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BC: Before Christ

 

                         

4000 BC Antediluvian Age

 http://www.abiblestudy.com/part1.html

3760 BC First year of Jewish calendar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3760_BC

2100 BC First Dynasty of Babylon established by Sumu-Abu. Abraham born in Ur in Mesopotamia

http://personal.eunet.fi/pp/tilmari/tilmari2.htm

2000 BC Twelfth Egyptian Dynasty begins, with Thebes as capital. Hammurabi, King of Babylon, reforms law and introduce agricultural improvements. Abraham leaves Ur.

http://www.eyelid.co.uk/index.htm

1700 BC Assyria becomes independent of Babylonia.

http://www.reference.com/browse/Egyptian%20Empire

1550BC Aramaic was the native language of Jesus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramaic_language

1550 BC The Phoenician alphabet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenician_alphabet

1500 BC The Book of Job written by an unknown Israelite. The sacred works of Hindiusm, the Vedas, a collection of hymns is written in Sanskrit.

http://executableoutlines.com/job/job_01.htm

1446 BC The Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) are written between 1446 and 1406 BC

http://www.abiblestudy.com/part2.html

1250 BC Israelite exodus from Egypt during the reign of King Ramses II.

1200 BC Rameses III leads in Twentieth Egyptian dynasty.

1193 BC Greeks destroy Troy.

1186 BC The Trojan War.

1020 BC Saul becomes the first Israelite king.

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?ParagraphID=blj

 
740-681 BC Isaiah The Prophecies of Isaiah.        http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Isaiah.html

730 BC In the year 730 B.C., a man by the name of Piye decided the only way to save Egypt.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/02/black-pharaohs/robert-draper-text

 
6BC
Jesus of Nazareth born between 6 and 4 BC, about 2 years before King Herod's death.
http://www.jesuscentral.com/?Source=Google-Test&gclid=CJaX4NKN6ZUCFQikHgodgzWoeA

4BC
King Herod dies.
http://www.livius.org/he-hg/herodians/herod_agrippa_i.html

                                                            23BC
                                                            Strabo's Geography published. Greek geographer and historian
                                                            http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Strab.+6.1.1

27BC
Probable crucifixion date of Jesus.
http://www.geocities.com/athens/parthenon/3021/ascension1.html

The 1st Century

The year 0 was not recorded
1 - 32 AD

AD stands for "Anno Domini," a Latin phrase meaning "in the year of the Lord" and referring to the years after that. On what date was Jesus born?

There are three basic references to the year and the month of the birth of Jesus Christ. In the New Testament, the apostles tell of the Magi following the star from the east, and the shepherds with their flock out in the fields. The third reference comes from the dating of the founding of Rome.

The Magi
The Magi were astrologers and probably came from Persia or southern Arabia. They are believed to be linked with the priesthood of Zoroastrianism, who practised astrology. The 5th Century BC historian Herodotus attested to the astrological prowess of the priests of Persia. (The Bible does not give the number of magi that visited Jesus. The number of three was derived from the three (types of) gifts they presented.) Which star did the Magi follow?

http://www.reference.com/browse/Zoroastrianism

In ancient astrology, the giant planet Jupiter was styled as the King's Planet, representing the highest god and ruler of the universe: Marduk to the Babylonians; Zeus to the Greeks; Jupiter to the Romans. The ringed planet Saturn was deemed the shield of Palestine, while the constellation of Pisces, which was also associated with Syria and Palestine, represented epochal events. Jupiter encountering Saturn in Pisces would have meant that a divine and cosmic ruler was to appear in Palestine.

The astronomer Kepler noted in the early 17th century that every 805 years, Jupiter and Saturn come into conjunction, with Mars joining the configuration a year later. Since Kepler, astronomers have computed that for ten months in 7BC, Jupiter and Saturn traveled very close to each other in the night sky, and in May, September, and December of that year, they were conjoined. Mars joined the configuration in February of 6BC.

The Chinese had more exact and more complete astronomical records than the astrologers of the Middle East, particularly in their tabulations of comets and novae. In 1871, astronomer John Williams published an authoritative list of comets derived from Chinese annuals. Over March and April 5BC, Comet No. 52 on the Williams list appeared for some 70 days near the constellation Capricorn, and would have been visible in both the Far and Middle East. As each night wore on, the comet would seem to have moved westward across the southern sky. This could have been the Magi's astral marker. Comet No. 53 on the Williams list is a tailless comet - which could have been a nova - that appeared over March and April in 4BC in constellation Aquila, which was also visible all over the East.

The star that the Magi followed - the Star of Bethlehem - could be any of the astral markers that appeared in 6, 5 and 4BC.

The shepherds

Luke 2: 8: "And there were shepherds living out in the fields near by, keeping watch over their flocks at night."

In Palestine - as in the rest of the Middle East at the time - shepherds stayed with their flocks in the fields only from Spring to Autumn. They brought their sheep in during the winter to protect them from the cold and rain. It is thus unlikely that the shepherds went to Bethlehem in December.

The Bible does not mention the celebration of Christ's birthday, and the early Christians seem not to have celebrated His birthday. However, to avoid persecution, they would hang holly on their doors during December just as the Roman pagans did for Saturnalia, their feasts honouring their god of harvest. Likewise, in September, during the Jewish Feast of Trumpets (modern-day Rosh Hashanah), they would borrow some of the custom to protect themselves, carrying on with their own customs behind closed doors. This added to the speculation that early Christians celebrated the birth of Christ in September. It is noted that Jerusalem swelled from about 100,000 people to over 1 million during the Feast of the Trumpets, which meant that there would have been little room at the inns of Jerusalem and the surrounding towns.

The dating of the founding of Rome

In the 6th Century, the Roman monk-mathematician-astronomer named Dionysis Exeguus (Dionysis the Little) reformed the calendar to pivot around the birth of Christ. He dated the Nativity 753 years from the founding of Rome, calculated to the date King Herod died. But Dionysis miscalculated, because Herod died only 749 years after the founding of Rome, thus 4BC.

Herod, who ordered all the babies in Bethlehem younger than 2 years killed, was, of course, alive when the Magi visited the baby Jesus. So we know that Jesus was born in or before 4BC, as astronomers point out when referring to the Star of Bethlehem.


Early Christian appear not to have celebrated the birth of Christ. In fact, Christmas became widely popular only in the 19th Century.

Matthew 2: 1-2: After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi came from the east to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."

Christ's birth in Bethlehem about 2000 years ago is celebrated on 25th of December. But the early Christians appear not to have celebrated Christ's birthday. In fact, unlike with Easter, there is no New Testament record of Christmas celebrations, and no date is given for the Nativity. The 25th December was introduced as Christ's birthday only in 320AD.

The Greek term us in the Bible for star, "aster", can mean any luminous heavenly body, including a comet, meteor, nova, or planet.

Christmas today

The reference to the birth of Jesus "two thousand years ago" is wrong in two ways: a. there was no year 0, thus we have had only 1998 years since Dionysis (incorrectly) calculated the year of the Nativity. b. Dionysis's calculation was off by at least 5 years, as mentioned above.

In the year 274AD, solstice fell on 25th December, and Roman Emperor Aurelian proclaimed the date as "Natalis Solis Invicti," the festival of the birth of the invincible sun. In 320 AD, Pope Julius I specified the 25th of December as the official date of the birth of Jesus Christ. In 325AD, Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor, introduced Christmas as an immovable feast on 25 December. In 354AD, Bishop Liberius of Rome officially ordered his members to celebrate the birth of Jesus on 25 December.

When was the first Christmas observed? We find it first in Rome, in the time of Bishop Liberius, 354 A.D

http://www.efoothill.org/index_files/12-25-02.shtml

In some parts of the Roman Empire (mostly the Eastern parts), solstice was celebrated on 6 January, the last festival day for those who started sols December 25

 (Saturnalia was held over 12 days.) The Orthodox Churches of Eastern Europe celebrate Christmas on 6 January.

The most likely year that Jesus was born, is 6BC, probably in the month of March. There was no year 0 (zero) recorded, so the 2nd millennium celebration of the birth of Jesus should have been held in March 1995. But considering that Nativity was not celebrated at all for the first 300-or-so years, and that Christmas became widely popular only in the 19th Century, it remains remarkable that the birthday of Jesus Christ today is one of the biggest industries in the world. A rather apt acknowledgement.

04AD Death of Herod.

06 AD Judea becomes a Roman province. Candidates for political office in China must take civil service exams. Emperor Cheng is succeeded by Emperor Ngai.

26AD Pontius Pilate becomes Roman procurator of Judea.

27 AD Probable the year that Jesus Christ was crucified. (The exact year of the crucifixion is disputed; often quoted as 33AD.)

29-33 ADThe ministry of Jesus

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?HistoryID=ac34&ParagraphID=ddz#ddz

33 - 64AD

34AD Apostle Paul begins missionary journeys.


37AD
Paul's conversion and beginning of missionary work.
http://www.emtraer.com/Worship/Sermons/message.htm
http://www.stjohns.presbychurch.net/Sermons/message.htm
http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/Pauline_Chronology.htm

44AD
James- first apostle martyred.
http://www.prayerbook.ca/crouse/sermons/st_james_ii.htm 

50ADPedianius Dioscorides' first pharmalogical textbook. 
                                                                                                                                                                                                        

63AD ? Death of St Paul in Rome (some sources quote St Paul's execution in 67AD)

Saint, died AD. c67, a missionary and apostle to the gentiles: author of several of the Epistles. Compare Saul (def. 2).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Paul


65 - 99

65AD First persecution of Christians in Rome. The Gospel according to St. Mark, the earliest of the four Gospels, is written.


66AD
First Jewish revolt against Rome. Jesus brother, James, and Paul martyred.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/revolt.html

 

68AD Nero commits suicide.

69-96ADThe Flavian emperors
 

 
70AD  Jerusalem destroyed by Titus. The third Temple is burnt and destroyed 
 

73AD Siege of Massada

http://www.brainfly.net/html/books/brn0268.htm.

 

77AD Around this year, the last book of the Old Testament, the Book of Esther, is translated into Greek

 

 90AD Early Church structure established bishops,prestbyters, and deacons,

 

95AD Apostel John writes Book of Revelation.  Renewed persecution of Christians.


 

The 2nd Century

100 - 149

100ADJewish Christians forced to leave the Jewish fold.

107AD Persecution of Christians.

125AD Christians persecuted

127ADPtolemy publishes first book of Almagest- vast      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almagest   

150 - 199

136AD Jewish revolt suppressed - dispersion of Jewish race.

166AD Maccabaean rebellion against Seleucid rule begins in Judah.

167AD Antiochus IV dedicates the temple in Jerusalem as a shrine to Zeus.

168AD Rome divides Macedonia into four republics and forbids contact between the four.

 


                                                                                                            

The 3rd Century

200 – 249

200AD Palestinian scholar Judah ha-Nasi compiles tracts of the Mishnah, beginning the creation of Jewish Talmudic law. Rome boasts 1.5 million inhabitants, most living in 3- to 8-story-high insulae, apartment blocks made of brick, wood or rubble.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah_ha-Nasi

200ADStart of the barbarian invasions of the west (200-1405)

203AD Origen, aged 22, succeeds Clement as leader of the Christian school in Alexandria.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Clement_I

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origen

 226=651AD            Sassanid Empire 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sassanid_Empire

250AD Diophantus, Greek Mathematician publishes first algebra book.

272AD Three Christians beheaded near a hill outside of Paris. The hill will later be called Montmartre, the Mountain of the Martyrs.

276AD Mani, a sage from Persia who calls himself a apostle of Jesus Christ, is executed for preaching Zoroastrian dualism with Christian theology, angering followers of both religions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mani_(prophet)

299AD Christians across Roman empire now about 10% of the population

                          

The 4th Century

300 - 349

300AD The church council of Elvira, Spain, prohibits intermarriage between Jews and Christians, also forbidding them to eat together.

301AD The Kingdom of Armenia is the first nation to make Christianity its official religion.

303AD Emperor Diocletian orders the persecution of Christians.

312AD Constantine defeats Maxentius at Battle of Milvian Bridge and becomes the ruler of the western Roman Empire. He believes the Christian God has guided him to victory.

313AD Edict of Milan issues by Constantine I (Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor - he converted on his death bed in 337), allowing Christians to practice their faith in the Roman Empire.

325AD Constantine the Great summons the Council of Nicaea, which establishes that God the Father and God the Son (Jesus Christ) are of the same essence. Constantine introduces Sunday as a holy day in a new 7-day week. He also introduced movable (Easter) and immovable feasts (Christmas).

  325 AD   Athanasius attended the Council of Nicaea (325) 

  http://www.ntcanon.org/Athanasius.shtml

                                        
330ADConstantinople founded as center of Christianity.

326AD Constantine the Great and his mother Helena start a perdio of building churches in Palestine to mark the places considered holy to Christianity, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

330AD Founding of Constantinople (which became Istanbul in 1900), built above the ancient site of Byzantium, which became the centre of Christianity.

333AD Constantine decrees that Christians of Jewish heritage break all ties with Judaism or be executed.

335ADThe Church of the Holy Sepulchre is consecrated on the site of what is believed to be Christ's tomb.

337AD Constantine the Great converts to Christianity on his deathbed, according to Bishop Eusebius.

341AD Ethiopians introduced to Coptic Christianity

350 - 399

350AD Christianity reaches Ireland.

359AD Under the leader of the Sanhedrin, the Nasi Hillel II, leader of the Sanhedrin, fix the calendar according to a standardised system of calculations (as used today). Previously, the calendar was based on eye witness of sightings of the new moon.

363AD Constantine's grandson becomes emperor, becoming known as Julian the Apostate. H rescinds the law that forbids marriage between Christians and Jews and rescinds the law that bans Jews from entering Jerusalem; he also abolishes privileges that have been bestowed upon the Christian clergy.
364AD The frontiers of empire

370AD Huns invade Europe  

378AD Valens, the Christian emperor of the eastern half of the Roman empire, is defeated by Christian Germans, Goths, at Adrianople.

380AD ADCo-emperors Gratian and Theodosius decress that the doctrine of the Trinity is the official state religion.

383AD Shapur III becomes king of the Sassanid empire.

384AD Buddhism introduced to the royal families of Paekche (southern Korea) and Silla (central Korea).

387ADAugustine converted to Christianity.

388AD Shapur III, the Sassanid king, lifts the persecutions of Christians.

390AD Jerome's Latin Vulgate manuscripts published, containg all 80 books of the Scriptures (39 Old Testestament, 27 New Testament, 14 Apocrypha).

391AD One of the Seven Wonders of the World, the library of Alexandria, is destroyed by fire.

395AD Division of the Roman Empire, when Emperor Theodosius I dies. (His two sons appointed successors: 17-year-old Arcadius given rule over the east; 10-year-old Honorius ruling the west, but ruling from Milan instead Rome.) Augustine is named bishop of Hippo (in North Africa).

399AD St. Augustine of Hippo writes his Confessions.

 

 

The 5th Century

400 – 449

421AD Bahram V, Sassanid king, begins persecution of Christians. City of Venice is founded by Romans fleeing from Germans.

430AD St. Augustine of Hippo dies as the Vandals besiege his city.

432AD St Patrick returns to Ireland and confronts King Laoghaire who allows him to spread Christianity.

439AD Vandals capture Carthage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandals

                                                 
440ADPope Leo 1 proclaims supremacy of papacy in governing Christianity.

440AD December 25th was not celebrated as the birthdate of Christ until this year. See Christmas

 

450 - 499

450AD Conversion of Ireland to Christianity. (Missionary work started under Bishop Palladius 431, but most Irish people credit St Patrick with their conversion to Christianity.)
475 AD Visigothic kingdoms: 5th - 8th century AD
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?HistoryID=ab50&ParagraphID=eby#eby

476AD The western Roman Empire ends when its last Emperor, Romulus Augustulus, is forced into retirement by German commander, Odoacer, who seizer power. (The eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, centered in Constantinople, will continue until 1453.)

480AD Approximate completion date of Babylonian Talmud.
The 6th Century
500 - 549
 

500AD Scriptures have now been translated into more than 500 languages.

507AD Clovis, King of the Franks, defeats the Visigoths at the Battle of Vouille.

508AD Paris (now called Lutetia) established by Clovis as the capital of the Kingdom of the Franks

511AD Clovis, King of the Franks, dies. The Merovingian Dynasty is continued by his sons.

521AD Boëthius introduces Greek musical letter notation to the West.

525AD Dionysius Exiguus (Dionysis the Little), a Roman monk and astronomer, records in his Easter Tables Jesus of Nazareth's birthday as December 25, 753 years after Rome was founded. The error, an incorrect year and date, is repeated in all Christian calendars. Dionysius also left out counting the year 0. See When was Jesus born?

529AD Codification of Roman Law, Justinian's Code, in a series of books called Corpus Juris Civilis, by the Emperor of Byzantine. Many legal maxims would be based on this code, which included the clause, "The things which are common to all (and not capable of being owned) are: the air, running water, the sea and the seashores." The spelling of the word justice originates from Justinian's Code.
537ADKing Arthur killed at Camlan

537AD Saint Benedict of Nursia, the father of Western monasticism, outlines the step for leading a devout life in what is known as the Rule of St Benedict. The Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) is dedicated in Constantinople.

542AD The plague of Europe, known as the Great Plague of Justinian (a bubonic plague) ravages Europe. It would last until 593, killing half the population of Europe.

543AD Byzantine general Belisarius defeat the Vandals in North Africa.

547AD The famous church of St. Vitale in Ravenna, known for its octagonal shape and mosaics of the Byzantine Emperor and empress, Justinian and Theodora, is completed.

 

550 - 599

552AD Emperor Justinian initiates Europe's silk industry by sending missionaries to smuggle silkworms out of China and Ceylon. Historian Procopius writes Anecdota, littered with scandalous gossip about Justinian and Theodora and their commander, Belisarius.

560AD The Hephthalites of Samarkand are defeated by a Persian-Turkish alliance and vanish as an identifiable people.

563AD Irish missionary Columba establishes a center of learning on the island of Iona.

565AD Emperor Justinian dies.
 

568AD The Lombards invade Italy, reaching Milan.
 590AD Pope Gregory I (the Great) begins the papacy which will reform Europe. He sends monk Augustine to the British Isles. Augustine will lead the conversion of England and found a monastery in Kent town (later known as Canterbury), one of the oldest Anglo-Saxon settlements, dating from the mid-400's.

597AD St Augustine of Canterbury introduces Christianity to Britain. 

                                                                
590ADPope Gregory 1 elected first medieval pope.
 
597ADCanterbury bishopric founded.
The 7th Century
 
600 - 649
 

601AD The earliest dated English words are 'Town' and 'Priest', both recorded in the Laws of Ethelbert.

604AD Pope Gregory the Great dies.

609AD ? The prophet Mohammed begins to preach the religion of Islam openly in Mecca (a holy city before the existence of Islam). (Some sources claim year to be 613AD)

622AD Mohammed, founder of Islam, initially hoped that the Jews would recognise him as their prophet but when they did not. Mecca's leaders, who find Mohammed's teachings objectionable, force the prophet to flee to Medina. The flight will be known as the Hegira.(Muhammad and his followers refused bowing toward Jerusalem and began bowing toward Mecca; Muhammad abandoned Saturday as the Sabbath and made Friday his special day of the week.) From Medina, he would try to drive Jewish tribes from Arabia. Mohammed's daughter, Fatima, dies. Her two sons, Hassan and Hussein, will establish the Fatimid Dynasty.
                                                                     
692ADCompletion of Dome of the Rock.

 http://www.bibleplaces.com/domeofrock.htm

The 8th Century

700 - 749

711AD Moslem conquest of Spain. Jews welcome them as liberators.

717AD Caliph Omar II grants tax exemption to all Muslim believers.

718AD Leo the Isaurian, Emperor Leo III, holds off Muslim attacks on Constantinople for more than a year.

726AD Byzantine Emperor Leo III forbids the worship of icons in an attempt to limit the powers of the monastaries.

730ADPope Gregory II excommunicates Leo III for his iconoclasm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_III_the_Isaurian

731AD Anglo-Saxon scholar monk Bede writes Ecclesiastical History of the English People at his monastery in Jarrow. He numbers the years from the time of Christ rather than from the reign of kings, dividing between BC and AD (or BCE and CE).

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/bede-book1.html

732ADBattle of Poitiers-victory of Franks kept Islam out of Christian Europe

 

732AD The word Europe first mentioned. Frankish forces led by Charles Martel halt the Muslim advance into Europe in the Battle of Tours.

735AD England's second archbishopric is established in York; Egbert serves as its first archbishop. Small pox epidemic in Japan; over a period of two years wiping out a third of the population.

 

738AD Boniface begins missionary work among Germanic peoples.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boniface

741AD Charles Martel dies, succeeded by his two sons, Carloman and Pepin (Pepin the Short). Carloman would abdicate to become a monk, leaving Pepin as sole ruler of the Kingdom of the Franks.
 
 

750 - 799

 

750AD Abu-Abbas al-Sarah founds the Abbasid caliphate, which will control most of the Islamic empire for more than three centuries. Arabian mathematicians begin using numbers that originated in India. In Mexico, the great city of Teotihuacan (Teotihuacán) is destroyed.

http://www.didyouknow.cd/decimal.htm

751AD Islamic army defeats the Chinese at the Battle of Atlakh, giving Muslims control of the Silk Road.

754AD The Donation of Pepin establishes the papal states and recognizes the right of the papacy to control lands in Italy.

763AD Mansur moves the Abbasid capital to Baghdad.

771AD Charles becomes king of the Franks. A devout Christian, he also would have four wives and children by five mistresses.

774AD Charlemagne overruns the Lombards in northern Italy.

775ADCharlemagne declares war against the Saxons in Germany.

778AD Basque forces decimate Charlemagne's rear guard in the Pyrenees, inspiring the later epic The Song of Roland. Offa, King of Mercia, extends his power throughout southern England.

780AD Musa al-Kwarizmi (780-850) born in Baghdad. He introduced Hindu-Arabic numerals in his book Kitab al-jabr wa al-mugabalah. Byzantine Emperor Leo IV dies, succeeded by his 10-year-old son, Constantine VI, with his mother Irene as regent.

787AD The Second Council of Nicaea condemns iconoclasm and supports the use of icons in religious worship. Charlemagne learns to read and reproaches ecclesiastics for their uncouth language and 'unlettered tongues.' He orders monasteries to establish reading schools for clergy and laity.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11045a.htm

797AD Irene becomes the first Byzantine empress after ordering soldiers to seize and blind her son, Emperor Constantine VI.

 

The 9th Century

800 - 849

800AD Coronation of Charlemagne, king of the Franks and now first Holy Roman Emperor, on Christmas day. Crowned by Pope Leo III as "Augustus, crowned of God, emperor of the Romans" in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, he would become Charles I of France, called Charles the Great.

802AD Byzantine empress Irene deposed and exiled to the island of Lesbos: minister of finance Nicephorus I succeeds her.

807AD Abbasid caliph Harun al Rashid decrees that Baghdad Christians are to wear a blue badge and Jews a yellow badge.

809AD Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid dies; he will be memorialized in Arabian Nights.

814AD Charlemagne dies of pleurisy. He is succeeded by his son, Louis I (the Pious).

829 AD Nile frozen over (happens again in 1010).

840AD Emperor Louis the Pious dies.

843AD The three sons of deceased Emperor Louis the Pious sign the Treaty of Verdun, dividing the Carolingian Empire into much of what modern Europe is today.

http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/WestEurope/VerdunTreaty.html

850 - 899

867 AD Byzantine Emperor Basil I establishes the Macedonian Dynasty that will rule Byzantium until 1054.

868 AD The world's first printed book The Diamond Sutra is produced in China.

http://www.didyouknow.cd/words/gutenberg.htm

869 AD Greek brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius develop the Cyrillic alphabet, based on the Greek alphabet of the time, for the Slavic peoples. (The Cyrillic alphabet is now used in Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian, and other languages. The original alphabet had 43 letters, but the modern languages have fewer: Bulgarian 30, Russian has 32, Serbian 30, and Ukrainian 33.

http://www.friends-partners.org/oldfriends/language/russian-alphabet.html

The 10th Century

900-949

927 AD Prince Caslav Klonimirovic drives out Bulgarians, uniting (what today is) Serbia, Montenegro, Herzegovina and Bosnia to found Serbia. Orthodox Christianity is introduced as the state religion.

http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/

950 - 999

950AD  Córdoba, Spain is Europe's intellectual center. The Muslim city boasts medical schools, modern libraries and a paper trade.

962AD Mieszko founds the Piast Dynasty in Poland, convert to Christianity.

http://polishpress.wordpress.com/timeline-of-poland/

975 AD Arabs introduce modern arithmetical notation to Europeans, making calculations easier than Roman numerals.

976 AD The first recorded use of the zero in Europe. Austria founded when Holy Roman Emperor Otto II gives a margravate to the Franconian count Leopold (Liutpold).

982AD  Eric the Red, expelled from Iceland for murder, establishes Viking colony in Greenland. 700 people followed him but only 14 of the 25 ships reach the island.

987 AD Hugh Capet is elected King of France. (The Capetian dynasty rules until 1328)

988 Ad Grand Duke Vladimir of Kiev converts to Christianity, takes the name Basil in honor of the Emperor of Constantinople, marries the Emperor's sister, Anna, and begins a general conversion of Russia.

995 Ad Anglo-Saxon (Early Roots of English Language) Translations of The New Testament Produced.

 

The 11th Century
 
1000 - 1049
 
  AD1000      World population 300 million. Scandinavia and Hungary converted to Christianity.     Leif Ericson lands in North America, calling it Vinland. Gunpowder invented in China. 
 
 AD 1009 Muslims destroy Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
 
 AD  1010  Nile frozen over - also happened in 829.                                              
                                                                        
 AD1023 Paper money printed in China.
 

1050 - 1099

AD 1050 Birth of the Yiddish language, formed out of the meeting between old French and old Italian dialects with admixture of Hebrew words.
 

AD 1054 East-West schism in Christianity, the final split separating the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic after centuries of disagreement. In this year Pope Leo IX and Patriarch Michael Cerularius excommunicated each other.

AD 1068 Construction on Cathedral in Pisa begins.

AD 1073 Pope Gregory VII attacks the problem called simony, the buying and selling of offices in the church, such as paying a large fee to be named bishop. He then decreed an end to marriage among the clergy.

.AD 1088 First modern university established in Bologna, Italy. Universities developed over centuries as "stadiums

 

AD 1095 At Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II calls for holy war to wrest Jerusalem from Muslims, launching the First Crusade the next year. Gilbert Crispin's "A Friendly Disputation" published - a series of discussions on the opposing arguments of faiths between him and a Jew from Mainz.

 

AD 1096 First Crusade begins, first of eight until 1291.

 

AD 1099 Crusaders capture Jerusalem.

The 12th Century

1100 - 1149

AD 1100 Latin Kingdom established by Crusaders, protected by Knights of St John the Hospitaller
 
 AD 1111 Henry V crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Paschal II.

AD 1119 Knights Templar Order established in Jerusalem

AD 1122 Concordat of Worms, the Pactum Calixtinum.

AD 1123 First Lateran Council.

AD 1124 Honorius II is elected pope

AD 1138 Saladin, a Kurd, born as Yusuf Salah ad-Din Ayyub in Tikrit, Iraq. Earthquake in Aleppo, Syria kills 230,000 people.

AD 1146 Second Crusade led by King Louis VIII of France and Emperor Conrad III.

AD 1147 Moscow built by Prince Yuri Dolgoruky

1150 - 1199

AD 1154 Arab geographer Sharif al-Idrisi maps the known world while in the service of the Norman king of Sicily, Roger II.

AD 1162 Genghis Khan born.

AD 1172 King Henry II of England is declared Feudal Lord of Ireland by the Pope.

AD 1172 King Henry II of England is declared Feudal Lord of Ireland by the Pope.

AD 1173 Building of the Leaning Tower of Pisa begins. Canute I Eriksson becomes King of all Sweden.

AD 1174 Muslims capture Jerusalem.

AD 1187 At the Battle of Hattin, Horns of Hattin, Muslim armies under Saladin wipe out the majority of the Crusader forces (led by Guy of Lusignan, also known as Guy of Jerusalem or Guy of Cyprus), reconquering Jerusalem and other cities. Saladin allows Jews to return to Jerusalem - the first time they would return since the Christians took the city in 1099.

AD 1189 Richard I, known as Coeur de Lion or Richard the Lionheart, becomes King of England. Third Crusade starts

The 13th Century 

 

1200 - 1249

AD 1202 Leonardo of Pisa publishes the Book of the Abacus explaining the Hindu-Arabic system to Europeans. The system was devised by Musa al-Kwarizmi in the 8th century. (Positional Base Notation and The Zero and The Point and Negative Numbers were not widely used until the 17th century.) The Order of Friars Minor, the Franciscans, created by Francis of Assisi.

AD 1212 The (two separate) Children's Crusades. The first, led by a French peasant boy named Steven of Cloyes, marching 30,000 boys and girls younger than 12 to Palestine. Some drowned on the voyage over or were sold as slaves; the rest died of disease or starvation. The second Children's Crusade was led by French boy Nicholas of Cologne, marching across the Alps with 20,000 mostly German kids. Most died of hunger or exhaustion. The pope encouraged the survivors to go home. Only 1 of 30,000 French and 200 of 200,000 German children survive.

AD 1215 The Great Charter, or Magna Carta, limiting royals power, signed and sealed by King John of England on 15 June at Runnymede, west of London near what is now Windsor. The Fourth Lateran Council recognised the doctrine of transubstantiation by which the bread and wine of the church service were seen as Christ's flesh and blood.

AD 1217 Fifth Crusade against Egypt.

AD 1220 Fisrt appearance of the legend of the wandering Jew in an Italian chronicle mentioning of a meeting with a wandering Jew in Armenia. The legend tells of the Jew who struck or insulted Jesus on his way to the Crucifixion and was condemned to wander the world without peace of mind until Jesus' second coming. (English chronicler Roger of Wendover mentioned the same story in 1228. The story has been told in hundreds of different settings.)

AD 1221 Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II declare all official documents written on paper to be invalid, probably because paper was thought to be a Muslim manifestation. (The influence of wealthy landowners in cattle and sheep for parchment and vellum may have been the reason. The introduction of the printing press in the 15th century would change European attitudes attitudes toward paper.)

AD 1224 St. Thomas Aquinas, the chief tehologian and philospher of the Roman Catholic Church, born. His works included Summa Theologica, or Summary of Theology, which he left unfinished in 1273 after writing for 6 years.

AD 1228 Sixth Crusade.

AD 1233 The Inquisition begins.

AD 1244 Jerusalem falls to the Muslims.

AD 1248 Seventh Crusade.

1250 - 1299

AD 1252 The flioria gold coins created in Florence - it would become the first international currency.

AD 1268 Invention of eyeglasses, according to some sources; others date it as 1285 or 1289.

AD 1270 Eighth (final) Crusade.

AD 1271 Marco Polo leaves Venice for China, where he would live and prosper for 17 years, returning to Venice where he died in 1323.

AD 1273 Thomas Aquinas stops after 7 years of working on Summa Theologica, the basis of Catholic teaching.

Ad 1289 The first mention of reading glasses (spectacles) is found in a 1289 manuscript when a member of the Popozo family wrote: "I am so debilitated by age that without the glasses known as spectacles, I would no longer be able to read or write."

AD 1290 Windmill invented. Jews expelled from England. (Jews arrived in England in 1066 as financiers for the then new French king William)

AD 1293 Marco Polo starts writing The Travels of Marco Polo

AD 1295 Glassmaking starts in Italy.

The 14th Century

1300 - 1349

AD 1300 Beginning of the Renaissance. Money from Florence, Italy becomes the first international currency. Corsets for women introduced.

AD 1314  Robert the Bruce leads the Scots to victory over the English at the Battle of Bannockburn.

AD 1324 Pope John XXII recognises independent Scotland with Robert the Bruce as its king.

AD 1337 The Hundred Years War begins between kings of England and France for control of France. (It lasts 106 years, until 1453.)

AD 1347 The Black Death plague begins in Europe, lasting 3 years, killing 25 million people, one third of the European population. The plague is a highly contagious fever caused by the bacillus Yersinia pestis, which is carried by fleas that infest rats.

AD 1349 Boccaccio's 'Decameron' published. Along with poet Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio is one of the fathers of the Italian Renaissance. His 'Decameron' elevated the status of vernacular literature, that is, in the language of the people, as opposed to Latin, the language of scholars. Expulsion of Jews from Hungary.

1350 - 1399

AD 1377 Richard II, still a child, made King of England.

AD 1380 John Wycliffe begins translation of the Bible into English, finishing the (handwritten) manuscript the following year (some sources date the completion at 1384).

AD 1387 Geoffrey Chaucer publish Canterbury Tales.

The 15th Century

1400 - 1449

AD 1412 Joan of Arc born in France.

AD 1415 Execution of Jan Hus, Czech religious reformer, who lectured on the philosophy of Aristotle and John Wycliffe and believed that there was "but little of God's truth at the papal court." He denounced the sale of indulgences, the same issue that would move Martin Luther to criticize the church in 1517.

AD 1427 Thomas a'Kempis published The Imitation of Christ.

AD 1428 Joan of Arc leads French against English.

AD 1429 Henry VI becomes King of England - he is younger than a year old.

Ad 1430 Joan of Arc captured by Burgundians and turned over to the English.

AD 1431 Joan of Arc burned at the stake after ecclesiastical trial.

1450 - 1499

AD 1450 Johannes Gutenberg prints the Bible.

Ad 1452 Leonardo da Vinci born in Vinci, near Florence.

AD 1453 Constantinople falls to the Ottoman Turks, ending the Byzantine empire.

AD 1455 Wars of the Roses plunges England into a series of internal wars that were to last for 30 years: conflicting claims to the throne of England by the houses of York (insignia represented by a white rose) and Lancaster (red rose).

AD 1462 Ivan the Great becomes first czar of Russia - he would rule until 1505.

AD 1473 Copernicus born in Poland.

AD 1475 Michelangelo born.

AD 1478 The Spanish Inquisition initiated by Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile to flush out the secret Jews from among the Christian population. After negotiations with the Pope, the first inquisitorial tribunal opened in Seville in 1481, leading to a national system of inquisitorial courts under an Inquisitor-General, Thomas Torquemada.

AD 1485 Leonardo da Vinci, a pupil of Verrocchio, makes detailed sketches of parachutes.

AD 1486 The first known copyright granted in Venice.

AD 1487 Bell chimes invented.

AD 1488 Bartolomeu Dias sails around Africa and names the Cape of Good Hope.

AD 1492 Christopher Columbus leaves Spain in search of the Indies. Jews expelled from Spain. The monetary unit, the peso, is put in circulation.

AD 1493 Christopher Columbus leaves on his second voyage.

AD 1495 Leonardo da Vinci designs a pyramid-shaped parachute, and begins painting The Last Supper.

AD 1497 Cabot sails from England to North America. Vasco da Gama sails around Africa to discover sea route to India in the next year. Michelangelo completes Bacchus sculpture. Jews expelled from Portugal.

The 16th Century

1500 - 1549

 

AD 1503 Leonardo da Vinci begins painting the Mona Lisa. Michelangelo sculpts the David (finished in 1504). First handkerchief used in Europe.

AD 1506 The building of St Peter's Basilica started in Rome under Pope Julius II. The idea of a church for the popes was conceived by Nicholas V during his reign (1447-1455.) Walls were erected, but construction stopped when Nicholas died. Building would be completed in 1626.

AD 1509 Michelangelo paints the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Ad 1510 Leonardo da Vinci designs horizontal water wheel, an early version of the modern water turbine. Pocket watch invented by Peter Henlein, who also invents the spring-powered clock.

AD 1514 Polish astronomer Nicolas Copernicus suggests that the earth moves around the sun.

AD 1516 Music printed for the first time, in Italy. Erasmus produces a Greek/Latin parallel New Testament.

AD 1517 Martin Luther begins the Reformation by posting 95 theses denouncing church abuses on church doors in Wittenberg.

1519 Ferdinand Magellan sets sail from Spain to sail around the world. Ulrich Zwingli begins Reformation in Switzerland. Charles I of Spain becomes Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

AD 1520 Martin Luther excommunicated by Pope Leo X. Magellan reaches the Pacific, is killed by Philippine natives in 1521.

AD 1521 First Running of the Bulls held in Pamplona, Spain

AD 1522 Martin Luther translates New Testament into German.

AD 1524 David Reuveni, a Jew, appears in Venice, claiming that his brother was the king of the lost tribe of Reuven and that he had come to make a pact with the Christians against the Moslems. His appearance caused great excitement among Jew and non-Jew. One of his followers, Shlomo Molcho, reverted to Judaism and announced himself as the Messiah. Both were sent to the stake, Molcho in 1532, Reuveni in 1535.

AD 1525 William Tyndale prints the first English edition of the New Testament.

AD 1527 Castiglione publishes The Courtier.             http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_Courtier

AD 1529 The hymn Away in a Manger published.

AD 1534 On 15 August, in Paris, France, Ignatius Loyola and 6 of his fellow university students, including Francis Xavier, made vows of chastity, obedience, poverty and pledged to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, thus founding the Society of Jesus, an all-male Roman Catholic religious order commonly known as the Jesuits.

AD 1535 Reformation in England as Henry VIII makes himself head of English Church after being excommunicated by Pope. Myles Coverdale prints first complete English Bible, the 80 books of the Old Testament, New Testament and the Apocrypha.    http://www.pseudepigrapha.com/

 

AD 1536 Paracelsus publishes The Great Surgery Book. Michelangleo completes Last Judgement. Henry VIII executes Anne Boleyn, his second wife. John Calvin establishes Presbyterian form of Protestantism in Switzerland, writes Institutes of the Christian Relgion.

AD 1537 John "Thomas Matthew" Rogers prints the second complete Bible in English, the Matthews Bible.

AD 1539 The "Great Bible" printed, the first English Bible to authorized for public use.

AD 1541 Henry VIII proclaimed King of Ireland.

AD 1543 Copernicus publishes De Revolutionibus Orbium Caoelestium (The Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres), the theory that earth revolves around the sun, and dies shortly thereafter. First Protestant burned at the stake in Spain.

 

1550 - 1599

AD 1552 Books on Geography and Astronomy burned in England because people thought they contained magic.

AD 1553 Mary Tudor becomes Queen of England, the first reigning queen of England.

AD 1556 The worst earthquake in history in China's Shansi Province kill 830,000 people. Tobacco imported to Europe from America by French ambassador to Lisbon, Jean Nicot (after whom nicotine is named). [A decade later, Sir Walter Raleigh took tobacco to England and became largely responsible for popularizing smoking among Europeans.]

AD 1558 Queen Elizabeth I ascends thones of England, establishes Anglican Church. Plantation of Ireland commences.

AD 1560 The Geneva Bible, first English Bible with numbered verses to each chapter, printed. First instruction manual for playing chess appeared.

AD 1561 Persecution of the French Huguenots.

AD 1562 The horse-drawn coach from Holland first used in England. Andrea Amati made one of the first violins; Stradivari was one of his pupils.

AD 1565 The pencil invented in England.

AD 1568 The Bishops Bible published, of which the King James was a revision. Bottled beer invented in London.

AD 1569 Gerardus Mercater publishes his Mercator projection world map.

AD 1572 Tycho Brahe observes a supernova in Cassiopeia constellation. Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre: religious wars between Catholics and Huguenots, as French Protestants were called.

AD 1582 Gregorian calendar adopted.    http://www.didyouknow.org/calendar.htm            

AD 1583 Galileo demonstrates that successive beats of a pendulum always take place in the same length of time, regardless of the distance through which the "pendulum do swing".

AD 1587 Mary Queen of Scots executed.

The 17th Century

1600 - 1615

AD 1603 Galileo improves the telescope. King James I of Scotland becomes king over England and Scotland.

AD 1606 The Union Jack adopted in England.

AD 1607 Jamestown, Virginia established, first permanent English colony on American mainland.

AD 1610 Galilei discovers Jupiter's 4 largest moons.

AD 1611 King James Bible published, originally with 80 Books (the Apocrypha officially removed in 1885 leaving only 66 books).

AD 1613 Galilei publishes work on sunspots. John Rolfe marries Pocahontas, the Red Indian Princess.

AD 1614 Scottish mathematician John Napier publishes the first logarithmic table Mirifici logarithmorum canonis descriptio, and coins the word "logarithm."

1616 - 1649

AD 1618 Thirty Years' War between Protestants and Catholics begins.

AD 1619 Johannes Kepler publishes De cometis and Harmonice mundi, in which he announces his third law of planetary motion. Dutch ship brings first black Africans to British North America.

AD 1620 Settlers from England arrive in Massachusetts on a ship called the Mayflower. Dutch inventor Cornelius van Drebbel builds a submarine.

AD 1621 First American Thanksgiving celebrated in Massachusetts.

AD 1622 Englishman Edmund Gunter invents the slide rule, an important precursor to the modern calculator and computer.

AD 1623 German inventor Wilhelm Schickard invents the first mechanical calculator. Records detailing the machine's workings were lost during the Thirty Years' War.

AD 1633 Inquisition forces Galileo to recant his belief in Copernican theory.

AD 1635 Founding of Academie Francaise.

AD 1649 Cromwell invades Ireland

1650 - 1667

 

AD 1650 Otto von Guericke invents an air pump. Anne Bradstreet becomes the first published American woman writer with The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America.

AD 1652 The Dutch establish a settlement in Cape Town, South Africa. These settlers would become the first people to be called "Africans" - the black peoples on the continent were known only by their tribal names.

AD 1653 Oliver Cromwell becomes ruler of England, Scotland and Ireland.

AD 1655 Dutch mathematician Christiaan Huygens develops a new method for grinding telescope lenses, making a more powerful telescope, with which he discovers the rings and one moon of Saturn.

AD 1656 Christiaan Huygens invents a pendulum clock.

AD 1658 The first illustrated book for children published in Germany.

AD 1659 Anglo-Irish physicist and chemist Robert Boyle develops an air pump for creating vacuums, confirms Galilei's view that bodies fall in a vacuum at the same rate, regardless of weight; discovers that sound does not travel in a vacuum.

 

AD 1660 Robert Hooke of London claims he invented and applied the hairspring to the balance wheel. However, the invention is widely credited to Christiaan Huygens and Abbé d’Hautefeuille who simultaneously developed the use of a hairspring with the balance wheel in 1674. Charles II crowned King of England.

AD 1661 Paris Opera Ballet founded. Irish-born scientist Robert Boyle publishes The Skeptical Chymist, rejecting both the classical elements of earth, air, fire, and water, and the medieval elements of salt, sulfur, and mercury proposed by Aristotle and Paracelsus. Boyle's mechanical philosophy forms the basis of chemistry as a scientific discipline, leaving behind its roots in alchemy.

AD 1662 Boyle develops Boyle's Law: the volume of a gas varies with its pressure.

AD 1663 Royal Society of England chartered. James Gregory invents the first reflecting telescope.

AD 1664 Isaac Newton experiments with gravity.

AD 1665 Shabbetai Zevi claims to be the Messiah, and confronts the Sultan of Ottoman Turkey to hand over Eretz Israel to the Jews. But faced with a choice between death and conversion to Islam, Shabbetai converted. Believing that this is a necessary part of the Messianic plan, some followed him and created a separate Muslim sect that lasted to the 20th century.

AD 1666 Fire destroys four-fifths of London, but killing only 16 people, but it helped stop the spread of the Black Plague. The first blood transfusions take place. Isaac Newton develops calculus (fluxions). Molière publishes Misanthrope

1668 - 1699

AD 1668 Isaac Newton invents a reflecting telescope.

AD 1669 Isaac Newton in England and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibrniz in Germany determine the principles of calculus at the same time. (The word is derived from the Latin word for pebble, referring to the use of pebble for counting.) Robert Hooke observes that the star Gamma Draconis has a parallax of 30 seconds of arc. German alchemist Hennig Brand discovers phosphorus, the first new element found since ancient times.

AD 1670 A Paris cafe begins serving ice cream.

AD 1671 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz invents a calculating machine. (some sources give the date as 1673) His machine, working with gears and rods and called the Stepped Reckoner, can multiply, divide, and calculate square roots

AD 1674 Dutchman Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek discovers one-celled micro-organisms in marsh water using his microscope - he calls them animalcules. Christiaan Huygens and Abbé d’Hautefeuille simultaneously develops the use of a hairspring with the balance wheel.

AD 1675 Leibniz determines integral and differential calculus. Christian Huygens patents the pocket watch.

AD 1678 Christiaan Huygens discovers the polarization of light.

AD 1682 Edmond Halley discovers Halley's comet.

AD 1683 First museum opens to the public in Oxford, England. Anthony van Leeuwenhoek discovers bacteria, the significance of which was not understood until the 19th century.

AD 1685 Persecution of the Huguenots, thousands flee France.

AD 1686 Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit invents the thermometer for measuring temperature.

AD 1687 Isaac Newton describes the theory of gravity. The era of modern physics is inaugurated by the publication of his Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, commonly called the Principia'. It was published in Latin and did not appear in English until 1729.

AD 1688 Newton constructs the first reflecting telescope. Jesuit priest Ferdianand Verbiest, who worked in China from 1659 until his death in 1688, leaves a description of a steam car he had built.

AD 1689 William III and Mary II crowned joint rulers of Britain. Peter the Great crowned Czar of Russia. 1689: The English Bill of Rights, a precursor to the American Bill of Rights, set out strict limits on the Royal Family's legal prerogatives such as a prohibition against arbitrary suspension of Parliament's laws. More importantly, it limited the right to raise money through taxation to Parliament. Deposed James II flees to Ireland and is defeated at the Battle of the Boyne two years later.

AD 1690 John Locke publishes Essay Concerning Human Understanding, penning the line, "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." [Had Locke been alive today he would have thought that we live in total anarchy. With "liberty" he meant sticking to the rules that governed social class mobility and with "happiness" he meant gathering property and riches without being bothered by government. Locke died in 1704 - he never visited the US. Thomas Jefferson would later incorporate Locke's words in the US Declaration of Independence.]

AD 1694 First of the modern world's central banks, the Bank of England, incorporated by English Parliament.

AD 1697 Charles Perrault publishes Sleeping Beauty

AD 1698 Thomas Savery invents a steam pump. Germany and the Netherlands adopts the Gregorian calendar.