him in Devizes castle;
Capetian power in France inevitable.
Edgar Atheling and William Clito are
also taken prisoner.
Through the Compromise of 1107,
This compromise removed one of the
suggested by Adela, the sister of King
1107 points of friction between the English
Henry, the Investiture Struggle in
monarchy and the Catholic Church.
England is ended.
In the Battle of Naklo, Boleslaus III Polish access to the sea is re-
1109
Wrymouth defeats the Pomeranians. established.
In the Battle of Hundsfeld, Boleslaus
German expansion to the east is
1109 8/24 III Wrymouth defeats Emperor Henry
stopped.
V.
The Turks abandon the entire coastal
The Byzantine army defeats the Turks
1116 area of Anatolia and all of western
at Philomelion.
Anatolia
1117 The University of Oxford is founded.
The Knights Templar are founded to
1118 protect Jerusalem and European
pilgrims on their journey to the city.
St. Norbert and 29 companions make
This order played a significant role in
their solemn vows marking the
1121 12/25 evangelizing the Slavs, the Wends, to
beginning of the Premonstratensian
the east of the Holy Roman Empire.
Order.
The Concordat of Worms was drawn This concordat ended the investiture
1122 9/23 up between Emperor Henry V and struggle, but bitter rivalry between
Pope Calixtus II. emperor and pope remained.
The First Lateran Council followed
1123 3/18-3/27 and confirmed the Concordat of
Worms.
Lothair of Supplinburg, duke of
This election marks the beginning of
Saxony, is elected Holy Roman
1125 the great struggle between the Guelfs
Emperor instead of the nearest heir,
and the Ghibellines.
Frederick of Swabia.
1130 12/25 Roger II is crowned King of Sicily, a This coronation marks the beginning of
royal title given him by the Antipope the Kingdom of Sicily and its
 Mediterranean empire under the
Norman kings, which was able to take
Anacletus II.
on the Holy Roman Empire, the
Papacy, and the Byzantine Empire.
The Second Lateran Council declared
clerical marriages invalid, regulated
1139 April
clerical dress, and punished attacks on
clerics by excommunication.
The Second Crusade was in retaliation
1147– for the fall of Edessa, one of the first This was the first Crusade to have been
1149 Crusader States founded in the First led by European kings.
Crusade. It was an overall failure.
This marriage gave the Kingdom of
Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of
Aragon access to the Mediterranean
Barcelona, married Queen Petronilla
1150 Sea, creating a powerful kingdom
of Aragon. They had been betrothed in
which expanded to control many of the
1137.
Mediterranean lands.
The Synod of Kells-Mellifont
established the present diocesan This synod marks the inclusion of the
1152 system of Ireland (with later Irish Church into western European
modifications) and recognized the Catholicism.
primacy of Armagh.
This marks a new period of trade and
1158 The Hanseatic League is founded. economic development for northern and
western Europe.
The first cornerstone is laid for the
1163
construction of Notre Dame de Paris.
King Henry II of England lands in With his landing, Henry begins the
Ireland to assert his supremacy and English claim to and occupation of
1171
the Synod of Cashel acknowledges his Ireland which would last some seven
sovereignty. and a half centuries.
King William I of Scotland, captured
in the Battle of Alnwick by the
This is the beginning of the gradual
1174 7/12 English, accepts the feudal lordship of
acquisition of Scotland by the English.
the English crown and does
ceremonial allegiance at York.
Hōnen Shōnin (Genkū) founds the
This event marks the beginning of the
1175 Jōdo shū (Pure Land) sect of
Buddhist sectarian movement in Japan.
Buddhism.
At the Battle of Legnano, the cavalry This is the first major defeat of cavalry
1176 5/29 of Frederick Barbarossa is defeated by by infantry, signaling the new role of
the infantry of the Lombard League. the bourgeosie.
1179 March The Third Lateran Council limits
papal electees to the cardinals alone,
condemns simony, and forbids the
 promotion of anyone to the episcopate
before the age of thirty.
The various articles of the treaty
The final Peace of Constance between
destroyed the unity of the Empire and
1183 Frederick Barbarossa, the pope, and
Germany and Italy underwent separate
the Lombard towns is signed.
developments.
The Taira clan are driven out of Kyōto The two-year conflict which follows
1183
by Minamoto Yoshinaka. ends at the Battle of Dan no Ura (1185).
Pope Lucius III issues the papal bull This bull set up the organization of the
1184 November
Ad Abolendam. medieval inquisitions.
1185 Windmills are first recorded.
The reestablishment of the Bulgarian
1185
Empire.
The elimination of the Taira leaves the
At the Battle of Dan no Ura, Minamoto the virtual rulers of Japan
1185 Minamoto Yoshitsune annihilates the and marks the beginning of the first
Taira clan. period of feudal rule known as the
Kamakura Period.
This marriage shifts the focus of the
The future emperor Henry VI marries
Guelphs/Ghibelline struggle to Sicily
1186 1/27 Constance of Sicily, heiress to the
and marks the ruin of the House of
Sicilian throne.
Hohenstaufen.
1187 Saladin recaptures Jerusalem.
His heavy taxation to finance his
European ventures created an antipathy
Richard I ascends the throne of of barons and people toward the crown,
1188
England. but his being absent enabled the English
to advance in their political
development.
The Third Crusade follows upon Despite managing to win several major
1189–
Saladin's uniting the Muslim world battles, the Crusaders did not recapture
1192
and recapturing Jerusalem. Jerusalem.
He is the first of a long line of military
Minamoto Yoritomo is appointed Sei-i
1192 dictators to bear this title. The
Taishōgun, or shōgun for short.
institution would last until 1913.
Turkic Muslim invaders sack and burn This is the beginning of the decline of
1193
the university at Nalanda. Buddhism in India.
1193 The first known merchant guild.

[edit] 13th century

Year Date Event Significance

1204 Sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade.
1205 Battle of Adrianople. The Bulgarians under Beginning of the decline of
 Emperor Kaloyan defeat Baldwin I. the Latin Empire.
The Mongols would conquer
Genghis Khan was elected as Khagan of the
1206 much of Eurasia, changing
Mongols and the Mongol Empire was established.
former political borders.
Pope Innocent III calls for the Albigensian Crusade
1208 which seeks to destroy a rival form of Christianity
practiced by the Cathars.
1209 The University of Cambridge is founded.
1212 Children's Crusade.
Spanish Christians succeed in defeating the Moors
in the long Reconquista campaigns. By 1248, only
1212
the small southern kingdom of Granada remained
under Muslim control.
This marks one of the first
times a medieval ruler is
1215 The Magna Carta is sealed by John of England.
forced to accept limits on his
power.
Fourth Lateran Council. Dealt with
transubstantiation, papal primacy and conduct of
1215 clergy. Proclaimed that Jews and Muslims should
wear identification marks to distinguish them from
Christians.
1216 Papal recognition of the Dominican Order.
1223 Founding of the Franciscan Order.
1257 Founding of the University of Paris.
This establishes a new form
Provisions of Oxford forced upon Henry III of
1257 of government-limited regal
England.
authority.
This begins the Habsburg de
Rudolph I of Germany is elected Holy Roman facto domination of the
1273
Emperor. crown that lasted until is
dissolution in 1806.
Thomas Aquinas' work, Summa Theologica is
1274
published.
A key step to the bridging of
1295 Marco Polo publishes his tales of China.
East and West
Edward I of England invades Scotland, starting the
1296
First War of Scottish Independence.
William Wallace emerges as the leader of the
1297
Scottish resistance to England.

[edit] Late Middle Ages

Further information: Late Middle Ages
[edit] 14th century

Year Date Event Significance

Friday, The Knights Templar are rounded up and
1307 October murdered by Philip the Fair of France, with the
13th backing of the Pope.
Beginning of the Babylonian Captivity of the
1307
Papacy during which the Popes moved to Avignon.
1310 Dante publishes his Divine Comedy.
Robert the Bruce restores Scotland's de facto
1314
independence at the Battle of Bannockburn.
The First War of Scottish Independence ends in
1328 Scottish victory with the Treaty of Edinburgh-
Northampton and de jure independence.
The Hundred Years' War begins. England and
1337
France struggle for dominance of Western Europe.
The Black Death ravages Europe for the first of
many times. An estimated 20% - 40% of the
1347
population is thought to have perished within the
first year.
1347 The University of Prague is founded.
The break up of the Mongol
The fall of the Yuan Dynasty. Its successor state-
1361 Empire, which marked the
Northern Yuan was founded in Mongolia.
end of Pax Mongolica.
The Western Schism during which three claimant
1378 popes were elected simultaneously. The Avignon
Papacy ends.
Prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow led a united
1380 Russian army to a victory over the Mongols in the
Battle of Kulikovo.
1380 Chaucer begins to write The Canterbury Tales.
1381 Peasants' Revolt in England.
The Bible is translated into English by John
1381
Wycliffe.
1386 The University of Heidelberg is founded.
1396 The Battle of Nicopolis the last great crusade fails.

[edit] 15th century

Year Date Event Significance

1415 Battle of Agincourt. Henry V and his army
 defeat a numerically superior French army,
partially because of the newly-introduced
English longbow.
The Council of Constance ends the western
1417 Schism at last, and elects Pope Martin V as the
sole pope.
Joan of Arc lifts the siege of Orléans for the The battle at Orléans is the first of
1429 Dauphin of France, enabling him to eventually many which ultimately drive the
be crowned at Reims. English from continental Europe.
1430 Capture, trial, and execution of Joan of Arc.
The Medici family rises to prominence in
1434
Florence.
1439 Johannes Gutenberg invents the printing press
1453 Constantinople falls to the Ottoman Turks
The Empire of Trebizond falls to the Ottoman Last Roman outpost to be
1461
Turks. conquered by the Ottomans
1485 Thomas Malory composes Le Morte d'Arthur
1492 Reconquista
Christopher Columbus reaches the New World.
1492 Regarded by many historians as the end of the
Middle Ages.

Timeline of early modern history

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

This Timeline of early modern history covers events from the end of the Mediaeval period in
1492 to 1909.

For earlier events, see Timeline of mediaeval history.

Contents
[hide]
 1 1492-1599
 2 1600-1799
 3 1800-1889
 4 1890s
 5 1900s
  6 See also

[edit] 1492-1599
 1492: Christopher Columbus reaches the New World; end of the Reconquista
 1512: Michelangelo Buonarotti completes his painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
 1514: Copernican Revolution
 1517: Beginning of the Protestant Reformation
 1519: Death of Leonardo da Vinci and his completion of the Mona Lisa
 1521: Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire
 1522: First accredited circumnavigation of the Earth.
 1533: Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire
 c. 1560: Thomas Tallis composes his 40-part motet Spem in alium

[edit] 1600-1799
 1607: Founding of the Colony of Virginia
 1609: First telescopic observations of Galileo
 1611: Publication of the King James Bible. Performance of Shakespeare's last solo play,
The Tempest.
 1618: Beginning of the Thirty Years War
 1630: Founding of theMassachusetts General Court, oldest continuous extant elected
assembly
 1642: Beginning of the English Civil War
 1648: Treaty of Westphalia ends Thirty Years War
 1651: End of English Civil War
 1655: Completion of the Taj Mahal.
 1687: Publication of Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica
 1707: Acts of Union 1707 create the Kingdom of Great Britain
 1712: Thomas Newcomen invents the first commercially viable steam engine
 1750: Johann Sebastian Bach composes his incomplete Art of Fugue
 1756: Beginning of the Seven Years War
  1757: British rule in India begins with victory at the Battle of Plassey
 1763: End of the Seven Years War
 1764: Invention of the spinning jenny and arguably, the Industrial Revolution
 1776: Independence of the United States; publication of The Wealth of Nations by Adam
Smith
 1781: Discovery of the planet Uranus by William Herschel
 1783: End of the American Revolution
 1789: French Revolution
 1796: Development of vaccination by Edward Jenner

[edit] 1800-1889
 1804: World population reaches 1 billion
 1805: Battle of Trafalgar
 1810: Independence of Mexico
 1816: Independence of Argentina
 1822: Independence of Brazil
 1824: Premiere of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
 1825: First isolation of aluminum
 1831: Native Americans forcibly relocated to Oklahoma in the Trail of Tears
 1840: Treaty of Waitangi signed in New Zealand
 1846: Discovery of Neptune and its moon Triton. Mexican-American War begins.
 1848: 1848 revolution. Mexican-American War ends.
 1854: Crimean War begins
 1856: Crimean War ends.
 1857: Indian Mutiny; invention of the phonautograph, the first true device for recording
sound.
 1859: Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species
 1861: American Civil War begins
 1865: American Civil War ends
  1868: Meiji Restoration in Japan
 1869: Creation of the periodic table by Dmitri Mendeleev
 1870: Franco-Prussian War begins.
 1871: unifications of Germany and Italy. Franco-Prussian War ends.
 1876: First long-distance telephone call by Alexander Graham Bell
 1879: Thomas Edison tests his first light bulb
 1880: First Boer War begins
 1881: First Boer War ends.
 1886: Karl Benz sells the first commercial automobile. Construction of the Statue of
Liberty
 1889: Construction of the Eiffel Tower

[edit] 1890s
 1890: Wounded Knee Massacre; death of Vincent van Gogh
 1891: Chilean Civil War
 1892: Basketball is invented.
 1893: Women's suffrage is enacted for the first time in New Zealand
 1894: First commercial film release and the invention of the gramophone record. Dreyfus
Affair begins.
 1895: Volleyball is invented.
 1896: 1896 Olympic Games, the first modern Olympic Games
 1897: Benin Expedition of 1897 loots and burns Benin. Greco-Turkish War.
 1898: Beginning of the Boxer Rebellion. Spanish-American War
 1899: Second Boer War begins. Philippine–American War begins.

[edit] 1900s
 1900: Galveston Hurricane kills 8000 people.
 1901:Boxer Rebellion ends.
 1902: Second Boer War ends. Philippine–American War ends.
  1903: First controlled heavier-than-air flight of the Wright Brothers. Herero and
Namaqua Genocide, the first genocide of the 20th century, begins in German South-West
Africa.
 1904: Russo-Japanese War begins. Trans-Siberian railway is completed.
 1905: Russo-Japanese War ends; 1905 Revolution; Albert Einstein's formulation of
relativity.
 1906: 1906 San Francisco earthquake kills 3000. Dreyfus Affair ends.
 1907: Herero and Namaqua Genocide ends.
 1908: First commercial radio transmissions. The Ford Motor Company invents the
assembly line
 1909: Independence of Panama.

Timeline of modern history

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

This is a timeline of modern history, here defined as comprising the previous 100 years (i.e.
1910-2009).

For earlier times, see Timeline of early modern history.

Contents
[hide]
 1 1910s
 2 1920s
 3 1930s
 4 1940s
 5 1950s
 6 1960s
 7 1970s
 8 1980s
 9 1990s
  10 2000s

 11 See also

[edit] 1910s
See also: Timeline of World War I
 1910: beginning of the Mexican Revolution
 1911: Roald Amundsen first reaches the South Pole.

 1912: Sinking of the RMS Titanic and the official dissolution of the Chinese Empire.
Balkan Wars begin
 1913: Invention of the zipper and the crossword puzzle. Balkan Wars end.
 1914: Beginning of World War I
 1915: Start of the Armenian Genocide. The Lusitania is sunk.
 1916: Easter Rising, the invention of the light switch and the implementation of daylight
savings time.Warlord Era begins in China.
 1917: Russian Revolution; beginning of Russian Civil War
 1918: End of World War I; Spanish flu pandemic
 1919: Treaty of Versailles

[edit] 1920s
 1920: Prohibition and Women's suffrage come into effect in the United States. League of
Nations is founded. Mexican Revolution ends.
 1921: Independence of the Republic of Ireland; end of Russian Civil War
 1922: March on Rome brings Benito Mussolini to power in Italy. Howard Carter
discovers Tutankhamen's tomb.
 1923: Great Kanto Earthquake kills over 100,000 people in Tokyo, Japan.
 1924: Death of Vladimir Lenin. FBI founded under J. Edgar Hoover.
 1925: First televisual image created by John Logie Baird
 1926: Hirohito is crowned Emperor of Japan
 1927: The Jazz Singer, the first "talkie", is released. Joseph Stalin becomes leader of the
Soviet Union. World population reaches 2 billion
 1928: Discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming. Warlord Era ends in China
  1929: Wall Street crash of 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression. First people
sent to the gulag in the Soviet Union.

[edit] 1930s
 1930: Discovery of Pluto by Clyde Tombaugh. Salt March by Mohandas Gandhi. Dust
Bowl begins.
 1931: Floods in China kill up to 2.5 million people. Independence of South Africa.
Construction of the Empire State Building.
 1932: Franklin Roosevelt becomes President of the United States
 1933: Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. New Deal begins in America.
Prohibition in US abolished.
 1934: Dictatorships begin in Brazil and Bolivia. Mao Zedong begins the Long March
 1935: Alcoholics Anonymous founded.
 1936: Beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Dust Bowl ends. Great Purge begins under
Stalin.
 1937: Japanese invasion of China, and the beginning of World War II in the Far East;
deaths of Maurice Ravel and George Gershwin
 1938: Munich agreement hands Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany. Great Purge ends after
nearly 700,000 executions.
 1939: End of Spanish Civil War; Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Germany and the
Soviet Union.Nazi invasion of Poland. Beginning of World War II in Europe

[edit] 1940s
See also: Timeline of World War II
 1940: Nazis invade France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway. Katyn massacre in
Poland. Winter War between Soviet Union and Finland. Winston Churchill becomes
Prime Minister of Great Britain. Battle of Britain. The Blitz begins.
 1941: Beginning of the Holocaust. Bombing of Pearl Harbor. Hitler commences the Nazi
invasion of the Soviet Union
 1942: Battle of Midway. Battle of the Coral Sea. First and and second Battles of El
Alamein. Battle of Stalingrad. Guadalcanal Campaign begins. Internment of Japanese-
American citizens in the US begins. Manhattan Project begins.
 1943: Battle of Stalingrad ends with surrender of the German Army. Warsaw Ghetto
uprising. Green Revolution begins.
 1944: D-Day landings. First operational electronic computer, Colossus, comes online
  1945: Bombing of Dresden. Battle of Berlin. End of World War II and the Holocaust.
Death of Hitler and Mussolini. Creation of the atomic bomb, and the bombing of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. United Nations founded. Chinese Civil War begins.
 1946: Independence of Jordan. Nuremberg trials end. First Indochina War begins.
 1947: Independence of India and Pakistan and the breaking of the sound barrier.
 1948: Arab-Israeli War; Berlin Airlift; Marshall Plan; founding of the OECD and the
World Health Organization; assassination of Mohandas Gandhi; the independence of
Myanmar; beginning of apartheid in South Africa.
 1949: Partition of Germany and Kashmir; creation of NATO; end of the Chinese Civil
War and establishment of the People's Republic of China; independence of Indonesia.

[edit] 1950s
 1950: Beginning of the Korean War
 1951: Colombo Plan comes into effect
 1952: Detonation of the hydrogen bomb and the first scheduled flight by commercial jet.
Development of the first effective polio vaccine by Jonas Salk; Mau Mau Uprising begins
in Kenya.
 1953: Independence of Cambodia, discovery of DNA and the isolation of the polio
vaccine, the first ascent of Mount Everest, the deposing of Mohammed Mossadeq in Iran
and the end of the Korean War. Death of Joseph Stalin.
 1954: Supreme Court of the United States decides Brown v. Board of Education, ordering
an end to racial segregation in public schools; Soviet Union generates first electricity by
nuclear power; First Indochina War ends; Algerian War begins.
 1955: Signing of the Warsaw Pact. First Sudanese Civil War begins.
 1956: Independence of Sudan and Tunisia and full independence of Pakistan.The
Hungarian uprising; the Suez crisis.
 1957: Launch of Sputnik 1 and the beginning of the Space Age; independence of Ghana
and Tunisia; Treaty of Rome, which would eventually lead to the European Union; first
prescription of the combined oral contraceptive pill.
 1958: Great Leap Forward begins in China. Independence of Chad, Gabon and the
Republic of the Congo; founding of NASA, the FAA and CND (and the creation of the
CND's symbol, the peace sign); invention of the optical disc and the cassette tape
 1959: Cuban Revolution; independence of Cyprus and Singapore; admission of Alaska
and Hawaii into the United States; Dalai Lama exiled from Tibet; first documented AIDS
cases; beginning of the Vietnam War; discovery of "Lucy" in Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.
 By this time, the gulag has been effectively disbanded, after over a million recorded
deaths.

[edit] 1960s
 1960: Independence of Somalia, Togo and the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic
Republic of the Congo). Congo Crisis. Mau Mau Uprising ends; first (and to date only)
manned descent to the deepest point on Earth, the Mariana Trench; construction of the
first laser; world population reaches 3 billion.
 1961: Great Leap Forward ends in China after the deaths of roughly 20 million people.
Independence of Uganda; building of the Berlin Wall; first human spaceflight
 1962: Cuban missile crisis, the independence of Algeria (with the end of the Algerian
War) and The Beatles' first record.
 1963: Independence of Kenya; creation of Malaysia; Martin Luther King delivers his "I
have a Dream" speech; assassination of John F. Kennedy; launch of the first geostationary
satellite.
 1964: Independence of Malta, Malawi and Tanzania; Civil Rights Act of 1964 abolishes
segregation in the USA. Colombian armed conflict begins
 1965: Deaths of Winston Churchill and Malcom X. Anti-Communist purge in Indonesia
kills up to 500,000 people
 1966: China's Cultural Revolution begins. Independence of Lesotho, Botswana and
Barbados
 1967: Summer of Love; Six Day War
 1968: Assassination of Martin Luther King, the Prague Spring and the May 1968 protests
in France. The Troubles begin in Northern Ireland
 1969: Moon landings; Woodstock festival; creation of ARPANET, the earliest incarnation
of the Internet.

[edit] 1970s
 1970: Ratification of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Maiden flight of the Boeing
747. Bhola Cyclone kills 500,000 people in East Pakistan. Deaths of Jimi Hendrix and
Janis Joplin
 1971: Bangladesh Liberation War ends in independence of Bangladesh. Invention of the
microchip. Idi Amin comes to power in Uganda
 1972: Northern Ireland's Bloody Sunday; First Sudanese Civil War ends.
 1973: Beginning of the Watergate scandal. The Supreme Court of the United States
decides Roe v. Wade. Death of Pablo Picasso
  1974: Turkish occupation of Cyprus. World population reaches 4 billion.
 1975: End of the Vietnam War; death of Dmitri Shostakovich. Khmer Rouge regime in
Cambodia begins.
 1976: First outbreak of the Ebola virus. Death of Mao Zedong. End of Cultural
Revolution
 1977: Introduction of the first mass-produced personal computers; launch of the Voyager
spacecraft, currently the most distant man-made objects in the universe.
 1978: Invention of artificial insulin; discovery of Pluto's moon Charon; independence of
Tuvalu; birth of the first test-tube baby. Deng Xiaoping commences ongoing Economic
reform in the People's Republic of China
 1979: Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; Iranian Revolution and Iran hostage crisis. Arrival
of Pope John Paul II in Poland, eventually sparking the Solidarity movement. First space
station, Skylab, is launched. Margaret Thatcher becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Implementation of China's One child policy. Idi Amin exiled. Smallpox eradicated.
Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia ends; 2000,000 people estimated to have been
murdered in The Killing Fields. Nicaraguan Revolution.

[edit] 1980s
 1980: Independence of Zimbabwe and Vanuatu. Ronald Reagan is elected President of
the United States. Beginning of the Iran-Iraq War, Salvadorian Civil War and Contra War
 1981: Independence of Palau. First orbital flight of the Space Shuttle.
 1982: First Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Falklands War.
 1983: End of 1982 Lebanon War. GPS becomes available for civilian use. Independence
of Brunei. End of dictatorship in Argentina. Second Sudanese Civil War begins
 1984: Beginning of the 1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia
 1985: Live Aid. Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Premier of the Soviet Union. First use of
DNA fingerprinting. End of dictatorship in Brazil
 1986: Challenger and Chernobyl disasters. Launch of the space station Mir. First close up
images of the planet Uranus. End of dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines.
Iran-Contra becomes public.
 1987: Stock market crash of 1987. First Intifada begins. World population reaches 5
billion
 1988: Perestroika begins. End of the Iran-Iraq War. End of dictatorship of Augusto
Pinochet in Chile. Pan Am Flight 103 falls over Lockerbie, Scotland. Myanmar Armed
Forces launch a military coup.
  1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall; 1989 revolution and collapse of Communism in Europe.
Tiannanmen Square Massacre in China. End of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. End
of dictatorship in Paraguay and first direct Presidential election in Brazil since 1960.
Death of Emperor Hirohito. Fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie. Exxon Valdez oil spill.
First close up pictures of Neptune. First Liberian Civil War begins.

[edit] 1990s
 1990: Invention of the World Wide Web by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Reunification of
Germany. Launch of the Hubble Space Telescope. Gulf War begins. Contra War ends.
Myanmar Armed Forces place Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.
 1991: Gulf War ends. Dissolution of the Soviet Union and independence of 15 former
Soviet republics. Boris Yeltsin becomes the first democratically elected leader of Russia.
Ten-Day War in Slovenia begins the Yugoslav Wars. Beginning of the Somali, Sierra
Leonian and Algerian Civil Wars. Final end of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia
 1992: Maastricht Treaty creates the European Union. Bill Clinton is elected President of
the United States. End of dictatorship in Albania and South Korea. End of Salvadorian
Civil War
 1993: Velvet divorce between Czech Republic and Slovakia. Independence of Eritrea.
Oslo accords end First Intifada between Israel and Palestine.
 1994: End of apartheid in South Africa and election of Nelson Mandela. Establishment of
NAFTA. First Chechen War begins. Rwandan genocide occurs.
 1995: Establishment of the World Trade Organization. Srebrenica massacre; NATO
bombing raids in Bosnia; Dayton Accords signed. Assassination of Yitzak Rabin. North
Korean famine begins.
 1996: First Congo War begins. First Chechen War ends. First Liberian Civil War ends.
End of dictatorship in Taiwan. Dolly the sheep becomes first successful cloned mammal.
 1997: Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain. Transfer of sovereignty over
Hong Kong from UK to China. Lottery Uprising in Albania.
 1998: Osama Bin Laden publishes a fatwa against the West. Kenya and Tanzania
bombings. Second Congo War begins. Good Friday Agreement brings an end to The
Troubles in Northern Ireland. North Korean famine kills an estimated 2.5 million people
by this point.
 1999: Euro is established. Kosovo War ends the Yugoslav Wars. Hugo Chavez becomes
President of Venezuela. Second Chechen War and Second Liberian Civil War begin.Crisis
in East Timor leads to 1400 deaths. World population reaches 6 billion.

[edit] 2000s
 2000: End of Israeli occupation of Lebanon. Second Intifada begins. George W. Bush is
elected President of the United States. Vincente Fox becomes the first opposition
President of Mexico. Vladimir Putin becomes President of Russia. British Army launch
Operation Palliser which effectively ends the Sierra Leone Civil War. International Space
Station begins operations.
 2001: 9/11 attacks destroy the World Trade Center in New York. Afghan War begins.
Wikipedia founded.
 2002: Guantanamo Bay detention camp is established. Algerian Civil War ends. Rose
Revolution in Georgia. Independence of East Timor.
 2003: 2003 Invasion of Iraq begins. War in Darfur begins. The Human Genome Project is
completed. Second Congo War ends with more than 5 million dead. Second Liberian
Civil War ends
 2004: Madrid train bombings. Boxing Day Tsunami occurs in Indian Ocean. Orange
Revolution in Ukraine
 2005: Second Intifada ends. Second Sudanese Civil War ends. 7/7 attacks on London
Underground. Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan. Hurricane Katrina kills nearly 2000
people in the Gulf of Mexico. 80,000 are killed in an earthquake in Kashmir. The Kyoto
Protocol comes into effect. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad becomes President of Iran
 2006: Independence of Montenegro. Second invasion of Lebanon. Mumbai bombings.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf becomes President of Liberia, and thus Africa's first elected female
head of state.
 2007: End of dictatorship in Nepal. Anti-government protests in Myanmar crushed by
ruling junta.
 2008: Great Recession begins. Barack Obama is elected President of the United States.
Cyclone Nargis kills 133,000 in Myanmar. Gaza War begins. Russia invades Georgia.
 2009: Gaza War ends. Election protests begin in Iran.Second Chechen War ends. Burj
Khalifa, the world's tallest skyscraper, opens in Dubai.