Timeline of World
History

under construction ...
15-12
billion years ago
origins of the
Universe
5
billion years ago
origins of solar
system
4.5
billion years ago
origins of Earth
4
billion years ago
origins of life,
bacteria, algae
Precambrian Period
(4 billion to 540 million years ago)
700
million years ago
first "animals,"
coral, worms, jellyfish
570
million years ago
Precambrian Ice
Age
540
million years ago
Paleozoic Era
(540-245 million years ago)
Cambrian Period
(540-505 million years ago)
trilobites appear
505
million years ago
Ordovician Period
(505-438 million years ago)
fossils of oldest
fish in Early Ordovician Period
land plant spores
438
million years ago
Silurian Period
(438-408 million years ago)
408
million years ago
Devonian Period
(408-360 million years ago)
360
million years ago
Carboniferous
Period (360-286 million years ago)
286
million years ago
Permian Period
(286-245 million years ago)
245
million years ago
final formation
of supercontinent Pangaea (in late Paleozoic Era)
mass extinctions
(e.g. trilobites) toward the end of the Permian Period
Mesozoic Era (245-66
million years ago)
Triassic Period
(245-208 million years ago)
208
million years ago
Pangaea begins
to break apart
Jurassic Period
(208-144 million years ago)
144
million years ago
Cretaceous Period
(144-66 million years ago)
90
million years ago
Argentinosaur,
largest animal (80 ton, 120 ft long)
88
million years ago
Madagascar splits
from India
66
million years ago
asteroid (10-20
mile diameter) impact?
extinction of
the dinosaurs and other land animals heavier than 25 kg.
Cenozoic Era (66
million years ago to the present)
Tertiary Period
(66-1.6 million years ago)
62
million years ago
origin of lemurs
6
million years ago
beginnings of
climate change, drier, cooler conditions, loss of forests
formation of Antarctic
ice cap
5.8-5.2
million years ago
oldest
human ancestor, Ardipithecus ramidus kadabba, hominid fossil remains
at Middle Awash, Ethiopia
4.4
million years ago
Ardipithecus ramidus,
hominid fossil remains at Aramis, Ethiopia
4
million years ago
bipedal hominids,
Australopithecus genus
Lake Turkana (Kenya)
fossils, Australopithecus anamensis
3.6
million years ago
Laetoli (Tanzania)
footprints, Australopithecus afarensis
3.18
million years ago
"Lucy"
fossil remains in Ethiopia, Australopithecus afarensis
3
million years ago
rise of Isthmus
of Panama, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans separated; drier and cooler
Africa, further deforestation
beginnings of
formation of polar ice cap
Australopithecus
africanus, larger brains, more complex human social organization and
modes of subsistence, development of meat eating
2.6
million years ago
oldest known stone
tools (Gona, Ethiopia); beginnings of Paleolithic Period
2.5
million years ago
Homo genus (Homo
rudolfensis, Homo habilis)
1.8
million years ago
Homo erectus,
Homo ergaster
1.6
million years ago
Quaternary Period
(1.6 million years ago to the present)
begins Pleistocene Epoch
(1.6 million to 10,000 years ago); cooling climate, Ice Age
800,000
years ago
earliest known
evidence of human cannibalism in caves at Sierra de Atapuerca (Spain), Homo antecessor
archaic Homo in Africa and western Europe, Homo antecessor (800,000 years ago), Homo heidelbergensis (500,000 years ago), likely ancestors of Neandertals
300,000
years ago
origins of Neandertals in western Europe (extinct by 28,000 years ago)
160,000 years ago
oldest fossils of modern humans, Homo sapiens idaltu (Herto, Afar Valley, Ethiopia)
150,000
years ago
Neandertals widespread in
Europe and Asia (150,000-35,000 years ago)
100,000
years ago
modern Homo sapiens in Omo, Ethiopia
50,000 years ago
Cro-Magnon people migrate out of Africa
35,000
years ago
Cro-Magnon people
(35,000-10,000 years ago) in Dordogne (France)
beginnings of
migrations of humans from Asia to America across the Bering Strait
32,000
years ago
Chauvet Pont-d'Arc
cave paintings (32,000-30,000 years ago)
28,000 years ago
Neandertals extinct
27,000
years ago
Venus of Willendorf
figurines (27,000-20,000 years ago)
10,000
years ago
end of Pleistocene
Epoch and Ice Age; beginnings of Holocene Epoch
9,000
BC
beginnings of
Neolithic Period, cultivation of plants and domestication of animals
in southwestern Asia
7,000
BC
agriculture and
villages in Mesopotamia
6,500
BC
use of copper
in Anatolia (Turkey)
earliest evidence
of religious practices: fertility cults, goddess figures at Çatal
Huyuk (Turkey)
5,000
BC
Great
Flood, formation of the Black Sea
Sumerians (5,000-2,000
BC) in Mesopotamia
4,000
BC
Sumerian city
of Eridu (before 4,000 BC)
3,300
BC
invention of writing
by Sumerians in Mesopotamia, wheel, plows
3,100
BC
3,000
BC
beginnings of
Bronze Age in Greece and China
Egypt's Archaic
Period. King Menes (Scorpion, Narmer, Aha?) (c. 2925 BC); unification
of upper and lower Egypt; foundation of Memphis; origins of hieroglyphic
writing
2,900 BC
2,800 BC
2,700
BC
Gilgamesh,
king of walled city of Uruk in Mesopotamia
Egypt: King Zoser
(Djoser) (2650-2575 BC); Imhotep, minister to Zoser, also architect
and physician; fist stone building, tomb at Saqqarah
2,600
BC
Egypt:
Old Kingdom (2575-2130 BC); Giza Pyramids ( 2,575-2,465 BC), tombs of
4th dynasty kings Khufu (Cheops), Khafre (Chephren), and Menkaure (Mycerinus);
Sphinx (2,575-2,465 BC), representation of King Khafre; Pyramid
Texts
2,500 BC
2,400 BC
2,300 BC
2,200 BC
2,100
BC
law book of Ur-Nammu,
king of Mesopotamian city of Ur
2,000
BC
earliest written
versions of the Epic
of Gilgamesh, tablets from city of Nippúr
Egypt: Middle
Kingdom (1938-1600 BC); Coffin
Texts; Cult of Osiris; "Tale
of the Shipwrecked Sailor" (2040-1651 BC)
1,900 BC
1,800 BC
Hammurabi of Babylon
(c. 1750 BC)
Abraham dwelling
at Ur in Mesopotamia
1,700 BC
1,600 BC
Minoan civilization
in Crete (3000-1100 BC)
1,500
BC
Aryan occupation
of Punjab in India, displacement of Dravidian peoples
Egypt: New Kingdom
(1539-1200 BC); Book of the Dead (1500 BC)
Crete: raids by
continental invaders against the Minoan culture of Knossos
1,400
BC
Rigveda,
beginnings of Sanskrit Vedic literature
Akhenaten (ruled
1353-1336 BC), imposed monotheist cult of sun god Aten and suppressed
the traditional cult of Amun-Re; Amarna cultural revolution; author
of the "Hymn to the Sun"
Moses in Egypt
(?) (see also reign of Ramses II, 1279-1213 BC)
Greece: Mycenean
culture dominance (1400-1100)
Tutankhamen (r.
1333-1323 BC), married to a daughter of Akhenaten; restored traditional
religion of Egypt and reversed the reforms of Akhenaten; Ay was regent/advisor
to Tutankhamen and Horemheb general of his armies; Tutankhamen died
young, under suspicious circumstances, at age 18 and was succeeded
by Ay; the tomb of Tutankhame was discovered in 1922 by the Egyptologist
Howard Carter
1,300 BC
Ramses II (r.
1279-1213 BC)
Egyptian literature
of Ramesside Period 1300-1100 BC: Love
Lyrics,
Leiden Hymns (1238 BC)
Moses in Egypt
(?) (also likely during or somewhat after the reign of Akhenaten,
1353-1336)
Trojan War: Mycenean
Greeks raid and burn down the city of Troy (1250 BC)
1,200
BC
beginnings of
the Iron Age in southeastern Europe
Egyptian literature:
"Song of
the Harper" (c. 1160 BC)
1,100 BC
Greece: destruction
of Mycenae by Dorian invaders (c. 1100). Dorian dominance of the Peloponnese
(1100-1000 BC)
1,000 BC
Greece: Dark Ages
(1000-900 BC)
900 BC
800 BC
Homer, Iliad
and Oddysey
700 BC
Assyrian king
Ashurbanipal (reigned 668-627 BC); royal library at Niniveh
600 BC
Aesop
Behistun Rock
(516 BC), memorial to military victories of King Darius I of Persia;
made possible the deciphering of cuneiform script
500 BC
Persia: Darius
I, the Great (r. 521-486 BC), Achaemenid Dynasty
Buddha (563-483
BC)
Confucius (551-479
BC)
Heraclitus (535-475
BC)
Socrates (469-399
BC)
400 BC
Plato (427-347
BC)
Aristotle (384-322
BC)
begin conquests
of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), king of Macedon and Greece (r.
336-323 BC)
death of Alexander
the Great (323 BC)
Egypt ruled by
Greek general, Ptolemy I (r. 323285 BC)
death of Aristotle
(322 BC)
300 BC
200 BC
Rosetta Stone
(196 BC): rock inscribed with three bands of writing in hieroglyphic,
demotic, and Greek; it made possible the decipherment of Egyptian
hieroglyphics. Discovered in 1799.
100 BC
begins Roman occupation
of Egypt (30 BC-395 AD)
---0---
100 AD
200 AD
****************************
312
begins reign of
Constantine I, the Great (280-337), first Western Roman Emperor (r.
312-324), Roman Emperor (r. 324-337), embraced Christianity (313)
337
death of Constantine
I the Great (280-337), first Western Roman Emperor (312-324), Roman
Emperor (324-337), embraced Christianity (313)
496
List of banned
and recommended books issued by Pope Gelasius I
561
death of Chlotar
I (Clotaire), Merovingian Frankish king (558-561)
594
death of Gregory
of Tours (539-594), author of History of the Franks
732
victory over the
Moslems of Charles Martel (689-741), leader of the Franks, grandfather
of Charlemagne
741
death of Charles
Martel (689-741), leader of the Franks, grandfather of Charlemagne
751
begins reign of
Pepin the Short (714-768), King of the Franks (751-768), son of Charles
Martel, father of Charlemagne
768
death of Pepin the
Short (714-768), King of the Franks (751-768), son of Charles Martel,
father of Charlemagne
begins reign of
Charlemagne (742-814), King of the Franks (as Charles I, r. 768-814),
Holy Roman Emperor (r. 800-814)
800
coronation as
Holy Roman Emperor (Charles I) of Charlemagne (742-814), King of the
Franks (as Charles I, r. 768-814), Holy Roman Emperor (r. 800-814)
814
death of Charlemagne
(742-814), King of the Franks (Charles I, r. 768-814), Holy Roman
Emperor (r. 800-814)
begins rule of
Louis I (778-840), the Pious/the Debonair, son of Charlemagne, Holy
Roman Emperor (814-840)
840
death of Louis
I (778-840), the Pious/the Debonair, son of Charlemagne, Holy Roman
Emperor (814-840)
843
begins reign of
Charles II (823-877), the Bald, king of Franks (843-877), Holy Roman
Emperor (875-877), son of Louis I, the Pious
877
death of Charles
II (823-877), the Bald, king of Franks (843-877), Holy Roman Emperor
(r. 875-877), son of Louis I, the Pious
879
death of Louis
II (846-879), the Stammerer (le Bègue), West Frankish king
(r. 877- 879)
1086
begins rule of
Guilhem de Peitieus (William
of Poitou, VII Count of Poitiers, IX Duke of Aquitaine) (1071-1126),
the first troubadour
1088
begins reign of
Pope Urban II (r. 1088-1099), preached the First Crusade in 1095
1099
end of reign of
Pope Urban II (r. 1088-1099), preached the First Crusade in 1095
begins reign of
Pope Paschal II (r. 1099-1118)
death of Rodrigo
Díaz de Vivar, El Cid (1043-1099)
1126
death of Guilhem
de Peitieus (William of Poitou, VII Count of Poitiers, IX Duke
of Aquitaine) (1071-1126), the first troubadour and grandfather of
Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122-1204)
1180
begins reign of
Philip II, Philip Augustus (1165-1223), King of France (r. 1180-1223)
1223
death of Philip
Augustus (Philip II, 1165-1223), king of France (r. 1180-1223)
1231
Inquisition established
by Pope Gregory IX
1223
begins reign of
Louis VIII, Louis the Lion (1187-1226), king of France (1223-1226);
Capetian dynasty; subjection of Poitou (1224), participation in Albigensian
crusade against Avignon (1226);
1226
begins reign of
Louis IX, Saint Louis (1214-1270), king of France (1226-1270); Capetian
dynasty; led Seventh Crusade (1248-50); died during crusade at Tunisia
1300
climate change
leads to dry weather conditions in American Southwest
1450
Francesco Sforza
(1401-1466) declares himself Duke of Milan
1453
Fall of Constantinople
to the Turks led by Mohammed II
1483
Sandro Botticelli
(1444-1510) paints Birth of Venus sometime after 1482
begins reign of
Charles VIII (1470-1498), King of France (r. 1483-1498), campaigns in
Italy, occupied Naples in 1495
1484
death of Pope Sixtus
IV (r. 1471-1484), famed for building of Sistine Chapel, sale of indulgences,
nepotism
1492
discovery of America
by Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)
1493
begins reign of
Maximilian I (1459-1519), Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1493-1519)
1494
death of Pico della
Mirandola (1463-1494)
French invasion
of Italy led by Charles VIII
1498
death, burned at
the stake in Florence, of Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498), Dominican
monk and religious reformer, opposed to the Medicis, the Borgias, and
humanism
death of Charles
VIII (1470-1498), King of France (r. 1483-1498), campaigns in Italy,
occupied Naples in 1495
begins reign of
Louis XII, King of France (r. 1498-1515), called the "Père
du Peuple" ("Father of the People"), campaigns in Italy
1499
French invasion
of Italy led by Louis XII
1500
French capture of
Milan
Treaty of Granada
between France (Louis XII) and Spain (Ferdinand II) agreeing to share
Naples
1503
death of Pope Alexander
VI (Rodrigo Borgia) (r. 1492-1503)
begins papacy of
Julius II (r. 1503-1513), strongly anti-Borgia, war-like leader
1506
death of Christopher
Columbus (1451-1506)
1507
death of Cesare
Borgia (1474-1507), Italian political figure, son of Pope Alexander
VI (Rodrigo Borgia) and brother of Lucrezia Borgia (1480-1519)
1509
Henry VIII, king
of England (r. 1509-1547)
1510
death of Sandro
Botticelli (1444-1510), Italian painter, author of Birth of Venus
(after 1482)
1512
death of Amerigo
Vespucci (1451-1512)
1513
Niccolò Machiavelli,
The Prince (1513)
death of Pope Julius
II (r. 1503-1513), strongly anti-Borgia, war-like leader
1515
death of Louis XII,
king of France (r. 1498-1515), called the "Père du Peuple"
("Father of the People")
Francis I, king
of France (r. 1515-1547)
1516
Ludovico Ariosto,
Orlando Furioso; Sir Thomas More, Utopia
death of Hieronymus
Bosch (1450-1516), Dutch painter, author of Garden of Delights
(1505-1510)
1519
death of Leonardo
da Vinci (1452-1519)
death of Maximilian
I (1459-1519), Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1493-1519)
Charles V (1500-1558),
Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1519-1556), king of Spain (Charles I, r. 1516-1556)
1521
death of Pope Leo
X (Giovanni de' Medici) (r. 1513-1521)
1527
death of Niccolò
Machiavelli (1469-1527), Italian diplomat and author of The Prince
(1513)
sack of Rome by
forces of Charles V
1528
death of Albrecht
Dürer (1471-1528)
1532
François
Rabelais, Pantagruel
1533
death of Ludovico
Ariosto (1474-1533), Italian poet, author of Orlando Furioso
(1516)
1534
François
Rabelais, Gargantua
1535
death of Sir Thomas
More (1478-1535)
1543
Nicolaus Copernicus,
De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (1543)
death of Nicolaus
Copernicus (1473-1543)
1545
Council of Trent
(1545-1563)
1554
Benvenuto Cellini,
Perseus and Medusa (Bronze, 1545-1554)
1556
death of Pietro
Aretino (1492-1556), Italian writer, satirist and political figure
1558
Elizabeth I, queen
of England (r. 1558-1603)
death of Charles
V, Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1519-1558)
1559
Index of Forbidden
Books (Index Librorum Prohibitorum) published by the Roman Inquisition
(last published in 1948 and finally discontinued in 1966).
1564
death of Michelangelo
Buonarroti (1475-1564)
death of Andreas
Vesalius (1514-1564), Flemish anatomist
1569
death of Pieter
Brueghel, the Elder (1525-1569)
1571
death of Benvenuto
Cellini (1500-1571), Italian sculptor and goldsmith, author of Perseus
and Medusa (Bronze, 1545-1554)
1588
Philip II's Spanish
Armada defeated by the English
1598
Edict of Nantes
issued by French King Henry IV in protection of Protestant rights of
worship (revoked by Louis XIV in 1685)
birth
of Louis XIII (1601-1643, reigned 1610-1643), ruled France with
the help of his mother Marie de Medici and his chief minister Cardinal
de Richelieu
death
of Tycho Brahe (1546-1601), Danish astronomer
begins reign of
Louis XIII (1601-1643, reigned 1610-1643), ruled France with the help
of his mother Marie de Medici and his chief minister Cardinal de Richelieu
death
of William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
death
of Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)
beginning
of Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), struggle of German Protestant
princes in alliance with France, Sweden, England, Denmark and others
against Holy Roman Empire (Hapsburgs) and Catholic German nobility;
Peace of Prague (1635); hostility of Richelieu toward Hapsburgs;
French offensive (1635); Peace of Westphalia (1648); France emerged
as dominant power.
1632
Galileo, Dialogue
Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632)
1633
Galileo
brought before the Inquisition and forced
to renounce his beliefs
death of Cornelis
Jansen (1585-1638), founder of Jansenism, a strict Catholic sect,
believed in predestination, denied free will.
death
of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
death
of Marie de Medici (1573-1642) mother of Louis XIII, Regent of France
(1610-1614), initially supported Richelieu, eventually became enemy
of Richeliu and was exiled in 1631.
death
of Cardinal de Richelieu (1585-1642), minister of Louis XIII, chief
minister since 1624, in full control of France since 1630; founder
of French Academy and protector of artists and writers; instigated
anti-protestant policies.
death
of Louis XIII (1601-1643), King of France
beginning
of reign of Louis XIV, Le Roi Soleil ("The Sun King") (1638-1715,
r. 1643-1715), initially under the control of his mother, Anne of
Austria (1601-1666), Regent of France (1643-1651) and who was perhaps
secretly married to minister Jules Mazarin.
end
of Thirty Years' War, Peace of Westphalia (1648) negotiated by Jules
Mazarin; France emerged as dominant power.
beginning
of the Fronde Revolt (1648-1653), series of anti-royal, anti-absolutist,
anti-taxation, anti-Mazarin rebellions instigated by Parlement de
Paris, French nobility, spread to popular classes.
death
of Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
death
of William Harvey (1578-1657), English physician, discovered blood
circulation
beginnings
of the Enlightenment (c. 1660-1770)
death
of Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), Spanish painter
death of Cardinal
Jules Mazarin (1602-1661), chief minister to Anne of Austria (1643)
and her son, Louis XIV; participated in negotiation of Peace of Westphalia
(1648); forced into exile in 1651 by Fronde Revolt but returned victorious
in 1653; negotiated peace with Spain, Peace of the Pyrenees (1659).
Milton,
Paradise Lost (1667)
Palace
of Versailles, built by Louis XIV as place of entertainment, major
expansion after 1668, seat of government moved to Versailles in 1682.
1673
death of Jean-Baptiste
Poquelin, Molière (1622-1673)
death
of John Milton (1608-1674)
revocation of
Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV (originally issued in 1598 by Henry
IV in protection of Protestant rights of worship)
1687
Isaac Newton,
Principia Mathematica
1698
Revolt of the Streltsy
(1698), also known as the "Revolt of the Musketeers;" an ineffectual
conspiracy cruelly suppressed by the Russian Czar, Peter the Great
death
of Louis XIV, Le Roi Soleil ("The Sun King") (1638-1715,
reigned 1643-1715)
1716
death of Baron Gottfried
Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716), German mathematician and rationalist
philosopher
death
of Sir Isaac Netwon (1642-1727), English mathematician, philosopher,
and scientist
Joseph II (1741-1790),
archduke of Austria and Holy Roman Emperor from 1765-1790; son of Empress
Maria Theresa; progressive, secular views.
Jean
Jacques Rousseau, Discours sur les sciences et les arts (Discourses
on the Sciences and Arts) (1750), beginnings of Romanticism.
Great
Lisbon earthquake and fire (November 1, 1755), between thirty and forty
thousand deaths resulted. A second quake occurred on December 21, 1755.
Seven Years' War
(1756-1763), involved nine European powers; Britain acquires Canada
and Florida, Spain gets Cuba and the Philippines, France wins colonies
in India and Africa as well as Guadeloupe and Martinique
death
of Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
1776
beginning of American
Revolution
Maximilian von Klinger's play Der Wirrwarr, oder Sturm und Drang
(Chaos, or Storm and Stress), beginnings of German Romanticism
1778
death of François-Marie
Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1778)
death of Jean
Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), French philosopher, author, political
theorist, composer.
Mozart,
Eine kleine Nachtmusik
French Revolution:
popular uprising against the monarchy of Louis XVI; ideals of liberty,
equality, and brotherhood; storming of the Bastille (July 14); "Declaration
of the Rights of Man and the Citizen" (August 27)
death
of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Second Revoution
in France
First Republic
in France
French
National Convention (1792-1795)
execution
of Louis XVI, January 21
Queen Marie Antoinette guillotined, October 16
French
Directorate (1795-99)
Consulate
of Napoleon Bonaparte (1799-1804)
Unification
of England, Scotland, and Ireland as the United Kingdom of Great Britain
begins
reign of Napoleon I , Emperor of France (r. 1804-1815)
death of Immanuel
Kant (1724-1804), German philosopher
1815
Battle of Waterloo,
Napoleon defeated by a British, German, Dutch, Belgian and Prussian
alliance led by the Duke of Wellington and Blücher
Napoleon's death
(1821)
birth of Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880)
death
of Louis XVIII, king of France (r. 1815-1824)
begins reign of Charles X, king of France (r. 1824-1830)
The
July Revolution in France, students and workers who wanted a republic
against monarchists.
Constitutional monarchy, Louis-Philippe, king of France (r. 1830-1848),
House of Orléans, favoring of upper bourgeoisie
birth of Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
begins
reign of Victoria, queen of United Kingdom (r. 1837-1901)
Opium
War (1839-1842), imperialist trade war waged by Britain against China;
second Opium War (1856-1860) was waged by France and Britain against
China
Revolution
in France(1848); beginning of Second Republic (1848-1852), President
Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte
Second Empire
in France, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte crowned as Emperor Napoleon
III (r. 1852-1870)
Second Opium
War (1856-1860), waged by France and Britain against China
1857
Gustave Flaubert,
Madame Bovary
Charles
Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil
Charles
Darwin, Origin of Species
beginning
of American Civil War (1861-1865)
end
of American Civil War, surrender of Robert E. Lee to Ulysses S. Grant
at Appomattox (April 9)
assassination of Abraham Lincoln, April 14
Fyodor
Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
Leo Tolstoy, War
and Peace
France at war with
Germany, Napoleon III taken prisoner, Revolution in France, Third Republic
established (1870); President Adolphe Thiers (in office 1871-1873),
loss of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany; civil war in France, Paris Commune
uprising, brutal repression and massacre of commune supporters, (1871);
Patrice de Mac Mahon, president of France (in office 1873-1880).
Telephone
invented
Friedrich
Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
death
of Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Eiffel Tower
built for Paris World Fair
Gottlieb Deimler develops automobile engine
1894
Sino-Japanese
War (1894-95)
1900
Boxer Rebellion,
anti-foreigner uprising in China
Sigmund Freud,
The Interpretation of Dreams
1904
Russo-Japanese
War (1904-1905)
1911
Revolution of
1911, ended the Ch'ing Dynasty
1912
establishment
of the Republic of China in 1912 and the formation of SunYat-sen's
Nationalist Party (Kuomintang)
1914
beginning of World
War I (1914-1918), European war between Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary,
Turkey, and Bulgaria) and the Allies (Great Britain, France, Russia,
Italy, and the U.S.); fought over nationalistic rivalries, chauvinistic
patriotisms, as well as the commercial and industrial interests of
growing capitalist powers; new weapons such as machine guns, tanks,
aircraft, submarines and poison gas were used for the first time,
resulting in huge human losses, civilians and soldiers alike, on both
sides; impoverished much of the world; also undermined popular faith
in social progress and scientific optimism.
1918
Lu Xun, "Diary
of a Madman"
1919
May 4th Movement,
intellectual revolution and sociopolitical reform movement in China,
directed toward national independence, emancipation of the individual,
and rebuilding of society and culture.
1931
Mao Zedong (Mao
Tse-tung, 1893-1976) becomes leader of Chinese Communist Party. He
became Chairman of the People's Republic of China from 1949 to 1959
and Chairman of the Communist Party until his death.
1939
death of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
1946
Civil War in China
(1946-1949), communists defeated Chiang Kai-shek's nationalist forces
which withdrew to Taiwan.
1949
People's Republic
of China proclaimed
©
2001 by Fidel Fajardo-Acosta,
all rights reserved