Must Know Dates
In Bold – know by date, not in bold - know chronologically
Foundations (8000 BCE – 600 CE)
8000 BCE - Beginnings of agriculture
3500 BCE – invention of wheel, plough (Mesopotamia) and sail (Egypt)
3200 BCE – Invention of writing in Mesopotamia
3000 BCE – founding of first cities in Sumeria
7th C BCE – invention of ironworking
5th century BCE - Beginnings of Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism and Greek Golden Age
323 BCE - Alexander the Great
221 BCE – Qin unified China
184 BCE – Fall of the Mauryan dynasty
32 CE = Beginnings of Christianity
180 CE – end of Pax Romana
220 CE – end of Han Dynasty
312 CE - Roman Emperor Constantine converts to Christianity
320- rise of the Gupta in India
333 – Roman capital moved to Constantinople
476 – Fall of Rome in the West ends 800 years of Roman hegemony
527 – Justinian rules Byzantine Empire
550- Fall of the Gupta in India
600-1450
622 - Rise of Islam
730 Printing invented in China
732 – Battle of Tours (end of Muslim move to France)
900- Decline of classical Maya
1054 – Schism of Greek and Latin Christian Churches divides Christianity permanently into two geographical and denominational halves.
1066 – Norman Conquest of England
1071 – Seljuk defeat of Byzantines (Battle of Manzikert)
1095 – 1st Crusade
1206 Genghis Khan begins his conquest of Asia.
1215 Magna Carta signed by King John at Runnymede: beginning of constitutional rule.
1258 – Mongols sack Baghdad
1271-1295 – Marco Polo travels
1300s - Rise of Ottomans
1324 – Mansa Musa’s pilgrimage
1325-1349 - travels of Ibn Battuta
1347-1348 - Bubonic plague in Europe
1433 - end of Zheng He’s voyages
1438 – Rise of the Inca
1450-1750
1453 - Ottomans capture Constantinople
1486 – Aztec Empire at its height
1488 - Dias rounded Cape of Good Hope
1492 - Columbus sailed to Hispaniola/Reconquista of Spain
1502 – first African slaves transported to Caribbean
1517 - Martin Luther/95 theses – Protestant Reformation
1521- Cortez conquered the Aztecs
1533- Pizarro toppled the Inca
1545 - discovery of silver at Potosi
1571 - Battle of Lepanto – naval defeat of Ottomans
1588 - defeat of the Spanish Armada
1600 - Battle of Sekigahara – beginning of Tokugawa Shogunate
1607 - founding of Jamestown (first slaves there in 1619)
1618-1648 - 30 years war in Europe
1644 – End of Ming Dynasty – rise of the Qing
1652 – Establishment of Cape Town Colony
1683- unsuccessful Ottoman siege of Vienna
1689 - Glorious Revolution/English Bill of Rights
1750-1914
1756-1763 -7 years war/French and Indian War
Industrial Revolution begins – steam locomotive, textiles, etc.
1767 - Invention of the Spinning Jenny: man-using machines
1776 - American Revolution/Smith writes Wealth of Nations
1789 - French Revolution
1796 Edward Jenner’s smallpox vaccination: the first real breakthrough in combating infectious diseases
1804 - Haitian independence
1807 – British Abolition of the slave trade
1810-1825 – Latin American independence (first Mexican Revolution)
1815 - Metternich hosts Congress of Vienna (after Battle of Waterloo: the Napoleonic Empire ends)
1839 - 1st opium war between China and England
1848 - European revolutions/Marx & Engels write Communist Manifesto
1853- Commodore Perry opens Japan
1857- Sepoy Mutiny in India
1861- end of Russian serfdom/Italian unification
1863 - Emancipation Proclamation issued in US
1871- German unification
1885 - Berlin Conference and Benz develops first petrol-driven car
1893 – New Zealand is the first to award women suffrage; other nations in the Commonwealth soon follow
1896 – Battle of Adwa – Ethiopians fend off Italians.
1898 - Spanish-American War – Spain loses colonies (Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines)
1899 - Boer War – Dutch under British rule in South Africa
1905 - Russo-Japanese war and Einstein’s theory of special relativity published
1910 -1920 - Mexican Revolution / 1911- Chinese Revolution
1914-present
1914 -1919 – WWI/ Treaty of Versailles
1917 - Russian Revolution
1929 - stock market crash/Great Depression
1931 - Japanese invasion of Manchuria
1935 - Italian invasion of Ethiopia
1939 - German blitzkrieg in Poland
1941 - Pearl Harbor
1943 - Soviets defeat Germans at Stalingrad
1944 - D-Day
1945 - end of WWII – and dropping of atomic bombs on Japan
1947 - freedom & partition of India
1948 - birth of Israel
1949 - Chinese Communist Revolution
1950-1953 - Korean War
1954 - Vietnamese defeat French at Dien Bien Phu
1956 - de-Stalinization/Nationalization of Suez Canal
1957 – Ghana is first African nation to gain independence
1959 - Cuban Revolution and Invention of the silicon chip is the major technical invention of the past century, making possible the computer age.
1967 - 6 day war/Chinese Cultural Revolution
1973 - Yom Kippur War
1979 - Iranian Revolution
1987 - 1st Palestinian Intifada
1989 - Tiananmen Square/fall of Berlin Wall - Collapse of Communist regimes in Europe; Asian communism is also transformed.
1990 – Namibia is the last country to gain independence in Africa
1991 - Fall of USSR/1st Gulf war
1994 - Genocide in Rwanda/1st all race elections in S. Africa
2001 - 9/11 attacks
2003 – Second Gulf War