Timeline: The History of the World, I Guess

20,000 BCE

Israel Exerts Control Over Wild Grain

11,000 BCE

Syria Plans to Cultivate and Select the Traits of Rye

11,000 BCE

Greece Domesticates Lentils, Vetch, Pistachios, and Almonds

9500 BCE

Levant Domesticates Eight Key Crops

Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, Turkey)
Crops (emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chickpeas, and flax)

9100 BCE

Klimonas is Founded

oldest known agricultural settlement; modern-day Cyprus

9000 BCE

Central and Southwest Asia Domesticate Sheep

8000 BCE

Egypt Establishes Farms Along the Nile River

8000 BCE

China Domesticates Rice and Millet

8000 BCE

Goats are Domesticated

modern-day Iran

8000 BCE

Pigs are Domesticated

modern-day China and Germany

8000 BCE

Mexico Domesticates Maize and Squash

7000 BCE

Mesopotamia Establishes Agriculture

modern-day Iraq

7000 BCE

Indus Valley Civilizations Use Agriculture

modern-day Pakistan and India

7000 BCE

Cattle is Domesticated

North Africa, India, and Mesopotamia

6000 BCE

The Iberian Peninsula Uses Agriculture

modern-day Spain and Portugal

6000 BCE

Chickens are Domesticated

India and Southeast Asia

6000 BCE

Llamas are Domesticated

modern-day Peru

5500 BCE

Field Systems are Used

stone walls; modern-day Ireland

5500 BCE

Large-Scale Intensive Cultivation of Land, Mono-Cropping, Organized Irrigation, and a Specialized Agricultural Labor Force is Developed

modern-day Iraq

5400 BCE

Eridu, Mesopotamia is Settled by the Sumerians

modern-day Iraq

5000 BCE

Rice and Sorghum are Domesticated in Africa's Sahel Region

Sahel Region (Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, Ethiopia)

4500 BCE

Uruk, Mesopotamia Becomes the First City

Sumerian settlement; modern-day Iraq

4000 BCE

Horse is Domesticated

modern-day Ukraine and Kazakhstan

3500 BCE

Wheel is Invented

Mesopotamia, Eastern Europe, and the Caucasus (Iraq, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania

3200 BCE

Writing Systems are Developed

Mesopotamia (Cuneiform); Egypt (Hieroglyphics); Indus Valley (Indus Script)

3000 BCE

Ox-Draw Ard Plow is Developed

Egypt

3000 BCE

Iron Ore Smelting is Developed

made wrought iron; modern-day Iraq and Syria

2900 BCE

Uruk Becomes the Largest City in the World

2560 BCE

Great Pyramid of Giza is Built by the Ancient Egyptians

for Pharaoh Khufu in the Giza Plain

2075 BCE

Lagash, Mesopotamia Becomes the Largest City in the World

Sumerian city; modern-day Iraq

2030 BCE

Ur Becomes the Largest City in the World

Sumerian city in Mesopotamia; modern-day Iraq

1850 BCE

Proto-Canaanite Script is Developed

gave rise to the Phoenician alphabet

1800 BCE

Iron Ore Smelting is Used in India

1754 BCE

Code of Hammurabi is Written

by Babylonian King Hammurabi; one of the earliest legal codes; modern-day Iraq

1500 BCE

Hittites Develop Furnaces

"bloomers"; modern-day Turkey

Period: 1200 BCE to 550 BCE

Ancient Near East Iron Age

Period: 1200 BCE to 200 BCE

South Asian Iron Age

Period: 1200 BCE to 200 BCE

East Asian Iron Age

Period: 1190 BCE to 700 BCE

Aegean Iron Age

Period: 1100 BCE to 700 BCE

Italian Iron Age

Period: 1100 BCE to 150

Balkan Iron Age

Period: 1100 BCE to 800 BCE

Greek Dark Ages

1050 BCE

Phoenician Alphabet is Developed

all-consonant; gave rise to Semitic, Hebraic, and Arabic scripts

Period: 900 BCE to 650 BCE

Eastern European Iron Age

800 BCE

Greeks Adapt the Phoenician Alphabet

convert some letters to vowels; gave rise to the Roman and Cryllic alphabets

Period: 800 BCE to 50 BCE

Central European Iron Age

Period: 800 BCE to 100

British Iron Age

753 BCE

Rome is Founded

Period: 700 BCE to 480 BCE

Archaic Greece

595 BCE

Solon Institutes Constitutional Reform in Athens

ancient Greece

Period: 509 BCE to 27 BCE

Reign of the Roman Republic

Period: 500 BCE to 800

Northern European Iron Age

490 BCE

Battle of Marathon

Greece stops the first Persian invasion

480 BCE

Athens and Sparta Repel the Second Persian Invasion

Greece; at Salamis and Plataea

Period: 480 BCE to 280 BCE

Classical Period of Greece

479 BCE

Confucianism

Period: 461 BCE to 429 BCE

Reign of Pericles

Athens, Greece; during a golden age of arts and culture

458 BCE

Oresteia is Written

trilogy of tragic plays by Aeschylus; performed in Athens, Greece

440 BCE

The Histories is Written

by Herodotus; account of the Greco-Persian wars

432 BCE

Parthenon is Built

Acropolis, Athens, Greece

Period: 431 BCE to 404 BCE

Peloponnesian War

Greece's civil war; Sparta defeats Athens

429 BCE

Oedipus Rex is Written

tragic play by Sophocles; performed in Athens, Greece

400 BCE

Hippocratic Oath is Articulated

for physicians to do no harm; Hippocrates; Greece

400 BCE

Birth of Buddhism

386 BCE

Plato Opens the Academy

Athens, Greece

338 BCE

Battle of Chaeronea

gave Macedon under Philip II and Alexander power over all Greek city-states, such as Athens

336 BCE

Aristotle Opens the Lyceum

Athens, Greece

336 BCE

Alexander the Great Becomes King

of Macedon; modern-day Greece

333 BCE

Battle of Issus

conflict between Greece under Alexander the Great and Persia under Darius III; in Turkey

332 BCE

Alexander's Conquest of Syria and Egypt

331 BCE

Battle of Gaugamela

conflict between Greece under Alexander the Great and the Persian Empire; Alexander emerges as ruler of the Persian Empire; in Iraqi Kurdistan

327 BCE

Invasion of the Indian Subcontinent

by Alexander the Great; in Pakistan

323 BCE

Death of Alexander the Great

221 BCE

Unification of China

under Emperor Qin Shi Huang

Period: 218 BCE to 201 BCE

Second Punic War

wars between Carthage and Rome

206 BCE

Great Wall of China is Built

under Qin Shi Huang

202 BCE

Battle of Zama

end of the Second Punic War; modern-day Tunisia; Rome under Scipio Africans defeats Carthage under Hannibal

Period: 149 BCE to 146 BCE

Third Punic War

final war between Carthage and Rome

146 BCE

Carthage is Razed

49 BCE

Julius Caesar Crosses the Rubicon

initiated the Roman Civil War

45 BCE

Julian Calendar is Made

reformed under Julius Caesar; had 365 days, 12 months, and leap years; modern-day Italy

44 BCE

Julius Caesar is Assassinated

by Brutus, Cassius, and the Senate

31 BCE

Battle of Actium

end of Roman civil wars; Rome under Octavian against Egypt under Mark Antony and Cleopatra; in Greece

27 BCE

Octavian is Made Imperator by the Senate

ceded power to him and marked the beginning of the Roman Empire

Period: 27 BCE to 180

Pax Romana

a period of relative peace in the Roman Empire

Period: 27 BCE to 476

Reign of the Roman Empire

4 BCE

Birth of Jesus

9

Battle of Teutoberg Forest

Germanic forces under Arminius ambushed and destroyed three Roman legions under Publius Quinctilius Varus; modern-day Germany

29

Crucifixion of Jesus

50

Paul Writes Thessalonians

earliest known Christian text

312

Battle of Milvian Bridge

Constantine defeats rival Maxentius to become co-emperor of the Roman Empire

313

Edict of Milan in Issued

by Constantine and Licinius; made Christianity legal in the Roman Empire

390

Edict of Thessalonica is Issued

by Theodosius; made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire

395

Death of Theodosius

divided the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western portions

410

Sack of Rome

by the Visigoths under Alaric

476

End of the Western Roman Empire

Germanic tribes under Flavius Odoacer revolt and depose Romulus Augustulus

570

Muhammad is Born

622

Muhammad Leads the Hejira from Mecca to Medina

632

Qu'ran is Completed

632

Death of Muhammad

732

Battle of Tours-Poitiers

conflict between the Franks under Charles Martel against the Umayyad Caliphate Army under Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi; halted Muslim advance into Western Europe; in France

776