Timeline of World History
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Note: This timeline of world history is designed to give a very broad overview and therefore the dates given are very much approximate.
Major Civilizations & Powers |
Age |
Century |
People/Events |
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 |
Early |
30th BC (2900's) |
First Egyptian dynasty | ||||||||||||
| 29th BC (2800's) |
Methuselah tree (oldest tree still living) germinates | ||||||||||||||
| 28th BC (2700's) |
Tea is invented in China | ||||||||||||||
 |
 |
27th BC (2600's) |
Indus civilization blossoms | ||||||||||||
 |
26th BC (2500's) |
Great Pyramid built in Egypt | |||||||||||||
| 25th BC (2400's) |
Semites integrate into Sumeria | ||||||||||||||
| 24th BC (2300's) |
World's first empire (Akkadian) | ||||||||||||||
 |
23rd BC (2200's) |
Sargon the Great of Akkad | |||||||||||||
| 4.2 KILOYEAR EVENT | Middle |
22nd BC (2100's) |
4.2 kiloyear event causes arid conditions worldwide | ||||||||||||
 |
 |
21st BC (2000's) |
Great Ziggurat of Ur built | ||||||||||||
| 20th BC (1900's) |
Stonehenge completed | ||||||||||||||
 |
19th BC (1800's) |
Abraham (if historical) | |||||||||||||
| 18th BC (1700's) |
Hammurabi of Babylon enacts one of the earliest codes of law | ||||||||||||||
 |
17th BC (1600's) |
Mammoths become extinct | |||||||||||||
 |
Late |
16th BC (1500's) |
Volcano erupts on the island of Santorini, contributing to the fall of the Minoan civilization | ||||||||||||
 |
Mitanni | 15th BC (1400's) |
Aryans migrate into India - Vedic Period begins; Moses (if historical) | ||||||||||||
 |
 |
14th BC (1300's) |
King Tut | ||||||||||||
| 13th BC (1200's) |
Trojan War (if historical) | ||||||||||||||
| Elam Emp. |
Early |
12th BC (1100's) |
Bronze Age collapse leads to Greek Dark Ages | ||||||||||||
| G R E E K D A R K A G E S | 11th BC (1000's) |
Zoroaster? | |||||||||||||
 |
10th BC (900's) |
Hebrew Kings David & Solomon | |||||||||||||
 |
Assyrian Empire |
9th BC (800's) |
Homer writes the Illiad & Odyssey | ||||||||||||
| 8th BC (700's) |
Rome founded | ||||||||||||||
| 7th BC (600's) |
Nebuchadnezzar | ||||||||||||||
 |
Neo- Babylonian Empire |
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| Median Emp. |
6th BC (500's) |
Cyrus the Great conquers Babylon; Lao Tzu, founder of Taoism | |||||||||||||
| Persian (Achaemenid) Empire |
The Buddha; Confucius | ||||||||||||||
 |
 |
Classical |
5th BC (400's) |
Greco-Persian Wars | |||||||||||
 |
Socrates; Peloponnesian War in Greece | ||||||||||||||
| Nanda Empire (India) |
4th BC (300's) |
Plato & Aristotle | |||||||||||||
| Alexander's Empire | Alexander the Great defeats Persia | ||||||||||||||
 |
 |
Seleucid Empire |
Maurya Empire |
3rd BC (200's) |
Ashoka the Great, Buddhist emperor of India; 1st Punic War (Carthage vs Rome) |
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| 2nd Punic War; Hannibal crosses the Alps; Qin Shi Huang, first emperor of China |
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| Sunga Empire |
 |
2nd BC (100's) |
3rd Punic War; Carthage destroyed | ||||||||||||
| Parthian Empire |
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| 1st BC (00's) |
Pompey & Julius Caesar expand Rome's territory | ||||||||||||||
| Augustus Caesar, first emperor of Rome | |||||||||||||||
| ROMAN EMPIRE |
 |
1st AD (00's) |
Jesus | ||||||||||||
| Mr. Vesuvius erupts, destroying the city of Pompeii | |||||||||||||||
| 2nd AD (100's) |
Ts'ai Lun invents paper in China | ||||||||||||||
| Sassanid Empire |
3rd AD (200's) |
Bantus reach South Africa | |||||||||||||
 |
 |
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| Western Roman Empire |
Eastern Roman Empire |
 |
Late |
4th AD (300's) |
Constantine embraces Christianity | ||||||||||
| Huns | Barbarian tribes start to migrate into Roman territory | ||||||||||||||
| 5th AD (400's) |
Rome sacked by the Goths; St. Augustine; Attila the Hun | ||||||||||||||
| Anglo-Saxons migrate to England | |||||||||||||||
Early |
6th AD (500's) |
King Arthur (if historical) | |||||||||||||
| PLAGUE | OF JUSTINIAN | The Plague of Justinian (1st Bubonic Plague) cripples the Eastern Roman Empire | |||||||||||||
| D A R K A G E S |
 |
7th AD (600's) |
Muhammed | ||||||||||||
 |
Umayyad Caliphate (Arab Empire) |
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 |
8th AD (700's) |
||||||||||||||
| Abbasid Caliphate (Arab Empire) |
 |
Charlemagne, King of the Franks | |||||||||||||
 |
Frankish Empire |
 |
9th AD (800's) |
Beowulf written | |||||||||||
| West Francia |
East Francia |
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| 10th AD (900's) |
|||||||||||||||
 |
 |
Otto the Great becomes the first Holy Roman Emperor; Vikings reach Newfoundland | |||||||||||||
 |
High |
11th AD (1000's) |
The Great Schism splits the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church | ||||||||||||
 |
William the Conqueror conquers England | ||||||||||||||
| 12th AD (1100's) |
First Crusade | ||||||||||||||
 |
Mongol Empire |
13th AD (1200's) |
Mongol leader Genghis Khan builds the largest contiguous empire in history | ||||||||||||
| St. Thomas Aquinas | |||||||||||||||
| Ottoman Empire | Late |
14th AD (1300's) |
Hundred Years' War begins | ||||||||||||
| BLACK | DEATH |   |
The Black Death (2nd Bubonic Plague) kills about 50% of Europe's population | ||||||||||||
| 15th AD (1400's) |
Gutenberg invents the modern printing press | ||||||||||||||
| Aztecs & Incas |
Da Vinci, War of the Roses; Columbus crosses the Atlantic; Spanish Inquisition | ||||||||||||||
| X |  |
 |
Age of |
16th AD (1500's) |
Martin Luther & the Protestant Reformation; Magellan's crew circumnavigates the globe | ||||||||||
| Spanish Empire |
 |
Copernicus; Scientific Revolution; deadliest earthquake on record hits Shaanxi, China | |||||||||||||
 |
 |
17th AD (1600's) |
Thirty Years War; Rene Descartes; William Shakespeare; Galileo; Baroque Period begins; Taj Mahal built | ||||||||||||
 |
Oliver Cromwell & the English Civil War; Sir Isaac Newton; Peter the Great of Russia |
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 |
Industrial |
18th AD (1700's) |
J.S. Bach; The Enlightenment (Age of Reason) begins | ||||||||||||
| Seven Years War; American Revolution; steam engine invented; French Revolution | |||||||||||||||
| France | Austrian Empire |
19th AD (1800's) |
Napoleon; Beethoven; Karl Marx; Romantic movement; major volcanic eruption causes the 'Year Without a Summer' (1816) | ||||||||||||
| German Empire & Austria- Hungary |
 |
 |
Queen Victoria; Charles Darwin; Sigmund Freud; light bulb & telephone invented | ||||||||||||
| United States of America |
Machine |
20th AD (1900's) |
Albert Einstein; first cars & airplanes; World War I; Spanish Influenza kills 50+ million |
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| Nazi Germany |
Soviet Union (USSR) |
The Great Depression; World War II; first nuclear bombs; UN founded; Mahatma Gandhi | |||||||||||||
| UK | France | E. & W. Germany |
 |
 |
 |
Post-War Era |
Mao Zedong; Cold War between US & USSR; The Beatles; Moon landings; Vietnam War | ||||||||
Information |
Berlin Wall falls; The Internet is born; Gulf War | ||||||||||||||
| European Union |
Russia | 21st AD (2000's) |
9/11; Iraq War; Asian tsunami; Arab Spring | ||||||||||||
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