BC/BCE
1000000Patterned Tools (Early Man)
360000Harnessing Fire (Early Man)
100000Rise of the Neanderthals
60000Flowers included in burials (Neanderthals)
30000Venus of Willendorf
15000Cave Paintings
12000Domestication of Wolves/Dogs
11500First Americans make Spear Points
10000Canoes, Needles, Traps
7700Civilization established between Tigris and Euphrates
6500The Wheel
6100Landscape Painting with volcano in Turkey
6000Bricks
5 500Smelting Copper
5000Domestication of Corn (Mexico)
3760Year One – Jewish Calendar
3500Dawn of Sumerian Civilization
3000-700Cuneiform/Block Printing
2700Gilgamesh rules Sumeria
2600Abacus
2550Sphinx
2500Stonehenge
2100Lutes
1950Hammurabi establishes a Code of Laws
1700Windmills
1600Minoan Civilization in Crete
1450Sundials
1380First Canal: Unites Nile and Red Sea
1375Akhenaton Egyptian Pharaoh attempts to introduce Monotheism
1349Pharoah Tutankhamen buried
1200Trojan War
1000-965King David rules Israel
950Poppies cultivated in Egypt
850Homer presumed to have lived
776Olympic Games begin
753Founding of Rome
700Musical Notation
660Shinto founded in Japan
658Founding of Byzantium
657First music school established in Sparta
600Coinage invented by Lydians
599Birth of Vardhamana Mahavira founder of Jainism
586Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem
565Taoism founded by Lao Zi in China
551Birth of Confuscius
549Cyrus the Great unites Medes and Persians
528Buddhism founded by Siddhartha
508Democratic Constitution in Athens
500Aesop’s Fables
460Birth of Hippocrates “Father of Medicine”
441Antigone
398Socrates, Teacher and Philosopher, condemned to death
356Birth of Alexander the Great in Macedonia
220Great Wall of China started
210Emperor Shihuang buried with 8000 Terra Cotta soldiers
165The Maccabees defeat the Syrians
100Venue de Milo
73Spartacus leads a rebellion of Roman slaves
47-44Julius Caesar rules
46Leap Year introduced
30 Aeneid
27Roman Empire established under Augustus Caesar
AD/CE
1Christian Calendar starts
7Birth of Jesus, founder of Christianity
32Peter is the first Pope
70Destruction of Jerusalem following Jewish revolt against Rome
100Concrete in Rome and Paper in China
200Silkworms arrive in Japan and China from Korea
271Chinese sailors use first Compasses
300Polynesians settle in Hawai’i
312Christianity becomes office Roman Religion under Constantine
400Vulgate Bible
406Birth of Attila, the Hun
476The Fall of the Roman Empire
537St Sophia Basilica in Constantinople
550Chess invented in India
595First recorded reference to decimals in India
605Grand Canal links Yangtse and Yellow Rivers in China
607Japan’s Horyuji Temple, the world’s oldest wooden structure
622Year One in Mohammedan Calendar
632Abu Bakr succeeds Mohammed at First Caliph
629Mohammed brings the Koran to Mecca and establishes Sharia
690Songhay Empire in Niger
742Birth of Charlesmagne
750Royal Stables in China contain 40,000 Polo Horses
850Kaldi, Arabian goatherd, credited with the discovery of coffee
851Crossbows
860Norsemen settle Iceland
879Pope and Patriarch excommunicate one another
969Birth of St. Stephen, Patron Saint of Hungary
982Vikings settle Greenland under Eric the Red
1000Leif Ericson alleges visits Nova Scotia
1020Tale of the Genji
1066Norman French conquer England
1096-1270The Crusades
1135Birth of Maimonides, the “Second Moses”
1200Toltecs defeated by the Aztecs
1203Parzival by Wolfram van Eschenbach
1211Genghis Khan conquers China
1215Magna Carta
1220First giraffes shown in Europe
1229The Inquisition forbids laymen to read the Bible
1230Crusaders bring leprosy to Europe
1265Birth of Dante Alighieri, author of The Divine Comedy
1271Marco Polo, his father and uncle, head to the court of Kublai Khan
1337-1453The Hundred Years War
1358The Black Plague in Europe
1431Martyrdom of Joan of Arc
1438Inca Rule established in Peru under Patachacutec
1452Pope Nicholas V allows Spain and Portugal to practice slavery
1453St. Sophia Basilica converted to a mosque
1455The Gutenberg Bible and the birth of printing
1473Birth of Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish Astronomer
1490First known orphanages established in Italy and Holland
1492Columbus seeks a sea route to India
1495Major European syphilis outbreak
1500First Caesarean on a living woman
1503Mona Lisa
1517Martin Luther nails 95 theses to a church door
1519Magellan sets out around the world
1519Cortes introduces the horse to the Americas
1520Death of Montezuma, Aztec Emperor
1532Sugar Cane cultivated in Brazil
1534Ignatius Loyola of Spain founds the Jesuit Order
1535Henry VIII declares himself Head of the English Church
1555Pieta’
1567Typhoid, imported from Europe, kills 2 million South Americans
1570Spain colonizes the Philippines
1588William Morgan translate the Bible into Welsh
1603Hamlet
1605England claims Barbadoes
1606Birth of Rembrandt van Rijn
1609Quebec founded
1619First African slaves arrive in Virginia
1620The Mayflower hits Plymouth Rock
1633The Inquisition forces Galileo to renounce the Copernican Theory
1648Society of Friends founded
1656Rings of Saturn discovered
1666First Cheddar Cheese Made