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World History Timeline

  • 4004 BCE

    Creation of the World

  • 2948 BCE

    Noah

  • The Flood
    2348 BCE

    The Flood

  • Period: 2242 BCE to 2206 BCE

    Tower of Babel

  • Period: 2000 BCE to 1500 BCE

    The Minoans

  • 1996 BCE

    Abraham

  • Pyramids First Appear
    1990 BCE

    Pyramids First Appear

  • 1950 BCE

    Sumerians attacked by the Elamites and Amorites (the beginning of the decline of the Sumerians)

  • 1918 BCE

    Issac Born

  • 1875 BCE

    Pyramid of Giza

  • 1792 BCE

    Babylonian Empire Becomes the Largest and Most Powerful Empire in Mesopotamia

  • 1750 BCE

    Hammurabi, King of the Amorites, Writes Code of Law

  • 1745 BCE

    Joseph

  • 1720 BCE

    Northern Egypt (Lower Kingdom) was invaded and taken over by the Hyksos

  • Period: 1570 BCE to 1550 BCE

    Kamos and Ahmose I from Southern Egypt (Upper Kingdom) joined forces with the Nubians and fought together to defeat the Hyksos and expel them from Egypt (wars of liberation)

  • Period: 1500 BCE to 1100 BCE

    The Mycenaeans

  • 1491 BCE

    Moses and the Exodus

  • 1450 BCE

    Mycenaean Greeks take over the Minoans

  • Period: 1279 BCE to 1213 BCE

    Ramses II (Ramses the Great)

  • 1200 BCE

    A period of migrations and turmoil began for the Mycenaeans

  • 1085 BCE

    David

  • 975 BCE

    Monarchy Divides

  • 900 BCE

    Sparta founded

  • 722 BCE

    Assyrian Destruction of Israel

  • Period: 700 BCE to 650 BCE

    Greece ruled by nobles

  • 650 BCE

    Sparta rises to military dominance

  • Period: 650 BCE to 500 BCE

    Greek ruled by tyrants

  • 604 BCE

    Nebuchadnezzar II became king of Babylon

  • 586 BCE

    Babylonian Captivity of Judah

  • 546 BCE

    Persia attacked Greece

  • 539 BCE

    Cyrus the Great conquered Mesopotamia and expanded the Persian Empire, bringing an end to the Babylonian Empire in the process

  • Period: 500 BCE to 336 BCE

    Greece divided into smaller city states

  • 480 BCE

    Battle of Thermopylae

  • 479 BCE

    Greece defeats Persia, ending the series of wars between them

  • 431 BCE

    Thebans attack Athenian outpost at Plataea

  • Period: 431 BCE to 421 BCE

    First phase of The Peloponnesian War (Archidamian War)

    The first phase (431–421 BC) was named the Ten Years War, or the Archidamian War, after the Spartan king Archidamus II, who invaded Attica several times with the full Hoplite army of the Peloponnesian League, the alliance network dominated by Sparta (then known as Lacedaemon)
  • Period: 431 BCE to 404 BCE

    The Second Peloponnesian War or The Peloponnesian War

    Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases
  • Period: 421 BCE to 413 BCE

    Second phase of the Peloponnesian War (Peace of Nicias and Sicilian Expedition)

    Several battles took place during the Peace of Nicias. The Sicilian Expedition was an Athenian military campaign in Sicily from 415–413 BCE. The ambitious invasion, intended to conquer the city of Syracuse and cut off Spartan grain supplies, resulted in the almost destruction of the Athenian expedition and marked a major turning point in the war
  • 418 BCE

    The battle of Mantinea

  • Period: 413 BCE to 404 BCE

    Third phase of the Peloponnesian War

    The Sicilian disaster prompted the third phase of the war (413–404 BC), named the Decelean War, or the Ionian War
  • Period: 394 BCE to 386 BCE

    The Corinthian War

  • 371 BCE

    Sparta defeated by Thebes at the Battle of Leuctra

  • 350 BCE

    Philip of Macedon invaded Greece

  • Period: 320 BCE to 550 BCE

    Gupta Empire in India

    Often called the "Golden Age of India," this period saw massive advancements in science, mathematics (including the concept of zero), and art.
  • 221 BCE

    Unification of China

    The Qin Dynasty unified China for the first time, establishing the imperial system and beginning construction on the Great Wall of China.
  • 146 BCE

    Sparta incorporated into the Roman Republic

  • 4 BCE

    Jesus

  • Period: 1300 to 1450

    Early Renaissance

  • 1324

    Mansa Musa's Pilgrimage

    The ruler of the Mali Empire traveled to Mecca, distributing so much gold that he reportedly caused a decade of inflation in Egypt.
  • Period: 1347 to 1351

    The Black Death

    A plague pandemic that killed around 75-200 million people
  • 1440

    Invention of the Gutenberg Press

    Johannes Gutenberg’s movable type press revolutionized the spread of information, fueling the Renaissance and Reformation.
  • Period: 1450 to 1527

    High Renaissance

  • Period: 1450 to

    Age of Exploration

  • 1451

    Christopher Columbus is born in Genoa

  • 1453

    Fall of Constantinople

  • Period: 1485 to

    The Tudor Period

  • 1492

    Christopher Columbus Sailed across the Atlantic Ocean

  • 1493

    Christopher Columbus sets sail on his second voyage

  • 1496

    Columbus arrives back at Spain from his second voyage

  • 1498

    Christopher Columbus embarks on his third voyage

  • 1498

    Christopher Columbus and his crew arrive on the island of Trinidad

  • 1502

    Christopher Columbus leaves Spain on his fourth voyage

  • Period: 1527 to

    Late Renaissance/Mannerism

  • Period: to

    John Locke

  • Period: to

    The Age of Enlightenment (or the Age of Reason)

  • Period: to

    Voltaire

  • Period: to

    Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  • Period: to

    Adam Smith

  • Period: to

    Emmanuel Kant

  • Period: to

    Cesare Beccaria

  • Period: to

    Mary Wollstonecraft

  • America Declares of Independence

    The 13 colonies declared their separation from Great Britain, a moment influenced by European Enlightenment ideals.
  • Treaty of Alliance with France

    Negotiated by Benjamin Franklin, this was the first U.S. military alliance, providing critical support for the Revolutionary War.
  • Emmanuel Kant Published Critique of Pure Reason

  • Treaty of Paris

    Great Britain formally recognized American independence, officially ending the Revolutionary War.
  • The Cotton Gin

    Eli Whitney’s invention revolutionized the cotton industry by automating the separation of seeds from fiber.
  • Louisiana Purchase

    The U.S. purchased a massive territory from Napoleonic France, nearly doubling its size and signaling its westward ambitions.
  • Period: to

    War of 1812

    Often called the "Second War of Independence," it was a byproduct of the global Napoleonic Wars between Britain and France
  • Monroe Doctrine

    President James Monroe declared that the Western Hemisphere was closed to further European colonization
  • The Electric Telegraph

    Samuel Morse developed the telegraph and Morse code, enabling near-instantaneous long-distance communication
  • First Public Use of Anesthesia

    John Collins Warren performed the first successful surgery using ether at Massachusetts General Hospital.
  • Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

    Ended the Mexican-American War and annexed territories including California and the Southwest.
  • Kanagawa Treaty

    Commodore Matthew Perry's mission ended Japan's self-imposed isolation, opening its ports to American trade.
  • Alaska Purchase

    Known as "Seward's Folly," this treaty with Russia added 586,000 square miles to the U.S. for $7.2 million.
  • Meiji Restoration in Japan

    Japan ended its isolationist policy and the Tokugawa shogunate, rapidly modernizing into a global power.
  • Opening of the Suez Canal

    This artificial waterway connected the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, drastically shortening trade routes between Europe and Asia.
  • Incandescent Light Bulb

    Thomas Edison perfected a commercially viable electric lighting system, fundamentally changing urban life and work hours.
  • Period: to

    Berlin Conference

    European powers met to divide Africa into colonies, an event known as the "Scramble for Africa".
  • Spanish-American War

    Following a swift victory over Spain, the U.S. gained Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, emerging as a trans-oceanic power.
  • Open Door Policy

    A diplomatic note issued by Secretary of State John Hay calling for equal trading rights for all nations in China.
  • First Powered Flight

    Orville and Wilbur Wright achieved the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered aircraft in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
  • Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo

  • Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, marking the official start of WW1

  • Period: to

    WW1

  • Period: to

    Germany declares war on Russia and France, invades Belgium, and Britain declares war on Germany

  • Period: to

    Battle of Tannenberg: Germany defeats Russia in East Prussia

  • Period: to

    First Battle of the Marne: Allied forces halt the German advance on Paris

  • Period: to

    First Battle of Ypres: Ends the "Race to the Sea" and secures the Western Front trench line

  • Germany begins a naval blockade of Great Britain, using U-boats to target shipping

  • Period: to

    Second Battle of Ypres: Germany introduces poison gas

  • Sinking of the Lusitania

    A German U-boat sinks a British liner, killing 128 Americans
  • Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary

    Italy switches sides
  • Period: to

    Battle of Verdun

    A massive, months-long battle between French and German armies
  • Battle of Jutland

    Major naval battle between British and German fleets
  • Period: to

    Battle of the Somme

    Over 1 million casualties occur in this Allied offensive
  • Tanks are introduced for the first time by the British

  • Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare

  • The United States declares war on Germany, joining the Allied Powers

  • The Bolshevik Revolution begins in Russia

  • Wilson's Fourteen Points

    A blueprint for world peace used as the basis for the armistice ending World War I.
  • Russia signs the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, ending its war with the Central Powers

  • Period: to

    Germany launches "Spring Offensive"

    Germany launches the "Spring Offensive" on the Western Front, gaining ground but suffering heavy losses
  • Battle of Amiens

    The Allied "Hundred Days Offensive" begins, breaking German lines
  • German Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates

  • Germany signs the Armistice, ending the fighting

  • The Treaty of Versailles is signed, formally ending the war and imposing strict penalties on Germany

  • Huge discovery in South Asia proved that Egypt and Mesopotamia were not the only "early civilizations."

  • Discovery of Penicillin

    Alexander Fleming's discovery launched the antibiotic era, drastically increasing human life expectancy.
  • Stock Market Crash

    The collapse of the U.S. market triggered the Great Depression, a global economic crisis.
  • The Nazi Rise to Power

  • Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany

  • Germany invades Poland

  • Period: to

    WW2

  • Chinese Communist Revolution

  • Battle of Britain and Fall of Paris

  • Period: to

    India's Independence

    I do not mean that India's independence only lasted this long, but that this is how long it took for India to obtain independence
  • Germany invades Soviet Union

  • Operation Barbarossa

  • Period: to

    The Holocaust

    while mass murder intensified from 1941, persecution began in 1933 with Hitler's rise to power
  • Battle of Midway

  • Period: to

    The Battle of Stalingrad

  • D-Day

  • Period: to

    Battle of the Bulge

  • Formation of the United Nations

    The U.S. was a leading architect and founding member of the UN, established to maintain international peace.
  • Period: to

    Battles of Iwo Jima & Okinawa

  • Period: to

    Battle of Berlin

  • V-E Day

  • US drops Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima

  • US drops Atomic Bomb on Nagasaki

  • V-J Day

    Japan formally surrenders, ending WW2
  • Independence of India and Pakistan

    The end of British colonial rule led to the partition of the subcontinent and the birth of two sovereign nations
  • Truman Doctrine

    This policy established that the U.S. would provide aid to nations threatened by communism, marking the start of the Cold War.
  • Invention of the Transistor

    Developed at Bell Labs, this device became the fundamental building block of modern electronic devices.
  • Period: to

    The Cold War

  • Formation of Israel

  • The Marshall Plan

    A massive foreign aid program launched to help revive European economies after the war.
  • Period: to

    Berlin Airlift

    The Berlin Airlift, codenamed Operation Vittles, was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. It began after the Soviet Union blockaded all land, rail, and water routes into Allied-controlled West Berlin in an attempt to force the Western powers to abandon the city.
  • North Atlantic Treaty (NATO)

    The first U.S. peacetime military alliance, designed to provide a collective defense against Soviet expansion.
  • Ghana’s Independence

  • Period: to

    The Korean War

  • Polio Vaccine

    Jonas Salk developed the first successful vaccine against polio, leading to its near-total eradication.
  • First Successful Organ Transplant

    Joseph Murray performed the first successful living donor kidney transplant in Boston.
  • Period: to

    The Vietnam War

  • First U.S. Satellite

    Explorer 1 was launched into orbit, marking the beginning of the U.S. presence in space.
  • Period: to

    The Cuban Missile Crisis

  • Computer Mouse and BASIC

    The mouse was invented at SRI International, and the BASIC programming language was developed at Dartmouth, simplifying human-computer interaction.
  • Period: to

    Birth of the Internet

    The development of ARPANET and the subsequent World Wide Web transformed global communication and the information age
  • First Moon Landing

    Humans landed on the lunar surface for the first time during the Apollo 11 mission
  • Opening to China

    President Richard Nixon's visit to Beijing was a pivotal step in normalizing relations and reshaping the global balance of power.
  • Founding of Microsoft

    Bill Gates and Paul Allen established the company that would dominate the personal computer software market
  • Camp David Accords

    A major diplomatic breakthrough brokered by President Jimmy Carter, leading to a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.
  • Permanent Artificial Heart

    The Jarvik-7 was first implanted into a human patient at the University of Utah.
  • Fall of the Berlin Wall

  • NAFTA Implementation

    The North American Free Trade Agreement created one of the world's largest free trade zones between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico
  • Human Genome Draft

    The International Human Genome Project released a rough draft of the human genetic code, opening new doors for personalized medicine.
  • Twin Towers Terrorist Attack

  • Founding of Facebook

    Originally a university networking site, it catalyzed the global social media revolution.
  • Period: to

    Global Financial Crisis

    The collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market triggered the worst global economic downturn since the Great Depression.
  • Introduction of the iPhone

    Apple's release of the first widely used touchscreen smartphone revolutionized personal technology and mobile internet access.
  • Election of Barack Obama

  • Period: to

    Arab Spring

    A series of pro-democracy protests and uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa that led to the ousting of several long-standing dictators.
  • Death of Osama bin Laden

    U.S. Navy SEALs killed the al-Qaeda leader in Pakistan, nearly a decade after the 9/11 attacks
  • Paris Agreement on Climate Change

    Nearly 200 countries signed a landmark accord to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat global warming.
  • Brexit Referendum and Trump Election

    Both events signaled a rise in populism and nationalism in Western democracies.
  • COVID-19 Declared a Pandemic

    The World Health Organization (WHO) signaled a global health crisis that led to lockdowns, an economic recession, and permanent shifts in remote work.
  • U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan

    The end of a 20-year military occupation coincided with the rapid return of the Taliban to power
  • Russian Invasion of Ukraine

    The largest conventional military conflict in Europe since World War II, causing a massive refugee crisis and global energy instability.
  • Release of ChatGPT

    The public launch of generative AI sparked a global "AI Boom," fundamentally changing how information is created and processed.
  • Hamas-Israel War Begins

    A major attack on Israel led to a devastating conflict in Gaza, causing significant regional instability and a global humanitarian crisis.
  • Record Global Clean Energy Growth

    Despite rising emissions, 2024 saw record investments in solar power and electric vehicles as the world attempted to accelerate the energy transition

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