| Year - |
Event |
| 17,000,000,000 B.C. |
The universe is formed. |
| 4,500,000,000 B.C. |
The solar system is formed. |
| 1,000,000,000 B.C. |
Microscopic cells first appear on Earth. |
| 600,000,000 B.C. |
Soft-bodied invertebrates first appear on Earth. |
| 570,000,000 B.C. |
Mollusks, brachiopods, and other skeletal invertebrates appear on Earth. |
| 460,000,000 B.C. |
The first land animals appear on Earth. |
| 420,000,000 B.C. |
Higher forms of plant life begin to appear on Earth. |
| 400,000,000 B.C. |
The main groups of fish are differentiated. |
| 350,000,000 B.C. |
Amphibians, primitive insects, and forests appear. |
| 175,000,000 B.C. |
Birds first appear on Earth. |
| 150,000,000 B.C. |
Early mammals appear on Earth. |
| 100,000,000 B.C. |
Reptiles dominate the Earth at about this time. |
| 65,000,000 B.C. |
Dinosaurs become extinct; the Age of Mammals, which extends to the present, begins. |
| 11,000,000 B.C. |
Ramapithecus, an early hominid, appears about this time. |
| 5,500,000 B.C. |
Australopithecus, the earliest true hominid, is active in Africa about this time. |
| 2,500,000 B.C. |
The Great Ice Age, the time of the Stone Age people, begins. |
| 500,000 B.C. |
Early humans discover fire, its use and how to control it at about this time. |
| 100,000 B.C. |
Neanderthalers inhabit Europe and parts of Asia and North Africa. |
| 40,000 B.C. |
Cro-Magnon man (homo sapiens) is active in Europe and the Middle East. |
| 30,000 B.C. |
Prehistoric art appears about this time. |
| 22,000 B.C. |
People develop cooperative hunting techniques at about this time. |
| 20,000 B.C. |
Early humans begin to fish for food at about this time. |
| 20,000 B.C. |
Early humans cross the Bering Land Bridge from Asia to the Americas. |
| 12,000 B.C. |
Early humans domesticate wild dogs about this time. |
| 11,000 B.C. |
Flint-edged wooden sickles are used to gather wild grains. |
| 10,500 B.C. |
Early humans reach the southern tip of South America. |
| 10,000 B.C. |
Jericho, the oldest known city, is built in the Middle East. |
| 10,000 B.C. |
Metallurgy is practiced in Anatolia. |
| 9000 B.C. |
Plant cultivation begins in the Fertile Crescent region of the Middle East. |
| 9000 B.C. |
Sheep are domesticated in the Middle East. |
| 9000 B.C. |
The Folsom culture emerges in North America about this time. |
| 8000 B.C. |
The Jomon culture begins to emerge in Japan. |
| 7500 B.C. |
The Neolithic settlement of Catal Huyuk is founded in Turkey. |
| 7000 B.C. |
Fired-clay pottery is made about this time. |
| 7000 B.C. |
Glaciers recede from North America. |
| 7000 B.C. |
Mesoamerican peoples begin domesticating plants. |
| 5000 B.C. |
The Egyptians begin irrigating crops. |
| 5000 B.C. |
The Egyptians use balances for weighing by this time. |
| 5000 B.C. |
The Ertebolle culture begins to flourish in Denmark. |
| 5000 B.C. |
The Sumerian civilization begins to develop in Mesopotamia. |
| 5000 B.C. |
The Yang-shao and Lung-shan cultures are established in China by this time. |
| 5000 B.C. |
The earliest ziggurat (temple tower) is built at the Sumerian city of Eridu. |
| 4500 B.C. |
The Danubian culture begins in eastern and central Europe about this time. |
| 4500 B.C. |
Sumerians domesticate and use onagers to pull vehicles. |
| 4000 B.C. |
Cattle are domesticated about this time. |
| 4000 B.C. |
The first megaliths are erected in Brittany. |
| 4000 B.C. |
The wheel is developed in Mesopotamia. |
| 4000 B.C. |
Ox-drawn plows are in use. |
| 3800 B.C. |
The earliest known copper artifacts are produced at Tepe Yahya in Iran. |
| 3500 B.C. |
Bread making probably originates in Egypt about this time. |
| 3100 B.C. |
King Menes unites Upper and Lower Egypt; the Early Dynastic Period begins. |
| 3000 B.C. |
Beeswax candles are in use in Egypt and Crete. |
| 3000 B.C. |
Hieroglyphic writing originates in Egypt about this time. |
| 3000 B.C. |
Bronze implements are in common use in the Middle East. |
| 3000 B.C. |
Chariots are in use in Mesopotamia. |
| 3000 B.C. |
Cuneiform writing originates in Sumer about this time. |
| 3000 B.C. |
Galleys propelled by oars and sails are in use around the Mediterranean. |
| 3000 B.C. |
The Beaker culture begins to develop in Central Europe. |
| 3000 B.C. |
The Denbigh Flint Complex is established by pre-Eskimo peoples in Alaska. |
| 3000 B.C. |
The Minoan civilization begins to flourish on the island of Crete. |
| 3000 B.C. |
The Phoenician city of Byblos becomes an active seaport and trade center. |
| 3000 B.C. |
The city of Troy is first inhabited about this time. |
| 3000 B.C. |
The lyre is developed in Sumeria about this time. |
| 3000 B.C. |
The site of Athens is inhabited by this time in present-day Greece. |
| 2800 B.C. |
Building of Stonehenge begins in Britain. |
| 2800 B.C. |
Lagash becomes the largest city in Sumer about this time. |
| 2700 B.C. |
The Indus civilization begins to emerge around the Indus valley in southern Asia. |
| 2700 B.C. |
The Egyptians develop a calendar with 365 days. |
| 2600 B.C. |
The elephant is domesticated in India. |
| 2686 B.C. |
The Egyptian Old Kingdom begins. |
| 2650 B.C. |
The oldest pyramid, the Step Pyramid of King Zoser, is built at Saqqara in Egypt. |
| 2500 B.C. |
Corn (zea mays) is domesticated in Mesoamerica. |
| 2500 B.C. |
The city of Ur becomes the capital of Sumer. |
| 2500 B.C. |
The largest pyramid in the world is built for the Egyptian king Khufu at Giza. |
| 2400 B.C. |
The Egyptians begin to use papyrus as a writing material about this time. |
| 2333 B.C. |
Legendary figure Tangun is said to have established the first Korean kingdom. |
| 2300 B.C. |
The Hittites enter Anatolia about this time. |
| 2250 B.C. |
The Sumerians develop a mathematical system using a base of 60. |
| 2133 B.C. |
Egypt is reunited during the 11th dynasty of the Middle Kingdom. |
| 2000 B.C. |
Megalith stone alignments are erected at Carnac in present-day France. |
| 2000 B.C. |
The Akkadian poem the Epic of Gilgamesh is composed about this time. |
| 2000 B.C. |
The Avebury Circle is built in England. |
| 2000 B.C. |
The Celts emerge in Europe about this time. |
| 1991 B.C. |
Amenemhet I overthrows the Theban rulers of Egypt to found the 12th Dynasty. |
| 1900 B.C. |
Minoan Linear A script writing develops on Crete. |
| 1900 B.C. |
The Assyrians are unified in Mesopotamia during the Old Assyrian period. |
| 1900 B.C. |
The Hittites begin smelting iron about this time. |
| 1900 B.C. |
The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are demolished by an earthquake. |
| 1800 B.C. |
Bronze metalworking begins to spread throughout Europe. |
| 1800 B.C. |
The Assyrians are driven out of Anatolia by the Hittites. |
| 1800 B.C. |
The Wessex culture is established in Britain about this time. |
| 1792 B.C. |
Hammurabi begins his reign as king of Babylonia. |
| 1766 B.C. |
The Shang dynasty begins in the Hwang Ho valley in China. |
| 1750 B.C. |
The Hittite kingdom is established with Hattusas (modern Bogazkoy) as its capital. |
| 1750 B.C. |
The Indus civilization goes into decline about this time. |
| 1700 B.C. |
The palaces at Knossos and Phaistos on Crete are destroyed by fire about this time. |
| 1700 B.C. |
Abraham, traditional founder of Judaism, lived about this time. |
| 1674 B.C. |
Egypt comes under the rule of foreign Hyksos kings. |
| 1650 B.C. |
The Rhind papyrus, the earliest surviving mathematical text, is produced. |
| 1650 B.C. |
Jacob, grandson of Jewish patriarch Abraham, lived about this time. |
| 1600 B.C. |
Greek hoplites (foot-soldiers) begin using protective armor in battle. |
| 1600 B.C. |
Oracle bones are used for divination by the Shang in China. |
| 1600 B.C. |
The Ebers papyrus documents medical treatment in Egypt. |
| 1600 B.C. |
The city of Mycenae develops in Greece. |
| 1600 B.C. |
The clepsydra, a water clock, is invented in Egypt. |
| 1570 B.C. |
Egyptian expansion begins under the New Kingdom pharaohs. |
| 1570 B.C. |
Temple complexes are built at Karnak and Luxor in Egypt. |
| 1567 B.C. |
King Ahmose I expels the Hyksos from Egypt. |
| 1550 B.C. |
Assyria becomes part of the Kingdom of Mitanni. |
| 1512 B.C. |
Thutmose I is the first pharaoh to be buried in the Valley of the Kings. |
| 1503 B.C. |
Queen Hatshepsut becomes the only woman to rule Egypt as pharaoh. |
| 1500 B.C. |
Glassmaking is perfected in Egypt and the Near East. |
| 1500 B.C. |
Minoan settlements on Thera are buried by a volcanic eruption. |
| 1500 B.C. |
Sundials are in use in Egypt about this time. |
| 1500 B.C. |
The Kingdom of Mitanni flourishes in northern Mesopotamia. |
| 1500 B.C. |
The Phoenicians found the city of Tangier in North Africa. |
| 1500 B.C. |
Writing of the Hindu Vedas begin in India about this time. |
| 1450 B.C. |
Mycenaeans dominate the Aegean. |
| 1450 B.C. |
The Minoan civilization on Crete is overrun by invaders from the Greek mainland. |
| 1400 B.C. |
Anyang becomes the capital of the Shang dynasty about this time. |
| 1400 B.C. |
Minoan Linear A script writing is replaced by Linear B script. |
| 1400 B.C. |
The city of Ravenna is founded by Italic tribes about this time. |
| 1380 B.C. |
Akhenaten rules Egypt with Nefertiti as his queen-consort. |
| 1370 B.C. |
The Sea Peoples destroy the ancient city of Ugarit about this time. |
| 1365 B.C. |
Assyria regains its independence from Mitanni. |
| 1361 B.C. |
Tutankhamen becomes king of Egypt at age nine. |
| 1350 B.C. |
Hittite invaders destroy the Kingdom of Mitanni in Mesopotamia. |
| 1304 B.C. |
Ramses II becomes pharaoh of Egypt; he begins building the temples at Abu Simbel. |
| 1300 B.C. |
Sidon becomes a prominent Phoenician trading center. |
| 1300 B.C. |
The Hittites are dominant in the Near East after they defeat the Egyptians at Kadesh. |
| 1265 B.C. |
The Elamite king Untashgal begins his reign. |
| 1250 B.C. |
Shalmaneser I founds the Assyrian city of Nimrud. |
| 1200 B.C. |
Moses leads the Israelites from Egypt toward Canaan. |
| 1200 B.C. |
The Chavin culture begins to develop in Peru. |
| 1200 B.C. |
The Olmec civilization begins to develop at San Lorenzo in Mesoamerica. |
| 1200 B.C. |
The Sea Peoples overrun the Hittite kingdom. |
| 1200 B.C. |
The art of iron smelting is perfected by this time. |
| 1190 B.C. |
The Trojan War occurs about this time. |
| 1130 B.C. |
Babylonians raid the kingdom of Elam. |
| 1100 B.C. |
The Phoenicians found Cadiz in Spain. |
| 1100 B.C. |
The city of Mycenae falls to invasion in Greece. |
| 1100 B.C. |
The sheng mouth organ is developed in China. |
| 1085 B.C. |
Egypt is split in two during the Late Dynastic Period. |
| 1027 B.C. |
The Shang are overthrown in China; the Chou dynasty begins. |
| 1020 B.C. |
The Israelite tribes form a kingdom under Saul. |
| 1000 B.C. |
David defeats the Philistines; Jerusalem is established as the capital of Israel. |
| 1000 B.C. |
Saul commits suicide after defeat by the Philistines; he is succeeded by David. |
| 1000 B.C. |
The Dorians invade the island of Rhodes. |
| 1000 B.C. |
The Phoenician and Hebrew alphabets are developed about this time. |
| 1000 B.C. |
The earliest parts of the Bible are written down about this time. |
| 1000 B.C. |
The Gezer calendar, the earliest known Hebrew inscription, dates from this time. |
| 1000 B.C. |
The Mound Builders are active in North America about this time. |
| 972 B.C. |
Solomon succeeds David as king of Israel. |
| 935 B.C. |
Sheshonk I becomes the first king of Egypt’s 22nd dynasty. |
| 922 B.C. |
Jeroboam becomes the first king of Israel; war begins between Judah and Israel. |
| 922 B.C. |
The Hebrew kingdom is divided into Israel and Judah after the death of Solomon. |
| 900 B.C. |
The Andean culture of Paracas begins to flourish about this time. |
| 900 B.C. |
The Celts begin to inhabit Gaul. |
| 900 B.C. |
The Olmec seat of power shifts from San Lorenzo to La Venta in Mesoamerica. |
| 887 B.C. |
The city of Canton is founded in China. |
| 883 B.C. |
Ashurnasirpal II begins to expand the Assyrian empire. |
| 870 B.C. |
King Ahab of Israel marries the Phoenician princess Jezebel. |
| 850 B.C. |
The Villanovan culture begins to develop in the Tuscany region of Italy about this time. |
| 842 B.C. |
Jehu overthrows Ahab to become king of Israel. |
| 814 B.C. |
The Phoenicians found the city of Carthage about this time. |
| 800 B.C. |
The Greek city of Corinth is founded about this time. |
| 776 B.C. |
The first Olympic Games are held in Greece. |
| 753 B.C. |
According to legend, Romulus and Remus found the city of Rome. |
| 750 B.C. |
Greek author Homer is active about this time according to some scholars. |
| 750 B.C. |
The Etruscans begin to expand their colonies in Italy about this time. |
| 750 B.C. |
The earliest Greek colony in Italy is founded at Cumae about this time. |
| 745 B.C. |
King Tiglath-Pileser III begins the restoration of Assyrian imperial power. |
| 735 B.C. |
Ahaz becomes king of Judah. |
| 734 B.C. |
The Corinthians settle the island of Corfu. |
| 732 B.C. |
Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III captures Damascus and makes Israel a vassal state. |
| 729 B.C. |
The Assyrians seize the throne of Babylon. |
| 722 B.C. |
Peking (Beijing) becomes the capital of the Yen Kingdom in China. |
| 722 B.C. |
The Assyrians conquer the kingdom of Israel. |
| 721 B.C. |
Sargon II founds the last Assyrian dynasty. |
| 716 B.C. |
Egypt is conquered by the rulers of Cush, who found the 25th dynasty. |
| 715 B.C. |
Sparta conquers Messenia in the First Messenian War. |
| 704 B.C. |
King Sennacherib establishes Nineveh as the capital of Assyria. |
| 700 B.C. |
Bireme galleys with two banks of oars are developed. |
| 700 B.C. |
Iron implements begin to replace copper during the Hallstatt Period in Europe. |
| 700 B.C. |
The Lydians begin using coins as currency. |
| 700 B.C. |
The saddle is developed by the Scythians about this time. |
| 691 B.C. |
The Assyrians build an early aqueduct, transporting water 34 miles to Nineveh. |
| 689 B.C. |
The Assyrians suppress a Babylonian revolt and destroy the city of Babylon. |
| 688 B.C. |
The sport of boxing is included in the Olympic Games. |
| 681 B.C. |
King Sennacherib of Assyria is assassinated; Esarhaddon succeeds him. |
| 671 B.C. |
The Assyrians capture Memphis and rule part of Egypt. |
| 664 B.C. |
Psamtik I founds the 26th dynasty and begins to reunite Egypt. |
| 663 B.C. |
Assyria reaches its greatest extent under king Ashurbanipal. |
| 661 B.C. |
The Egyptian city of Thebes is sacked by the Assyrians. |
| 660 B.C. |
According to legend the Japanese state is founded by emperor Jimmu. |
| 660 B.C. |
The city of Byzantium (Istanbul) is founded. |
| 646 B.C. |
Assyrian ruler Ashurbanipal captures and burns Susa, ending the Elamite kingdom. |
| 640 B.C. |
Josiah becomes king of Judah. |
| 640 B.C. |
Perdiccas I establishes the Kingdom of Macedonia about this time. |
| 630 B.C. |
The Cimmerians are conquered by the Scythians in European Russia. |
| 625 B.C. |
King Cyaxares unifies the Median tribes in western Asia. |
| 625 B.C. |
Periander succeeds his father Cypselus as tyrant of Corinth. |
| 624 B.C. |
Horse racing becomes an event in the Olympic Games. |
| 616 B.C. |
The Etruscan king Tarquinius Priscus rules Rome. |
| 612 B.C. |
The Medes and Babylonians sack Nineveh; the Assyrian Empire collapses. |
| 609 B.C. |
Necho II succeeds his father Psamtik I as pharaoh of Egypt. |
| 600 B.C. |
Building of a Doric temple begins at the sacred sanctuary of Olympia in Greece. |
| 600 B.C. |
The Greek colony of Poseidonia (Paestum) is founded in Italy. |
| 600 B.C. |
The Greeks found Massilia (Marseille) on the Mediterranean coast. |
| 600 B.C. |
The religion of Zoroastrianism develops in Iran about this time. |
| 600 B.C. |
Sappho, the most famous woman poet of antiquity, is active about this time. |
| 597 B.C. |
Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, begins his reign. |
| 594 B.C. |
The archon Solon makes sweeping social reforms in Athens. |
| 586 B.C. |
Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II destroys Jerusalem, capital of Judah. |
| 586 B.C. |
The Jews begin their Babylonian captivity. |
| 585 B.C. |
Greek philosopher and scientist Thales of Miletus predicts an eclipse of the Sun. |
| 570 B.C. |
Ahmose II becomes king of Egypt. |
| 570 B.C. |
Cleitias, a Greek vase painter of the Black Figure style, is active about this time. |
| 561 B.C. |
Peisistratus becomes tyrant of Athens. |
| 560 B.C. |
Croesus succeeds his father Alyattes as king of Lydia. |
| 550 B.C. |
Cyrus the Great conquers the Medes and founds the Achaemenid Persian empire. |
| 550 B.C. |
Lao-tzu develops the Tao Te Ching, outlining the philosophy of Taoism. |
| 550 B.C. |
The first plays are performed in Greece about this time. |
| 547 B.C. |
Cyrus the Great defeats King Croesus and captures the Lydian capital of Sardis. |
| 546 B.C. |
Greek philosopher and scientist Thales of Miletus dies about this time. |
| 543 B.C. |
Colombo is settled in Sri Lanka. |
| 539 B.C. |
The Persians under Cyrus the Great conquer Babylon. |
| 537 B.C. |
The Persians free the Jews from Babylonian rule. |
| 534 B.C. |
The actor Thespis wins first prize in a tragedy competition held in Athens. |
| 530 B.C. |
Cyrus the Great is killed in battle; he is succeeded by his son Cambyses II. |
| 525 B.C. |
The Persians under Cambyses II conquer Egypt. |
| 520 B.C. |
Epictetus, a Red Figure style painter of Greek vases, is active about this time. |
| 518 B.C. |
Darius I begins building the city of Persepolis as the Persian royal residence. |
| 512 B.C. |
Darius I conquers the city of Byzantium. |
| 510 B.C. |
Spartan king Cleomenes I overthrows the Athenian tyrant Hippias. |
| 510 B.C. |
The last Roman king, Tarquinius Superbus, is expelled. |
| 509 B.C. |
Rome becomes a republic. |
| 507 B.C. |
Cleisthenes introduces democracy to Athens. |
| 500 B.C. |
Etruscan king Lars Porsena besieges Rome. |
| 500 B.C. |
The Adena mound complexes are built in the Ohio Valley in North America. |
| 500 B.C. |
The Zapotec found the city of Monte Alban in Mesoamerica. |
| 500 B.C. |
The earliest known hand-knotted carpet is buried in a tomb at Pazyryk in Siberia. |
| 494 B.C. |
Cleomenes I of Sparta defeats the city of Argos in Greece. |
| 493 B.C. |
Rome concludes an alliance with the Latin League. |
| 491 B.C. |
Gelon, also known as the tyrant of Gela, becomes ruler of Sicily after the death of Hippocrates. |
| 490 B.C. |
The Greeks defeat the Persians at the Battle of Marathon. |
| 480 B.C. |
Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus is active about this time. |
| 480 B.C. |
Greek philosopher Pythagoras of Samos dies about this time. |
| 480 B.C. |
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, dies about this time in India. |
| 480 B.C. |
The Greeks defeat the Persian navy at Salamis; over 1,000 triremes are used. |
| 480 B.C. |
The Persians defeat the Greeks at Thermopylae; Athens is burned. |
| 479 B.C. |
Confucius, China’s first and most famous philosopher, dies about this time. |
| 479 B.C. |
The Greeks under Aristides and Pausanias defeat the Persians at Plataea. |
| 478 B.C. |
The Delian League is established under the leadership of Athens. |
| 472 B.C. |
Aeschylus’ earliest preserved play, The Persians, is performed. |
| 465 B.C. |
Xerxes is assassinated; he is succeeded by his son Artaxerxes I as king of Persia. |
| 460 B.C. |
Pericles becomes the political leader of Athens about this time. |
| 450 B.C. |
The La Tene Period begins in central Europe. |
| 450 B.C. |
The religion of Jainism is firmly established in India. |
| 447 B.C. |
Building of the Parthenon begins in Athens. |
| 445 B.C. |
The ban on marriage between patricians and plebeians is removed in Rome. |
| 431 B.C. |
The Peloponnesian War begins between Athens and Sparta. |
| 430 B.C. |
Herodotus writes The History of the Persian Wars about this time. |
| 425 B.C. |
Sophocles’ play Oedipus Rex is completed about this time. |
| 415 B.C. |
Euripides’ play The Trojan Women is performed for the first time. |
| 411 B.C. |
Aristophanes’ play Lysistrata is performed for the first time. |
| 411 B.C. |
Athenian historian Thucydides ends his History of the Peloponnesian War. |
| 411 B.C. |
Athenian historian Xenophon begins to write the Hellenica, a history of Greece. |
| 405 B.C. |
Spartan general Lysander defeats the Athenian fleet at Aegospotami. |
| 405 B.C. |
The Acropolis of Athens is completed. |
| 404 B.C. |
Athens surrenders to Sparta, ending the Peloponnesian War. |
| 404 B.C. |
Egypt becomes independent from Persia. |
| 404 B.C. |
Sparta conquers Athens and assumes the leadership of all Greece. |
| 403 B.C. |
Ssu-ma Kuang begins compiling the Chinese history the Tzu-chih t’ung-chien. |
| 401 B.C. |
Persian king Artaxerxes II defeats and kills his brother Cyrus the Younger at Cunaxa. |
| 400 B.C. |
Construction of the hill fort at Maiden Castle begins in England about this time. |
| 400 B.C. |
Greek philosopher Democritus is active about this time. |
| 400 B.C. |
Greek physician Hippocrates is active about this time. |
| 399 B.C. |
Socrates is executed for impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens. |
| 396 B.C. |
Spartan king Agesilaus II defeats the Persian satrap Tissaphernes. |
| 396 B.C. |
The Etruscan city of Veii is conquered by Rome after a 10-year siege. |
| 390 B.C. |
Gallic king Brennus sacks Rome. |
| 387 B.C. |
Plato founds the Academy in Athens about this time. |
| 386 B.C. |
The Thebans and Athenians renew the war against Sparta. |
| 371 B.C. |
Epaminondas defeats the Spartans at Leuctra; Thebes is dominant in Greece. |
| 370 B.C. |
Greek philosopher Plato writes The Republic. |
| 359 B.C. |
Philip II becomes king of Macedonia. |
| 354 B.C. |
Greek historian Xenophon dies about this time. |
| 350 B.C. |
Praxiteles completes the sculpture Hermes Holding the Infant Dionysus. |
| 341 B.C. |
The Persians reconquer Egypt. |
| 340 B.C. |
Greek sculptor Lysippus completes the bronze statue of the Farnese Heracles. |
| 339 B.C. |
Philip II of Macedonia defeats the forces of Athens and Thebes at Chaeronea. |
| 338 B.C. |
Rome defeats the Latin League in the Latin Wars. |
| 336 B.C. |
Philip II is assassinated; Alexander the Great succeeds him as king of Macedonia. |
| 333 B.C. |
Alexander conquers Syria, Phoenicia, and Egypt. |
| 333 B.C. |
Alexander defeats the Persian king Darius III at the Battle of Issus. |
| 332 B.C. |
Alexander founds Alexandria in Egypt. |
| 331 B.C. |
Alexander defeats the Persian king Darius III at Gaugamela. |
| 327 B.C. |
Alexander invades India. |
| 323 B.C. |
Alexander dies at Babylon; the Diadochi seek control of the Macedonian empire. |
| 323 B.C. |
Alexander’s general Ptolemy I inherits Egypt and Palestine. |
| 321 B.C. |
Chandragupta Maurya founds the Maurya dynasty of India. |
| 320 B.C. |
A portrait of Aristotle, the first example of true portraiture, is painted in Greece. |
| 312 B.C. |
The Romans begin building the Via Appia (the Appian Way). |
| 305 B.C. |
Seleucus I Nicator (the Conqueror) becomes king of Macedonia. |
| 300 B.C. |
Greek mathematician Euclid is active about this time. |
| 300 B.C. |
The Okvik prehistoric Eskimo culture develops in Alaska. |
| 300 B.C. |
The Sarmatians displace the Scythians in European Russia about this time. |
| 290 B.C. |
Rome defeats the Samnites, ending the Samnite Wars. |
| 290 B.C. |
The Sabines are granted Roman citizenship. |
| 282 B.C. |
Greek king Pyrrhus of Epirus aids the Tarentines in their war against Rome. |
| 280 B.C. |
The Pharos lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, is built at Alexandria. |
| 279 B.C. |
The Greeks block the advance of the Gauls at Thermopylae. |
| 278 B.C. |
The Celts, or Galli (Gauls), settle Galatia in central Anatolia. |
| 273 B.C. |
The Romans and their allies conquer the Etruscan city of Caere. |
| 264 B.C. |
Carthage occupies Sicily, beginning the First Punic War with Rome. |
| 264 B.C. |
Contests between gladiators are held in Rome by this time. |
| 256 B.C. |
The Romans under Marcus Atilius Regulus besiege Carthage but are defeated. |
| 250 B.C. |
Indian emperor Asoka makes Buddhism the state religion about this time. |
| 250 B.C. |
The Hebrew Bible is translated into Greek. |
| 247 B.C. |
The Carthaginians under Hamilcar Barca renew their attack on Sicily. |
| 246 B.C. |
Ptolemy III succeeds his father Ptolemy II as king of Egypt. |
| 241 B.C. |
Rome defeats Carthage, ending the First Punic War. |
| 240 B.C. |
Eratosthenes of Cyrene calculates the circumference of the Earth about this time. |
| 240 B.C. |
Livius Andronicus produces the first Latin literature in Rome. |
| 239 B.C. |
The appearance of Halley’s comet is recorded for the first time. |
| 238 B.C. |
The Romans seize Sardinia and Corsica from Carthage. |
| 237 B.C. |
Carthaginian generals Hasdrubal and Hannibal conquer large areas of Spain. |
| 230 B.C. |
Epigonus of Pergamum sculpts the bronze statue The Dying Gaul. |
| 230 B.C. |
The Buddhist Andhra dynasty rules in Andhra Pradesh, India. |
| 228 B.C. |
King Attalus I of Pergamum conquers most of Seleucid Anatolia. |
| 227 B.C. |
Spartan king Cleomenes III defeats the Achaean League. |
| 222 B.C. |
Macedonian king Antigonus III assists the Achaean League in defeating the Spartans. |
| 221 B.C. |
China is unified under Shih Huang-ti (First Emperor) of the Ch’in dynasty. |
| 221 B.C. |
Philip V succeeds Antigonus III as king of Macedonia. |
| 219 B.C. |
Carthaginian general Hannibal attacks the Romans at Saguntum (Sagunto) in Spain. |
| 218 B.C. |
Carthaginian general Hannibal leads his army across the Alps to invade Italy. |
| 218 B.C. |
The Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage begins. |
| 216 B.C. |
Hannibal defeats four Roman legions at Cannae. |
| 215 B.C. |
Construction of The Great Wall of China begins about this time. |
| 212 B.C. |
The mathematician Archimedes is killed during the Roman conquest of Syracuse. |
| 210 B.C. |
Chinese emperor Shih Huang-ti dies; he is buried with a life-sized pottery army. |
| 206 B.C. |
Roman general Scipio Africanus Major defeats the Carthaginians in Spain. |
| 206 B.C. |
Seleucid king Antiochus III conquers Armenia, Parthia and Bactria. |
| 204 B.C. |
Roman general Scipio Africanus Major invades North Africa. |
| 202 B.C. |
The Han dynasty begins in China under Liu Pang, ending the Ch’in dynasty. |
| 202 B.C. |
The Romans defeat Hannibal in the Second Punic War; Carthage became a Roman dependency. |
| 202 B.C. |
The Seleucid king Antiochus III begins his conquest of Syria and Palestine. |
| 201 B.C. |
Masinissa founds the kingdom of Numidia in North Africa. |
| 201 B.C. |
Rome unites with Pergamum and Rhodes against Philip V of Macedonia. |
| 200 B.C. |
Gauls of the Parisii tribe establish a settlement on the site of Paris. |
| 200 B.C. |
Iron horseshoes came into use about this time. |
| 200 B.C. |
Parchment comes into wide use about this time. |
| 200 B.C. |
Roman comic dramatist Plautus writes the play Stichus. |
| 200 B.C. |
Stirrups are probably in use in China by this date. |
| 200 B.C. |
The Nazca culture begins to flourish in Peru about this time. |
| 200 B.C. |
The Sadducees Jewish religious sect begins to flourish about this time. |
| 197 B.C. |
Roman general Titus Quinctius Flamininus defeats Philip V at Cynoscephalae. |
| 196 B.C. |
The Seleucid king Antiochus III invades Thrace. |
| 191 B.C. |
Antiochus III is defeated by the Romans at Thermopylae. |
| 186 B.C. |
The Roman festival of Bacchanalia is prohibited. |
| 185 B.C. |
The Maurya dynasty ends in India with the assassination of Brihadnatha. |
| 184 B.C. |
Cato becomes the censor of Rome. |
| 183 B.C. |
Hannibal commits suicide to avoid surrendering to Rome. |
| 179 B.C. |
Perseus succeeds his father Philip V as king of Macedonia. |
| 175 B.C. |
The Hellenistic sculpture the Laocoon is begun about this time. |
| 174 B.C. |
Building of the colossal temple of Zeus Olympius begins in Athens. |
| 168 B.C. |
Jews under the Maccabees revolt against Seleucid rule in Palestine. |
| 168 B.C. |
The Romans defeat King Perseus and abolish the Macedonian monarchy. |
| 165 B.C. |
The Maccabees, assisted by the Hasideans, occupy Jerusalem and reconsecrate the Temple. |
| 150 B.C. |
Hipparchus of Rhodes compiles the first star catalog. |
| 149 B.C. |
The Third Punic War begins when Carthage attacks Numidia, an ally of Rome. |
| 146 B.C. |
The Romans destroys Carthage, ending the Third Punic War.. |
| 146 B.C. |
The Romans destroy the Achaean League in Greece. |
| 145 B.C. |
Ptolemy VIII assassinates Ptolemy VII to become sole ruler of Egypt. |
| 140 B.C. |
Wu Ti (martial emperor) rules the Han dynasty in China. |
| 139 B.C. |
Independence of the Jewish state is recognized by Roman decree. |
| 139 B.C. |
The Romans defeat the Celts in the Iberian Peninsula and found Lusitania. |
| 130 B.C. |
The poet Antipater of Sidon lists the Seven Wonders of the World about this time. |
| 121 B.C. |
The Gallic settlement at Nimes comes under Roman control. |
| 120 B.C. |
Mithradates VI succeeds his father as king of Pontus. |
| 111 B.C. |
Han dynasty China annexes Annam (northern Vietnam). |
| 106 B.C. |
The Gallic city of Tolosa (Toulouse) is conquered by the Romans. |
| 105 B.C. |
Rome defeats King Jugurtha; Numidia becomes part of the Roman Empire. |
| 101 B.C. |
Roman leaders Catulus, Marius and Sulla defeat the Cimbri at the Po River. |
| 100 B.C. |
Bog burials are made in northern Europe about this time. |
| 100 B.C. |
Greek grammarian Dionysius Thrax writes the Art of Grammar about this time. |
| 100 B.C. |
Shadow puppets develop in China about this time. |
| 100 B.C. |
The Anasazi culture begins to flourish in North America about this time. |
| 95 B.C. |
The Scythians conquer Gandhara in present-day Pakistan. |
| 95 B.C. |
Tigranes I becomes king of Armenia and begins the expansion of his empire. |
| 91 B.C. |
Marcus Livius Drusus is murdered; Rome and its allies begin the Social War. |
| 89 B.C. |
The right to Roman citizenship is extended throughout Italy. |
| 88 B.C. |
Sulla leads the Roman forces against Mithradates VI in the first Mithradatic War. |
| 87 B.C. |
Gaius Marius and Lucius Cornelius Cinna capture Rome in the civil war. |
| 82 B.C. |
Roman general Sulla captures Rome and becomes dictator. |
| 82 B.C. |
The Romans occupy Tingis (Tangier) in North Africa. |
| 80 B.C. |
Sulla devastates the Etruscan cities; the Etruscans become Roman citizens. |
| 73 B.C. |
The gladiator Spartacus leads an uprising of fugitive slaves in Italy. |
| 71 B.C. |
Roman general Marcus Licinius Crassus defeats and kills Spartacus at Lucania. |
| 66 B.C. |
The Romans defeat King Tigranes I; Armenia becomes a tributary of Rome. |
| 63 B.C. |
Lucullus and Pompey defeat Mithradates VI in the third Mithradatic War. |
| 63 B.C. |
Roman general Pompey conquers Palestine and captures Jerusalem. |
| 60 B.C. |
Pompey, Crassus, and Julius Caesar form the first Roman Triumvirate. |
| 59 B.C. |
The Acta diurna, a type of news gazette, is published in Rome. |
| 58 B.C. |
The Gallic Wars begin when Julius Caesar invades Gaul. |
| 58 B.C. |
The island of Cyprus is annexed by Rome. |
| 57 B.C. |
Julius Caesar conquers the Belgae in present-day Belgium. |
| 57 B.C. |
The kingdom of Silla is established in Korea. |
| 55 B.C. |
Julius Caesar’s Roman legions invade Britain. |
| 55 B.C. |
Pompey’s Theater, the first permanent Roman playhouse, is built. |
| 52 B.C. |
Vercingetorix unites the Gallic tribes to resist Rome. |
| 51 B.C. |
Julius Caesar conquers Gaul, ending the Gallic Wars. |
| 50 B.C. |
The art of glassblowing is developed about this time in Phoenicia. |
| 50 B.C. |
Roman philosopher-poet Lucretius writes De rerum natura about this time. |
| 49 B.C. |
Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon into Italy and begins a civil war. |
| 48 B.C. |
Caesar defeats Pompey at Pharsalus; Pompey is assassinated in Egypt. |
| 48 B.C. |
Civil war breaks out in Egypt between Ptolemy XIII and his sister Cleopatra. |
| 47 B.C. |
Caesar’s Roman army arrives in Egypt; Cleopatra becomes Caesar’s mistress. |
| 47 B.C. |
Caesar’s army defeats and kills Ptolemy XIII. |
| 46 B.C. |
Caesar is appointed dictator of Rome. |
| 44 B.C. |
Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus assassinate Julius Caesar. |
| 43 B.C. |
Mark Antony, Octavian (Augustus), and Lepidus form the Second Triumvirate in Rome. |
| 42 B.C. |
Octavian and Mark Antony defeat Brutus and Cassius Longinus at Philippi. |
| 42 B.C. |
Queen Cleopatra of Egypt becomes Mark Antony’s mistress. |
| 37 B.C. |
Herod the Great rules Judea under Roman appointment. |
| 37 B.C. |
Marcus Agrippa’s Roman fleet defeats Sextus Pompeius at Mylae. |
| 31 B.C. |
Octavian defeats Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium. |
| 30 B.C. |
Cleopatra and Mark Antony commit suicide. |
| 30 B.C. |
Egypt is declared a Roman province, ending the Ptolemaic dynasty. |
| 29 B.C. |
Roman poet Vergil begins the Aeneid. |
| 27 B.C. |
Octavian becomes the first Roman emperor; the Senate names him Augustus. |
| 27 B.C. |
Roman emperor Augustus establishes the Praetorian guard. |
| 23 B.C. |
Roman lyric poet Horace writes his three books of 88 Odes. |
| 20 B.C. |
Marcus Verrius Flaccus compiles the first general dictionary. |
| 19 B.C. |
The Romans build the Pont du Gard at Nimes in Gaul (now France). |
| 19 B.C. |
The Romans complete their conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. |
| 18 B.C. |
The Kingdom of Paekche is established in Korea. |
| 16 B.C. |
The Maison Carree temple is donated to the city of Nimes by Marcus Agrippa. |
| 12 B.C. |
The Romans begin an attempt to conquer Germany. |
| 6 B.C. |
Jesus Christ is born in Bethlehem at about this time. |
| 6 B.C. |
Judea comes under the direct control of Roman procurators. |
| 4 B.C. |
Herod the Great dies; Emperor Augustus divides Herod’s kingdom among his sons. |
| 1 B.C. |
Roman poet Ovid writes the Art of Love. |
| 1 |
The world population is about 250 million. |
| 4 |
Roman emperor Augustus adopts Tiberius and recognizes him as his successor. |
| 6 |
Judea becomes a province of Rome. |
| 8 |
Roman poet Ovid completes his greatest poetic achievement Metamorphoses. |
| 9 |
Chinese emperor Wang Mang founds the Hsin dynasty, ending the Former Han dynasty. |
| 9 |
German leader Arminius defeats three Roman legions in the Battle of Teutoburg Forest. |
| 14 |
Augustus dies; he is succeeded by Tiberius as emperor of Rome. |
| 23 |
Chinese emperor Wang Mang dies. |
| 25 |
The Later Han dynasty is established in China. |
| 27 |
Jesus Christ is baptized by John the Baptist about this time. |
| 28 |
John the Baptist is executed by Herod Antipas. |
| 30 |
Jesus Christ is crucified by order of Pontius Pilate, Roman governor of Judea. |
| 32 |
St. Paul is converted to Christianity. |
| 37 |
Tiberius dies; he is succeeded by Caligula as emperor of Rome. |
| 39 |
The Roman encyclopedist Celsus dies. |
| 40 |
An early Christian church is erected at Corinth. |
| 41 |
Caligula is assassinated; Claudius becomes emperor of Rome. |
| 43 |
The Romans invade Britain. |
| 43 |
The city of Londinium (London) is founded. |
| 45 |
St. Paul begins his Christian missionary travels. |
| 45 |
The Epistle of James is begun about this time. |
| 46 |
Thrace becomes a Roman province. |
| 48 |
Gallic nobles are admitted to the Roman Senate. |
| 50 |
Cologne is founded about this time in present-day Germany. |
| 50 |
The expansion of the kingdom of Aksum begins in present-day Ethiopia. |
| 50 |
The first Roman colony in Britain is founded at Colchester. |
| 50 |
The Chinese invent the ship’s rudder. |
| 54 |
Claudius is murdered; Nero becomes emperor of Rome. |
| 57 |
St. Paul writes his Epistles to the Corinthians. |
| 60 |
Boadicea, queen of the Iceni tribe, rebels against Roman rule in Britain. |
| 62 |
St. James (the brother of Jesus Christ) is stoned to death. |
| 64 |
Rome is devastated by fire; the Christians are blamed and persecuted. |
| 64 |
The Kushans sack the city of Taxila in present-day Pakistan. |
| 65 |
Roman philosopher Seneca commits suicide. |
| 65 |
Writing of The Gospel According to Mark is begun. |
| 66 |
A Jewish revolt against Roman rule begins in Judea. |
| 66 |
Roman writer Petronius Arbiter, the reputed author of the Satyricon, dies. |
| 67 |
St. Peter and St. Paul are martyred in Rome. |
| 68 |
Buddhism is introduced into China from India. |
| 68 |
Roman emperor Nero commits suicide. |
| 69 |
Vespasian becomes emperor of Rome and founds the Flavian dynasty. |
| 70 |
Roman general Titus suppresses a Jewish revolt and captures Jerusalem. |
| 70 |
The Herod dynasty ends in Judea. |
| 70 |
Writing of the Acts of the Apostles begins. |
| 73 |
The Romans conquer Masada, the last Jewish stronghold. |
| 75 |
Josephus begins his history of the Jewish War. |
| 77 |
Pliny the Elder writes his Historia naturalis. |
| 78 |
Roman general Agricola becomes governor of Britain. |
| 79 |
Mount Vesuvius erupts, burying the Roman city of Pompeii. |
| 80 |
The Gospel According to Luke and The Gospel According to Matthew are begun. |
| 80 |
The building of the Colosseum is completed in Rome. |
| 81 |
The Arch of Titus is erected in Rome. |
| 81 |
Titus dies; he is succeeded by Domitian as emperor of Rome. |
| 92 |
St. Clement becomes Bishop of Rome. |
| 97 |
St. Timothy is martyred at Ephesus. |
| 98 |
Nerva dies; he is succeeded by Trajan as emperor of Rome. |
| 100 |
Teotihuacan in central Mexico has a population of 50,000. |
| 100 |
The compilation of the Kamasutra is begun in India. |
| 100 |
The earliest Chinese dictionary, the Shuo Wen, is compiled about this time. |
| 105 |
Paper is invented in China. |
| 106 |
The city of Petra in present-day Jordan is conquered by the Roman emperor Trajan. |
| 113 |
Emperor Trajan’s column is built to glorify his military victories. |
| 115 |
Greek writer Lucian’s The True History describes a fantasy trip to the moon. |
| 117 |
The Roman Empire is at the height of its territorial power. |
| 117 |
Trajan dies; he is succeeded by Hadrian as emperor of Rome. |
| 118 |
The Roman Forum is completed. |
| 120 |
The Pantheon is completed in Rome. |
| 122 |
Construction of Hadrian’s Wall is begun to protect Britain from northern tribes. |
| 130 |
The Taoist religion is accepted in China. |
| 130 |
The temple of Zeus is completed in Athens. |
| 132 |
The Jewish Bar Kochba revolt begins against the Romans. |
| 135 |
Suppression of the Jewish revolt leads to the diaspora (dispersion) of the Jews. |
| 138 |
Hadrian dies; he is succeeded by Antoninus Pius as emperor of Rome. |
| 150 |
Apuleius, author of the Latin tale The Golden Ass, dies. |
| 150 |
Greek astronomer Ptolemy writes his Almagest and Geography. |
| 150 |
The earliest surviving Sanskrit inscriptions are made in India. |
| 161 |
Marcus Aurelius, author of the Meditations, becomes emperor of Rome. |
| 170 |
Pausanias writes his Description of Greece, a contemporary guide book. |
| 170 |
Persecution of the Christians increases in Rome. |
| 180 |
Bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius is completed in Rome. |
| 189 |
The reign of the last Han Emperor, Hsien-Ti, begins. |
| 190 |
Alexandrian surgeon Galen compiles his writings on medical treatments. |
| 190 |
The abacus is used for numerical calculation in China. |
| 196 |
Roman emperor Septimius Severus sacks the city of Byzantium (Istanbul). |
| 200 |
Carthage in North Africa becomes a world metropolis under Roman rule. |
| 201 |
Empress Jingo reigns as regent in Japan. |
| 206 |
The building of the Baths of Caracalla is begun in Rome by Septimius Severus. |
| 212 |
Emperor Caracalla grants citizenship to all freemen of the empire. |
| 220 |
The Goths invade Asia Minor and the Balkan Peninsula. |
| 220 |
The Han dynasty ends in China. |
| 224 |
Sassanians under Ardashir defeat the Arascid dynasty in Persia. |
| 250 |
Diophantus of Alexandria writes the first book on algebra. |
| 250 |
Emperor Decius persecutes the Christians and makes emperor-worship compulsory. |
| 250 |
The Early Classic period of the Maya begins in Mesoamerica. |
| 250 |
The Kingdom of Aksum gains control of the Red Sea trade. |
| 254 |
Plotinus, the founder of neoplatonism, begins writing his discourses. |
| 257 |
The Franks invade Spain. |
| 257 |
The Visigoths and Ostrogoths invade the Black Sea region. |
| 260 |
Persians under Shapur I defeat the Roman army and capture Emperor Valerian. |
| 265 |
The reign of the first Chin dynasty begins in China. |
| 268 |
The Goths attack Athens, Sparta, and Corinth. |
| 270 |
The first compass is used in China about this time. |
| 276 |
Mani, founder of Manichean sect, is crucified in Persia. |
| 284 |
Emperor Diocletian bans alchemical books. |
| 285 |
Confucianism is introduced into Japan. |
| 286 |
Diocletian divides Roman Empire into four administrative districts. |
| 286 |
Saint Maurice and the Theban legion are massacred by Emperor Maximian. |
| 295 |
Diocletian’s Palace is built on the Dalmatian coast of Croatia. |
| 297 |
Rome recaptures Armenia and Mesopotamia. |
| 300 |
St. Anthony forms Christian hermit communities in the Egyptian desert. |
| 301 |
The kingdom of Armenia becomes the first nation to adopt Catholicism as the state religion. |
| 305 |
Roman emperor Diocletian abdicates in the East; Maximian abdicates in the West |
| 306 |
Constantine becomes Emperor of the West. |
| 311 |
The final persecution of the Christians begins in Rome. |
| 312 |
Emperor Constantine is converted to Christianity. |
| 312 |
The Edict of Toleration at Milan legalizes Christianity. |
| 313 |
The Koguryo Kingdom expels the Chinese from Korea. |
| 316 |
The Huns (Hsuiung-nu) invade northern China. |
| 320 |
Chandragupta I founds the Gupta dynasty in northern India. |
| 324 |
Constantine defeats Licinius, the former Emperor of the East, at Adrianople (now Edirne). |
| 325 |
The council of bishops at Nicaea decide that God and Christ are one. |
| 330 |
St. Peter’s Church in Rome is designed for Christian worship. |
| 330 |
The Roman capital moves to Constantinople (now Istanbul); the Byzantine Empire begins. |
| 341 |
Coptic Christianity is introduced into Ethiopia. |
| 350 |
A school of church song (Schola Cantorum) is founded in Rome. |
| 350 |
Aksum destroys the kingdom of Meroe. |
| 350 |
The Huns invade Persia and India. |
| 350 |
The Persians regain Armenia from Rome. |
| 360 |
The Japanese invade Korea. |
| 360 |
The Picts and Scots cross Hadrian’s Wall and attack Roman Britain. |
| 360 |
Vellum books begin to replace scrolls. |
| 364 |
Valentinian becomes Emperor of the West; Valens becomes Emperor of the East. |
| 370 |
The Huns appear in Europe for the first time. |
| 370 |
Theodosius drives the Picts and Scots out of Britain. |
| 372 |
Buddhism is introduced into Korea from China. |
| 376 |
The Huns invade Russia. |
| 378 |
Emperor Valens is killed by the Visigoths at the Battle of Adrianople (now Edirne). |
| 378 |
St. Ursus builds a cathedral at Ravenna. |
| 380 |
Chandragupta II heads the Gupta Empire. |
| 383 |
The Roman army begins the evacuation of Britain. |
| 386 |
Hymn singing is introduced by Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. |
| 386 |
St. Augustine converts to Christianity. |
| 395 |
Theodosius dies; the Roman Empire is permanently divided into East and West. |
| 396 |
Alaric, king of the Visigoths, plunders Athens |
| 401 |
Pope Innocent I claims universal power over the Roman church. |
| 401 |
The Visigoths invade Italy. |
| 406 |
The Vandals invade Gaul; Roman legions are withdrawn from Britain. |
| 407 |
The first Mongol empire is founded by the Avars. |
| 409 |
The Vandals invade Spain. |
| 410 |
The Visigoths under Alaric destroy Rome. |
| 411 |
St. Augustine writes The City of God. |
| 420 |
St. Jerome, translator of the Bible into Latin, dies. |
| 425 |
Constantinople University is founded. |
| 425 |
Vandals, Ostrogoths and Visigoths settle in former Roman provinces. |
| 429 |
Vandals under Gaiseric establish a kingdom in North Africa. |
| 432 |
St. Patrick’s Christian mission reaches Ireland. |
| 433 |
Attila becomes the ruler of the Huns. |
| 439 |
The Vandals capture Carthage. |
| 449 |
Jutes, Angles, and Saxons begin the conquest of Britain. |
| 450 |
The Basket Maker III period of the Anasazi culture begins in North America. |
| 451 |
Attila the Hun invades Gaul but is repulsed at the Battle of Chalons. |
| 452 |
Attila the Hun invades Italy. |
| 452 |
Venice is founded by refugees from the Huns. |
| 455 |
Skandagupta defeats a Hun invasion and becomes emperor of India. |
| 455 |
The Vandals under Gaiseric sack Rome. |
| 470 |
Mayan urban civilization flourishes in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Belize. |
| 470 |
The Huns withdraw from Europe. |
| 471 |
Theodoric the Great becomes king of the Ostrogoths. |
| 476 |
Germanic king Odoacer occupies Rome, ending the Roman Empire of the West. |
| 478 |
The first Shinto shrines are built in Japan. |
| 480 |
The Gupta Empire begins to decline after an invasion by White Huns. |
| 486 |
Frankish king Clovis defeats the Romans in Gaul and founds the Merovingian dynasty. |
| 493 |
Frankish king Clovis becomes the first barbarian ruler to be baptized. |
| 493 |
Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, becomes ruler of all Italy. |
| 500 |
Modern forms of harness for draft animals appear in China about this time. |
| 500 |
The Lex Salica Germanic law is composed. |
| 500 |
The colonial period of the Hohokam culture begins in North America about this time. |
| 501 |
Gundobad, king of the Burgundians, establishes judicial duel or trial by combat. |
| 507 |
The Franks conquer the Visigoths; Alaric II is killed by Clovis. |
| 511 |
Clovis, king of the Franks, dies; his kingdom is divided among his four sons. |
| 520 |
King Arthur is said to have organized the Celtic defense against Saxon invaders. |
| 523 |
Hilderic becomes the Vandal king of North Africa. |
| 523 |
Roman scholar Boethius writes On the Consolation of Philosophy. |
| 525 |
Theodora marries Justinian, the future Byzantine emperor. |
| 526 |
Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths and ruler of Italy, dies. |
| 527 |
Justinian becomes emperor of Byzantium. |
| 529 |
St. Benedict founds the Benedictine order and builds an abbey at Monte Cassino, Italy. |
| 531 |
Khosru I becomes king of Persia; the Sassanian Empire is at its greatest extent. |
| 534 |
Byzantine general Belisarius reconquers North Africa. |
| 534 |
Roman Law is codified under Justinian as the Body of Civil Law. |
| 535 |
A 12-story pagoda is built in China. |
| 537 |
The church of Hagia Sophia is completed in Constantinople (Istanbul). |
| 538 |
Buddhism is introduced into Japan from Korea. |
| 541 |
A bubonic plague begins to ravage Europe. |
| 547 |
The Byzantine church of San Vitale is built at Ravenna in Italy. |
| 550 |
The crucifix develops as an ornament about this time. |
| 550 |
The Late Classic Period of the Maya begins in Mesoamerica. |
| 552 |
Persian monks smuggle Chinese silkworms into Constantinople (Istanbul). |
| 553 |
Justinian reconquers Italy from the Ostrogoths. |
| 560 |
The Mediterranean seaboard falls under Byzantine control. |
| 562 |
The Silla kingdom expels the Japanese from Korea. |
| 563 |
St. Columba establishes an Irish monastery on the island of Iona. |
| 568 |
The Lombards invade northern Italy. |
| 570 |
The prophet Muhammad is born at Mecca. |
| 572 |
War begins between Persia and Byzantium. |
| 581 |
Wen Ti founds the Sui dynasty and reunites China. |
| 586 |
The earliest known depiction of Christ on the cross is made. |
| 589 |
The Visigoths in Spain are converted to Christianity. |
| 590 |
Gregory I becomes the first monk to be elected as Pope. |
| 594 |
The plague that began in 541 ends, after halving the population of Europe. |
| 597 |
St. Augustine begins his Christian mission to England at Canterbury. |
| 600 |
A Mayan center is established at Bonampak in Mexico about this time. |
| 600 |
Irish missionaries work in Scotland and Germany. |
| 600 |
Pope Gregory I supervises the compiling of plainsong (Gregorian chants). |
| 600 |
Smallpox spreads from India to Europe. |
| 600 |
The Anglo-Saxons are dominant in Britain; romanized Britons survive in the west. |
| 600 |
The city of Huari is established in central Peru about this time. |
| 600 |
The game of chess is invented in India about this time. |
| 600 |
The kettledrum originates in the Near East about this time. |
| 600 |
Windmills are in use in Persia for irrigation. |
| 607 |
The first Buddhist temple is built at Nara in Japan. |
| 610 |
Muhammad, the founder of Islam, receives his first prophetic message. |
| 614 |
Persian armies overrun Asia Minor and capture Jerusalem. |
| 618 |
The T’ang dynasty in China establishes an imperial bureaucracy. |
| 619 |
The Persians conquer Egypt |
| 620 |
Lyric poetry of the T’ang dynasty promotes the use of the Chinese language. |
| 622 |
The Muslim era begins with the Hegira, the flight of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina. |
| 627 |
The Byzantines under Heraclius defeat the Persians at Nineveh. |
| 629 |
The Visigoths drive the Byzantines from Spain. |
| 630 |
A holy war (jihad) by Muslims leads to the conquest of Mecca. |
| 632 |
Muhammad dies; he is succeeded by the first caliph (successor) Abu Bakr. |
| 637 |
Arab armies destroy the Sassanian Empire. |
| 642 |
The Arabs complete the conquest of Syria, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. |
| 645 |
Buddhism reaches Tibet from India. |
| 645 |
T’ang dynasty artist Yen Li-pen is active about this time. |
| 646 |
The Taika Reform remodels Japanese imperial authority on Chinese lines. |
| 650 |
Coptic art in Egypt incorporates Christian and Arab influences. |
| 650 |
Teotihuacan falls into decline in central Mexico; the city is looted and burned. |
| 651 |
The Koran, sacred book of Islam, reaches its final form. |
| 658 |
Chinese power in central Asia reaches its maximum extent. |
| 661 |
Classical Arab music evolves under the Umayyad caliphs (leaders). |
| 661 |
The schism of Islam into Shiite and Sunnite factions begins. |
| 664 |
The Arabs conquer the city of Kabul in present-day Afghanistan. |
| 668 |
Korea is unified under the kingdom of Silla. |
| 670 |
Caedmon, the first English poet, writes Christian verse. |
| 673 |
Greek fire, an incendiary weapon, is used against the Muslims in the siege of Constantinople (Istanbul). |
| 674 |
The Arab eastward conquest reaches the Indus River. |
| 678 |
A Muslim blockade of Constantinople fails; the Byzantines and Arabs establish a truce. |
| 680 |
The Bulgars invade the Balkans |
| 688 |
Construction begins of the Dome of the Rock mosque in Jerusalem. |
| 695 |
The Jews are persecuted in Spain. |
| 697 |
The Arabs begin the permanent destruction of Carthage. |
| 700 |
Arabic becomes the official language of Egypt. |
| 700 |
Chichen Itza becomes an important Mayan center in the Yucatan (Mexico). |
| 700 |
First Pueblo period begins in North America; above-ground adobe dwellings are built. |
| 700 |
The Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf is composed. |
| 700 |
The Arabs capture Tunis, exterminating Christianity in North Africa. |
| 700 |
The Mississippian culture is founded in North America; the Cahokia Mounds are begun. |
| 700 |
The Mochica culture declines about this time in Peru. |
| 700 |
The Zapotec center at Monte Alban in Mexico is abandoned about this time. |
| 700 |
The rise of the Empire of Ghana begins in Africa. |
| 700 |
Waterwheels are in use throughout Europe. |
| 706 |
The city of Nara is founded as the first capital of Japan. |
| 711 |
The Moors (Arabs and Berbers) invade Spain. |
| 712 |
The Arabs establish a state in Sind in present-day Pakistan. |
| 712 |
The earliest Japanese history, the Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters), is written. |
| 718 |
Emperor Leo III defeats the Arab siege of Constantinople (Istanbul). |
| 725 |
The Arabs introduce the lute into Spain. |
| 726 |
Byzantine ruler Leo III forbids the worship of icons. |
| 730 |
Printing begins in China. |
| 731 |
The Venerable Bede writes a history of the English church. |
| 732 |
The Franks defeat the Moors at Tours and halt Arab expansion into Europe. |
| 743 |
Buddhism becomes a state cult in Japan. |
| 744 |
The Uighurs seize Mongolia. |
| 748 |
The first printed newspaper appears in China. |
| 749 |
The Abbasid caliphate deposes the Umayyads and rules the Islamic Empire. |
| 750 |
The Buddhist Pala dynasty is founded in Bengal (India) about this time. |
| 750 |
The Hindu temple complex at Bhubaneswar is begun about this time in India. |
| 750 |
The city of Granada is founded in Spain. |
| 751 |
An Arab paper mill is established in Samarkand using Chinese paper-makers. |
| 751 |
The Lombards capture Ravenna, the last Byzantine stronghold in northern Italy. |
| 751 |
The Merovingian dynasty ends; Pepin begins the Carolingian dynasty. |
| 755 |
The formation of the Papal States begins in Italy. |
| 770 |
Block printing develops in Japan; 1 million copies of a prayer paper are produced. |
| 771 |
Charlemagne becomes the sole king of the Franks. |
| 774 |
Charlemagne expels the Lombards from Italy. |
| 780 |
Lu Yu’s The Classic of Tea, the first handbook on tea, is published in China. |
| 782 |
Charlemagne invites Alcuin of York to lead a cultural revival in Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen). |
| 785 |
The Arabs begin the construction of the Great Mosque at Cordoba in Spain. |
| 786 |
The golden age of Arab music begins under caliph Harun al-Rashid. |
| 787 |
Byzantine empress Irene convenes the Second Council of Nicaea to rule on iconoclasm. |
| 787 |
The city of Bremen is founded in Germany. |
| 789 |
Vikings begin their attacks on England. |
| 790 |
The city of Fez is founded in Morocco. |
| 792 |
Charlemagne begins building his Chapel at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen). |
| 794 |
The Japanese capital moves from Nara to Kyoto. |
| 799 |
The Book of Kells is completed about this time. |
| 800 |
Irish monks reach Iceland. |
| 800 |
Mayan murals are completed at Bonampak in Mexico. |
| 800 |
Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne as the first European emperor since the Romans. |
| 800 |
The Kanem-Bornu Empire is founded about this time in western Africa. |
| 800 |
The Mayan center of Palenque begins to decline in Mexico. |
| 800 |
The Oseberg Viking longship is buried about this time |
| 800 |
The Srivijaya Empire is dominant in the Straits of Malacca. |
| 800 |
The temple of Borobudur is constructed in Java. |
| 812 |
The Chinese government issues paper bank drafts as money. |
| 814 |
Construction of the Doge’s Palace begins in Venice. |
| 814 |
The Arabs adopt Indian numerals (1-9). |
| 838 |
The Arabs sack Marseille and settle in southern Italy. |
| 840 |
Viking settlers found the city of Dublin in Ireland. |
| 843 |
The Carolingian Empire is partitioned by the Treaty of Verdun. |
| 844 |
A Viking raid on Seville is repulsed. |
| 845 |
The Vikings sack Paris. |
| 846 |
The Arabs sack Rome and destroy the Venetian fleet. |
| 849 |
The city of Pagan is founded in Burma. |
| 850 |
Sian, capital of the T’ang Empire, has a population of over 1 million inhabitants. |
| 850 |
The Acropolis of Zimbabwe is built in Africa. |
| 851 |
An earthquake devastates Rome. |
| 860 |
Rus Vikings attack Constantinople (Istanbul). |
| 860 |
The Cyrillic alphabet is developed in eastern Europe about this time. |
| 862 |
Novgorod in Russia is founded by the Rus Viking, Ulrich. |
| 866 |
Danish Vikings establish a kingdom in York, England. |
| 867 |
Byzantine mosaics are created in the church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. |
| 867 |
Photius, the patriarch of Constantinople, initiates a schism with the church of Rome. |
| 868 |
The earliest known woodcut illustration is made in China. |
| 870 |
The Vikings found settlements on Iceland about this time. |
| 871 |
Alfred the Great becomes king of Wessex; the Danish advance is halted in England. |
| 872 |
Harold I gains control of Norway. |
| 879 |
Rurik establishes Kiev as the center of the Kievan Rus domains. |
| 880 |
Angkor is founded as the capital city of the Khmer Empire in Cambodia (Kampuchea). |
| 880 |
Byzantine emperor Basil I drives the Arabs from Italy. |
| 884 |
Charles III becomes king of France and reunites the Frankish Empire. |
| 886 |
Alfred divides England with the Danes under the Danelaw pact. |
| 887 |
Arnulf deposes Charles III to become the last Carolingian Frankish emperor. |
| 895 |
The Fujiwaras become rulers of Japan. |
| 896 |
The Magyars migrate to the Danube region. |
| 900 |
Cordoba in Spain becomes the center of Islamic science. |
| 900 |
The Second Pueblo period begins in North America. |
| 900 |
The Vikings raid along the Mediterranean coast. |
| 900 |
The windmill arrives in Muslim Spain from Persia. |
| 906 |
The last T’ang emperor is deposed; civil war begins in China. |
| 909 |
A Benedictine abbey is founded at Cluny in France. |
| 910 |
The mystical Islamic religion Sufism flourishes. |
| 911 |
The Viking chief Rollo is granted land by the Franks and founds Normandy in France. |
| 915 |
Fatimid armies invade Egypt. |
| 918 |
The state of Koryo is founded in Korea. |
| 920 |
The golden age of the Empire of Ghana begins in Africa. |
| 922 |
The Fatimid dynasty conquers Morocco. |
| 936 |
Otto I becomes king of Germany. |
| 939 |
The Annamese drive the Chinese out of Vietnam. |
| 939 |
The Kingdom of Leon captures Madrid from the Arabs. |
| 941 |
Rus Vikings attack Constantinople (Istanbul). |
| 947 |
The Liao dynasty is established in China with its capital at Peking. |
| 950 |
Al-Farabi, Arab philosopher and author of the Grand Book of Music, dies. |
| 950 |
Organs are installed in European abbeys and cathedrals. |
| 950 |
The Arabs import drums and trumpets into Europe. |
| 950 |
The Classical Mayan period ends about this time. |
| 950 |
The Ottonian art period begins. |
| 950 |
The building of the temple complex at Khajuraho begins in India. |
| 950 |
Tula is established as the capital of Toltec power in Mexico. |
| 955 |
Otto I defeats the Magyars at Lechfeld. |
| 960 |
The Piasts found the first Polish dynasty. |
| 960 |
The Sung dynasty begins in China. |
| 962 |
Pope John XII crowns Otto I as Holy Roman Emperor. |
| 966 |
Fujiwara domination of Japan is at its height. |
| 966 |
The Poles convert to Christianity |
| 969 |
The Fatimids conquer Egypt and found Cairo. |
| 975 |
The Arabs introduce arithmetical notation into Europe. |
| 979 |
The Sung dynasty reunites China. |
| 980 |
Arabs settle along the east coast of Africa. |
| 980 |
Danish raids on England are renewed. |
| 981 |
Viking leader Eric the Red discovers Greenland. |
| 982 |
Otto II is defeated by the Saracens in southern Italy. |
| 985 |
Venice and Genoa trade between Asia and western Europe. |
| 986 |
Viking ships sail in Newfoundland waters. |
| 987 |
The Carolingian dynasty ends; the Capetians rule France. |
| 987 |
The Toltecs capture Chichen Itza from the Mayas in Mexico. |
| 988 |
Vladimir I of Kiev introduces Eastern Christianity to Russia. |
| 991 |
AEthelred II pays the first Danegeld ransom to stop Danish attacks on England. |
| 991 |
Japanese poet Sei Shonagon begins her diary The Pillow Book. |
| 995 |
Olaf I conquers Norway and proclaims it a Christian kingdom. |
| 996 |
Cane sugar arrives in Venice from Egypt. |
| 999 |
Baguda becomes the first king of Kano in Nigeria. |
| 1000 |
Olaf I introduces Christianity into Norway, Greenland, and Iceland. |
| 1000 |
Leif Eriksson, son of Eric the Red, explores the coast of North America. |
| 1000 |
Olaf I dies; Norway is ruled by the Danes. |
| 1000 |
Sancho III rules all of Christian Spain. |
| 1000 |
Stephen I is crowned as the first king of Hungary. |
| 1000 |
The canonization of saints is formalized by the Christian church. |
| 1000 |
Venice has domain over the Dalmatian coast and the Adriatic Sea. |
| 1000 |
Zanzibar is settled about this time in Africa. |
| 1001 |
Mahmud of Ghazni begins a holy war to conquer India for Islam. |
| 1002 |
Brian Boru defeats the Norse and becomes the king of Ireland. |
| 1004 |
Henry II of Germany is crowned king of Lombardy. |
| 1010 |
Persian poet Firdawsi completes the Shah Namah (Book of Kings). |
| 1010 |
Viking explorer Thorfinn Karlsefni attempts to found a settlement in North America. |
| 1013 |
The Danes conquer England; AEthelred flees to Normandy. |
| 1014 |
Henry II is crowned Holy Roman Emperor. |
| 1015 |
Vikings abandon the Vinland settlement on the coast of North America. |
| 1016 |
Olaf II regains Norway from the Danes. |
| 1016 |
The Danes under Canute rule England. |
| 1017 |
Fatimid caliph al-Hakim founds the Druze religion. |
| 1018 |
The Byzantine Empire annexes Bulgaria. |
| 1020 |
Female Japanese author Murasaki Shikibu completes The Tale of Genji. |
| 1025 |
Guido d’Arezzo invents the use of the staff in musical notation. |
| 1025 |
Poland is divided after the death of Boleslaw I. |
| 1025 |
The Cholas invade Bengal, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and Java. |
| 1027 |
Conrad II becomes Holy Roman Emperor, founding the Franconian dynasty. |
| 1028 |
Canute, king of England and Denmark, conquers Norway. |
| 1030 |
The Cumans begin their conquest of southern Russia. |
| 1031 |
The caliphate of Cordoba collapses in Spain. |
| 1035 |
Aragon and Castile become separate kingdoms in Spain. |
| 1037 |
Avicenna, Muslim philosopher and physician, dies. |
| 1039 |
The camera obscure is described for the first time. |
| 1040 |
Macbeth kills Duncan I and becomes king of Scotland. |
| 1042 |
Edward the Confessor rules England with the support of the Danes. |
| 1044 |
The first Burmese state is established by Anawratha at Pagan. |
| 1046 |
The German king Henry III is crowned as Holy Roman Emperor. |
| 1050 |
Chinese books are printed with movable wooden type. |
| 1050 |
Edward the Confessor begins the construction of Westminster Abbey. |
| 1050 |
Polyphonic singing replaces Gregorian chants. |
| 1050 |
The city of Oslo is founded in Norway. |
| 1050 |
Timbuktu is founded in North Africa by the Tuaregs. |
| 1051 |
Isfahan becomes the capital of the Seljuk Empire. |
| 1054 |
A supernova or guest star (the Crab Nebula) is reported by the Chinese. |
| 1054 |
The Great Schism begins between the Orthodox church and the Roman Church. |
| 1055 |
The Seljuk Turks occupy Baghdad. |
| 1056 |
The Almoravids conquer North Africa |
| 1057 |
Malcolm III kills Macbeth and becomes king of Scotland. |
| 1062 |
The city of Marrakech is founded in Morocco. |
| 1063 |
The building of Pisa Cathedral is begun. |
| 1064 |
The Hungarians seize Belgrade from the Byzantines. |
| 1064 |
The Seljuks under Alp-Arslan conquer Armenia. |
| 1066 |
William duke of Normandy defeats the Saxon king Harold at the Battle of Hastings. |
| 1071 |
The Seljuks under Alp-Arslan defeat the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert. |
| 1072 |
Alfonso VI becomes king of Leon and Castile. |
| 1072 |
The Normans under Robert Guiscard conquer much of Byzantine Italy. |
| 1073 |
Pope Gregory VII removes the power of investiture from the state. |
| 1075 |
Persian poet Omar Khayyam writes the Rubaiyat. |
| 1076 |
Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV tries to depose Pope Gregory VII. |
| 1078 |
The Building of the Tower of London begins in England. |
| 1079 |
The Building of Winchester Cathedral begins in England. |
| 1080 |
The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the Norman victory at the Battle of Hastings. |
| 1080 |
The city of Newcastle is founded in England. |
| 1083 |
Emperor Henry IV storms Rome and installs the antipope Clement III. |
| 1085 |
Alfonso VI captures Toledo from the Moors. |
| 1086 |
Over 5,000 waterwheels are in use in England according to the Domesday Book. |
| 1086 |
The Almoravids cross into Spain and defeat the Christian army of reconquest. |
| 1086 |
The Domesday Book records land use and tenure in England. |
| 1091 |
Byzantine emperor Alexius I defeats the Normans and the Pechnegs. |
| 1091 |
Ladislas I unites Hungary and Croatia. |
| 1093 |
Saint Mark’s Basilica is completed in Venice. |
| 1094 |
Spanish leader El Cid takes Valencia from the Moors. |
| 1094 |
The Muslim Shiite sect of the Assassins is established. |
| 1096 |
The Almoravids rule Muslim Spain. |
| 1096 |
The First Christian Crusade begins against the Muslims. |
| 1098 |
St. Anselm writes Why God Became Man. |
| 1098 |
The first Cistercian monastery is founded by St. Robert. |
| 1099 |
The Crusaders capture Jerusalem and establish the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. |
| 1100 |
Kano becomes an important Hausa city-state in Nigeria about this time. |
| 1100 |
The Temne probably inhabit present-day Sierra Leone by this date. |
| 1100 |
The Third Pueblo period begins in southwest North America. |
| 1100 |
The epic poem Chanson de Roland celebrates the Age of Charlemagne. |
| 1105 |
Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV is captured and forced to abdicate by his son Henry V. |
| 1108 |
Louis VI succeeds his father Philip I as king of France. |
| 1114 |
Chichester Cathedral is founded in England. |
| 1117 |
The first reference of a compass used for navigation at sea is made in China. |
| 1118 |
The Knights Templar military and religious order is founded. |
| 1119 |
French theologian Peter Abelard becomes a monk after his love affair with Heloise. |
| 1120 |
Ibn Tumart declares himself the mahdi (messiah) and founds the Almohad dynasty. |
| 1121 |
Peter Abelard’s teachings on the Trinity are condemned by the Council of Soissons. |
| 1122 |
The Concordat of Worms ends the investiture controversy over church and state powers. |
| 1130 |
Stained glass is used to decorate church windows for the first time. |
| 1130 |
The Almohad dynasty is established in Morocco. |
| 1135 |
Geoffrey of Monmouth begins his History of Britain. |
| 1135 |
The Almohads are dominant in northwestern Africa and Muslim Spain. |
| 1137 |
Louis VII becomes king of France. |
| 1137 |
The building of Saint-Denis Church in Paris marks the beginning of the Gothic art period. |
| 1137 |
Wena (Vienna) is chartered as a city. |
| 1138 |
The Hohenstaufen dynasty begins its domain over the Holy Roman Empire. |
| 1139 |
Roger II, the Norman ruler of Sicily, founds the Kingdom of Naples. |
| 1143 |
Portugal becomes and independent kingdom under Alfonso I. |
| 1147 |
The Almohads kill the last Almoravid ruler in Marrakech. |
| 1147 |
The Moors are expelled from Lisbon by the Christian Portuguese. |
| 1147 |
The first reference is made to the city of Moscow. |
| 1150 |
A medical school is established at Bologna University. |
| 1150 |
Europe’s first paper mill is established at Jativa, Spain. |
| 1150 |
Oxford University is founded in England about this time. |
| 1150 |
The Chinese develop the first rockets. |
| 1150 |
The Yoruba city-states begin to flourish in Nigeria. |
| 1150 |
The destruction of Tula marks the end of the Toltec empire. |
| 1150 |
The temple of Angkor Wat is built in Cambodia (Kampuchea). |
| 1152 |
Louis VII, the king of France, annuls his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitane. |
| 1154 |
Henry of Anjou is crowned Henry II of England — the first Plantagenet king. |
| 1154 |
Muslim ruler Nur al-Din captures Damascus from the Seljuk Turks. |
| 1155 |
Frederick I (Frederick Barbarossa) is crowned as Holy Roman Emperor. |
| 1159 |
Civil war between the Taira and Minamoto samurai ravages Japan. |
| 1160 |
French court poet Chretien de Troyes is active about this time. |
| 1160 |
The Almohads drive the Almoravid Muslims from Spain and North Africa. |
| 1160 |
The Rolls of Oleron (maritime laws) are proclaimed in France. |
| 1163 |
Notre Dame Cathedral is begun; flying buttresses are used for the first time. |
| 1168 |
The Jewish philosopher Maimonides completes the Mishnah Torah. |
| 1170 |
A military faction seizes control in Korea and suppresses Buddhism. |
| 1170 |
Archbishop Thomas Becket is murdered after a quarrel with King Henry II. |
| 1170 |
The University of Paris is founded. |
| 1171 |
King Henry II of England annexes Ireland. |
| 1171 |
Saladin defeats the Fatimids and conquers Egypt. |
| 1174 |
The building of the Leaning Tower of Pisa begins in Italy. |
| 1174 |
The first public horse race course is constructed in London. |
| 1175 |
The building of Strasbourg Cathedral begins in Germany. |
| 1175 |
The first version of the French fable Reynard the Fox is written. |
| 1176 |
The Lombard League of Italian cities defeats Emperor Frederick I at Legnano. |
| 1176 |
The building of Old London Bridge is begun. |
| 1177 |
The city of Belfast is founded in Ireland. |
| 1180 |
Japanese warrior Minamoto no Yoritomo begins the 5-year Gempei War. |
| 1180 |
Spanish-Arab philosopher Averroes writes The Incoherence of the Incoherence. |
| 1180 |
The Khmer Empire is at its greatest extent in Cambodia (Kampuchea). |
| 1185 |
Minamoto no Yoritomo establishes the Kamakura shogunate in Japan. |
| 1186 |
Bulgaria reestablishes its independence from the Byzantine Empire. |
| 1187 |
Saladin recaptures Jerusalem from the Crusaders. |
| 1187 |
The Toltecs are deposed at Chichen Itza in Mexico. |
| 1188 |
The Third Crusade begins. |
| 1190 |
Frederick I drowns enroute to the Crusades; Henry VI becomes Holy Roman Emperor (1191). |
| 1190 |
King Philip Augustus grants a charter to the perfumers of Paris. |
| 1190 |
The Mongol empire begins to expand in eastern Asia. |
| 1190 |
The order of the Teutonic Knights is founded during the Third Crusade. |
| 1190 |
Zen Buddhism is introduced into Japan. |
| 1191 |
King Richard I of England captures Cyprus. |
| 1192 |
King Richard I of England is captured by Duke Leopold of Austria. |
| 1192 |
Minamoto no Yoritomo rules as the shogun of Japan. |
| 1194 |
A Gothic cathedral is begun at Chartres, replacing an earlier structure. |
| 1194 |
King Richard I is released from imprisonment after a ransom is paid. |
| 1194 |
The Kingdom of Naples and Sicily become part of the Holy Roman Empire under Henry VI. |
| 1197 |
Henry VI is succeeded by Otto IV as Holy Roman Emperor. |
| 1199 |
Richard I is killed in battle in France; he is succeeded by John as king of England. |
| 1200 |
Cambridge University is founded in England. |
| 1200 |
The German epic Nibelungenlied is composed. |
| 1200 |
The Jewish kabbalistic philosophy develops. |
| 1200 |
The empire of Mali begins to flourish in west Africa. |
| 1200 |
Troubadour performances are at their height in Europe. |
| 1202 |
Italian mathematician Leonardo Pisano uses 0 (zero) for the first time in Europe. |
| 1202 |
The Fourth Crusade begins. |
| 1204 |
The Crusaders capture Constantinople (Istanbul) and found the Latin Empire. |
| 1204 |
The city of Amsterdam is founded in Holland. |
| 1206 |
Mongol tribal chief Temujin is proclaimed as Genghis Khan (universal ruler). |
| 1206 |
The Delhi Sultanate is established in India. |
| 1207 |
The city of Liverpool is settled in England. |
| 1209 |
Pope Innocent III instigates a crusade against the Albigenses in southern France. |
| 1210 |
St. Francis of Assisi founds the Franciscan order. |
| 1210 |
The Mongols begin to invade China. |
| 1212 |
Castile defeats the Muslim Almohads in Spain. |
| 1212 |
The Children’s Crusade begins. |
| 1214 |
Philip II defeats Emperor Otto IV and King John of England at the Battle of Bouvines. |
| 1215 |
King John of England signs the Magna Carta. |
| 1215 |
The Mongols defeat the Chin empire and occupy Peking. |
| 1217 |
The Fifth Crusade begins with an attack on Egypt. |
| 1217 |
The Kingdom of Serbia is founded. |
| 1219 |
Denmark institutes a national flag, the oldest in Europe. |
| 1219 |
The city of Samarkand is conquered by Genghis Khan. |
| 1220 |
The building of Salisbury Cathedral is begun in England. |
| 1222 |
The University of Padua is founded in Italy. |
| 1223 |
The Khanate of the Golden Horde is established in Russia by the Mongols. |
| 1225 |
French poet Guillaume de Lorris writes the Romance of the Rose. |
| 1227 |
Genghis Khan dies; the Mongol empire is divided among his 4 sons. |
| 1227 |
The building of Toledo Cathedral is begun in Spain. |
| 1229 |
James I of Aragon captures Majorca from the Moors. |
| 1230 |
The Qutb Minar minaret is built near present-day New Delhi, India |
| 1231 |
Jalal al-Din al-Rumi founds the Sufi order known as Whirling Dervishes. |
| 1231 |
Pope Gregory IX institutes the papal Inquisition. |
| 1234 |
The printing of Buddhist texts using movable wooden type begins in Korea. |
| 1240 |
Russian prince Alexander Nevsky defeats the Swedes at the Battle of Neva. |
| 1240 |
The Mongol Golden Horde conquers Kievan Russia. |
| 1241 |
The Mongols invade Hungary. |
| 1242 |
English monk Roger Bacon describes a formula for making gunpowder. |
| 1244 |
The city of Berlin is mentioned for the first time. |
| 1245 |
Pope Innocent IV sends the Franciscan friar Carpini to the Mongols as a missionary. |
| 1248 |
The Christian reconquest of Spain is almost complete; the Muslims still hold Granada. |
| 1248 |
The building of Cologne Cathedral is begun in Germany. |
| 1249 |
Alfonso III drives the Moors from Portugal. |
| 1250 |
Albertus Magnus describes a method for manufacturing arsenic. |
| 1250 |
Egyptian Mamelukes overthrow the Ayyubid dynasty. |
| 1250 |
Frederick II’s death leads to an interregnum in Germany and a struggle for the crown. |
| 1250 |
Louis IX of France is captured by the Muslims during the Seventh Crusade. |
| 1250 |
Naval warfare in the Mediterranean is dominated by galleys. |
| 1250 |
Vincent of Beauvais publishes the Greater Mirror, a contemporary encyclopedia. |
| 1250 |
German cities begin to establish the Hanseatic League. |
| 1252 |
The city of Stockholm is founded in Sweden. |
| 1256 |
The Order of Augustinian Hermits is founded. |
| 1257 |
The Sorbonne theological college is founded at the University of Paris. |
| 1258 |
The Mongols sack Baghdad, ending the Abbasid caliphate. |
| 1260 |
Kublai Khan is proclaimed as the Mongol emperor. |
| 1260 |
Paris becomes the center of tapestry weaving. |
| 1260 |
The first flagellant movements appear in Italy. |
| 1260 |
Venetian merchants Nicolo and Maffeo Polo begin their journey to China. |
| 1261 |
Michael VIII regains Constantinople (Istanbul) and reestablishes the Byzantine Empire. |
| 1263 |
Norway gains control of Iceland. |
| 1266 |
Charles I of Anjou becomes king of Naples and Sicily. |
| 1266 |
Norway surrenders the Hebrides to Scotland. |
| 1268 |
The Angevins and Guelphs defeat the Ghibellines at Tagliacozzo in Italy. |
| 1269 |
The Mamelukes seize Mecca. |
| 1271 |
Venetian merchant Marco Polo begins his journey to the court of Kublai Khan in China. |
| 1273 |
Dominican theologian Thomas Aquinas completes his Summa Theologiae. |
| 1273 |
Rudolf I becomes king of Germany, establishing the Habsburg dynasty. |
| 1274 |
The Mongols invade Japan. |
| 1277 |
Ottone Visconti rules Milan and founds the Visconti dynasty. |
| 1279 |
Kublai Khan conquers China and establishes the Yuan dynasty. |
| 1280 |
Syrian scholar al-Hassan-al-Rammah describes “Chinese Arrows” (rockets). |
| 1282 |
Sicilians revolt against the French during the Sicilian Vespers. |
| 1282 |
Sicily splits from the Kingdom of Naples; Peter III of Aragon is elected to the throne. |
| 1284 |
The Genoese fleet defeats Pisa to become dominant in the Mediterranean. |
| 1284 |
The Pied Piper of Hamelin is alleged to have appeared about this time. |
| 1285 |
Sienese artist Duccio paints the Rucellai Madonna in Florence. |
| 1287 |
Pagan is conquered by the Mongols in Burma. |
| 1290 |
Edward I expels the Jews from England. |
| 1290 |
Florentine artist Cimabue paints the Crucifix. |
| 1290 |
Moses de Leon composes the Kabbalistic work Zohar. |
| 1290 |
Osman I founds the dynasty of the Ottoman Turks. |
| 1291 |
The Mamelukes capture Acre, ending the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. |
| 1291 |
The Swiss Confederation (Switzerland) is formed. |
| 1293 |
Italian poet Dante writes his first book, La vita nuova (The New Life). |
| 1293 |
The Majapahit Empire is founded in Java. |
| 1294 |
Philip IV of France institutes sumptuary laws against extravagant costumes. |
| 1294 |
The building of Florence Cathedral is begun in Italy. |
| 1295 |
Marco Polo brings a pasta recipe to Italy from Asia. |
| 1297 |
The Genoese defeat the Venetian fleet at Curzola. |
| 1297 |
William Wallace expels the English from Scotland. |
| 1298 |
English king Edward I defeats William Wallace and reconquers Scotland. |
| 1298 |
Marco Polo dictates the memoirs of his Travels from a prison in Genoa. |
| 1300 |
The Forbidden City is built in Peking about this time. |
| 1300 |
The city of Cholula regains prominence under the Mixtecs in Mexico. |
| 1300 |
The first mechanical clocks appear in Europe. |
| 1300 |
The spinning wheel is in use in Europe. |
| 1300 |
The use of eyeglasses becomes common. |
| 1301 |
Ottoman sultan Osman defeats Byzantine forces at Baphaion. |
| 1302 |
France’s Estates-General meets for the first time. |
| 1303 |
Philip IV of France tries to abduct Pope Boniface VIII. |
| 1303 |
The University of Rome is founded. |
| 1305 |
Florentine painter Giotto begins his frescoes in the Arena Chapel in Padua. |
| 1306 |
Philip IV expels the Jews from France. |
| 1306 |
Robert the Bruce leads the Scots in a rebellion against English rule. |
| 1306 |
England expels 100,000 Jews. |
| 1307 |
Italian poet Dante begins his masterwork The Divine Comedy. |
| 1308 |
Charles I becomes the first Angevin king of Hungary. |
| 1309 |
Pope Clement V moves the papal court from Rome to Avignon in France. |
| 1312 |
Henry VII is crowned Holy Roman Emperor but dies one year later. |
| 1312 |
Mansa Musa becomes emperor of Mali in West Africa. |
| 1314 |
The Scots defeat the English at the Battle of Bannockburn. |
| 1320 |
King Wladyslaw I begins the process of reuniting Poland. |
| 1322 |
English folk hero Robin Hood is first mentioned. |
| 1323 |
Thomas Aquinas is canonized by Pope John XXII. |
| 1325 |
Arab geographer Ibn Battuta begins his explorations. |
| 1327 |
Edward II of England is deposed by Queen Isabella and Roger Mortimer. |
| 1327 |
Louis IV king of Germany invades Italy. |
| 1327 |
The city of Munich is destroyed by fire. |
| 1328 |
Louis IV of Bavaria crowns himself as Holy Roman Emperor and installs an antipope. |
| 1331 |
The Moscow Kremlin (fortress) is mentioned for the first time. |
| 1334 |
The Kamakura shogunate comes to an end; civil war breaks out in Japan. |
| 1337 |
The Hundred Years’ War begins between England and France. |
| 1338 |
The Ashikaga shogunate begins in Japan. |
| 1340 |
In the Hundred Years’ War, a British fleet defeats the French at Sluys. |
| 1341 |
The Muslims rule Kashmir in India. |
| 1342 |
Italian poet Petrarch writes his Canzoniere love lyrics. |
| 1325 |
The Aztecs found Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City). |
| 1345 |
The building of the present Doge’s Palace begins in Venice. |
| 1346 |
In the Hundred Years’ War, English archers defeat the French at Crecy. |
| 1346 |
Louis IV is deposed by Charles IV as king of Germany. |
| 1346 |
Stephen Dusan crowns himself emperor of the Serbs and Greeks. |
| 1347 |
The Black Death (bubonic plague) arrives in Europe, killing a third of the population by 1351. |
| 1347 |
In the Hundred Years’ War, the English capture the French port of Calais. |
| 1348 |
Italian writer Boccaccio begins the Decameron. |
| 1348 |
Prague University is founded. |
| 1350 |
No drama develops in Japan about this time. |
| 1351 |
Zurich joins the Swiss Confederation. |
| 1352 |
Arab geographer Ibn Battuta explores Nigeria. |
| 1353 |
Bern joins the Swiss confederation. |
| 1354 |
The Shroud of Turin is mentioned for the first time. |
| 1355 |
Charles IV is crowned Holy Roman Emperor. |
| 1356 |
Charles IV establishes the Golden Bull constitution for the Holy Roman Empire. |
| 1356 |
In the Hundred Years’ War, Edward the Black Prince of England defeats the French at Poitiers and captures King John II. |
| 1358 |
The German city of Lubeck becomes headquarters of the Hanseatic League. |
| 1360 |
The Treaty of Bretigny ends the first phase of the Hundred Years’ War. |
| 1362 |
English poet William Langland writes Piers Plowman. |
| 1364 |
Polish king Casimir III founds Krakow University. |
| 1368 |
The Ming dynasty begins in China. |
| 1369 |
The French renew the Hundred Years’ War against England and recapture most of Aquitaine. |
| 1370 |
Mongol leader Timur (Tamerlane) begins his wars of conquest in Asia. |
| 1370 |
The building of the Bastille fortress begins in Paris. |
| 1370 |
The death of Casimir III ends the Piast dynasty in Poland. |
| 1370 |
The first modern perfume, Hungary Water, is made for Queen Elizabeth of Hungary. |
| 1377 |
Playing cards are described for the first time. |
| 1377 |
Pope Gregory XI returns the papacy to Rome. |
| 1378 |
The Great Schism begins; 2 popes reign from Rome and Avignon. |
| 1379 |
Italian historian Muraroti describes the use of rockets during the siege of Chiozzia, Italy. |
| 1380 |
Russian Prince Dimitry Donskoi defeats the Mongols at Kulikovo. |
| 1380 |
Venice defeats Genoa and maintains sovereignty over the eastern Mediterranean. |
| 1381 |
The Peasants’ Revolt begins in England. |
| 1382 |
John Wycliffe translates the Bible into English. |
| 1384 |
The Lollard church-reform movement grows after the death of John Wycliffe. |
| 1386 |
English poet Geoffrey Chaucer begins The Canterbury Tales. |
| 1386 |
Heidelberg University is founded in Germany. |
| 1386 |
Poland and Lithuania are united by marriage; the Jagello dynasty is founded. |
| 1387 |
The Viscontis win the city-states of Verona and Vicenza from the Scala family. |
| 1387 |
Mongol leader Timur (Tamerlane) conquers the city of Isfahan in Persia (Iran). |
| 1389 |
The Ottoman Turks defeat the Serbs at the Battle of Kosovo. |
| 1389 |
The Majapahit Empire in Java reaches the height of its power under Hayam Wuruk. |
| 1392 |
The Yi dynasty overthrows the Koryos in Korea. |
| 1394 |
The Thais invade Cambodia (Kampuchea). |
| 1396 |
A Christian army is defeated by the Ottoman Turks at Nicopolis, Bulgaria. |
| 1397 |
The Kalmar Union unites Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. |
| 1398 |
Mongol leader Timur (Tamerlane) invades India and sacks the Kingdom of Delhi. |
| 1399 |
Bolingbroke (Henry IV) deposes Richard II and founds England’s House of Lancaster. |
| 1400 |
Bedlam, England’s first hospital for the mentally ill, is founded in London. |
| 1400 |
French historian Jean Froissart completes his Chronicles. |
| 1400 |
Norse settlers die out in Greenland. |
| 1400 |
Owen Glendower leads a Welsh revolt against English rule. |
| 1400 |
The Hohokam culture dies out in the American southwest. |
| 1400 |
The first reported discovery is made of a frozen mammoth in Siberia. |
| 1402 |
The building of Seville Cathedral begins in Spain. |
| 1402 |
Mongol leader Timur (Tamerlane) defeats the Ottomans at Ankara and captures Sultan Bayezid I. |
| 1403 |
Henry IV, King of England, defeats the Percy family at the Battle of Shrewsbury. |
| 1403 |
Italian sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti begins the bronze doors for the Florence Baptistery. |
| 1405 |
Mongol leader Timur (Tamerlane) dies and his empire begins to decline. |
| 1406 |
The city-state of Pisa is defeated by Florence. |
| 1407 |
The Chinese reoccupy Vietnam. |
| 1407 |
The murder of Louis duc d’Orleans begins a civil war in France. |
| 1409 |
Czech religious reformer John Huss (Jan Hus) lectures at Prague University. |
| 1410 |
The Limbourg brothers, Flemish manuscript illuminators, begin the Belles Heures du Duc de Berry. |
| 1410 |
The Poles and the Lithuanians defeat the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Tannenberg. |
| 1411 |
Open conflict breaks out between the Armagnacs and Burgundians in France. |
| 1415 |
In the Hundred Years’ War, Henry V invades France and defeats the French at Agincourt. |
| 1415 |
Czech religious reformer John Huss (Jan Hus) is burned at the stake for heresy. |
| 1415 |
The Council of Constance is convened to end the Schism caused by 2 competing popes. |
| 1415 |
The Portuguese capture Ceuta, laying the foundations for Portugal’s African empire. |
| 1418 |
German author Thomas a Kempis writes The Imitation of Christ. |
| 1418 |
Prince Henry the Navigator dispatches the first Portuguese voyages of exploration. |
| 1418 |
The earliest known European woodcut illustration is made. |
| 1419 |
Henry V of England conquers most of Normandy. |
| 1420 |
Henry V of England is acknowledged as heir to the French throne. |
| 1421 |
The first known patent is issued in Florence. |
| 1425 |
Florentine sculptor Donatello begins his bronze statue of David around this time. |
| 1427 |
Masaccio completes the Expulsion of Adam and Eve fresco in the Brancacci Chapel. |
| 1427 |
The Portuguese discover the Azores. |
| 1427 |
The first major witch hunt takes place in Switzerland. |
| 1428 |
Copenhagen becomes the residence of the Danish monarchs. |
| 1428 |
Vietnam regains its independence from China. |
| 1429 |
In the Hundred Years’ War, the French under Joan of Arc defeat the English at Orleans. |
| 1431 |
Joan of Arc is burned as a witch by the English at Rouen in France. |
| 1431 |
Luca della Robbia sculpts the Cantoria (Singing Gallery) for Florence Cathedral. |
| 1431 |
Tenochtitlan emerges as a dominant city-state in central Mexico under Aztec rule. |
| 1431 |
Thai forces destroy the Khmer capital of Angkor. |
| 1433 |
Sigismund, king of Germany, is crowned Holy Roman Emperor. |
| 1434 |
Cosimo de’Medici gains control of Florence. |
| 1434 |
Flemish artist Jan van Eyck paints the wedding portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini. |
| 1434 |
Phnom Penh is established as the new Khmer capital. |
| 1434 |
The Portuguese explore the African coast south of Cape Bojador. |
| 1436 |
The French end the English occupation of Paris. |
| 1438 |
The Inca empire is established in Peru. |
| 1440 |
Hungary and Poland are united under Wladyslaw III to oppose the Turks. |
| 1440 |
King Henry VI founds Eton College in England. |
| 1440 |
The Mayan city of Mayapan is destroyed in Mexico. |
| 1442 |
Florentine architect Filippo Brunelleschi begins work on the Pazzi Chapel. |
| 1442 |
The Kingdom of Naples comes under the rule of Aragon. |
| 1443 |
Flemish painter Rogier van der Weyden paints the Descent From the Cross. |
| 1444 |
Ottoman sultan Murad II defeats a European army at the Battle of Varna. |
| 1446 |
The building of the Chapel at King’s College is begun in Cambridge, England. |
| 1448 |
The Hungarians are defeated by the Turks at the second battle of Kosovo. |
| 1450 |
German goldsmith Johann Gutenberg perfects printing by movable metal type. |
| 1450 |
The Arabian Nights are written about this time. |
| 1450 |
The Portuguese begin the West African slave trade about this time. |
| 1450 |
The Sforza family conquers the city-state of Milan. |
| 1450 |
The Thurn and Taxis families establish a postal service for the Holy Roman Empire. |
| 1452 |
Florentine painter Fra Filippo Lippi begins his frescoes for the Prato Cathedral. |
| 1452 |
Frederick III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor. |
| 1453 |
Ottoman Turks capture Constantinople (Istanbul), marking the end of the Byzantine Empire. |
| 1453 |
The French capture Bordeaux from the English, ending the Hundred Years’ War. |
| 1454 |
The building of the Topkapi Palace begins in Constantinople (Istanbul). |
| 1455 |
Florentine artist Paolo Uccello begins painting The Battle of San Romano. |
| 1455 |
The Gutenberg Bible becomes the first book to be printed with movable metal type. |
| 1455 |
The Wars of the Roses between the houses of York and Lancaster begin in England. |
| 1456 |
Hungarians under Janos Hunyadi defeat the Turks at Belgrade. |
| 1456 |
The Ottoman Turks capture Athens. |
| 1456 |
Vlad the Impaler becomes Prince of Walachia in Romania. |
| 1457 |
The first printed almanac is published. |
| 1458 |
Matthias Corvinus becomes king of Hungary. |
| 1458 |
The building of the Pitti Palace begins in Florence. |
| 1459 |
The Ottoman Turks conquer Serbia. |
| 1460 |
Italian artist Mantegna begins painting The Agony in the Garden. |
| 1460 |
Richard of York defeats the royalist forces at Northampton, but is killed at Wakefield. |
| 1460 |
Woodcuts are in use for illustrating books. |
| 1461 |
Richard of York’s son Edward IV is crowned king of England. |
| 1462 |
Spain captures Gibraltar from the Muslims. |
| 1464 |
Sunni Ali founds the Songhai empire in western Africa. |
| 1466 |
West Prussia is ceded to Poland by the Treaty of Torun. |
| 1467 |
Charles the Bold becomes the Duke of Burgundy. |
| 1467 |
The 10-year Onin War begins in Japan. |
| 1469 |
Ferdinand of Aragon marries Isabella of Castile. |
| 1469 |
Henry VI and the Earl of Warwick depose Edward IV of England. |
| 1469 |
Sir Thomas Malory completes the Morte D’arthur. |
| 1470 |
The first ballad appears about the Swiss hero William Tell. |
| 1471 |
Henry VI of England is murdered; Edward IV is restored to the throne. |
| 1471 |
The Portuguese capture Tangier from the Muslims. |
| 1473 |
The building of the Sistine Chapel begins in Rome. |
| 1475 |
Burgundy is at the height of power under Charles the Bold. |
| 1475 |
Stephen the Great of Moldavia defeats the Turks at the Battle of Vaslui. |
| 1475 |
The English under Edward IV invade France. |
| 1475 |
The Turks conquer the Crimea. |
| 1476 |
Copperplate (intaglio) engravings are developed. |
| 1477 |
Louis XI establishes a royal postal service in France. |
| 1477 |
William Caxton prints the first book in England. |
| 1478 |
Lorenzo de’Medici rules Florence. |
| 1479 |
Ferdinand II becomes king of Aragon, which unites with his wife’s kingdom of Castile. |
| 1480 |
Brussels becomes the center of the European tapestry industry about this time. |
| 1480 |
Flemish artist Hans Memling is active about this time. |
| 1480 |
Ivan III defeats the Tartars and begins the unification of Russia. |
| 1480 |
Ludovico Sforza becomes the Duke of Milan. |
| 1480 |
The Spanish Inquisition is established to interrogate heretics and converted Jews. |
| 1481 |
Edward IV establishes a postal service in England. |
| 1481 |
Mehmed II dies; Bayezid II becomes Sultan of the Ottoman Turks. |
| 1482 |
The Portuguese explore the Congo River and encounter the Kingdom of Kongo. |
| 1482 |
The Portuguese settle on the African Gold Coast (Ghana). |
| 1483 |
Artist Giovanni Bellini is appointed as painter to the Venetian Republic. |
| 1483 |
Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci sketches an early helicopter design. |
| 1483 |
Italian reformer Girolamo Savonarola is executed for heresy. |
| 1483 |
Richard III usurps the throne of England; Edward V is murdered. |
| 1483 |
Torquemada becomes the grand inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition. |
| 1485 |
Henry Tudor defeats Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field, ending the Wars of the Roses. |
| 1485 |
Portuguese explorers in Africa discover the Kingdom of Benin. |
| 1485 |
Sandro Botticelli paints The Birth of Venus in Florence. |
| 1486 |
Henry VII of England unites the warring houses of York and Lancaster. |
| 1486 |
The Aztecs found the city of Oaxaca in Mexico. |
| 1486 |
The first major book on witchcraft, Hammer of Sorceresses, is published in Germany. |
| 1487 |
Quito becomes the northern capital of the Inca empire. |
| 1488 |
Bartolomeu Dias becomes the first European to round the Cape of Good Hope. |
| 1489 |
Venice gains control of the island of Cyprus. |
| 1490 |
Ballet originates in Italy about this time. |
| 1490 |
Italian printer Aldus Manutius establishes the Aldine Press in Venice. |
| 1490 |
Papal singer and composer Josquin des Prez is active during this period. |
| 1492 |
Christopher Columbus sails from Spain to the New World and sights the Bahamas. |
| 1492 |
Ferdinand II conquers Granada, ending the Muslim influence in Spain. |
| 1492 |
German geographer Martin Benhaim makes the first terrestrial globe. |
| 1492 |
Spanish Jews are given 3 months to become Christians or to leave the country. |
| 1493 |
Maximilian I succeeds Frederick III as Holy Roman Emperor. |
| 1493 |
On his second voyage, Christopher Columbus discovers Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Cuba. |
| 1494 |
Charles VIII of France invades Italy, beginning the Italian Wars. |
| 1494 |
German satirist Sebastian Brant writes the Ship of Fools. |
| 1494 |
The Treaty of Tordesillas establishes a boundary between New World discoveries of Spain and Portugal. |
| 1495 |
French king Charles VIII is crowned at Naples. |
| 1495 |
Leonardo da Vinci begins painting The Last Supper in Milan. |
| 1495 |
Printed editions of the Greek classics becomes available in Europe. |
| 1495 |
The Jews are expelled from Portugal. |
| 1496 |
The first description of the tobacco plant appears in Europe. |
| 1497 |
Italian explorer John Cabot discovers Newfoundland for England. |
| 1498 |
Columbus lands on the coast of South America during his third voyage. |
| 1498 |
Louis XII succeeds Charles VIII as king of France. |
| 1498 |
Michelangelo begins sculpting the Pieta for St. Peter’s Church in Rome. |
| 1498 |
Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama sails around the Cape of Good Hope and reaches India. |
| 1498 |
The toothbrush is invented by a Chinese dentist. |
| 1499 |
French forces under Louis XII capture Milan. |
| 1499 |
Perkin Warbeck, pretender to the English throne, is executed by Henry VII. |
| 1499 |
Venetian artist Giorgione paints Portrait of a Young Man. |
| 1500 |
Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch paints The Garden of Earthly Delights. |
| 1500 |
Portuguese navigator Pedro Cabral lays claim to Brazil for Portugal. |
| 1501 |
France and Spain divide the Kingdom of Naples. |
| 1501 |
Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci explores the coast of Brazil. |
| 1502 |
A Portuguese trading post is established at Cochin in India. |
| 1502 |
A peace treaty is established between Venice and the Ottoman Turks. |
| 1502 |
Columbus, on his fourth voyage of discovery, explores the Central American coast. |
| 1502 |
Shah Ismail founds the Safavid dynasty; Shiism becomes the religion of Persia (Iran). |
| 1502 |
Montezuma II becomes chief of the Aztecs. |
| 1503 |
Arquebuses (handguns) help the Spanish defeat the French in Italy. |
| 1503 |
Juan Bermudez lands on the island of Bermuda, which is named for him. |
| 1503 |
Leonardo da Vinci begins painting the Mona Lisa. |
| 1503 |
Spanish general Fernandez de Cordoba forces the French to abandon Naples. |
| 1503 |
The Spanish crown approves encomienda (enforced slavery) in the American colonies. |
| 1504 |
Babur occupies Kabul and establishes a kingdom in Afghanistan. |
| 1504 |
Italian artist Raphael paints The Marriage of the Virgin. |
| 1505 |
Christian king Alfonso I (Nzinga Mbemba) rules the Kingdom of Kongo. |
| 1505 |
The Portuguese colonize Mozambique and arrive at Ceylon (Sri Lanka). |
| 1506 |
Christopher Columbus dies in poverty. |
| 1506 |
Italian architect Donato Bramante begins the plans for St. Peters in Rome. |
| 1507 |
Cartographer Martin Waldseemuller uses the word America on a map for the first time. |
| 1508 |
Michelangelo begins painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. |
| 1508 |
France, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, and the papacy form the League of Cambrai to oppose Venice. |
| 1509 |
Dutch scholar Erasmus writes The Praise of Folly. |
| 1509 |
Henry VIII succeeds his father Henry VII as king of England. |
| 1509 |
The first sugar cane mill is established in the Americas. |
| 1509 |
Venice is defeated by the League of Cambrai at Agnadello. |
| 1510 |
Spain conquers Tripoli in North Africa. |
| 1510 |
The English morality play Everyman is adapted from an earlier Dutch work. |
| 1510 |
The Polygraphia, the first printed work on cryptology, is published in Germany. |
| 1510 |
The Portuguese colony of Goa is founded on the coast of India. |
| 1511 |
German artist Matthias Grunewald begins painting the Isenheim Altarpiece. |
| 1511 |
Pope Julius II organizes a Holy League against Louis XII of France. |
| 1511 |
The Portuguese become the first Europeans to reach Siam (Thailand). |
| 1511 |
The Portuguese capture Malacca (now Melaka) in Malaysia. |
| 1511 |
The Spanish take control of Cuba. |
| 1512 |
Albrecht Durer is appointed court painter to Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. |
| 1512 |
Selim I becomes Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. |
| 1512 |
The Habsburgs reinstate the Medicis as the rulers of Florence. |
| 1513 |
Italian political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli writes The Prince. |
| 1513 |
Louis XII is defeated by the Holy League; French forces are expelled from Italy. |
| 1513 |
Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon lands on the coast of Florida. |
| 1513 |
Vasco Nunez de Balboa becomes the first European to sight the Pacific Ocean. |
| 1514 |
Bartolome de Las Casas tries to improve the treatment of South American Indians. |
| 1514 |
Italian artist Raphael becomes the chief architect of St. Peter’s in Rome. |
| 1514 |
Spanish conquistadors under Diego Velazquez de Cuellar conquer Cuba. |
| 1514 |
The Turks defeat the Persians at the Battle of Chaldiran. |
| 1515 |
Italian artist Michelangelo sculpts his monumental statue of Moses. |
| 1515 |
The French defeat the Habsburgs and their allies at the Battle of Marignano. |
| 1515 |
Thomas Wolsey is appointed Lord Chancellor of England. |
| 1515 |
Havana, Cuba, is founded by Spanish conquistadors. |
| 1516 |
Charles I succeeds Ferdinand II as king of Spain. |
| 1516 |
English intellectual and statesman Sir Thomas More writes Utopia. |
| 1516 |
Milan is ceded to France by the Treaty of Noyon. |
| 1516 |
The Ottoman Turks capture Algiers in North Africa. |
| 1517 |
Andrea del Sarto paints the Madonna of the Harpies. |
| 1517 |
The Turks defeat the Mamelukes for possession of Syria and Egypt. |
| 1517 |
Theologian Martin Luther displays his 95 theses at Wittenberg in Germany. |
| 1518 |
Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado explores Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. |
| 1519 |
Charles I of Spain succeeds Maximilian I as Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. |
| 1519 |
Chocolate is introduced into Spain as a beverage. |
| 1519 |
Panama City is founded by the Spanish in Central America. |
| 1519 |
Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes meets the Aztec leader Montezuma in Mexico. |
| 1519 |
Ulrich Zwingli leads the Reformation in Switzerland. |
| 1520 |
Corn (Zea mays) is imported into Spain from the West Indies. |
| 1520 |
Francis I meets Henry VIII at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in Calais, France. |
| 1520 |
King Christian II of Denmark conquers Sweden. |
| 1520 |
Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan discovers the Strait of Magellan. |
| 1520 |
Suleiman I (the Magnificent) succeeds Selim I as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. |
| 1521 |
Martin Luther is excommunicated as a heretic at the Diet of Worms. |
| 1521 |
Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines. |
| 1521 |
Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes conquers the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. |
| 1522 |
Jean Clouet becomes the court painter to Francis I of France. |
| 1522 |
Magellan’s crew aboard the Victoria complete the first global circumnavigation. |
| 1523 |
The Kalmar Union between Denmark, Sweden, and Norway ends. |
| 1523 |
Gustav I drives out the Danes to become King of Sweden. |
| 1523 |
Spanish settlements are established in Venezuela. |
| 1523 |
Venetian artist Titian paints Bacchus and Ariadne. |
| 1524 |
Giovanni da Verrazano discovers New York Bay and the Hudson River. |
| 1524 |
The Peasants’ War breaks out in central Europe. |
| 1525 |
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V defeats and captures Francis I at the Battle of Pavia. |
| 1526 |
Babur founds the Mogul dynasty in India, ending the Delhi Sultanate. |
| 1526 |
Correggio paints the Assumption of the Virgin in Parma Cathedral. |
| 1526 |
The Turks defeat the Hungarians at the Battle of Mohacs; King Louis II is killed. |
| 1526 |
The domains of Hungary and Bohemia are inherited by the Habsburgs. |
| 1527 |
German physician Paracelsus lectures on medicine at Basel in Switzerland. |
| 1527 |
Rome is sacked by the Spanish and Habsburg armies. |
| 1528 |
The building of the Chateau de Fontainebleau is begun in France. |
| 1529 |
Henry VIII dismisses Cardinal Wolsey for failing to secure his divorce. |
| 1529 |
The Ottoman Turks besiege Vienna. |
| 1530 |
Humayun succeeds Babur as Mogul emperor. |
| 1530 |
The Hospitalers (Knights of St. John) are granted Malta by Charles V. |
| 1530 |
The Lutheran confession of faith is issued at the Diet of Augsburg. |
| 1531 |
Religious war begins in Switzerland; Protestant leader Zwingli is killed in battle. |
| 1531 |
The League of Schmalkald is formed as an alliance of Protestant German rulers. |
| 1532 |
French scholar Francois Rabelais begins the publication of Gargantua and Pantagruel. |
| 1532 |
Thomas Cromwell becomes chief minister to Henry VIII of England. |
| 1533 |
Catherine de Medicis introduces the Italian balleto into France as the ballet. |
| 1533 |
Catherine de Medicis marries Henry II, the future king of France. |
| 1533 |
Francisco Pizarro conquers the Incas in Peru; the Inca leader Atahulpa is executed. |
| 1533 |
German artist Hans Holbein the Younger paints The Ambassadors. |
| 1533 |
Henry VIII divorces Catherine of Aragon and marries Anne Boleyn. |
| 1533 |
The Church of England breaks with Rome. |
| 1534 |
Anabaptists seize the city of Munster in Germany. |
| 1534 |
Martin Luther completes his translation of the Bible into German. |
| 1535 |
English humanist and statesman Thomas More is executed by order of Henry VIII. |
| 1535 |
French explorer Jacques Cartier navigates the St. Lawrence River in Canada. |
| 1535 |
Spanish conquistador Diego de Almagro discovers Chile. |
| 1535 |
Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro founds the city of Lima in Peru. |
| 1535 |
Suleiman I completes the conquest of the last Arab domains in Mesopotamia. |
| 1535 |
The Spanish discover the Galapagos Islands. |
| 1536 |
Christian III establishes the state Lutheran church of Denmark and Norway. |
| 1536 |
Dissolution of the monasteries and nunneries begins in England. |
| 1536 |
English reformer William Tyndale is burned at the stake for heresy. |
| 1536 |
French theologian John Calvin publishes his Institutes of the Christian Religion. |
| 1536 |
Henry VIII executes Anne Boleyn and marries Jane Seymour. |
| 1536 |
Spanish conquistador Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires in Argentina. |
| 1537 |
The city of Bangalore in India is founded |
| 1537 |
Niccolo Tartaglia publishes his work on ballistics The New Science. |
| 1538 |
The Spanish found the city of Bogota in Columbia. |
| 1539 |
Afghan ruler Sher Shah defeats the Mogul emperor Humayun. |
| 1540 |
Coronado explores the American southwest in search of the fabled cities of Cibola. |
| 1540 |
Henry VIII executes his principal minister Thomas Cromwell. |
| 1540 |
Henry VIII marries Anne of Cleves; he is divorced and marries Catherine Howard. |
| 1540 |
Hernando de Soto defeats the Choctaw Indians under Chief Tuscaloosa. |
| 1540 |
The Grand Canyon is discovered by Garcia Lopez de Cardenas. |
| 1540 |
The Order of Jesuits is inaugurated under Ignatius Loyola. |
| 1540 |
The Spanish introduce horses into North America. |
| 1541 |
Geneva becomes the center of Calvinism. |
| 1541 |
Spanish conquistador Pedro de Valdivia founds the city of Santiago in Chile. |
| 1541 |
Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto discovers the Mississippi River. |
| 1542 |
Catherine Howard is executed by Henry VIII. |
| 1542 |
Spanish explorer Francisco de Orellana discovers the Amazon River. |
| 1542 |
The infant Mary Stuart succeeds James V as queen of Scotland. |
| 1542 |
Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez explores the coast of California. |
| 1543 |
Anatomist Andreas Vesalius publishes On the Structure of the Human Body. |
| 1543 |
Henry VIII marries Catherine Parr, his sixth wife. |
| 1543 |
Nicolaus Copernicus’ On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres is published. |
| 1543 |
Portuguese explorers land in Japan. |
| 1543 |
The first botanical garden is founded in Pisa. |
| 1543 |
The first single-cast cannon is made in England. |
| 1543 |
The administrative incorporation of Wales in to England is completed. |
| 1543 |
Spanish explorer Bartolome Ferrelo explores the northern California and Oregon coasts. |
| 1544 |
French surgeon Ambroise Pare publishes his book on surgical treatments. |
| 1545 |
Henry VIII’s warship the Mary Rose sinks near Portsmouth in England. |
| 1545 |
Mathematician Gerolamo Cardano publishes his treatise The Great Art. |
| 1545 |
Pope Paul III opens the Council of Trent to reform the Catholic Church. |
| 1545 |
Silver mines are discovered in Bolivia; the city of Potosi is founded. |
| 1546 |
Francis I commissions Pierre Lescot to begin the design of the Louvre art museum. |
| 1546 |
German physician Georgius Agricola publishes On the Nature of Fossils. |
| 1546 |
Physician Girolamo Fracastoro describes the transmission of disease by living germs. |
| 1546 |
Turkish pirate leader Barbarossa dies. |
| 1547 |
Antonio Torquemada publishes the first book on the game of checkers. |
| 1547 |
Henry II succeeds Francis I as king of France. |
| 1547 |
Henry VIII dies and is succeeded by Edward VI as king of England. |
| 1547 |
Ivan IV (the Terrible) is crowned tsar of Russia. |
| 1548 |
Francis Xavier founds the Jesuit mission in Japan. |
| 1548 |
Sigismund II is crowned King of Poland. |
| 1548 |
The Spanish found the city of La Paz in Bolivia. |
| 1548 |
Venetian artist Tintoretto paints the Miracle of the Slave. |
| 1549 |
English theologian Thomas Cranmer promotes the Book of Common Prayer. |
| 1550 |
Commedia dell’arte performances evolve in Italy about this time. |
| 1550 |
King Gustav I founds the city of Helsinki in Finland. |
| 1550 |
Pedro de Valdivia founds the city of Concepcion in Chile. |
| 1550 |
The violin evolves about this time from the medieval fiddle. |
| 1550 |
Tobacco smoking is introduced into Spain and Portugal. |
| 1550 |
Vasari writes the Lives of Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. |
| 1550 |
Virtually all of Italy comes under the rule of Habsburg emperor Charles V. |
| 1550 |
The Spanish introduce beef cattle into North America. |
| 1551 |
Italian architect Andrea Palladio completes the design of the Villa Rotonda. |
| 1551 |
The University of Mexico is founded. |
| 1552 |
Ivan IV conquers the Tatar khanate of Kazan. |
| 1553 |
Edward VI dies; Lady Jane Grey rules England but is deposed after 9 days. |
| 1553 |
Mary I (Bloody Mary) becomes queen of England. |
| 1553 |
The Araucanian Indian Lautaro kills Pedro de Valdivia during an uprising in Chile. |
| 1553 |
The English Muscovy Company begin the search for a Northeast Passage to the Indies. |
| 1553 |
Venetian artist Paolo Veronese paints the ceiling panels of the Doge’s Palace. |
| 1554 |
Italian composer Palestrina dedicates his Masses to Pope Julius III. |
| 1554 |
Mary I, Queen of England, marries Philip, heir to the Spanish throne. |
| 1554 |
The Catholic restoration begins in England under Mary I. |
| 1554 |
The Turks conquer the Barbary States along the North African coast. |
| 1554 |
Tomatoes from South America are cultivated in Europe. |
| 1555 |
300 English Protestants are burned at the stake. |
| 1555 |
French astrologer Nostradamus publishes the Centuries, a book of predictions. |
| 1555 |
The Peace of Augsburg gives German princes a right to chose Catholicism or Lutheranism. |
| 1555 |
The building of St. Basil’s Cathedral is begun in Moscow. |
| 1556 |
Agricola’s treatise on mining and metallurgy De re mettalica is published. |
| 1556 |
Akbar succeeds Humayun as Mogul emperor. |
| 1556 |
An earthquake in China is the worst in history with a death toll of 830,000. |
| 1556 |
Charles V abdicates; the Holy Roman Empire is divided between Philip II and Ferdinand I. |
| 1556 |
Protestant theologian Thomas Cranmer is executed by Mary I. |
| 1556 |
Turkish architect Sinan builds the Suleimaniye Mosque in Constantinople (Istanbul). |
| 1557 |
Philip II of Spain defeats the French at Saint Quentin. |
| 1557 |
The Portuguese establish a settlement at Macao in China. |
| 1557 |
The equals symbol (=) is first used. |
| 1558 |
Elizabeth I succeeds Mary I as queen of England. |
| 1558 |
Ferdinand I is crowned Holy Roman Emperor. |
| 1558 |
Mary, Queen of Scots, marries the French dauphin Francis II. |
| 1558 |
The English lose Calais, their last French possession. |
| 1558 |
The Trinh and Nguyen divide the Kingdom of Vietnam. |
| 1559 |
Calvinist preacher John Knox returns to Scotland to lead the Protestant struggle. |
| 1559 |
Pope Paul IV issues the first index of forbidden books. |
| 1559 |
The Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis ends the Italian Wars between France and Spain. |
| 1560 |
Puritanism begins in England about this time. |
| 1560 |
The building of the Uffizi Palace is begun in Florence. |
| 1560 |
Tulips are imported into Europe from Turkey about this time. |
| 1561 |
Mary, Queen of Scots, returns from France to Scotland. |
| 1561 |
Philip II makes Madrid the capital of Spain. |
| 1561 |
The building of the tomb of Humayun begins in Delhi. |
| 1562 |
French Huguenots attempt to colonize Florida. |
| 1562 |
Giuseppe Arcimboldo becomes court painter to Maximilian II. |
| 1562 |
Religious wars break out in France between Protestant Huguenots and Catholics. |
| 1562 |
The English slave trade between Africa and the West Indies begins. |
| 1563 |
Vientiane becomes the capital of the Lao kingdom (Laos). |
| 1564 |
Ivan IV begins a reign of terror in Russia. |
| 1564 |
Maximilian II succeeds Ferdinand I as Holy Roman Emperor. |
| 1565 |
Spain founds the first European settlement in the U.S. at Saint Augustine in Florida. |
| 1564 |
The Spanish found their first colony in the Philippines at Cebu. |
| 1564 |
The first horse-drawn coaches come to England from Holland. |
| 1564 |
The manufacture of lead (graphite) pencils begins in England. |
| 1565 |
Muslims destroy the Hindu capital of Vijayanagar in southern India. |
| 1565 |
The Spanish massacre French Huguenot settlers in Florida. |
| 1566 |
A revolt begins in the Netherlands against Spanish rule. |
| 1567 |
Mary, Queen of Scots, is forced to abdicate in favor of her son James VI. |
| 1567 |
Spain’s Duque de Alba is sent to the Netherlands to quell the Dutch Revolt. |
| 1567 |
The Portuguese oust Huguenot settlers and found the city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. |
| 1568 |
Flemish painter Bruegel the Elder paints The Blind Leading the Blind. |
| 1568 |
Mary, Queen of Scots, is imprisoned in England for 19 years by Elizabeth I. |
| 1568 |
Nobunaga seizes Kyoto and begins the reunification of Japan. |
| 1569 |
Cartographer Gerardus Mercator uses the first cylindrical projection for a world map. |
| 1569 |
Jacques Besson develops the first screw-cutting lathe. |
| 1569 |
Mogul emperor Akbar establishes a new capital at Fatehpur Sikri in India. |
| 1569 |
The Union of Lublin unites the Polish states under Sigismund II. |
| 1570 |
Italian architect Andrea Palladio publishes The Four Books of Architecture. |
| 1570 |
The Kanem-Bornu empire flourishes in West Africa. |
| 1571 |
The Spanish found the city of Manila in the Philippines. |
| 1571 |
The Turks conquer the island of Cyprus. |
| 1571 |
The allied fleet of Spain, Venice, and the papacy destroys the Turks at Lepanto. |
| 1571 |
The Spanish begin the Inquisition in Mexico. |
| 1572 |
Bogota University is founded in Columbia. |
| 1572 |
Francisco de Toledo executes Tupac Amaru, ending Inca resistance in Peru. |
| 1572 |
Huguenots are massacred in France on St. Bartholomew’s Day. |
| 1572 |
Sigismund II dies, ending the Jagello dynasty in Poland. |
| 1572 |
The Gujarat state is annexed by the Moguls in India. |
| 1573 |
An era of castle building begins in Japan during the Momoyama period. |
| 1573 |
The potato is brought to Europe from the Americas and cultivated in Spain. |
| 1574 |
Henry III is crowned king of France. |
| 1574 |
The Turks regain Tunis in North Africa from Spain. |
| 1674 |
The number of Spanish settlers in the New World exceeds 150,000. |
| 1575 |
Indian leader Hiawatha allegedly founds the Iroquois League. |
| 1575 |
Stephen Bathory is elected king of Poland. |
| 1576 |
Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe builds an observatory on the island of Ven. |
| 1576 |
Henry III outlaws Protestantism in France. |
| 1576 |
Martin Frobisher commands an expedition to search for a Northwest Passage. |
| 1576 |
Rudolf II is crowned Holy Roman Emperor; the imperial court moves to Prague. |
| 1576 |
The Dutch provinces unite to drive out the Spanish. |
| 1576 |
The first playhouse, the Theater, is erected by actor James Burbage in London. |
| 1577 |
English explorer Francis Drake begins his voyage of circumnavigation. |
| 1577 |
Ram Das founds the city of Amritsar, a Sikh religious center. |
| 1578 |
King Sebastian of Portugal is killed by Muslims in Morocco. |
| 1578 |
The Christian catacombs are rediscovered in Rome. |
| 1579 |
English explorer Francis Drake discovers San Francisco Bay. |
| 1580 |
French writer Michel de Montaigne publishes his Essays. |
| 1580 |
Philip II of Spain invades Portugal. |
| 1580 |
Witches are persecuted throughout western Europe. |
| 1580 |
English explorer Francis Drake completes his round-the-world voyage. |
| 1581 |
The Dutch Republic is founded after the Union of Utrecht. |
| 1581 |
The Russian conquest of Siberia begins with the expedition of Yermak Timofeyevich. |
| 1582 |
Geographer Richard Hakluyt publishes an account of the discovery of America. |
| 1582 |
The Gregorian calendar is introduced into Catholic countries by Pope Gregory XIII. |
| 1583 |
Edinburgh University is founded in Scotland. |
| 1583 |
Japanese leader Hideyoshi builds Osaka castle. |
| 1583 |
Sir Humphrey Gilbert claims Newfoundland for England. |
| 1584 |
Russian tsar Ivan IV (the Terrible) dies. |
| 1584 |
Walter Raleigh and Richard Grenville organize English colonizing ventures to North America. |
| 1584 |
William I, leader of the Dutch Revolt, is assassinated. |
| 1585 |
England is at war with Spain (until 1604). |
| 1585 |
John Davis discovers Davis Strait between Greenland and North America. |
| 1585 |
Roanoke Island in North Carolina is settled as the first English colony in the New World. |
| 1586 |
Mary, Queen of Scots, is found guilty of treason and executed (1587). |
| 1586 |
Pipe smoking is introduced into England. |
| 1587 |
Francis Drake attacks the Spanish fleet in Cadiz harbor. |
| 1587 |
Japanese leader Hideyoshi bans Christian missionaries. |
| 1587 |
At Roanoke, Virginia, Virginia Dare is the first English child born in America. |
| 1588 |
Christian IV succeeds Frederick II as king of Denmark. |
| 1588 |
The Catholic League expels Henry III from Paris. |
| 1588 |
The Spanish Armada is defeated by the English navy. |
| 1589 |
Galileo Galilei is made professor of mathematics at Pisa. |
| 1589 |
Henry III is assassinated; he is succeeded by Henry IV as king of France. |
| 1590 |
Christopher Marlowe’s drama Tamburlaine the Great is published in London. |
| 1590 |
English poet Edmund Spenser begins The Faerie Queene. |
| 1590 |
Hideyoshi completes the unification of Japan. |
| 1590 |
Viete, inventor of symbolic algebra, writes his Introduction to the Analytic Art. |
| 1590 |
William Shakespeare begins writing plays about this time. |
| 1590 |
The Roanoke colonists in North Carolina disappear. |
| 1591 |
The Songhai Empire is destroyed by the Moroccan army. |
| 1592 |
Elizabeth I founds Trinity College in Dublin. |
| 1592 |
Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno is imprisoned for heresy. |
| 1592 |
Playwright Christopher Marlowe writes Doctor Faustus. |
| 1593 |
Henry IV of France converts to Catholicism. |
| 1594 |
Henry IV of France captures Paris. |
| 1594 |
Jacopo Peri’s Dafne, the first opera, is performed in Italy about this time. |
| 1595 |
Hugh O’Neill leads a rebellion against the English in Ireland. |
| 1595 |
The Spanish increase their efforts to convert Indians to Christianity in the Americas. |
| 1596 |
Warsaw is established as the capital of Poland. |
| 1597 |
Spanish artist El Greco paints The Agony in the Garden. |
| 1598 |
Shah Abbas I of Persia (Iran) defeats the Uzbeks at Herat. |
| 1598 |
Boris Godunov becomes tsar of Russia; the Time of Troubles begin. |
| 1598 |
English playwright Ben Jonson writes Every Man in His Humour. |
| 1598 |
Philip III succeeds Philip II as king of Spain. |
| 1598 |
The Edict of Nantes grants French Huguenots equal rights with Catholics. |
| 1599 |
The Globe theater is built in London. |
| 1599 |
The Spanish conquer New Mexico. |
| 1600 |
A charter is granted to the East India Company by Queen Elizabeth I. |
| 1600 |
Giordano Bruno is burned at the stake in Rome for heretical writing. |
| 1600 |
Hans and Zacharias Jannsen construct the first microscope about this time. |
| 1600 |
The Baroque period in art and architecture begins in Italy about this time. |
| 1600 |
Wigs become fashionable at European courts about this time. |
| 1600 |
William Gilbert publishes his treatise on magnetism. |
| 1601 |
Italian artist Caravaggio paints the Conversion of St. Paul. |
| 1601 |
Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci arrives in Peking. |
| 1601 |
Manchurian leader Nurhachi unites the Manchu tribes under the banner system. |
| 1601 |
The Earl of Essex is executed by Elizabeth I after his rebellion fails. |
| 1601 |
The Gobelins tapestry factory is established in Paris. |
| 1602 |
Abbas I leads Persia (Iran) in a holy war against the Ottoman Turks. |
| 1602 |
Bartholomew Gosnold explores the New England coast and names Cape Cod. |
| 1602 |
The Bodleian Library, the first public library in Europe, opens in Oxford, England |
| 1602 |
The Dutch East India Company is founded. |
| 1603 |
Ieyasu founds the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan. |
| 1603 |
Queen Elizabeth I dies; she is succeeded by James I (James VI of Scotland). |
| 1603 |
The first Kabuki performance is given in Japan. |
| 1603 |
William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is performed for the first time. |
| 1604 |
A false Dmitry lays claim to the Russian throne during the “Time of Troubles.” |
| 1604 |
Charles IX is crowned king of Sweden. |
| 1604 |
England and Spain are at peace after 19 years of war. |
| 1604 |
Hieronymus Fabricius writes De formata foctu, a study of human embryology. |
| 1604 |
The French East India Company is founded. |
| 1604 |
The Spanish capture the Dutch city of Ostend after a 3-year siege. |
| 1604 |
The French establish a short-lived colony in southeastern Maine. |
| 1605 |
English philosopher Francis Bacon publishes The Advancement of Learning. |
| 1605 |
Jahangir succeeds Akbar as Mogul emperor of India. |
| 1605 |
Spanish writer Cervantes publishes part one of Don Quixote. |
| 1605 |
The English claim Barbados in the West Indies. |
| 1605 |
The Gunpowder Plot to blow up the English Parliament is discovered. |
| 1605 |
France’s first permanent North American settlement is founded at Port Royal in Nova Scotia. |
| 1606 |
Ben Jonson’s play Volpone is performed for the first time. |
| 1606 |
Russia’s false Dmitry is driven from the throne by Basil IV. |
| 1607 |
Claudio Monteverdi’s first opera Orfeo is performed. |
| 1607 |
John Smith founds the first English colony at Jamestown in Virginia. |
| 1608 |
Emperor Rudolf II cedes Hungary to his brother Matthias. |
| 1608 |
Italian scientist Galileo Galilei assembles an astronomical telescope. |
| 1608 |
Samuel de Champlain founds a French settlement in Quebec. |
| 1608 |
The first telescope is invented by Dutch optician Hans Lippershey. |
| 1609 |
A truce with Spain gives the United Provinces (the Netherlands) virtual independence. |
| 1609 |
Johannes Kepler publishes his first two laws of planetary motion in New Astronomy. |
| 1609 |
The English colonize Bermuda. |
| 1609 |
The Spanish found Santa Fe in New Mexico. |
| 1609 |
English navigator Henry Hudson sails up the Hudson River as far as present-day Albany. |
| 1609 |
French explorer Samuel Champlain explores Lake Champlain. |
| 1610 |
Ben Jonson’s play The Alchemist is performed for the first time. |
| 1610 |
English navigator Henry Hudson becomes the first European to explore Hudson Bay. |
| 1610 |
Galileo Galilei publishes his first stellar observations in The Starry Messenger. |
| 1610 |
Henry IV of France is assassinated; he is succeeded by his son Louis XIII. |
| 1610 |
Maximilian of Bavaria forms the Catholic League to oppose the Protestant Union. |
| 1610 |
The Polish army of Sigismund III invades Russia and captures Moscow. |
| 1611 |
An edition of the Bible authorized by King James I is completed in England. |
| 1611 |
Christian IV of Denmark declares war on Sweden. |
| 1611 |
English and Scottish Protestants settle in Ireland under the Ulster Plantation. |
| 1611 |
Gustav II Adolf succeeds Charles IX as king of Sweden. |
| 1612 |
Matthias succeeds his brother Rudolf II as Holy Roman Emperor. |
| 1613 |
Gustav II Adolf ends the War of Kalmar with Denmark and attacks Russia. |
| 1613 |
Michael becomes tsar of Russia, founding the Romanov dynasty. |
| 1613 |
Virginia colonists destroy French settlements in Maine and Nova Scotia. |
| 1614 |
James I dissolves the Addled Parliament in England. |
| 1614 |
John Rolfe sends the first shipment of New World tobacco to England. |
| 1614 |
Pocahontas, a North American Indian princess, marries English settler John Rolfe. |
| 1614 |
Scottish mathematician John Napier publishes Marvelous Canon of Logarithms. |
| 1614 |
Sir Walter Raleigh writes his History of the World. |
| 1614 |
The Dutch establish a settlement at Fort Nassau near Albany. |
| 1615 |
Coffee is introduced into Italy from Turkey. |
| 1615 |
Manchu tribes in China expand to eight banners (military regions) under Nurhachi. |
| 1615 |
The Dutch seize the Spice Islands (the Moluccas) from the Portuguese. |
| 1615 |
The first English-language reference is made to tea. |
| 1615 |
Samuel Champlain discovers Lake Huron. |
| 1616 |
A smallpox epidemic decimates the Indian population in New England. |
| 1616 |
Cardinal Richelieu becomes Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in France. |
| 1616 |
Emperor Ieyasu of Japan dies; he is succeeded by his son Hidetada. |
| 1616 |
The Catholic church issues an edict against Copernicanism. |
| 1616 |
William Baffin searches for the Northwest Passage and discovers Baffin Bay. |
| 1617 |
The Treaty of Stolbovo ends the war between Russia and Sweden. |
| 1617 |
Tobacco is established as the major industry in North America. |
| 1618 |
Conflict between Europe’s Catholic and Protestant states begins the Thirty Years’ War. |
| 1618 |
James I orders the execution of Sir Walter Raleigh. |
| 1619 |
Dutch ships bring the first African slaves to the colony of Virginia. |
| 1619 |
Ferdinand II is elected Holy Roman Emperor and king of Bohemia. |
| 1619 |
Inigo Jones designs the Banqueting House at Whitehall, London. |
| 1619 |
Louis XIII of France defeats the supporters of his mother Maria de Medicis. |
| 1619 |
Spanish artist Diego Velazquez paints The Water Seller of Seville. |
| 1619 |
The Bohemians depose Ferdinand and elect Frederick V (Elector Palatine) as king. |
| 1619 |
Virginia’s House of Burgesses, the first legislative assembly in the colonies, is established. |
| 1619 |
Johannes Kepler publishes his third law of planetary motion. |
| 1620 |
Catholic League forces under Graf von Tilly defeat the Bohemians under Frederick V. |
| 1620 |
Cornelis Drebbel demonstrates a submarine on the Thames River. |
| 1620 |
Ferdinand II is restored to the throne of Bohemia. |
| 1620 |
Gustav II Adolf of Sweden begins a war with Poland and captures Livonia. |
| 1620 |
The Pilgrim Fathers arrive aboard the Mayflower at Cape Cod and found the Plymouth Colony. |
| 1621 |
A Huguenot (Protestant) revolt begins against Louis XIII in France. |
| 1621 |
Philip IV becomes king of Spain and Portugal. |
| 1621 |
The Dutch West India Company is founded. |
| 1621 |
War is renewed between Spain and the United Provinces (the Netherlands). |
| 1622 |
Indians massacre 347 settlers in Virginia. |
| 1623 |
Abbas I, shah of Persia (Iran), captures Baghdad from the Turks. |
| 1623 |
Catholic League and Imperial forces overrun the Palatinate in Germany. |
| 1623 |
Diego Velazquez is made court painter to Philip IV of Spain. |
| 1623 |
Philosopher Francis Bacon publishes On the Dignity and Growth of Sciences. |
| 1623 |
The first English settlement is founded in New Hampshire. |
| 1623 |
The first English settlement is founded in Maine. |
| 1624 |
Dutch artist Frans Hals paints the Laughing Cavalier. |
| 1624 |
English poet John Donne publishes Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. |
| 1624 |
The Dutch build Fort Orange (now Albany), their first American settlement. |
| 1624 |
Flemish chemist Johannes Baptista van Helmont names compressible fluid gas. |
| 1624 |
The Dutch establish the colony of New Netherland in the Hudson River valley. |
| 1625 |
Albrecht Wenzel von Wallenstein is made general of Ferdinand II’s Imperial armies. |
| 1625 |
Charles I succeeds James I as king of England. |
| 1625 |
Flemish baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens paints The Judgement of Paris. |
| 1625 |
Peter Minuit founds the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (now New York City). |
| 1625 |
The Spanish capture Breda from the Dutch. |
| 1625 |
The English establish their first colony on Barbados. |
| 1626 |
Graf von Tilly’s Catholic army routs the Danes under Christian IV. |
| 1626 |
Imperial forces under Wallenstein defeat Graf von Mansfield at Dessau in eastern Germany. |
| 1626 |
The Dutch purchase Manhattan Island from the Indians for the equivalent of $24. |
| 1627 |
Shah Jahan succeeds Jahangir as Mogul emperor of India. |
| 1627 |
The Huguenots (Protestants) revolt against Cardinal Richelieu at La Rochelle. |
| 1627 |
The Manchus (Ch’ing) begin their conquest of Korea. |
| 1628 |
English physician William Harvey publishes On the Motions of the Heart and Blood. |
| 1628 |
French philosopher Rene Descartes begins Rules For the Direction of the Mind. |
| 1628 |
King Charles I is forced to accept Parliament’s Petition of Right. |
| 1628 |
Puritans under John Endecott settle at Salem in Massachusetts. |
| 1628 |
The Huguenots surrender La Rochelle after a 14-month siege. |
| 1629 |
Charles I dissolves Parliament and rules England directly. |
| 1630 |
Bhutan becomes independent from Tibet about this time. |
| 1630 |
Gustav II Adolf invades Germany in support of the Protestant cause. |
| 1630 |
John Winthrop founds a Puritan settlement at Boston in Massachusetts. |
| 1630 |
The Ottoman Turks capture Hamadan in Persia (Iran). |
| 1631 |
Gustav II Adolf defeats Graf von Tilly’s Imperial forces at Breitenfeld. |
| 1631 |
Marie de Medicis goes into exile after a plot to remove Cardinal Richelieu fails. |
| 1631 |
The building of the Taj Mahal begins at Agra in India. |
| 1631 |
The first newspaper, the Gazette de France, is published in Paris. |
| 1632 |
Antony Van Dyck settles in London and becomes court painter to King Charles I. |
| 1632 |
Bernal Diaz del Castillo’s True Story of the Conquest of Mexico is published. |
| 1632 |
Charles I grants a charter for the English colony of Maryland. |
| 1632 |
Christina becomes queen of Sweden at age 6; Count Oxenstierna rules as regent. |
| 1632 |
Dutch artist Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn paints The Anatomy Lesson. |
| 1632 |
Gustavus II Adolf defeats Wallenstein at Lutzen but is killed during the battle. |
| 1632 |
Imperial general Graf von Tilly is mortally wounded at the Battle of Lech. |
| 1633 |
An English colony is established in Connecticut. |
| 1633 |
French artist Nicolas Poussin paints The Adoration of the Golden Calf. |
| 1633 |
Galileo Galilei is imprisoned for “vehement suspicion of heresy.” |
| 1634 |
Ferdinand II declares General Wallenstein a traitor; Wallenstein is assassinated. |
| 1634 |
French fur trader Jean Nicolet explores Wisconsin. |
| 1634 |
Imperial forces under Ferdinand III defeat the Swedes at Nordlingen. |
| 1634 |
The colony of Maryland is founded when the English build St. Mary’s City. |
| 1635 |
Cardinal Richelieu founds the Academie Francaise in Paris. |
| 1635 |
France forms an alliance with Sweden and enters the Thirty Years’ War. |
| 1635 |
The Dutch occupy parts of Formosa (Taiwan). |
| 1635 |
The Peace of Prague is signed between Ferdinand II and Protestant German princes. |
| 1635 |
The Boston Latin School, the first public school in the Americas, is established. |
| 1636 |
Harvard University is founded in Boston. |
| 1636 |
Puritan Roger Williams establishes the town of Providence, Rhode Island. |
| 1636 |
The Dutch settle in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). |
| 1636 |
Dutch colonists on Manhattan Island found the town of Haarlem. |
| 1637 |
French dramatist Pierre Corneille writes le Cid. |
| 1637 |
Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II dies; he is succeeded by his son Ferdinand III. |
| 1637 |
Pequot Indians are decimated during the first Indian war in New England. |
| 1637 |
Religious radical Anne Hutchinson is tried for heresy in Massachusetts. |
| 1637 |
Rene Descartes publishes his concepts of analytic geometry Discourse on Method. |
| 1637 |
The first opera house Teatro San Cassiano opens in Venice. |
| 1638 |
John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton found New Haven, Connecticut. |
| 1638 |
Swedish and Protestant forces defeat the Imperial army at Breisach. |
| 1638 |
Swedish settlers found Fort Christina (now Wilmington) on the Delaware River. |
| 1638 |
The Turks under Murad IV conquer Baghdad. |
| 1638 |
William Pierce publishes the first American almanac. |
| 1639 |
Charles I concedes to Scottish demands after the First Bishops’ War. |
| 1639 |
Persia (Iran) and the Ottoman Empire sign a peace treaty. |
| 1639 |
The first North American printing press is established in Cambridge, Mass. |
| 1639 |
Tokugawa begins a period of isolation in Japan; only Nagasaki is open to foreigners. |
| 1640 |
Coke is made from coal for the first time. |
| 1640 |
Russian explorers cross Siberia and arrive at the Pacific Ocean. |
| 1640 |
Scots invade England during the Second Bishops’ War; Charles I sues for peace. |
| 1640 |
The Portuguese rebel against Spanish rule; John IV is crowned king. |
| 1640 |
The Bay Psalm Book is the first book printed in America. |
| 1641 |
Irish Catholics revolt against the Protestants in Ulster. |
| 1641 |
After seizing Melaka, the Dutch begin to dominate the East Indies. |
| 1642 |
Cardinal Richelieu dies; he is succeeded by Cardinal Mazarin as first minister of France. |
| 1642 |
Dutch artist Rembrandt paints the Night Watch. |
| 1642 |
Dutch navigator Abel Tasman discovers Tasmania and New Zealand. |
| 1642 |
Montreal is founded by the French nobleman Sieur de Maisonneuve. |
| 1642 |
The English Civil War begins between the Parliamentarians and the Royalists. |
| 1642 |
The Swedes under Torstenson defeat the Imperial forces at Breitenfeld. |
| 1643 |
Christian IV of Denmark renews the war against Sweden. |
| 1643 |
Italian physicist Torricelli demonstrates the principles of the barometer. |
| 1643 |
Louis XIV ascends to the French throne at age 5; Anne of Austria rules as regent. |
| 1643 |
Roger Williams publishes A Key into the Language of America. |
| 1643 |
The New England Confederation is formed against the Indians, Dutch, and French. |
| 1643 |
The building of the Potala palace, residence of the Dalai Lama, is begun in Lhasa, Tibet. |
| 1643 |
The first French settlement is founded on Madagascar. |
| 1643 |
The Swedes establish the first European settlement in Pennsylvania at Tinicum Island. |
| 1644 |
French landscape artist Claude Lorrain paints the Embarkation of Saint Ursula. |
| 1644 |
French philosopher Descartes proclaims Cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am). |
| 1644 |
Italian artist Giovanni Bernini sculpts the Ecstasy of St. Teresa. |
| 1644 |
Oliver Cromwell’s Model Army defeats a Royalist army at Marston Moor. |
| 1644 |
Queen Christina begins her reign in Sweden. |
| 1644 |
The Manchus seize Peking and establish the Ch’ing dynasty. |
| 1645 |
Alexis succeeds Michael as the Romanov tsar of Russia. |
| 1645 |
Four years of warfare between the Dutch and Hudson River valley Indians comes to an end. |
| 1645 |
French philosopher and scientist Blaise Pascal invents the first adding machine. |
| 1645 |
Oliver Cromwell defeats Charles I at the Battle of Naseby. |
| 1645 |
The Swedes defeat Denmark and later defeat the Imperial forces at Jankau. |
| 1646 |
Spanish artist Bartolome Esteban Murillo paints Holy Family With a Bird. |
| 1646 |
The English Civil War ends when Charles I surrenders to the Parliamentarians. |
| 1646 |
The Swedes capture Prague and invade Bavaria with their French allies. |
| 1647 |
Charles I escapes from England and concludes a treaty with the Scots. |
| 1647 |
Peter Stuyvesant becomes governor of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. |
| 1648 |
Frederick III succeeds Christian IV as king of Denmark. |
| 1648 |
George Fox founds the Society of Friends (Quakers) about this time. |
| 1648 |
Margaret Jones becomes the first person executed as a witch in North America. |
| 1648 |
Boston shoemakers form the first American labor organization. |
| 1648 |
Naples is restored to Spanish rule after a brief uprising. |
| 1648 |
Russian explorer Semyon Dezhnev discovers the Bering Strait. |
| 1648 |
The Dutch and Swiss republics achieve independence. |
| 1648 |
The English settle in the Bahamas. |
| 1648 |
The Fronde revolt begins in France against Anne of Austria and Cardinal Mazarin. |
| 1648 |
The Scots renew the Civil War but are defeated at Preston; Charles I is captured. |
| 1648 |
The Treaty of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years’ War. |
| 1649 |
Charles I is executed; the English Commonwealth (republic) begins. |
| 1649 |
Oliver Cromwell suppresses a Catholic rebellion in Ireland. |
| 1650 |
Charles II lands in Scotland to renew the English Civil War. |
| 1650 |
Oratorios become a popular form of musical performance in Italy. |
| 1650 |
The Holy Roman Empire and Sweden sign the Treaty of Nuremberg. |
| 1650 |
The Ukiyo-e school of art begins to flourish in Japan about this time. |
| 1650 |
The first coffeehouses are opened in London about this time. |
| 1650 |
Whaling becomes an important industry in New England about this time. |
| 1651 |
Charles II is crowned by the Scots; defeated at Worcester, he escapes to France. |
| 1651 |
Thomas Hobbes publishes Leviathan, a defense of absolute monarchy. |
| 1652 |
Cape Town is founded by the Dutch in South Africa. |
| 1652 |
The English Navigation Acts (1651) lead to the first Anglo-Dutch War. |
| 1652 |
The colony of Rhode Island enacts the first law in the Americas making slavery illegal. |
| 1653 |
English writer Izaak Walton publishes The Compleat Angler. |
| 1653 |
French composer Jean Baptiste Lully writes the first minuet. |
| 1653 |
Louis XIV becomes known as the Sun King after his role in the Ballet de la Nuit. |
| 1653 |
Oliver Cromwell becomes the lord protector of England. |
| 1653 |
Virginia colonists begin to settle North Carolina. |
| 1653 |
Dutch colonists build a wall across lower Manhattan, from which Wall Street will get its name. |
| 1654 |
Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat collaborate on theories of probability. |
| 1654 |
French philosopher Blaise Pascal joins the Jansenist sect at Port-Royal. |
| 1654 |
Poland and Russia are at war over possession of the Ukraine. |
| 1654 |
Queen Christina of Sweden abdicates and becomes a Roman Catholic. |
| 1654 |
The Portuguese drive the Dutch from Brazil. |
| 1654 |
The Treaty of Westminster ends the first Anglo-Dutch War. |
| 1654 |
The first Jewish settlers in America arrive in New Amsterdam from Brazil. |
| 1655 |
Dutch colonists under Peter Stuyvesant seize Swedish settlements in Delaware. |
| 1655 |
The English capture Jamaica from Spain. |
| 1655 |
The Little Northern War begins with Sweden invading Poland and capturing Warsaw. |
| 1656 |
Diego Velazquez paints The Maids of Honor at the court of Spain. |
| 1656 |
Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza is expelled from the synagogue at Amsterdam. |
| 1656 |
Dutch philosopher Christiaan Huygens patents the first pendulum clock. |
| 1656 |
England joins France in the war against Spain. |
| 1656 |
Italian artist and architect Giovanni Bernini designs the Piazza of St. Peter’s, Rome. |
| 1656 |
Swedish forces under Charles X Gustavus invade Poland. |
| 1656 |
The Holy Roman Empire, Russia, and Denmark declare war on Sweden. |
| 1657 |
Otto von Guericke demonstrates that it is possible for a vacuum to exist. |
| 1657 |
The Swedes are driven out of Poland. |
| 1657 |
The Swedes attack Denmark and besiege Copenhagen. |
| 1658 |
Aurangzeb deposes his father Shah Jahan as Mogul emperor of India. |
| 1658 |
Dutch genre artist Jan Vermeer paints The Milkmaid. |
| 1658 |
Dutch naturalist Jan Swammerdam describes red blood cells. |
| 1658 |
French colonists found the city of Saint-Louis on the Senegal River in Africa. |
| 1658 |
Leopold I succeeds Ferdinand III as Holy Roman Emperor. |
| 1658 |
Oliver Cromwell dies; he is succeeded by his son Richard as lord protector of England. |
| 1659 |
French explorers Pierre Radisson and Medard Chouart des Groseilliers explore Minnesota. |
| 1659 |
Richard Cromwell resigns as lord protector of England. |
| 1659 |
The Peace of the Pyrenees ends a 24-year war between France and Spain. |
| 1660 |
Charles II is restored to the English throne by Parliament. |
| 1660 |
Dutch farmers (Boers) settle in South Africa. |
| 1660 |
English public servant Samuel Pepys begins his Diary. |
| 1660 |
Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, gains control of Prussia from Poland. |
| 1660 |
Louis XIV of France marries Marie Therese of Spain. |
| 1660 |
The Dutch found the first permanent settlement in New Jersey at Bergen (Jersey City). |
| 1660 |
The Bambara kingdom begins to flourish on the upper Niger about this time. |
| 1660 |
The Treaty of Copenhagen ends the war between Sweden and Denmark. |
| 1660 |
The Treaty of Oliva ends the war between Sweden, Poland, Austria, and Brandenburg. |
| 1660 |
The French establish the first European settlement in Wisconsin at present-day Ashland. |
| 1661 |
Charles II orders that Cromwell’s corpse be disinterred, hanged, and beheaded. |
| 1661 |
Chinese pirate Koxinga drives the Dutch from Formosa (Taiwan). |
| 1661 |
Emperor Kangxi succeeds to the throne in China. |
| 1661 |
The English acquire Bombay from Portugal. |
| 1661 |
The first Bible printed in North America is John Elliot’s translation into Algonquin. |
| 1662 |
Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoag Indians of Massachusetts and Rhode island, dies. |
| 1662 |
Charles II grants a charter to the Royal Society of London for Natural Knowledge. |
| 1662 |
France purchases Dunkerque from England. |
| 1662 |
French architect Andre Le Notre designs the gardens for the Palace of Versailles. |
| 1662 |
Robert Boyle develops his theory of gases (now known as Boyle’s Law). |
| 1662 |
The Portuguese surrender Tangier to England. |
| 1662 |
The Theatre Royal is built in Drury Lane, London. |
| 1662 |
Dutch artist Rembrandt paints The Syndics of the Cloth Guild. |
| 1663 |
Dutch genre artist Jan Steen paints the Woman Undressing. |
| 1663 |
The Ottoman Turks invade Hungary. |
| 1663 |
The colony of Carolina is established. |
| 1663 |
England’s Second Navigation Act forbids the colonies from trading with other European nations. |
| 1664 |
England seizes New Amsterdam from the Dutch, renaming it New York. |
| 1664 |
The Austrians defeat the Turks at Saint Gotthard and conclude a 20-year truce. |
| 1664 |
The French East India Company is founded. |
| 1664 |
The Dutch surrender Fort Orange (Albany) to the English. |
| 1664 |
The Trappist order of monks is founded at La Trappe in France. |
| 1665 |
An outbreak of the Great Plague begins in London. |
| 1665 |
Charles II succeeds Philip IV as king of Spain. |
| 1665 |
Dutch genre artist Gerard Ter Borch paints the Flea Hunt. |
| 1665 |
England and Portugal defeat Spain and establish Portuguese independence. |
| 1665 |
Jean Baptiste Colbert becomes minister of finance for Louis XIV. |
| 1665 |
Robert Hooke publishes his microscope observations in Micrographia. |
| 1665 |
The Portuguese invade the Kingdom of Kongo and kill the monarch Antonio I. |
| 1665 |
The Second Anglo-Dutch War begins. |
| 1665 |
The first horse race track in North America is constructed on Long Island. |
| 1666 |
British scientist Isaac Newton completes his theory of fluxional calculus. |
| 1666 |
Large sections of London are destroyed in the Great Fire. |
| 1666 |
Moliere’s play The Misanthrope is performed for the first time. |
| 1666 |
Puritans from Connecticut settle in New Jersey. |
| 1666 |
Sabbatai Zevi claims to be the messiah and founds a Jewish sect. |
| 1666 |
The Alawite dynasty assumes power in Morocco. |
| 1666 |
The French join the Dutch in the war with England. |
| 1667 |
English poet John Milton writes Paradise Lost. |
| 1667 |
Japanese poet Basho begins to compose his haiku poetry. |
| 1667 |
Louis XIV of France begins the War of Devolution and captures the Spanish Netherlands. |
| 1667 |
Louis XIV of France sponsors the first official Salon art exhibition at the Louvre. |
| 1667 |
Mexico City Cathedral is completed. |
| 1667 |
Suleiman succeeds Abbas II as shah of Persia (Iran). |
| 1667 |
The city of Brueckelen (Brooklyn) is chartered. |
| 1667 |
The Dutch acquire Suriname from the British in exchange for Manhattan. |
| 1667 |
The Dutch destroy the English fleet at anchor in the Medway River. |
| 1667 |
The Peace of Breda ends the war between the English, French, and Dutch. |
| 1667 |
The building of the Paris Observatory is begun. |
| 1668 |
A Triple Alliance of England, Sweden, and the Dutch Republic is formed against France. |
| 1668 |
The Treaties of Aix-la-Chapelle end the War of the Devolution. |
| 1668 |
By the Treaty of Lisbon Spain recognizes the independence of Portugal. |
| 1668 |
French fabulist Jean de La Fontaine begins publishing his Fables. |
| 1668 |
Jacques Marquette founds the first settlement in Michigan at Sault Sainte Marie. |
| 1668 |
King John II of Poland abdicates; he is succeeded by Michael Wisniowiecki. |
| 1669 |
German Alchemist Hennig Brandt makes phosphorus for the first time. |
| 1669 |
Louis Le Vau begins the expansion of the Palace of Versailles for Louis XIV. |
| 1669 |
Mount Etna erupts in Italy, killing 20,000. |
| 1669 |
Venice surrenders Crete to the Ottoman Turks. |
| 1670 |
English architect Sir Christopher Wren begins rebuilding Saint Paul’s Cathedral. |
| 1670 |
The Don Cossacks under Stenka Razin rebel against Russian rule. |
| 1670 |
The English establish a settlement at Charles Towne (Charleston), South Carolina. |
| 1670 |
The Hudson’s Bay Company is founded. |
| 1671 |
Buccaneers under Sir Henry Morgan capture the city of Panama. |
| 1671 |
French explorers claim the interior of North America for France. |
| 1672 |
Astronomer Giovanni Cassini becomes the first director of the Paris Observatory. |
| 1672 |
Grenades become an important weapon; the French army forms grenadier companies. |
| 1672 |
Jean Baptiste Lully produces the first French operas. |
| 1672 |
The French and British declare war on the Dutch, starting the Third Anglo-Dutch War. |
| 1672 |
William III prince of Orange leads the defense of the Netherlands. |
| 1673 |
Leibniz begins to develop his theories of differential and integral calculus. |
| 1673 |
Marquette and Jolliet explore the Great Lakes region and the Mississippi River. |
| 1673 |
The Polish army under John Sobieski defeats the Turks at Cochim (Khotin). |
| 1673 |
The Test Act excludes Catholics from public office in England. |
| 1673 |
The first regular mail service in North America is established between New York and Boston. |
| 1673 |
The Dutch recapture New York, but will only hold it for 6 months. |
| 1674 |
Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I declares war on France. |
| 1674 |
John Sobieski is elected as King John III of Poland. |
| 1674 |
Maratha leader Sivaji establishes a kingdom in Maharashtra, India. |
| 1674 |
The Dutch under William III make peace with England, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. |
| 1674 |
The Treaty of Westminster establishes New Yorkers as British subjects. |
| 1674 |
Father Marquette establishes a mission on the site of present-day Chicago. |
| 1675 |
Wampanoag and Nipmuck Indians under King Philip attack New England settlements . |
| 1675 |
Dutch-Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza finishes his Ethics. |
| 1675 |
English dramatist William Wycherley writes The Country Wife. |
| 1675 |
The Prussians under Frederick William defeat the Swedes at Fehrbellin. |
| 1675 |
Rhode Island settlers massacre more than 300 Narragansett Indian women and children. |
| 1675 |
The Royal Observatory is established at Greenwich. |
| 1676 |
German astronomer Ole Romer discovers the velocity of light. |
| 1676 |
Indians in New England are subdued after the year-long King Philip’s War. |
| 1676 |
The Sikhs under Guru Gobind Singh revolt against Mogul rule in India. |
| 1676 |
The Swedes defeat the Danes at the Battle of Lunden. |
| 1676 |
Much of Jamestown burns down during Bacon’s Rebellion, a revolt against the autocratic governor. |
| 1677 |
English author John Dryden writes the tragedy All for Love. |
| 1677 |
French dramatist Jean Racine writes the tragedy of Phedre. |
| 1677 |
William III prince of Orange marries Mary, daughter of the Duke of York. |
| 1678 |
French explorer Louis Hennepin discovers Niagara Falls. |
| 1678 |
John Bunyan publishes the first part of The Pilgrim’s Progress. |
| 1678 |
The Hungarians rebel against Habsburg rule. |
| 1678 |
The Treaty of Nijmegen establishes peace between France, the Dutch, and Spain. |
| 1679 |
The English Parliament passes the Habeas Corpus Act. |
| 1680 |
Antonio Stradivari opens his violin workshop in Cremona, Italy. |
| 1680 |
Sadler’s Wells theater opens in London. |
| 1680 |
The Comedie Francaise is founded in Paris. |
| 1681 |
Aurangzeb suppresses a Rajput revolt and campaigns against Hindu kingdoms in India. |
| 1681 |
English Quaker William Penn is granted the Providence of Pennsylvania. |
| 1681 |
John Dryden publishes his satirical poem Absalom and Achitophel. |
| 1681 |
The dodo, a large flightless bird, becomes extinct. |
| 1682 |
Edmond Halley observes the Great Comet, which is later named for him. |
| 1682 |
French explorer La Salle navigates the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. |
| 1682 |
Peter the Great succeeds Fyodor III as tsar of Russia. |
| 1682 |
The Palace of Versailles becomes the French royal residence. |
| 1682 |
The Spanish establish the first settlement in Texas at Yselta (near El Paso). |
| 1682 |
William Penn founds the city of Philadelphia. |
| 1683 |
Chinese emperor Kangxi conquers Formosa (Taiwan). |
| 1683 |
The Turks lay siege to Vienna but are defeated by Imperial and Polish forces. |
| 1683 |
Van Leeuwenhoek’s microscope drawings of Protozoa are published. |
| 1683 |
William Penn makes a peace treaty with the Delaware Indians. |
| 1683 |
German Mennonite settlers arrive in Philadelphia and found Germantown. |
| 1684 |
England abandons Tangier to the Moroccans. |
| 1684 |
La Salle claims Louisiana, a region from Quebec to the Gulf of Mexico, for France. |
| 1684 |
The Dutch whaling fleet at Spitsbergen (Svalbard) numbers 246 vessels. |
| 1685 |
Charles II of England dies; he is succeeded by his brother James II. |
| 1685 |
Increase Mather becomes president of Harvard College. |
| 1685 |
Japanese Bunraku (puppet theater) is performed in Osaka about this time. |
| 1685 |
Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes and exiles thousands of French Huguenots. |
| 1685 |
Rice cultivation begins in North America. |
| 1685 |
The Duke of Monmouth rebels against James II; he is captured and executed. |
| 1685 |
The Huguenots begin a silk industry in London and settle in the American colonies. |
| 1686 |
Henri de Tonty establishes the first European settlement in Arkansas. |
| 1686 |
The League of Augsburg is formed as a coalition of European states against France. |
| 1686 |
The Turks are expelled from Budapest by a Habsburg army. |
| 1687 |
English actress and royal mistress Nell Gwynne dies. |
| 1687 |
Isaac Newton publishes Principia, establishing his laws of motion and gravity. |
| 1687 |
James II issues a Declaration of Indulgence suspending the laws against Catholics. |
| 1687 |
The city of Lima, Peru, is virtually destroyed by an earthquake. |
| 1688 |
English Protestants demand a Glorious Revolution against Catholicism. |
| 1688 |
Insurance underwriters begin meeting at Lloyd’s Coffee House in London. |
| 1688 |
Louis XIV declares war on the Holy Roman Empire and captures Heidelberg. |
| 1688 |
William of Orange is invited to England as king; James II escapes to France. |
| 1689 |
British composer Henry Purcell writes the opera Dido and Aeneas. |
| 1689 |
Chinese emperor Kangxi establishes diplomatic relations with Russia. |
| 1689 |
England and the Netherlands join the Grand Alliance against France. |
| 1689 |
French and Indian allies attack English colonists during King William’s War. |
| 1689 |
William and Mary are proclaimed king and queen of England. |
| 1690 |
Benjamin Harris publishes the first American newspaper in Boston. |
| 1690 |
Philosopher John Locke publishes his Essay Concerning Human Understanding. |
| 1690 |
Spain joins the War of Grand Alliance against France. |
| 1690 |
The French defeat the English fleet at the Battle of Beachy Head. |
| 1690 |
William III defeats James II at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. |
| 1690 |
German settlers in Pennsylvania build the first paper mill in America. |
| 1690 |
In King William’s War, French and Indian forces burn Schenectady, New York. |
| 1691 |
The Irish rebellion ends with the Treaty of Limerick. |
| 1692 |
Port Royal in Jamaica is destroyed by an earthquake; the city of Kingston is founded. |
| 1692 |
The Macdonald clan are massacred by the Campbells at Glencoe in Scotland. |
| 1692 |
Witchcraft trials are held at Salem, Massachusetts; 20 people are executed. |
| 1693 |
James Blair founds William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia. |
| 1693 |
John Ray publishes the first major classification of animals. |
| 1694 |
The Academie Francaise introduces the first French national dictionary. |
| 1694 |
The Bank of England is founded. |
| 1696 |
Russia annexes the Kamchatka Peninsula. |
| 1696 |
Russian tsar Peter the Great captures Azov from the Turks. |
| 1696 |
The Chinese under Kangxi defeat the Dzungar Mongol chieftain Galdan. |
| 1696 |
William III of England campaigns in Holland against the French. |
| 1696 |
Spain establishes a colony at Pensacola in Florida. |
| 1697 |
Augustus II elector of Saxony becomes king of Poland. |
| 1697 |
French poet Charles Perrault publishes the Tales From Mother Goose. |
| 1697 |
Russian tsar Peter the Great sets out to study the European way of life. |
| 1697 |
The Habsburg army under Eugene of Savoy defeats the Turks at Zenta. |
| 1697 |
The Treaty of Ryswick ends the War of the Grand Alliance. |
| 1697 |
King William’s War in New England comes to an end. |
| 1697 |
Spain cedes the western third of Hispaniola (Haiti) to France. |
| 1698 |
Calcutta is founded by the British East India Company. |
| 1698 |
Russian tsar Peter the Great imposes a tax on beards. |
| 1698 |
Thomas Savery invents a water pump — the first practical application of steam power. |
| 1699 |
Austria, Russia, Poland, and Venice sign the Peace of Karlowitz treaty with Turkey. |
| 1699 |
Japanese master ceramicist Ogata Kenzan opens his kiln at Narutaki. |
| 1699 |
Peter the Great changes the Russian New Year from September 1 to January 1. |
| 1699 |
William Dampier explores the northwest coast of Australia. |
| 1699 |
The French establish colonies in Louisiana and Mississippi. |
| 1700 |
Charles II of Spain dies, ending the Spanish Habsburg line. |
| 1700 |
Johann Denner invents the clarinet about this time. |
| 1700 |
Kabuki Theater develops in Japan about this time. |
| 1700 |
Peter the Great’s Russian army is defeated by the Swedes at the Battle of Narva. |
| 1700 |
Philip V, grandson of Louis XIV, becomes the first Bourbon king of Spain. |
| 1700 |
The Great Northern War begins; Denmark, Poland, and Russia attack Sweden. |
| 1700 |
The Swedes under Charles XII defeat the Danes. |
| 1700 |
The population of the American colonies is approximately 275,000. |
| 1700 |
The rococo style is introduced into French architecture about this time. |
| 1701 |
Captain Kidd is hanged for piracy. |
| 1701 |
Frederick I Elector of Saxony proclaims himself the first king of Prussia. |
| 1701 |
Detroit is founded by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac. |
| 1701 |
The Act of Settlement in Britain establishes the Hanoverian succession to the throne. |
| 1701 |
The War of the Spanish Succession begins. |
| 1701 |
Yale University is founded in New Haven, Connecticut. |
| 1702 |
Anne succeeds William III as queen of England. |
| 1702 |
England declares war on France and Spain. |
| 1702 |
French fur traders found Vincennes, the first permanent European settlement in Indiana. |
| 1702 |
Queen Anne’s War begins in America; the British attack Saint Augustine in Florida. |
| 1702 |
The Camisards (French Huguenots) rebel in southern France. |
| 1702 |
The French under the duc de Villars defeat the Grand Alliance at Friedlingen. |
| 1702 |
The first daily newspaper The Daily Courant is published in London. |
| 1702 |
The colonies of East and West Jersey are combined to form the colony of New Jersey. |
| 1703 |
Archduke Charles of Austria claims the Spanish throne for the Habsburgs. |
| 1703 |
Buckingham Palace is rebuilt for the Duke of Buckingham in London. |
| 1703 |
Peter the Great lays the foundations of St. Petersburg (Leningrad). |
| 1704 |
Augustus II is deposed; Stanislaw I is crowned king of Poland. |
| 1704 |
Issac Newton publishes his theory of color and light in Opticks. |
| 1704 |
John Campbell founds the Boston News-Letter, the first successful American newspaper. |
| 1704 |
The Duke of Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy defeat the French at Blenheim. |
| 1704 |
The English capture Gibraltar from Spain. |
| 1704 |
The Indians and the French massacre British settlers in Deerfield, Mass. |
| 1705 |
Edmund Halley predicts that the comet of 1682 will return in 1758. |
| 1705 |
The English Navy occupies Barcelona. |
| 1706 |
Eugene of Savoy defeats the French at Turin and drives them from Italy. |
| 1706 |
The Duke of Marlborough conquers the Spanish Netherlands. |
| 1707 |
Emperor Aurangzeb dies; the Mogul empire begins to decline in India. |
| 1707 |
Great Britain is formed by the Act of Union between England and Scotland. |
| 1707 |
John V succeeds Peter II as king of Portugal. |
| 1707 |
Mount Fuji erupts in Japan; an earthquake kills 200,000 in Tokyo. |
| 1707 |
The British attack the French colony of Acadia (Nova Scotia). |
| 1707 |
The Duke of Berwick routs the allied forces at Almanza in Spain. |
| 1708 |
French forces under Vendome are defeated by Marlborough at Oudenarde. |
| 1708 |
Sikh leader Guru Gobind Singh is assassinated; the Moguls persecute the Sikhs. |
| 1708 |
The British capture the island of Minorca from Spain. |
| 1709 |
Abraham Darby builds a blast furnace using coke for casting iron. |
| 1709 |
Charles XII of Sweden flees to the Ottoman Empire. |
| 1709 |
Italian musician Bartolommeo Cristofori invents the piano. |
| 1709 |
Peter the Great defeats the Swedes at the Battle of Poltava. |
| 1709 |
The Duke of Marlborough defeats the French at the Battle of Malplaquet. |
| 1709 |
The world’s first Copyright Act becomes law in Britain. |
| 1710 |
Augustus II regains the Polish throne. |
| 1710 |
Charles XII persuades the Turks to attack Russia. |
| 1710 |
French forces under Vendome defeat the allies at Villaviciosa in Spain. |
| 1710 |
George Berkeley publishes a Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. |
| 1710 |
The British seize Acadia (Nova Scotia) from the French. |
| 1710 |
The Meissen porcelain factory is founded near Dresden in Germany. |
| 1711 |
Joseph I dies; Charles VI is crowned Holy Roman Emperor. |
| 1711 |
The French found the first permanent settlement in Alabama at Mobile. |
| 1711 |
The Tuscarora War begins in North Carolina when Indians massacre 130 colonists. |
| 1712 |
Carolina is divided into north and south colonies. |
| 1712 |
North and South Carolina militias kill 300 Tuscarora Indians. |
| 1712 |
English poet Alexander Pope publishes The Rape of the Lock. |
| 1712 |
The New England whaling industry expands rapidly with the hunting of sperm whales. |
| 1713 |
Emperor Charles VI issues the Pragmatic Sanction, allowing for a female heir. |
| 1713 |
France cedes Acadia (Nova Scotia) and Newfoundland to Britain. |
| 1713 |
Frederick William I succeeds Frederick I as king of Prussia. |
| 1713 |
Sicily is ceded to the House of Savoy; Victor Amadeus II is crowned as king. |
| 1713 |
Spain cedes Gibraltar and Minorca to Britain. |
| 1713 |
The Asiento Treaty establishes British rights to the African slave trade. |
| 1713 |
The Peace of Utrecht ends the War of Spanish Succession. |
| 1713 |
Queen Anne’s War, between England and France and Spain, ends. |
| 1714 |
German composer George Frideric Handel makes London his permanent home. |
| 1714 |
Queen Anne of England dies; she is succeeded by George I, Elector of Hanover. |
| 1714 |
Tea is introduced into the American colonies. |
| 1715 |
A Jacobite uprising supports James Edward as the Old Pretender to the British throne. |
| 1715 |
French King Louis XIV dies; he is succeeded by his five-year-old great-grandson Louis XV. |
| 1715 |
French author Alain Rene Lesage publishes the Adventures of Gil Blas. |
| 1715 |
Japan’s leading playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon writes The Battles of Coxinga. |
| 1715 |
Phillipe II Duc d’Orleans becomes regent of France. |
| 1715 |
The Yamasee Indians rebel against British settlers in South Carolina. |
| 1716 |
Holy Roman emperor Charles VI declares war on the Ottoman Empire. |
| 1716 |
South Carolina settlers defeat the Yamasee Indians. |
| 1716 |
The colonies’ first theater opens in Williamsburg, Virginia. |
| 1717 |
Eugene of Savoy captures Belgrade from the Turks. |
| 1717 |
French artist Antoine Watteau paints the Pilgrimage to Cythera. |
| 1717 |
John Law forms the Mississippi Company in France. |
| 1717 |
Spain seizes Sardinia and Sicily. |
| 1717 |
The first freemason lodge is formed in London. |
| 1718 |
Charles XII of Sweden is killed during a campaign against Norway. |
| 1718 |
Spain establishes the Viceroyalty of New Granada in South America. |
| 1718 |
Sultan Ahmed III concludes the Treaty of Passarowitz with the Holy Roman Empire. |
| 1718 |
The English pirate Blackbeard is killed by the Virginia militia. |
| 1718 |
The French found New Orleans in Louisiana. |
| 1718 |
The Spanish found San Antonio in Texas. |
| 1718 |
The Quadruple Alliance of Austria, Britain, France, and the Dutch declare war on Spain. |
| 1718 |
Voltaire writes the tragedy of Oedipe while imprisoned in the Bastille. |
| 1719 |
English writer Daniel Defoe publishes Robinson Crusoe. |
| 1719 |
Liechtenstein becomes an independent principality of the Holy Roman Empire. |
| 1719 |
Teams from London and Kent play one of the first cricket matches. |
| 1720 |
The Quadruple Alliance defeats Spain; Spain renounces all claims to Sicily and Sardinia. |
| 1720 |
Tibet becomes a protectorate of China. |
| 1720 |
Victor Amadeus II surrenders Sicily to Austria in exchange for Sardinia. |
| 1721 |
German composer Johann Sebastian Bach writes the Brandenburg Concertos. |
| 1721 |
Italian composer Alessandro Scarlatti writes his opera Griselda. |
| 1721 |
The French settle on the island of Mauritius. |
| 1721 |
The Great Northern War ends; Sweden loses most of her overseas possessions. |
| 1722 |
Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen discovers Samoa and Easter Island. |
| 1722 |
English author Daniel Defoe publishes Moll Flanders. |
| 1722 |
The Afghans invade Persia (Iran) and overthrow the Safavid rulers. |
| 1723 |
The first permanent school for American Indians is established at Williamsburg, Virginia. |
| 1724 |
The British build Fort Dummer, the first permanent European settlement in Vermont. |
| 1724 |
The Quakers make a statement opposing slavery. |
| 1724 |
The French expel Jewish settlers from Louisiana. |
| 1725 |
Danish explorer Vitus Bering begins his voyage in search of a Northeast Passage. |
| 1725 |
Francisco Romero establishes the current style of Spanish bullfighting. |
| 1725 |
Peter the Great dies; his wife Catherine I succeeds him as Empress of Russia. |
| 1726 |
Alexander Pope completes his translation of Homer’s Odyssey. |
| 1726 |
Cardinal Andre Fleury becomes chief advisor to Louis XV. |
| 1726 |
English satirist Jonathan Swift publishes Gulliver’s Travels. |
| 1726 |
The Spanish found Montevideo in Uruguay. |
| 1727 |
Catherine I dies; Peter II succeeds her as Emperor of Russia. |
| 1727 |
George II succeeds his father George I as king of Great Britain and Ireland. |
| 1727 |
The Spanish lay siege to Gibraltar. |
| 1728 |
Danish navigator Vitus Bering explores Bering Strait. |
| 1728 |
English poet and playwright John Gay writes The Beggar’s Opera. |
| 1728 |
James Gibbs’ Book of Architecture influences Colonial American designs. |
| 1728 |
John Harrison begins his development of an accurate chronometer. |
| 1729 |
Corsica rebels against Genoese rule. |
| 1729 |
Denmark assumes control of Greenland. |
| 1729 |
The city of Baltimore is founded in Maryland. |
| 1729 |
The city of Karachi is founded in India (now in Pakistan). |
| 1730 |
Canaletto paints the Basin of San Marco, one of his many views of Venice. |
| 1730 |
Construction of the Province-hall (now Independence Hall) begins in Philadelphia. |
| 1730 |
Peter II dies; he is succeeded by Anna as Empress of Russia. |
| 1731 |
French novelist Abbe Prevost writes Manon Lescaut. |
| 1731 |
John Hadley invents the quadrant for navigating at sea. |
| 1731 |
The Gentleman’s Magazine, the first magazine, is published in London. |
| 1732 |
Benjamin Franklin publishes Poor Richard’s Almanack in Philadelphia. |
| 1732 |
Covent Garden Opera House opens in London. |
| 1732 |
Nadir Shah expels the Afghans from Persia (Iran) and reinstates Safavid rule. |
| 1732 |
Nicola Salvi designs the Trevi Fountain in Rome. |
| 1732 |
William Hogarth completes his series of engravings The Harlot’s Progress. |
| 1733 |
James Oglethorpe founds Georgia, the last of the original 13 colonies.. |
| 1733 |
John Kay invents the flying shuttle to increase the speed of weaving machines. |
| 1733 |
Nadir Shah defeats the Turks and occupies Bagdhad. |
| 1733 |
Stanislaw I is elected king of Poland with the support of Louis XV of France. |
| 1733 |
The War of Polish Succession begins. |
| 1734 |
Stanislaw I is deposed; Augustus III is installed as king of Poland. |
| 1735 |
Antonio de Ulloa discovers the element platinum in South America. |
| 1735 |
George Hadley proposes the Hadley cell, a circulation system for the atmosphere. |
| 1736 |
Ch’ien-lung becomes emperor of China. |
| 1736 |
French artist Maurice Quentin de La Tour paints his Portrait of Voltaire. |
| 1736 |
Nadir assumes the title of Shah of Persia and founds the Afshar dynasty. |
| 1736 |
Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler begins writing his Mechanica. |
| 1737 |
William Mayo founds the city of Richmond, Virginia. |
| 1738 |
A porcelain factory is established in France at Vincennes; it moves later to Sevres. |
| 1738 |
Bernoulli publishes Hydrodynamica, stating his law of hydrodynamics. |
| 1738 |
George Whitefield precipitates the Great Awakening religious revival in America. |
| 1738 |
The Treaty of Vienna concludes the War of the Polish Succession; Stanislaw I abdicates. |
| 1738 |
The excavation of Herculaneum begins in Italy. |
| 1739 |
John Wesley founds the Methodist religious movement. |
| 1739 |
Mutilation of an English sea captain by the Spanish leads to the War of Jenkins’ Ear. |
| 1739 |
The British under Admiral Vernon raid Spanish settlements in the West Indies. |
| 1739 |
The Persians under Nadir Shah defeat the Mogul army and destroy Delhi. |
| 1740 |
Anna Empress of Russia dies; she is succeeded by Elizabeth in 1741. |
| 1740 |
Charles VI’s daughter Maria Theresa succeeds to the Austrian Habsburg empire. |
| 1740 |
English novelist Samuel Richardson writes Pamela; or Virtue Rewarded. |
| 1740 |
Frederick II (Frederick the Great) assumes the Prussian throne. |
| 1740 |
Frederick II of Prussia invades the Habsburg province of Silesia. |
| 1740 |
Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI dies; the War of the Austrian Succession begins. |
| 1740 |
Scottish philosopher David Hume writes his Treatise of Human Nature. |
| 1740 |
In the War of Jenkins’ Ear, British under James Oglethorpe attack Spanish possessions in Florida. |
| 1741 |
George Frideric Handel composes the Messiah. |
| 1741 |
Prussia forms an anti-Habsburg coalition with Bavaria, Spain, and France. |
| 1741 |
Danish navigator Vitus Bering, working for Russia, explores Alaska’s southwest coast. |
| 1742 |
A Spanish invasion of Georgia is defeated by British forces under James Oglethorpe. |
| 1742 |
Maria Theresa makes peace with Frederick II; Silesia is ceded to Prussia. |
| 1742 |
Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius invents the Celsius scale for temperature. |
| 1742 |
The anti-Habsburg coalition elects Charles VII as Holy Roman Emperor. |
| 1742 |
The cast iron Franklin stove is invented by Benjamin Franklin. |
| 1743 |
The first permanent bullring is built in Madrid. |
| 1744 |
King George’s War begins in North America between Britain and France. |
| 1744 |
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab founds the Wahhabi Muslim sect about this time. |
| 1745 |
Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) leads a second Jacobite rebellion. |
| 1745 |
Giovanni Piranesi begins his etchings of Carceri d’Invenzione (Imaginary Prisons). |
| 1745 |
Louis XV installs the Marquise de Pompadour as his official mistress. |
| 1745 |
Maria Theresa’s husband Francis succeeds Charles VII as Holy Roman Emperor. |
| 1745 |
In King George’s War, the British capture the French fortress of Louisburg in Canada. |
| 1745 |
The French under the Comte de Saxe defeat Austrian, English, and Dutch forces at Fontenoy. |
| 1745 |
The Treaty of Dresden confirms Prussian control of Silesia. |
| 1746 |
Britain and France struggle for the domination of India; France seizes Madras. |
| 1746 |
Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) is defeated at Culloden. |
| 1746 |
Ferdinand VI succeeds Philip V as king of Spain. |
| 1746 |
Princeton University is founded in New Jersey. |
| 1747 |
Nadir Shah of Persia (Iran) is assassinated. |
| 1747 |
The Ohio Company is formed to promote settlement west of the Appalachians. |
| 1747 |
The Pathans defeat the Persians; Ahmad Shah Sadozai founds a new dynasty. |
| 1748 |
English artist Thomas Gainsborough paints Robert Andrews and Mary, His Wife. |
| 1748 |
French political philosopher Montesquieu writes The Spirit of the Laws. |
| 1748 |
The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends King George’s War and the War of the Austrian Succession. |
| 1749 |
English novelist Henry Fielding writes Tom Jones. |
| 1749 |
Italian dramatist Carlo Goldoni writes La Putta honorata (The Respectable Girl). |
| 1749 |
The British found Halifax in Nova Scotia as a military base. |
| 1750 |
American frontiersman Christopher Gist explores the Ohio River region. |
| 1750 |
Thomas Walker finds the Cumberland Gap through the Appalachian Mountains. |
| 1750 |
Baal Shem Tov founds the Jewish sect of Hasidism about this time. |
| 1750 |
The Afshars are replaced by the Zand dynasty in Persia (Iran); Shiraz becomes the capital. |
| 1750 |
The Conestoga wagon develops in Pennsylvania about this time. |
| 1750 |
The neoclassical movement in art develops in Europe about this time. |
| 1750 |
The waltz becomes a popular dance in Europe about this time. |
| 1751 |
English novelist Tobias Smollett writes The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker. |
| 1751 |
Jean Etienne Guettard produces the first geological maps of France. |
| 1751 |
The Worcester Royal Porcelain Company is founded in England. |
| 1751 |
The first volume of Diderot’s Encyclopedie is published. |
| 1752 |
Benjamin Franklin proves that lightning is electricity and invents the lightning rod. |
| 1752 |
French artist Francois Boucher paints Mademoiselle O’Murphy. |
| 1752 |
Italian artist Tiepolo paints the Marriage of Frederick Barbarossa. |
| 1753 |
Swedish biologist Carolus Linnaeus publishes his system of plant classification. |
| 1753 |
The British Museum is founded in London. |
| 1753 |
The Liberty Bell is hung in the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall). |
| 1754 |
French attacks against the English in Ohio lead to the last French and Indian War. |
| 1754 |
Italian architect Rastrelli designs the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg (Leningrad). |
| 1754 |
The Royal and Ancient Golf Club is founded at Saint Andrews in Scotland. |
| 1754 |
Thomas Chippendale publishes The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Directory. |
| 1755 |
Adventurer and lover Casanova is arrested in Venice for witchcraft. |
| 1755 |
Pasquale Paoli founds an independent state in Corsica. |
| 1755 |
Samuel Johnson publishes his Dictionary of the English Language. |
| 1755 |
In the French and Indian War, the British are defeated by the French at Fort Duquesne. |
| 1755 |
The French population of Acadia (Nova Scotia) is deported by the British. |
| 1755 |
The Lisbon earthquake kills 50,000. |
| 1756 |
123 British soldiers are alleged to have died in the Black Hole of Calcutta in Bengal, India. |
| 1756 |
French general Montcalm captures Fort Oswego and Fort George in New York. |
| 1756 |
The Seven Years’ War begins with a Prussian attack on Austria. |
| 1756 |
William Pitt (the Elder) becomes prime minister of Britain. |
| 1757 |
Frederick II of Prussia defeats the Franco-Austrian army at Rossbach. |
| 1757 |
Robert Clive defeats the nawab of Bengal at the Battle of Plassey in India. |
| 1758 |
Americans and British regulars under General John Forbes capture Fort Duquesne. |
| 1758 |
The Burmese overthrow the Mons; Rangoon becomes the new capital of Burma. |
| 1758 |
The French under Montcalm defeat the British at Fort Ticonderoga. |
| 1759 |
French poet and dramatist Voltaire publishes his philosophical novel Candide. |
| 1759 |
Josiah Wedgwood establishes his first pottery works. |
| 1759 |
The Botanical Gardens are founded at Kew in London. |
| 1759 |
The British defeat the French at Niagara and Fort Ticonderoga. |
| 1759 |
The British under James Wolfe defeat Montcalm at Quebec and capture the city. |
| 1759 |
The Russians defeat Frederick II at Kunersdorf. |
| 1760 |
English novelist Laurence Sterne publishes the first volumes of Tristram Shandy. |
| 1760 |
George II dies; he is succeeded by his grandson George III as king of England. |
| 1760 |
The British capture Montreal, ending French resistance in North America. |
| 1760 |
The Russians invade Prussia and burn Berlin. |
| 1761 |
Franz Josef Haydn becomes court composer to Prince Esterhazy. |
| 1762 |
American Indian religious leader the Delaware Prophet is active in the Ohio Valley. |
| 1762 |
Britain seizes Cuba and the Philippines from Spain. |
| 1762 |
British animal painter George Stubbs completes the Horse Attacked by a Lion. |
| 1762 |
Catherine II (Catherine the Great) succeeds her husband as empress of Russia. |
| 1762 |
France cedes Louisiana to Spain to prevent British control of the region. |
| 1762 |
French philosopher Rousseau publishes The Social Contract and Emile. |
| 1762 |
Peter III succeeds Elizabeth as emperor of Russia, but is deposed and murdered. |
| 1762 |
The Russians end their alliance with Austria against Prussia. |
| 1762 |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart performs at the Imperial court in Vienna at age 6. |
| 1763 |
Augustus III dies; he is succeeded (1764) by Stanislaw II, the last king of Poland. |
| 1763 |
Britain returns Cuba and the Philippines to Spain in exchange for Florida. |
| 1765 |
Nine of the 13 colonies meet to petition King George III to repeal the Stamp Act. |
| 1763 |
France cedes Canada and all territories east of the Mississippi River to Britain. |
| 1763 |
France recognizes British dominance in India. |
| 1763 |
French forces withdraw from Germany; Prussia retains Silesia. |
| 1764 |
Ottawa chief Pontiac ends his uprising and surrenders to the British. |
| 1764 |
Bostonians denounce British Sugar and Currency Acts as “taxation without representation.” |
| 1763 |
The Ottawa chief Pontiac leads an uprising against the British. |
| 1763 |
The Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Years’ War and the French and Indian Wars. |
| 1763 |
The Wahhabi Saudis begin to establish control over Arabia. |
| 1764 |
German historian Johann Winckelmann publishes his History of the Art of Antiquity. |
| 1764 |
Thomas Chatterton forges the Rowley poems at the age of 12. |
| 1765 |
Francis I dies; he is succeeded by Joseph II as Holy Roman Emperor. |
| 1765 |
French artist Francois Boucher is appointed court painter to Louis XV. |
| 1765 |
The British Stamp Act imposes a tax on all publications in the American colonies. |
| 1765 |
The Quartering Act orders the colonies to provide housing for British soldiers. |
| 1765 |
Horace Walpole publishes his Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto. |
| 1765 |
Robert Clive is appointed governor of Bengal in India. |
| 1765 |
Samuel Adams helps to found the Sons of Liberty to oppose the Stamp Act. |
| 1765 |
Sir William Blackstone begins his Commentaries on the Laws of England. |
| 1765 |
The first American medical school is established; it will become the University of Pennsylvania’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. |
| 1766 |
Anglo-Irish author Oliver Goldsmith publishes The Vicar of Wakefield. |
| 1766 |
English chemist Henry Cavendish isolates hydrogen gas for the first time. |
| 1766 |
French artist Jean Honore Fragonard paints The Swing. |
| 1766 |
German dramatist and critic Gotthold Ephraim Lessing publishes Laocoon. |
| 1766 |
The Declaratory Act imposes Parliament’s right to make laws in the colonies. |
| 1766 |
The Nautical Almanac provides the first practical method for determining longitude. |
| 1766 |
The Stamp Act is repealed after strong opposition from American colonists. |
| 1767 |
German composer Christoph Willibald Gluck writes his opera Alceste. |
| 1767 |
German-Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn publishes Phaedon. |
| 1767 |
The Burmese destroy the Siam capital of Ayutthaya; the Bangkok Period begins. |
| 1767 |
The Mason-Dixon line establishes the Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary. |
| 1767 |
The Townshend Acts impose a tax on imports to North America. |
| 1768 |
Genoa sells its rights in Corsica to France. |
| 1768 |
Joshua Reynolds becomes the first president of the Royal Academy in London. |
| 1768 |
Louis Antoine de Bougainville claims the Pacific island of Tahiti for France. |
| 1768 |
The Russo-Turkish War, which ended in 1711, is renewed. |
| 1768 |
The first weekly numbers of the Encyclopaedia Britannica are issued. |
| 1769 |
American pioneer Daniel Boone explores a route through the Cumberland Gap. |
| 1769 |
French forces in Corsica defeat Pasquale Paoli; Corsica becomes a province of France. |
| 1769 |
James Watt patents a condenser to improve the performance of steam engines. |
| 1769 |
Ottawa Indian chief Pontiac is assassinated by a Peoria Indian. |
| 1769 |
Richard Arkwright invents a spinning frame to mechanize cotton weaving. |
| 1769 |
The Comtesse du Barry becomes the official mistress to Louis XV. |
| 1769 |
The Gurkhas conquer Nepal. |
| 1769 |
The Spanish establish a base at San Diego for the exploration of California. |
| 1770 |
A brawl between British troops and colonists leads to the Boston Massacre. |
| 1770 |
British explorer James Bruce discovers the source of the Blue Nile. |
| 1770 |
English artist Thomas Gainsborough paints The Blue Boy. |
| 1770 |
English navigator James Cook explores New Zealand and the east coast of Australia. |
| 1770 |
Lord North becomes prime minister of Britain. |
| 1770 |
Louis, the future king of France, marries Marie Antoinette. |
| 1770 |
The British Parliament repeals the Townshend Acts. |
| 1770 |
Thomas Jefferson begins building Monticello, his house in Virginia. |
| 1771 |
Governor William Tryon defeats the Regulators (dissident farmers) in North Carolina. |
| 1771 |
Gustav III succeeds his father as king of Sweden. |
| 1772 |
American artist Benjamin West paints The Death of Wolfe. |
| 1772 |
English artist Joshua Reynolds paints a Portrait of Samuel Johnson. |
| 1772 |
Poland is partitioned among Russia, Prussia, and Austria. |
| 1773 |
American colonists throw British tea into Boston Harbor during the Boston Tea Party. |
| 1773 |
Anglo-Irish author Oliver Goldsmith writes the play She Stoops to Conquer. |
| 1773 |
Calcutta is established as the capital of British India. |
| 1773 |
Don Cossack Yemelian Pugachev leads the Peasant’s Revolt in Russia. |
| 1773 |
Pope Clement XIV persecutes the Jesuits. |
| 1773 |
Captain James Cook becomes the first person to sail across the Antarctic Circle. |
| 1774 |
Britain passes the Intolerable Acts and closes the port of Boston. |
| 1774 |
British scientist Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen. |
| 1774 |
Edmund Burke’s speech On American Taxation defends the colony’s rights. |
| 1774 |
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe publishes The Sorrows of Young Werther. |
| 1774 |
Louis XV dies; he is succeeded by his grandson Louis XVI as king of France. |
| 1774 |
The Quebec Act grants religious liberty to Roman Catholics in Canada. |
| 1774 |
The Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji ends the Russo-Turkish War. |
| 1774 |
The first Continental Congress meets and condemns Britain’s Intolerable Acts. |
| 1774 |
Massachusetts militiamen raid the British arsenal at Portsmouth. |
| 1775 |
American patriot Patrick Henry states “Give me liberty, or give me death.” |
| 1775 |
Americans under Montgomery occupy Montreal, but fail to capture Quebec. |
| 1775 |
British troops and colonial militia clash at Lexington, starting the American Revolution. |
| 1775 |
British troops suffer heavy losses at the Battle of Bunker Hill. |
| 1775 |
Paul Revere rides to Lexington to warn of approaching British troops. |
| 1775 |
The Continental Congress chooses George Washington to head the Continental Army. |
| 1775 |
The Continental Navy and Continental Marines are established. |
| 1775 |
Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys capture the British arsenal at Fort Ticonderoga. |
| 1775 |
The Continental Congress establishes a Post Office Department. |
| 1775 |
King George III declares the colonies to be in rebellion. |
| 1775 |
Daniel Boone blazes the Wilderness Road through the Allegheny Mountains. |
| 1775 |
Indians destroy the Spanish mission at San Diego. |
| 1776 |
Ann Lee establishes a Shaker community at Wartervliet in New York. |
| 1776 |
British forces are evacuated from Boston. |
| 1776 |
British forces bombard Charleston harbor but are repulsed. |
| 1776 |
David Bushnell’s submarine the Turtle makes an abortive attack on British ships. |
| 1776 |
Economist Adam Smith publishes the Wealth of Nations. |
| 1776 |
Edward Gibbon publishes the first volume of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. |
| 1776 |
Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin organizes the Russian Black Sea fleet. |
| 1776 |
Howe defeats Washington at White Plains. |
| 1776 |
The British under General William Howe defeat Washington on Long Island. |
| 1776 |
The Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence. |
| 1776 |
Thomas Paine publishes his Revolutionary War pamphlet Common Sense. |
| 1776 |
Washington defeats British forces at Trenton. |
| 1776 |
Washington retreats across the Delaware River. |
| 1776 |
The British occupy New York City. |
| 1776 |
The Spanish establish a missionary at San Francisco. |
| 1776 |
The Spanish found their first settlement in Colorado. |
| 1776 |
North Carolina becomes the first colony to declare its independence. |
| 1776 |
The Continental Congress changes the name of the country from United Colonies to United States. |
| 1776 |
The Phi Betta Kappa Society is founded. |
| 1777 |
Burgoyne capitulates to Horatio Gates’ American forces at Saratoga. |
| 1777 |
Christianity is introduced into Korea. |
| 1777 |
French chemist Lavoisier proves that air is composed of oxygen and nitrogen. |
| 1777 |
General John Burgoyne captures Ticonderoga and defeats the Americans in Pennsylvania. |
| 1777 |
The British under Howe capture Philadelphia, forcing Congress to flee. |
| 1777 |
The British under Howe defeat Washington’s Continental Army at Brandywine Creek. |
| 1777 |
The Continental Congress adopts the Stars and Stripes as the American flag. |
| 1777 |
The Marquis de Lafayette offers his services to the Continental Congress. |
| 1777 |
Washington’s Continental Army spends a hard winter at Valley Forge. |
| 1777 |
Washington defeats Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton. |
| 1777 |
The Continental Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation. |
| 1777 |
France recognizes the independence of the 13 colonies. |
| 1777 |
The first American edition of the Bible in English is published. |
| 1778 |
France enters the American War of Independence in support of the colonies. |
| 1778 |
Franz Anton Mesmer treats patients using magnetism and hypnotism. |
| 1778 |
John Singleton Copley paints Watson and the Shark. |
| 1778 |
La Scala opera house opens in Milan, Italy. |
| 1778 |
Portugal transfers its rights in Equatorial Guinea to Spain. |
| 1778 |
Captain James Cook reaches the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands. |
| 1778 |
The British capture Savannah. |
| 1779 |
American forces under Gen. John Sullivan campaign against the Iroquois on the New York border. |
| 1779 |
John Paul Jones, aboard the Bonhomme Richard, successfully attacks British shipping. |
| 1779 |
British explorer James Cook is killed by natives on Hawaii. |
| 1779 |
George Rogers Clark recaptures Vincennes from the British. |
| 1779 |
The British capture Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia. |
| 1779 |
Spain declares war on Great Britain. |
| 1779 |
Samuel Crompton develops his spinning mule for England’s cotton industry. |
| 1779 |
Samuel Johnson begins writing The Lives of the Poets |
| 1779 |
Spain declares war on Britain and lays siege to Gibraltar. |
| 1779 |
War breaks out between Dutch settlers and the Xhosas in South Africa. |
| 1780 |
Americans under Horatio Gates are defeated by Cornwallis at Camden, S.C. |
| 1780 |
British forces invade North Carolina. |
| 1780 |
Andre’s capture exposes Benedict Arnold’s plot to surrender West Point. |
| 1780 |
The American Academy of Arts and Science is founded. |
| 1780 |
English spy John Andre is caught and executed by the Americans. |
| 1780 |
Francis Marion and Thomas Sumter lead guerrilla forces against the British in South Carolina. |
| 1780 |
Luigi Galvani begins experiments on the effect of electricity on nerves and muscles. |
| 1780 |
Maria Theresa dies; Joseph II inherits the crown of Bohemia and Hungary. |
| 1780 |
Peruvian Indians under Tupac Amaru revolt against Spanish rule. |
| 1780 |
The British under Clinton occupy Charleston, S.C. and capture the garrison. |
| 1780 |
The Derby horse race is established in England. |
| 1781 |
American forces under Daniel Morgan defeat the British at the Battle of Cowpens. |
| 1781 |
Spanish forces take West Florida from the British. |
| 1781 |
A French fleet cripples a British fleet in Chesapeake Bay. |
| 1781 |
English astronomer William Herschel discovers the planet Uranus. |
| 1781 |
German philosopher Immanuel Kant publishes his Critique of Pure Reason. |
| 1781 |
The British defeat Hyder Ali the Muslim ruler of Mysore (now Karnataka) in India. |
| 1781 |
The British under Cornwallis surrender to the Americans at Yorktown. |
| 1781 |
The French aid Washington in the siege of Yorktown. |
| 1782 |
Kamehameha I begins a ten-year war for control of Hawaii. |
| 1782 |
Peace talks open in Paris between Britain and America. |
| 1782 |
The Spanish complete their conquest of Florida. |
| 1782 |
In the last battle of the American Revolution, George Rogers Clark attacks the Shawnee in Ohio. |
| 1782 |
Massachusetts makes slavery illegal. |
| 1782 |
Rama I founds the Chakkri dynasty in Siam (Thailand) with Bangkok as its capital. |
| 1782 |
The design for the Great Seal of the United States is adopted by the Continental Congress. |
| 1782 |
Tippu Sultan succeeds his father as ruler of Mysore (now Karnataka) in India. |
| 1783 |
An earthquake kills 30,000 people at Calabria in Italy. |
| 1783 |
Britain recognizes the independence of the United States at the Treaty of Paris. |
| 1783 |
Congress formally proclaims an end to the American Revolution. |
| 1783 |
British forces abandon New York, their last stronghold in North America. |
| 1783 |
Washington resigns as commander in chief of the Continental Army. |
| 1783 |
French scientist Jacques Charles demonstrates the first hydrogen-inflated balloon. |
| 1783 |
Russia gains control of the Crimea after three centuries of Turkish rule. |
| 1783 |
The British return Florida to Spain under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. |
| 1783 |
The Montgolfier brothers make the first manned flight in a hot air balloon. |
| 1783 |
William Pitt (the Younger) becomes prime minister of Britain at age 24. |
| 1784 |
American inventor Oliver Evans develops the first automated flour mill. |
| 1784 |
French dramatist Caron de Beaumarchais writes the Marriage of Figaro. |
| 1784 |
French neoclassical artist Jacques Louis David paints The Oath of Horatii. |
| 1784 |
Grigory Shelekhov founds the first Russian colony in America at Kodiak Island, Alaska. |
| 1784 |
Thomas Jefferson’s proposes a ban on slavery in the western territories. |
| 1784 |
Slavery is abolished in Connecticut and Rhode Island. |
| 1784 |
The Methodist Church is organized in the United States. |
| 1785 |
English poet William Cowper publishes The Task. |
| 1785 |
French navigator La Perouse sails to the Pacific to find the Northwest Passage. |
| 1785 |
Jean Pierre Blanchard makes the first balloon flight across the English Channel. |
| 1785 |
New York City becomes the temporary capital of the United States. |
| 1785 |
Newspaper publisher John Walter founds The Times of London. |
| 1785 |
Slavery is abolished in New York. |
| 1786 |
Daniel Shays leads a rebellion against the state government in Massachusetts. |
| 1786 |
Francisco de Goya becomes court painter to Charles III of Spain. |
| 1786 |
Frederick II dies; he is succeeded by his son Frederick William II as king of Prussia. |
| 1786 |
Robert Burns publishes Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. |
| 1786 |
Singapore, Penang, and Melaka are ceded to Britain as the Straits Settlements. |
| 1786 |
Swiss climbers make the first ascent of Mount Blanc. |
| 1786 |
Slavery is abolished in New Jersey. |
| 1787 |
Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison write the first Federalist essays. |
| 1787 |
American inventor John Fitch launches a steam-powered ferry boat on the Delaware. |
| 1787 |
Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart writes the opera Don Giovanni. |
| 1787 |
Royall Tyler’s The Contrast becomes the first stage comedy to be produced in the U.S. |
| 1787 |
The British found Freetown and establish Sierra Leone as a colony for freed slaves. |
| 1787 |
The Constitutional Convention meets in Philadelphia and draws up the U.S. Constitution. |
| 1787 |
The Continental Congress excludes slavery from the Northwest Territory. |
| 1787 |
Delaware ratifies the Constitution and becomes the first state of the Union. |
| 1787 |
Pennsylvania and New Jersey ratify the Constitution and become the second and third states of the Union. |
| 1787 |
Turkey declares war on Russia, beginning a new Russo-Turkish War. |
| 1783 |
The last of some 100,000 Loyalists leave the United States for Canada and Europe. |
| 1788 |
Austria joins Russia in the war against Turkey. |
| 1788 |
Captain Arthur Phillip founds the first Australian penal colony at Sydney Cove. |
| 1788 |
The U.S. Constitution comes into force when New Hampshire becomes the 9th state to ratify it. |
| 1788 |
Georgia, Connecticut, and Massachusetts become the 4th, 5th, and 6th states. |
| 1788 |
Maryland and South Carolina become the 7th and 8th states. |
| 1788 |
Virginia and New York become the 10th and 11th states. |
| 1788 |
French physicist Lagrange publishes his Analytical Mechanics. |
| 1788 |
Mozart composes 3 symphonies: E-flat, G minor and Jupiter in less than 7 weeks. |
| 1788 |
Swedish forces under Gustav III attack Russia. |
| 1789 |
A National Assembly is declared in France, ending the power of the Estates-General. |
| 1789 |
Alexander Hamilton becomes the first U.S. secretary of the treasury. |
| 1789 |
Austrian forces capture Belgrade from the Turks. |
| 1789 |
English poet and artist William Blake publishes Songs of Innocence. |
| 1789 |
French sculptor Jean Antoine Houdon makes busts of Jefferson and Washington. |
| 1789 |
Jeremy Bentham publishes An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. |
| 1789 |
Louis XVI is forced to capitulate; France becomes a constitutional monarchy. |
| 1789 |
Mutinous sailors seize H.M.S. Bounty and take refuge on Pitcairn Island. |
| 1789 |
The Federalist party is formed by supporters of the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. |
| 1789 |
North Carolina becomes the 12th state of the Union. |
| 1789 |
The French National Assembly formulates a Declaration of the Rights of Man. |
| 1789 |
The U.S. State Department is established. |
| 1789 |
The U.S. War Department is established. |
| 1789 |
The French Revolution begins with an attack on the Bastille. |
| 1789 |
The Supreme Court of the United States is founded with John Jay as Chief Justice. |
| 1789 |
The Tammany Hall political organization is founded in New York. |
| 1789 |
The first session of the U.S. Congress convenes. |
| 1789 |
The first national Thanksgiving Day is celebrated in the U.S. |
| 1789 |
Tippu Sultan begins the Third Mysore War against the British in India. |
| 1789 |
Washington is inaugurated as the first U.S. president; John Adams becomes vice-president. |
| 1790 |
Leopold II succeeds Joseph II as Holy Roman Emperor. |
| 1790 |
New England captains extend whaling into the Pacific Ocean about this time. |
| 1790 |
Philadelphia replaces New York as the temporary capital of the U.S. |
| 1790 |
Sweden and Russia sign a peace treaty. |
| 1790 |
The New York Stock Exchange is founded. |
| 1790 |
The bolero Spanish dance is introduced about this time. |
| 1790 |
Rhode Island becomes the 13th state and the last to ratify the Constitution. |
| 1790 |
The first U.S. copyright law is promulgated. |
| 1790 |
The first U.S. census places the population at 3.9 million. |
| 1791 |
Austria returns Belgrade to the Turks. |
| 1793 |
Congress enacts the first Fugitive Slave Act. |
| 1793 |
George Washington starts his second term as president; John Adams is vice-president. |
| 1791 |
Chinese author Ts’ao Hsueh-ch’in publishes The Dream of the Red Chamber. |
| 1791 |
Emperor Joseph II ends the war between Austria and Turkey. |
| 1791 |
James Boswell publishes his Life of Samuel Johnson. |
| 1791 |
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are captured while trying to leave France. |
| 1791 |
Marquis de Sade writes the novel Justine from his prison cell. |
| 1791 |
Miami Indian chief Little Turtle defeats an American force in Ohio Territory. |
| 1791 |
Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute is performed for the first time. |
| 1791 |
Pierre Charles L’Enfant designs the new U.S. capital of Washington, D.C. |
| 1791 |
The Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution) is ratified. |
| 1791 |
The First Bank of the United States is founded. |
| 1791 |
The Province of Quebec is divided into Upper Canada and Lower Canada. |
| 1791 |
Thomas Paine publishes The Rights of Man in defense of the French Revolution. |
| 1791 |
Thomas Sheraton publishes The Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book. |
| 1791 |
Toussaint l’Ouverture leads a slave revolt in Haiti against the French. |
| 1791 |
Vermont becomes the 14th state of the Union. |
| 1791 |
African-American scientist Benjamin Banneker helps survey District of Columbia boundaries. |
| 1792 |
Architect James Hoban wins the competition to design the White House. |
| 1792 |
Charles Bulfinch designs the Connecticut State House (now Hartford City Hall). |
| 1792 |
France declares war on Austria and Prussia, beginning the French Revolutionary Wars. |
| 1792 |
George Washington is reelected as president. |
| 1792 |
Denmark becomes the first country to give up the slave trade. |
| 1792 |
The first U.S. mint opens in Philadelphia. |
| 1792 |
German philosopher Fichte writes an Essay toward a Critique of All Revelations. |
| 1792 |
Gustav III of Sweden is assassinated at a masquerade in Stockholm. |
| 1792 |
Jefferson leads the Democratic-Republican party in opposition to the Federalists. |
| 1792 |
Kentucky becomes the 15th state of the Union. |
| 1792 |
Mary Wollstonecraft publishes A Vindication of the Rights of Women. |
| 1792 |
New insurrections begin in France; Louis XVI is imprisoned by the Commune of Paris. |
| 1792 |
Russia and Prussia invade Poland, which is still recovering from the Partition of 1772. |
| 1792 |
Swiss scientist Aime Argand develops a practical oil lamp using a tubular wick. |
| 1792 |
The Columbia River is discovered by Boston trader Robert Gray. |
| 1792 |
The French Republic adopts the guillotine as a uniform method of execution. |
| 1792 |
The French under Dumouriez halt the Prussians and defeat the Austrians at Jemappes. |
| 1792 |
The National Convention proclaims France a republic. |
| 1792 |
The Treaty of Jasso ends the Russo-Turkish War. |
| 1792 |
The dollar is selected as the U.S. unit of currency. |
| 1792 |
Thomas Paine publishes the Rights of Man and is outlawed for treason in England. |
| 1793 |
Britain, Holland, Spain, and Sardinia form a new anti-French coalition. |
| 1793 |
Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin. |
| 1793 |
France adopts the metric system of measurement. |
| 1793 |
France raises the first national army of conscripts to oppose the Coalition forces. |
| 1793 |
French revolutionary Jean Paul Marat is murdered by Charlotte Corday. |
| 1793 |
George Washington lays the cornerstone for the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. |
| 1793 |
Jean Pierre Blanchard makes the first U.S. balloon flight in Philadelphia. |
| 1793 |
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are executed; the Reign of Terror begins in France. |
| 1793 |
Russia and Prussia seize Polish lands as part of the Second Partition of Poland. |
| 1794 |
French engineer Claude Chappe invents the semaphore signaling system. |
| 1794 |
Jay’s Treaty settles disputes between Britain and the U.S. |
| 1794 |
Militia under General Henry Lee suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania. |
| 1794 |
Robespierre’s execution ends the Reign of Terror in France; the Thermidorian Reaction begins. |
| 1794 |
Tadeusz Kosciuszko leads a revolt of Polish peasants against Russia. |
| 1794 |
The British occupy the French island of Corsica for a two-year period. |
| 1794 |
The Qajar (Kajar) dynasty is founded in Persia (Iran). |
| 1794 |
U.S. forces under Anthony Wayne defeat the Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. |
| 1795 |
American artist Charles Wilson Peale paints the Staircase group. |
| 1795 |
Austrian composer Franz Josef Haydn completes the 12 London symphonies. |
| 1795 |
France claims the island of Hispaniola. |
| 1795 |
Napoleon Bonaparte defeats the insurrectionists in Paris. |
| 1795 |
Prussia and Spain sue for peace with France. |
| 1795 |
Scottish explorer Mungo Park reaches the Gambia and Niger Rivers. |
| 1795 |
Scottish geologist James Hutton publishes his Theory of the Earth. |
| 1795 |
Spain recognizes U.S. claims to West Florida (Mississippi). |
| 1795 |
Stanislaw II abdicates as the last king of Poland. |
| 1795 |
The British capture Cape Province (South Africa) from the Dutch. |
| 1795 |
The United States agrees to ransom seamen captured by the Barbary pirates. |
| 1795 |
The Constitution of 1795 establishes a Directory to rule France. |
| 1795 |
The Methodists separate from the Church of England. |
| 1795 |
The final Partition of Poland is made among Russia, Prussia and Austria. |
| 1796 |
English physician Edward Jenner develops vaccination against smallpox. |
| 1796 |
George Washington gives his farewell address. |
| 1796 |
Gilbert Stuart paints a portrait of Washington (used later on the dollar bill). |
| 1796 |
John Adams is elected as the 2nd U.S. president. |
| 1796 |
Napoleon defeats the Austrian and Sardinian armies in Italy. |
| 1796 |
Napoleon marries Josephine, the widow of the vicomte de Beauharnais. |
| 1796 |
Napoleon restores Corsica to French rule. |
| 1796 |
Samuel Hahnemann publishes his findings on homeopathic treatment. |
| 1796 |
Spain sides with France in the war against Britain. |
| 1796 |
Tennessee becomes the 16th state of the Union. |
| 1796 |
The British seize Ceylon (Sri Lanka) from the Dutch. |
| 1796 |
The city of Cleveland is founded. |
| 1797 |
Austria cedes the Austrian Netherlands (present-day Belgium) to France. |
| 1797 |
David Thompson surveys the Mississippi headwaters for the North West Company. |
| 1797 |
Nelson defeats the Spanish fleet at Cape St. Vincent, and the Dutch at Camperdown. |
| 1797 |
The British capture the Spanish colony of Trinidad. |
| 1797 |
The Directory appoints Talleyrand as minister of foreign affairs for France. |
| 1797 |
The Treaty of Campo Formio ends the war of the First Coalition against France. |
| 1797 |
The Venetian Republic is dissolved; Venice is ruled by Austria. |
| 1798 |
America’s first professional author, Charles Brockden Brown, publishes Wieland. |
| 1798 |
Britain, Austria, Russia, and Turkey form a Second Coalition against France. |
| 1798 |
Economist Thomas Malthus publishes An Essay on the Principle of Population. |
| 1798 |
Eli Whitney uses early mass production techniques to manufacture muskets. |
| 1798 |
French armies occupy Rome and invade Switzerland, creating the Helvetic Republic. |
| 1798 |
Napoleon’s army invades Egypt and defeats the Mamelukes at the Battle of the Pyramids. |
| 1798 |
The French fleet is destroyed by Nelson at Abukir Bay, cutting off Napoleon’s forces in Egypt. |
| 1798 |
The U.S. Congress passes the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts. |
| 1798 |
The XYZ Affair leads to the Quasi War between France and the U.S. |
| 1798 |
The territory of Mississippi becomes part of the United States. |
| 1798 |
The U.S. Congress creates the Department of the Navy. |
| 1798 |
William Wordsworth publishes Lyrical Ballads with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. |
| 1799 |
A 33,000 year-old frozen mammoth is discovered at the Lena River in Russia. |
| 1799 |
Britain becomes the first nation to introduce a national income tax. |
| 1799 |
City Hotel, the first American structure designed as a hotel, opens in New York. |
| 1799 |
Napoleon attacks Syria to prevent a Turkish invasion of Egypt, but is defeated at Acre. |
| 1799 |
Napoleon returns to France as first consul; the Consulate replaces the Directory. |
| 1799 |
Ranjit Singh establishes a Sikh kingdom in northwest India. |
| 1799 |
Russian forces under Suvorov defeat the French in Italy, but are held at Zurich. |
| 1799 |
The Rosetta Stone, the key to deciphering hieroglyphics, is discovered in Egypt. |
| 1799 |
The Russian-American Company is founded to administer the Alaskan fur trade. |
| 1799 |
Tippu Sultan is killed in battle with the British; the Mysore empire is destroyed. |
| 1799 |
George Washington dies. |
| 1800 |
Black slave Gabriel leads an abortive uprising near Richmond, Virginia. |
| 1800 |
France regains Louisiana from Spain under the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso. |
| 1800 |
Italian physicist Alessandro Volta invents the first electric battery. |
| 1800 |
Jefferson defeats Adams in the U.S. presidential election, but ties with Burr. |
| 1800 |
Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman) arrives in the Ohio River valley around this time. |
| 1800 |
Madame de Stael publishes The Influence of Literature Upon Society. |
| 1800 |
Napoleon commissions Cambaceres to develop the Napoleonic Code of law. |
| 1800 |
Napoleon defeats the Austrians at the Battle of Marengo. |
| 1800 |
The Library of Congress is founded in Washington D.C. |
| 1800 |
The seat of U.S. government is transferred to Washington, D.C. |
| 1800 |
The census of 1800 puts the U.S. population at about 5.3 million. |
| 1800 |
The U.S. Congress establishes the Library of Congress. |
| 1801 |
Alexander I becomes emperor of Russia after the murder of his father Paul I. |
| 1801 |
Barbary pirates begin the Tripolitan War; a U.S. squadron sails to the Mediterranean. |
| 1801 |
The Act of Union unites Britain and Ireland. |
| 1801 |
John Marshall is appointed chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. |
| 1801 |
Chemists Proust and Berthollet debate the constancy of chemical composition. |
| 1801 |
Thomas Jefferson is selected as the 3rd U.S. president; Aaron Burr is vice-president. |
| 1801 |
Nelson defeats the Danish fleet at Copenhagen. |
| 1801 |
Robert Fulton demonstrates his 3-man submarine the Nautilus. |
| 1801 |
The British defeat Napoleon’s army of Egypt at Alexandria. |
| 1801 |
The Peace of Luneville ends the war between France and Austria. |
| 1801 |
The Union Jack becomes the official flag of the United Kingdom. |
| 1801 |
Alexander Hamilton founds The New York [Evening] Post. |
| 1802 |
Alexander von Humboldt climbs Mt. Chimborazo, setting a world height record. |
| 1802 |
American artist Benjamin West paints Death on a Pale Horse. |
| 1802 |
Britain returns the island of Minorca to Spain. |
| 1802 |
Napoleon is created First Consul for life. |
| 1802 |
The French capture Haitian leader Toussaint, but are defeated by Christophe. |
| 1802 |
The Treaty of Amiens brings a temporary halt to the French Revolutionary Wars. |
| 1802 |
The U.S. Military Academy is founded at West Point, New York. |
| 1803 |
Britain declares war on France, beginning the Napoleonic Wars. |
| 1803 |
English scientist John Dalton describes his atomic theory. |
| 1803 |
The U.S. buys Louisiana from France, doubling the size of the country. |
| 1803 |
Matthew Flinders completes the first circumnavigation of Australia. |
| 1803 |
Ohio is inaugurated as the l7th state of the Union. |
| 1803 |
The Enabling Act permits territories organized under the Ordinance of 1787 to become states. |
| 1803 |
Robert Emmet leads an Irish rebellion in Dublin; he is captured and executed. |
| 1804 |
American politician Aaron Burr kills Alexander Hamilton in a duel. |
| 1804 |
Dessalines declares Haitian independence and names himself Emperor Jacques I. |
| 1804 |
English engineer Richard Trevithick builds the first steam locomotive. |
| 1804 |
Francis II assumes the title of emperor of Austria. |
| 1804 |
Fulani leader Usman dan Fodio leads a holy war against the Hausa in Nigeria. |
| 1804 |
Jefferson is reelected as U.S. president. |
| 1804 |
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark begin exploring the American northwest. |
| 1804 |
Napoleon crowns himself emperor of France. |
| 1804 |
Serbian nationalists revolt against the Turks. |
| 1804 |
The Code of Napoleon goes into force. |
| 1804 |
Stephen Decatur leads a U.S. Navy skirmish into Tripoli harbor. |
| 1805 |
American explorers Lewis and Clark reach the Pacific Ocean. |
| 1805 |
Austria sues for peace with France at the Treaty of Pressburg. |
| 1805 |
Britain, Austria, Russia, and Sweden form a Third Coalition against France. |
| 1805 |
Michigan Territory is carved out of Indiana Territory. |
| 1805 |
Jefferson begins his second term as U.S. president; George Clinton is vice-president. |
| 1805 |
U.S. Marines capture Derna in Tripoli. |
| 1805 |
The war between the U.S. and Tripoli ends. |
| 1805 |
Muhammad Ali is appointed Pasha (governor) of Egypt by the Ottoman sultan. |
| 1805 |
Nelson defeats the Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar, but is killed during the action. |
| 1805 |
The French defeat Austro-Russian forces at the Battle of Austerlitz. |
| 1805 |
The Shawnee Prophet, brother of Tecumseh, begins planning an Indian uprising. |
| 1806 |
Emperor Jacques I is assassinated; Haiti is divided between Christophe and Petion. |
| 1806 |
Napoleon begins the Continental System, closing European ports to British vessels. |
| 1806 |
Napoleon forces the abdication of Francis II; the Holy Roman Empire is dissolved. |
| 1806 |
Prussia joins the Coalition against France, but is defeated at Jena-Auerstadt. |
| 1806 |
Revolutionary leader Francisco de Miranda makes an abortive invasion of Venezuela. |
| 1806 |
U.S. explorer Zebulon Pike is sent west to descend the Red River. |
| 1807 |
Aaron Burr is tried for treason and acquitted. |
| 1807 |
Beethoven completes his Fifth Symphony and begins the Sixth (Pastoral). |
| 1807 |
British chemist Humphry Davy discovers the elements potassium and sodium. |
| 1807 |
Congress passes the Embargo Act in response to interference with U.S. shipping. |
| 1807 |
German philosopher Hegel publishes The Phenomenology of the Spirit. |
| 1807 |
Napoleon defeats the Russian armies; Russia and Prussia sue for peace at Tilsit. |
| 1807 |
Portugal refuses to observe the blockade against England; France invades Portugal. |
| 1807 |
Robert Fulton’s steamship the Clermont makes its maiden voyage. |
| 1807 |
The Janissaries depose Sultan Selim III and place Mustafa IV on the Ottoman throne. |
| 1807 |
The U.S. frigate Chesapeake is involved in an incident with a British man-of-war. |
| 1807 |
The slave trade is outlawed throughout the British Empire. |
| 1808 |
Francisco de Goya paints The Third of May, depicting the cruelty of war. |
| 1808 |
French chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac isolates the element boron. |
| 1808 |
Japanese artist Buncho paints True View of Mount Hiko. |
| 1808 |
John Jacob Astor founds the American Fur Company. |
| 1808 |
Napoleon appoints his brother Joseph as king of Spain. |
| 1808 |
The British under Wellington aid Portugal against France in the Peninsular War. |
| 1808 |
James Madison defeats Charles Pinckney in U.S. presidential elections. |
| 1808 |
The further importation of slaves into the United States is banned. |
| 1809 |
Frenchman Nicolas Appert develops the first effective method for canning food. |
| 1809 |
German artists Overbeck and Pforr found the Nazarenes. |
| 1809 |
John Stevens’ steamboat the Phoenix makes the first ocean-going voyage. |
| 1809 |
Lamarck publishes his theories of evolution in Zoological Philosophy. |
| 1809 |
Washington Irving’s History of New York is published. |
| 1809 |
The Territory of Illinois is established. |
| 1809 |
Metternich draws Austria into the War of the Fifth Coalition against France. |
| 1809 |
Napoleon annexes the Papal States and takes Pope Pius VII prisoner. |
| 1809 |
Russia seizes Finland from Sweden; King Gustav IV Adolf abdicates. |
| 1809 |
James Madison is inaugurated as the 4th U.S. president; George Clinton is vice-president. |
| 1809 |
The French defeat the Austrians at Wagram; Francis II accepts the Treaty of Schonbrunn. |
| 1810 |
A rebellion against Spain breaks out in Buenos Aires, Argentina. |
| 1810 |
American settlers rebel against the Spanish in West Florida. |
| 1810 |
Kamehameha I becomes ruler of Hawaii and establishes the Kamehameha dynasty. |
| 1810 |
Mexican priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla leads a rebellion against Spanish rule. |
| 1810 |
The Krupp arms factory is established at Essen in Germany. |
| 1810 |
Wellington’s Anglo-Portuguese army holds the French on the outskirts of Lisbon. |
| 1810 |
Prussia abolishes serfdom. |
| 1811 |
Bolivar and Miranda lead the Venezuelan congress in a declaration of independence. |
| 1811 |
George III becomes mentally unstable; the Prince of Wales assumes power as regent. |
| 1811 |
Henri Christophe declares himself king of northern Haiti. |
| 1811 |
Italian chemist Amedeo Avogadro develops the concept known as Avogadro’s law. |
| 1811 |
Jose Artigas raises a force to expel the Spanish from the Banda Oriental (Uruguay). |
| 1811 |
Mexican rebel leader Hidalgo y Costilla is captured and executed. |
| 1811 |
The building of the Cumberland, or National Road, the first U.S. federal highway, begins in Maryland. |
| 1811 |
The first rowing race in the United States is held in New York. |
| 1811 |
The ruling Mameluke aristocracy is massacred in Cairo by Muhammad Ali. |
| 1811 |
William Henry Harrison defeats the Shawnee Indians at the Battle of Tippecanoe. |
| 1811 |
Paraguay declares its independence from Spain. |
| 1812 |
An earthquake destroys Caracas in Venezuela, killing 12,000. |
| 1812 |
English caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson illustrates the Tour of Dr. Syntax. |
| 1812 |
General William Hull surrenders Detroit to the British. |
| 1812 |
Georges Cuvier develops his theory of catastrophism through the study of fossils. |
| 1812 |
Grimm’s Fairy Tales are published in Germany. |
| 1812 |
Louisiana becomes the 18th state of the Union. |
| 1812 |
Napoleon invades Russia with 450,000 men. |
| 1812 |
Napoleon’s army retreats from Moscow; only 40,000 men reach France. |
| 1812 |
Rebel leader Morelos y Pavon defeats the Mexican royalist forces at Oaxaca. |
| 1812 |
Spanish forces defeat Bolivar and Miranda in Venezuela; Miranda is imprisoned. |
| 1812 |
Stephen Decatur’s frigate United States defeats the British frigate Macedonian. |
| 1812 |
Territorial and shipping disputes lead to the War of 1812 between the U.S. and Britain. |
| 1812 |
The French defeat the Russians at Borodino; Napoleon occupies Moscow. |
| 1812 |
The U.S. Navy frigate Constitution defeats 2 British frigates. |
| 1812 |
James Madison defeats DeWitt Clinton to win reelection as president. |
| 1812 |
The ancient city of Petra (now in present-day Jordan) is rediscovered by Jakob Burckhardt. |
| 1812 |
Wellington defeats the French at the Battle of Salamanca in Spain. |
| 1813 |
English novelist Jane Austen publishes Pride and Prejudice. |
| 1813 |
James Wilkinson captures a fort at Mobile, the last Spanish possession in West Florida. |
| 1813 |
President James Madison begins his second term; Elbridge Gerry is vice-president. |
| 1813 |
American forces capture York (present-day Toronto) and burn government buildings. |
| 1813 |
Napoleon is defeated at the Battle of Leipzig by the Sixth Coalition. |
| 1813 |
Oliver Hazard Perry’s ships destroy the British fleet on Lake Erie. |
| 1813 |
Pro-British Indian leader Tecumseh is killed in the Battle of the Thames. |
| 1813 |
“Uncle Sam,” the symbol of the United States, is used for the first time. |
| 1813 |
Rebel forces invade Venezuela and capture Caracas; Bolivar is declared the Liberator. |
| 1813 |
Wellington defeats the French in Spain at Vitoria and invades southern France. |
| 1813 |
William Henry Harrison defeats the British at the Battle of the Thames. |
| 1814 |
Andrew Jackson annihilates the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in Indiana. |
| 1814 |
British forces burn Washington, D.C. |
| 1814 |
The Congress of Vienna convenes. |
| 1814 |
Coalition armies invade France; Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to the island of Elba. |
| 1814 |
French artist Ingres paints The Grand Odalisque. |
| 1814 |
George Stephenson constructs his first steam locomotive. |
| 1814 |
Louis XVIII assumes the French throne. |
| 1814 |
The Kingdom of the Netherlands is created. |
| 1814 |
New England states discuss their secession from the Union at the Hartford Convention. |
| 1814 |
Pope Pius VII returns to Rome; the Jesuit order is reestablished. |
| 1814 |
The Treaty of Ghent ends the War of 1812 between the U.S. and Britain. |
| 1814 |
U.S. forces under Thomas Macdonough destroy the British fleet on Lake Champlain. |
| 1814 |
The British are repulsed at Baltimore’s Fort McHenry. |
| 1814 |
Francis Scott Key writes The Star-Spangled Banner. |
| 1815 |
Napoleon escapes from Elba and marches on Paris during the Hundred Days. |
| 1815 |
Napoleon is defeated at the Battle of Waterloo; he is exiled to the island of Saint Helena. |
| 1815 |
The Americans defeat the British at New Orleans before news of peace arrives. |
| 1815 |
The Barbary States sue for peace with the U.S. |
| 1815 |
Switzerland regains its independence. |
| 1815 |
The Spanish army reconquers Venezuela; Bolivar flees to Jamaica. |
| 1815 |
The Spanish capture and execute the Mexican rebel leader Morelos y Pavon. |
| 1815 |
The first Gurkha regiment is formed by the British army. |
| 1816 |
Gioacchino Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville is performed in Rome. |
| 1816 |
Indonesia effectively becomes a colony of the Netherlands. |
| 1816 |
Indiana becomes the 19th state of the Union. |
| 1816 |
Nepal is made a protectorate of British India. |
| 1816 |
Shaka begins establishing the Zulu empire in South Africa. |
| 1816 |
The British Museum buys the Elgin Marbles (smuggled from Greece by Lord Elgin). |
| 1816 |
The United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata (Argentina) declare independence from Spain. |
| 1816 |
James Monroe defeats Rufus King in the U.S. presidential election. |
| 1816 |
The African Methodist Church becomes the first African-American church in the U.S. |
| 1817 |
Construction of the Erie Canal begins in New York State. |
| 1817 |
The Rush-Bagot Treaty limits the number of U.S. and British ships on the Great Lakes. |
| 1817 |
Andrew Jackson commands U.S. troops in the First Seminole War. |
| 1817 |
French physician Rene Laennec invents the stethoscope. |
| 1817 |
Jose de San Martin and Bernardo O’Higgins defeat the Spanish in Chile. |
| 1817 |
Mississippi becomes the 20th state of the Union. |
| 1817 |
Monroe is inaugurated as the 5th U.S. president; Daniel Tompkins is vice-president. |
| 1817 |
Sir Walter Scott writes the Scottish adventure novel Rob Roy. |
| 1818 |
Arthur Schopenhauer publishes The World as Will and Representation. |
| 1818 |
Andrew Jackson captures the Spanish post of Pensacola; the First Seminole War ends. |
| 1818 |
Chile proclaims its independence; Bernardo O’Higgins is the supreme director. |
| 1818 |
Composer Franz Schubert becomes the music teacher to Count Esterhazy’s family. |
| 1815 |
English chemist Sir Humphry Davy invents the miner’s safety lamp. |
| 1818 |
Illinois becomes the 21st state of the Union. |
| 1818 |
Mary Wollstonecroft Shelley publishes the horror novel Frankenstein. |
| 1818 |
Scottish explorer John Ross sails in search of the Northwest Passage. |
| 1819 |
Alabama becomes the 22nd state of the Union. |
| 1819 |
Bolivar defeats the Spanish in Colombia at the Battle of Boyaca. |
| 1819 |
Lord Byron begins his satirical poem Don Juan. |
| 1819 |
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles acquires Singapore for the East India Company. |
| 1819 |
Spain surrenders East and West Florida to the U.S. in the Adams-Onis Treaty. |
| 1819 |
The Prado Museum is inaugurated in Madrid. |
| 1819 |
The Savannah becomes the first steamship to cross the Atlantic. |
| 1820 |
English poet John Keats writes Ode To a Nightingale. |
| 1820 |
English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley writes Prometheus Unbound. |
| 1820 |
French navigator Dumont d’Urville discovers the Venus de Milo on the island of Melos. |
| 1820 |
French poet Alphonse de Lamartine publishes Meditations Poetiques. |
| 1820 |
Henri Christophe commits suicide; Haiti is united under Jean Pierre Boyer. |
| 1820 |
Juan Manuel de Rosas becomes the virtual dictator of Argentina. |
| 1820 |
Maine becomes the 23rd state of the Union. |
| 1820 |
Russian Admiral Fabian von Bellingshausen sights land in the Antarctic. |
| 1820 |
Stephen H. Long explores the Rocky Mountain region. |
| 1820 |
The Missouri Compromise approves Missouri’s admission to the Union as a slave state. |
| 1820 |
The Prince Regent becomes King George IV on the death of George III. |
| 1820 |
The first American missionaries are admitted to Hawaii. |
| 1820 |
The first free American slaves to be resettled in Africa land in Liberia. |
| 1820 |
U.S. Navy hero Stephen Decatur is killed in a duel. |
| 1820 |
Washington Irving publishes Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. |
| 1820 |
Walter Scott writes Ivanhoe. |
| 1820 |
President James Monroe defeats John Quincy Adams to win reelection. |
| 1821 |
American captain John Davis is the first to land on the continent of Antarctica. |
| 1821 |
Bolivar forms Gran Colombia (Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, and Panama). |
| 1821 |
The Central American Federation declares its independence from Spain but is annexed by Mexico. |
| 1821 |
San Felipe de Austin, the first permanent American settlement in Texas, is established. |
| 1821 |
Brazil annexes the Banda Oriental (Uruguay). |
| 1821 |
English landscape artist John Constable paints The Hay Wain. |
| 1821 |
King John VI is reinstated on the Portuguese throne. |
| 1821 |
Missouri becomes the 24th state of the Union. |
| 1821 |
Napoleon dies on Saint Helena. |
| 1821 |
Revolutionary general San Martin enters Lima and declares Peru independent. |
| 1821 |
Revolutionary leader Iturbide declares Mexican independence from Spain. |
| 1821 |
President James Monroe begins his second term; Daniel Tompkins is vice-president. |
| 1821 |
Simon Bolivar defeats the Spanish forces in Venezuela and Ecuador. |
| 1821 |
The Cherokee Indian Sequoya develops the Cherokee written language. |
| 1821 |
The Greek War of Independence begins against Turkey. |
| 1821 |
Thomas de Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium Eater is published. |
| 1822 |
American surgeon William Beaumont begins his study of the gastric process. |
| 1822 |
Antonio Jose de Sucre defeats the Spanish in Ecuador at the Battle of Pichincha. |
| 1822 |
Denmark Vesey leads a slave revolt in Charleston; 35 blacks are executed. |
| 1822 |
Dom Pedro, son of Portuguese King John VI, declares Brazil independent. |
| 1822 |
Egyptian leader Muhammad Ali completes the conquest of northern Sudan. |
| 1822 |
French scholar Jean Francois Champollion deciphers the Rosetta Stone hieroglyphics. |
| 1823 |
Charles Babbage begins work on his difference engine, a precursor of the computer. |
| 1823 |
Charles Lamb publishes his Essays of Elia in The London Magazine. |
| 1823 |
Charles Macintosh patents the waterproof fabric used in mackintosh raincoats. |
| 1823 |
General Santa Anna leads a coup against Mexican Emperor Agustin I (Iturbide). |
| 1823 |
James Fenimore Cooper publishes the first volume of The Leatherstocking Tales. |
| 1823 |
Japanese artist Hokusai begins a series of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. |
| 1823 |
Ludwig van Beethoven completes his 9th Symphony. |
| 1823 |
Rugby football originates at Rugby School in England. |
| 1823 |
The Monroe Doctrine warns Europe not to interfere in the Americas. |
| 1824 |
De Sucre and Bolivar defeat the Spanish and liberate Peru. |
| 1824 |
Disputes over the border of India lead to war between Britain and Burma. |
| 1824 |
English poet Lord Byron travels to Greece to aid the patriots but dies of a fever. |
| 1824 |
Jons Jakob Berzelius discovers the element silicon about this time. |
| 1824 |
Sadi Carnot lays the foundations for the second law of thermodynamics. |
| 1824 |
The Ashanti begin a war of resistance against Britain in the Gold Coast (Ghana). |
| 1824 |
The National Gallery is founded in London. |
| 1825 |
John Quincy Adams is inaugurated as the 6th U.S. president; John C. Calhoun is vice-president. |
| 1825 |
American painter Thomas Cole founds the Hudson River School about this time. |
| 1825 |
Kappa Alpha, the first social fraternity, is formed at Union College, New York. |
| 1825 |
Mountain man James Bridger discovers the Great Salt Lake. |
| 1825 |
Nicholas I is made emperor of Russia; the Decembrists revolt breaks out. |
| 1825 |
The Central American Federation declares its independence from Mexico. |
| 1825 |
Uruguayan leader Lavalleja precipitates a war between Brazil and Argentina. |
| 1825 |
Welsh reformer Robert Owen founds a community at New Harmony, Indiana. |
| 1825 |
The Erie Canal, linking the Great Lakes with New York City, is completed. |
| 1825 |
Bolivia declares its independence from Spain. |
| 1826 |
American engineer John Stevens builds the first U.S. steam locomotive. |
| 1826 |
Andre Ampere publishes his Theory of Electrodynamic Phenomenon. |
| 1826 |
Felix Mendelssohn composes his overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream at age 17. |
| 1826 |
German poet Heine begins the publication of Reisebilder (Travel Pictures). |
| 1826 |
Ohm’s law establishes the relationship of electrical voltage, current and resistance. |
| 1826 |
Revolutionary leader Antonio Jose de Sucre is elected first president of Bolivia. |
| 1826 |
James Fenimore Cooper publishes The Last of the Mohicans. |
| 1827 |
American frontiersman Davy Crockett is elected to Congress. |
| 1815 |
The Congress of Vienna establishes the German Confederation. |
| 1815 |
The Kingdom of Poland is established under Russian rule. |
| 1827 |
Britain, France, and Russia demand that Turkey ends the war with Greece. |
| 1827 |
English inventor John Walker introduces the first friction matches. |
| 1827 |
French landscape artist Camille Corot paints the Bridge at Narni. |
| 1827 |
Mountain man Jedediah Smith pioneers an overland route to California. |
| 1827 |
Ornithologist John James Audubon begins the publication of his Birds of America. |
| 1827 |
The Allied navies destroy the Turkish and Egyptian fleet at Navarino in Greece. |
| 1828 |
Composer Frederic Chopin begins concert tours at age 18. |
| 1828 |
Lavalleja’s Thirty-three Immortals achieve Uruguayan independence from Brazil. |
| 1828 |
Noah Webster publishes his American Dictionary of the English Language. |
| 1828 |
The Duke of Wellington becomes prime minister of Britain. |
| 1828 |
Virtuoso violin player Niccolo Paganini performs in Vienna. |
| 1828 |
Andrew Jackson defeats John Quincy Adams in the U.S. presidential election. |
| 1829 |
Andrew Jackson is inaugurated as the 7th U.S. president; John C. Calhoun continues as vice-president. |
| 1829 |
The Indian custom of suttee (the burning of widows) is banned. |
| 1829 |
Louis Braille publishes his braille system of writing for the blind. |
| 1829 |
Serbia becomes an autonomous principality under Prince Milos. |
| 1829 |
The first U.S. encyclopedia, the Encyclopedia Americana, is begun. |
| 1830 |
Belgium asserts its independence from the Netherlands. |
| 1830 |
British geologist Charles Lyell begins publishing his Principles of Geology. |
| 1830 |
Fructuoso Rivera is elected as first president of Uruguay. |
| 1830 |
George Catlin begins his paintings of North American Indians about this time. |
| 1830 |
Greece becomes independent from Turkey. |
| 1830 |
Hector Berlioz composes his first major work the Symphonie Fantastique. |
| 1830 |
Joseph Smith founds the Mormon church at Fayette, New York. |
| 1830 |
Louis Philippe is chosen as the citizen king of France. |
| 1830 |
Philipon publishes the satirical weekly La Caricature, with contributions by Daumier. |
| 1830 |
Polish rebellions are suppressed by Russia. |
| 1830 |
Simon Bolivar resigns as dictator of Gran Colombia; he dies later in the year. |
| 1830 |
The Indian Removal Act is passed to move the southeastern tribes to Indian Territory. |
| 1830 |
The July Revolution in France forces the abdication of Charles X. |
| 1830 |
Godey’s Lady’s Book, the first successful American women’s magazine, is published. |
| 1830 |
The locomotive Best Friend of Charleston is in use on the first U.S. railroad. |
| 1830 |
William IV succeeds George IV as king of England, Scotland, and Ireland. |
| 1830 |
French forces invade and take control of Algeria. |
| 1830 |
Venezuela becomes independent of Gran Colombia. |
| 1830 |
Peter Cooper’s Tom Thumb is the first practical locomotive built in the U.S. |
| 1831 |
British naturalist Charles Darwin sails to South America aboard H.M.S. Beagle. |
| 1831 |
Cyrus McCormick invents a mechanical reaper. |
| 1831 |
Explorer James Clark Ross determines the position of the north magnetic pole. |
| 1831 |
Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini founds the Young Italy movement. |
| 1831 |
Jose Antonio Paez becomes the first president of Venezuela. |
| 1831 |
King Louis Philippe founds the French foreign legion. |
| 1831 |
Leopold I is selected as the first king of Belgium. |
| 1831 |
Michael Faraday demonstrates his theory of electromagnetic induction. |
| 1831 |
Nat Turner leads a black slave revolt in Virginia; he is captured and hanged. |
| 1831 |
Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin completes his masterpiece Eugene Onegin. |
| 1831 |
The crown colony of British Guiana (Guyana) is formed. |
| 1831 |
William Lloyd Garrison begins publishing the abolitionist newspaper the Liberator. |
| 1832 |
George Sand (Aurore Dudevant) publishes her first novel Indiana. |
| 1832 |
Japanese artist Hiroshige begins work on Fifty-three Stages of the Tokaido. |
| 1832 |
The Black Hawk War is the last major Indian conflict east of the Mississippi River. |
| 1832 |
The Democratic party is formally established as a national organization. |
| 1832 |
President Andrew Jackson defeats Henry Clay to win reelection. |
| 1832 |
The world’s first horsedrawn streetcar begins operating in New York City. |
| 1833 |
A Bavarian prince becomes King Otto of Greece. |
| 1833 |
Britain occupies the Falkland Islands. |
| 1833 |
Carl von Clausewitz’s classic study of warfare, On War, is published. |
| 1833 |
General Santa Anna becomes president of Mexico. |
| 1833 |
Isabella II succeeds Ferdinand VII, King of Spain; the Carlist Wars begin. |
| 1833 |
President Jackson withdraws federal deposits from the Bank of the United States. |
| 1833 |
The American Anti-Slavery Society is inaugurated in Philadelphia. |
| 1833 |
Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame is published in English. |
| 1833 |
President Andrew Jackson begins his second term; Martin Van Buren is vice-president. |
| 1834 |
A Quadruple Alliance is formed to aid Isabella II of Spain and Maria II of Portugal. |
| 1834 |
American inventor Jacob Perkins patents the first practical ice-making machine. |
| 1834 |
British politician Sir Robert Peel founds the Conservative Party. |
| 1834 |
The Carlist Wars resume in Spain. |
| 1834 |
The Hansom cab is designed; it becomes the standard horse-drawn cab in London. |
| 1834 |
The Whig party is formed to oppose Andrew Jackson and the Democratic party. |
| 1834 |
Congress establishes the Department of Indian Affairs. |
| 1834 |
The Spanish Inquisition, begun in 1478, is formally ended. |
| 1835 |
American settlers begin the Texas Revolution against Mexican rule. |
| 1835 |
Attempts to move the Seminole Indians begins the Second Seminole War. |
| 1835 |
Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen publishes Tales Told for Children. |
| 1835 |
French politician Alexis de Tocqueville publishes Democracy in America. |
| 1835 |
James Gordon Bennett founds the New York Herald newspaper. |
| 1836 |
American educator William Holmes McGuffey begins editing his Readers. |
| 1836 |
American inventor Samuel Colt begins manufacturing the first revolver. |
| 1836 |
American literary figure Ralph Waldo Emerson founds the Transcendental Club. |
| 1836 |
Arkansas becomes the 25th state of the Union. |
| 1836 |
Boer (Afrikaner) settlers begin the Great Trek into the South African interior. |
| 1836 |
Bolivian president Santa Cruz invades Peru and forms the Peru-Bolivian Confederation. |
| 1836 |
Charles Dickens publishes his first popular work The Pickwick Papers. |
| 1836 |
John C. Calhoun supports the gag rules to prevent Congress debating slavery. |
| 1836 |
Sam Houston becomes president of the Republic of Texas. |
| 1836 |
Martin Van Buren defeats William Henry Harrison in the U.S. presidential election. |
| 1836 |
Russian author Nikolai Gogol writes his play The Inspector General. |
| 1836 |
Santa Anna’s army storms the Alamo in Texas, killing the defenders. |
| 1836 |
American settlers in Texas declare their independence from Mexico. |
| 1836 |
Texans under Sam Houston defeat Santa Anna at the San Jacinto River. |
| 1836 |
The Arc de Triomphe, the world’s largest triumphal arch, is completed in Paris. |
| 1837 |
Britain’s refusal to grant more home rule in Canada leads to the Rebellions of 1837. |
| 1837 |
British scientist Charles Wheatstone designs an electric telegraph system. |
| 1837 |
Louis Daguerre invents the daguerreotype method for taking permanent photographs. |
| 1837 |
Michigan becomes the 26th state of the Union. |
| 1837 |
Mikhail Lermontov writes the Death of a Poet, inspired by the death of Pushkin. |
| 1837 |
Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin is killed in a duel. |
| 1837 |
Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle publishes The French Revolution. |
| 1837 |
Seminole Indian leader Osceola is captured. |
| 1837 |
Martin Van Buren is inaugurated as the 8th U.S. president; Richard Johnson is vice-president. |
| 1837 |
William IV dies; Victoria succeeds him as Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland. |
| 1837 |
The Texas Rangers are founded. |
| 1838 |
Boer (Afrikaner) leader Andries Pretorius defeats the Zulus at the Battle of Blood River. |
| 1838 |
British artist Joseph Mallord William Turner paints the Fighting Temeraire. |
| 1838 |
Charles Wilkes heads a U.S. Navy expedition to Antarctica. |
| 1838 |
French philosopher Auguste Comte inaugurates the science of sociology. |
| 1838 |
John Deere develops a steel-tipped plow capable of turning heavy prairie soil. |
| 1838 |
Samuel F.B. Morse develops the Morse code for electric telegraph systems. |
| 1838 |
Scottish blacksmith Kirkpatrick Macmillan makes the first pedal-driven bicycle. |
| 1838 |
Transatlantic steamship service begins. |
| 1838 |
Charles Dickens publishes Oliver Twist. |
| 1838 |
Some 4,000 Cherokee Indians die on the Trail of Tears between Georgia and Oklahoma. |
| 1839 |
American inventor Charles Goodyear develops the vulcanization of rubber. |
| 1839 |
Chile defeats Santa Cruz’s Peru-Bolivian Confederation at the Battle of Yungay. |
| 1839 |
French novelist Stendhal writes The Charterhouse of Parma. |
| 1839 |
Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt embarks on a concert tour of Europe. |
| 1839 |
Jose Rafael Carrera captures Guatemala; the Central American Federation is dissolved. |
| 1839 |
Stephens and Catherwood explore Maya ruins in the Yucatan. |
| 1839 |
The Anglo-Afghan Wars begin in Afghanistan. |
| 1839 |
The Opium Wars begin between Britain and China. |
| 1839 |
John Sutter establishes a Swiss colony on the site of present-day Sacramento, California. |
| 1839 |
Theodor Schwann and Matthias Jakob Schleiden formulate the cell theory. |
| 1840 |
Civil War breaks out in Uruguay between the Colorados (reds) and Blancos (whites). |
| 1840 |
French philosopher and anarchist Pierre Joseph Proudhon writes What is Property. |
| 1840 |
Maori chiefs sign over their tribal lands to Queen Victoria in the Treaty of Waitangi. |
| 1840 |
Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg. |
| 1840 |
Swiss-American naturalist Louis Agassiz postulates his theory of ice ages. |
| 1840 |
The Liberty party is founded in Albany, N.Y., based exclusively on an antislavery platform. |
| 1840 |
The Underground Railroad is active in helping escaping slaves in the U.S. |
| 1840 |
The first adhesive postage stamp, the Penny Black, is issued in London. |
| 1840 |
Upper and Lower Canada are united in the single Province of Canada. |
| 1840 |
Charles Wilkes sights Antarctica. |
| 1841 |
Edgar Allan Poe writes an early detective story The Murders in the Rue Morgue. |
| 1841 |
Harrison is inaugurated as the 9th U.S. president; John Tyler becomes vice-president. |
| 1841 |
Horace Greeley founds the New York Tribune newspaper. |
| 1841 |
Italian ballerina Carlotta Grisi creates the role of Giselle. |
| 1841 |
Muhammad Ali defeats the Ottomans and becomes the hereditary ruler of Egypt. |
| 1841 |
New Zealand is established as a separate British colony. |
| 1841 |
President Harrison dies; John Tyler is inaugurated as the 10th U.S. president |
| 1841 |
William Henry Talbot patents the calotype photographic process. |
| 1841 |
Ralph Waldo Emerson publishes his first collection of Essays. |
| 1842 |
American explorer John C. Fremont begins surveying the Oregon Trail. |
| 1842 |
American showman P.T. Barnum discovers the 40-inch midget Tom Thumb. |
| 1842 |
Austrian physicist Christian Johann Doppler predicts the Doppler effect. |
| 1842 |
China cedes Hong Kong to Britain. |
| 1842 |
China is defeated in the first Opium War; Chinese ports are opened to British trade. |
| 1842 |
Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti writes his opera Don Pasquale. |
| 1842 |
The Webster-Asburton Treaty establishes the border between Maine and Canada. |
| 1842 |
Nikolai Gogol publishes Dead Souls |
| 1843 |
A coup in Greece forces King Otto to accept a constitutional monarchy. |
| 1843 |
African-American Sojourner Truth begins her reform mission. |
| 1843 |
Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard publishes Either/Or. |
| 1843 |
English art critic John Ruskin begins publishing Modern Painters. |
| 1843 |
German astronomer Samuel Schwabe discovers the sunspot cycle. |
| 1843 |
The Second Seminole War ends in Florida. |
| 1843 |
Thousands of settlers begin to make their way west on the Oregon Trail. |
| 1844 |
Eastern Hispaniola declares independence from Haiti as the Dominican Republic. |
| 1844 |
French author Alexandre Dumas (Dumas pere) publishes The Three Musketeers. |
| 1844 |
Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormons, is killed by a lynch mob. |
| 1844 |
Samuel F.B. Morse establishes the first U.S. telegraph link. |
| 1844 |
The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) is founded in England. |
| 1844 |
William Henry Talbot begins his Pencil of Nature, the first book of photographs. |
| 1844 |
James K. Polk defeats Henry Clay in the U.S. presidential election. |
| 1845 |
American author Margaret Fuller publishes Women in the Nineteenth Century. |
| 1845 |
British archaeologist Austen Layard excavates the sites of Nimrud and Nineveh. |
| 1840 |
William Henry Harrison defeats Martin Van Buren in the U.S. presidential election. |
| 1845 |
Civil War ends in Peru; Castilla Ramon is elected as president. |
| 1845 |
Failure of the potato crop leads to a famine in Ireland. |
| 1845 |
Florida becomes the 27th state of the Union. |
| 1845 |
German composer Robert Schumann writes his Piano Concerto in A minor. |
| 1845 |
German scientist Alexander von Humboldt publishes the first volume of his Kosmos. |
| 1845 |
James K. Polk is inaugurated as the 11th U.S. president; George Dallas is vice-president. |
| 1845 |
Sir John Franklin leads an ill-fated expedition in search of the Northwest Passage. |
| 1845 |
The Republic of Texas is annexed by the U.S.; it becomes the 28th state of the Union. |
| 1845 |
The Sikh Wars begin in British India. |
| 1845 |
The first clipper ship, the Rainbow, is built in New York. |
| 1845 |
The term Manifest Destiny is first used in defense of U.S. territorial ambitions. |
| 1845 |
The U.S. Naval Academy opens at Annapolis, Maryland. |
| 1845 |
Alexandre Dumas publishes The Count of Monte Cristo. |
| 1846 |
Adolphe Sax patents the saxophone in Paris. |
| 1846 |
American dentist William Morton extracts a tooth using ether as an anesthetic. |
| 1846 |
German astronomer Johann Galle makes the first observation of the planet Neptune. |
| 1846 |
German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach publishes The Essence of Religion. |
| 1846 |
Henry Creswicke Rawlinson deciphers the Mesopotamian cuneiform script. |
| 1846 |
The Christy Minstrels begin performing in New York. |
| 1846 |
The Mexican War begins over the U.S. annexation of Texas. |
| 1846 |
Californians start the Black Bear revolt and proclaim their independence from Mexico. |
| 1846 |
The Mexican government collapses; Santa Anna is reelected as president. |
| 1846 |
The Smithsonian Institution is created by Congress. |
| 1846 |
The border between the U.S. and Canada is established, settling the Oregon Question. |
| 1846 |
The United States annexes California. |
| 1846 |
Iowa becomes the 29th state of the Union. |
| 1846 |
U.S. forces under Stephen Watts Kearny occupy New Mexico. |
| 1846 |
U.S. forces under Zachary Taylor defeat the Mexicans at Palo Alto and Monterrey. |
| 1846 |
Writer and artist Edward Lear publishes A Book of Nonsense. |
| 1846 |
Alexander Cartwright codifies the rules of baseball. |
| 1847 |
American missionary Marcus Whitman is killed by Cayuse Indians in Oregon. |
| 1847 |
American oceanographer Matthew Maury publishes his first Wind and Current Charts. |
| 1847 |
Charlotte Bronte publishes Jane Eyre; Emily Bronte publishes Wuthering Heights. |
| 1847 |
English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray begins Vanity Fair. |
| 1847 |
Honore de Balzac completes La Comedie humaine, a collection of over 100 novels. |
| 1847 |
Italian statesman Cavour founds the liberal newspaper Il Risorgimento (resurgence). |
| 1847 |
Maria Mitchell, the first woman astronomer in America, discovers a new comet. |
| 1847 |
Scott enters Mexico City after a series of battles; Mexico sues for peace. |
| 1847 |
Taylor defeats Santa Anna’s Mexican army at the Battle of Buena Vista. |
| 1847 |
The African slave colony of Liberia is declared independent. |
| 1847 |
The American Medical Association is founded. |
| 1847 |
The Mormons under Brigham Young found Salt Lake City. |
| 1847 |
The U.S. post office begins using adhesive postage stamps. |
| 1847 |
Escaped slave Frederick Douglass begins publishing the abolitionist newspaper North Star. |
| 1847 |
U.S. forces under Stockton, Fremont, and Kearny occupy California. |
| 1847 |
U.S. forces under Winfield Scott land at Veracruz and advance on Mexico City. |
| 1848 |
A Czech uprising under Frantisek Palacky is suppressed by Austria. |
| 1848 |
American engineer James Bogardus begins using cast-iron for building construction. |
| 1848 |
Ferdinand I abdicates; Francis Joseph becomes Emperor of Austria. |
| 1848 |
Zachary Taylor defeats Martin Van Buren in the U.S. presidential election. |
| 1848 |
French Barbizon artist Theodore Rousseau paints the Forest at Fontainebleau. |
| 1848 |
French author Alexandre Dumas (Dumas fils) publishes his novel Camille. |
| 1848 |
Holman Hunt, Millais, and Rossetti form the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in Britain. |
| 1848 |
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish the Communist Manifesto. |
| 1848 |
Louis Philippe abdicates; a Second Republic is declared in France. |
| 1848 |
Risorgimento leader Garibaldi returns to Italy to fight in the war of independence. |
| 1848 |
Scottish physicist William Thomson Kelvin proposes an absolute temperature scale. |
| 1848 |
Large-scale German migration to the United States begins. |
| 1848 |
Britain annexes the Orange Free State. |
| 1848 |
The Austrian revolution begins in Vienna; chancellor Metternich resigns. |
| 1848 |
The Revolutions of 1848 break out in Europe. |
| 1848 |
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican War. |
| 1848 |
The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill begins the California gold rush. |
| 1848 |
The first U.S. women’s rights assembly meets at the Seneca Falls Convention. |
| 1848 |
Uprisings in Berlin force Frederick William IV to summon a constitutional assembly. |
| 1848 |
Wisconsin becomes the 30th state of the Union. |
| 1849 |
Amelia Bloomer publicizes bloomers (baggy trousers for women) in the Lily magazine. |
| 1849 |
Austrian forces crush the Italian revolution; Mazzini and Garibaldi flee from Italy. |
| 1849 |
Austrian premier Felix Schwarzenberg uses the Russian army to defeat the Hungarians. |
| 1849 |
Thousands of “Forty-Niners” flock to the California gold fields. |
| 1849 |
African-American slave Harriet Tubman escapes and begins her Underground Railway work. |
| 1849 |
Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first American woman to obtain a medical degree. |
| 1849 |
French physicist Armand Fizeau measures the velocity of light. |
| 1849 |
Lajos Kossuth declares Hungarian independence from Austria. |
| 1849 |
Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin is deported to Siberia. |
| 1849 |
Zachary Taylor is inaugurated as the 12th U.S. president; Millard Fillmore is vice-president. |
| 1850 |
Allan Pinkerton founds the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. |
| 1850 |
American author Nathaniel Hawthorne writes The Scarlet Letter. |
| 1850 |
American popular songwriter Stephen Foster publishes Camptown Races. |
| 1850 |
California is inaugurated as the 31st state of the Union. |
| 1850 |
Congress reinforces the Fugitive Slave Law for the return of escaped slaves. |
| 1850 |
The first national women’s rights conference is held in Worcester, Massachusetts. |
| 1850 |
Elizabeth Barrett Browning publishes her Sonnets From the Portuguese. |
| 1850 |
English author Charles Dickens writes David Copperfield. |
| 1850 |
French realist artist Gustave Courbet paints The Stone Breakers. |
| 1850 |
Jenny Lind, the Swedish nightingale, begins her U.S. tour. |
| 1850 |
Photographer Mathew Brady publishes The Gallery of Illustrious Americans. |
| 1850 |
President Taylor dies; Millard Fillmore is inaugurated as the 13th U.S. president. |
| 1850 |
The Compromise of 1850 establishes California as a non-slavery state. |
| 1850 |
The Taiping Rebellion breaks out in China against the Ch’ing dynasty. |
| 1850 |
The first issue of Harper’s magazine is published. |
| 1851 |
American author Herman Melville publishes Moby-Dick. |
| 1851 |
Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Rigoletto is produced in Venice. |
| 1851 |
Harriet Beecher Stowe begins publishing Uncle Tom’s Cabin. |
| 1851 |
Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones found the New York Times. |
| 1851 |
Isaac Merrit Singer invents the first practical sewing machine. |
| 1851 |
Jacob Fussell begins making ice cream in commercial quantities in Baltimore. |
| 1851 |
Mongkut (Rama IV) becomes king of Siam (Thailand). |
| 1851 |
The Crystal Palace is built in London to house the Great Exhibition. |
| 1851 |
The U.S. yacht America defeats 17 British yachts in the first America’s Cup contest. |
| 1851 |
The first college sorority is established at Wesleyan College, Georgia. |
| 1851 |
The city of Seattle is founded in Oregon Territory. |
| 1851 |
Reuters News Service is established. |
| 1852 |
Argentinean dictator Rosas is defeated by forces under Urquiza at Monte Caseros. |
| 1852 |
Britain gains control of the Irrawaddy delta after the second Anglo-Burma War. |
| 1852 |
The Grimms begin publication of their Deutsches Worterbuch (German Dictionary). |
| 1852 |
The Second Empire begins in France under Napoleon III. |
| 1852 |
Wells Fargo & Co. is founded. |
| 1852 |
Franklin Pierce defeats Winfield Scott in the U.S. presidential election. |
| 1853 |
A U.S. naval squadron under Matthew Perry enters Tokyo Bay to negotiate a treaty. |
| 1853 |
Chinese rebels capture Nanking and make it the capital of the Taiping kingdom. |
| 1853 |
Franklin Pierce is inaugurated as the 14th U.S. president; William King is vice-president. |
| 1853 |
General Santa Anna becomes dictator of Mexico for the last time. |
| 1853 |
Georges Haussmann begins the reconstruction of Paris. |
| 1853 |
Napoleon III marries the Empress Eugenie. |
| 1853 |
Richard Wagner begins his cycle of four operas The Ring of The Nibelung. |
| 1853 |
Russia occupies the Turkish principalities of Moldavia and Walachia. |
| 1853 |
The U.S. adds land to New Mexico and Arizona with the Gadsden Purchase. |
| 1853 |
Turkey issues an ultimatum to Russia; the Russians destroy the Turkish fleet at Sinope. |
| 1854 |
A commercial treaty is signed between the U.S. and Japan, ending Japanese isolation. |
| 1854 |
American writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden. |
| 1854 |
An Anglo-French-Turkish expeditionary force lands at Sevastopol in the Crimea. |
| 1854 |
Britain and France declare war on Russia, beginning the Crimean War. |
| 1854 |
Pope Pius IX proclaims the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. |
| 1854 |
Pre-Raphaelite artist Holman Hunt paints The Scapegoat. |
| 1854 |
The Allied armies defeat the Russians at the Battle of Inkerman. |
| 1854 |
The British grant independence to the Orange Free State in South Africa. |
| 1854 |
The Charge of the Light Brigade is made by the British during the Battle of Balaklava. |
| 1854 |
The Kansas-Nebraska Act reopens the controversy over the spread of slavery. |
| 1854 |
The Republican party is formed after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. |
| 1855 |
British photographer Roger Fenton documents the Crimean War. |
| 1855 |
Florence Nightingale reforms hygienic standards in Crimean hospitals. |
| 1855 |
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow publishes The Songs of Hiawatha. |
| 1855 |
Lord Palmerston becomes prime minister of Great Britain for the first time. |
| 1855 |
Matthew Fontaine Maury publishes The Physical Geography of the Sea. |
| 1855 |
Mexican dictator Santa Anna is overthrown. |
| 1855 |
Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia dies; he is succeeded by his son Alexander II. |
| 1855 |
Robert Browning publishes his poetry collection Men and Women. |
| 1855 |
Scottish explorer David Livingstone discovers the Victoria Falls in Africa. |
| 1855 |
The Allies occupy the Russian fortress at Sevastopol in the Crimea. |
| 1855 |
The first formal ice hockey game is played in Kingston, Ontario. |
| 1855 |
Walt Whitman publishes his first book of poetry, the Leaves of Grass. |
| 1855 |
The Sault Sainte Marie River Ship Canal links Lakes Huron and Superior. |
| 1856 |
A new Opium War begins between China, Britain, and France. |
| 1856 |
English chemist William Perkin discovers synthetic dyes. |
| 1856 |
The Treaty of Paris ends the Crimean War. |
| 1856 |
The first Neanderthaler (prehistoric human) skeleton is discovered in Germany. |
| 1856 |
Victor Hugo writes Les Miserables during his exile from France. |
| 1856 |
Pro- and anti-slave forces battle in Kansas. |
| 1856 |
The Western Union Telegraph Company is founded. |
| 1856 |
James Buchanan defeats John Fremont in the U.S. presidential election. |
| 1857 |
Buchanan is inaugurated as the 15th U.S. president; John Breckinridge is vice-president. |
| 1857 |
The Supreme Court’s Dred Scott Decision called unconstitutional Congress’s banning of slavery in U.S. territories. |
| 1857 |
Disputes between Mormons and non-Mormon settlers leads to the Utah War. |
| 1857 |
Elisha Graves Otis installs the first passenger elevator in a New York City store. |
| 1857 |
English author Thomas Hughes publishes Tom Brown’s Schooldays. |
| 1857 |
French novelist Gustave Flaubert publishes Madame Bovary. |
| 1857 |
French poet Baudelaire publishes Flowers of Evil and is arrested for immorality. |
| 1857 |
Mormons and Paiute Indians kill 120 settlers in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. |
| 1857 |
The Indian Mutiny begins when Indian troops rebel against the British in Meerut. |
| 1857 |
The Oxford English Dictionary is begun in England. |
| 1858 |
Benito Juarez becomes the first Mexican president of Indian descent. |
| 1858 |
Britain and France impose the Tientsin Treaty on China. |
| 1858 |
British explorer John Hanning Speke discovers Lake Victoria in Africa. |
| 1858 |
British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace outlines his theories of evolution. |
| 1858 |
Charles Frederick Worth establishes his Paris fashion house. |
| 1858 |
Cyrus W. Field lays the first transatlantic telegraph cable. |
| 1858 |
Federal forces end the Utah War; Brigham Young is replaced as governor of Utah Territory. |
| 1858 |
French photographer Nadar takes the first aerial photograph from a balloon. |
| 1858 |
German-American artist Albert Bierstadt begins his landscapes of the American west. |
| 1858 |
Jacques Offenbach’s operetta Orpheus in the Underworld premiers in Paris. |
| 1858 |
James Renwick begins the design of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. |
| 1858 |
Minnesota becomes the 32nd state of the Union. |
| 1858 |
The Fenians (Irish Republican Brotherhood) are founded to overthrow British rule. |
| 1858 |
The Indian Mutiny is suppressed by the British Army and loyal Indian troops. |
| 1858 |
The government of India is transferred from the East India Company to the British crown. |
| 1858 |
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas debate the status of slavery in U.S. territories. |
| 1859 |
Abolitionist John Brown leads an attack on Harpers Ferry; he is captured and executed. |
| 1859 |
Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. |
| 1859 |
Ferdinand de Lesseps begins building the Suez Canal in Egypt. |
| 1859 |
French inventor Ferdinand Carre develops a refrigeration system. |
| 1859 |
Napoleon III assists the Italian statesman Cavour in a war against Austria. |
| 1859 |
Oregon becomes the 33rd state of the Union. |
| 1859 |
The first commercially productive oil well begins pumping in Titusville, Pennsylvania. |
| 1860 |
Abraham Lincoln is elected as the first Republican president of the United States. |
| 1860 |
China resists the Tientsin Treaty; Anglo-French forces occupy Peking. |
| 1860 |
Florence Nightingale establishes a school for training nurses. |
| 1860 |
George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) publishes The Mill on the Floss. |
| 1860 |
Italian patriot Garibaldi invades Sicily and Naples with his 1,000 Redshirts. |
| 1860 |
Jean Joseph Etienne Lenoir patents the first internal-combustion engine. |
| 1860 |
Sardinia-Piedmont seizes the Papal States in Italy. |
| 1860 |
South Carolina becomes the first Southern state to secede from the Union. |
| 1860 |
The Crittenden Compromise tries to prevent a split between slave and free states. |
| 1860 |
The Maori Wars begin against the British in New Zealand. |
| 1860 |
The pony express is inaugurated to deliver mail from Missouri to California. |
| 1861 |
American locksmith Linus Yale, Jr. , patents the cylinder lock. |
| 1861 |
English designer William Morris starts the Arts and Crafts Movement. |
| 1861 |
French artist Eugene Delacroix paints the Lion Hunt. |
| 1861 |
General George B. McClellan is made commander of the Union forces. |
| 1861 |
Italy is unified under Victor Emmanuel II. |
| 1861 |
John Ericsson designs the Monitor, the first ship with a revolving gun-turret. |
| 1861 |
Kansas becomes the 34th state of the Union. |
| 1861 |
Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana secede from the Union. |
| 1861 |
Lincoln is inaugurated as the 16th U.S. president; Hannibal Hamlin is vice-president. |
| 1861 |
Nicholas II abolishes serfdom in Russia. |
| 1861 |
The Confederates defeat the Union army in the First Battle of Bull Run. |
| 1861 |
The Southern states meet to draft a constitution; Davis is selected as president. |
| 1861 |
Texas secedes from the Union. |
| 1861 |
In the Trent Affair, Union officers seize Confederate diplomats on the British ship Trent. |
| 1861 |
The United States introduces the first national income tax. |
| 1861 |
The bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor begins the U.S. Civil War. |
| 1861 |
Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee secede from the Union. |
| 1862 |
A Union fleet under David G. Farragut captures New Orleans. |
| 1862 |
Robert E. Lee is named commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. |
| 1862 |
Congress approves the construction of a transcontinental railroad. |
| 1862 |
Bartolome Mitre unites Argentina and is elected president. |
| 1862 |
Brady, O’Sullivan, and Gardner document the Civil War in photographs. |
| 1862 |
French actress Sarah Bernhardt makes her debut at the Comedie Francaise. |
| 1862 |
French impressionist artist Edouard Manet paints Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe. |
| 1862 |
French physicist Jean Foucault successfully measures the speed of light. |
| 1862 |
French writer Victor Hugo completes his social novel Les Miserables. |
| 1862 |
Lee defeats the Union army in the Second Battle of Bull Run. |
| 1862 |
Lee’s Confederate invasion of Maryland is halted at the Battle of Antietam. |
| 1862 |
McClellan is defeated in the Seven Days Battle and retreats from the peninsular. |
| 1862 |
Napoleon III imposes the Austrian prince Maximilian as emperor of Mexico. |
| 1862 |
Richard J. Gatling invents the first practical machine gun. |
| 1862 |
Russian novelist Ivan Turgenev publishes Fathers and Sons. |
| 1862 |
The first recorded ski competition is held near Oslo in Norway. |
| 1862 |
The ironclad warships Monitor and Merrimack clash at Hampton Roads, Va. |
| 1862 |
Union forces under Burnside are defeated at the Battle of Fredricksburg. |
| 1862 |
Union forces under Grant defeat the Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh. |
| 1862 |
The Homestead Act allows Americans to purchase 160 acres of public land. |
| 1862 |
Union forces under McClellan begin the Peninsular Campaign to capture Richmond. |
| 1862 |
William I appoints Otto von Bismarck as minister president of Prussia. |
| 1863 |
Cambodia (Kampuchea) becomes a French protectorate. |
| 1863 |
English philosopher John Stuart Mill publishes Utilitarianism. |
| 1863 |
French impressionist artist Camille Pissarro exhibits at the Salon des Refuses. |
| 1863 |
George I succeeds Otto as king of Greece. |
| 1863 |
Grant defeats the Confederates in the Vicksburg Campaign. |
| 1863 |
Ismail Pasha rules Egypt under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. |
| 1863 |
Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation abolishes slavery in the Confederate states. |
| 1863 |
London’s Metropolitan Railway becomes the first underground subway. |
| 1863 |
The Confederate guerrilla band Quantrill’s Raiders pillage Lawrence, Kansas. |
| 1863 |
Lincoln proclaims Thanksgiving Day a national holiday. |
| 1863 |
Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address. |
| 1863 |
The Confederates defeat the Union army at Chancellorsville; Jackson is killed. |
| 1863 |
The Confederates under Lee are defeated at the Battle of Gettysburg. |
| 1863 |
The French occupy Mexico City in support of Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico. |
| 1863 |
The London Football Association issues the first soccer rules. |
| 1863 |
West Virginia becomes the 35th state of the Union. |
| 1864 |
A Chinese army under Gordon recaptures Nanking and ends the Taiping Rebellion. |
| 1864 |
A Union army under Sherman invades Georgia, beginning the Atlanta campaign. |
| 1864 |
Denmark is defeated by Prussia; Schleswig-Holstein is ceded to Germany. |
| 1864 |
Nevada is inaugurated as the 36th state of the Union. |
| 1864 |
Abraham Lincoln is reelected president. |
| 1864 |
Paraguayan dictator Francisco Solano Lopez begins the War of the Triple Alliance. |
| 1864 |
Sherman defeats the Confederates at Atlanta and begins his march to the sea. |
| 1864 |
The Colorado militia massacre Cheyenne Indians at Sand Creek. |
| 1864 |
Sherman reaches Savannah, effectively cutting the South in half. |
| 1864 |
The Confederate submarine Hunley sinks a Federal ship but is sunk in the process. |
| 1864 |
The Geneva Convention sets standards of humane treatment in time of war. |
| 1864 |
The Ionian Islands are ceded to Greece by Britain. |
| 1864 |
The Union launches a drive on Richmond but falters in the Wilderness Campaign. |
| 1864 |
Ulysses S. Grant is made general in chief of all the Union armies. |
| 1865 |
Andrew Johnson becomes the 17th President of the U.S. |
| 1865 |
Confederate forces under Lee surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House. |
| 1865 |
Count Leo Tolstoi begins his monumental Russian novel War and Peace. |
| 1865 |
English author Lewis Carroll writes Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. |
| 1865 |
Johnston surrenders the last Confederate army to Sherman, ending the U.S. Civil War. |
| 1865 |
Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C. |
| 1865 |
Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky publishes Crime and Punishment. |
| 1865 |
The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishes slavery. |
| 1865 |
The Petersburg Campaign is won by Union forces; Lee evacuates Richmond. |
| 1865 |
Abraham Lincoln begins his second term as president; Andrew Johnson is vice-president. |
| 1866 |
British engineer Robert Whitehead invents the first self-propelled torpedo. |
| 1866 |
Gregor Mendel publishes his genetic research in Experiments With Plant Hybrids. |
| 1866 |
Prussia and Italy defeat Austria in the Seven Weeks’ War. |
| 1866 |
The Ku Klux Klan is founded in the southern United States. |
| 1866 |
The period of Reconstruction begins in the South. |
| 1866 |
The Atlantic cable between the United States and Great Britain is completed. |
| 1867 |
Bismark forms the North German Confederation under Prussian leadership. |
| 1867 |
Diamond fields are discovered in South Africa. |
| 1867 |
French troops withdraw from Mexico; Emperor Maximilian is executed by Juarez. |
| 1867 |
Karl Marx publishes the first volume of Das Kapital. |
| 1867 |
Nebraska becomes the 37th state of the Union. |
| 1867 |
The United States purchases Alaska from Russia. |
| 1867 |
Sir John A. Macdonald becomes Canada’s first prime minister. |
| 1867 |
The Compromise (Ausgleich) of 1867 creates the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. |
| 1867 |
The first elevated railroad is built in Manhattan, New York City. |
| 1867 |
The Dominion of Canada is established by the British North America Act. |
| 1867 |
The first annual Belmont Stakes horse race is won by Ruthless. |
| 1867 |
The United States annexes Midway Islands in the Pacific Ocean. |
| 1868 |
A military coup led by General Juan Prim deposes Queen Isabella II of Spain. |
| 1868 |
A skeleton of Cro-Magnon man is discovered in southern France. |
| 1868 |
British labor unions form the Trades Union Congress. |
| 1868 |
Christopher Sholes patents the first practical typewriter. |
| 1868 |
Chulalongkorn succeeds his father Mongkut as the king of Siam (Thailand). |
| 1868 |
Feminists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton publish Revolution. |
| 1868 |
Johannes Brahms’ A German Requiem is performed for the first time. |
| 1868 |
Ndebele king Mzilikazi dies in Africa; he is succeeded (1870) by his son Lobengula. |
| 1868 |
The Meiji dynasty is restored in Japan; the Tokugawa shogunate is abolished. |
| 1868 |
The Ten Years’ War begins in Cuba against Spanish rule. |
| 1868 |
U.S. President Andrew Johnson is impeached by Congress but acquitted by the Senate. |
| 1868 |
William Gladstone becomes Liberal prime minister of Britain for the first time. |
| 1868 |
Ulysses S. Grant defeats Horatio Seymour in the presidential election. |
| 1869 |
Grant is inaugurated as the 18th U.S. president; Schuyler Colfax is vice-president. |
| 1869 |
James Gordon Bennett, Jr., commissions Stanley to search for Livingston in Africa. |
| 1869 |
John Roebling designs the Brooklyn Bridge but dies after a construction accident. |
| 1869 |
Louis Riel leads the Red River Rebellion in Canada. |
| 1869 |
Ludwig II (Mad Ludwig) begins building his fantasy castles in Bavaria. |
| 1869 |
Philadelphia garment workers organize the Knights of Labor, an early labor union. |
| 1869 |
Pope Pius IX calls the First Vatican Council to discuss the dogma of papal infallibility. |
| 1869 |
Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky begins work on his opera Boris Gudunov. |
| 1869 |
The Cincinnati Red Stockings become the first professional baseball team. |
| 1869 |
The Suez Canal is opened in Egypt. |
| 1869 |
The first manufacturing patent is issued for chewing gum. |
| 1869 |
The transcontinental railroad is completed at Promontory Point, Utah. |
| 1869 |
The Prohibition party is organized. |
| 1869 |
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony form the National Woman Suffrage Association. |
| 1869 |
Wyoming becomes the first state to grant women’s suffrage. |
| 1870 |
American industrialist John D. Rockefeller founds the Standard Oil Company. |
| 1870 |
German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavates the ancient city of Troy. |
| 1870 |
Paraguayan dictator Solano Lopez dies, ending the War of the Triple Alliance. |
| 1870 |
Rome becomes the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. |
| 1870 |
The Franco-Prussian War begins over a diplomatic incident engineered by Bismark. |
| 1870 |
The Prussians defeat the French at Sedan; Napoleon III is taken prisoner. |
| 1870 |
The Third Republic is formed in France; a Government of National Defense is established. |
| 1870 |
The city of Miami is founded in Florida. |
| 1870 |
The U.S. Weather Bureau is founded. |
| 1871 |
American explorer Henry Morton Stanley finds Dr. Livingston in central Africa. |
| 1871 |
Charles Taze Russell founds the Jehovah’s Witnesses about this time. |
| 1871 |
Fire destroys one-third of the city of Chicago. |
| 1871 |
P.T Barnum launches a traveling circus, museum,and menagerie. |
| 1871 |
The Franco-Prussian War ends; Alsace and Lorraine are ceded to Germany. |
| 1871 |
The French surrender to Prussia incites the Commune of Paris uprising. |
| 1871 |
The German Empire is formally proclaimed at the Palace of Versailles. |
| 1871 |
The Paris Commune is suppressed by government troops after a 2-month siege. |
| 1871 |
British Columbia joins the Dominion of Canada. |
| 1872 |
American artist James McNeill Whistler paints the Portrait of the Artist’s Mother. |
| 1872 |
English author George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) publishes Middlemarch. |
| 1872 |
The Modoc War begins in Oregon. |
| 1872 |
Monet paints Impression: Sunrise; the term impressionism is derived from the title. |
| 1872 |
Photographer Eadweard Muybridge begins his series of motion studies. |
| 1872 |
The Challenger Expedition begins the first systematic oceanographic survey. |
| 1872 |
The cities of Buda and Pest unite to form Budapest (the capital of Hungary from 1918). |
| 1872 |
The death of Kamehameha V ends the Kamehameha dynasty of Hawaiian kings. |
| 1872 |
The first woman impressionist artist Berthe Morisot paints The Cradle. |
| 1872 |
Ulysses S. Grant defeats Horace Greely to win a second term as president. |
| 1872 |
The United States’ first national park, Yellowstone, is created |
| 1873 |
Englishman Maj. Walter Clopton Wingfield invents lawn tennis. |
| 1873 |
Ulysses S. Grant begins his second term as president; Henry Wilson is vice-president. |
| 1873 |
French novelist Jules Verne publishes Around the World in Eighty Days. |
| 1873 |
The Pacific Scandal in Canada causes the collapse of the Conservative government. |
| 1873 |
The Panic of 1873 leads to 5 years of economic depression in the U.S. |
| 1873 |
Prince Edward Island joins the Dominion of Canada. |
| 1873 |
The first annual Preakness Stakes horse race is won by Survivor. |
| 1874 |
Benjamin Disraeli becomes the Conservative prime minister of Britain. |
| 1874 |
English author Thomas Hardy publishes Far from the Madding Crowd. |
| 1874 |
French impressionist artist Pierre Auguste Renoir paints La Loge (The Box). |
| 1874 |
The Comanche, Kiowa, and other Indian tribes attack Adobe Walls in Texas. |
| 1874 |
The Greenback party advocates currency reform in the U.S. |
| 1874 |
The first exhibition of impressionist paintings is held in Paris. |
| 1874 |
The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union is founded in Cleveland, Ohio. |
| 1874 |
The Philadelphia Zoological Gardens becomes the first public zoo in the U.S. |
| 1875 |
American author Mark Twain publishes Tom Sawyer. |
| 1875 |
Britain buys Suez Canal shares from the bankrupt Egyptian leader Ismail Pasha. |
| 1875 |
Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen is performed in Paris. |
| 1875 |
Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science, publishes Science and Health. |
| 1875 |
The Bourbon monarchy is restored in Spain under Alfonso XII. |
| 1875 |
The first Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs is won by Aristedes. |
| 1875 |
Luther Burbank develops new strains of fruits and vegetables. |
| 1876 |
Abd al-Hamid II becomes Ottoman sultan. |
| 1876 |
Alexander Graham Bell patents his invention of the telephone. |
| 1876 |
British philosopher Herbert Spencer begins publishing the Principles of Sociology. |
| 1876 |
Colorado becomes the 38th state of the Union. |
| 1876 |
General Porfirio Diaz seizes power as the dictator of Mexico. |
| 1876 |
German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann excavates the ancient city of Mycenae. |
| 1876 |
Japan forces Korea to open up to foreign trade, countering the influence of China. |
| 1876 |
Johann Strauss, Jr., composes his waltz The Beautiful Blue Danube. |
| 1876 |
Queen Victoria assumes the title of Empress of India. |
| 1876 |
Sioux Indians defeat General Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. |
| 1876 |
The Bayreuth musical festival opens with a performance of Wagner’s Ring cycle. |
| 1876 |
The U.S. Centennial Exposition of 1876 is held in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. |
| 1877 |
Chief Joseph leads the Nez Perce tribe against the U.S. Army. |
| 1877 |
Rutherford B. Hayes is inaugurated as the 19th U.S. president; William Wheeler is vice-president |
| 1877 |
Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli observes canali (channels) on Mars. |
| 1877 |
Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake is performed by the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow. |
| 1877 |
The All-England lawn tennis championship is played at Wimbledon for the first time. |
| 1877 |
The Japanese army suppresses a samurai revolt led by Saigo Takamori. |
| 1877 |
Thomas Edison invents the phonograph. |
| 1877 |
Turkish suppression of Balkan nationalists leads to a new Russo-Turkish War. |
| 1877 |
The first Westminster Kennel Club dog show is held. |
| 1878 |
Ismail Pasha presents Cleopatra’s Needles to Britain (1878) and the U.S. (1880). |
| 1878 |
Serbia, Montenegro, and Romania are granted independence from Turkey. |
| 1878 |
The Congress of Berlin reverses Russian gains from the San Stefano Treaty. |
| 1878 |
The D’Oyly Carte Opera Company performs Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore. |
| 1878 |
The Russo-Turkish War ends; The Treaty of San Stefano is imposed on Turkey. |
| 1878 |
The second Anglo-Afghan War begins. |
| 1878 |
Turkey’s provinces of Bosnia and Hercegovina are placed under Austrian administration. |
| 1879 |
Belgian king Leopold II sponsors Henry Morton Stanley’s expedition to the Congo. |
| 1879 |
Charles Stewart Parnell leads the Home Rule for Ireland party. |
| 1879 |
General Roca defeats the Patagonian Indians, opening the Pampas for settlement. |
| 1879 |
Impressionist artist Edgar Degas paints Ballerina Posing for a Photograph. |
| 1879 |
Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen writes A Doll’s House. |
| 1879 |
Tawfiq Pasha succeeds his father Ismail Pasha as khedive (viceroy) of Egypt. |
| 1879 |
Territorial disputes lead to the War of the Pacific between Chile and Peru. |
| 1879 |
Thomas Edison develops the first workable incandescent lamp (light bulb). |
| 1879 |
Mary Baker Eddy organizes the Church of Christ, Scientist. |
| 1880 |
American impressionist artist Mary Cassatt exhibits A Woman in Black at the Opera. |
| 1880 |
Boer (Afrikaner) uprisings begin against the British in Transvaal, South Africa. |
| 1880 |
France annexes the Pacific island of Tahiti. |
| 1880 |
French novelist Emile Zola writes Nana, a portrait of a prostitute. |
| 1880 |
German composer Jacques Offenbach writes the opera Tales of Hoffmann. |
| 1880 |
Gladstone succeeds Disraeli as British prime minister. |
| 1880 |
Russian composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky writes the 1812 Overture. |
| 1880 |
Fyodor Dostoyevski publishes The Brothers Karamazov. |
| 1880 |
James A. Garfield defeats Winfield S. Hancock in the U.S. presidential election. |
| 1881 |
Russian tsar Alexander II is assassinated; he is succeeded by Alexander III.. |
| 1881 |
Chester A. Arthur is inaugurated as the 21st U.S. president. |
| 1881 |
Ferdinand de Lesseps begins an abortive attempt to build the Panama Canal. |
| 1881 |
Garfield is inaugurated as the 20th U.S. president; Chester A. Arthur is vice-president. |
| 1881 |
Japanese statesman Itagaki Taisuke founds the Jiyuto (Liberal party). |
| 1881 |
Lillie Langtry, mistress of the Prince of Wales, makes her acting debut. |
| 1881 |
President Garfield is assassinated by Charles J. Guiteau. |
| 1881 |
The Sudanese under Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad overthrow Egyptian rule. |
| 1881 |
The first U.S. tennis championship is held in Newport, R.I. |
| 1881 |
Clara Barton organizes the American red Cross. |
| 1881 |
Booker T. Washington founds Tuskegee Institute. |
| 1882 |
A Triple Alliance is established between Austria, Italy, and Germany. |
| 1882 |
Edison’s New York plant begins supplying 59 customers with electricity. |
| 1882 |
Impressionist artist Edouard Manet completes the Bar at the Folies-Bergere. |
| 1882 |
Japanese statesman Okuma Shigenobu founds the Kaishinto, or Progressive, party. |
| 1882 |
The British take control of Egypt, suppressing uprisings against Tawfiq Pasha. |
| 1882 |
The U.S. begins to restrict immigration with the Chinese Exclusion Acts. |
| 1882 |
John D. Rockefeller organizes the Standard Oil Trust. |
| 1882 |
The first Labor Day parade is staged in New York City. |
| 1883 |
Buffalo Bill Cody organizes his Wild West show. |
| 1883 |
Cyrus H. K. Curtis publishes the Lady’s Home Journal magazine. |
| 1883 |
German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche begins Thus Spake Zarathustra. |
| 1883 |
Paul Kruger becomes president of the Boer republic of the Transvaal in South Africa. |
| 1883 |
Russian scientist Tsiolkovsky proves that a rocket could work in the vacuum of space. |
| 1883 |
The Brooklyn Bridge is completed in New York. |
| 1883 |
The Fabian Society is founded in London to spread socialist ideas. |
| 1883 |
The Island volcano of Krakatoa explodes in Indonesia, causing 36,000 deaths. |
| 1883 |
The first skyscraper (10 stories) is built in Chicago by William LeBaron Jenney. |
| 1883 |
Mark Twain publishes Life on the Mississippi. |
| 1883 |
The Orient Express, Europe’s first transcontinental train, begins running between Paris and Constantinople. |
| 1884 |
American author Mark Twain publishes the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. |
| 1884 |
Belva Lockwood becomes the first woman nominated as a U.S. presidential candidate. |
| 1884 |
German East Africa is formed from Rwanda, Mozambique,Tanzania, and Burundi. |
| 1884 |
Germany occupies South West Africa (Namibia). |
| 1884 |
Lewis E. Waterman invents the first fountain pen with an ink reservoir. |
| 1884 |
Grover Cleveland defeats James G. Blaine in the presidential election. |
| 1884 |
Ottmar Mergenthaler patents the first linotype machine. |
| 1885 |
Boston Symphony Orchestra organizes its Promenade Concerts (the Boston Pops). |
| 1885 |
Cleveland is inaugurated as the 22nd U.S. president; Thomas Hendricks is vice-president. |
| 1885 |
French chemist Louis Pasteur develops a vaccine for rabies. |
| 1885 |
General Gordon is killed by Mahdist forces at the siege of Khartoum in Sudan. |
| 1885 |
Gottlieb Daimler develops the first motorcycle. |
| 1885 |
J. K. Stanley introduces his safety cycle, the basic model for the modern bicycle. |
| 1885 |
The Congo Free State (Zaire) becomes the possession of King Leopold II of Belgium. |
| 1885 |
The Indian National Congress movement is founded in Bombay. |
| 1886 |
Apache Indian chief Geronimo surrenders to General Nelson Miles. |
| 1886 |
Britain makes Burma a province of India after winning the Anglo-Burma War. |
| 1886 |
French sculptor Auguste Rodin completes The Kiss. |
| 1886 |
Gold is discovered in Transvaal, South Africa. |
| 1886 |
Samuel Gompers organizes the American Federation of Labor. |
| 1886 |
The Anglo-German Agreement recognizes German control over Tanganyika (Tanzania). |
| 1886 |
The Statue of Liberty is unveiled in New York Harbor. |
| 1886 |
Chicago police kill four striking workers in the Haymarket Massacre. |
| 1887 |
Arthur Conan Doyle publishes the first Sherlock Holmes story. |
| 1887 |
France creates the Union of Indochina (most of modern day Vietnam and Kampuchea). |
| 1888 |
The Blizzard of ’88 kills 400 people and devastates the Northeast U.S. coast. |
| 1888 |
President Grover Cleveland loses his reelection bid to Benjamin Harrison. |
| 1887 |
The Michelson-Morley experiment confirms the absence of ether. |
| 1887 |
Portugal takes control of Macao off the south China coast. |
| 1887 |
The Canadian Pacific Railway completes Canada’s first transcontinental railroad. |
| 1888 |
A patent is issued to American inventor John H. Loud for the first ball-point pen. |
| 1888 |
American inventor George Eastman introduces the Kodak box camera. |
| 1888 |
Britain unites its Caribbean colonies of Trinidad and Tobago. |
| 1888 |
Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh paints Still Life With Sunflowers. |
| 1888 |
Jack the Ripper murders seven women in London. |
| 1888 |
Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov writes Scheherazade. |
| 1888 |
The National Geographic Magazine is published for the first time. |
| 1888 |
William II succeeds Frederick III as emperor of Germany. |
| 1888 |
The U.S. Department of Labor is established. |
| 1888 |
The Amateur Athletic Union is formed. |
| 1889 |
Benjamin Harrison is inaugurated as the 23rd U.S. president; Levi Morton is vice-president. |
| 1889 |
Some 50,000 settlers take over former Indian land during the Oklahoma Land Rush. |
| 1889 |
The Johnstown, Pennsylvania, flood kills 2,295 people. |
| 1889 |
Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria commits suicide at Mayerling. |
| 1889 |
German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg is exiled in Switzerland. |
| 1889 |
Gustave Eiffel designs the Eiffel Tower for the Paris Exposition. |
| 1889 |
Japan’s first prime minister Ito Hirobumi introduces the Meiji Constitution. |
| 1889 |
Montana becomes the 41st state. |
| 1889 |
Washington becomes the 42nd state of the Union. |
| 1889 |
North Dakota and South Dakota become the 39th and 40th states. |
| 1889 |
Pedro II emperor of Brazil is overthrown in a coup; Brazil is declared a republic. |
| 1890 |
American naval officer Alfred Mahan publishes The Influence of Sea Power upon History. |
| 1890 |
American psychologist William James publishes The Principles of Psychology. |
| 1890 |
Cecil Rhodes becomes prime minister of the Cape Colony in South Africa. |
| 1890 |
Claude Debussy begins composing Suite Bergamasque, including Clair de lune. |
| 1890 |
Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh commits suicide. |
| 1890 |
German chancellor Otto von Bismarck is dismissed by Emperor William II. |
| 1890 |
Idaho becomes the 43rd state of the Union. |
| 1890 |
Wyoming becomes the 44th state of the Union. |
| 1890 |
The Sioux chief Sitting Bull is killed by U.S. soldiers. |
| 1890 |
Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore publishes Manasi (The Mind’s Embodiment). |
| 1890 |
Photographer Jacob Riis documents New York’s poor in How the Other Half Lives. |
| 1890 |
Sioux Indians are massacred at the Battle of Wounded Knee. |
| 1890 |
Oklahoma Territory is established. |
| 1890 |
The power of monopolies in the United States is curtailed by the Sherman Anti-Trust Law. |
| 1890 |
The British South Africa Company occupies Zimbabwe; conflicts begin with the Ndebele. |
| 1890 |
Zanzibar becomes a British protectorate. |
| 1890 |
Luxembourg becomes completely independent of the Netherlands. |
| 1891 |
Anglo-Irish author Oscar Wilde publishes his only novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. |
| 1891 |
English novelist Thomas Hardy writes Tess of the D’Urbervilles. |
| 1891 |
Eugene Dubois discovers the first Homo erectus remains on Java in Indonesia. |
| 1891 |
French postimpressionist artist Paul Gauguin travels to Tahiti. |
| 1891 |
James Naismith devises the game of basketball in Springfield, Mass. |
| 1891 |
The American Express Company introduces the first traveler’s checks. |
| 1891 |
Germany introduces the world’s first old-age pension plan. |
| 1891 |
The Toronto Star newspaper is first published. |
| 1892 |
French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec paints At the Moulin Rouge. |
| 1892 |
Ellis Island becomes the major U.S. receiving station for immigrants. |
| 1892 |
The Ohio Supreme Court dissolves the Standard Oil Trust. |
| 1892 |
Impressionist artist Paul Cezanne completes the Card Players. |
| 1892 |
James J. Corbett wins the heavyweight boxing championship from John L. Sullivan. |
| 1892 |
The San Francisco Examiner begins printing the first newspaper comic strip. |
| 1892 |
Writer and political revolutionary Jose Marti founds the Cuban Revolutionary party. |
| 1892 |
Naturalist John Muir helps establish the Sierra Club. |
| 1892 |
Nikola Tesla invents the first alternating-current motor. |
| 1892 |
President Benjamin Harrison loses his bid for reelection to Grover Cleveland. |
| 1893 |
American artist Louis Comfort Tiffany begins producing Art Nouveau glassware. |
| 1893 |
Cleveland is inaugurated as the 24th U.S. president; Adlai E. Stevenson is vice-president. |
| 1893 |
France adds Laos to the Union of Indochina. |
| 1893 |
Queen Liliuokalani is ousted in Hawaii. |
| 1893 |
The Ivory Coast becomes a French colony. |
| 1893 |
Victor Horta’s Tassel House in Brussels initiates the Art Nouveau architectural style. |
| 1893 |
The Morman Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah, is dedicated. |
| 1893 |
New Zealand becomes the first nation to allow women to vote. |
| 1893 |
The Johns Hopkins Medical school is founded in Baltimore. |
| 1894 |
Britain establishes a protectorate over Buganda and conquers the rest of Uganda. |
| 1894 |
Coxey’s Army of workers arrives in Washington, D.C., to protest unemployment. |
| 1894 |
The Pullman strike is followed by a general railway strike. |
| 1894 |
Labor Day is made a legal holiday in the United States. |
| 1894 |
The Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed; Sanford Dole becomes president. |
| 1894 |
Czech decorative artist Alfons Mucha designs a poster of Sarah Bernhardt. |
| 1894 |
English artist Aubrey Beardsley illustrates Oscar Wilde’s Salome. |
| 1894 |
English author Rudyard Kipling publishes The Jungle Book. |
| 1894 |
Percival Lowell builds an observatory to study the Martian canals. |
| 1894 |
Rebellion in Korea begins the First Sino-Japanese War. |
| 1894 |
The arrest of army captain Albert Dreyfus creates a political crisis in France. |
| 1894 |
Thousands of Armenians are massacred in Turkey. |
| 1894 |
Rudyard Kipling publishes The Jungle Book. |
| 1894 |
Tsar Alexander III of Russia dies; his son becomes monarch as Nicholas II. |
| 1895 |
Anglo-Irish playwright Oscar Wilde writes The Importance of Being Earnest. |
| 1895 |
Japan defeats China; the Shimonoseki Treaty establishes Korean independence. |
| 1895 |
Louis and Auguste Lumiere show the first motion pictures to a Paris cafe audience. |
| 1895 |
Russian revolutionary Vladimir Ilich Lenin is sentenced to prison and exile in Siberia. |
| 1895 |
The American Bowling Congress (ABC) is founded. |
| 1895 |
The Cuban War of Independence begins against Spain; Jose Marti is killed in battle. |
| 1895 |
The Jameson Raid on the Boer republic of Transvaal increases anti-British hostility. |
| 1895 |
The first list of best-selling books is published by The Bookman magazine. |
| 1895 |
X rays are discovered by German physicist Wilhelm C. Roentgen. |
| 1895 |
The first professional football is played in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. |
| 1895 |
The first U.S. Open golf tournament is played. |
| 1895 |
The New York Public Library is established. |
| 1895 |
The American Bowling Congress is founded. |
| 1895 |
Stephen Crane publishes The Red Badge of Courage. |
| 1896 |
A tsunami (tidal wave) kills 27,000 people in Japan. |
| 1896 |
Italian composer Giacomo Puccini writes the opera La Boheme. |
| 1896 |
John Philip Sousa composes The Stars and Stripes Forever. |
| 1896 |
King Menelik II defeats the Italians at Adwa, maintaining Ethiopian independence. |
| 1896 |
The first modern Olympic Games are held at Athens in Greece; 13 countries compete. |
| 1896 |
Utah becomes the 45th state of the Union. |
| 1896 |
A gold rush begins in Canada’s Klondike region and neighboring Alaska. |
| 1896 |
Wilfrid Laurier becomes Canada’s first French-Canadian premier. |
| 1896 |
William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan in the U.S. presidential election. |
| 1896 |
The Canadian Red Cross is founded. |
| 1896 |
The Duryea Motor Wagon Co. offers the first American-made automobiles to the public. |
| 1897 |
American comic strip The Katzenjammer Kids is begun by Rudolph Dirks. |
| 1897 |
Austrian artist Gustav Klimt helps to found the Vienna Secession group. |
| 1897 |
British physician Havelock Ellis begins his Studies in the Psychology of Sex. |
| 1897 |
English author Rudyard Kipling publishes Captains Courageous. |
| 1897 |
French dramatist Edmond Rostand writes Cyrano de Bergerac. |
| 1897 |
French primitive artist Henri Rousseau paints The Sleeping Gypsy. |
| 1897 |
McKinley is inaugurated as the 25th U.S. president; Garrett Hobart is vice-president. |
| 1897 |
Russian author Anton Chekhov writes the play Uncle Vanya. |
| 1897 |
Stanislavsky founds the Moscow Art Theater and begins the method acting technique. |
| 1897 |
The first subway in the U.S. opens in Boston. |
| 1897 |
Theodor Herzl organizes the World Zionist Congress at Basel in Switzerland. |
| 1897 |
New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel opens. |
| 1898 |
Britain obtains a 99-year lease for Hong Kong from the Chinese. |
| 1898 |
English author H. G. Wells publishes The War of the Worlds. |
| 1898 |
Spain cedes Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the U.S. in the Treaty of Paris. |
| 1898 |
Cuba gains its independence from Spain. |
| 1898 |
The United States annexes Hawaii. |
| 1898 |
The Boxer Uprising begins in China; Empress Tz’u-hsi imprisons the emperor. |
| 1898 |
The British under Kitchener defeat the Mahdists at Omdurman in Sudan. |
| 1898 |
The Fashoda Incident leads to a French withdrawal from the Sudan. |
| 1898 |
The Spanish fleet is destroyed in Manila Bay. |
| 1898 |
The Spanish-American War begins with a declaration of war by Congress. |
| 1898 |
The U.S. army uses machine guns for the first time in the battle of Santiago. |
| 1898 |
Spain sues for peace. |
| 1898 |
The U.S. battleship Maine explodes in the Havana harbor. |
| 1898 |
U.S. troops land on Cuba; Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders are in action. |
| 1898 |
William Randolph Hearst’s yellow journalism inflames anti-Spanish feelings. |
| 1899 |
American artist Winslow Homer paints the Gulf Stream. |
| 1899 |
American composer Scott Joplin publishes his Maple Leaf Rag. |
| 1899 |
English composer Edward Elgar writes The Enigma Variations. |
| 1899 |
The South African Boer War begins between the Boers (Afrikaners) and the British. |
| 1899 |
U.S. Secretary of State John M. Hay advocates an Open Door Policy for China. |
| 1899 |
Emilio Aguinaldo leads an insurrection against American occupation of the Philippines. |
| 1900 |
An international force lifts the Boxer siege of Peking. |
| 1900 |
A hurricane kills 6,000 people in Galveston, Texas. |
| 1900 |
President William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan to win reelection. |
| 1900 |
The U.S. Census Bureau puts the nation’s population at 76,000,000. |
| 1900 |
British politician Keir Hardie helps to found the Labour party. |
| 1900 |
Chinese nationalists besiege foreigners in Peking during the Boxer Uprising. |
| 1900 |
Dutch physiologist Willem Einthoven invents the electrocardiograph. |
| 1900 |
Hawaii is made a U.S. Territory; Sanford Dole serves as the first governor. |
| 1900 |
The U.S. Congress ratifies the Gold Standard Act. |
| 1900 |
The Hall of Fame for Great Americans is established in New York City. |
| 1900 |
Humbert I is assassinated; he is succeeded by Victor Emanuel III as king of Italy. |
| 1900 |
James J. Jeffries beats Jim Corbett to retain the heavyweight boxing title. |
| 1900 |
Max Planck formulates the quantum theory in physics. |
| 1900 |
Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud publishes The Interpretation of Dreams. |
| 1900 |
Sir Arthur Evans begins the excavation of the Minoan palace at Knossos, Crete. |
| 1900 |
The British defeat the Boer (Afrikaner) armies in South Africa and occupy Pretoria. |
| 1900 |
The U.S. wins the first Davis Cup tennis contest. |
| 1901 |
A 39,000 year-old frozen mammoth is discovered in Russia. |
| 1901 |
A stele bearing the Code of Hammurabi is discovered in Susa, Iran. |
| 1901 |
American surgeon Walter Reed proves that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes. |
| 1901 |
An American League of baseball is formed in competition to the National League. |
| 1901 |
Andrew Carnegie sells his company and devotes himself to philanthropy. |
| 1901 |
Britain incorporates Ashanti territory into the Gold Coast (Ghana). |
| 1901 |
English author Beatrix Potter publishes her children’s book The Tale of Peter Rabbit. |
| 1901 |
Guglielmo Marconi tests radio transmissions between England and Newfoundland. |
| 1901 |
King C. Gillette founds the American Safety Razor Company. |
| 1901 |
President McKinley is assassinated by the anarchist Leon Czolgosz. |
| 1901 |
Queen Victoria dies; she is succeeded by her son Edward VII. |
| 1901 |
Philippine insurrection leader Emilio Aguinaldo is captured. |
| 1901 |
President William McKinley begins his second term; Theodore Roosevelt is vice-president. |
| 1901 |
Russia occupies Manchuria in north-east China. |
| 1901 |
Sergei Rachmaninoff writes his Second Piano Concerto. |
| 1901 |
Sir Edward Elgar composes the first of his five Pomp and Circumstance Marches. |
| 1901 |
Spanish painter Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period begins. |
| 1901 |
Temperance advocate Carry Nation uses a hatchet to attack a Kansas saloon. |
| 1901 |
The Commonwealth of Australia is founded. |
| 1901 |
The first U.S. national bowling tournament is held. |
| 1901 |
William McKinley is inaugurated as the 26th U.S. president; Theodore Roosevelt is vice-president. |
| 1901 |
Victor L. Berger and Eugene V. Debs help found the American Socialist party. |
| 1902 |
Conan Doyle writes the Sherlock Holmes adventure The Hound of the Baskervilles. |
| 1902 |
U.S. troops withdraw from Cuba. |
| 1902 |
English author Joseph Conrad publishes Heart of Darkness. |
| 1902 |
French filmmaker Georges Melies produces A Trip to the Moon. |
| 1902 |
Italian opera singer Enrico Caruso makes his first phonographic recording. |
| 1902 |
Maksim Gorky’s The Lower Depths is produced at the Moscow Art Theater. |
| 1902 |
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., is appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. |
| 1902 |
The Photo-Secession group is founded in New York by photographer Alfred Stieglitz. |
| 1902 |
The Treaty of Vereeniging ends the Boer War. |
| 1902 |
The Philippine insurrection ends. |
| 1903 |
Alexander, King of Serbia, is assassinated; he is succeeded by Peter I. |
| 1903 |
The first Pacific cable is laid between San Francisco and Manila. |
| 1903 |
American author Jack London publishes The Call of the Wild. |
| 1903 |
American novelist Henry James publishes The Ambassadors. |
| 1903 |
Bernard Shaw’s play Man and Superman is produced in London. |
| 1903 |
Edwin S. Porter directs the pioneering Western film The Great Train Robbery. |
| 1903 |
Emmeline Pankhurst founds the Women’s Social and Political Union in Britain. |
| 1903 |
Marie and Pierre Curie win the Nobel Prize for Physics for their work on radioactivity. |
| 1903 |
Orville Wright makes the first successful flight in a self-propelled airplane. |
| 1903 |
Panama declares its independence from Colombia; the U.S. recognizes the new republic. |
| 1903 |
The Rolls-Royce automobile company is founded in Britain. |
| 1903 |
The U.S. acquires perpetual control over the Panama Canal Zone. |
| 1903 |
The first World Series baseball game is played. |
| 1903 |
Vladimir Ilich Lenin organizes the Bolshevik revolutionary group. |
| 1904 |
Italian composer Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly is produced. |
| 1904 |
Ivan Pavlov, discoverer of the conditioned reflex, is awarded the Nobel Prize. |
| 1904 |
James Barrie’s play Peter Pan is produced in London. |
| 1904 |
Max Weber publishes The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. |
| 1904 |
Russian author Anton Chekhov’s play The Cherry Orchard is produced. |
| 1904 |
Territorial disputes in Manchuria begin the Russo-Japanese War. |
| 1904 |
President Theodore Roosevelt defeats Alton B. Parker to win reelection. |
| 1904 |
The Abbey Theatre is founded in Dublin. |
| 1904 |
The New York City subway is opened. |
| 1905 |
A general strike and revolution begin in Russia; Nicholas II grants a constitution. |
| 1905 |
Ambrose Fleming invents the thermionic valve, used to improve radio reception. |
| 1905 |
American humorist and actor Will Rogers makes his New York City debut. |
| 1905 |
American labor leader Eugene V. Debs founds the Industrial Workers of the World. |
| 1905 |
The Treaty of Portsmouth ends the Russo-Japanese War. |
| 1905 |
Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen founds the T’ung-meng hui (Alliance Society). |
| 1905 |
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner organizes the expressionist painters group Die Brucke. |
| 1905 |
French territorial ambitions spark the first Moroccan crisis. |
| 1905 |
German physicist Albert Einstein proposes his Special Theory of Relativity. |
| 1905 |
German poet Rainer Maria Rilke publishes The Book of Hours. |
| 1905 |
Henri Matisse and Andre Derain form the Fauves (Wild Beasts) art movement. |
| 1905 |
Psychologist Alfred Binet develops intelligence tests for school children. |
| 1905 |
Roosevelt begins his second term as U.S. president; Charles Fairbanks is vice-president. |
| 1905 |
Alberta and Saskatchewan become Canadian provinces. |
| 1905 |
The Cullinan diamond is found in South Africa; it weighs 3,106 carats. |
| 1905 |
The Russian fleet is destroyed by the Japanese at the Battle of Tsushima. |
| 1905 |
The Sinn Fein Irish nationalist movement is founded by Arthur Griffith. |
| 1905 |
The union of Norway and Sweden is dissolved; Haakon VII is elected king of Norway. |
| 1905 |
W.E.B. Du Bois forms the Niagara Movement to demand full civil rights for African-Americans. |
| 1906 |
British author John Galsworthy publishes the first novel of The Forsyte Saga. |
| 1906 |
H.M.S. Dreadnought, the first modern battleship, is launched. |
| 1906 |
Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen traverses the Northwest Passage. |
| 1906 |
The Aga Khan III forms the All-India Moslim League. |
| 1906 |
The Dreyfus affair ends with the pardoning of French army officer Alfred Dreyfus. |
| 1906 |
The San Francisco earthquake kills 700. |
| 1906 |
Under the Platt Amendment U.S. troops return to Cuba to quell rebellion and restore order. |
| 1906 |
Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle leads to the U.S. Pure Food and Drug Act. |
| 1906 |
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is founded. |
| 1907 |
A Triple Entente is formed between Britain, France, and Russia. |
| 1907 |
Anna Pavlova dances The Dying Swan, choreographed by Mikhail Fokine. |
| 1907 |
Irish playwright J.M. Synge writes The Playboy of the Western World. |
| 1907 |
Lee De Forest invents the triode, a key component for amplifying radio signals. |
| 1907 |
Oklahoma becomes the 46th state of the Union. |
| 1907 |
Rasputin gains influence at the court of Russian emperor Nicholas II. |
| 1907 |
The Panic of 1907 begins with the collapse of the U.S. stock market. |
| 1907 |
The first Ziegfeld Follies are staged in New York City. |
| 1908 |
An earthquake at Messina in Italy kills 80,000. |
| 1908 |
Austria-Hungary annexes Bosnia and Hercegovina. |
| 1908 |
Austrian artist Gustav Klimt paints The Kiss. |
| 1908 |
Automaker William Durant founds the General Motors Company. |
| 1908 |
British soldier Robert Baden-Powell founds the Boy Scout movement. |
| 1908 |
Filmmakers Charles Pathe and Leon Gaumont produce the first newsreel. |
| 1908 |
Jack Johnson becomes the first black heavyweight boxing champion. |
| 1908 |
Kenneth Grahame publishes his children’s story The Wind in the Willows. |
| 1908 |
King Leopold II of the Belgians establishes the Independent State of Congo in Africa. |
| 1908 |
Liberal leader Herbert Asquith becomes prime minister of Britain. |
| 1908 |
Mary Baker Eddy establishes the Christian Science Monitor. |
| 1908 |
Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque cofound the cubism art movement. |
| 1908 |
The Ashcan school of painters exhibit in New York City. |
| 1908 |
The Ford Motor Company produces the first Model T automobile. |
| 1908 |
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded. |
| 1908 |
The Tunguska fireball explodes in Siberia with the force of a modern H-bomb. |
| 1908 |
The Young Turk Revolution in Turkey leads to political reform. |
| 1908 |
William Howard Taft defeats William Jennings Bryan in U.S. presidential elections. |
| 1909 |
American architect Frank Lloyd Wright builds the Robie House in Chicago. |
| 1909 |
American artist George Bellows paints the prize fight scene Stag at Sharkey’s. |
| 1909 |
American explorer Robert E. Peary reaches the North Pole. |
| 1909 |
American poet William Carlos Williams publishes Poems, his first book. |
| 1909 |
American writer Gertrude Stein publishes Three Lives. |
| 1909 |
French aviator Louis Bleriot makes the first flight across the English Channel. |
| 1909 |
Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev presents the Ballet Russe in Paris. |
| 1909 |
W. C. Handy writes Memphis Blues. |
| 1909 |
Taft is inaugurated as the 27th U.S. president; James Sherman is vice-president. |
| 1909 |
Ottoman sultan Abd al-Hamid is overthrown. |
| 1910 |
British politician Winston Churchill is appointed first lord of the Admiralty. |
| 1910 |
France groups four African territories together as French Equatorial Africa. |
| 1910 |
French primitive artist Henri Rousseau paints The Dream. |
| 1910 |
French sculptor Auguste Rodin casts the bronze figure The Thinker. |
| 1910 |
George V succeeds his father Edward VII as king of Great Britain and Ireland. |
| 1910 |
German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich synthesizes Salversan, a cure for syphilis. |
| 1910 |
Italian artists led by Umberto Boccioni found the futurism movement. |
| 1910 |
Japanese forces annex Korea. |
| 1910 |
Madero, Villa, and Zapata lead a revolution against Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz. |
| 1910 |
Russian-born artist Wassily Kandinsky executes his first abstract painting. |
| 1910 |
The Art Deco architectural and decorative arts style begins to become popular. |
| 1910 |
The Boy Scouts of America is founded. |
| 1910 |
The Union of South Africa is formed; Louis Botha becomes the first prime minister. |
| 1911 |
American aviator Glen Curtiss flies the first successful seaplane. |
| 1911 |
American novelist Edith Wharton publishes Ethan Frome. |
| 1911 |
American songwriter Irving Berlin publishes Alexander’s Ragtime Band. |
| 1911 |
Elmer A. Sperry designs the first American gyrocompass. |
| 1911 |
English author G.K. Chesterton publishes the first Father Brown story. |
| 1911 |
German-American anthropologist Franz Boas publishes The Mind of Primitive Man. |
| 1911 |
Hans Geiger invents an electrical device to count individual alpha particles. |
| 1911 |
Italy’s attempts to annex Cyrenaica and Tripolitania leads to the Italo-Turkish War. |
| 1911 |
Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz is overthrown; Francisco Madero becomes president. |
| 1911 |
Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen reaches the South Pole ahead of Robert Scott. |
| 1911 |
Richard Strauss’ opera Der Rosenkavalier is performed for the first time. |
| 1911 |
Russian artist Marc Chagall paints I and My Village. |
| 1911 |
Sir Ernest Rutherford formulates his theory of atomic structure. |
| 1911 |
The Ch’ing dynasty is deposed in China; a republic is formed under Sun Yat-sen. |
| 1911 |
The first film studio is established at Hollywood in California. |
| 1911 |
Tibet declares its independence from China. |
| 1911 |
Willis Carrier designs the first practical air-conditioning system. |
| 1911 |
The first Indianapolis 500 auto race is held. |
| 1912 |
American Indian Jim Thorpe wins the Olympic decathlon and pentathlon. |
| 1912 |
Albania declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire. |
| 1912 |
Woodrow Wilson defeats Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft in U.S. presidential elections. |
| 1912 |
American author Edgar Rice Burroughs publishes Tarzan of the Apes. |
| 1912 |
American writer Willa Cather publishes her first novel Alexander’s Bridge. |
| 1912 |
Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler publishes The Neurotic Constitution. |
| 1912 |
British explorers under Scott reach the South Pole but die during their return. |
| 1912 |
French Dada artist Marcel Duchamp paints Nude Descending a Staircase. |
| 1912 |
German geophysicist Alfred Wegener formulates his continental drift hypothesis. |
| 1912 |
Morocco is divided between France and Spain after the second Moroccan crisis. |
| 1912 |
New Mexico becomes the 47th state. |
| 1912 |
Arizona becomes the 48th state. |
| 1912 |
Piltdown man is discovered in Britain, beginning an elaborate scientific hoax. |
| 1912 |
Russian dancer Vaslav Nijinsky choreographs and dances in The Afternoon of the Faun. |
| 1912 |
The Balkan League begins the first Balkan War against the Ottoman Empire. |
| 1912 |
The Treaty of Lausanne ends the Italo-Turkish War. |
| 1912 |
The liner Titanic sinks after colliding with an iceberg on her maiden voyage. |
| 1912 |
Theodore Roosevelt campaigns for the U.S. presidency under the Bull Moose ticket. |
| 1913 |
American poet Robert Frost publishes A Boy’s Will. |
| 1913 |
Bertrand Russell and A.E. Whitehead publish Principia Mathematica. |
| 1913 |
Danish physicist Niels Bohr publishes his atomic theory. |
| 1913 |
English novelist D.H. Lawrence publishes Sons and Lovers. |
| 1913 |
Federal income tax is introduced in the U.S. |
| 1913 |
Igor Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring causes a scandal at the Paris premiere. |
| 1913 |
Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore wins the Nobel Prize for literature. |
| 1913 |
King George I of Greece is assassinated; he is succeeded by Constantine I |
| 1913 |
Marcel Proust writes the first volume of Remembrance of Things Past. |
| 1913 |
Medical missionary Albert Schweitzer builds a hospital at Lambarene in Africa. |
| 1913 |
Russian revolutionary Joseph Stalin is exiled to Siberia by the tsarist government. |
| 1913 |
Samuel Goldwyn founds his first movie company with Jesse Lasky and Cecil B. De Mille. |
| 1913 |
Socialists Sidney and Beatrice Webb found the political journal The New Statesman. |
| 1913 |
The constructivism art movement begins in Russia. |
| 1913 |
The island of Crete is united with Greece. |
| 1913 |
The U.S. Federal Reserve System is established. |
| 1913 |
The second Balkan War begins with a Bulgarian attack on Serbia, but ends 2 months later. |
| 1913 |
Victoriano Huerta leads a military coup in Mexico; president Francisco Madero is killed. |
| 1913 |
Wilson is inaugurated as the 28th U.S. president; Thomas Marshall is vice-president. |
| 1914 |
A British expedition led by Ernest Shackleton is marooned in the Antarctic. |
| 1914 |
A German fleet defeats the British at Coronel but is decimated at the Falklands. |
| 1914 |
Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo, precipitating World War I. |
| 1914 |
Austrian forces invade Serbia but are repulsed with heavy losses. |
| 1914 |
Black composer W.C. Handy writes the St. Louis Blues. |
| 1914 |
Charlie Chaplin develops his little tramp character in a series of slapstick films. |
| 1914 |
France, Russia, and Britain (the Allies) are at war with Germany and Austria-Hungary. |
| 1914 |
George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion is performed for the first time. |
| 1914 |
German forces invade Belgium and France but are halted at the Marne. |
| 1914 |
German submarines begin to exact a heavy toll on Allied shipping. |
| 1914 |
Japan joins the Allies and captures the German base of Tsingtao in China. |
| 1914 |
Mack Sennett produces comedy films starring the Keystone Kops. |
| 1914 |
Parisian couturier Coco Chanel begins designing clothes. |
| 1914 |
President Wilson declares U.S. neutrality in World War I. |
| 1914 |
Russian forces invade East Prussia but are defeated at the Battle of Tannenberg. |
| 1914 |
The Panama Canal is completed, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. |
| 1914 |
Turkey declares war on the Allies; Britain annexes Turkish Cyprus. |
| 1914 |
U.S. Marines land at Veracruz in Mexico; President Huerta resigns. |
| 1915 |
A German submarine torpedoes the British liner Lusitania; 124 Americans are killed. |
| 1915 |
Albert Einstein formulates his General Theory of Relativity. |
| 1915 |
Anglo-French forces land at Gallipoli in an attempt to force Turkey out of the war. |
| 1915 |
Austrian writer Franz Kafka publishes The Metamorphosis. |
| 1915 |
D. W. Griffith’s movie The Birth of a Nation is shown for the first time. |
| 1915 |
Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa lead rebellions against Venustiano Carranza in Mexico. |
| 1915 |
English author Somerset Maugham publishes Of Human Bondage. |
| 1915 |
German Zeppelin airships begin bombing attacks on Britain. |
| 1915 |
Italy joins the Allies and invades Austrian territory. |
| 1915 |
President Wilson recognizes the Mexican government of Venustiano Carranza. |
| 1915 |
Serbia is overrun by the combined forces of Austria, Germany, and Bulgaria. |
| 1915 |
The Anzacs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) fight at Gallipoli. |
| 1915 |
The Dada art and literary movement is formed. |
| 1915 |
The Germans use poison gas for the first time at Ypres on the Western Front. |
| 1915 |
U.S. Marines land in Haiti, beginning a 20-year period of military occupation. |
| 1915 |
German forces capture Poland and Lithuania. |
| 1915 |
War poet Rupert Brooke’s 1914 and Other Poems is published in the year he dies. |
| 1916 |
Allied forces withdraw from Gallipoli after strong Turkish opposition. |
| 1916 |
American poet Carl Sandburg publishes his first book Chicago Poems. |
| 1916 |
British forces assault the German line at the Somme; tanks are used for the first time. |
| 1916 |
President Wilson defeats Charles Evans Hughes to win reelection. |
| 1916 |
German assaults at Verdun are repulsed by the French with great loss of life. |
| 1916 |
James Joyce publishes A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. |
| 1916 |
Jeannette Rankin becomes the first female member of U.S. House of Representatives. |
| 1916 |
Lloyd George becomes prime minister of Britain’s wartime coalition government. |
| 1916 |
Margaret Sanger is arrested for opening a birth-control clinic in Brooklyn. |
| 1916 |
North Sea storms flood lowlands in the Netherlands, 10,000 lives are lost. |
| 1916 |
The British and German fleets clash at the Battle of Jutland. |
| 1916 |
The Arabs revolt against the Ottoman Turks. |
| 1916 |
The Easter Rising in Dublin is suppressed within a week by the British. |
| 1916 |
The Russian Brusilov Offensive meets with success on the Eastern Front. |
| 1916 |
The Trans-Siberian railway is completed — the longest continuous rail line in the world. |
| 1916 |
U.S. Marines land in Santo Domingo to quell unrest; the occupation lasts until 1924. |
| 1916 |
U.S. troops under Pershing invade Mexico in retaliation for raids by Pancho Villa. |
| 1917 |
Adoption of the convoy system reduces Allied losses to German submarines. |
| 1917 |
President Woodrow Wilson begins his second term; Thomas Marshall is vice-president. |
| 1917 |
Anglo-American poet T.S. Eliot publishes The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. |
| 1917 |
Art critic and writer Guillaume Apollinaire coins the term surrealism. |
| 1917 |
Astrophysicist Karl Schwarzschild develops the black hole theory. |
| 1917 |
British forces attack the Germans in the Third Battle of Ypres. |
| 1917 |
British forces under Allenby capture Jerusalem and Bagdhad from the Turks. |
| 1917 |
Dutch artists Theo Van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian found the magazine de Stijl. |
| 1917 |
English composer Gustav Holst completes The Planets. |
| 1917 |
English humorist P.G. Wodehouse creates Bertie Wooster and his butler Jeeves. |
| 1917 |
Germany announces the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare. |
| 1917 |
The U.S. severs diplomatic relations with Germany. |
| 1917 |
Italian forces are defeated by Austria at the Battle of Caporetto. |
| 1917 |
Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung publishes The Psychology of the Unconscious. |
| 1917 |
T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) leads the Arab revolt against the Turks. |
| 1917 |
The Balfour Declaration endorses a Jewish national homeland in Palestine. |
| 1917 |
The Germans and the Bolshevik leaders talk peace; Russian troops pull back. |
| 1917 |
The Germans help Lenin return to Russia from exile in Switzerland. |
| 1917 |
The first U.S. troops arrive in Europe. |
| 1917 |
Aleksandr Kerensky heads Russia’s provisional government. |
| 1917 |
The Jones Act gives all Puerto Ricans the right to U.S. citizenship. |
| 1917 |
The Russian Revolution begins; Emperor Nicholas II abdicates. |
| 1917 |
The U.S. purchases the Virgin Islands from Denmark. |
| 1917 |
The United States declares war on Germany. |
| 1917 |
The Zimmermann note proposing a secret Mexican alliance with Germany is revealed. |
| 1917 |
The disastrous Nivelle Offensive leads to mutinies in the French Army. |
| 1917 |
The earliest jazz recordings are made in New York City. |
| 1917 |
The first Pulitzer Prizes are awarded for journalism, letters and music. |
| 1917 |
The provisional Kerensky government is deposed; Bolsheviks seize power in Russia. |
| 1918 |
Advances by French, British and American armies force a general German retreat. |
| 1918 |
American astronomer Harlow Shapley discovers the dimensions of the Milky Way. |
| 1918 |
American author Booth Tarkington writes The Magnificent Ambersons. |
| 1918 |
American forces under Pershing help to stem the German offensive. |
| 1918 |
President Woodrow Wilson details his 14 points for a just and lasting peace. |
| 1918 |
German and Bolshevik leaders sign an armistice at Brest-Litovsk. |
| 1918 |
An airmail service begins among New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. |
| 1918 |
An influenza pandemic begins (it kills 21-22 million in 2 years). |
| 1918 |
Austria, Poland, and Czechoslovakia become republics in the aftermath of World War I. |
| 1918 |
Bloomsbury Group member Lytton Strachey publishes Eminent Victorians. |
| 1918 |
Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky organizes the Red Army. |
| 1918 |
Civil war breaks out between the Red and White Russian armies. |
| 1918 |
French composer Erik Satie writes Socrate. |
| 1918 |
German air ace Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron) is shot down and killed. |
| 1918 |
Nicholas II, the last emperor of Russia, and his family are executed by the Bolsheviks. |
| 1918 |
The German armies collapse. |
| 1918 |
Revolution breaks out in Germany; Emperor William II flees to the Netherlands. |
| 1918 |
The Germans renew their assault on the Western Front in the Ludendorff Offensive. |
| 1918 |
The Weimar Republic negotiates an armistice for Germany, ending World War I. |
| 1918 |
The Habsburg monarchy ends; Hungary becomes a republic. |
| 1918 |
The world’s largest telescope is installed at Mount Wilson Observatory. |
| 1918 |
Women over 30 win the vote in Britain. |
| 1918 |
The United States issues its first airmail stamp. |
| 1919 |
Boxer Jack Dempsey knocks out Jess Willard to become heavyweight champion. |
| 1919 |
British troops massacre demonstrators at Amritsar in India. |
| 1919 |
English aviators Alcock and Brown make the first nonstop transatlantic flight. |
| 1919 |
George Gershwin composes his first hit song Swanee. |
| 1919 |
German communist Rosa Luxemburg is murdered after the Sparticus uprising. |
| 1919 |
Italian leader Benito Mussolini organizes his Fascist movement. |
| 1919 |
Jan Smuts succeeds Louis Botha as prime minister of South Africa. |
| 1919 |
Lady Astor becomes the first woman member of the British House of Commons. |
| 1919 |
Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata is killed. |
| 1919 |
Russian-American anarchist Emma Goldman is deported to the Soviet Union. |
| 1919 |
The Bauhaus school of design is founded in Germany by Walter Gropius. |
| 1919 |
The Chicago White Sox conspire to fix the baseball World Series. |
| 1919 |
The German fleet is scuttled at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. |
| 1920 |
The League of Nations is formed with Geneva in Switzerland as its headquarters. |
| 1919 |
The Paris Peace Conference opens at Versailles. |
| 1919 |
Lenin establishes the Third Communist International (Comintern). |
| 1919 |
The Paris Peace Conference ends, resulting in the Treaty of Versailles. |
| 1919 |
The Polish-Soviet War begins over territorial disputes. |
| 1919 |
The U.S. Senate refuses to ratify the Treaty of Versailles. |
| 1919 |
The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) is formed. |
| 1920 |
A Home Rule Bill establishes parliaments for northern and southern Ireland. |
| 1920 |
Admiral Miklos Horthy is appointed regent of Hungary. |
| 1920 |
The National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) party is founded. |
| 1920 |
American novelist Sinclair Lewis publishes Main Street. |
| 1920 |
American tennis star Bill Tilden wins the Wimbledon tournament for the first time. |
| 1920 |
British East Africa becomes a crown colony as Kenya. |
| 1920 |
Chaim Weizmann is named president of the World Zionist Organization. |
| 1920 |
Dutch artist Piet Mondrian paints the Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue. |
| 1920 |
French Art Deco glassmaker Rene Lalique opens a glass factory. |
| 1920 |
German East Africa is transferred to British control as Tanganyika (now Tanzania). |
| 1920 |
Mahatma Gandhi begins a noncooperation campaign against British rule in India. |
| 1920 |
Mexican president Venustiano Carranza is deposed and killed by Alvaro Obregon. |
| 1920 |
Mystery writer Agatha Christie publishes her first Hercule Poirot story. |
| 1920 |
Russian artist Aleksandr Rodchenko designs the first mobile. |
| 1920 |
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is founded. |
| 1920 |
The 18th Amendment institutes the prohibition of alcohol throughout the U.S. |
| 1920 |
The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives women the right to vote. |
| 1920 |
The Polish-Soviet War ends. |
| 1920 |
Woodrow Wilson wins the Nobel Peace Prize. |
| 1920 |
Warren G. Harding defeats James M. Cox in U.S. presidential elections. |
| 1920 |
The Russian Civil War ends with victory for the Bolsheviks. |
| 1920 |
The League of Nations holds its first meeting. |
| 1920 |
The U.S. Senate votes against joining the League of Nations. |
| 1921 |
Alexander rules the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. |
| 1921 |
American anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are found guilty of murder. |
| 1921 |
Berber tribes under Abd el-Krim attack garrisons in Spanish Morocco. |
| 1921 |
French cubist artist Fernand Leger paints Three Women. |
| 1921 |
German surrealist artist Max Ernst paints L’Elephant celebes. |
| 1921 |
Harding is inaugurated as the 29th U.S. president; Calvin Coolidge is vice-president. |
| 1921 |
William Howard Taft is appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court. |
| 1921 |
The United States and Germany sign a peace treaty. |
| 1921 |
Japanese premier Hara Takashi is assassinated. |
| 1921 |
Latin lover Rudolph Valentino stars in the silent film The Sheik. |
| 1921 |
Luigi Pirandello’s play Six Characters in Search of an Author is produced. |
| 1921 |
Mexican artist Diego Rivera begins painting murals depicting contemporary Mexican life. |
| 1921 |
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is created by Royal Charter. |
| 1921 |
The Irish Free State becomes a self-governing dominion of Britain. |
| 1921 |
The Reparations Commission fixes Germany’s liability at 132 billion gold marks. |
| 1921 |
W. L. MacKenzie King is elected prime minister of Canada for the first time. |
| 1922 |
Anglo-American poet T.S. Eliot writes The Waste Land. |
| 1922 |
Constantine I abdicates as king of Greece; is succeeded by George II. |
| 1922 |
DeWitt Wallace launches Reader’s Digest magazine. |
| 1922 |
Egypt achieves independence from Britain and becomes a monarchy under Fuad I. |
| 1922 |
The Permanent Court of International Justice opens in the Hague. |
| 1922 |
Emily Post publishes Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and at Home. |
| 1922 |
English Egyptologist Howard Carter excavates Tutankhamen’s tomb. |
| 1922 |
Explorer Roy Chapman Andrews discovers the first fossil dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert. |
| 1922 |
Irish poet and novelist James Joyce publishes Ulysses. |
| 1922 |
Kemal Ataturk’s attempts to restore Turkish territory leads to the Chanak Crisis. |
| 1922 |
Mahatma Gandhi is imprisoned for civil disobedience in India. |
| 1922 |
Robert Flaherty produces the first major film documentary Nanook of the North. |
| 1922 |
The Lincoln Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. |
| 1922 |
The Fascists march on Rome; King Victor Emmanuel III names Mussolini prime minister. |
| 1922 |
William T. Cosgrave becomes the first prime minister of the Irish Free State. |
| 1922 |
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed by Russia, Byelorussia, Ukraine, and Transcaucasia. |
| 1923 |
“King” Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band is the first black band to be recorded. |
| 1923 |
Adolf Hitler’s coup d’etat in Munich fails; he is captured and imprisoned. |
| 1923 |
Aircraft designer Willy Messerschmitt opens a factory in Germany. |
| 1923 |
Briton Hadden and Henry R. Luce found the weekly newsmagazine Time. |
| 1923 |
Child violinist Yehudi Menuhin makes his public debut at age 7. |
| 1923 |
Filmmaker Cecil B. De Mille directs the biblical epic The Ten Commandments. |
| 1923 |
French and Belgian troops occupy the Ruhr to enforce German war reparations. |
| 1923 |
General Miguel Primo de Rivera rules as dictator of Spain. |
| 1923 |
Irish poet William Butler Yeats wins the Nobel Prize for literature. |
| 1923 |
Jewish philosopher Martin Buber publishes Ich und Du (I and Thou). |
| 1923 |
Physicist Hermann Oberth publishes The Rocket into Planetary Space. |
| 1923 |
Spanish engineer Juan de la Cierva invents the autogiro. |
| 1923 |
Stanley Baldwin becomes Conservative prime minister of Britain for the first time. |
| 1923 |
The Treaty of Lausanne establishes the boundaries of modern Turkey. |
| 1923 |
Tokyo and Yokohama are destroyed by an earthquake; 100,000 are killed. |
| 1923 |
Turkey is declared a republic; Ataturk Kemal becomes the first president. |
| 1923 |
Vladimir Zworykin patents the iconoscope, the first television transmission tube. |
| 1923 |
Warren G. Harding dies; Calvin Coolidge is inaugurated as the 30th U.S. president. |
| 1924 |
Adolf Hitler publishes the first part of his Nazi political tract Mein Kampf (My Battle). |
| 1924 |
Arab leader Ibn Saud drives the Hashimites from Mecca. |
| 1924 |
President Calvin Coolidge defeats John W. Davis to win reelection. |
| 1924 |
English novelist E.M. Forster publishes A Passage To India. |
| 1924 |
French physicist Louis de Broglie proposes the wavelength nature of particles. |
| 1924 |
German novelist Thomas Mann publishes The Magic Mountain. |
| 1924 |
J. Edgar Hoover is appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation (renamed the FBI). |
| 1924 |
Ramsay MacDonald forms the first Labour government in Britain. |
| 1924 |
The first Winter Olympics are held at Chamonix, France. |
| 1924 |
Congress passes a law making all Native Americans U.S. citizens. |
| 1924 |
U.S. troops leave the Dominican Republic. |
| 1924 |
Soviet leader Lenin dies; new leader Joseph Stalin begins a purge of his opponents. |
| 1924 |
The Boston Bruins become the first professional ice hockey team. |
| 1924 |
The military declare a republic in Greece; King George II is exiled. |
| 1924 |
U.S. Congress investigates suspicious dealings in the Teapot Dome scandal. |
| 1925 |
Ahmed Zogu seizes power in Albania. |
| 1925 |
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan join the Soviet Union. |
| 1925 |
American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald publishes The Great Gatsby. |
| 1925 |
American writer John Dos Passos publishes Manhattan Transfer. |
| 1925 |
Astronomer Edwin Hubble composes a classification scheme for galaxies. |
| 1925 |
Automaker Walter P. Chrysler founds the Chrysler Corporation. |
| 1925 |
African-American dancer Josephine Baker stars in La Revue negre in Paris. |
| 1925 |
Clarence Birdseye begins marketing his quick-frozen food packages. |
| 1925 |
Friedrich Ebert dies; Paul von Hindenburg becomes president of the German republic. |
| 1925 |
President Calvin Coolidge begins his first full term; Charles Dawes is vice-president. |
| 1925 |
John T. Scopes is tried in Tennessee for teaching the theory of evolution. |
| 1925 |
Reza Shah Pahlavi rules as shah of Iran. |
| 1925 |
Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein directs The Battleship Potemkin. |
| 1925 |
Swiss-born artist Paul Klee paints Fish Magic. |
| 1925 |
The Locarno Pact finalizes the treaties between the World War I protagonists. |
| 1925 |
The New Yorker magazine is founded in New York City. |
| 1925 |
The all-black revue Runnin’ Wild introduces the Charleston dance craze. |
| 1926 |
American artist Georgia O’Keeffe paints her flower portrait Black Iris. |
| 1926 |
American golfer Bobby Jones wins the U.S. Open and the British Open tournaments. |
| 1926 |
American physicist Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-propellant rocket. |
| 1926 |
The U.S. Army Air Corps is established. |
| 1926 |
Antonio Oscar de Fragoso Carmona becomes president after a military coup in Portugal. |
| 1926 |
Chiang Kai-shek organizes the Northern Expedition to unite China. |
| 1926 |
Eamon De Valera organizes the Fianna Fail party in the Republic of Ireland. |
| 1926 |
English author A.A. Milne writes the children’s book Winnie-the-Pooh. |
| 1926 |
French troops in Morocco subdue a tribal rebellion led by Abd el-Krim. |
| 1926 |
Germany is admitted to the League of Nations. |
| 1926 |
Hirohito becomes emperor of Japan. |
| 1926 |
Nobile, Amundsen, and Ellsworth pilot the airship Norge over the North Pole. |
| 1926 |
Richard E. Byrd and Floyd Bennett make the first airplane flight over the North Pole. |
| 1926 |
Russian composer Dmitry Shostakovich premiers his First Symphony. |
| 1926 |
The General Strike breaks out in Britain involving 3 million workers. |
| 1926 |
The Harlem Globetrotters basketball team is organized in Chicago. |
| 1926 |
U.S. Marines land in Nicaragua to suppress a revolution (they depart in 1933). |
| 1927 |
American dancer Isadora Duncan is killed in a tragic car accident. |
| 1927 |
American writer Thornton Wilder publishes The Bridge of San Luis Rey. |
| 1927 |
Baseball player Babe Ruth scores a record 60 home runs for the New York Yankees. |
| 1927 |
Blackface singer Al Jolson appears in The Jazz Singer, the first sound motion picture. |
| 1927 |
Charles Lindbergh flies solo nonstop from New York to Paris in 33.5 hours. |
| 1927 |
Comedy team Laurel and Hardy appear in their first film Putting Pants on Philip. |
| 1927 |
Dancer Martha Graham opens her first dance studio in New York City. |
| 1927 |
Duke Ellington’s jazz band stars at Harlem’s Cotton Club in New York City. |
| 1927 |
English novelist Virginia Woolf writes To The Lighthouse. |
| 1927 |
Finnish architect Alvar Aalto designs the Turun Sanomat newspaper building. |
| 1927 |
Georges Lemaitre proposes an expanding model for the creation of the universe. |
| 1927 |
German filmmaker Fritz Lang directs the futuristic film Metropolis. |
| 1927 |
German-Swiss author Hermann Hesse publishes Steppenwolf. |
| 1927 |
The Iron Guard fascist organization is founded in Romania. |
| 1928 |
Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. |
| 1928 |
American anthropologist Margaret Mead publishes Coming of Age in Samoa. |
| 1928 |
American comedy team Amos ‘n’ Andy produce their first radio show. |
| 1928 |
American composer Virgil Thomson writes the opera Four Saints in Three Acts. |
| 1928 |
Arturo Toscanini is made conductor of the New York Philharmonic. |
| 1928 |
Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s play The Front Page is produced. |
| 1928 |
Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill collaborate on the play The Threepenny Opera. |
| 1928 |
British bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin. |
| 1928 |
Chiang Kai-shek captures Peking; the Kuomintang government is established. |
| 1928 |
Ahmed Zogu proclaims Albania a monarchy and rules as King Zog. |
| 1928 |
Mexican president Alvaro Obregon is assassinated. |
| 1928 |
English novelist Evelyn Waugh publishes Decline and Fall. |
| 1928 |
English physicist Paul Dirac formulates a mathematical description of elementary particles. |
| 1928 |
French composer Maurice Ravel composes the ballet Bolero. |
| 1928 |
Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali collaborate on the surrealist film Un Chien andalou. |
| 1928 |
Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca publishes Gypsy Ballads. |
| 1928 |
The Chaco War breaks out between Bolivia and Paraguay over territorial disputes. |
| 1928 |
The Kellogg-Briand Pact outlawing war is signed by 15 nations. |
| 1928 |
The first Five-Year Plan for economic reform begins in the Soviet Union. |
| 1928 |
Herbert Hoover defeats Alfred E. Smith in the U.S. presidential election. |
| 1928 |
Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse appears in Steamboat Willie, the first sound cartoon. |
| 1929 |
Alexander institutes absolute rule as king of Yugoslavia. |
| 1929 |
American explorer Richard E. Byrd flies over the South Pole. |
| 1929 |
American novelist William Faulkner publishes The Sound and the Fury. |
| 1929 |
British poet Robert Graves publishes his war memoir Goodbye To All That. |
| 1929 |
Erich Maria Remarque publishes his war novel All Quiet On the Western Front. |
| 1929 |
Ernest Hemingway writes the war novel A Farewell To Arms. |
| 1929 |
French artist and writer Jean Cocteau publishes Les Enfants Terribles. |
| 1929 |
Heinrich Himmler is appointed head of the SS, Hitler’s blackshirted elite guard. |
| 1929 |
Herbert Hoover is inaugurated as the 31st U.S. president; Charles Curtis is vice-president. |
| 1929 |
Jews and Arabs clash at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. |
| 1929 |
Tadzhikstan becomes a republic of the Soviet Union. |
| 1929 |
Seven Chicago gangsters are machine-gunned in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. |
| 1929 |
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin exiles Leon Trotsky. |
| 1929 |
The Lateran Treaty creates the independent state of the Vatican City. |
| 1929 |
The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) is founded in New York City. |
| 1929 |
The Wall Street crash leads to a world-wide economic depression. |
| 1929 |
The Workers Party of America is renamed the Communist Party of the United States. |
| 1929 |
The first Academy Awards are presented; Wings wins best-picture prize. |
| 1930 |
American artist Edward Hopper paints Early Sunday Morning. |
| 1930 |
American astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh discovers the planet Pluto. |
| 1930 |
American poet Hart Crane publishes The Bridge. |
| 1930 |
Artist Grant Wood paints American Gothic. |
| 1930 |
British engineer Frank Whittle patents a gas turbine engine for jet aircraft. |
| 1930 |
Carol II is proclaimed king of Romania. |
| 1930 |
Dashiell Hammett publishes the detective novel The Maltese Falcon. |
| 1930 |
English-born American writer W. H. Auden publishes his Poems. |
| 1930 |
Getulio Vargas is appointed president of Brazil after a military coup. |
| 1930 |
Haile Selassie is crowned emperor of Ethiopia. |
| 1930 |
Congress establishes the Veterans Administration. |
| 1930 |
Some 1,300 banks have closed since the stock-market crash; unemployment is 4.5 million. |
| 1930 |
Marlene Dietrich stars in Josef von Sternberg’s film The Blue Angel. |
| 1930 |
Noel Coward’s play Private Lives is produced in London. |
| 1930 |
The city of Constantinople is renamed Istanbul. |
| 1930 |
Vannevar Bush develops a differential analyzer, an early type of analog computer. |
| 1931 |
American cartoonist Chester Gould creates the adventure comic strip Dick Tracy. |
| 1931 |
American journalist and writer Damon Runyon publishes Guys and Dolls. |
| 1931 |
American writer Pearl Buck publishes The Good Earth. |
| 1931 |
Auguste Piccard makes the first manned balloon flight into the stratosphere. |
| 1931 |
Ben Shahn begins a series of paintings inspired by the Sacco-Vanzetti case. |
| 1931 |
Chicago gangster Al Capone is jailed for income tax evasion. |
| 1931 |
Explorer George Hubert Wilkins makes a submarine voyage under the Arctic ice. |
| 1931 |
Japanese forces occupy Manchuria. |
| 1931 |
Organic chemist W. H. Carothers invents nylon, the first successful synthetic fiber. |
| 1931 |
Radio astronomy begins when Karl Jansky detects radio waves from space. |
| 1931 |
Spain is declared a republic following the abdication of King Alfonso XIII. |
| 1931 |
The Empire State Building becomes the tallest building in the world. |
| 1931 |
The Star-Spangled Banner becomes the U.S. national anthem. |
| 1931 |
The George Washington Bridge between New York City and New Jersey opens. |
| 1932 |
American physicist Carl D. Anderson discovers the positron. |
| 1932 |
American sculptor Alexander Calder creates his first mobile. |
| 1932 |
American southern author Erskine Caldwell publishes Tobacco Road. |
| 1932 |
Antonio de Oliveira Salazar assumes dictatorial powers as premier of Portugal. |
| 1932 |
Arab leader Ibn Saud founds the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. |
| 1932 |
British author Aldous Huxley publishes Brave New World. |
| 1932 |
Charles Lindbergh’s infant son is kidnapped. |
| 1932 |
Eamon de Valera is elected president of the Republic of Ireland. |
| 1932 |
Extremists assassinate Japanese prime minister Ki Tauyoshi. |
| 1932 |
Engelbert Dollfuss is elected chancellor of Austria. |
| 1932 |
English physicist James Chadwick discovers the neutron. |
| 1932 |
Franklin D. Roosevelt, pledging the country a New Deal, defeats President Hoover in the presidential election. |
| 1932 |
Radio City Music Hall opens in New York City’s Rockefeller Center. |
| 1932 |
Revolution in Siam (Thailand) replaces the monarchy with a constitutional government. |
| 1932 |
Sir Oswald Mosley founds the British Union of Fascists. |
| 1932 |
U.S. unemployment reaches 5.6 million; industrial production is one-third that of 1929. |
| 1932 |
Iraq, a British League of Nations mandate, gains its independence. |
| 1932 |
The Bonus Army of war veterans is dispersed by troops in Washington, D.C. |
| 1932 |
The Royal Shakespeare Theater opens at Stratford-on-Avon, England. |
| 1932 |
The first particle accelerator is built at the Cavendish Laboratory in England. |
| 1932 |
The Harbour Bridge opens in Sydney, Australia. |
| 1933 |
A fossilized skull of the prehistoric Steinheim man is found in Germany. |
| 1933 |
Busby Berkeley choreographs the dances for the film Gold Diggers of 1933. |
| 1933 |
Dancers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers star in the film Flying Down to Rio. |
| 1933 |
Edwin Armstrong invents frequency modulation (FM) to eliminate radio static. |
| 1933 |
Fiorello La Guardia is elected mayor of New York City for the first time. |
| 1933 |
The U.S. and USSR establish diplomatic relations for the first time. |
| 1933 |
Frances Perkins becomes the first woman cabinet member in U.S. history. |
| 1933 |
French novelist and political activist Andre Malraux publishes Man’s Fate. |
| 1933 |
Fulgencio Batista leads a military coup against Gerardo Machado y Morales in Cuba. |
| 1933 |
Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey found their first swing band. |
| 1933 |
Joseph Goebbels is appointed as minister of propaganda for the Nazi party. |
| 1933 |
Mae West stars in the films She Done Him Wrong and I’m No Angel. |
| 1933 |
Norwegian fascist Vidkun Quisling founds the National Unity party. |
| 1933 |
President Paul von Hindenburg names Adolf Hitler as chancellor of Germany. |
| 1933 |
Roosevelt is inaugurated as the 32nd U.S. president; John Nance Garner is vice-president. |
| 1933 |
Roosevelt orders all banks closed for a week. |
| 1933 |
The 21st Amendment ends the prohibition era in the U.S. |
| 1933 |
The Marx Brothers star in the classic comedy film Duck Soup. |
| 1933 |
The National Recovery Administration (NRA) is launched by President Roosevelt. |
| 1933 |
Congress establishes the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). |
| 1933 |
The Nazis erect the first concentration camp at Dachau, Germany. |
| 1933 |
The United States abandons the gold standard. |
| 1933 |
The Public Works Administration (PWA) is formed to fund public construction projects. |
| 1933 |
Congress begins passing Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation. |
| 1933 |
The Reichstag fire gives the Nazis a pretext for outlawing the German Communist party. |
| 1934 |
Alexander, king of Yugoslavia, is assassinated; his son Peter II succeeds him. |
| 1934 |
American cartoonist Al Capp begins the comic strip Li’l Abner. |
| 1934 |
Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss is murdered by Austrian Nazis. |
| 1934 |
Cole Porter writes the score for the Broadway musical Anything Goes. |
| 1934 |
Drought leads to severe dust storms in the Dust Bowl region of the Great Plains. |
| 1934 |
Elijah Muhammad becomes leader of the Nation of Islam (the Black Muslims). |
| 1934 |
George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein found The School of American Ballet. |
| 1934 |
Henry Miller publishes the Tropic of Cancer. (It is banned in the U.S. until 1961.) |
| 1934 |
Hitler becomes Fuhrer (leader) of Germany after Hindenburg’s death. |
| 1934 |
U.S. troops leave Haiti. |
| 1934 |
The Soviet Union joins the League of Nations. |
| 1934 |
John Dillinger, public enemy number one, is killed by the FBI. |
| 1934 |
Lazaro Cardenas is chosen by Plutarco Calles as president of Mexico. |
| 1934 |
Lillian Hellman’s play The Children’s Hour is produced. |
| 1934 |
Mao Tse-tung leads the Chinese Communists on the Long March. |
| 1934 |
Naturalist Charles W. Beebe makes a record dive of 3,028 ft in a bathyscaphe. |
| 1934 |
SA leader Ernst Roehm is assassinated on the orders of Hitler. |
| 1934 |
Surrealist artist Rene Magritte paints The Human Condition. |
| 1934 |
The British ocean liner Queen Mary is launched. |
| 1934 |
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is formed to regulate broadcasting. |
| 1934 |
The National Labor Relations Board is established. |
| 1934 |
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is formed to protect U.S. investors. |
| 1935 |
American writer Thomas Wolfe publishes Of Time and the River. |
| 1935 |
Arthur Dempster discovers U-235, the isotope of uranium used in atomic bombs. |
| 1935 |
Child film actress Shirley Temple stars in The Little Colonel. |
| 1935 |
Controversial Louisiana senator Huey P. Long is assassinated. |
| 1935 |
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) creates jobs for unemployed Americans. |
| 1935 |
The Social Security Act is signed into law. |
| 1935 |
Eduard Benes succeeds Tomas Masaryk as president of Czechoslovakia. |
| 1935 |
The Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay ends. |
| 1935 |
Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock directs The 39 Steps. |
| 1935 |
George Gershwin composes the modern American opera Porgy and Bess. |
| 1935 |
Hitler announces German rearmament in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. |
| 1935 |
Italy invades Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). |
| 1935 |
The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) is formed. |
| 1935 |
King of Swing Benny Goodman forms the Benny Goodman Trio. |
| 1935 |
Leni Riefenstahl directs the Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will. |
| 1935 |
Physicist Hideki Yukawa predicts the existence of the meson subatomic particle. |
| 1935 |
Robert Sherwood’s play The Petrified Forest is produced. |
| 1935 |
Scottish physicist Robert Watson-Watt patents the first practical radar system. |
| 1935 |
Swedish film actress Greta Garbo stars in Anna Karenina. |
| 1935 |
The Monopoly board game is patented in the U.S. |
| 1935 |
The Moscow subway is opened. |
| 1935 |
The Nuremberg Racial Laws deprive German Jews of their citizenship. |
| 1935 |
The monarchy is restored in Greece under George II. |
| 1936 |
Black athlete Jesse Owens wins 4 gold medals at the Berlin Olympic Games. |
| 1936 |
Boulder Dam is completed in Arizona (it is renamed Hoover Dam in 1947). |
| 1936 |
Edward VIII abdicates as king of Great Britain; he is succeeded by George VI. |
| 1936 |
HItler and Mussolini announce the Rome-Berlin Axis (alliance). |
| 1936 |
Roosevelt defeats Alfred M. Landon in the U.S. presidential election. |
| 1936 |
Henry R. Luce begins publishing Life magazine. |
| 1936 |
Ioannis Metaxas establishes a dictatorship in Greece. |
| 1936 |
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Kazakhstan join the Soviet Union. |
| 1936 |
Italy and Germany send military forces and aid to support Franco in Spain. |
| 1936 |
Italy annexes Abyssinia (Ethiopia); Emperor Haile Selassie is exiled. |
| 1936 |
Hitler reoccupies the Rhineland. |
| 1936 |
Japan concludes the Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany. |
| 1936 |
John Maynard Keynes writes The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. |
| 1936 |
Margaret Mitchell publishes her only novel Gone With the Wind. |
| 1936 |
Stalin begins the Great Purge of Soviet Russia’s political and military leadership. |
| 1936 |
The British Broadcasting Service (BBC) begins the first public television service. |
| 1936 |
The Soviet Union and the International Brigades support the Nationalists in Spain. |
| 1936 |
The Spanish Civil War begins when General Franco leads a military revolt. |
| 1936 |
The works of the composer Dmitry Shostakovich are denounced in Russia. |
| 1937 |
American author John Steinbeck publishes Of Mice and Men. |
| 1937 |
Anastasio Somoza Garcia becomes president of Nicaragua. |
| 1937 |
Aviatrix Amelia Earhart disappears in the Pacific during a flight around the world. |
| 1937 |
Ballet dancer Margot Fonteyn debuts in Giselle at Sadler’s Wells, London. |
| 1937 |
Danish author Isak Dinesen publishes her autobiography Out of Africa. |
| 1937 |
English writer and scholar J.R.R. Tolkien publishes the fantasy novel The Hobbit. |
| 1937 |
Farouk succeeds Fuad I as king of Egypt. |
| 1937 |
Frank Lloyd Wright begins building the Taliesin West complex in Arizona. |
| 1937 |
French filmmaker Jean Renoir directs Grand Illusion. |
| 1937 |
German aircraft supporting Franco’s forces destroy the town of Guernica in Spain. |
| 1937 |
President Roosevelt begins his second term; John Nance Garner is vice-president. |
| 1937 |
Joe Louis, the Brown Bomber, wins the heavyweight boxing championship. |
| 1937 |
Nationalist and Communist forces unite to combat the Japanese in China. |
| 1937 |
Neville Chamberlain succeeds Stanley Baldwin as prime minister of Britain. |
| 1937 |
Swing bandleader Artie Shaw records Begin the Beguine. |
| 1937 |
The Duke of Windsor (former King Edward VIII) marries the divorcee Mrs. Simpson. |
| 1937 |
The German airship Hindenburg is destroyed by fire at Lakehurst, N.J. |
| 1937 |
The Golden Gate Bridge is opened in San Francisco. |
| 1937 |
The Japanese invasion of China begins the Second Sino-Japanese War. |
| 1937 |
Germany opens the concentration camp at Buchenwald. |
| 1937 |
Italy joins the German-Japanese Anti-Comintern Pact. |
| 1937 |
Italy withdraws from the league of Nations. |
| 1937 |
The Japanese bomb the U.S. gunboat Panay in the Yangtze River. |
| 1938 |
A coelacanth, a fish thought extinct for 65 million years, is caught off the cost of Africa. |
| 1938 |
American composer Aaron Copland writes the ballet score for Billy the Kid. |
| 1938 |
American singer Ella Fitzgerald records A-tisket, A-tasket. |
| 1938 |
British prime minister Neville Chamberlain declares “peace for our time.” |
| 1938 |
Chamberlain and Daladier appease Hitler at the Munich Conference. |
| 1938 |
Chester Carlson invents xerography, the first electrostatic dry-copying process. |
| 1938 |
Don Budge becomes the first player to win the Grand Slam (4 tennis championships). |
| 1938 |
General Franco isolates the Republican forces in Spain and attacks Catalonia. |
| 1938 |
German chemist Otto Hahn discovers the principles of nuclear fission. |
| 1938 |
Germany occupies the Sudetenland in western Czechoslovakia. |
| 1938 |
Hitler invades Austria; a union (Anschluss) of Austria and Germany is proclaimed. |
| 1938 |
Mexico nationalizes foreign-owned oil companies. |
| 1938 |
The U.S. Congress establishes a national minimum wage. |
| 1938 |
Hungarian Lajos Biro invents the first practical ball-point pen. |
| 1938 |
Ismet Inonu succeeds Kemal Atuturk as president of Turkey. |
| 1938 |
Jewish property is attacked in Germany in the Kristallnacht (night of broken glass). |
| 1938 |
Jewish psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud flees to England to escape Nazi persecution. |
| 1938 |
Orson Welles’ radio broadcast of War of the Worlds causes panic in the U.S. |
| 1938 |
Swing musician Glenn Miller organizes his band. |
| 1938 |
The House Committee on Un-American Activities investigates U.S. subversives. |
| 1938 |
The U.S. and Britain send aid to the Chinese in their war against Japan. |
| 1938 |
Thornton Wilder wins the Pulitzer Prize for his play Our Town. |
| 1938 |
Walt Disney’s feature-length cartoon Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is shown. |
| 1939 |
American novelist John Steinbeck publishes The Grapes of Wrath. |
| 1939 |
Britain and France declare war on Germany but are unable to aid Poland. |
| 1939 |
Child film actress Judy Garland stars in the musical The Wizard of Oz. |
| 1939 |
Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh star in the film Gone With the Wind. |
| 1939 |
English author Christopher Isherwood publishes Goodbye to Berlin. |
| 1939 |
Foreign ministers Ribbentrop and Molotov sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact of nonaggression. |
| 1939 |
General Franco’s forces capture Madrid, ending the Spanish Civil War. |
| 1939 |
Germany completes the conquest of Czechoslovakia. |
| 1939 |
Germany and Italy form the Pact of Steel military alliance. |
| 1939 |
Germany invades Poland, beginning World War II. |
| 1939 |
Igor Sikorsky develops America’s first successful helicopter. |
| 1939 |
Italian forces occupy Albania; King Zog is forced into exile. |
| 1939 |
The New York World’s Fair opens. |
| 1939 |
Britain repudiates the 1917 Balfour Declaration |
| 1939 |
Transatlantic passenger air service begins. |
| 1939 |
Physical chemist Linus Pauling publishes The Nature of the Chemical Bond. |
| 1939 |
President Roosevelt (prompted by Einstein) orders a U.S. effort to build an atomic bomb. |
| 1939 |
President Roosevelt declares U.S. neutrality in World War II. |
| 1939 |
Robert Gordon Menzies succeeds Joseph Lyons as prime minister of Australia. |
| 1939 |
Soviet troops invade Poland; Germany and the USSR partition the country. |
| 1939 |
A British Expeditionary Force is sent to France. |
| 1939 |
Swiss chemist Paul Muller discovers the chemical insecticide DDT. |
| 1939 |
The He 176, the first jet airplane, takes to the air in Germany. |
| 1939 |
The Russo-Finnish War begins with the Soviet invasion of Finland. |
| 1939 |
The first nylon stockings are marketed. |
| 1940 |
American novelist Carson McCullers publishes The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. |
| 1940 |
British air victory in the Battle of Britain prevents the German invasion of England. |
| 1940 |
Ernest Hemingway publishes For Whom the Bell Tolls. |
| 1940 |
Exiled revolutionary Leon Trotsky is assassinated in Mexico on Stalin’s orders. |
| 1940 |
The United States’ first peacetime draft is approved. |
| 1940 |
The United States ends the sale of scrap iron and steel to Japan. |
| 1940 |
General Charles de Gaulle rallies Free French resistance in London. |
| 1940 |
The Battle of Britain starts as the Germans mount their first air attacks against Britain. |
| 1940 |
German forces reach Paris; Vichy France under Marshal Petain signs an armistice. |
| 1940 |
Germany invades Denmark and Norway; Allied forces aid Norway but are defeated. |
| 1940 |
The Russo-Finnish War ends. |
| 1940 |
Italian forces invade Egypt but are repulsed; the British invade Libya. |
| 1940 |
Italy declares war on the Allies and invades southern France. |
| 1940 |
Japan joins the Axis alliance and occupies northern French Indochina (Vietnam). |
| 1940 |
President Roosevelt defeats Wendell Willkie to win reelection. |
| 1940 |
King Carol II of Romania abdicates; Romania and Hungary join the Axis forces. |
| 1940 |
Prehistoric cave paintings are discovered at Lascaux in France. |
| 1940 |
Raymond Chandler publishes the detective novel Farewell, My Lovely. |
| 1940 |
The British expeditionary force is evacuated from Dunkerque in France. |
| 1940 |
The German army begins a blitzkrieg attack on Holland, Belgium, and France. |
| 1940 |
The Soviet Union annexes the Baltic States of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia. |
| 1940 |
The Tacoma Narrows bridge collapses because of oscillations caused by the wind. |
| 1940 |
Richard Wright publishes Native Son. |
| 1940 |
Winston Churchill becomes British prime minister after Chamberlain resigns. |
| 1941 |
A British task force sinks the German pocket battleship Bismarck. |
| 1941 |
Baseball player Joe DiMaggio sets a new record for hitting in 56 consecutive games. |
| 1941 |
Churchill and Roosevelt’s Atlantic Charter meeting establishes war and peace aims. |
| 1941 |
German U-boats inflict heavy losses on British shipping in the Battle of the Atlantic. |
| 1941 |
German paratroopers land on Crete and capture the island from the British. |
| 1941 |
German playwright Bertholt Brecht writes Mother Courage and Her Children. |
| 1941 |
Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece; British forces are evacuated to Crete. |
| 1941 |
Germany invades the Soviet Union. |
| 1941 |
Gutzon Borglum completes the sculptured heads of four presidents at Mount Rushmore. |
| 1941 |
Ho Chi Minh organizes the Viet Minh to combat the Japanese in Indochina. |
| 1941 |
Japanese forces capture Hong Kong and invade Malaya and the Philippines. |
| 1941 |
The Japanese capture Wake Island. |
| 1941 |
The Japanese conquer Hong Kong. |
| 1941 |
Karsh’s photographic portrait of Churchill becomes a symbol of British resistance. |
| 1941 |
Nazi leader Rudolf Hess flies to England on a quixotic peace mission. |
| 1941 |
Orson Welles directs the film Citizen Kane. |
| 1941 |
President Roosevelt talks of Four Freedoms in his State of the Union speech. |
| 1941 |
President Roosevelt is inaugurated for a third term; Henry Wallace is vice-president. |
| 1941 |
The German Africa Corps under Erwin Rommel begins an offensive in North Africa. |
| 1941 |
The German Blitz, the nighttime bombing of London, is at its height. |
| 1941 |
The Japanese capture Guam. |
| 1941 |
British forces oust the Italians from Ethiopia. |
| 1941 |
The German advance on Moscow is halted by the winter weather. |
| 1941 |
The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor; America enters World War II. |
| 1941 |
The Japanese occupy Indochina and move into Cambodia (Kampuchea) and Thailand. |
| 1941 |
The United States declares war on Japan, Germany, and Italy. |
| 1941 |
The Lend-Lease Act allows the transfer of U.S. war materials to Britain and China. |
| 1941 |
The U.S. freezes Japanese assets in retaliation for Japan’s territorial aggression. |
| 1941 |
U.S. troops occupy Iceland to forestall its occupation by Germany. |
| 1942 |
A Russian counterattack isolates the Sixth Army at Stalingrad; Hitler orders no retreat. |
| 1942 |
A U.S. fleet defeats the Japanese at the Battle of Midway. |
| 1942 |
Japanese forces capture Attu in the Aleutian Islands. |
| 1942 |
Actor James Cagney wins an Academy Award for the film Yankee Doodle Dandie. |
| 1942 |
American B-25 bombers make the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo. |
| 1942 |
American and Filipino forces retreat to the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines. |
| 1942 |
American crooner Bing Crosby records the hit song White Christmas. |
| 1942 |
American forces in the Philippines surrender; the Bataan death march begins. |
| 1942 |
American humorist James Thurber publishes The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. |
| 1942 |
French writer Albert Camus publishes The Stranger. |
| 1942 |
Gandhi is arrested after the Quit India movement demands a British withdrawal. |
| 1942 |
General MacArthur is ordered to the leave the Philippines; he vows I shall return. |
| 1942 |
German forces occupy Vichy France; the French fleet is scuttled in Toulon harbor. |
| 1942 |
Hitler proposes the Final Solution of the Jewish Question; the Holocaust begins. |
| 1942 |
Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman star in the classic film Casablanca. |
| 1942 |
Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti directs his first film Ossessione. |
| 1942 |
Manhattan Project scientists under Fermi produce the first controlled chain reaction. |
| 1942 |
The British Eighth Army under Montgomery begins a new drive into Libya. |
| 1942 |
Rommel’s Africa Corps capture Tobruk and drive the British back to Egypt. |
| 1942 |
The German advance in the Caucasus is halted at Stalingrad (now Volgograd). |
| 1942 |
The German advance on Egypt is halted at the Battle of El-Alamein. |
| 1942 |
The Japanese conquer Malaya, Singapore, Indonesia and Burma. |
| 1942 |
The RAF makes the first 1,000 bomber raid on the German city of Cologne. |
| 1942 |
The Soviet southern offensive is halted; the Germans advance on the Caucasus. |
| 1942 |
The U.S. government transfers 110,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps. |
| 1942 |
U.S. Marines invade Guadalcanal, beginning the campaign of reconquest. |
| 1942 |
U.S. forces under General Eisenhower invade Morocco and Algeria. |
| 1942 |
V-2 (Vengeance Weapon 2) rockets are tested at Peenemunde in Germany. |
| 1943 |
American aircraft join the RAF in round the clock bombing of Germany. |
| 1943 |
American author Carson McCullers publishes The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. |
| 1943 |
American writer Ayn Rand publishes The Fountainhead. |
| 1943 |
Churchill and Roosevelt meet at Casablanca to plan their war strategy. |
| 1943 |
Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin meet at the Tehran Conference. |
| 1943 |
French existentialist writer Jean Paul Sartre publishes Being and Nothingness. |
| 1943 |
French writer and feminist Simone de Beauvoir publishes She Came to Stay. |
| 1943 |
German paratroopers rescue Mussolini. |
| 1943 |
Marine explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau invents the Aqualung (scuba). |
| 1943 |
Marshal Badoglio signs an armistice with the Allies; Italy declares war on Germany. |
| 1943 |
Mussolini is deposed; Marshal Badoglio assumes power in Italy. |
| 1943 |
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s musical Oklahoma! is produced. |
| 1943 |
Robert Oppenheimer establishes the Los Alamos laboratory to build the atomic bomb. |
| 1943 |
Singer Paul Robeson stars in the title role of the Broadway production of Othello. |
| 1943 |
The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. |
| 1943 |
The Allied armies invade and capture Sicily. |
| 1943 |
The Allies invade the southern tip of Italy. |
| 1943 |
The U.S. Fifth Army captures Naples. |
| 1943 |
The British and American armies link up in Africa; the North African campaign ends. |
| 1943 |
The German Sixth Army surrenders at Stalingrad; 100,000 are taken prisoner. |
| 1943 |
U.S. and Australian planes destroy a Japanese convoy in the Battle of the Bismark Sea. |
| 1943 |
The Germans suppress a revolt by Polish Jews; the Warsaw ghetto is destroyed. |
| 1943 |
U.S. forces recapture the Aleutian island of Attu. |
| 1943 |
The Russian offensive reaches the Dnepr River; Kiev and Smolensk are recaptured. |
| 1943 |
The Russians defeat the Germans at Kursk in the largest tank battle in history. |
| 1944 |
Aaron Copland composes the ballet Appalachian Spring. |
| 1944 |
Allied D-Day invasion forces land at Normandy in northern France. |
| 1944 |
Two months after D-Day, Allied forces liberate Paris. |
| 1944 |
Allied forces in Italy land behind the German Gustav Line at Anzio. |
| 1944 |
Gen. Eisenhower assumes the post of Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force. |
| 1944 |
American forces drive the Japanese out of the Marshall Islands. |
| 1944 |
American aircraft from the Marianas begin the strategic bombing of Japan. |
| 1944 |
American forces under General Mark Clark occupy Rome. |
| 1944 |
An Allied invasion force lands in southern France. |
| 1944 |
British forces begin the reconquest of Burma from the Japanese. |
| 1944 |
British forces occupy Athens and intervene in a communist-inspired civil war. |
| 1944 |
The U.S. defeats a Japanese fleet at the Battle of Leyte Gulf |
| 1944 |
Communist resistance fighters under Josip Broz-Tito liberate Yugoslavia. |
| 1944 |
English writer Somerset Maugham publishes The Razor’s Edge. |
| 1944 |
French novelist Colette writes Gigi. |
| 1944 |
German officers attempt to assassinate Hitler. |
| 1944 |
Oswald Avery determines that DNA is the hereditary material of the cell. |
| 1944 |
Polish resistance fighters are defeated by the Germans in the Warsaw Uprising. |
| 1944 |
Romania and Bulgaria sign an armistice with the Allies and declare war on Germany. |
| 1944 |
Roosevelt defeats Thomas E. Dewey and is reelected for an unprecedented fourth term. |
| 1944 |
Soviet forces cross the Romanian border and reconquer the Crimea. |
| 1944 |
Soviet forces reach the suburbs of Warsaw in Poland. |
| 1944 |
Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass Menagerie is produced. |
| 1944 |
The G.I. Bill of Rights is established to provide assistance to war veterans. |
| 1944 |
The German army launches the Battle of the Bulge, its last counteroffensive. |
| 1944 |
The Soviet’s relieve the city of Leningrad after a German siege lasting 890 days. |
| 1944 |
Some 660 U.S. bombers raid Berlin. |
| 1944 |
The Allies begin to drive the Japanese out of Netherlands New Guinea. |
| 1944 |
The U.S. First Army occupies Aachen — the first German city to fall to the Allies. |
| 1944 |
The World Bank is established to assist European postwar recovery. |
| 1944 |
Iceland declares its independence from Denmark. |
| 1944 |
U.S. Marines invade Guam and Saipan in the Marianas. |
| 1944 |
U.S. forces under Admiral Nimitz defeat a Japanese fleet in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. |
| 1944 |
V-1 (and later the V-2) weapons of vengeance are launched against London. |
| 1945 |
Advancing Allied armies discover Nazi extermination camps. |
| 1945 |
Allied forces cross the Rhine and begin the final assault on Germany. |
| 1945 |
U.S. Marines capture Iwo Jima. |
| 1945 |
British actor Laurence Olivier wins critical acclaim for his portrayal of Richard III. |
| 1945 |
British author George Orwell publishes the satirical fable Animal Farm. |
| 1945 |
Charlie “Bird” Parker and Dizzy Gillespie make the first bebop recordings. |
| 1945 |
Churchill is defeated in the British elections by Labour leader Clement Attlee. |
| 1945 |
Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin meet at the Yalta Conference. |
| 1945 |
President Roosevelt is inaugurated for his fourth term; Harry S. Truman is vice-president. |
| 1945 |
Churchill, Truman, and Stalin hold the last wartime conference at Potsdam. |
| 1945 |
The United States tests an atomic bomb at Alamagordo, New Mexico. |
| 1945 |
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, and Yemen form the Arab League. |
| 1945 |
French dramatist Jean Giraudoux writes the play The Madwoman of Chaillot. |
| 1945 |
General MacArthur heads the U.S. occupation forces in Japan. |
| 1945 |
German jet aircraft are unable to prevent mass Allied air attacks. |
| 1945 |
German rocket engineer Wernher Von Braun continues his research in the U.S. |
| 1945 |
Germany and Austria are divided between the Allies into 4 zones of occupation. |
| 1945 |
U.S. Marines capture Okinawa. |
| 1945 |
Hitler commits suicide in his Berlin bunker; Germany surrenders to the Allies. |
| 1945 |
Ho Chi Minh proclaims the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. |
| 1945 |
Indonesian nationalists led by Sukarno proclaim the nation independent. |
| 1945 |
Japan signs an armistice with the Allies, ending World War II. |
| 1945 |
Korea is divided between U.S. and Soviet occupation forces along the 38th parallel. |
| 1945 |
Marshal Zhukov’s Soviet troops launch the final attack on Berlin. |
| 1945 |
Mussolini is killed by Italian partisans. |
| 1945 |
German forces in Italy surrender. |
| 1945 |
Nationalists and Communist forces resume their civil war in China. |
| 1945 |
Romulo Betancourt becomes president of Venezuela for the first time. |
| 1945 |
Roosevelt dies; Harry S. Truman is inaugurated as the 33rd U.S. president. |
| 1945 |
U.S. troops capture Manila. |
| 1945 |
Russian and American forces link up at the Elbe River south of Berlin. |
| 1945 |
Suicide attacks by Japanese kamikaze pilots are unable to stem the U.S. advances. |
| 1945 |
The Soviet Union declares war on Japan. |
| 1945 |
The U.S. drops atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. |
| 1945 |
World War II ends in the Pacific. |
| 1945 |
The United Nations is formed; Trygve Halvdan Lie becomes secretary-general (1946). |
| 1945 |
The trial of Nazi war criminals begins at Nuremberg in Germany. |
| 1945 |
Tito becomes head of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. |
| 1945 |
U.S. forces under MacArthur liberate the Philippines. |
| 1946 |
American author Robert Penn Warren publishes All the King’s Men. |
| 1946 |
Communists abolish the monarchy in Bulgaria; Georgi Dimitrov becomes premier. |
| 1946 |
Twelve Nazi leaders are sentenced to death at the Nuremberg Trials. |
| 1946 |
Dr. Spock publishes The Commonsense Book of Baby and Child Care. |
| 1946 |
EAM-ELAS communist forces begin a civil war in Greece. |
| 1946 |
ENIAC, the first successful electronic digital computer, becomes operational. |
| 1946 |
Elections in Italy abolish the monarchy in favor of a republic. |
| 1946 |
General De Gaulle resigns as president of France; the Fourth Republic is formed. |
| 1946 |
Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis publishes Zorba the Greek. |
| 1946 |
Juan Peron is elected president of Argentina. |
| 1946 |
The United Nations General Assembly meets for the first time in London. |
| 1946 |
MacArthur promotes Japanese democracy with the emperor as constitutional monarch. |
| 1946 |
Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini becomes the first U.S. citizen to be canonized. |
| 1946 |
Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier designs Unite d’Habitation in Marseilles. |
| 1946 |
The Philippines are granted independence with Manuel Roxas y Acuna as president. |
| 1946 |
The Viet Minh begin a guerrilla war against the French in Indochina (Vietnam). |
| 1946 |
Lebanon becomes independent. |
| 1946 |
Syria becomes independent. |
| 1946 |
Winston Churchill describes the Iron Curtain created in Europe by the Soviets. |
| 1947 |
Artist Jackson Pollock produces Full Fathom Five using drip paint techniques. |
| 1947 |
Artist Mark Rothko begins experimenting with Color-field painting. |
| 1947 |
Baseball player Jackie Robinson becomes the first black to play in the major leagues. |
| 1947 |
British atomic bomb scientist Klaus Fuchs is arrested for giving information to the USSR. |
| 1947 |
Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier for the first time in an X-1 rocket plane. |
| 1947 |
Conductor Sir Thomas Beecham forms the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. |
| 1947 |
Dennis Gabor invents holography, a means of producing a three-dimensional image. |
| 1947 |
Edwin Land demonstrates the single-step Polaroid Land Camera. |
| 1947 |
English composer Benjamin Britten writes the opera Peter Grimes. |
| 1947 |
French fashion designer Christian Dior opens his own couture house. |
| 1947 |
French literary figure Andre Gide wins the Nobel Prize for literature. |
| 1947 |
Gheorghiu-Dej heads the Romanian Communist party; King Michael abdicates. |
| 1947 |
India becomes independent and is divided into the nations of India and Pakistan. |
| 1947 |
Jawaharlal Nehru becomes the first prime minister of India. |
| 1947 |
Princess Elizabeth marries Philip Mountbatten, duke of Edinburgh. |
| 1947 |
Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl sails on the balsa raft Kon Tiki from Peru to Polynesia. |
| 1947 |
Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire is produced. |
| 1947 |
The Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of ancient Hebrew documents, are discovered. |
| 1947 |
The U.S. Marshall Plan for economic recovery in Europe is established. |
| 1947 |
Frederik IX succeeds Christian X as king of Denmark |
| 1947 |
Congress approves the Truman Doctrine giving aid to Greece and Turkey. |
| 1947 |
Communists overthrow the Hungarian government. |
| 1947 |
The United Nations elect to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. |
| 1947 |
The first India-Pakistan War begins when Pakistani tribesmen invade Kashmir. |
| 1947 |
The story of a Jewish victim of the Nazis, The Diary of Anne Frank, is published. |
| 1948 |
Alfred Kinsey publishes his report on Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. |
| 1948 |
American opera singer Beverly Sills debuts in Bizet’s Carmen. |
| 1948 |
American writer Norman Mailer publishes the war novel The Naked and the Dead. |
| 1948 |
Arab armies invade Israel in the first Arab-Israeli War. |
| 1948 |
Britain grants independence to Burma. |
| 1948 |
Communist leader Kim Il Sung establishes the People’s Republic of Korea (N. Korea). |
| 1948 |
President Truman defeats Thomas E. Dewey to win reelection. |
| 1948 |
Prime Minister Tojo Hideki and other Japanese war criminals are hanged. |
| 1948 |
Dutch track star Fanny Blankers-Koen wins four gold medals in the Olympic Games. |
| 1948 |
George Balanchine’s Ballet Society is renamed the New York City Ballet. |
| 1948 |
Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated by a Hindu fanatic. |
| 1948 |
The Organization of American States (OAS) is founded. |
| 1948 |
The Communists seize power in Czechoslovakia. |
| 1948 |
Italian filmmaker Vittorio De Sica directs The Bicycle Thieves. |
| 1948 |
Palestinian Jews proclaim the independent state of Israel. |
| 1948 |
Stalin expels Yugoslavia from the Communist bloc. |
| 1948 |
The Communist party assumes power in Hungary under Matyas Rakosi. |
| 1948 |
The Malayan Communist party begins an insurrection against British rule. |
| 1948 |
The Republic of Korea (S. Korea) is inaugurated, Syngman Rhee becomes president. |
| 1948 |
The Soviets blockade West Berlin; Britain and the U.S. begin the Berlin Airlift. |
| 1948 |
The transistor is invented at Bell Laboratories in the U.S. |
| 1948 |
The apartheid policy of racial segregation is made official in South Africa. |
| 1949 |
Abstract artist Robert Motherwell begins his series Elegy to the Spanish Republic. |
| 1949 |
Architect Philip Johnson designs the Glass House in New Caanan, Conn. |
| 1949 |
Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman is produced. |
| 1949 |
British abstract sculptor Henry Moore completes the bronze Family Group. |
| 1949 |
British author George Orwell publishes the futuristic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. |
| 1949 |
Civil war ends in Greece with the defeat of the Communist forces. |
| 1949 |
Communists under Mao defeat the Nationalists and form the People’s Republic of China. |
| 1949 |
Konrad Adenauer becomes the first chancellor of West Germany. |
| 1949 |
Miles Davis makes the first “cool” jazz records. |
| 1949 |
Nationalist Chinese forces under Chiang Kai-shek flee to the island of Taiwan. |
| 1949 |
Rogers and Hammerstein’s Broadway musical South Pacific is produced. |
| 1949 |
The Hashimite Kingdom of Transjordan is renamed as Jordan. |
| 1949 |
The Netherlands grants independence to Indonesia (formerly the Dutch East Indies). |
| 1949 |
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is formed to deter Soviet aggression. |
| 1949 |
Communist nations establish the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON). |
| 1949 |
President Truman is inaugurated for his first full term; Alben Barkley is vice-president. |
| 1949 |
The Soviet Union ends the blockade of Berlin. |
| 1949 |
Newfoundland becomes the 10th province of Canada. |
| 1949 |
The Republic of Ireland is proclaimed. |
| 1949 |
The Republic of Germany (West Germany) is established by the Western powers. |
| 1949 |
The Soviet Union detonates its first atomic bomb. |
| 1949 |
The Soviets establish the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). |
| 1949 |
The first India-Pakistan War ends with the partition of Kashmir. |
| 1949 |
The United Nations Building is dedicated in New York City. |
| 1950 |
Adnan Menderes replaces Ismet Inonu as prime minister of Turkey. |
| 1950 |
Cartoonist Charles Schulz creates the Peanuts comic strip. |
| 1950 |
Chinese forces invade Tibet, which is officially annexed in 1951. |
| 1950 |
Communist North Korean forces invade South Korea. |
| 1950 |
Isaac Asimov publishes the science-fiction classic I Robot. |
| 1950 |
Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa achieves recognition with Rashomon. |
| 1950 |
President Truman orders the development of the hydrogen bomb. |
| 1950 |
Senator Joseph McCarthy begins his inquiry into un-American activities. |
| 1950 |
The UN sanctions military aid for South Korea; MacArthur is appointed commander. |
| 1950 |
U.S. official Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury for denying that he knew a Soviet agent. |
| 1950 |
UN forces cross into North Korea but are repulsed by the Chinese army. |
| 1950 |
UN forces land at Inchon and drive the North Koreans out of South Korea. |
| 1951 |
A frontline is stabilized at the 38th parallel in Korea; peace negotiations begin at Kaesong. |
| 1951 |
American novelist Kurt Vonnegut publishes Player Piano. |
| 1951 |
American poet Marianne Moore publishes her Collected Poems. |
| 1951 |
American writer J.D. Salinger publishes The Catcher in the Rye. |
| 1951 |
American writer James Jones publishes the war novel From Here to Eternity. |
| 1951 |
Artist Stuart Davis uses words to function as abstract shapes in his painting Visa. |
| 1951 |
Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S. sign the mutual defense Anzus Treaty. |
| 1951 |
The U.S. signed peace treaties with Japan and Germany, officially ending World War II. |
| 1951 |
Auto racer Juan Fangio wins the world driving championship for the first time. |
| 1951 |
Boxer Sugar Ray Robinson defeats Jake La Motta for the middleweight title. |
| 1951 |
British Conservatives win a general election with Winston Churchill as leader. |
| 1951 |
British spies Burgess and Maclean escape to the Soviet Union. |
| 1951 |
Comedian Lucille Ball stars in the television series I Love Lucy. |
| 1951 |
Igor Stravinsky’s opera The Rake’s Progress is premiered. |
| 1951 |
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are sentenced to death for espionage against the U.S. |
| 1951 |
King Abdullah of Jordan is assassinated by a Palestinian nationalist. |
| 1951 |
Leopold III of Belgium is forced to abdicate because of his wartime conduct. |
| 1951 |
President Truman dismisses MacArthur as commander in Korea. |
| 1951 |
Prime minister Muhammad Mosaddeq nationalizes Iran’s oil resources. |
| 1951 |
Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway musical The King and I is produced. |
| 1951 |
Ten million television receivers have been installed in U.S. homes. |
| 1951 |
The 22nd Amendment restricts U.S. presidents to a maximum of two terms. |
| 1951 |
UN forces recapture Seoul. |
| 1951 |
The UN General Assembly brands Communist China an aggressor in the Korean War. |
| 1951 |
Communist forces capture Seoul. |
| 1951 |
The first successful videotape for recording television images is demonstrated. |
| 1951 |
UNIVAC I, the first commercial computer, is accepted by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. |
| 1952 |
A bloodless coup returns Fulgencio Batista to power in Cuba. |
| 1952 |
Agatha Christie’s record-breaking play The Mouse Trap opens in London. |
| 1952 |
American sculptor Isamu Noguchi designs two bridges for the Peace Park at Hiroshima. |
| 1952 |
American writer E.B. White publishes the children’s book Charlotte’s Web. |
| 1952 |
British architect Michael Ventris deciphers the ancient Greek Linear B script. |
| 1952 |
Chuck Yeager sets a new air speed record of 1,650 mph in the X-1A research plane. |
| 1952 |
Communist POW riots in South Korea delay peace negotiations. |
| 1952 |
Ethiopia takes possession of Eritrea from Britain. |
| 1952 |
Czech runner Emil Zatopek wins 3 gold medals in the Helsinki Olympic Games. |
| 1952 |
Dancer Gene Kelly stars in the film Singin’ in the Rain. |
| 1952 |
Eva Peron, popularly known as Evita, dies in Argentina. |
| 1952 |
Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly star in the Western film High Noon. |
| 1952 |
Gordon Bunshaft designs the Lever House, an early International Style building. |
| 1952 |
Hostilities continue in Korea with increased UN air strikes against the north. |
| 1952 |
King Farouk of Egypt is overthrown in a revolution led by Gen. Muhammad Naguib. |
| 1952 |
Kwame Nkrumah is elected prime minister of the Gold Coast (Ghana). |
| 1952 |
Medical missionary Albert Schweitzer is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. |
| 1952 |
Opera singer Maria Callas debuts at London’s Covent Garden. |
| 1952 |
Queen Elizabeth II ascends to the British throne on the death of her father George VI. |
| 1952 |
Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting For Godot is produced in Paris. |
| 1952 |
The British de Havilland Comet becomes the first jet airliner to enter service. |
| 1952 |
The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is formed with Luis Munoz Marin as governor. |
| 1952 |
The Mau Mau uprising begins in Kenya; Jomo Kenyatta is imprisoned. |
| 1952 |
The U.S. tests the first hydrogen bomb in the Pacific. |
| 1952 |
Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Adlai E. Stevenson in U.S. presidential elections. |
| 1952 |
Turkey joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). |
| 1952 |
Vice-presidential candidate Richard Nixon makes his Checkers speech. |
| 1953 |
A Redstone rocket (based on the German V-2) is tested at Cape Canaveral. |
| 1954 |
American physicist Charles H. Townes invents the maser. |
| 1953 |
American tennis player Maureen Connolly (Little Mo) wins the Grand Slam. |
| 1953 |
American writer Saul Bellow publishes The Adventures of Augie March. |
| 1953 |
An armistice ends the Korean War; the country remains divided into North and South. |
| 1953 |
The Soviet Union explodes its first hydrogen device. |
| 1953 |
Arthur Miller writes The Crucible, a play about the Salem Witch Trials. |
| 1953 |
African-American writer James Baldwin publishes his first novel Go Tell It on the Mountain. |
| 1953 |
Communist statesman Imre Nagy becomes premier of Hungary. |
| 1953 |
Dag Hammarskjold succeeds Trygve Lie as secretary-general of the UN. |
| 1953 |
Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay are the first to climb Mount Everest. |
| 1953 |
Eisenhower is inaugurated as the 34th U.S. president; Richard Nixon is vice-president. |
| 1953 |
Fidel Castro leads an attack on an army barracks in Cuba; he is captured and imprisoned. |
| 1953 |
Golfer Ben Hogan wins the U.S. Open, Masters, and British Open tournaments. |
| 1953 |
Hugh Hefner publishes the first issue of Playboy magazine. |
| 1953 |
Hussein I succeeds his father as king of Jordan. |
| 1953 |
Israeli prime minister Ben-Gurion retires; he is succeeded by Moshe Sharett. |
| 1953 |
Jacques Piccard’s bathyscaphe the Trieste descends to a depth of 10,330 ft. |
| 1953 |
James Watson and Francis Crick propose the double helix structure of DNA. |
| 1953 |
John Foster Dulles is selected as the U.S. secretary of state. |
| 1953 |
Laos, formerly a part of French Indochina, is granted independence. |
| 1953 |
Lavrenti Beria, head of the Soviet security service, is arrested and executed. |
| 1953 |
Marilyn Monroe stars in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. |
| 1953 |
Murray Gell-Mann proposes the strangeness property of some subatomic particles. |
| 1953 |
Physicist Donald Glaser invents the bubble chamber to detect subnuclear particles. |
| 1953 |
Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin dies; Georgy M. Malenkov becomes the new premier. |
| 1953 |
The first heart-lung machine is developed by Dr. John Gibbon. |
| 1953 |
The fossil remains of Piltdown man are proved a hoax 41 years after their discovery. |
| 1954 |
A Supreme Court decision prohibits racial segregation in U.S. public schools. |
| 1954 |
American novelist Evan Hunter publishes The Blackboard Jungle. |
| 1954 |
British artist Francis Bacon begins his Portrait of Pope Innocent X series. |
| 1954 |
British novelist William Golding publishes Lord of the Flies. |
| 1954 |
Dylan Thomas’ radio play Under Milk Wood is performed posthumously. |
| 1954 |
English runner Roger Bannister is first to run the mile in under 4 minutes. |
| 1954 |
French forces are defeated at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in North Vietnam. |
| 1954 |
Gamal Abdel Nasser ousts Gen. Muhammad Naguib as president of Egypt. |
| 1954 |
Ian Fleming publishes the first James Bond thriller Casino Royale. |
| 1954 |
Italian film-maker Federico Fellini directs La Strada. |
| 1954 |
Marlon Brando stars in Elia Kazan’s film On the Waterfront. |
| 1954 |
National Liberation Front (FLN) raids on French property spark the Algerian War. |
| 1954 |
Senator McCarthy is discredited for failing to prove claims of communist penetration. |
| 1954 |
The Geneva Conference establishes the partition of Vietnam into North and South. |
| 1954 |
The U.S. and Canada begin construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway. |
| 1954 |
The U.S. nuclear submarine the Nautilus is launched. |
| 1955 |
A military coup in Argentina deposes president Juan Peron. |
| 1955 |
American artist Jasper Johns begins his paintings of American flags and targets. |
| 1955 |
American artist Larry Rivers paints Double Portrait of Birdie. |
| 1955 |
American rock ‘n’ roll musician Bill Haley records Rock Around the Clock. |
| 1955 |
Anthony Eden succeeds Winston Churchill as prime minister of Great Britain. |
| 1955 |
Austria achieves independence; the four-power occupation is terminated. |
| 1955 |
British writer Graham Greene publishes The Quiet American. |
| 1955 |
British writer and scholar J.R.R. Tolkien completes The Lord of the Rings. |
| 1955 |
David Ben-Gurion returns as prime minister of Israel. |
| 1955 |
Film star James Dean is killed in a car crash. |
| 1955 |
Jonas Salk’s vaccine against polio comes into widespread use. |
| 1955 |
Marian Anderson becomes the first black to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House. |
| 1956 |
Martin Luther King, Jr., leads a boycott against racial segregation on buses. |
| 1955 |
The American Federation of Labor (AFL) and Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) merge. |
| 1955 |
African-American Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama. |
| 1955 |
Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov publishes the novel Lolita. |
| 1955 |
Satyajit Ray directs Pather Panchali, the first film in a trilogy on Bengali family life. |
| 1955 |
The Federal Republic of Germany joins NATO. |
| 1955 |
The Warsaw Pact establishes a military alliance of European Communist nations. |
| 1955 |
Theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin publishes The Phenomenon of Man. |
| 1956 |
American beat poet Allen Ginsberg publishes Howl and Other Poems. |
| 1956 |
Anglo-French forces invade Egypt but withdraw after protests from the U.S. |
| 1956 |
Archbishop Makarios III is deported from Cyprus by the British. |
| 1956 |
Brendan Behan’s play The Quare Fellow opens in London. |
| 1956 |
Britain, France, and Israel agree on a secret joint action against Egypt. |
| 1956 |
British artist Richard Hamilton produces the first pop art work. |
| 1956 |
Eugene O’Neill’s play Long Day’s Journey Into Night is produced. |
| 1956 |
Fidel Castro and Che Guevara land in Cuba and begin a guerrilla war. |
| 1956 |
Film actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco. |
| 1956 |
Heavyweight boxing champion Rocky Marciano retires without being defeated. |
| 1956 |
Israeli forces under Moshe Dayan seize the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula. |
| 1956 |
John Osborne’s first play Look Back In Anger is produced in London. |
| 1956 |
Lerner and Loewe’s musical My Fair Lady opens in New York. |
| 1956 |
President Anastasio Somoza Garcia is assassinated in Nicaragua. |
| 1956 |
President Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal before the British lease expires. |
| 1956 |
Workers in Poland riot. |
| 1956 |
President Ngo Dinh Diem refuses to hold elections in South Vietnam. |
| 1956 |
Rock ‘n roll singer Elvis Presley records his first hit Heartbreak Hotel. |
| 1956 |
Soviet first secretary Nikita Khrushchev denounces the crimes of the Stalin era. |
| 1956 |
Sudan gains independence from Anglo-Egyptian rule. |
| 1956 |
The Hungarian Uprising is suppressed by Soviet troops. |
| 1956 |
The Italian ocean liner Andrea Doria sinks off the U.S. coast after a collision in fog. |
| 1956 |
President Eisenhower defeats Adlai E. Stevenson to win reelection. |
| 1956 |
Tunisia and Morocco are granted independence by France. |
| 1957 |
Beat generation writer Jack Kerouac publishes On The Road. |
| 1957 |
African-American tennis player Althea Gibson wins the U.S. Open and Wimbledon championships. |
| 1957 |
British philosopher A.J. Ayer publishes The Problem of Knowledge. |
| 1957 |
British prime minister Anthony Eden resigns; is succeeded by Harold Macmillan. |
| 1957 |
President Eisenhower is inaugurated for his second term; Richard Nixon is vice-president. |
| 1957 |
Dr. Seuss publishes the children’s book The Cat in the Hat. |
| 1957 |
Francois Duvalier (known as Papa Doc) is elected president of Haiti. |
| 1957 |
Ghana gains independence; Kwame Nkrumah becomes the first prime minister. |
| 1957 |
Jerome Robbins is director-choreographer of the musical West Side Story. |
| 1957 |
John G. Diefenbaker succeeds Louis St. Laurent as prime minister of Canada. |
| 1957 |
Lawrence Durrell publishes Justine, the first of The Alexandria Quartet novels. |
| 1957 |
Scientists from 67 nations work together during the International Geophysical Year. |
| 1957 |
Soviet leaders Malenkov and Molotov fail in an attempt to oust Khrushchev from power. |
| 1957 |
Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman directs The Seventh Seal. |
| 1970 |
The island-nation of Tonga gains its independence from Great Britain. |
| 1957 |
The Israeli army withdraws from Egypt; the Gaza Strip is policed by UN forces. |
| 1957 |
The USSR launches Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite. |
| 1957 |
The Viet Cong begin acts of rebellion in South Vietnam. |
| 1957 |
Tunku Abdul Rahman becomes the first prime minister of independent Malaya (Malaysia). |
| 1957 |
Eisenhower sends federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce school desegregation. |
| 1958 |
American economist J.K. Galbraith publishes The Affluent Society. |
| 1958 |
American golfer Arnold Palmer wins the Masters tournament for the first time. |
| 1958 |
American playwright Edward Albee writes The Zoo Story. |
| 1958 |
American writer Truman Capote publishes the novella Breakfast At Tiffany’s. |
| 1958 |
Bertrand Russell founds the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in Britain. |
| 1958 |
Civil war breaks out in Lebanon; it is ended when U.S. Marines land at Beirut. |
| 1958 |
Egypt and Syria form the United Arab Republic. |
| 1958 |
Gen. Muhammad Ayub Khan seizes control in Pakistan. |
| 1958 |
Leonard Bernstein becomes the conductor of the New York Philharmonic orchestra. |
| 1958 |
Nikita Khrushchev replaces Nikolai Bulganin as Soviet premier. |
| 1958 |
Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd extends South Africa’s apartheid laws. |
| 1958 |
Russian writer Boris Pasternak publishes the novel Doctor Zhivago. |
| 1958 |
Soccer player Pele leads Brazil to victory in the World Cup. |
| 1958 |
The Algerian crisis prompts the recall of Charles de Gaulle as president of France. |
| 1958 |
The European Economic Community (EEC) is established. |
| 1958 |
The French army and settlers in Algiers revolt over the Algerian War stalemate. |
| 1958 |
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is founded. |
| 1958 |
The U.S. launches the Explorer I, its first satellite. |
| 1958 |
The first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is launched in the U.S. |
| 1958 |
The nuclear submarine Nautilus reaches the North Pole under the Polar ice cap. |
| 1958 |
Wilson Greatbatch invents an artificial pacemaker to control heartbeats. |
| 1959 |
Alaska is inaugurated as the 49th state of the Union. |
| 1959 |
American writer Leon Uris publishes Exodus, a novel on the founding of Israel. |
| 1959 |
American writer William Burroughs publishes The Naked Lunch. |
| 1959 |
Anthropologists Louis S. B. and Mary Leakey discover an Australopithecus skull in Africa. |
| 1959 |
Artist Robert Rauschenberg creates the three-dimensional collage Monogram. |
| 1959 |
Cyprus gains independence from Britain; Archbishop Makarios becomes president. |
| 1959 |
Fidel Castro ousts Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista in a communist revolution. |
| 1959 |
French New Wave filmmaker Jean Luc Godard directs Breathless. |
| 1959 |
French filmmaker Alain Resnais directs Hiroshima Mon Amour. |
| 1959 |
French filmmaker Francois Truffaut directs The 400 Blows. |
| 1959 |
German writer Gunter Grass publishes his first novel The Tin Drum. |
| 1959 |
Hawaii becomes the 50th state of the Union. |
| 1959 |
The St. Lawrence Seaway is opened. |
| 1959 |
Lee Kuan Yew becomes prime minister of Singapore. |
| 1959 |
Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun is the first Broadway play by a black woman. |
| 1959 |
NASA selects the first seven U.S. astronauts. |
| 1959 |
Rock ‘n roll star Buddy Holly is killed in a plane crash. |
| 1959 |
Rogers and Hammerstein’s Broadway musical The Sound of Music is produced. |
| 1959 |
Sir Christopher Cockerell tests the first air-cushion vehicle. |
| 1959 |
The Boeing 707 jet airliner enters service. |
| 1959 |
The Dalai Lama flees to India after China crushes an uprising in Tibet. |
| 1959 |
The Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens in New York City. |
| 1959 |
The Soviet Union sends a series of Luna space probes to the Moon. |
| 1959 |
The first flight is made by the X-15 rocket-powered research aircraft. |
| 1959 |
Brig. Gen. Benjamin O. Davis becomes the U.S. armed forces’ first African-American general. |
| 1960 |
69 Africans are killed in the Sharpeville massacre in South Africa. |
| 1960 |
A military coup takes place in Turkey; prime minister Adnan Menderes is executed (1961). |
| 1960 |
A student uprising forces the resignation of Syngman Rhee, president of South Korea. |
| 1960 |
American author John Updike publishes the novel Rabbit Run. |
| 1960 |
American physicist Theodore H. Maiman demonstrates the first successful laser. |
| 1960 |
American track star Wilma Rudolph wins 3 gold medals at the Rome Olympic Games. |
| 1960 |
An earthquake kills 15,000 at Agadir in Morocco. |
| 1960 |
Belgium grants independence to the Congo (Zaire); Patrice Lumumba becomes premier. |
| 1960 |
Britain grants independence to Nigeria; Abubakar Balewa continues as prime minister. |
| 1960 |
Congo (Zaire) premier Patrice Lumumba is ousted by Joseph Mobutu and murdered. |
| 1960 |
Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock directs the suspense thriller Psycho. |
| 1960 |
Former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann is abducted to Israel. |
| 1960 |
France grants independence to the Congo, Chad, Central African Republic, and Gabon. |
| 1960 |
Harold Pinter’s play The Caretaker is produced. |
| 1960 |
Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni directs La Notte (The Night). |
| 1960 |
Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh descend to 35,800 ft in the bathyscaphe Trieste. |
| 1960 |
NASA launches the first TIROS weather satellite. |
| 1960 |
Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson founds the Christian Broadcasting Network. |
| 1960 |
Sirimavo Bandaranaike becomes the world’s first woman prime minister in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). |
| 1960 |
South African civil rights leader Albert Luthuli wins the Nobel Peace Prize. |
| 1960 |
The Congo crisis begins with the secession of Katanga province under Moise Tshombe. |
| 1960 |
The African nations of Togo, Madagascar, Somalia, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Mauritania gain independence. |
| 1960 |
The Echo 1 experimental communications satellite is launched. |
| 1960 |
The Motown record company is founded in Detroit by Berry Gordy. |
| 1960 |
The South African government bans the African National Congress (ANC). |
| 1960 |
The Soviets shoot down a U-2 spy plane; U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers is captured. |
| 1960 |
The first quasars, the most luminous known objects in the universe, are discovered. |
| 1960 |
The first submerged firing is made of a Polaris submarine-launched missile. |
| 1960 |
The planned city of Brasilia becomes the new capital of Brazil. |
| 1960 |
The African nations of Upper Volta (Burkina Faso), Cameroon, and Ivory Coast gain independence. |
| 1960 |
The presidential debates of John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon are televised. |
| 1960 |
Viet Cong groups unite into the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLFSV). |
| 1960 |
Walter Ulbricht becomes head of East Germany. |
| 1960 |
John F. Kennedy defeats Richard M. Nixon in U.S. presidential elections. |
| 1961 |
Agostinho Neto and Holden Roberto lead insurrections in Portuguese Angola. |
| 1961 |
The U.S. severs diplomatic ties with Cuba. |
| 1961 |
American writer Joseph Heller publishes the anti-war novel Catch-22. |
| 1961 |
American-aided Cuban exiles attempt the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion. |
| 1961 |
Astronaut Alan Shepard makes the first U.S. suborbital space flight. |
| 1961 |
Britain grants independence to Tanganyika (Tanzania) with Julius Nyerere as prime minister. |
| 1961 |
English writer Muriel Spark publishes The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. |
| 1961 |
French filmmaker Francois Truffaut directs Jeanne Moreau in Jules and Jim. |
| 1961 |
India annexes the Portuguese territories of Goa, Daman, and Diu. |
| 1961 |
Italian filmmaker Vittorio De Sica directs Sophia Loren in Alberto Moravia’s Two Women. |
| 1961 |
Italian opera singer Luciano Pavarotti debuts in Puccini’s La Boheme. |
| 1961 |
Kennedy is inaugurated as the 35th U.S. president; Lyndon B. Johnson is vice-president. |
| 1961 |
President Kennedy begins to increase the U.S. military presence in Vietnam. |
| 1961 |
President Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps. |
| 1961 |
President Kennedy sets a goal for landing a man on the Moon within the decade. |
| 1961 |
President Rafael Trujillo is assassinated in the Dominican Republic. |
| 1961 |
Roger Maris breaks Babe Ruth’s home-run baseball record with a season total of 61. |
| 1961 |
Science fiction writer Robert Heinlein publishes Stranger in a Strange Land. |
| 1961 |
Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defects to the West. |
| 1961 |
Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin orbits the earth. |
| 1961 |
Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman directs Max Von Sydow in Through a Glass Darkly. |
| 1961 |
The Berlin Wall is constructed, separating East and West Berlin. |
| 1961 |
The Kurds begin a guerrilla war against Iraq to gain independence for Kurdistan. |
| 1961 |
The African nations of Rwanda and Sierra Leone gain their independence. |
| 1961 |
The drug thalidomide is found to cause malformations in newborn babies. |
| 1961 |
UN secretary-general Dag Hammarskjold is killed in a plane crash in the Congo (Zaire). |
| 1962 |
Actor Laurence Olivier becomes the first director of the National Theatre in London. |
| 1962 |
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn publishes One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich. |
| 1962 |
Algeria gains independence from France; Ahmed ben Bella becomes prime minister. |
| 1962 |
American film actress Marilyn Monroe dies from a drug overdose. |
| 1962 |
American historian Barbara Tuchman publishes The Guns of August. |
| 1962 |
American writer Katherine Anne Porter publishes the novel Ship of Fools. |
| 1962 |
American writer Ken Kesey publishes One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. |
| 1962 |
Astronaut John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth. |
| 1962 |
U-2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. |
| 1962 |
Israel hangs Nazi Adolf Eichmann. |
| 1962 |
Basketball player Wilt Chamberlain scores a record 100 points in one game. |
| 1962 |
Britain grants independence to Trinidad and Tobago with Eric Williams as chief minister. |
| 1962 |
Britain grants independence to Uganda; Milton Obote becomes prime minister. |
| 1962 |
British filmmaker David Lean directs Lawrence of Arabia. |
| 1962 |
British writer Anthony Burgess publishes the futuristic novel A Clockwork Orange. |
| 1962 |
Burmese diplomat U Thant becomes the first Asian secretary general of the UN. |
| 1962 |
Edward Albee’s play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf is produced on Broadway. |
| 1962 |
Fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent opens his Parisian fashion house. |
| 1962 |
Folk-rock singer and composer Bob Dylan writes Blowin’ in the Wind. |
| 1962 |
Georges Pompidou becomes premier of France’s Fifth Republic. |
| 1962 |
Polish filmmaker Roman Polanski directs his first film Knife in the Water. |
| 1962 |
Pop artist Andy Warhol begins making silk screen prints of mass-media images. |
| 1962 |
Rachel Carson criticizes indiscriminate use of pesticides in her book Silent Spring. |
| 1962 |
Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor star in Cleopatra, the most expensive film to date. |
| 1962 |
Sonny Liston defeats Floyd Patterson to become heavyweight boxing champion. |
| 1962 |
The British pop group The Beatles make their first recordings. |
| 1962 |
The Cuban Missile Crisis begins; Soviet missiles are withdrawn from Cuba. |
| 1962 |
The Mariner 2 spacecraft passes within 21,598 miles of Venus. |
| 1962 |
The U.S. Supreme Court rules that school prayers are a violation of the 1st Amendment. |
| 1962 |
The African nation of Burundi gains its independence from Belgium. |
| 1962 |
The Caribbean island of Jamaica is granted independence by Great Britain. |
| 1962 |
Western Samoa becomes an independent nation. |
| 1962 |
The U.S. launches Telstar I, the first commercial communications satellite. |
| 1962 |
The University of Mississippi is forced to admit black student James Meredith. |
| 1963 |
A UN peace keeping force ends the secession attempt of Katanga province (Shaba). |
| 1963 |
A limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty is signed by Britain, the U.S., and the USSR. |
| 1963 |
Arecibo Observatory begins observations with a 1,000-ft wide radio telescope. |
| 1963 |
Black nationalist Joshua Nkomo is imprisoned in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). |
| 1963 |
Britain’s entry to the European Economic Community is blocked by France. |
| 1963 |
NAACP leader Medgar Evers is assassinated. |
| 1963 |
British spy Harold (Kim) Philby defects to the USSR. |
| 1963 |
English writer John Le Carre publishes The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. |
| 1963 |
Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick directs the anti-war film Dr. Strangelove. |
| 1963 |
Football running back Jim Brown sets a record for rushes of 1,863 yards. |
| 1963 |
Jack Nicklaus becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament. |
| 1963 |
John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald is shot and killed by Jack Ruby. |
| 1963 |
Kenya gains independence from Britain; Jomo Kenyatta becomes prime minister. |
| 1963 |
Levi Eshkol succeeds David Ben-Gurion as prime minister of Israel. |
| 1963 |
Ludwig Erhard succeeds Konrad Adenauer as chancellor of West Germany. |
| 1963 |
Lyndon B. Johnson is inaugurated as the 36th President of the U.S. |
| 1963 |
Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak, and Sabah form the Federation of Malaysia. |
| 1963 |
Martin Luther King, Jr., makes his “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C. |
| 1963 |
Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein completes the comic strip painting Whaam. |
| 1963 |
President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. |
| 1963 |
President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam is assassinated. |
| 1963 |
Race-car driver Jim Clark wins seven Grand Prix events and the world title. |
| 1963 |
Sir Alec Douglas-Home succeeds Harold Macmillan as British prime minister. |
| 1963 |
Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space. |
| 1963 |
Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar is published in the year of her death. |
| 1963 |
The American X-15 research aircraft establishes an altitude record of 67 miles. |
| 1963 |
The Organization of African Unity (OAU) is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. |
| 1963 |
The Rolling Stones rock band is formed in Britain. |
| 1963 |
The first James Bond film Dr. No is produced. |
| 1964 |
ANC leader Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life imprisonment in South Africa. |
| 1964 |
An earthquake in Alaska causes extensive damage and 114 fatalities. |
| 1964 |
Architect Eero Saarinen’s St. Louis Arch memorial is completed. |
| 1964 |
Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discover the existence of background radiation. |
| 1964 |
Beatlemania develops during the first U.S. tour of the Beatles pop group. |
| 1964 |
Britain grants independence to Malawi; H. Kamuzu Banda becomes prime minister. |
| 1964 |
Britain grants independence to Zambia; Kenneth D. Kaunda becomes president. |
| 1964 |
Britain grants independence to Zanzibar. |
| 1964 |
Craig Breedlove sets a land speed record of 600 mph in a jet-powered vehicle. |
| 1964 |
FRELIMO begins a war of independence against the Portuguese in Mozambique. |
| 1964 |
Faisal succeeds his brother Saud as king of Saudi Arabia. |
| 1964 |
Fighting breaks out on Cyprus between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. |
| 1964 |
Gen. William Westmoreland is appointed to command the U.S. forces in South Vietnam. |
| 1964 |
Gustavo Diaz Ordaz becomes president of Mexico. |
| 1964 |
Ian Smith becomes prime minister of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). |
| 1964 |
Illustrator Maurice Sendak wins a Caldecott Medal for Where the Wild Things Are. |
| 1964 |
Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru dies; he is succeeded by Lal Bahadur Shastri. |
| 1964 |
President Johnson defeats Barry Goldwater in U.S. presidential elections. |
| 1964 |
Muhammad Ali defeats Sonny Liston for the heavyweight boxing championship. |
| 1964 |
North Vietnam allegedly attacks U.S. vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin. |
| 1964 |
Peter Weiss’ play Marat/ Sade is produced by British director Peter Brook. |
| 1964 |
Physicists Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig propose the quark theory. |
| 1964 |
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev is forced from office; Aleksei Kosygin becomes premier. |
| 1964 |
Martin Luther King, Jr., is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. |
| 1964 |
Tanganyika joins with Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanzania. |
| 1964 |
The American Ranger 7 spacecraft transmits photos of the surface of the Moon. |
| 1964 |
The Labour party is elected to power in Britain; Harold Wilson becomes prime minister. |
| 1964 |
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is formed to represent Palestinians. |
| 1964 |
The SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft is flown for the first time. |
| 1964 |
The Soviet Voskhod 1 spacecraft is launched with a three-man crew. |
| 1964 |
The Tonkin Gulf Resolution escalates the use of U.S. personnel in Vietnam. |
| 1964 |
Malta gains its independence from Great Britain. |
| 1964 |
The U.S. Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in employment. |
| 1964 |
The U.S. Surgeon General reports that cigarette smoking is a health hazard. |
| 1964 |
The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opens in New York. |
| 1964 |
The Warren Commission decides that Oswald was the sole assassin of John F. Kennedy. |
| 1965 |
Actress and singer Barbara Streisand stars in the Broadway musical Funny Girl. |
| 1965 |
American writer Norman Mailer publishes An American Dream. |
| 1965 |
An attempted communist coup leads to military rule in Indonesia under Suharto. |
| 1965 |
An electrical blackout in the northeastern U.S. affects 30 million people. |
| 1965 |
Astronaut Edward H. White becomes the first American to walk in space. |
| 1965 |
Astronauts Virgil Grissom and John Young orbit the Earth in the first Gemini spacecraft. |
| 1965 |
British fashion designer Mary Quant introduces the miniskirt. |
| 1965 |
Civil war breaks out in the Dominican Republic; U.S. troops restore order. |
| 1965 |
Gemini 6 and 7 spacecraft make the first rendezvous in space. |
| 1965 |
Houari Boumedienne deposes President Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria. |
| 1965 |
Martin Luther King, Jr. leads a civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. |
| 1965 |
Mobutu Sese Seko seizes control in the Congo (Zaire) for the second time. |
| 1965 |
More than 180,000 U.S. troops are deployed in Vietnam by the end of the year. |
| 1965 |
Neil Simon’s play The Odd Couple opens on Broadway starring Walter Matthau. |
| 1965 |
Nicolae Ceausescu succeeds Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej as Romanian leader. |
| 1965 |
North Vietnamese army units are in action in South Vietnam for the first time. |
| 1965 |
Race riots begin in the Watts section of Los Angeles. |
| 1965 |
Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) makes a unilateral declaration of independence from Britain. |
| 1965 |
Singapore secedes from Malaysia; Lee Kuan Yew remains as prime minister. |
| 1965 |
Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov makes the first space walk. |
| 1965 |
The Black Muslim leader Malcolm X is assassinated in New York City. |
| 1965 |
The Houston Astrodome, the first covered stadium, is completed in Texas. |
| 1965 |
The Mariner 4 spacecraft passes within 6,118 miles of the planet Mars. |
| 1965 |
Ralph Nader publishes Unsafe at Any Speed. |
| 1965 |
The Second India-Pakistan War begins in Kashmir. |
| 1965 |
The U.S. government establishes Medicare and Medicaid health programs. |
| 1965 |
The African nation of Gambia gains independence from Great Britain. |
| 1965 |
The Indian Ocean nation of the Maldives gains its independence. |
| 1965 |
Lyndon Johnson begins a full term as president; Hubert Humphrey is vice-president. |
| 1965 |
The Vietnam War escalates as the U.S. begins bombing North Vietnam. |
| 1966 |
American writer Truman Capote publishes In Cold Blood. |
| 1966 |
Art treasures are ruined during severe floods in Florence, Italy. |
| 1966 |
Gen. Yakubu Gowon heads a military government after a countercoup in Nigeria. |
| 1966 |
Indian prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri dies; he is succeeded by Indira Gandhi. |
| 1966 |
John Jack Lynch becomes prime minister of Ireland. |
| 1966 |
Mao Tse-tung begins China’s Cultural Revolution. |
| 1966 |
Nigerian prime minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa is killed in a military coup. |
| 1966 |
President De Gaulle withdraws French forces from NATO. |
| 1966 |
President Kwame Nkrumah is ousted in a military coup in Ghana. |
| 1966 |
Realist sculptor George Segal completes the direct-cast plaster group The Diner. |
| 1966 |
South African prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd is assassinated. |
| 1966 |
Edward Brooke of Massachusetts becomes the first African-American to be popularly elected to the U.S. Senate. |
| 1966 |
The American Surveyor 1 spacecraft achieves the first soft-landing on the Moon. |
| 1966 |
The British Hawker Harrier becomes the first VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft. |
| 1966 |
The Soviet Luna 9 space probe makes the first landing on the Moon. |
| 1966 |
The Soviets mediate to end the India-Pakistan War. |
| 1966 |
The African nations of Botswana and Lesotho become independent. |
| 1966 |
British Guiana becomes independent as Guyana. |
| 1966 |
The first major rally against the Vietnam War takes place in Washington, D.C. |
| 1966 |
Tom Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is produced. |
| 1967 |
A civil war breaks out in Nigeria after the secession of the state of Biafra. |
| 1967 |
A fire kills U.S. astronauts White, Grissom, and Chaffee during a launch test. |
| 1967 |
A military junta seizes control in Greece; King Constantine II is exiled. |
| 1967 |
American writer Joyce Carol Oates publishes A Garden of Earthly Delights. |
| 1967 |
Britain grants Aden independence as the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen. |
| 1967 |
Dr. Christiaan Barnard performs the first successful human heart transplant. |
| 1967 |
Gen. Anastasio Somoza Debayle is elected president of Nicaragua. |
| 1967 |
Latin American guerrilla leader Che Guevara is killed in Bolivia. |
| 1967 |
Nguyen Van Thieu becomes president of South Vietnam. |
| 1967 |
By year’s end, 475,000 U.S. troops are serving in South Vietnam. |
| 1967 |
Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper star in the motorcycle film Easy Rider. |
| 1967 |
Quarterback Joe Namath sets a one-season record by passing for 4,007 yards. |
| 1967 |
R. Buckminster Fuller designs a geodesic dome for the U.S. Pavilion at Expo ’67. |
| 1967 |
Radio astronomers Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish discover the first pulsar. |
| 1967 |
Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger star in the film In the Heat of the Night. |
| 1967 |
Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov is killed during the landing of Soyuz 1. |
| 1967 |
Tennis player Billie Jean King wins the U.S. Open championship for the first time. |
| 1967 |
The North American Soccer League (NASL) is formed. |
| 1967 |
The Six-Day War between Israel and the Arab states ends with Israeli victory. |
| 1967 |
The X-15 research aircraft establishes a speed record of Mach 6.7 (4,520 mph). |
| 1967 |
The hippie musical revue Hair is produced. |
| 1967 |
Thurgood Marshall becomes the first black member of the U.S. Supreme Court. |
| 1967 |
Yachtsman Francis Chichester completes the first solo voyage around the world. |
| 1968 |
American track star Bob Beamon beats the Olympic long jump record by almost 2 feet. |
| 1968 |
Anti-war demonstrators clash with police at the Democratic convention in Chicago. |
| 1968 |
The African nation of Swaziland gains its independence. |
| 1968 |
Arthur Ashe becomes the first black player to win a major men’s tennis title. |
| 1968 |
Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated. |
| 1968 |
Dick Fosbury uses the Fosbury flop to win the Olympic gold medal for the high jump. |
| 1968 |
Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick directs 2001: A Space Odyssey. |
| 1968 |
French downhill skier Jean Claude Killy wins three Olympic gold medals. |
| 1968 |
French filmmaker Henri Costa-Gavras directs Z. |
| 1968 |
Jacqueline Kennedy marries the Greek shipping millionaire Aristotle Onassis. |
| 1968 |
More than 500,000 U.S. troops are deployed in Vietnam. |
| 1968 |
Oceanographic ship Glomar Challenger begins the Deep-Sea Drilling Project. |
| 1968 |
Omar Torrijos Herrera overthrows the government of Arnulfo Arias in Panama. |
| 1968 |
Pierre Trudeau succeeds Lester Pearson as prime minister of Canada. |
| 1968 |
Polish filmmaker Roman Polanski directs Rosemary’s Baby. |
| 1968 |
Portuguese dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar is succeeded by Marcello Caetano. |
| 1968 |
President Johnson announces he will not seek a second term of office. |
| 1968 |
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated. |
| 1968 |
Spain grants independence to Equatorial Guinea. |
| 1968 |
Spanish operatic tenor Placido Domingo debuts at the Metropolitan Opera. |
| 1968 |
Student-worker revolts almost topple the government of Charles de Gaulle in France. |
| 1968 |
The Apollo 8 spacecraft makes the first manned orbit of the Moon. |
| 1968 |
The Catholic minority in Northern Ireland demonstrate for British rights. |
| 1968 |
The Federal Gun Control Act regulates the interstate commerce in firearms. |
| 1968 |
Richard M. Nixon defeats Hubert H. Humphrey in U.S. presidential elections. |
| 1968 |
The Saturn rocket lifts the Apollo 7 spacecraft into low Earth orbit. |
| 1968 |
The U.S. Navy intelligence gathering ship Pueblo is seized by North Korea. |
| 1968 |
The Pacific Ocean island of Nauru gains its independence. |
| 1968 |
The Viet Cong launch the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. |
| 1968 |
The Indian Ocean nation of Mauritius gains its independence. |
| 1968 |
U.S. troops massacre Vietnamese civilians at My Lai. |
| 1968 |
Warsaw Pact forces invade Czechoslovakia to counter increasing liberalization. |
| 1969 |
A rock-music festival at Woodstock, N.Y., attracts a crowd of 500,000. |
| 1969 |
American writer Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., publishes Slaughterhouse-Five. |
| 1969 |
Australian Rod Laver becomes the only tennis player to win the Grand Slam twice. |
| 1969 |
Catholics and Protestants clash in Northern Ireland; British troops restore order. |
| 1969 |
James Earl Ray is sentenced to 99 years in prison for the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. |
| 1969 |
Charles Manson and his followers kill actress Sharon Tate and six of her friends. |
| 1969 |
Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi seizes control in Libya; King Idris is deposed. |
| 1969 |
Edward Kennedy’s female companion dies in a car accident off the Chappaquiddick bridge. |
| 1969 |
Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., become the first men to walk on the Moon. |
| 1969 |
Gen. Gaafar al-Nimeiry seizes power in Sudan. |
| 1969 |
Following Charles de Gaulle’s resignation, Georges Pompidou becomes French president. |
| 1969 |
Warren E. Burger succeeds Earl Warren as chief justice of the Supreme Court. |
| 1969 |
Golda Meir becomes prime minister of Israel after the death of Levi Eshkol. |
| 1969 |
An anti-Vietnam War rally draws 200,000 protesters to Washington, D.C. |
| 1969 |
Apollo 12 astronauts become the third and fourth men to walk on the Moon. |
| 1969 |
IRA provisionals launch a terrorist campaign against British troops in Ireland. |
| 1969 |
Liberal Czech leader Alexander Dubcek is replaced by Gustav Husak. |
| 1969 |
Richard Nixon is inaugurated as the 37th U.S. president; Spiro Agnew is vice-president. |
| 1969 |
President Ayub Khan is deposed by Gen. Muhammad Yahya Khan in Pakistan. |
| 1969 |
Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of the assassination of Sen. Robert Kennedy. |
| 1969 |
President Nixon begins to withdraw U.S. forces from Vietnam. |
| 1969 |
The Anglo-French supersonic transport Concorde makes its first flight. |
| 1969 |
The Children’s Television Workshop series Sesame Street is first shown. |
| 1969 |
The Stonewall Riots spark the modern gay rights movement. |
| 1969 |
The immigration of Salvadorans into Honduras leads to a brief border war. |
| 1969 |
Willy Brandt succeeds Kurt Kiesinger as chancellor of West Germany. |
| 1969 |
Yasir Arafat becomes chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). |
| 1970 |
Australian tennis player Margaret Smith Court wins the Grand Slam. |
| 1970 |
Britain grants independence to Fiji. |
| 1970 |
Civil war begins in Jordan between government forces and Palestinian guerrillas. |
| 1970 |
Edward Heath becomes Conservative prime minister of Britain. |
| 1970 |
Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser dies; he is succeeded by Anwar al-Sadat. |
| 1970 |
Former defense minister Hafez al-Assad seizes power in Syria. |
| 1970 |
Marxist leader Salvadore Allende is elected president of Chile. |
| 1970 |
Norman Borlaug wins the Nobel Peace Prize for breeding miracle wheat strains. |
| 1970 |
Ohio national guardsmen kill four Kent State students during an anti-war protest. |
| 1970 |
An earthquake in Peru kills 70,000 people and leaves 700,000 homeless. |
| 1970 |
President Nixon orders an incursion into Cambodia to combat the Khmer Rouge. |
| 1970 |
Riots in Poland force Wladyslaw Gomulka to resign in favor of Edward Gierek. |
| 1970 |
Rock music guitarist Jimi Hendrix dies from a drug overdose. |
| 1970 |
Sihanouk is deposed in Cambodia; Khmer Rouge seize the western provinces. |
| 1970 |
The Amtrak intercity rail passenger service is created by Act of Congress. |
| 1970 |
The Apollo 13 crew return to earth after an explosion aboard their command module. |
| 1970 |
The Beatles pop group is disbanded. |
| 1970 |
The Boeing 747 Jumbo jet airliner enters service. |
| 1970 |
The nuclear nonproliferation treaty goes into effect. |
| 1970 |
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is established in the U.S. |
| 1970 |
The Soviet space probe Venera 7 transmits the first data from the surface of Venus. |
| 1970 |
The building of the Aswan High Dam is completed in Egypt. |
| 1970 |
The civil war ends between Nigeria and the breakaway state of Biafra. |
| 1971 |
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rock-opera Jesus Christ Superstar opens on Broadway. |
| 1971 |
Austrian Kurt Waldheim succeeds U Thant as UN secretary general. |
| 1971 |
Chilean poet Pablo Neruda wins the Nobel Prize for literature. |
| 1971 |
Col. Hugo Banzer Suarez seizes power in Bolivia in a military coup. |
| 1971 |
Daniel Ellsberg releases copies of the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times. |
| 1971 |
East Pakistan declares its independence from West Pakistan, beginning a civil war. |
| 1971 |
Erich Honecker becomes the head of state for East Germany. |
| 1971 |
The U.S. ends its 21-year trade embargo of China. |
| 1971 |
Ice hockey player Phil Esposito scores a record 76 goals in 78 games. |
| 1971 |
Jean Claude Duvalier succeeds his father as president of Haiti. |
| 1871 |
Some 200,000 anti-Vietnam War protesters rally in Washington, D.C. |
| 1971 |
Joe Frazier defeats Muhammad Ali for the heavyweight boxing title. |
| 1971 |
Lt. William Calley is found guilty of killing Vietnamese civilians at My Lai. |
| 1971 |
Prime Minister Brian Faulkner begins the internment of IRA suspects in Northern Ireland. |
| 1971 |
Prime Minister Milton Obote is ousted by Idi Amin Dada in Uganda. |
| 1971 |
South Vietnamese troops and U.S. aircraft combat Communist forces in Laos. |
| 1971 |
Soyuz 11 docks with Salyut 1; three cosmonauts die during the return to earth. |
| 1971 |
The Congo is renamed the Republic of Zaire. |
| 1971 |
The Lunar Rover explores the Moon’s surface during the Apollo 15 mission. |
| 1971 |
A four-day revolt at Attica state prison in New York ends; 10 hostages and 30 prisoners are killed. |
| 1971 |
The Republic of China (Taiwan) loses its UN seat; Communist China is admitted. |
| 1971 |
Six Persian Gulf sheikdoms form the United Arab Emirates. |
| 1971 |
The support of India wins independence for East Pakistan (renamed as Bangladesh). |
| 1972 |
Alabama governor George Wallace is shot in an assassination attempt. |
| 1972 |
American B-52 aircraft bomb Hanoi and Haiphong in North Vietnam. |
| 1972 |
Bobby Fischer defeats Boris Spassky to become the first American world chess champion. |
| 1972 |
American feminist Gloria Steinem founds Ms. magazine. |
| 1972 |
American swimmer Mark Spitz wins a record seven Olympic gold medals. |
| 1972 |
An earthquake kills 10,000 in the Nicaraguan capital of Managua. |
| 1972 |
Apollo 17 makes the last manned Moon landing. |
| 1972 |
Ceylon changes its name to Sri Lanka (meaning beautiful island). |
| 1972 |
DDT insecticide is banned in the U.S. |
| 1972 |
Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola directs Marlon Brando in The Godfather. |
| 1972 |
Mujibur Rahman becomes prime minister of Bangladesh. |
| 1972 |
Palestinian terrorists kill 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. |
| 1972 |
President Ferdinand Marcos imposes martial law in the Philippines. |
| 1972 |
President Nixon authorizes the Space Shuttle program. |
| 1972 |
President Nixon makes his historic trip to Peking to meet Mao Tse-tung. |
| 1972 |
Richard Leakey discovers a hominid skull 2.6 million years old in northern Kenya. |
| 1972 |
Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut wins three Olympic gold medals. |
| 1972 |
The British government assumes direct rule of Northern Ireland. |
| 1972 |
The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese renew their offensive in South Vietnam. |
| 1972 |
The Watergate affair begins with the arrest of five burglars at Democratic party headquarters. |
| 1972 |
The U.S. returns Okinawa to Japan after a 27-year occupation. |
| 1972 |
President Richard Nixon defeats George McGovern in U.S. presidential elections. |
| 1973 |
A right-wing military coup in Chile overthrows Allende’s Marxist government. |
| 1973 |
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn publishes the first volume of the Gulag Archipelago. |
| 1973 |
Britain grants independence to the Bahama Islands. |
| 1973 |
Charles XVI Gustav succeeds Gustav VI Adolf as king of Sweden. |
| 1973 |
Congress passes the Endangered Species Act. |
| 1973 |
Egypt and Syria attack Israel on Yom Kippur (a Jewish religious holiday). |
| 1973 |
Great Britain, Denmark, and Ireland become full-fledged members of the EEC. |
| 1973 |
Ricard Nixon begins his second term in office; Spiro Agnew is vice-president. |
| 1973 |
Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho share the Nobel Peace Prize. |
| 1973 |
Juan D. Peron returns to power as president of Argentina. |
| 1973 |
OPEC begins an oil embargo against Europe, the U.S. and Japan. |
| 1973 |
Senator Sam Ervin, Jr., heads a committee to investigate the Watergate break-in. |
| 1973 |
The American Indian Movement occupy the site of Wounded Knee in a political protest. |
| 1973 |
The Arab-Israeli War ends after 18 days with a UN negotiated cease-fire. |
| 1973 |
The Paris Peace Accords end the Vietnam War. |
| 1973 |
The Pioneer 10 spacecraft makes a rendezvous with the planet Jupiter. |
| 1973 |
The Skylab manned orbiting laboratory is launched. |
| 1973 |
The last U.S. troops are withdrawn from South Vietnam. |
| 1973 |
The Washington Post receives the Pulitzer Prize for reporting the Watergate scandal. |
| 1973 |
The World Trade Center in New York City becomes the tallest building in the world. |
| 1973 |
Vice-President Spiro Agnew resigns after he is charged with accepting bribes. |
| 1974 |
A military coup in Portugal leads to democratic reforms. |
| 1974 |
American tennis player Chris Evert wins a record 56 consecutive matches. |
| 1974 |
American tennis player Jimmy Connors wins the U.S. Open tournament for the first time. |
| 1974 |
An army of life-size pottery figures is discovered in a Ch’in dynasty tomb in China. |
| 1974 |
Archbishop Makarios is deposed, prompting a Turkish invasion of Cyprus. |
| 1974 |
Baseball player Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruth’s record of 714 home-runs. |
| 1974 |
Emperor Haile Selassie is deposed in a military coup in Ethiopia. |
| 1974 |
Former astronaut John Glenn is elected to the U.S. Senate. |
| 1974 |
Gen. Augusto Pinochet Ugarte becomes president of Chile. |
| 1974 |
Helmut Schmidt becomes chancellor of West Germany. |
| 1974 |
Isabel Peron becomes president of Argentina after the death of her husband. |
| 1974 |
Konstantinos G. Karamanlis becomes prime minister of Greece. |
| 1974 |
Patricia Hearst is abducted by members of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). |
| 1974 |
Portugal recognizes the independence of Guinea-Bissau. |
| 1974 |
President Ford grants Richard Nixon a pardon for any crimes committed in office. |
| 1974 |
President Giscard d’Estaing appoints Jacques Chirac prime minister of France. |
| 1974 |
President Nixon resigns; Gerald R. Ford is inaugurated as the 38th U.S. president. |
| 1974 |
South African golfer Gary Player achieves the Grand Slam. |
| 1974 |
Soviet ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov defects to the West. |
| 1974 |
The House Judiciary Committee votes to impeach President Nixon. |
| 1974 |
The Mariner 10 spacecraft passes within 438 miles of the planet Mercury. |
| 1974 |
The Sears Tower in Chicago surpasses the World Trade Center as the tallest building. |
| 1974 |
The crisis on Cyprus causes the collapse of the military regime in Greece. |
| 1974 |
Willy Brandt is forced to resign after an East German spy is discovered on his staff. |
| 1974 |
Yitzhak Rabin succeeds Golda Meir as prime minister of Israel. |
| 1974 |
The Caribbean island of Grenada gains its independence from Great Britain. |
| 1974 |
Muhammad Ali knocks out George Foreman to regain the world heavyweight boxing title. |
| 1975 |
Bobby Fischer refuses to defend his chess title; Anatoly Karpov is made champion. |
| 1975 |
Brazilian soccer star Pele ends his retirement to play for the New York Cosmos. |
| 1975 |
Civil war breaks out when Angola gains its independence from Portugal. |
| 1975 |
Civil war breaks out in Lebanon between Muslim and Christian forces. |
| 1975 |
Communist Pathet Lao declare Laos the People’s Democratic Republic. |
| 1975 |
Morocco invades Spanish Sahara. |
| 1975 |
Cyprus is partitioned into Greek and Turkish zones. |
| 1975 |
Czech tennis star Martina Navratilova defects to the U.S. |
| 1975 |
Dutch Guiana gains its independence as the Republic of Suriname. |
| 1975 |
Eritrean rebels begin their fight for independence in Ethiopia. |
| 1975 |
Gen. Yakubu Gowon is deposed in a military coup in Nigeria. |
| 1975 |
Juan Carlos I becomes king of Spain after the death of Gen. Francisco Franco. |
| 1975 |
Mozambique wins independence from Portugal; Samora Machel becomes the president. |
| 1975 |
Cape Verde Islands gain independence from Portugal. |
| 1975 |
North Vietnamese forces overrun Saigon, which is renamed as Ho Chi Minh City. |
| 1975 |
Papua New Guinea becomes independent from Australian administration. |
| 1975 |
President Mujibur Rahman is killed in a military coup in Bangladesh. |
| 1975 |
President N’Garta Tombalbaye of Chad is killed in a coup d’etat. |
| 1975 |
Prime Minister Pol Pot begins a reign of terror in Kampuchea. |
| 1975 |
Saudi King Faisal is assassinated; he is succeeded by his brother Khalid. |
| 1975 |
South Vietnam capitulates; a mass exodus of Boat People begins. |
| 1975 |
Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov wins the Nobel Peace Prize. |
| 1975 |
Taiwanese leader Chiang Kai-shek dies; he is succeeded by his son Chiang Ching-kuo. |
| 1975 |
The Helsinki accords pledge the signatory nations to respect human rights. |
| 1975 |
The Khmer Rouge win control of Cambodia and rename the country Kampuchea. |
| 1975 |
The Republic of Comoros declares its independence from France. |
| 1975 |
The islands of Sao Tome and Principe gain independence from Portugal. |
| 1975 |
The Suez Canal reopens after being closed to shipping for eight years. |
| 1975 |
U.S. Marines recapture the U.S. freighter Mayaguez from Kampuchean forces. |
| 1975 |
U.S. astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts link up during the Apollo-Soyuz mission. |
| 1976 |
A severe earthquake in China kills over 600,000. |
| 1976 |
African-American writer Alex Haley publishes Roots: The Saga of an American Family. |
| 1976 |
Black student protesters are massacred at Soweto in South Africa. |
| 1976 |
Chinese leaders Chou En-lai and Mao Tse-tung die; Hua Kuo-feng assumes power. |
| 1976 |
Finnish runner Lasse Viren wins the Olympic 5,000- and 10,000-m races for the second time. |
| 1976 |
Isabel Peron is deposed; Jorge Rafael Videla becomes president of Argentina. |
| 1976 |
Israeli commandos rescue hijacked airplane passengers at Entebbe, Uganda. |
| 1976 |
James Callaghan succeeds Harold Wilson as prime minister of Britain. |
| 1976 |
The island-state of Seychelles gains its independence from Great Britain. |
| 1976 |
Jim Henson’s Muppet Show debuts on television. |
| 1976 |
Jose Lopez Portillo y Pacheco is elected president of Mexico. |
| 1976 |
Mario Soares is elected prime minister of Portugal for the first time. |
| 1976 |
Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci wins three gold medals at the Montreal Olympics. |
| 1976 |
Separatist leader Rene Levesque becomes premier of Quebec. |
| 1976 |
Suarez Gonzalez becomes prime minister of Spain after the first election in 41 years. |
| 1976 |
Swedish tennis star Bjorn Borg wins the first of five Wimbledon championships. |
| 1976 |
The South African homeland of Transkei becomes independent. |
| 1976 |
The U.S. celebrates its Bicentennial. |
| 1976 |
The first outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease occurs in Philadelphia. |
| 1976 |
The pro-Soviet MPLA government seizes power in Angola aided by Cuban troops. |
| 1976 |
James “Jimmy” Carter defeats incumbent Gerald R. Ford in U.S. presidential elections. |
| 1976 |
U.S. Viking spacecraft land on Mars. |
| 1977 |
American golfer Tom Watson wins the Masters and British Open tournaments. |
| 1977 |
Jacqueline Means is ordained as the first woman Episcopal priest. |
| 1977 |
American hurdler Edwin Moses begins a winning streak of 90 consecutive races. |
| 1977 |
African-American politician Andrew Young is appointed as U.S. ambassador to the UN. |
| 1977 |
Jimmy Carter is inaugurated as the 39th U.S. president; Walter Mondale is vice-president. |
| 1977 |
President Carter pardons most Vietnam War resisters. |
| 1977 |
Gen. Zia ul-Haq deposes Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in Pakistan. |
| 1977 |
George Lucas directs the first Star Wars space fantasy film. |
| 1977 |
Jean Bedel Bokassa is crowned Emperor Bokassa I of the Central African Empire. |
| 1977 |
Menachem Begin succeeds Yitzhak Rabin as prime minister of Israel. |
| 1977 |
Morarji Desai succeeds Indira Gandhi as prime minister of India. |
| 1977 |
Rock ‘n roll performer Elvis Presley dies. |
| 1977 |
Seventeen-year old American jockey Steve Cauthen rides a record 487 winners. |
| 1977 |
South Africa grants independence to the African homeland of Bophuthatswana. |
| 1977 |
The French Territory of the Afars and the Issas becomes independent as Djibouti. |
| 1977 |
The U.S. Department of Energy is created as a Cabinet-level department. |
| 1977 |
Bishop John N. Neumann of Philadelphia becomes the first American male to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. |
| 1977 |
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline goes into operation. |
| 1977 |
The first Apple II personal computer is marketed in the U.S. |
| 1978 |
Afghanistan president Mohammad Daud Khan is killed in a Marxist coup. |
| 1978 |
Israeli troops end a three-month occupation of southern Lebanon designed to end terrorist attacks. |
| 1978 |
American golfer Nancy Lopez wins a record five straight tournaments. |
| 1978 |
Antonio Guzman becomes president of the Dominican Republic. |
| 1978 |
Britain grants independence to Tuvalu, Dominica, and the Solomon Islands. |
| 1978 |
Italian politician Aldo Moro is kidnapped and murdered by Red Brigade terrorists. |
| 1978 |
More than 900 members of a religious cult commit suicide at Jonestown, Guyana. |
| 1978 |
Pieter Willem Botha becomes prime minister of South Africa. |
| 1978 |
Pope John Paul II becomes the first non-Italian Pope in more than 500 years. |
| 1978 |
President Carter oversees the Camp David peace accords between Egypt and Israel. |
| 1978 |
The Pompidou Center art museum (the Beaubourg) is opened in Paris. |
| 1978 |
The United States and Panama renew the Panama Canal treaties. |
| 1978 |
The balloon Double Eagle II completes the first Atlantic crossing. |
| 1978 |
The first human test-tube baby is born in England. |
| 1978 |
The murder of opposition leader Pedro Joaquin Chamorro sparks uprisings in Nicaragua. |
| 1978 |
Yiddish-language writer Isaac Bashevis Singer wins the Nobel Prize for literature. |
| 1979 |
Abel Muzorewa becomes the first black prime minister of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). |
| 1979 |
The Gilbert Islands become independent as the Republic of Kiribati. |
| 1979 |
Algerian president Houari Boumedienne dies; he is succeeded by Chadli Benjedid. |
| 1979 |
The Caribbean island of St. Lucia becomes independent of Great Britain. |
| 1979 |
Petter Viken was born. |
| 1979 |
Israel and Egypt sign a treaty ending the 21-year state of war between them. |
| 1979 |
American tennis player John McEnroe wins his first U.S. Open championship. |
| 1979 |
American tennis player Tracy Austin wins the U.S. Open championship at age 16. |
| 1979 |
An accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant causes a near-disaster. |
| 1979 |
British runner Sebastian Coe sets world records at 800 m, 1,500 m, and the mile. |
| 1979 |
Ex-prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is executed in Pakistan. |
| 1979 |
Iran is proclaimed an Islamic republic. |
| 1979 |
Gen. Saddam Hussein succeeds Gen. al-Bakr as president of Iraq. |
| 1979 |
IRA terrorists assassinate Lord Mountbatten in Ireland. |
| 1979 |
Islamic fundamentalist Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Iran. |
| 1979 |
Jean Bedel Bokassa is deposed in the Central African Republic. |
| 1979 |
Jose Eduardo dos Santos succeeds Agostinho Neto as president of Angola. |
| 1979 |
Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain’s first woman prime minister. |
| 1979 |
Morocco annexes Western Sahara; the Polisario Front fight for independence. |
| 1979 |
Mother Teresa of Calcutta is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. |
| 1979 |
Pioneer 11 spacecraft makes a rendezvous with the planet Saturn. |
| 1979 |
Sixty-six U.S. embassy employees are taken hostage by Iranian students in Tehran. |
| 1979 |
South Korean president Park Chung Hee is assassinated. |
| 1979 |
Soviet troops occupy Afghanistan in support of Babrak Karmal’s Marxist regime. |
| 1979 |
Tanzanians and Ugandan exiles invade Uganda; dictator Idi Amin Dada flees. |
| 1979 |
The Gossamer Albatross flies across the English Channel under human-power. |
| 1979 |
The Mujaheddin begin a guerrilla war against the Soviet forces in Afghanistan. |
| 1979 |
The Caribbean islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines gain independence from Britain. |
| 1979 |
The Sandinistas seize control in Nicaragua. |
| 1979 |
The Shah of Iran flees the country. |
| 1979 |
The first case of AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is reported. |
| 1979 |
Vietnamese forces invade Kampuchea and overthrow the Pol Pot government. |
| 1979 |
The U.S. opens diplomatic relations with China and breaks relations with Taiwan. |
| 1979 |
Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft rendezvous with the planet Jupiter. |
| 1980 |
An earthquake in Algeria kills 20,000. |
| 1980 |
Border disputes erupt into the Gulf War between Iran and Iraq. |
| 1980 |
Boxer Sugar Ray Leonard regains the world welterweight title from Roberto Duran. |
| 1980 |
Retired Gen. Chun Doo Hwan becomes president of South Korea. |
| 1980 |
Ex-Beatle John Lennon is fatally shot outside his Manhattan apartment. |
| 1980 |
Ex-Nicaraguan president Anastasio Somoza Debayle is assassinated. |
| 1980 |
Gen. Kenan Evren leads a military coup in Turkey. |
| 1980 |
Jose Napoleon Duarte becomes president of El Salvador; the guerrilla war continues. |
| 1980 |
Lech Walesa heads Solidarity, the first union movement in a communist country. |
| 1980 |
Liberian president William R. Tolbert is killed in a military coup led by Samuel Doe. |
| 1980 |
Love Canal, a chemically contaminated area in N.Y., is declared a disaster area. |
| 1980 |
Milton Obote is reelected as president of Uganda. |
| 1980 |
Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington state killing eight people. |
| 1980 |
Rhodesia becomes the independent nation of Zimbabwe, ending 90 years of British rule. |
| 1980 |
Princess Beatrix becomes monarch of the Netherlands when Queen Juliana abdicates. |
| 1980 |
Ted Turner begins the Cable News Network, offering round-the-clock news. |
| 1980 |
The Castro regime deports more than 120,000 Cubans to Florida. |
| 1980 |
The FBI’s ABSCAM investigation convicts seven members of the U.S. Congress. |
| 1980 |
The New Hebrides become independent from Britain and France as Vanuatu. |
| 1980 |
Ronald Reagan defeats Jimmy Carter in the U.S. presidential election. |
| 1980 |
The U.S. boycotts the Moscow Olympics to protest the invasion of Afghanistan. |
| 1980 |
The U.S. makes an unsuccessful attempt to rescue the Iranian hostages. |
| 1980 |
Indira Gandhi is sworn in as prime minister of India. |
| 1980 |
Israel and Egypt exchange ambassadors for the first time. |
| 1980 |
The Voyager 1 spacecraft makes a rendezvous with the planet Saturn. |
| 1981 |
Andreas Papandreou becomes prime minister of Greece. |
| 1981 |
The Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbuda gain independence from Great Britain. |
| 1981 |
Anwar al-Sadat is killed; Hosni Mubarak becomes president of Egypt. |
| 1981 |
Argentinian president Roberto Viola is ousted from power by General Galtieri. |
| 1981 |
Britain grants independence to Belize. |
| 1981 |
Francois Mitterrand succeeds Valery Giscard d’Estaing as president of France. |
| 1981 |
Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland; Solidarity leaders are arrested. |
| 1981 |
Hu Yao-bang becomes head of the Chinese Communist party. |
| 1981 |
Jerry Rawlings leads a military coup in Ghana. |
| 1981 |
John Hinckley, Jr., shoots and seriously wounds President Reagan. |
| 1981 |
Gen. Augusto Pinochet declares himself president of Chile. |
| 1981 |
Pope John Paul II is shot and wounded by a Turkish gunman. |
| 1981 |
Israeli fighter planes destroy Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor. |
| 1981 |
Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as the 40th U.S. president; George Bush is vice-president. |
| 1981 |
Greece becomes the 10th member of the European Community. |
| 1981 |
Sandra Day O’Connor becomes the first woman U.S. Supreme Court justice. |
| 1981 |
Ten IRA prisoners starve themselves to death as a political protest. |
| 1981 |
The Prince of Wales marries Lady Diana Spencer in Britain. |
| 1981 |
IBM introduces its first personal computer. |
| 1981 |
The U.S. hostages in Iran are released. |
| 1981 |
The first 24-hour music video channel MTV (Music Television) is launched in the U.S. |
| 1981 |
The first space shuttle is launched, crewed by John Young and Robert Crippen. |
| 1982 |
Amin Gemayel becomes the president of Lebanon after his brother Bashir is killed. |
| 1982 |
The Polish parliament outlaws the independent trade union Solidarity. |
| 1982 |
Argentina invades the Falkland Islands; Britain and Argentina are at war. |
| 1982 |
British troops recapture the Falkland Islands from Argentina. |
| 1982 |
Spain becomes the 16th member of NATO. |
| 1982 |
Gen. Hussain Muhammad Ershad seizes control of Bangladesh in a bloodless coup. |
| 1982 |
Javier Perez de Cuellar succeeds Kurt Waldheim as secretary-general of the UN. |
| 1982 |
Israel completes its withdrawal from the Sinai. |
| 1982 |
Pop singer Michael Jackson records the all-time best-selling album Thriller. |
| 1982 |
Princess Grace of Monaco dies in a car accident. |
| 1982 |
Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev dies; he is succeeded by Yuri Andropov. |
| 1982 |
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) fails to win ratification in the U.S. |
| 1982 |
The Israeli army invades Lebanon and drives the PLO guerrillas out of Beirut. |
| 1982 |
Iran launches a major military drive against the Iraqi city of Basra. |
| 1982 |
The UN maintains a peace between Christian and Muslim militia in Lebanon. |
| 1982 |
The Voyager 2 spacecraft transmits pictures to the U.S. of the planet Saturn. |
| 1982 |
Two satellites are deployed during the first operational Space Shuttle mission. |
| 1982 |
USA Today, the first daily newspaper aimed at readers throughout the U.S., is launched. |
| 1983 |
American runner Joan Benoit sets a world record in the Boston Marathon. |
| 1983 |
American zoologist Dian Fossey publishes her book Gorillas in the Mist. |
| 1983 |
An EPA report projects the irreversible onset of the greenhouse effect. |
| 1983 |
An Infrared Astronomical Satellite is launched to probe deep into the Milky Way. |
| 1983 |
Australia II becomes the first non-American yacht to win the America’s Cup. |
| 1983 |
Car bombs destroy the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Marine headquarters in Beirut. |
| 1983 |
Civil war breaks out in Sri Lanka between the Sinhalese and Tamil separatists. |
| 1983 |
Ex-Nazi Klaus Barbie (the butcher of Lyon) is extradited from Bolivia to France. |
| 1983 |
Harold Washington becomes the first African-American mayor of Chicago. |
| 1983 |
Guion Stewart Bluford, Jr., becomes the first African-American astronaut. |
| 1983 |
Libyan forces invade Chad; French troops aid the Chad government. |
| 1983 |
Manuel Antonio Noriega becomes commander of Panama’s Defense Forces. |
| 1983 |
Mario Soares becomes the socialist prime minister of Portugal. |
| 1983 |
Nigerian president Shehu Shagari is deposed in a military coup led by Gen. Muhammed Buhari. |
| 1983 |
Opposition leader Benigno Aquino is assassinated in the Philippines. |
| 1983 |
President Reagan proposes a space-based Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). |
| 1983 |
Raul Alfonsin is elected as president of Argentina, ending military rule. |
| 1983 |
Sally K. Ride becomes the first U.S. woman astronaut. |
| 1983 |
The Soviets shoot down a South Korean airliner that violated its airspace. |
| 1983 |
The compact disc is introduced for recorded music. |
| 1983 |
U.S. forces invade Grenada to oust a pro-Cuban regime on the island. |
| 1983 |
Yitzhak Shamir succeeds Menachem Begin as prime minister of Israel. |
| 1983 |
Britain grants independence to the Caribbean islands of St. Christopher and Nevis. |
| 1984 |
A toxic gas leak kills 2,000 and affects an estimated 150,000 in Bhopal, India. |
| 1984 |
American track athlete Carl Lewis wins four gold medals at the Los Angeles Olympics. |
| 1984 |
Brian Mulroney succeeds John Turner as prime minister of Canada. |
| 1984 |
Ronald Reagan defeats Walter Mondale in U.S. presidential elections. |
| 1984 |
Britain and China sign a treaty for the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997. |
| 1984 |
Britain grants independence to Brunei. |
| 1984 |
AT&T divests itself of its 22 operating Bell companies. |
| 1984 |
British prime minister Margaret Thatcher escapes injury in an IRA bomb attack. |
| 1984 |
Congress forbids official U.S. aid for the anti-Sandinista contras in Nicaragua. |
| 1984 |
Geraldine Ferraro becomes the first woman vice-presidential candidate in the U.S. |
| 1984 |
Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by Sikh extremists. |
| 1984 |
Indian troops attack the Golden Temple at Amritsar to remove militant Sikhs. |
| 1984 |
Rajiv Gandhi becomes prime minister of India. |
| 1984 |
Rev. Desmond Tutu, opponent of apartheid, is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. |
| 1984 |
Rock singer Bob Geldof organizes Band Aid to raise funds for African famine victims. |
| 1984 |
Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega Saavedra is elected president of Nicaragua. |
| 1984 |
Shimon Peres succeeds Yitzhak Shamir as prime minister of Israel. |
| 1984 |
Kathryn Sullivan becomes the first American woman astronaut to walk in space. |
| 1984 |
Soviet leader Yuri Andropov dies; he is succeeded by Konstantin Chernenko. |
| 1984 |
The last U.S. Marines leave Lebanon. |
| 1984 |
Soviet cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to walk in space. |
| 1985 |
Albanian premier Enver Hoxha dies; he is succeeded by Ramiz Alia. |
| 1985 |
American film actor Rock Hudson dies from AIDS. |
| 1985 |
Baseball player Pete Rose beats Ty Cobb’s 57-year-old record of 4,191 base hits. |
| 1985 |
French agents sink the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in New Zealand. |
| 1985 |
Jose de Sarney becomes the first civilian president of Brazil in 21 years. |
| 1985 |
Julius Nyerere is succeeded as president of Tanzania by Ali Hassan Mwinyi. |
| 1985 |
Maj.-Gen. Mohammed Buhari is ousted in a bloodless coup in Nigeria. |
| 1985 |
Mexico City is heavily damaged by an earthquake. |
| 1985 |
Palestinian terrorists hijack the Italian liner Achille Lauro. |
| 1985 |
Premier Gorbachev initiates glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). |
| 1985 |
President Milton Obote is ousted in a military coup in Uganda. |
| 1985 |
President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev hold their first summit meeting. |
| 1985 |
President Reagan begins his second term of office; George Bush is vice-president. |
| 1985 |
Running back Walter Payton sets an all-time NFL record for rushes of 14,860 yards. |
| 1985 |
Shiite Muslim terrorists hijack a TWA Boeing 727 jet to Beirut. |
| 1985 |
Soviet Communist party leader Konstantin Chernenko dies; he is succeeded by Mikhail Gorbachev. |
| 1985 |
Sudanese prime minister Gaafar al-Nimeiry is ousted in a military coup. |
| 1985 |
The North American Soccer League (NASL) suspends operations. |
| 1985 |
World chess champion Anatoly Karpov is defeated by 21-year-old Gary Kasparov. |
| 1986 |
A hole in the ozone layer is detected over Antarctica. |
| 1986 |
A major nuclear-reactor disaster takes place at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union. |
| 1986 |
Boxer Mike Tyson wins his first world heavyweight title. |
| 1986 |
Civil war breaks out in Yemen (Aden). |
| 1986 |
Corazon Aquino is elected president of the Philippines; Ferdinand Marcos is exiled. |
| 1986 |
Cyclist Greg LeMond becomes the first American to win the Tour de France. |
| 1986 |
Golfer Jack Nicklaus at age 46 becomes the oldest man ever to win the U.S. Open. |
| 1986 |
Nigerian poet and playwright Wole Soyinka wins the Nobel Prize for literature. |
| 1986 |
President Francois Mitterrand appoints Jacques Chirac prime minister of France. |
| 1986 |
President Jean Claude Duvalier of Haiti goes into exile. |
| 1986 |
Sayid Mohammad Najibullah replaces Marxist president Babrak Karmal in Afghanistan. |
| 1986 |
Former UN secretary-general Kurt Waldheim is elected president of Austria. |
| 1986 |
Human-rights activist Elie Wiesel is awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. |
| 1986 |
Select committees are established to investigate the Iran-Contra Affair. |
| 1986 |
Swedish prime minister Olof Palme is assassinated. |
| 1986 |
The European Space Agency’s Giotto spacecraft passes within 335 miles of Halley’s comet. |
| 1986 |
The Food and Drug Administration approve the commercial use of the drug interferon. |
| 1986 |
The Soviet Union launches the first Mir space station. |
| 1986 |
The Space Shuttle Challenger explodes after launch, killing the crew of seven. |
| 1986 |
Spain and Portugal officially join the European Community. |
| 1986 |
Martin Luther King Day is observed as a federal holiday for the first time. |
| 1986 |
The ultralight Voyager aircraft flies around the world nonstop in 9 days. |
| 1986 |
U.S. aircraft attack military and terrorist-related targets in Libya. |
| 1986 |
Voyager 2 spacecraft makes a rendezvous with the planet Uranus. |
| 1986 |
Yitzak Shamir succeeds Shimon Peres as prime minister of Israel. |
| 1987 |
A Wall Street stock market crisis spreads to Tokyo and London. |
| 1987 |
Tunisian president Habib Bourguiba is ousted from power. |
| 1987 |
Col. Oliver North testifies at the Iran-Contra Affair hearings. |
| 1987 |
East German leader Erich Honecker makes his first visit to West Germany. |
| 1987 |
Libya suffers a military defeat in Chad. |
| 1987 |
More than 400 die in clashes between Iranian pilgrims and Saudi police at Mecca. |
| 1987 |
The U.S. frigate Stark is hit by an Iraqi missile in the Persian Gulf. |
| 1987 |
Portugal agrees to return Macao to China on December 20, 1999. |
| 1987 |
Haitians approve a new constitution that provides for the return of a democratic government. |
| 1987 |
West Bank Palestinians launch an intifadah (uprising) against the Israeli occupation. |
| 1988 |
A cease-fire is declared in the war between Iran and Iraq. |
| 1988 |
Iran launches a major offensive against Iraq. |
| 1988 |
Portugal agrees to return Macao to China by the year 1999. |
| 1988 |
Eugene Antonio Marino becomes the United States’ first African-American Catholic archbishop. |
| 1988 |
The U.S. Senate ratifies the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. |
| 1988 |
Tunisian president Habib Bourguiba is removed from power by the prime minister. |
| 1988 |
An earthquake hits Armenia, killing tens of thousands. |
| 1988 |
Australia celebrates its Bicentennial. |
| 1988 |
Austrian president Kurt Waldheim is exonerated of involvement in war crimes. |
| 1988 |
Benazir Bhutto is elected prime minister of Pakistan. |
| 1988 |
Carlos Salinas de Gortari is elected president of Mexico. |
| 1988 |
Dennis Connor skippers a U.S. catamaran to beat New Zealand in the America’s Cup. |
| 1988 |
Discovery becomes the first Space Shuttle to be launched after the Challenger disaster. |
| 1988 |
Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz wins the Nobel Prize for literature. |
| 1988 |
German tennis player Steffi Graf becomes the 3rd woman to win the Grand Slam. |
| 1988 |
Hungarian leader Janos Kadar is removed from power; Karoly Grosz assumes his post. |
| 1988 |
Indian-born writer Salman Rushdie publishes The Satanic Verses. |
| 1988 |
Lee Teng-hui succeeds Chiang Ching-kuo as president of Taiwan. |
| 1988 |
Military leaders seize control in Haiti after elections are held. |
| 1988 |
Military leaders seize power in Burma (Myanmar). |
| 1988 |
Nationalist uprisings break out in the Soviet republic of Armenia. |
| 1988 |
Pakistani leader Gen. Muhammed Zia ul-Haq is killed in a plane crash. |
| 1988 |
Roh Tae Woo succeeds Chun Doo Hwan as president of South Korea. |
| 1988 |
George Bush defeats Michael Dukakis in U.S. presidential elections. |
| 1988 |
Television evangelist Jim Bakker is convicted of fraud and conspiracy. |
| 1988 |
The Geneva Accords set the timetable for Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. |
| 1988 |
The Iraqis are accused of using chemical weapons against the Kurds. |
| 1988 |
The U.S. cruiser Vincennes accidentally shoots downs an Iranian airliner. |
| 1988 |
The U.S. indicts Panamanian dictator Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega for drug offenses. |
| 1988 |
Vietnam announces it will withdraw all its forces from Kampuchea. |
| 1989 |
Akihito succeeds his father Hirohito as emperor of Japan. |
| 1989 |
Two U.S. Navy F-14′s shoot down two Libyan fighter planes over the Mediterranean. |
| 1989 |
Ayatollah Khomeini dies in Iran; Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani becomes president. |
| 1989 |
Bulgarian premier Todor Zhivkov resigns; he is succeeded by Petar Mladenov. |
| 1989 |
The oil tanker Exxon Valdez runs aground on a reef in the Gulf of Alaska, causing a massive oil spill. |
| 1989 |
George Bush is inaugurated as the 41st U.S. president; Dan Quayle is vice-president. |
| 1989 |
Carlos Saul Menem succeeds Raul Alfonsin as president of Argentina. |
| 1989 |
Demonstrations in East Germany lead to the demolition of the Berlin Wall. |
| 1989 |
F. W. de Klerk succeeds P.W. Botha as president of South Africa. |
| 1989 |
Gen. Alfredo Stroessner is ousted; Andres Rodriguez becomes president of Paraguay. |
| 1989 |
Hu Yao-pang’s death in China sparks public rallies demanding social changes. |
| 1989 |
Hundreds of demonstrators are killed by troops in Peking’s T’ien-an-Men Square. |
| 1989 |
Hungary elects to become a multiparty democracy. |
| 1989 |
Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi signs a peace treaty with Chad. |
| 1989 |
Playwright Vaclav Havel becomes the president of Czechoslovakia. |
| 1989 |
Romanian president Nicolae Ceausescu is deposed and killed. |
| 1989 |
San Francisco’s Marina district is damaged by a severe earthquake. |
| 1989 |
Solidarity candidates win a majority in the first free elections in Poland since 1946. |
| 1989 |
Soviet forces complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan; the civil war continues. |
| 1989 |
The Burmese government changes the country’s name to Myanmar. |
| 1989 |
The Satanic Verses is condemned by Muslims; author Salman Rushdie goes into hiding. |
| 1989 |
The communist government of Milos Jakes resigns in Czechoslovakia. |
| 1989 |
U.S. forces invade Panama; Gen. Noriega surrenders and is held on drug charges. |
| 1989 |
V.P. Singh succeeds Rajiv Gandhi as prime minister of India. |
| 1989 |
Voyager 2 spacecraft transmits pictures to the U.S. of the planet Neptune. |
| 1990 |
A mirror in the Hubble Space Telescope is found to be flawed shortly after deployment. |
| 1990 |
Boris Yeltsin becomes president of the Russian Republic. |
| 1990 |
Alberto Fujimori is elected president of Peru |
| 1990 |
David H. Souter replaces the retired William J. Brennen, Jr., on the Supreme Court. |
| 1990 |
British prime minister Margaret Thatcher resigns; she is succeeded by John Major. |
| 1990 |
Chad President Hissene Habre is deposed by rebel forces led by Idris Deby. |
| 1990 |
Jean-Bertrand Aristide is elected president in Haiti’s first free elections. |
| 1990 |
East and West Germany are reunited; Helmut Kohl becomes chancellor of a united Germany. |
| 1990 |
Fernando Affonso Collor de Mello succeeds Jose Sarney as president of Brazil. |
| 1990 |
I.M. Pei’s 70-story Bank of China headquarters is built in Hong Kong. |
| 1990 |
Indian prime minister V.P. Singh resigns; he is succeeded by Chandra Shekhar. |
| 1990 |
Iraq invades Kuwait, beginning the Persian Gulf War. |
| 1990 |
Lech Walesa wins the first direct presidential elections in Poland’s history |
| 1990 |
Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia declare their independence from the Soviet Union. |
| 1990 |
Namibia becomes independent from South Africa with Sam Nujoma as president. |
| 1990 |
Pakistani president Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismisses prime minister Benazir Bhutto. |
| 1990 |
President Patricio Aylwin succeeds Gen. Pinochet , ending 16 years of military rule in Chile. |
| 1990 |
President Samuel Doe is killed during a military rebellion in Liberia. |
| 1990 |
Slovenia and Croatia vote non-Communist governments into power in Yugoslavia. |
| 1990 |
South African president F.W. De Klerk releases Nelson Mandela; the ban on the ANC ends. |
| 1990 |
Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze resigns from office. |
| 1990 |
Student riots in Tirane lead to the formation of Albania’s first opposition party since 1946. |
| 1990 |
Syrian-backed forces defeat Gen. Aoun’s Christian militia in Lebanon. |
| 1990 |
The UN authorizes an economic blockade of Iraq. |
| 1990 |
U.S.-led coalition forces begin Operation Desert Shield to protect Saudi Arabia from Iraq. |
| 1990 |
Violeta Barrios de Chamorro succeeds Daniel Ortega as president of Nicaragua. |
| 1990 |
Yemen (Aden) and Yemen (Sana) unite as the Yemen Republic. |
| 1991 |
A U.S.-led international force attacks Iraq for its refusal to withdraw from Kuwait. |
| 1991 |
The Warsaw Pact is disbanded. |
| 1991 |
A cyclone hits Bangladesh, killing some 125,000 people. |
| 1991 |
Mount Pinatubo volcano erupts in the Philippines, killing 38 and causing widespread damage. |
| 1991 |
Basketball star Magic Johnson announces that he has HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. |
| 1991 |
Boris Yeltsin is elected executive president of the Russian Republic. |
| 1991 |
Canada and Inuit (Eskimo) leaders agree to establish a new territory, Nunavut. |
| 1991 |
Clarence Thomas replaces Thurgood Marshall on the U.S. Supreme Court. |
| 1991 |
Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated while campaigning. |
| 1991 |
Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide is overthrown in a coup. |
| 1991 |
Having liberated Kuwait, allied forces suspend military action against Iraq. |
| 1991 |
Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Shamir agrees to U.S.-USSR sponsored Middle East peace talks. |
| 1991 |
Leaders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus establish the Commonwealth of Independent States. |
| 1991 |
Macedonia joins Croatia and Slovenia in declaring independence from Yugoslavia. |
| 1991 |
Mikhail Gorbachev gives up the presidency of the USSR. |
| 1991 |
Presidents George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. |
| 1991 |
South Africa’s African National Congress elects Nelson Mandela its president. |
| 1991 |
Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui ends 43 years of emergency rule. |
| 1991 |
The Provisional Irish Republican Army takes credit for bombing the British prime minister’s residence. |
| 1991 |
The U.S. and USSR agree to end military aid to Afghanistan. |
| 1992 |
A UN Conference on Disarmament produces a draft of a treaty to destroy chemical weapons. |
| 1992 |
Algeria calls off runoff elections after the Islamic Salvation Front wins the first round of elections. |
| 1992 |
Bill Clinton defeats President George Bush and independent Ross Perot in U.S. presidential elections. |
| 1992 |
Boutros Boutros-Ghali begins a 5-year term as secretary-general of the United Nations. |
| 1992 |
Fidel Ramos becomes president of the Philippines. |
| 1992 |
Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega of Panama, convicted of drug trafficking and racketeering, is sentenced to 40 years in prison. |
| 1992 |
Hurricane Andrew strikes Florida; Hurricane Iniki strikes Hawaii. |
| 1992 |
Israel’s opposition Labor Party, led by Yitzhak Rabin, defeats the ruling Likud bloc in parliamentary elections. |
| 1992 |
Jackie Joyner-Kersee wins a second heptathlon gold metal at the 1992 Olympics. |
| 1992 |
Militant Hindus destroy a 16th-century Muslim mosque in Ayodhya, India. |
| 1992 |
South African voters support President de Klerk’s proposals for government reform. |
| 1992 |
The European Community and several nations recognize the independence of Croatia and Slovenia. |
| 1992 |
The Toronto Blue Jays become the first Canadian team to win baseball’s World Series. |
| 1992 |
The U.S., the UN, and others bring famine relief to civil war-torn Somalia. |
| 1992 |
The United Nations holds an Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. |
| 1992 |
The republics of Serbia and Montenegro proclaim a new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. |
| 1992 |
U.S. Space Shuttle Columbia sets an endurance record on a 13-day scientific mission. |
| 1992 |
U.S., Canada and Mexico sign the North American Free Trade Agreement and submit it for ratification. |
| 1992 |
Violence follows the acquittal of 4 white police officers in the beating of a black Los Angeles motorist. |
| 1992 |
Yugoslavia is expelled from the United Nations because of the war in Bosnia and Hercegovina. |
| 1993 |
Cambodian elections return Prince Norodom Sihanouk to power. |
| 1993 |
Civil war and ethnic strife continue to ravage the states that once constituted Yugoslavia. |
| 1993 |
More than 200 people die in a blizzard that strikes the East Coast. |
| 1993 |
Michael Jordan leads the Chicago Bulls to a third consecutive National Basketball Association championship. |
| 1993 |
Terrorists explode a bomb at New York’s World Trade Center. |
| 1993 |
The Holocaust Memorial Museum opens in Washington, D.C. |
| 1993 |
The U.S. and others bomb Iraq for its noncompliance with U.N. resolutions following the Persian Gulf War. |
| 1993 |
Space shuttle Columbia completes a record-setting 2-week mission, studying gravity and weightlessness. |
| 1993 |
Western nations attempt to bring order to war-torn Somalia. |
| 1993 |
F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela of South Africa share the Nobel Peace Prize. |
| 1993 |
Czechoslovakia splits into two countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. |
| 1993 |
Bill Clinton is inaugurated as the 42nd president; Albert Gore is vice-president. |
| 1993 |
The European Community eliminates trade barriers among its 12 member nations. |
| 1993 |
Some 80 members of the Branch Davidian cult die in an apparent mass suicide as the FBI attacks their compound and it burns down. |
| 1993 |
The Ethiopian province of Eritrea declares its independence. |
| 1993 |
Flooding of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers devastates the Midwest. |
| 1993 |
The U.S. launches a missile attack against Iraq in retaliation for an Iraqi-backed assassination attempt on former President Bush. |
| 1993 |
A severe earthquake rocks India, killing more than 10,000 people. |
| 1993 |
President Boris Yeltsin orders Russian troops to put down an armed uprising by members of Parliament and their supporters. |
| 1993 |
Benazir Bhutto is elected prime minister of Pakistan. |
| 1993 |
Israel and the Vatican agree to establish diplomatic ties for the first time. |
| 1994 |
The North American Free Trade Agreement goes into effect. |
| 1994 |
A devastating earthquake hits the Los Angeles area, killing some 60 people. |
| 1994 |
The U.S. ends its 19-year-old trade embargo against Vietnam. |
| 1994 |
An Israeli settler kills some 40 Palestinians in a Hebron mosque on the West Bank. |
| 1994 |
The Church of England ordains women priests for the first time. |
| 1994 |
With the withdrawal of its last soldiers, the U.S. ends its 15-month mission in Somalia. |
| 1994 |
Former president Richard M. Nixon dies. |
| 1994 |
Four Islamic fundamentalists are sentenced to 240 years each for the 1993 New York City World Trade Center bombing. |
| 1994 |
Nelson Mandela becomes president of South Africa after winning that nation’s first all-race elections. |
| 1994 |
Civil war in Rwanda between Hutus and Tutsis claims 500,000 lives. |
| 1994 |
Israel and the PLO sign an accord granting Palestinians self-rule in Gaza and Jericho. |
| 1994 |
Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis dies of cancer. |
| 1994 |
In Malawi, the 30-year rule of dictator Hastings Kamuzu Banda comes to an end. |
| 1994 |
North Korean president Kim Il Sung dies and his son Kim Jong Il assumes power. |
| 1994 |
The international terrorist “Carlos” (Ilich Ramirez Sanchez) is captured in Sudan. |
| 1994 |
Major-league baseball owners cancel the remainder of the season after they and striking players fail to come to an agreement. |
| 1994 |
Jean-Bertrand Aristide returns to power in Haiti after U.S. troops secure the country. |
| 1994 |
Israel and Jordan formally end the state of war that has existed for 46 years. |
| 1994 |
In midterm elections, Republicans gain control of both houses of Congress. |
| 1994 |
The Irish Republican Army announces a cease-fire. |
| 1994 |
The Angola government and the rebel UNITA group agree to end the 19-year civil war. |
| 1994 |
Norwegians vote to keep their country out of the European Union. |
| 1995 |
Jan. 1 : In the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya, fighting continues between Russian troops and Chechen resistance fighters for control of the capital, Grozny. |
| 1995 |
Jan. 1 : Fernando Henrique Cardoso is inaugurated as president of Brazil. He had been elected to the office in October 1994. |
| 1995 |
Jan. 4 : The first session of the 104th U.S. Congress convenes, with the Republican Party having majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA) and Sen. Robert Dole (R-KS) are the new House speaker and Senate majority leader, respectively. |
| 1995 |
Jan. 5 : U.S. President Bill Clinton formally names Michael D. McCurry to succeed Dee Dee Myers as White House press secretary. McCurry, 40, had been serving as spokesperson for the State Department. |
| 1995 |
Jan. 11 : President Clinton confers with Japan’s Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama in Washington. |
| 1995 |
Jan. 11 : Representatives of the National Hockey League Players Association accept a contract offer from the team owners on the 103d day of a lockout. A shortened, 48-game season and a full play-off schedule is to be played. |
| 1995 |
Jan. 17 : A powerful earthquake strikes the Japanese city of Kobe, causing buildings to collapse and sparking numerous fires. Some 5,200 persons are killed as a result of the quake. |
| 1995 |
Jan. 18 : In Italy, former Treasury Minister Lamberto Dini takes over as premier of a new government. |
| 1995 |
Jan. 21 : Pope John Paul II completes an 11-day tour that includes stops in the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Australia, and Sri Lanka. |
| 1995 |
Jan. 21 : U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) is elected general chairman of the Democratic National Committee and Donald L. Fowler of South Carolina is approved as the party’s national chairman and operating officer. |
| 1995 |
Jan. 22 : Two Palestinian suicide bombers detonate powerful explosions in central Israel, killing at least 19 Israelis and themselves. |
| 1995 |
Jan. 24 : In the annual State of the Union address, President Clinton calls for a new covenant between a smaller, more efficient federal government and a public with more of a sense of civic responsibility. |
| 1995 |
Jan. 24 : Opening arguments in the murder trial of O.J. Simpson begin in Los Angeles Superior Court. The former football star is charged with the murders of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and a friend of hers, Ronald Goldman. |
| 1995 |
Jan. 28 : Representatives of the United States and Vietnam sign an agreement to exchange diplomats and establish liaison offices in Hanoi and Washington. |
| 1995 |
Jan. 29 : In professional football’s Super Bowl XXIX, San Francisco defeats San Diego, 49-26. |
| 1995 |
Jan. 30 : A car filled with explosives blows up in downtown Algiers, the capital of Algeria, killing 42 persons, as the clash between the military-supported government and militant fundamentalists desiring an Islamic state continues. |
| 1995 |
Jan. 31 : President Clinton invokes emergency authority to provide a $20 billion loan to Mexico to stabilize its currency, the peso, and to help it avoid defaulting on its short-term debt. |
| 1995 |
Feb. 2 : Floodwaters that since late January have been devastating parts of northwestern Europe–including Belgium, France, Germany, and the Netherlands–are receding. |
| 1995 |
Feb. 6 : President Clinton proposes a $1.610 trillion budget for fiscal year 1996. |
| 1995 |
Feb. 8 : The United Nations Security Council authorizes a 7,000-member international peacekeeping force for Angola. |
| 1995 |
Feb. 12 : Mexico’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) suffers a major setback in the gubernatorial, legislative, and municipal elections in Jalisco state. |
| 1995 |
Feb. 17 : Representatives of Peru and Ecuador sign an agreement to end three weeks of clashes over their disputed border. |
| 1995 |
Feb. 17 : The U.S. Commerce Department reports a record $108.1 billion deficit in trade in goods and services in 1994. |
| 1995 |
Feb. 21 : President Clinton names Laura D’Andrea Tyson, the current chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, to head the National Economic Council. She succeeds Robert E. Rubin, who was confirmed as secretary of the treasury on January 10. |
| 1995 |
Feb. 22 : Britain’s Prime Minister John Major and Ireland’s Prime Minister John Bruton present a 37-page framework document to guide peace negotiations regarding Northern Ireland. |
| 1995 |
Feb. 24 : President Clinton concludes a two-day trip to Canada. During the state visit, the United States and Canada signed an open-skies pact to reduce restrictions on air travel between the two nations. |
| 1995 |
Feb. 26 : Trade negotiators from China and the United States sign an agreement to end a dispute over China’s inability to stop undisputed production in China of goods protected by international and U.S. copyright rules. |
| 1995 |
March 3 : The United Nations peacekeeping operation in Somalia ends as the last remaining UN troops depart from the capital, Mogadishu. |
| 1995 |
March 9 : In Mexico the administration of President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Len announces a new economic-stabilization plan. |
| 1995 |
March 13 : The first United Nations World Summit on Social Development concludes in Copenhagen, Denmark. |
| 1995 |
March 16 : Norman E. Thagard is the first U.S. and the 13th foreign astronaut to dock on Mir, the Russian space station. |
| 1995 |
March 16 : In Azerbaijan government troops crush an attempted coup against President Geidar Aliyev. |
| 1995 |
March 17 : The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves a vaccine to prevent chicken pox. |
| 1995 |
March 19 : Basketball star Michael Jordan, who had retired from the National Basketball Association in October 1993, returns as a player with the Chicago Bulls. |
| 1995 |
March 20 : A nerve-gas attack paralyzes the subway system of Tokyo, Japan, during the morning rush hour. At least ten persons are killed in the terrorist act. |
| 1995 |
March 23 : President Clinton outlines plans to review federal affirmative-action programs. |
| 1995 |
March 23 : The World Trade Organization, a 125-nation global trade-monitoring group that formally came into existence on January 1, names Renato Ruggiero of Italy as its director general. |
| 1995 |
March 25 : Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip complete a six-day visit to South Africa. |
| 1995 |
March 30 : Pope John Paul II issues the 11th encyclical of his pontificate, Evangelium Vitae (“The Gospel of Life”). |
| 1995 |
March 31 : President Clinton and UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali participate in ceremonies formally transferring peacekeeping responsibilities in Haiti from U.S.-led troops to the UN Mission in Haiti (UNMIH). |
| 1995 |
April 2 : The Major League Baseball players’ strike ends as the team owners accept the players’ unconditional offer to return to work. Players, who will work under the collective-bargaining agreement in effect before the strike, and owners would continue to try to settle their differences. |
| 1995 |
April 3 : UCLA captures the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I men’s basketball title by defeating the University of Arkansas, 89-78. On April 2 the University of Connecticut’s women’s team had completed an undefeated season with a 70-64 win over Tennessee in the championship game. |
| 1995 |
April 4 : Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley is elected to a second term. |
| 1995 |
April 5 : U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and her daughter Chelsea complete a five-nation tour of South Asia. |
| 1995 |
April 9 : Peru’s President Alberto Fujimori is reelected. |
| 1995 |
April 9 : Seven Israeli soldiers and a U.S. student are killed in two separate Palestinian suicide-bomb attacks near Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip. |
| 1995 |
April 9 : It is reported that Robert McNamara–U.S. secretary of defense (1961-68) and a chief architect of U.S. policy in Vietnam at that time–has charged in a new book, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, that U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war was a mistake. |
| 1995 |
April 10 : United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali announces the appointment of Carol Bellamy, currently the director of the U.S. Peace Corps, as executive director of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). |
| 1995 |
April 11 : Pakistan’s Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto concludes a seven-day visit to the United States, during which she attempted to persuade President Clinton and congressional leaders to lift the U.S. military-aid embargo against Pakistan. |
| 1995 |
April 13 : In Finland, Paavo Lipponen is sworn in as head of a five-party coalition government. Lipponen’s Social Democrat Party had captured a plurality in national elections in March. |
| 1995 |
April 18 : In Bolivia the government declares a 90-day state of siege after union and government talks to end several weeks of strikes and civil strife break down. |
| 1995 |
April 19 : A massive car bomb explodes outside a federal office building in Oklahoma City, OK, causing numerous fatalities and extensive damage. Many of the first-known dead are children who were in a day-care center in the building. |
| 1995 |
April 26 : The U.S. Supreme Court rules, 5-4, that the Gun-Free School Zone Act of 1990, which made the possession of a firearm within 1,000 feet (300 m) of a school a federal offense, is unconstitutional. |
| 1995 |
April 30 : In Vietnam the 20th anniversary of the fall of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), which ended the Vietnam War, is marked. |
| 1995 |
May 1 : A 14-month-old permanent cease-fire and more than three years of relative calm in Croatia end as Croatian forces attack the Serb-held Krajina region. |
| 1995 |
May 7 : In a runoff election in France, Paris Mayor Jacques Chirac, leader of the neo-Gaullist Rally for the Republic, is elected to a seven-year term as president. |
| 1995 |
May 9 : The U.S. Senate confirms the nomination of John M. Deutch as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). |
| 1995 |
May 10 : President Clinton and Russia’s President Boris Yeltsin conclude a summit meeting in Moscow. |
| 1995 |
May 11 :At the United Nations, representatives from 174 nations approve the indefinite extension of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. |
| 1995 |
May 13 : New Zealand’s Black Magic I completes a five-race sweep over the U.S. team’s Young America to capture yachting’s America’s Cup. |
| 1995 |
May 14 : Carlos Sal Menem is reelected president of Argentina. |
| 1995 |
May 22 :Facing international pressure and possible no-confidence motions in the Knesset (parliament), the Israeli cabinet suspends its plan to confiscate 135 acres (55 ha) of mainly Arab-owned land in East Jerusalem. |
| 1995 |
May 22 :The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Constitution bars states from limiting the number of terms of members of Congress. In effect, the decision overrules congressional term-limit laws enacted in 23 states. |
| 1995 |
May 28 : A powerful earthquake strikes Sakhalin, an island off Russia’s east coast, killing some 2,000 persons. |
| 1995 |
June 6 : South Africa’s highest court abolishes capital punishment. |
| 1995 |
June 8 : In Bosnia and Herzegovina, U.S. Marines with air support from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) rescue U.S. Air Force Capt. Scott O’Grady, the pilot of a U.S. F-16 fighter jet that had been shot down by Bosnian Serbs in Serbian-held territory on June 2. O’Grady’s jet had been patrolling a no-fly zone over Bosnia. |
| 1995 |
June 10 : Taiwan’s President Lee Teng-hui completes a private visit to the United States–the first by a Taiwanese leader since the United States recognized mainland China and severed relations with Taiwan in 1979. |
| 1995 |
June 13 : President Clinton outlines a ten-year balanced-budget plan. |
| 1995 |
June 14 : The Houston Rockets defeat the Orlando Magic, four games to zero, to win the National Basketball Association title. |
| 1995 |
June 17 : The annual summit of the leaders of the Group of Seven (G-7) industrial nations concludes in Halifax, Nova Scotia. |
| 1995 |
June 18 : The last 26 hostages held by Bosnian Serbs are released. In return, the United Nations halts its attempt to protect Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from heavy Serbian bombardment. |
| 1995 |
June 18 : Russia’s Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin declares a cease-fire throughout Chechnya and orders a high-level team to begin peace talks with rebel leaders. An additional 205 hostages held by Chechen rebels in the Russian city of Budyonnovsk are released. |
| 1995 |
June 22 : The nomination of Dr. Henry W. Foster, Jr., to be U.S. surgeon general dies as Democrats in the Senate fail for a second time to end a filibuster and force a vote on Foster’s confirmation. |
| 1995 |
June 24 : The New Jersey Devils capture ice hockey’s Stanley Cup, defeating the Detroit Red Wings in four straight games. |
| 1995 |
June 25 : Amid much confusion and after many delays, Haitian voters go to the polls for the first time since Jean-Bertrand Aristide was restored to the presidency in the fall of 1994. |
| 1995 |
June 25 : Warren E. Burger, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1969-86), dies in Washington, DC, at the age of 87. |
| 1995 |
June 26 : Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak survives an assassination attempt without injury en route to an African summit meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. |
| 1995 |
June 26 : The U.S. Supreme Court rules that public-school officials can require student athletes to submit to random drug testing. |
| 1995 |
June 26 : The 50th anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations is marked in San Francisco. |
| 1995 |
June 28 : The United States and Japan agree on an accord on automotive trade, ending a two-year dispute. |
| 1995 |
June 29 : A U.S. space shuttle, Atlantis, docks with a Soviet space station, Mir, for the first time. |
| 1995 |
June 29 : The U.S. Supreme Court rules, 5-4, that the use of race as a “predominant factor” in delineating congressional districts is unconstitutional. |
| 1995 |
July 4 : Britain’s Prime Minister John Major, who resigned as leader of the Conservative Party on June 22, is reelected to the party’s leadership post. A group of right-wing Tories had opposed Major’s policies regarding integration within the European Union, leading to his resignation. |
| 1995 |
July 5 : Turkey sends some 3,000 troops into northern Iraq to destroy strongholds held by Kurdish guerrillas. |
| 1995 |
July 8 : China charges Harry Wu, a Chinese-American human-rights advocate, with espionage. |
| 1995 |
July 9 : Pete Sampras wins the men’s singles title at the All England Tennis Championship at Wimbledon, England. On July 8, Steffi Graf had defeated Arantxa Sanchez Vicario for the women’s crown. |
| 1995 |
July 10 : Officials in Myanmar release Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest. |
| 1995 |
July 13 : Banharn Silpa-archa is named premier of Thailand after his Chart Thai party outpolls the previously ruling Democratic Party in parliamentary elections on July 2. |
| 1995 |
July 14 : Science magazine reports that a team of Colorado scientists has created Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), a state of matter first postulated by Albert Einstein some 70 years ago. |
| 1995 |
July 16 : Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein pardons and frees William Barloon and David Daliberti. An Iraqi court had sentenced the two Americans to eight years’ imprisonment for entering Iraq illegally in March 1995. |
| 1995 |
July 18 : A U.S. Senate committee begins hearings into the Whitewater affair–the real-estate and financial dealings of President and Mrs. Clinton while they were living in Arkansas. |
| 1995 |
July 24 : A suspected Palestinian Islamist detonates a bomb on a public bus in Tel Aviv, Israel, killing six Jews and himself and injuring at least 30 other persons. |
| 1995 |
July 25 : Seven persons are killed and some 80 others are injured as a bomb explodes on a crowded Paris subway. |
| 1995 |
July 27 : President Clinton signs legislation that cuts $16.3 billion from spending previously appropriated by Congress for fiscal year 1995. |
| 1995 |
July 27 : South Korea’s President Kim Young Sam joins President Clinton at ceremonies dedicating the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. |
| 1995 |
July 28 : After finding Susan Smith guilty of the murders of her two young sons, a jury in Union, SC, spares her the death penalty. She is to be sentenced to life in prison. The case drew national attention in late 1994, when the young woman claimed her car was hijacked and her children were kidnapped. Smith later confessed to drowning her sons. |
| 1995 |
July 28 : Vietnam is admitted to membership in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). |
| 1995 |
July 30 : Russian and Chechen negotiators reach a truce to end the fighting in the breakaway republic of Chechnya. |
| 1995 |
Aug. 1 : The Walt Disney Company announces that it is acquiring Capital Cities/ABC. The merger would be the second-largest takeover in history. |
| 1995 |
Aug. 1 : Subcommittees of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee and Committee on Government Reform and Oversight conclude joint hearings regarding a 1993 siege on the Branch Davidians’ compound near Waco, TX. |
| 1995 |
Aug. 5 : U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher arrives in Vietnam to open formal diplomatic relations between the United States and Vietnam. |
| 1995 |
Aug. 7 : After Croatian forces recapture Krajina, a region in Croatia that had been held by rebel Serbs since bitter fighting there in 1991-92, large groups of Serb civilians begin to evacuate the area. |
| 1995 |
Aug. 7 : In Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, Japan, some 100,000 people mark the 50th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city during World War II. |
| 1995 |
Aug. 10 : Jordanian officials announce that Jordan has granted asylum to two leading military aides of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The two–both sons-in-law of Hussein–were among a group of senior army officials who had defected from Iraq on August 8. |
| 1995 |
Aug. 10 : Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols are indicted by a federal grand jury in Oklahoma City, OK, on charges related to the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City in April that killed 169 persons. A third man, Michael Fortier, pleads guilty to separate charges and agrees to testify about his knowledge of the bombing plot. |
| 1995 |
Aug. 13 : Former baseball star Mickey Mantle dies of cancer at the age of 63. |
| 1995 |
Aug. 15 : In a televised speech, Japan’s Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama offers a “heartfelt apology” for his nation’s actions of “colonial rule and aggression” during World War II. |
| 1995 |
Aug. 16 : Colombia’s President Ernesto Samper Pizano declares a 90-day state of emergency as violence continues in his Latin American nation amid charges that Samper accepted funds for his 1994 presidential campaign from the Cali drug cartel. |
| 1995 |
Aug. 16 : In a referendum, voters in Bermuda reject independence from Great Britain. |
| 1995 |
Aug. 16 : U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley (D-NJ) announces that he will not seek reelection to a fourth term in 1996. |
| 1995 |
Aug. 17 : China announces that it has exploded a nuclear bomb in an underground test. |
| 1995 |
Aug. 18 : The Association of Caribbean States (ACS) concludes its first summit meeting in Trinidad. |
| 1995 |
Aug. 19 : Three U.S. peace negotiators in Bosnia and Hercegovina are killed in a car crash near Sarajevo. |
| 1995 |
Aug. 21 : A suicide bomber detonates an explosive during the morning rush hour in Jerusalem. At least five Jews and the bomber are killed in the attack, for which the Palestinian group called Hamas takes responsibility. |
| 1995 |
Aug. 24 : Harry Wu returns to the United States after being expelled from China. Prior to his expulsion, the 58-year-old Chinese-American human-rights activist had been convicted of spying and sentenced to 15 years in prison. |
| 1995 |
Aug. 28 : Chemical Banking Corp. and Chase Manhattan Corp. announce that they will merge, establishing the largest bank in the United States. |
| 1995 |
Aug. 29 : Eduard Shevardnadze, head of state of the republic of Georgia, is wounded slightly as a car bomb explodes near his motorcade in the capital city of Tbilisi. |
| 1995 |
Sept. 1 : In Liberia a six-member interim ruling council takes office as part of a new peace plan to end the nation’s civil war that began in December 1989. |
| 1995 |
Sept. 5 : France’s Defense Minister Charles Millon announces that France has detonated a nuclear device underground at the Mururoa Atoll in the South Pacific. |
| 1995 |
Sept. 6 : Cal Ripken, Jr., of the Baltimore Orioles plays in his 2,131st straight major-league baseball game, surpassing Lou Gehrig’s record of 2,130 consecutive games, set in 1939. |
| 1995 |
Sept. 7 : Bob Packwood announces his resignation from the U.S. Senate, one day after the Senate Select Committee on Ethics voted unanimously for his expulsion. The Oregon Republican was facing various charges of sexual misconduct, influence peddling, and obstruction of justice. |
| 1995 |
Sept. 8 : Participants in the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia agree to a U.S.-sponsored agreement to end the fighting in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Under the plan, Bosnia would be divided into two parts–one controlled by a Muslim-Croat federation and the other controlled by Serbs. |
| 1995 |
Sept. 10 : Pete Sampras defeats Andre Agassi to capture the U.S. Open men’s singles tennis title. Steffi Graf had won the women’s crown with a victory over Monica Seles on September 9. |
| 1995 |
Sept. 12 : Two U.S. balloonists are shot down and killed by a Belarussian military helicopter while flying over Belarus during an international balloon race. |
| 1995 |
Sept. 15 : At the conclusion of the 12-day United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, delegates from 180 nations endorse a nonbinding “Platform for Action” for promoting women’s rights worldwide into the 21st century. |
| 1995 |
Sept. 15 : Major consumer electronic corporations agree on a single format for a new disc that is expected to be the successor to the videocassette and the CD-ROM computer disc. |
| 1995 |
Sept. 20 : AT&T Corp. announces plans to divide its operations into three separate companies. |
| 1995 |
Sept. 28 : In a White House ceremony, Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasir Arafat sign an agreement on the second stage of interim Palestinian autonomy. In effect, the pact establishes the conditions for an Israeli military pullback from the West Bank. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 1 : A federal jury in New York City convicts ten Muslims, including Sheikh Omar Abd al-Rahman, of seditious conspiracy. Along with other charges, the prosecution had accused Rahman of leading the terrorist group that was responsible for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 3 : Concluding a long trial in Los Angeles Superior Court, a jury announces that it has acquitted former football star O.J. Simpson of the murders of his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 4 : In the Indian ocean nation of Comoros, some 1,000 French soldiers participate in a raid to end an attempted coup led by French mercenary Bob Denard. Said Mohamed Djohar, president of Comoros, who was seized during the conspiracy, is released unharmed. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 8 : Pope John Paul II concludes a five-day trip to the United States, during which he made stops in Newark, NJ; New York City; and Baltimore, MD. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 9 : An Amtrak train derails some 27 mi (40 km) east of Hyder, AZ, killing one person and injuring some 100. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 10 : Israel releases some 900 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and begins its military pullout from Palestinian towns. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 10 : Mexico’s President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon meets with President Clinton at the White House. In a press conference the two presidents reaffirm the importance of the $12.6 billion in U.S. loans to Mexico announced earlier in the year. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 14 : China’s Premier Li Peng leaves Canada after a three-day visit during which he and Prime Minister Jean Chretien discussed international trade. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 16 : Hundreds of thousands of black men participate in the Million Man March in Washington, DC. The rally, organized by Louis Farrakhan, is intended to unite black men and encourage them to take greater responsibility for their actions. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 16 : The fifth annual Ibero-American Summit opens in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 17 : A bomb explodes on a crowded subway in Paris, France, injuring at least 29 persons. Authorities suspect an Algerian terrorist organization of the crime. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 17 : In Iraq, Saddam Hussein takes office for another seven-year presidential term after receiving an overwhelming endorsement in a referendum on October 15. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 17 : U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton ends a six-day, five-nation tour of Latin Amenca. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 22 : World leaders gather at the United Nations to mark its 50th anniversary. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 22 : General elections are held in Switzerland, with the ruling coalition increasing its strength in parliament. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 22 : President Henri Konan Bedie of the Ivory Coast is reelected by a wide margin. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 25 : John J. Sweeney, 61-year-old president of the Service Employees International Union, is elected president of the AFL-CIO. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 26 : Russia’s President Boris Yeltsin is hospitalized with a heart ailment. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 28 : Some 300 persons are killed in a subway fire in Baku, Azerbaijan. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 28 : The Atlanta Braves defeat the Cleveland Indians, four games to two, to win baseball’s World Series. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 29 : The militant Islamic Jihad movement in the Gaza Strip confirms that its leader, Fathi al-Shiqaqi, was assassinated in Malta on October 26. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 30 : In Quebec voters narrowly defeat a proposal granting the Canadian province sovereignty. |
| 1995 |
Oct. 30 : In Portugal a Socialist Party government, led by Antonio Guterres, takes office. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 1 : The presidents of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia gather at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base outside of Dayton, OH, to begin peace negotiations. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 1 : In South Africa the African National Congress wins more than 6513500f the vote in local elections. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 2 : The U.S. Justice Department indicts the Japanese commercial bank Daiwa Bank Ltd. on 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 4 : Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated by a Jewish right-wing extremist shortly after addressing a pro-peace rally in Tel Aviv. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 5 : In the republic of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze, the chairman of Parliament and head of state, is elected president. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 5 : In Turkey, Prime Minister Tansu Ciller forms an interim government. Her government had lost a vote of confidence on October 15. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 7 : In off-year elections in the United States, Kentucky’s Lt. Gov. Paul Patton (D) is elected to the state’s governorship; Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice is reelected; and various mayoral and state legislative races are held across the country. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 7 : In France, Premier Alain Juppe presents a new cabinet, reducing the number of ministries from 41 to 32. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 8 : Retired Gen. Colin Powell, former chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff, announces that he will not run for president in 1996, ending months of speculation. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 8 : Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara returns to Vietnam for the first time since the Vietnam war. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 9 : In Trinidad and Tobago, Basdeo Panday of the United National Congress Party takes office as prime minister. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 11 : Meeting in Auckland, New Zealand, the British Commonwealth suspends Nigeria’s membership and threatens to expel the nation from the organization. The action is in response to the Nigerian government’s execution of writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other minority-rights activists after they had been convicted of inciting the murder of four leaders of the Oguni ethnic group in 1994. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 13 : Seven persons, including five Americans, are killed as two bomb explosions occur at a military center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 15 : The Guatemalan government announces that the results of the national presidential election held on November 12 are inconclusive and that a runoff election will be scheduled for Jan. 7, 1996. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 16 : Lamine Zeroual, who was appointed president of Algeria by the nation’s military in January 1994, captures a five-year presidential term in Algeria’s first open presidential balloting since the nation’s independence in 1962. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 18 : In Louisiana’s gubernatorial race, state Sen. Mike Foster defeats U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields, becoming the second Republican to be chosen for the post since Reconstruction. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 19 : In Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski, 41-year-old leader of the formerly Communist Democratic Left Alliance (LSD), defeats Lech Walesa in Poland’s runoff presidential election. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 19 : Meeting in Osaka, Japan, the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum sign a framework agreement in principle calling for free trade. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 20 : President Clinton signs into law a continuing resolution, or stopgap measure, to fund the government until December 15. Under the law, the president and Congress are committed to balance the federal budget by 2002. On November 13, Clinton had vetoed another stopgap measure; a partial shutdown of the federal government resulted. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 21 : At Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, the presidents of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia agree to end nearly four years of fighting in Bosnia among Croats, Muslims, and Serbs. The agreement divides Bosnia into a Muslim-Croat federation and a Serb republic and calls for a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) force of 60,000, including 20,000 Americans, to be sent to Bosnia to oversee the peace. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 24 : In a national referendum, voters in Ireland agree to eliminate the constitutional ban on divorce. |
| 1995 |
Nov. 30 : Bill Clinton becomes the first U.S. president to visit Northern Ireland. |
| 1995 |
Dec. 1 : Javier Solana, Spain’s foreign minister, is selected secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Facing corruption charges at home in Belgium, Willy Claes had resigned the post in October. |
| 1995 |
Dec. 3 : The United States wins tennis’ Davis Cup. |
| 1995 |
Dec. 6 : President Clinton vetoes the Republican reconciliation bill, designed to end the federal budget deficit by 2002. The president claims that the bill includes unacceptable cuts for programs affecting the poor, the elderly, and students. |
| 1995 |
Dec. 6 : The U.S. House Committee on Ethics votes to appoint a special counsel to investigate allegations that Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA) violated tax laws while teaching a college course in Georgia. |
| 1995 |
Dec. 7 : Egypt’s Interior Minister Hassan Mohammed al-Alfi announces that the nation’s ruling National Democratic Party won a commanding majority in parliamentary elections on November 29 and December 6. |
| 1995 |
Dec. 9 : U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-MD) is chosen president and chief executive officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). |
| 1995 |
Dec. 12 : Jesse Jackson, Jr., the son of the civil-rights leader, is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, filling a vacancy in Illinois’ 2d District. Former speaker of the California Assembly Willie Brown is chosen mayor of San Francisco. |
| 1995 |
Dec. 14 : In Paris, Presidents Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Franjo Tudjman of Croatia, and President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia formally sign the Bosnian Peace Treaty, which was reached in Ohio in mid-November. |
| 1995 |
Dec. 14 : In a risky medical experiment, scientists inject bone marrow removed from a baboon into a 38-year-old man suffering from AIDS. Their hope is that the transplanted marrow cells, which are believed to be resistant to the AIDS virus, will grow to rescue the patient’s damaged immune system. |
| 1995 |
Dec. 17 : Elections are held for the 450-member State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. |
| 1995 |
Dec. 17 : In Austria the Socialist Democratic Party retains its dominance in general elections. |
| 1995 |
Dec. 17 : Rene Preval is elected to succeed Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president of Haiti. |
| 1995 |
Dec. 20 : In Great Britain, Buckingham Palace announces that Queen Elizabeth has urged her son Prince Charles and his estranged wife Princess Diana to divorce. |
| 1995 |
Dec. 20 : An American Airlines 757 traveling from Miami to Cali, Colombia, crashes in a mountainous region 50 mi (80 km) north of Cali, killing 160 persons. |
| 1995 |
Dec. 21 : President Clinton and Congress reach an agreement whereby the White House will comply with a congressional subpoena and turn over new material in the Whitewater affair to Senate and federal investigators. |
| 1995 |
Dec. 23 : A tent erected for a school ceremony in a small town in India catches fire, killing some 400 persons, mostly children. |
| 1995 |
Dec. 24 : Parliamentary elections are held in Turkey. |
| 1995 |
Dec. 29 : President Clinton vetoes the 1996 defense authorization bill. |
| 1995 |
Dec. 31 : Renewed fighting breaks out in Liberia, threatening a five-month-long cease-fire in the nation’s civil war. |
| 1995 |
Dec. 31 : The U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) ceases to exist as an independent agency of the federal government.357357 |
| 1996 |
Jan. 2 : AT&T announces that it plans to eliminate 40,000 jobs. |
| 1996 |
Jan. 6 : U.S. President Bill Clinton signs a stopgap spending measure ending a 21-day partial shutdown of the federal government. |
| 1996 |
Jan. 7 : In Guatemala, Alvaro Arzu Irigoyen of the center-right National Advancement Party is elected president in a runoff vote. |
| 1996 |
Jan. 8 : The northeastern United States is devastated by a powerful snowstorm, tagged the “Blizzard of ’96.” |
| 1996 |
Jan. 8 : Francois Mitterrand, the president of France from May 1981 to May 1995, dies at his home in Paris at the age of 79. |
| 1996 |
Jan. 9 : Russia’s President Boris Yeltsin names Yevgeny Primakov, the director of Russia’s foreign-intelligence service, to succeed Andrei V. Kozyrev as foreign minister. |
| 1996 |
Jan. 11 : The Japanese Diet (parliament) elects Ryutaro Hashimoto, the 58-year-old leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, to succeed Tomiichi Murayama as prime minister. Murayama, the leader of the Social Democratic Party of Japan, had resigned as prime minister on January 5. |
| 1996 |
Jan. 11 : Italy’s Prime Minister Lamberto Dini resigns under pressure but will remain in office until elections are held or a new government is formed. |
| 1996 |
Jan. 14 : Jorge Sampaio of Portugal’s Socialist Party is elected to the nation’s presidency. |
| 1996 |
Jan. 15 : Russian troops launch an all-out attack against separatist guerrillas in the breakaway republic of Chechnya. The guerrillas had seized hundreds of hostages and occupied the village of Pervomayskoye in Russia’s Dagestan region. |
| 1996 |
Jan. 17 : U.S. District Judge Michael B. Mukasey sentences Sheikh Omar Abd al-Rahman to life in prison following his October 1995 conviction on charges of plotting to bomb New York City landmarks and to assassinate Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak during a U.S. visit. |
| 1996 |
Jan. 17 : At a meeting of the American Astronomical Society, astronomers announce the discovery of two planets outside the solar system. |
| 1996 |
Jan. 18 : In Greece the ruling Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok) selects former Industry Minister Costas Simitis as prime minister, succeeding the ailing Andreas Papandreou, who had resigned. |
| 1996 |
Jan. 19 : Canada’s Prime Minister Jean Chretien, a group of some 300 businessmen, and seven provincial premiers complete an 11-day trade mission to South Asia. |
| 1996 |
Jan. 20 : Palestinian voters in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank choose a new self-rule Palestinian National Authority government. Yasir Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is elected president of the Palestinians. |
| 1996 |
Jan. 23 : President Clinton delivers his State of the Union message, declaring that the “era of big government” has ended. |
| 1996 |
Jan. 26 : The U.S. Senate ratifies the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), committing the United States and Russia to reducing their long-range nuclear arsenals to about one third of 1993 levels. To become effective, the agreement must be ratified by both houses of the Russian parliament. |
| 1996 |
Jan. 26 : President Clinton signs a measure to fund the federal government through March 15, 1996. |
| 1996 |
Jan. 27 : Mahamane Ousmane, the first democratically elected president of Niger, is overthrown in a military coup. |
| 1996 |
Jan. 28 : The Dallas Cowboys defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 27-17, to win the National Football League’s Super Bowl XXX. |
| 1996 |
Jan. 30 : In a mail-in voting system, U.S. Rep. Ron Wyden (D-OR) is elected to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the resignation of Bob Packwood in October 1995. |
| 1996 |
Feb. 2 : Entertainer Gene Kelly dies at the age of 83. |
| 1996 |
Feb. 7 : Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz takes office as premier of Poland, succeeding Jozef Oleksy, who had resigned to defend himself against charges that he had spied for the former USSR. |
| 1996 |
Feb. 7 : Rene Preval is sworn in as president of Haiti, succeeding Jean-Bertrand Aristide. |
| 1996 |
Feb. 7 : Crown Prince Letsie David Mohato becomes king of Lesotho following the death of his father, King Moshoeshoe II, in a car accident on Jan. 15, 1996. |
| 1996 |
Feb. 8 : President Clinton signs into law a major overhaul of the nation’s communications laws. |
| 1996 |
Feb. 10 : The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) takes responsibility for a February 9 bomb explosion near a London office complex. The blast killed two persons and ended an 18-month cease-fire. |
| 1996 |
Feb. 10 : President Clinton signs a $265 billion defense-authorization bill. |
| 1996 |
Feb. 11 : Pope John Paul II concludes a seven-day tour of Latin America, during which he visited Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Venezuela. |
| 1996 |
Feb. 15 : In Bangladesh the ruling Bangladesh National Party (BNP) wins 205 of 207 contested seats in parliamentary elections. Widespread violence mars the balloting, however. |
| 1996 |
Feb. 16 : An Amtrak passenger train and a Maryland Area Rail Commuter (MARC) system train collide in Silver Spring, MD, killing 11 persons. |
| 1996 |
Feb. 18 : At the conclusion of a two-day conference in Rome, President Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, President Franjo Tudjman of Croatia, and President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia issue a declaration pledging to resolve their differences over implementation of the 1995 treaty to end civil war in Bosnia. |
| 1996 |
Feb. 20 : Former U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-MD) takes office as chief executive officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). |
| 1996 |
Feb. 22 : President Clinton nominates Alan Greenspan to a third four-year term as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. The president also names Alice M. Rivlin, the current director of the Office of Management and Budget, as the board’s vice-chairman, and Laurence H. Meyer, an economic consultant, to a vacant seat on the board. |
| 1996 |
Feb. 22 : Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd announces that he has recovered from his illness and that he will resume ruling his nation. The king had ceded power temporarily to Crown Prince Abdullah on January 1. |
| 1996 |
Feb. 23 : The U.S. Department of Commerce announces that the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 2.1 6028n 1995. |
| 1996 |
Feb. 24 : Over waters between Cuba and the United States, Cuban MiG fighter jets shoot down two unarmed private planes belonging to Brothers to the Rescue, a Cuban exiles’ organization, killing four airmen. |
| 1996 |
Feb. 25 : Twenty-seven persons, including two Americans, are killed and scores are injured in two apparently coordinated suicide-bombing attacks in Israel. |
| 1996 |
Feb. 28 : The U.S. Department of Commerce reports that the nation’s 1995 deficit in trade in goods and services totaled $111.04 billion. |
| 1996 |
March 1 : Barry R. McCaffrey takes office as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy after resigning as a four-star general of the U.S. Army. |
| 1996 |
March 3 : In Spain the center-right Popular Party, led by Jose Maria Asnar, receives the most votes in parliamentary elections but falls short of gaining an absolute parliamentary majority. |
| 1996 |
March 4 : Fourteen persons are killed by a suicide-bombing attack in a busy intersection of Tel Aviv. On March 3, 19 persons lost their lives in a bombing on a bus in downtown West Jerusalem. The military wing of the Palestinian Islamic movement is believed to be responsible for the attacks, which threaten the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. |
| 1996 |
March 7 : Three U.S. servicemen are convicted in a Japanese court of the rape of a 12-year-old Japanese girl in Okinawa in September 1995. |
| 1996 |
March 7 : Yasir Arafat, president of the Palestine National Authority (PNA), convenes the first session of the PNA’s new 88-member Palestine Legislative Council. |
| 1996 |
March 9 : American comedian George Burns dies at his Beverly Hills, CA, home. He had marked his 100th birthday on January 20. |
| 1996 |
March 11 : John Howard is sworn in as prime minister of Australia. The Liberal Party-National Party coalition headed by Howard had scored a decisive victory in national elections on March 2. |
| 1996 |
March 12 : President Clinton signs into law a bill strengthening the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba. |
| 1996 |
March 12 : Turkey’s new government, headed by the rotating leadership of Mesut Yilmaz and Tansu Ciller, wins a parliamentary vote of confidence. |
| 1996 |
March 13 : At a one-day summit at the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheik, leaders from 27 nations–including U.S. President Clinton, Israel’s Prime Minister Shimon Peres, Jordan’s King Hussein, and Russia’s President Yeltsin–demonstrate support for the Arab-Israeli peace process and the need to combat international terrorism. |
| 1996 |
March 13 : A gunman opens fire on a kindergarten class in Dunblane, Scotland, killing 16 children, their teacher, and himself. |
| 1996 |
March 20 : In Van Nuys, CA, a superior-court jury finds Erik Menendez and his brother Lyle Menendez guilty of the first-degree murders of their parents in Beverly Hills in 1989. In 1994 two separate juries had deadlocked in the brothers’ murder case. Both brothers had admitted to the shotgun killings of their parents but claimed that they had killed them out of fear that they themselves would be killed by the couple for revealing years of sexual and emotional abuse. |
| 1996 |
March 22 : Members of the United Auto Workers Local 696 vote overwhelmingly to end a 17-day-old strike against General Motors. |
| 1996 |
March 23 : President Lee Teng-hui wins a decisive 5413635f the vote in Taiwan’s first democratic presidential election. In anticipation of the voting, Communist China had fired four unarmed surface-to-surface missiles at targets in waters close to Taiwan on March 8 and March 13. The missile firings apparently were intended to intimidate the Taiwanese. |
| 1996 |
March 25 : The motion picture Braveheart wins the Academy Award for best picture. Its director, Mel Gibson, is awarded the Oscar for best director. |
| 1996 |
March 26 : Robert Dole captures the Republican presidential primaries in California, Nevada, and Washington. Together with the delegates the Kansas senator won in earlier primaries and caucuses, he now has a sufficient number of delegates to gain the Republican presidential nomination. |
| 1996 |
March 27 : The European Commission, a division of the European Union, announces a worldwide ban on the importing of British beef products. The action follows the release of a British government study reporting a link between bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad-cow disease) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (a variant of the mad-cow virus that affects humans). |
| 1996 |
March 27 : In Israel, Yigal Amir, 25, is sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of the November 1995 murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. |
| 1996 |
March 30 : Russia’s President Yeltsin and the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Belarus sign an agreement on economic integration. On March 23, Russia and Belarus agreed to establish a “union state” that would link the two nations economically, politically, and culturally. |
| 1996 |
April 1 : Aetna Life & Casualty Company announces that it plans to purchase U.S. Healthcare, a leading provider of managed health care. |
| 1996 |
April 1 : The University of Kentucky wins the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I men’s basketball championship by defeating Syracuse University, 76-67. |
| 1996 |
April 3 : U.S. Secretary of Commerce Ronald H. Brown is among 35 persons killed when a U.S. military plane slams into a mountainside near the airport at Dubrovnik, Croatia. Secretary Brown and a delegation of U.S. corporate executives were in Croatia on a trade mission to promote U.S. business participation in the reconstruction of the former Yugoslavia. |
| 1996 |
April 4 : Theodore J. Kaczynski, a 53-year-old former mathematics professor, is arraigned in Helena, MT, on a felony charge of possessing bomb components. He is suspected of being the Unabomber, the mail-bomb terrorist who had killed three persons and injured 23 others since May 1978. |
| 1996 |
April 6 : Fighting between government soldiers and rebels loyal to a besieged military leader break out anew in Liberia. A peace plan had been accepted in the African nation in August 1995. |
| 1996 |
April 9 : President Clinton signs into law a bill authorizing a line-item veto. |
| 1996 |
April 9 : Dan Rostenkowski (D), former U.S. congressman from Illinois who served as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, pleads guilty to two charges of mail fraud. He is to serve a 17-month prison sentence and pay a fine of $100,000. |
| 1996 |
April 10 : President Clinton vetoes a bill that would have outlawed a late-term-abortion procedure. |
| 1996 |
April 11 : Jessica Dubroff–a 7-year-old girl from California–her father, and her flight instructor are killed as their single-engine plane crashes near Cheyenne, WY. The girl was attempting to become the youngest person to pilot a plane across the United States. |
| 1996 |
April 12 : U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor is designated to succeed the late Ronald Brown as commerce secretary; Charlene Barshefsky, the deputy trade representative, is appointed acting trade representative; and Franklin Raines, vice chairman of the Federal National Mortgage Association, is named director of the Office of Management and Budget. |
| 1996 |
April 17 : In Tokyo, Japan’s Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and President Clinton sign a declaration endorsing a U.S. military presence in the Asian region as “essential for preserving peace and stability.” |
| 1996 |
April 18 : During the eighth day of an Israeli offensive against Hezbollah (Party of God) guerrillas inside southern Lebanon, the Israeli army fires an artillery barrage into a UN peacekeeping camp in Qana, Lebanon, killing at least 75 Lebanese civilians and wounding more than 100. Prime Minister Shimon Peres claims that Israel did not know that the camp was packed with civilian refugees and was responding to guerrilla fire near it. |
| 1996 |
April 18 : In Cairo, Egypt, gunmen open fire on a group of Greek tourists, killing 18 persons and injuring 17 others. Officials of the Egyptian Interior Ministry call the attack part of a four-year-old campaign by Islamic militant groups against the government. |
| 1996 |
April 20 : Concluding a summit conference with Russia’s President Yeltsin in Moscow, President Clinton and the leaders of the major industrialized nations (the G-7) call for the prompt enactment of a nuclear-test ban and announce steps to halt the smuggling of nuclear-bomb ingredients. |
| 1996 |
April 21 : In parliamentary elections in Italy, the New Olive Tree center-left coalition wins control of the 315-seat Senate and captures 284 seats in the 630-member Chamber of Deputies. |
| 1996 |
April 21 : Bell Atlantic and Nynex Corporation agree to merge. The union will establish the second-largest telephone corporation in the United States after AT&T and will be one of the biggest mergers in U.S. history. |
| 1996 |
April 24 : President Clinton signs into law a counterterrorism bill, establishing new methods to fight terrorism. |
| 1996 |
April 24 : The Palestine National Council votes to remove from the charter of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) clauses that contradict the PLO’s pledge to respect Israel’s right to exist and to renounce “terrorism and other acts of violence.” |
| 1996 |
April 24 : Russia’s President Yeltsin begins a three-day visit to China. |
| 1996 |
April 26 : Israel and Lebanon, “in consultation with Syria,” agree to end 16 days of rocketing and shelling in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. |
| 1996 |
April 26 : Following an April 24 agreement between negotiators for Congress and the White House on a permanent budget for fiscal year 1996, President Clinton signs a budget bill. The bill, together with action taken earlier, reduces federal spending for fiscal 1996 by 10%. |
| 1996 |
April 26 : A four-day auction of personal items belonging to the estate of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis concludes at Sotheby’s in New York City. Proceeds from the auction total $34.5 million. |
| 1996 |
April 29 : In Tasmania, Australia, a gunman is captured after he methodically kills 35 people at a popular tourist site. |
| 1996 |
April 30 : In Washington, President Clinton and Israel’s Prime Minister Peres sign an antiterrorism agreement that was initiated following four attacks by suicide bombers in Israel in March. |
3 Responses to “The history of the world”
Thanks so much for this website it has helped me alot in different ways for a project that i am doing in social studies.Also that my class mates had also used this to help them and they reackon it was an AWSOME help towards there studies and hopefully other people would use this site.
Thanks a bundle.
[...] Petter Viken net The history of the world Posted by root 15 minutes ago (http://petter.vikens.net) 340 b c greek sculptor lysippus completes the bronze statue of the 1500 dutch artist hieronymus bosch paints the garden of earthly delights 1926 english author a a milne writes the children book winnie the pooh powered by wordpress state of the art semant Discuss | Bury | News | Petter Viken net The history of the world [...]
Dear Petter, Ifirst saw this list some many years ago and i thought that it was the best list I had ever seen. It must have taken months if not years to have compiled it. Well done. I have added this list to my website because i an of the belief that it is the best that i have yet to encounter. The list has been added to the following URL: http://abalinx.com/wordpress/pellana/ I hope that you do not mind that i reproduce it on the website. You shall be acknowledged as the author. Please note that my website is merely for maintaining the heritage and culture of the villages in this part of Greece.
Care to comment?