10001099 (A.D.

) World History

c. 10001300
c. 1000

c. 1008
1009
1013

1040
1053

1054

1055
1066

1068
1073

1095

Classic Pueblo period of Anasazi culture; cliff dwellings.

Mesa VerdeCliff Dwellings(c. 10001300)

Pete Maio

Hungary and Scandinavia converted to Christianity. Viking raider Leif

Eriksson discovers North America, calls it Vinland. Beowulf, Old
English epic.
Murasaki Shikibu finishes The Tale of Genji, the world's first novel.
Muslims destroy Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
Danes control England. Canute takes throne (1016), conquers
Norway (1028), dies (1035); kingdom divided among his sons: Harold
Harefoot (England), Sweyn (Norway), Hardecanute (Denmark).
Macbeth murders Duncan, king of Scotland.
Robert Guiscard, Norman invader, establishes kingdom in Italy,
conquers Sicily (1072).

Cathedral and Tower at Pisa

Tasha Vincent

Final separation between Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Roman)

churches.
Seljuk Turks, Asian nomads, move west, capture Baghdad, Armenia (1064), Syria, and Palestine (1075).
William of Normandy invades England, defeats last Saxon king, Harold II, at Battle of Hastings,
crowned William I of England (the Conqueror).
Construction on the cathedral in Pisa, Italy, begins.
Emergence of strong papacy when Gregory VII is elected. Conflict with English and French kings and
German emperors will continue throughout medieval period.
At Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II calls for a holy war to wrest control of Jerusalem from Muslims, which
launches the First Crusade (1096), one of at least 8 European military campaigns between 1095 and 1291
to regain the Holy Land. (For detailed chronology, see The Crusades.)

11001199 (A.D.) World History

11001300
1144
c. 1150

Construction of Cathedral at Chartres, France.

Second Crusade begins.
Angkor Wat is completed.

11501167
1162

1169
1189

Chartres Cathedral
Tasha Vincent

Universities of Paris and Oxford founded in France and England.

Thomas Becket named Archbishop of Canterbury, murdered by Henry II's men (1170). Troubadours
(wandering minstrels) glorify romantic concepts of feudalism.
Ibn-Rushd begins translating Aristotle's works.
Richard I (the Lionhearted) succeeds Henry II in England, killed in
France (1199), succeeded by King John. Third Crusade.

2001299 (A.D.) World History

The Crusades

King John
(11671216)

12001204
1211

1212
1215
1217
1228
1231

1241

Fourth Crusade.
Genghis Khan invades China, captures Peking (1214), conquers Persia (1218), invades
Russia (1223), dies (1227).
Children's Crusade.
King John forced by barons to sign Magna Carta at Runneymede, limiting royal power.
Fifth Crusade.

Thomas Aquinas
(12251274)

Sixth Crusade.
The Inquisition begins as Pope Gregory IX assigns Dominicans responsibility for combating heresy. Torture
used (1252). Ferdinand and Isabella establish Spanish Inquisition (1478). Tourquemada, Grand Inquisitor,
forces conversion or expulsion of Spanish Jews (1492). Forced conversion of Moors (1499). Inquisition in
Portugal (1531). First Protestants burned at the stake in Spain (1543). Spanish Inquisition abolished (1834).
Mongols defeat Germans in Silesia, invade Poland and Hungary, withdraw from Europe after Ughetai,
Mongol leader, dies.

1248
1251

1260
1270
1271

1273

1295

Seventh Crusade.
Kublai Khan governs China, becomes ruler of Mongols (1259), establishes Yuan dynasty in
China (1280), invades Burma (1287), dies (1294).
Chartres cathedral consecrated.
Eighth Crusade.
Marco Polo of Venice travels to China, in court of Kublai Khan (12751292), returns to Genoa (1295) and
writes Travels.
Thomas Aquinas stops work on Summa Theologica, the basis of all Catholic theological teaching; never
completes it.
English King Edward I summons the Model Parliament.

13001399 (A.D.) World History

13121337
c. 1325

Mali Empire reaches its height in Africa under King Mansa Musa.
The beginning of the Renaissance in Italy: writers Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio; painter Giotto. Development
of Noh drama in Japan. Aztecs establish Tenochtitln on site of modern Mexico City. Peak of Muslim culture
in Spain. Small cannon in use.

13371453

Hundred Years' WarEnglish and French kings fight for control of France.

13471351
1368

At least 25 million people die in Europe's Black Death (bubonic plague).

Ming Dynasty begins in China.

13761382
1378

c. 1387
1398

John Wycliffe, pre-Reformation religious reformer, and followers translate Latin Bible into English.
The Great Schism (to 1417)rival popes in Rome and Avignon, France, fight for control of Roman Catholic
Church.
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
Tamerlane, the Mongol conqueror, begins last great conquestDelhi.

14001499 (A.D.) World History

1407
1415

Casa di San Giorgio, one of the first public banks, founded in Genoa.

The Duomo in
Florence
Linda J. Barnes

Henry V defeats French at Agincourt. Jan Hus, Bohemian preacher

and follower of Wycliffe, burned at stake in Constance as heretic.

14181460

1420
1428

1438
1450
1453
1455

1462
1492

1497

Portugal's Prince Henry the Navigator sponsors exploration of Africa's

coast.
Brunelleschi begins work on the Duomo in Florence.
Joan of Arc leads French against English, captured by
Burgundians (1430) and turned over to the English, burned at the
stake as a witch after ecclesiastical trial (1431).
Incas rule in Peru.

Joan of Arc
(14121431)

Florence becomes center of Renaissance arts and learning under the Medicis.
Turks conquer Constantinople, end of the Byzantine empire, beginning of the Ottoman empire.
The Wars of the Roses, civil wars between rival noble factions, begin in England (to 1485). Having invented
printing with movable type at Mainz, Germany, Johann Gutenberg completes first Bible.
Ivan the Great rules Russia until 1505 as first czar; ends payment of tribute to Mongols.
Moors conquered in Spain by troops of Ferdinand and Isabella. Columbus becomes first European to
encounter Caribbean islands, returns to Spain (1493). Second voyage to Dominica, Jamaica, Puerto
Rico (14931496). Third voyage to Orinoco (1498). Fourth voyage to Honduras and Panama (15021504).
Vasco da Gama sails around Africa and discovers sea route to India (1498). Establishes Portuguese colony
in India (1502). John Cabot, employed by England, reaches and explores Canadian
coast. Michelangelo's Bacchus sculpture.

15001599 (A.D.) World History

1501

c. 1503

1506

1509

1513

1517

1519

1520

1524

1527

1532

1535

First black slaves in America brought to Spanish colony of Santo

Domingo.
Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa. Michelangelo sculpts
the David (1504).
St. Peter's Church started in Rome; designed and decorated by such
artists and architects as Bramante, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Raphael,
and Bernini before its completion in 1626.

Michelangelo's David
(1504)
Tasha Vincent

Henry VIII ascends English throne. Michelangelo paints the ceiling of

the Sistine Chapel.
Balboa becomes the first European to encounter the Pacific Ocean.
Machiavelli writes The Prince.
Turks conquer Egypt, control Arabia. Martin Luther posts his 95
theses denouncing church abuses on church door in Wittenberg
start of the Reformation in Germany.

Martin Luther
(14831546)

Ulrich Zwingli begins Reformation in Switzerland. Hernando Cortes

conquers Mexico for Spain. Charles I of Spain is chosen Holy Roman
Emperor Charles V. Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sets out
to circumnavigate the globe.
Luther excommunicated by Pope Leo X. Suleiman I (the Magnificent)
becomes Sultan of Turkey, invades
Hungary (1521), Rhodes (1522), attacks Austria (1529), annexes
Hungary (1541), Tripoli (1551), makes peace with
Persia (1553), destroys Spanish fleet (1560), dies (1566). Magellan
reaches the Pacific, is killed by Philippine natives (1521). One of his
ships under Juan Sebastin del Cano continues around the world,
reaches Spain (1522).
Henry VIII(14911547)
Verrazano, sailing under the French flag, explores the New England
coast and New York Bay.
Troops of the Holy Roman Empire attack Rome, imprison Pope
Clement VIIthe end of the Italian Renaissance. Castiglione
writes The Courtier. The Medici family expelled from Florence.
Pizarro marches from Panama to Peru, kills the Inca chieftain,
Atahualpa, of Peru (1533). Machiavelli's The Prince published
posthumously.
Queen Elizabeth I
(15331603)

1536

1541
1543

1545

1547

1553
1556

1558

1561

1568

1570

1580

1582
1583
1587

Reformation begins as Henry VIII makes himself head of English Church after being excommunicated by
Pope. Sir Thomas More executed as traitor for refusal to acknowledge king's religious authority. Jacques
Cartier sails up the St. Lawrence River, basis of French claims to Canada.
Henry VIII executes second wife, Anne Boleyn. John Calvin establishes Reformed and Presbyterian form of
Protestantism in Switzerland, writes Institutes of the Christian Religion. Danish and Norwegian Reformations.
Michelangelo's Last Judgment.
John Knox leads Reformation in Scotland, establishes Presbyterian church there (1560).
Publication of On the Revolution of Heavenly Bodies by Polish scholar Nicolaus Copernicusgiving his
theory that the earth revolves around the sun.
Council of Trent to meet intermittently until 1563 to define Catholic dogma and doctrine, reiterate papal
authority.
Ivan IV (the Terrible) crowned as czar of Russia, begins conquest of Astrakhan and Kazan (1552), battles
nobles (boyars) for power (1564), kills his son (1580), dies, and is succeeded by his weak and feebleminded son, Fyodor I.
Roman Catholicism restored in England by Queen Mary I.
Akbar the Great becomes Mogul emperor of India, conquers Afghanistan (1581), continues wars of conquest
(until 1605).
Queen Elizabeth I ascends the throne (rules to 1603). Restores Protestantism, establishes state Church of
England (Anglicanism). Renaissance will reach height in EnglandShakespeare, Marlowe, Spenser.
Persecution of Huguenots in France stopped by Edict of Orleans. French religious wars begin again with
massacre of Huguenots at Vassy. St. Bartholomew's Day Massacrethousands of Huguenots
murdered (1572). Amnesty granted (1573). Persecution continues periodically until Edict of
Nantes (1598) gives Huguenots religious freedom (until 1685).
Protestant Netherlands revolts against Catholic Spain; independence will be acknowledged by Spain
in 1648.
Japan permits visits of foreign ships. Queen Elizabeth I excommunicated by Pope. Turks attack Cyprus and
war on Venice. Turkish fleet defeated at Battle of Lepanto by Spanish and Italian fleets (1571). Peace of
Constantinople (1572) ends Turkish attacks on Europe.
Francis Drake returns to England after circumnavigating the globe; knighted by Queen Elizabeth
I (1581). Montaigne's Essays published.
Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian calendar.
William of Orange rules the Netherlands; assassinated on orders of Philip II of Spain (1584).

1588

1590

1598

Mary, Queen of Scots, executed for treason by order of Queen Elizabeth I.

Monteverdi's First Book of Madrigals.
Defeat of the Spanish Armada by English. Henry, King of Navarre and Protestant
leader, recognized as Henry IV, first Bourbon king of France. Converts to Roman
Catholicism in 1593 in attempt to end religious wars.
Henry IV enters Paris, wars on Spain (1595), marries Marie de
Medici (1600), assassinated (1610). Spenser's The Faerie Queen. El Greco's St.
Jerome. Galileo's experiments with falling objects.

Pocahontas
(c. 15951617)
The Library of Congress Picture Collection

Boris Godunov becomes Russian czar. Tycho Brahe describes his astronomical
experiments.

1600

The Revolutionary War

1600
1603
1605
1607

1609

1610
1611

1614
1618

1619

1699 (A.D.) World

History

Galileo
(15641642)

Giordano Bruno burned as a heretic. English East India Company established.

Ieyasu rules Japan, moves capital to Edo (Tokyo). Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Cervantes's Don Quixote de la Mancha, the first modern novel.
Jamestown, Virginia, establishedfirst permanent English colony on American
mainland. Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, saves life of John Smith.
Samuel de Champlain establishes French colony of Quebec. The Relation, the first
newspaper, debuts in Germany.

Johannes Kepler
(15711630)

Galileo sees the moons of Jupiter through his telescope.

Gustavus Adolphus elected King of Sweden. King James Version of the Bible
published in England. Rubens paints his Descent from the Cross.
John Napier discovers logarithms.
Start of the Thirty Years' War > Protestants revolt against Catholic oppression;
Denmark, Sweden, and France will invade Germany in later phases of war. Kepler
proposes last of three laws of planetary motion.
A Dutch ship brings the first African slaves to British North America.

Taj Mahal
The Library of Congress Picture Collection

1620
1623
1630
1632
1633
1642

1643
1644
1648

1658
1660
1661

1664

1665
1666
1667
1682
1683

1684
1685

Pilgrims, after three-month voyage in Mayflower, land at Plymouth Rock. Francis Bacon's Novum Organum.
New Netherland founded by Dutch West India Company.
Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Maryland founded by Lord Baltimore.
Inquisition forces Galileo (astronomer) to recant his belief in Copernican theory.
English Civil War. Cavaliers, supporters of Charles I, against Roundheads, parliamentary forces. Oliver
Cromwell defeats Royalists (1646). Parliament demands reforms. Charles I offers concessions, brought to
trial (1648), beheaded (1649). Cromwell becomes Lord Protector (1653). Rembrandt paints his Night Watch.
Taj Mahal completed.
End of Ming Dynasty in ChinaManchus come to power. Descartes's Principles of Philosophy.
End of the Thirty Years' War. German population about half of what it was in 1618 because of war and
pestilence.
Cromwell dies; son Richard resigns and Puritan government collapses.
English Parliament calls for the restoration of the monarchy; invites Charles II to return from France.
Charles II is crowned King of England. Louis XIV begins personal rule as absolute monarch; starts to build
Versailles.
British take New Amsterdam from the Dutch. English limit Nonconformity with reestablished Anglican
Church. Isaac Newton's experiments with gravity.
Great Plague in London kills 75,000.
Great Fire of London. Molire's Misanthrope.
Milton's Paradise Lost, widely considered the greatest epic poem in English.
Pennsylvania founded by William Penn.
War of European powers against the Turks (to 1699). Vienna withstands three-month Turkish siege; high
point of Turkish advance in Europe.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's calculus published.
James II succeeds Charles II in England, calls for freedom of conscience (1687). Protestants fear restoration
of Catholicism and demand Glorious Revolution. William of Orange invited to England and James II

1689

1690

escapes to France (1688). William III and his wife, Mary, crowned. In France, Edict of
Nantes of 1598, granting freedom of worship to Huguenots, is revoked by Louis XIV;
thousands of Protestants flee.
Peter the Great becomes Czar of Russiaattempts to westernize nation and build
Russia as a military power. Defeats Charles XII of Sweden at Poltava (1709). Beginning
of the French and Indian Wars (to 1763), campaigns in America linked to a series of
wars between France and England for domination of Europe.

Benjamin Franklin
(17061790)

William III of England defeats former king James II and Irish rebels at Battle of the
Boyne in Ireland. John Locke's Human Understanding.

French Revolution (17891799)

1700
1799 (A.D.) World
History
Frederick the Great
(17121786)

1701

1704

1707

1729
1732

1735

1740

1746

War of the Spanish Succession beginsthe last of Louis XIV's wars for domination of
the continent. The Peace of Utrecht (1714) will end the conflict and mark the rise of the
British Empire. Called Queen Anne's War in America, it ends with the British taking New
Foundland, Acadia, and Hudson's Bay Territory from France, and Gibraltar and Minorca
from Spain.
Deerfield (Mass.) Massacre of English colonists by French and Indians. Bach's first
cantata. Jonathan Swift's Tale of a Tub. Boston News Letterfirst newspaper in
America.

Samuel Johnson
(17091784)

United Kingdom of Great Britain formedEngland, Wales, and Scotland joined by

parliamentary Act of Union.
Bach's St. Matthew Passion. Isaac Newton's Principia translated from Latin into English.
Benjamin Franklin begins publishing Poor Richard's Almanack. James Oglethorpe and
others found Georgia.
John Peter Zenger, New York editor, acquitted of libel in New York, establishing press
freedom.
Capt. Vitus Bering, Dane employed by Russia, discovers Alaska. Frederick II the Great
crowned king of Prussia.

George Washington (17321799)

1751
1755

1756

1757

1759
1762

1765
1769
1770
1772

1773
1774
1775

1776

1778
1781
1783
1784
1785

British defeat Scots under Stuart Pretender Prince Charles at Culloden Moor. Last battle fought on British
soil.
Publication of the Encyclopdie begins in France, the bible of the Enlightenment.
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary first published. Great earthquake in Lisbon, Portugalover 60,000 die. U.S.
postal service established.
Seven Years' War (French and Indian Wars in America) (to 1763), in which Britain and Prussia defeat
France, Spain, Austria, and Russia. France loses North American colonies; Spain cedes Florida to Britain in
exchange for Cuba. In India, over 100 British prisoners die in Black Hole of Calcutta.
Beginning of British Empire in India as Robert Clive, British commander, defeats Nawab of Bengal at
Plassey.
British capture Quebec from French. Voltaire's Candide. Haydn's Symphony No. 1.
Catherine II (the Great) becomes czarina of Russia. Jean Jacques Rousseau's Social
Contract. Mozart tours Europe as six-year-old prodigy.
James Watt invents the steam engine. Britain imposes the Stamp Act on the American colonists.
Sir William Arkwright patents a spinning machinean early step in the Industrial Revolution.
The Boston Massacre.
Joseph Priestley and Daniel Rutherford independently discover nitrogen. Partition of Polandin 1772,
1793, and 1795, Austria, Prussia, and Russia divide land and people of Poland, end its independence.
The Boston Tea Party.
First Continental Congress drafts Declaration of Rights and Grievances.
The American Revolution begins with battle of Lexington and Concord. Second Continental Congress.
Priestley discovers hydrochloric and sulfuric acids.
Declaration of Independence. Gen. George Washington crosses the Delaware Christmas night. Adam
Smith's Wealth of Nations. Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Thomas
Paine's Common Sense. Fragonard's Washerwoman. Mozart's Haffner Serenade.
Capt. James Cook discovers Hawaii. Franz Mesmer uses hypnotism.
Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Herschel discovers Uranus.
Revolutionary War ends with Treaty of Paris. William Blake's poems. Beethoven's first printed works.
Crimea annexed by Russia. John Wesley's Deed of Declaration, the basic work of Methodism.

1787

1788

1789

1790

1791
1792
1793

1794

1796

1798
1799

Russians settle Aleutian Islands.

The Constitution of the United States signed. Lavoisier's work on chemical nomenclature. Mozart's Don
Giovanni.
French Parlement presents grievances to Louis XVI who agrees to convening of Estates-General in 1789
not called since 1613. Goethe's Egmont. Laplace's Laws of the Planetary System.
French Revolution begins with the storming of the Bastille. (For detailed chronology, see French Revolution
(17891799).) In U.S., Washington elected president with all 69 votes of the Electoral College, takes oath of
office in New York City. Vice President: John Adams. Secretary of State: Thomas Jefferson. Secretary of
Treasury: Alexander Hamilton.
H.M.S. Bounty mutineers settle on Pitcairn Island. Aloisio Galvani experiments on electrical stimulation of the
muscles. Philadelphia temporary capital of U.S. as Congress votes to establish new capital on Potomac.
U.S. population about 3,929,000, including 698,000 slaves. Lavoisier formulates Table of 31 chemical
elements.
U.S. Bill of Rights ratified. Boswell's Life of Johnson.
Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette executed. Reign of Terror begins in France. Eli Whitney invents the cotton
gin, spurring the growth of the cotton industry and helping to institutionalize slavery in the U.S. South.
Kosciusko's uprising in Poland quelled by the Russians. In U.S., Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania as
farmers object to liquor taxes. Reign of Terror ends with execution of Robespierre.
Napolon Bonaparte, French general, defeats Austrians. In the U.S., Washington's Farewell Address (Sept.
17); John Adams elected president; Thomas Jefferson, vice president. Edward Jenner introduces smallpox
vaccination.
Napoleon extends French conquests to Rome and Egypt. U.S. Navy Department established.
Rosetta Stone discovered in Egypt. Napoleon leads coup that overthrows Directory, establishes the
Consulate, becomes First Consulone of three who rule France together.

New Zealand becomes first country in the world to grant women the vote.

1894

1895

Sino-Japanese War begins (ends in 1895 with China's defeat). In France, Capt. Alfred Dreyfus convicted on
false treason charge (pardoned in 1906). In U.S., Jacob S. Coxey of Ohio leads Coxey's Army of
unemployed on Washington. Eugene V. Debs calls general strike of rail workers to support Pullman
Company strikers; strike broken, Debs jailed for six months. Edison's kinetoscope given first public showing
in New York City.

1896

1897
1898

1899

X-rays discovered by German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen. Auguste and Louis Lumire premiere motion
pictures at a caf in Paris.
Supreme Court's Plessy v. Ferguson decisionseparate but equal doctrine. Alfred Nobel's will
establishes prizes for peace, science, and literature. Marconi receives first wireless patent in Britain. William
Jennings Bryan delivers Cross of Gold speech at Democratic Convention in Chicago. First modern Olympic
games held in Athens, Greece.
Theodor Herzl launches Zionist movement.
Chinese Boxers, anti-foreign organization, established. They stage uprisings against Europeans
in 1900; U.S. and other Western troops relieve Peking legations. U.S. Battleship Maine is sunk in Havana
Harbor. Spanish-American War begins. U.S. destroys Spanish fleet near Santiago, Cuba. (For detailed
chronology, see Spanish-American War.) Pierre and Marie Curie discover radium and polonium.
Boer War (or South African War): conflict between British and Boers (descendants of Dutch settlers of South
Africa). Causes rooted in longstanding territorial disputes and in friction over political rights for English and
other uitlanders following 1886 discovery of vast gold deposits in Transvaal. (British victorious as war ends
in 1902.) Casualties: 5,774 British dead, about 4,000 Boers. Union of South Africa established in 1908 as
confederation of colonies; becomes British dominion in 1910.

World War I (19141918)

Imperial, territorial, and economic rivalries led to the Great War between the Central Powers (AustriaHungary, Germany, Bulgaria, and Turkey) and the Allies (U.S., Britain, France, Russia, Belgium, Serbia,
Greece, Romania, Montenegro, Portugal, Italy, and Japan). About 10 million combatants killed, 20 million
wounded.

1914

1915

1916

Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and wife assassinated in Sarajevo by Serbian nationalist, Gavrilo
Princip (June 28). Austria declares war on Serbia (July 28). Germany declares war on Russia (Aug. 1), on
France (Aug. 3), invades Belgium (Aug. 4). Britain declares war on Germany (Aug. 4). Germans defeat
Russians in Battle of Tannenberg on Eastern Front (Aug.). First Battle of the Marne (Sept.). German drive
stopped 25 miles from Paris. By end of year, war on the Western Front is positional in the trenches.
German submarine blockade of Great Britain begins (Feb.). Dardanelles CampaignBritish land in
Turkey (April), withdraw from Gallipoli (Dec.Jan. 1916). Germans use gas at second Battle of
Ypres (AprilMay). Lusitania sunk by German submarine1,198 lost, including 128 Americans (May 7). On
Eastern Front, German and Austrian great offensive conquers all of Poland and Lithuania; Russians lose 1
million men (by Sept. 6). Great Fall Offensive by Allies results in little change from 1914 (Sept.
Oct.). Britain and France declare war on Bulgaria (Oct. 14).
Battle of VerdunGermans and French each lose about 350,000 men (Feb.). Extended submarine warfare
begins (March). British-German sea battle of Jutland (May); British lose more ships, but German fleet never

1917

1918

ventures forth again. On Eastern Front, the Brusilov offensive demoralizes Russians, costs them 1 million
men (JuneSept.). Battle of the SommeBritish lose over 400,000; French, 200,000; Germans, about
450,000; all with no strategic results (JulyNov.). Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary (Aug.
27). Bucharest captured (Dec.).
U.S. declares war on Germany (April 6). Submarine warfare at peak (April). On Italian Front, Battle of
CaporettoItalians retreat, losing 600,000 prisoners and deserters (Oct.Dec.). On Western Front, Battles
of Arras, Champagne, Ypres (third battle), etc. First large British tank attack (Nov.). U.S. declares war on
Austria-Hungary (Dec. 7). Armistice between new Russian Bolshevik government and Germans (Dec. 15).
Great offensive by Germans (MarchJune). Americans' first important battle role at Chteau-Thierryas
they and French stop German advance (June). Second Battle of the Marne (JulyAug.)start of Allied
offensive at Amiens, St. Mihiel, etc. Battles of the Argonne and Ypres panic German leadership (Sept.
Oct.). British offensive in Palestine (Sept.). Germans ask for armistice (Oct. 4). British armistice with
Turkey (Oct.). German Kaiser abdicates (Nov.). Hostilities cease on Western Front (Nov. 11).

World War II (19391945)

Axis powers (Germany, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria) versus Allies (U.S., Britain, France,
USSR, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway,
Poland, South Africa, Yugoslavia).

1939

1940

1941

1942

Germany invades Poland and annexes Danzig; Britain and France give Hitler ultimatum (Sept. 1), declare
war (Sept. 3). Disabled German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee blown up off Montevideo, Uruguay, on
Hitler's orders (Dec. 17). Limited activity (Sitzkrieg) on Western Front.
Nazis invade Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg (May 10). Chamberlain resigns as Britain's prime
minister; Churchill takes over (May 10). Germans cross French frontier (May 12) using air/tank/infantry
Blitzkrieg tactics. Dunkerque evacuation > about 335,000 out of 400,000 Allied soldiers rescued from
Belgium by British civilian and naval craft (May 26June 3). Italy declares war on France and Britain;
invades France (June 10). Germans enter Paris; city undefended (June 14). France and Germany sign
armistice at Compigne (June 22). Nazis bomb Coventry, England (Nov. 14).
Germans launch attacks in Balkans. Yugoslavia surrendersGeneral Mihajlovic continues guerrilla warfare;
Tito leads left-wing guerrillas (April 17). Nazi tanks enter Athens; remnants of British Army quit
Greece (April 27). Hitler attacks Russia (June 22). Atlantic CharterFDR and Churchill agree on war
aims (Aug. 14). Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor, Philippines, Guam force U.S. into war; U.S. Pacific fleet
crippled (Dec. 7). U.S. and Britain declare war on Japan. Germany and Italy declare war on U.S.; Congress
declares war on those countries (Dec. 11).
British surrender Singapore to Japanese (Feb. 15). Roosevelt orders Japanese and Japanese Americans in
western U.S. to be exiled to relocation centers, many for the remainder of the war (Feb. 19). U.S. forces on
Bataan peninsula in Philippines surrender (April 9). U.S. and Filipino troops on Corregidor island in Manila

1943

1944

1945

Bay surrender to Japanese (May 6).Village of Lidice in Czechoslovakia razed by Nazis (June 10). U.S. and
Britain land in French North Africa (Nov. 8).
Casablanca ConferenceChurchill and FDR agree on unconditional surrender goal (Jan. 1424). German
6th Army surrenders at Stalingradturning point of war in Russia (Feb. 12). Remnants of Nazis trapped on
Cape Bon, ending war in Africa (May 12). Mussolini deposed; Badoglio named premier (July 25). Allied
troops land on Italian mainland after conquest of Sicily (Sept. 3). Italy surrenders (Sept. 8). Nazis seize
Rome (Sept. 10). Cairo Conference: FDR, Churchill, Chiang Kai-shek pledge defeat of Japan, free
Korea (Nov. 2226). Tehran Conference: FDR, Churchill, Stalin agree on invasion plans (Nov. 28Dec. 1).
U.S. and British troops land at Anzio on west Italian coast and hold beachhead (Jan. 22). U.S. and British
troops enter Rome (June 4). D-DayAllies launch Normandy invasion (June 6). Hitler wounded in bomb
plot (July 20). Paris liberated (Aug. 25). Athens freed by Allies (Oct. 13). Americans invade Philippines (Oct.
20). Germans launch counteroffensive in BelgiumBattle of the Bulge (Dec. 16).
Yalta Agreement signed by FDR, Churchill, Stalinestablishes basis for occupation of Germany, returns to
Soviet Union lands taken by Germany and Japan; USSR agrees to friendship pact with China (Feb.
11). Mussolini killed at Lake Como (April 28). Admiral Doenitz takes command in Germany; suicide of Hitler
announced (May 1). Berlin falls (May 2).Germany signs unconditional surrender terms at Rheims (May
7). Allies declare V-E Day (May 8). Potsdam ConferenceTruman, Churchill, Atlee (after July 28), Stalin
establish council of foreign ministers to prepare peace treaties; plan German postwar government and
reparations (July 17Aug. 2). A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima by U.S. (Aug. 6). USSR declares war on
Japan (Aug. 8). Nagasaki hit by A-bomb (Aug. 9). Japan agrees to surrender (Aug. 14). V-J Day
Japanese sign surrender terms aboard battleship Missouri (Sept. 2).

The Holocaust (19331945)

Holocaust is the term describing the Nazi annihilation of about 6 million Jews (two thirds of the pre-World
War II European Jewish population), including 4,500,000 from Russia, Poland, and the Baltic; 750,000
from Hungary and Romania; 290,000 from Germany and Austria; 105,000 from The Netherlands; 90,000
from France; 54,000 from Greece.
The Holocaust was unique in its being genocidethe systematic destruction of a people solely because
of religion, race, ethnicity, nationality, or sexual preferenceon an unmatched scale. Along with the Jews,
another 9 to 10 million peopleGypsies, Slavs (Poles, Ukrainians, and Belarussians), homosexuals, and
the disabledwere exterminated.

1933

1935
1937

Hitler named German Chancellor (Jan.). Dachau, first concentration camp, established (March). Boycotts
against Jews begin (April).
Anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws passed by Reichstag; Jews lose citizenship and civil rights (Sept.).

1938

1940

1941

1942

1943
1944

1945

Buchenwald concentration camp opens (July).

Extension of anti-Semitic laws to Austria after annexation (March). Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)
anti-Semitic riots and destruction of Jewish institutions in Germany and Austria (Nov. 9). 26,000 Jews sent to
concentration camps; Jewish children expelled from schools (Nov. 910). Expropriation of Jewish property
and businesses (Dec.).
As war continues, Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads) follow German army into conquered lands,
rounding up and massacring Jews and other undesirables.
Goering instructs Heydrich to carry out the final solution to the Jewish question (July 31). Deportation of
German Jews begins; massacres of Jews in Odessa and Kiev (Nov.); and in Riga and Vilna (Dec.).
Mass killings using Zyklon-B begin at Auschwitz-Birkenau (Jan.). Nazi leaders attend Wannsee Conference
to coordinate the final solution (Jan. 20). 100,000 Jews from Warsaw Ghetto deported to Treblinka death
camp (July).
Warsaw Ghetto uprisings (Jan. and April); Ghetto exterminated (May).
476,000 Hungarian Jews sent to Auschwitz (MayJune). D-day (June 6). Soviet Army liberates Maidanek
death camp (July). Nazis try to hide evidence of death camps (Nov.).
As Allies advance, Nazis force concentration camp inmates on death marches. Americans liberate
Buchenwald and British liberate Bergen-Belsen camps (April). Nuremberg War Crimes Trial (Nov. 1945
Oct. 1946).

Millennium Milestones
The 100 Most Significant Events of the Last Thousand
Years
Reducing the millennium to a laundry list of highlights cannot pretend to be a definitive or accurate
exercise. Note that only events judged to have world significance are included. Apologies for the inevitable
bias toward Western as well as twentieth century eventswe are all prisoners of our own history. For a
less whirlwind glance at the last thousand years, see our Millennium Timeline.
1066Norman Conquest of Britain
1095Pope Urban II calls for the Crusades

1100sAngkor Wat is built

1206Genghis Khan begins creation of largest land empire in history

1215Magna Carta signed

1260Chartres Cathedral consecrated

1271Marco Polo begins travels to Asia

1273Thomas Aquinas's Summa theologica

1300sRenaissance begins in Italy

1347Bubonic plague (Black Death) spreads in Europe

c.1387Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

1399Tamerlane begins last great conquest

1438Incan Empire formed in Peru

1455Gutenberg's movable-type printing press produces the Bible

1492Columbus reaches the New World

1509Michelangelo begins painting Sistine Chapel

1513Machiavelli's The Prince

1517Martin Luther initiates Reformation

1519Aztec Empire at height as Spanish arrive

1520Suleiman I the Magnificent presides over the Ottoman Empire's greatest period

1522Magellan's expedition circumnavigates the globe

1543Copernicus postulates a heliocentric universe

1582Pope Gregory XIII reforms calendar

1603Shakespeare's Hamlet

1605Cervantes's Don Quixote, first modern novel

1609Galileo makes first astronomical observations with a telescope

1637Descartes publishes Discours de la mthode

1643Taj Mahal completed

1664Newton's theory of universal gravitation

1667Milton's Paradise Lost

1684Leibniz's calculus published

1690Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding

1721Bach completes the Brandenburg Concertos

1755Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language

1760Industrial Revolution begins in England

1762Rousseau's The Social Contract

1764Mozart (aged eight) writes first symphony

1769Watt patents first practical steam engine

1776U.S. Declaration of Independence; Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations

1787U.S. Constitution signed

1789French Revolution begins

1792Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman

1796Jenner discovers smallpox vaccine

1808Beethoven's Fifth Symphony

1815Battle of Waterloo crushes Napoleon

1819Bolvar defeats Spanish forces at Boyac

1826Niepce takes first photograph

1833Slavery abolished in British Empire

1842Long uses first anesthetic (ether)

1859Darwin's On the Origin of Species; Lenoir builds first practical internal-combustion engine

1862Pasteur's experiments lead to germ theory; Salon des Refuss introduces impressionism

1867Japan ends 675-year shogun rule

1876Bell patents the telephone

1879Edison invents electric light

1880sEurope colonizes African continent

1885World's first skyscraper built in Chicago

1893New Zealand becomes first country in the world to grant women the vote

1895Lumire brothers introduce motion pictures; Marconi sends first radio signals

1897Herzl launches Zionist movement

1900Freud's Interpretation of Dreams

1903Wright brothers fly first motorized airplane

1905Einstein announces theory of relativity

1907Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon introduces cubism

1911Rutherford discovers structure of atom

1913Ford develops first moving assembly line

1914World War I begins

1916Sanger founds international birth control movement

1917Lenin leads the Bolshevik Revolution

1918Global Spanish flu epidemic

1922Joyce's Ulysses published

1927Farnsworth demonstrates working model of a television; Lemaitre proposes big bang

theory

1928Fleming discovers penicillin

1929Hubble proposes theory of expanding universe; U.S. stock market crash precipitates
global depression

1936Keynes's The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money

1939Hitler invades Poland; World War II begins

1942Nazi leaders at Wannsee Conference coordinate final solution to the Jewish question

1945Atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; first electronic computer, ENIAC,
is built; Arab League launches modern pan-Arabism

1946First meeting of U.N. General Assembly; Churchill's Iron Curtain speech marks
beginning of cold war

1947Gandhi's civil disobedience movement leads to an independent India

1949Communist victory in China under Mao Zedong

1950sAbstract expressionism introduced

1953Watson, Crick, and Franklin discover DNA's structure

1954Brown v. Board of Education begins unraveling of U.S. racial segregation

1957Russia launches first satellite, Sputnik I

1959Mary and Louis Leakey uncover hominid fossils

1969Armstrong and Aldrin walk on the Moon; Internet (ARPA) goes online

1980Smallpox eradicated

1981Scientists identify AIDS

1989Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe

1991Breakup of Soviet Union; apartheid ends in South Africa