The Middle Ages

  • The Great Schism
    1378 BCE

    The Great Schism

    Great Schism. The formal split (1054) between the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. The dispute (1378-1417) within the Catholic church over papal succession.
  • The Great Famine
    1315 BCE

    The Great Famine

    Great Famine, also called Irish Potato Famine, Great Irish Famine, or Famine of 1845–49, famine that occurred in Ireland in 1845–49 when the potato crop failed in successive years. The crop failures were caused by late blight, a disease that destroys both the leaves and the edible roots, or tubers, of the potato plant.
  • Magna Carta is signed
    1215 BCE

    Magna Carta is signed

    The Magna Carta was a document signed by King John after negotiations with his barons and their French and Scots allies at Runnymede, Surrey, England in 1215. There they sealed the Great Charter, called in Latin Magna Carta. ... It is one of the most celebrated documents in the History of England.
  • The First Crusade is decreed
    1095 BCE

    The First Crusade is decreed

    The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a number of crusades that attempted to recapture the Holy Land, called for by Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in 1095. Urban called for a military expedition to aid the Byzantine Empire, which had recently lost most of Anatolia to the Seljuq Turks.
  • Charlemagne, the Emperor of Romans
    800 BCE

    Charlemagne, the Emperor of Romans

    Charlemagne (c. 742-814), also known as Karl and Charles the Great, was a medieval emperor who ruled much of Western Europe from 768 to 814. ... In 800, Pope Leo III (750-816) crowned Charlemagne emperor of the Romans. In this role, he encouraged the Carolingian Renaissance, a cultural and intellectual revival in Europe.
  • The Fall of Western Roman Empire
    476 BCE

    The Fall of Western Roman Empire

    The Fall of the Western Roman Empire (also called Fall of the Roman Empire or Fall of Rome) was the process of decline in the Western Roman Empire in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vast territory was divided into several successor polities.
  • The Black Death
    1348

    The Black Death

    The Black Death was an epidemic of bubonic plague, a disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis that circulates among wild rodents where they live in great numbers and density. Such an area is called a 'plague focus' or a 'plague reservoir'.