Professional Documents
Culture Documents
History
For those who don’t have time to wade through the entire Timeline of Human History, I
have created a list of the 100 most important events in human history by collecting and
combining several lists of 10, 25, 50 or 100 “most important events” or “events that changed
the world” from the Internet and combining them into one meta-list, which is presented below
in chronological order. As with many such lists, the results are unlikely to win universal
approval. For example, I find the list biased toward Western (in particular American)
civilization and overly focused on war, religion and dead white men. There is also a bit of
“comparing apples to oranges” because some of the important events happened in an instant
and others occurred over many years or decades. Despite these caveats, I think it is safe to
say that all the events listed here are important to understanding human history.
— c. 9,500 BCE: By this time, eight key crops (emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, barley, peas, lentils,
bitter vetch, chickpeas and flax) have been domesticated in the Levant (Syria, Lebanon,
Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, Turkey)
— c. 9,100 BCE: Oldest known agricultural settlement, at Klimonas (Cyprus)
— c. 9,000 BCE: Domestication of sheep in several locations in central and southwest Asia
— c. 8,000 BCE: Farming is fully established along the Nile River by this time (Egypt); rice and
millet are domesticated in China; domestication of goats (Iran); domestication of pigs (Near East;
China; Germany); domestication of maize and squash (Mexico)
— c. 7,000 BCE: Agriculture is well-established in Mesopotamia (Iraq); first evidence of
agriculture in the Indus Valley (Pakistan, India); domestication of cattle in North Africa, India and
Mesopotamia
— c. 6,000 BCE: First evidence of agriculture on the Iberian Peninsula (Spain,
Portugal); domestication of chickens (India; Southeast Asia); domestication of llamas (Peru)
— c. 5,500 BCE: Oldest known field systems, including stone walls (Ireland)
— c. 5,500 BCE: Farmers in Sumeria have developed large-scale intensive cultivation of land,
mono-cropping, organized irrigation and a specialized agricultural labor force (Iraq)
— c. 5,000 BCE: Domestication of rice and sorghum in Africa’s Sahel
region (Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, South
Sudan, Eritrea, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ethiopia)
— c. 4,000 BCE: Domestication of the horse (Ukraine; Kazakhstan)
— c. 3,000 BCE: Earliest known use of the ox-drawn ard plow (Egypt)
2. The First Cities Emerge in Mesopotamia: c. 4000-3000 BCE (Iraq)
— c. 5400 BCE: According to legend, the Sumerians create their first settlement in Mesopotamia
at Eridu
— c. 4500 BCE: The Sumerian settlement of Uruk becomes the first city in Mesopotamia
— c. 2900 BCE: Uruk is the largest city in the world
— c. 2075 BCE: The Sumerian city of Lagash is the largest city in the world
— c. 2030 BCE: The Sumerian city of Ur is the largest city in the world
3. The First Wheeled Vehicles Appear in Mesopotamia, Eastern Europe and the
Caucasus: c. 3500 BCE (Iraq, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania)
The remains of the oldest existing wheel and axle, dating to 3000 BCE, were found in the Lubjlana
marshes in Slovenia.
4. The First Writing Systems Appear in Mesopotamia (Cuneiform), Egypt
(Hieroglyphics) and the Indus Valley (Indus Script): c. 3200 BCE
5. The Ancient Egyptians Build the Great Pyramid of Giza for Pharaoh Khufu: c. 2560
BCE (Egypt)
The Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt was built as the tomb of Fourth Dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh
Khufu.
6. The Origin and Development of Modern Alphabets: c. 1850-800 BCE (Egypt, Israel,
Palestine, Lebanon, Greece)
— c. 1850 BCE (or 1550 BCE): First evidence of the Proto-Sinaitic/Proto-Canaanite script, which
gives rise to the Phoenician alphabet
— c. 1050 BCE: Development of the all-consonant Phoenician alphabet, which gives rise to the
Semitic, Hebraic and Arabic scripts
— c. 800 BCE: The Greeks adapt the Phoenician alphabet by converting some of the letters to
vowels; the Greek alphabet gives rise to the Roman and Cryllic alphabets
The Code of Hammurabi is engraved on an eight-foot tall diorite stele, with a portrait of the king
receiving the laws from Shamash, the sun god. It is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
8. As Knowledge of Iron Metallurgy Spreads, the Bronze Age Ends and the Iron Age
Begins: c. 1200-500 BCE
— c. 3000-2700 BCE: First evidence of smelting iron ore to make wrought iron (Iraq, Syria)
— c. 1800-1200 BCE: Evidence of smelting iron ore to make wrought iron in India
— c. 1500-1200 BCE: The Hittites are working iron in bellows-aided furnaces
(“bloomeries”) (Turkey)
— c. 1200 BCE: The Iron Age begins in the Ancient Near East (Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Syria, Egypt,
Lebanon, Israel, Palestine) and India
— c. 800 BCE: The Iron Age begins in Central and Western Europe
— c. 500 BCE: The Iron Age begins in Northern Europe and China
A map of the Roman Empire at its greatest extent, under Emperor Trajan.
11. The Life of the Buddha and Birth of Buddhism: c. 563-400 BCE (India)
12. The Life of Confucius and Birth of Confucianism: 551-479 BCE (China)
13. Alexander the Great Creates an Immense Empire: 336-323 BCE (Greece)
— 338 BCE: The Macedonians, led by King Philip II and his son Alexander, take Athens in the
Battle of Chaeronea, giving Macedon power over all the Greek city-states
— 336 BCE: Upon the death of Philip II, Alexander becomes king of Macedon (Greece)
— 333 BCE: Alexander wins the Battle of Issus over Darius III of Persia (Turkey)
— 332 BCE: Alexander conquers Syria and Egypt
— 331 BCE: Alexander becomes ruler of the Persian Empire after defeating the Persians at the
Battle of Gaugamela (Iraqi Kurdistan)
— 327 BCE: Alexander invades the Indian subcontinent (Pakistan)
— 323 BCE: Alexander dies at Babylon (Iraq)
14. Unification of China under Emperor Qin Shi Huang, Who Begins Building The Great
Wall: 221-206 BCE
17. The Life of Muhammad and the Birth of Islam: 570-630 CE (Saudi Arabia)
— 570 CE: Muhammad is born in Mecca
— 622 CE: Muhammad leads the Hejira from Mecca to Medina
— 632 CE: The Qu’ran is completed; Muhammad dies
18. The Franks, Led by Charles Martel, Defeat a Umayyad Caliphate Army under Abdul
Rahman Al Ghafiqi at the Battle of Tours-Poitiers, Halting the Muslim Advance into
Western Europe: 732 CE (France)
19. Pope Leo III Crowns Charlemagne, Carolingian King of the Franks and the
Lombards, as the First Holy Roman Emperor: 800 CE (France, Germany)
21. Norse Explorers Discover and Colonize New Lands in the North Atlantic: c. 870-
1000 CE (Iceland, Greenland, US)
— c. 870: Norse explorers discover and colonize Iceland
— c. 986: Erik the Red and settlers from Iceland and Norway establish a colony on the west coast
of Greenland
— c. 1000: Leif Erikson establishes a short-lived settlement at Vinland in North America (Canada)
— c. 1510: By this time, the Norse settlements in Greenland have been abandoned
24. The First Crusade: 1095-1099 (France, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Israel)
— 1095 CE: Pope Urban II calls on Christians to drive the Muslims out of the Holy Land by
force (France)
— 1096 CE: The untrained mobs of the People’s Crusade march toward Jerusalem, massacring
Jews across Europe, but are slaughtered by the Turks before they reach their goal
— 1097 CE: The armies of the Princes’ Crusade gather outside Constantinople and march to the
Levant (Turkey)
— 1098 CE: Crusader states are established at Edessa and Antioch (Syria, Turkey)
— 1099 CE: After a siege, the Crusaders enter Jerusalem, kill many of its Muslim and Jewish
inhabitants, and establish the Kingdom of Jerusalem (Israel/Palestine)
25. King Suryavarman II of the Khmer Empire Builds Angkor Wat; Originally Dedicated
to the Hindu God Vishnu, It Became a Buddhist Temple by the End of the 12th
Century: c. 1150 CE (Cambodia)
26. Shogun Minamato no Yorimoto Overthrows the Taira Emperor, Establishing the
Kamakura Shogunate; Start of 675 Years of Shogunate Rule in Japan: 1192 CE
27. Genghis Khan Establishes a Vast Mongol Empire, Which Is Expanded After His
Death: 1206-1260 (Central Asia, China)
— 1206: Mongolian leader Temujin defeats his rivals and receives the title Genghis Khan,
Universal Ruler of the Mongols (Mongolia)
— 1215: Genghis Khan captures the capital of the Jin Dynasty (China)
— 1221: The Mongols defeat the Khwarezmid Empire and take over Persia (Iran, Afghanistan)
— 1227: Death of Genghis Khan in battle against the Western Xia Dynasty (China)
— 1241: The Mongols defeat an army of Poles and Moravians at the Battle of Liegnitz (Poland)
— 1258: The Mongols capture and destroy Baghdad, capital of the Islamic Abbasid
Caliphate (Iraq)
— 1260: The victory of the Islamic Mamluks over the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut signals the
waning of the Mongol Empire (Israel/Palestine)
28. English Nobles Force King John to Sign the Magna Charta Restricting His
Powers: 1215 (UK)
29. Europe Hears Tales of the Far East From Marco Polo: 1271-1300 (Italy; Asia)
— 1271-1295: Venetian merchant Marco Polo travels through Asia with his father and uncle,
probably going as far as China
— c. 1299: While in prison, Marco Polo relates stories of his travels to cellmate Rustichello da
Pisa (Italy)
— c. 1300: Rustichello da Pisa publishes his version of Marco Polo’s stories as Book of the
Marvels of the World
30. The Rise and Fall of the Aztec Civilization: 1325-1521 (Mexico)
— 1325: The nomadic Mexica people found the city of Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake
Texacoco (traditional date)
— 1428: A Triple Alliance is formed between Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan
— 1487: For the dedication of the Templo Mayor, Aztec Emperor Ahuitzotl sacrifices 20,000
prisoners of war to the Aztec war god Huitzilopochtli
— 1519: Tenochtitlan has an estimated population of 200,000-300,000, making it one of the
largest cities in the world, when Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés arrives in November and
meets with Aztec ruler Montezuma
— 1521: With the aid of local enemies of the Aztecs (including the Texcoco), the Spanish conquer
Tenochtitlan and the Aztec Empire
31. The Black Death (Bubonic Plague) Devastates Europe, Killing One-Third of the
Population: 1347-1348 (Europe)
32. The Renaissance: A Rediscovery of Classical Knowledge Brings About Innovations
and Achievements in Arts and Culture: c. 1350-1600 (Italy, Europe)
— c. 1350: The Renaissance begins in Florence (Italy)
— c. 1410-1420: Florentine artist and architect Filippo Brunelleschi sets out the rules of linear
perspective
— 1435: Leon Battista Alberti publishes Della Pittura, a treatise on painting
— c. 1436: Brunelleschi completes the dome of the Florence Cathedral
— 1452: Sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti completes the East Doors of the Florence Baptistery, known as
the Gates of Paradise
— c. 1486: Sandro Botticelli paints The Birth of Venus
— 1501: Michelangelo completes his sculpture of David
— c. 1504: Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa
— 1508-1512: Michelangelo paints the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome
— 1513: Niccolò Machiavelli writes The Prince, a treatise on politics
A portion of the frescoes painted by Michelangelo on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, with the Creation
34. Johannes Gutenberg Invents a Printing Press Using Movable Metal Type and Oil-
Based Ink, Bringing Inexpensive Printing of Books and Papers to the West: 1440-1455
(Germany)
— 1040: Bi Sheng invents movable type printing, but the technology does not travel to the
West (China)
— 1377: Jikji, the earliest known printed book made with metal movable type, is printed in Korea
— c. 1455: The Gutenberg Bible is Gutenberg’s first mass-produced book
35. The Ottoman Turks Take Constantinople, Marking the Fall of the Eastern Roman
(Byzantine) Empire: 1453 (Turkey)
36. Christopher Columbus Arrives in the West Indies and Claims the Land for Spain;
European Conquest of the Americas Begins: 1492 (The Bahamas)
A map of the four voyages Columbus made to the Americas between 1492 and 1504.
37. Portuguese Explorer Vasco da Gama Finds a Sea Route from Europe to India,
Allowing Portugal To Create a Trading Empire: 1498
38. Spanish and English Explorers Returning to Europe Bring Back New World Foods,
Including Tomatoes, Potatoes, Corn (Maize), Squash and Cacao: 1500-1600
39. The Slave Trade: Enslaved African People Are Brought to the Americas: 1502-1619
(US, Haiti, Dominican Republic)
— 1502: Spaniard Juan de Córdoba sends one of his African slaves from Spain to Hispaniola
(Haiti, Dominican Republic)
— 1510: King Ferdinand of Spain authorizes a shipment of 50 African slaves to be sent to Santo
Domingo (Dominican Republic)
— 1619: A Dutch ship brings 20 African slaves to the British colony in Jamestown, Virginia (US)
40. Martin Luther Sends his 95 Theses to the Archbishop of Mainz, Marking the Start of
the Protestant Reformation: 1517 (Germany)
41. Suleiman the Magnificent Rules Ottoman Empire During Period of Great
Expansion: 1520-1566 (Turkey)
44. England under Queen Elizabeth I Repels a Spanish Invasion by Defeating the
Spanish Armada: 1588 (UK)
46. English Colonists Establish Their First Permanent Settlement in the New World at
Jamestown, Virginia: 1607 (US)
47. Galileo Galilei Publishes The Starry Messenger, Which Announces a Series of
Astronomical Discoveries Made Using a Home-Made Telescope: 1609-1610 (Italy)
49. Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan Builds the Taj Mahal, a Mausoleum for his Favorite
Wife, Mumtaz Mahal: 1632-1653 (India)
50. The Power of Steam is Harnessed in the Steam Engine: 1663-1801 (UK)
— 1663: Edward Somerset invents the first steam pump
— 1698: Thomas Savery designs an improved steam pump to pump water from mines
— 1705-1733: Thomas Newcomen invents the atmospheric engine, a more powerful steam
pump, and teams up with Savery to build and distribute the machines
— 1765: James Watt invents a steam engine with a separate condenser that is five times more
efficient than earlier versions
— 1776: Watt teams up with Matthew Boulton to build their first commercial steam engine
— 1799: Richard Trevithick builds a high-pressure steam engine
— 1801: Oliver Evans builds the first high-pressure steam engine in the US
51. The Holy Roman Empire, the Hapsburg Monarchy and the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth Join Forces to Defeat the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Vienna,
Halting Ottoman Expansion into Western Europe: 1683 (Austria)
52. Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica Explains Universal Laws of Motion and
Gravitation That Provide a Foundation for the Science of Physics Until Einstein: 1687
(UK)
53. Innovations in the British Textile Industry Spark the Industrial Revolution: 1733-
1785
— 1733: John Kay patents the flying shuttle
— 1764: James Hargreaves invents the spinning Jenny
— 1767: Richard Awkwright invents the water frame
— 1775-1779: Samuel Crompton invents the spinning mule
— 1785: Edward Cartwright invents the power loom
— 1793: Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin (US)
54. The Boston Tea Party: American Colonists Protest New British Taxes by Throwing
Tea in Boston Harbor: 12/16/1773 (US)
61. The End of the African Slave Trade and Abolition of Slavery: 1807-1888 (UK, US,
Mexico, Brazil)
— 1807: The United Kingdom abolishes the slave trade
— 1808: The United States bans the importation of slaves
— 1824: Mexico abolishes slavery
— 1833: Slavery is abolished in the British Empire
— 1836: The Republic of Texas declares independence from Mexico and reinstates slavery
— 1865: The Thirteenth Amendment to the American Constitution abolishes slavery (US)
— 1888: Brazil abolishes slavery
62. Spain’s Colonies in Central and South America Fight for and Win Independence:
1817-1825
— 1817: José de San Martín defeats Chilean royalists at the Battle of Chacabuco, and enters
Santiago, Chile
— 1819: The forces of Simón Bolívar defeat the Spanish at the Battle of Boyacá, which leads to
the independence of New Granada (Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela)
— 1819: The Congress of Angostura creates Gran Colombia and Simón Bolívar is elected its
president (Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, Guyana, Brazil)
— 1821: Bolívar’s win at the Battle of Carabobo guarantees the independence of Venezuela
— 1824: The Battle of Ayacucho ends the Spanish presence in Peru
64. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Publish The Communist Manifesto, Which Explains
History in Terms of Class Struggle and Proposes That Workers Unite and Overthrow
Capitalism: 1848 (UK)
65. Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species, which Proves that Natural
Selection is the Mechanism of Biological Evolution: 1859 (UK)
A first edition copy of Darwin’s Origin of Species.
68: Opening of the Suez Canal Linking the Mediterranean and the Red Sea: 1869 (Egypt)
One of the first x-ray photographs was made by Wilhelm Röntgen of his wife Bertha’s hand,
75. After Defeating Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, Japan Is Recognized as a World
Power: 1904-1905
82. The Rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis: 1920-1939 (Germany)
— 1920: Hitler forms the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazis)
— 11/8/1923: Hitler and the Nazis attempt to overthrow the government of Bavaria in the failed
Beer Hall Putsch
— 1925: After being released from prison, Hitler publishes Mein Kampf
— 1928-1932: Nazi Party candidates win increasingly larger portion of the popular vote, but
never a majority
— 1/30/1933: Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany
— 1933-1934: Hitler consolidates power; becomes dictator
— 1935: Nuremberg Laws strip Jews of German citizenship
— 1936: German troops reoccupy the Rhineland; Germany forms Axis alliances with Italy and
Japan
— 3/14/1938: The Anschluss: Germany invades and occupies Austria
— 9/30/1938: In the Munich Agreement, Western European democracies allow Hitler to occupy
the Sudetenland
— 11/9/1938: Kristallnacht: Jewish shops and synagogues are destroyed
— 3/15/1939: Hitler invades and occupies Czechoslovakia
Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering wave to a torchlight parade in honor of Hitler’s appointment
as chancellor.
83. Revolution in China: 1911-1949
— 1911: The Xinhai Revolution overthrows the Qing dynasty
— 1912: The Republic of China is established
— 1927: Civil war breaks out between the Communists and the Nationalists
— 1934-1935: The Long March
— 1937-1945: During the Sino-Japanese War, Communists and Nationalists join forces to fight
their common enemy, Japan
— 1945: Civil war resumes
— 1949: After defeating the Kuomintang, Chinese Communists under Mao Tse Tung proclaim the
People’s Republic of China; Chiang Kai-Shek retreats to Taiwan
85. The United Nations Is Formed: 1945-1946 (Europe, N. & S. America, Asia, Africa,
Australia)
— 10/24/1945: UN Charter takes effect, with 51 member nations
— 1/10/1946: First meeting of General Assembly (UK)
The first meeting of the UN General Assembly took place in London, UK on January 10, 1946.
86. The Digital Revolution: The Invention of the Digital Electric Computer
— 1833: Charles Babbage designs the Difference Machine but does not build it (UK)
— 1939: John V. Atanasoff and Clifford E. Berry create the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (US)
— 1940: George Stibitz and his team demonstrate the Complex Number Calculator
— 1941: Konrad Zuse creates the Z3 computer (Germany)
— 1943: Max Newman, Tommy Flowers and others build the Mk I Colossus (UK)
— 1944: The Mk II Colossus; the Harvard Mark I begins operation (US)
— 1945: Konrad Zuse develops the Z4; John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert create ENIAC (US)
— 1958: Invention of the integrated circuit (microchip) (US)
— 1965: Olivetti introduces the Programma 101, the first commercially produced personal
desktop computer (Italy)
87. After Long Struggle, India and Pakistan Obtain Independence from the UK: 1947
89. The Discovery of the Double Helical Structure of DNA: 1953 (UK)
Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington.
91. The Vietnam War: 1955-1975 (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos)
— 1954: After the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu ends French rule in Indochina, Vietnam is
divided into North and South Vietnam
— 1955: North Vietnam begins guerrilla attacks on South Vietnam
— 1960: North Vietnam backs formation of the Viet Cong, which begins civil war in South
Vietnam
— 1961: US President Kennedy sends military personnel and equipment to aid South Vietnam
against the Viet Cong
— 1963: The US backs a violent coup in South Vietnam that results in the death of President Ngo
Dinh Diem
— 1964: Congress authorizes the US to intervene in the war through the Gulf of Tonkin
Resolution
— 1965: First US combat troops land at Da Nang
— 1967: By this time, 500,000 American troops are stationed in Vietnam; anti-war protests erupt
throughout US
— 1968: The Tet Offensive, a combined assault by Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops, is a
turning point in the war; later in the year, US soldiers commit the Mai Lai massacre
— 1969: Death of North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh
— 1970: US bombing of Cambodia revealed, sparking wave of protests and Kent State shootings
— 1971: The New York Times publishes the leaked Pentagon Papers
— 1973: The Paris Peace Accords end US involvement in the war
— 1975: Saigon falls, South Vietnam surrenders and Vietnam is unified as a single nation
92. Soviet Union Launches Sputnik, First Man-Made Satellite: 10/4/1957 (Russia)
93. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration Approves the First
Contraceptive Pill: 5/9/1960 (US)
94. Yuri Gagarin Becomes the First Man in Space: 1961 (Russia)
95. U.S. President John F. Kennedy Is Assassinated in Dallas, Texas: 11/22/1963 (US)
96. Apollo 11 Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin Land on the Moon and Walk
on its Surface: 7/20-21/1969 (US, Moon)
Buzz Aldrin on the Moon is a 1969 photograph by Neil Armstrong.
100. Al Qaeda Terrorists Attack New York City and Washington, D.C. With Hijacked
Planes, Destroying World Trade Towers; US Declares “War on Terror”: 9/11/2001 (US)
3. Iranian Revolution
4. Unipolarity
6. War on Terror
8. Arab Spring