A List of 10,000 Years of History in Chronological Order

10,000 years of historical events laid out in chronological order for easy learning and revision. The list is by no means complete. Where do you stop? There is so much that could be included. Why not tell me some events you would like to be included. Personally, I have added the release dates of some of the most influential music albums.

8,000 BC Agriculture is fully established in Egypt

2,600 BC Great Pyramid built at Giza

1,400 BC Phoenicians develop the first alphabet

1,000 BC The Iron Age begins in Anatolia, Western Asia

1,000 BC The Norse cross the Atlantic Ocean to Nova Scotia

776 BC Date thought to be when the first Olympic Games took place

469 BC The start of Greek Philosophy. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle

221 BC Building of the Great Wall of China begins. Completed 206 BC

45 BC Julius Caesar begins his rule

45 BC Julius Caesar creates the Julian Calendar

44 BC Julius Caesar is assassinated by Brutus, Cassius and others

800 The invention of gunpowder by the Chinese

1066 The Normans conquer England after the Battle of Hastings

1088 The first university is established (Bologna, Italy)

1110 First recorded reference to a fireworks display

1215 The Magna Carta is signed at Runnymede by King John of England

1227 The death of Genghis Khan

1292 Marco Polo publishes details of his adventures

1347 The beginning of the Black Death in Europe (Italy) It will ultimately kill one third of the population of Europe.

1350 The Renaissance begins (Florence, Italy)

1438 The Inca empire is established

1504 Leonardo Da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa

1508 Michelangelo starts the painting of the Sistine Chapel in Rome (completed 1512)

1543 Copernicus states that the Earth revolves around the Sun

1588 Spanish Armada defeated

1607 In JamestownVirginia the British establish the first settlement in the New World

1610 Galileo discovers the moons of Jupiter

1632 Construction of the Taj Mahal commences (completed 1653)

1649 King Charles 1 is executed

1653 Oliver Cromwell declares himself “Lord Protector” of England

1658 Oliver Cromwell dies

1687 Isaac Newton publishes the Universal Laws of Motion and Gravitation

1760 The start of the Industrial Revolution in Britian

1773 Protests by American colonists over new taxes become known as the Boston Tea Party

1775 The Steam Engine is invented by James Watt

1776 America declares Independence from Britain

1789 The French Revolution commences (ending 1799)

1793 King Louis XVI is beheaded

1799 Napoleon Bonaparte is named First Consul of France

1804 Napoleon Bonaparte is named Emperor of the French Empire

1814 Napoleon Bonaparte abdicates and is exiled to Elba

1815 Napoleon defeated at Waterloo

1825 The first public railway opens (between Stockton and Darlington)

1829 Stephenson’s “Rocket” wins the Rainhill trials

1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish the Communist Manifesto

1859 Charles Darwin publishes the Origin of the Species

1865 Abraham Lincoln assassinated

1865 The 13^th amendment to the American Constitution abolishes slavery

1867 Russia sell Alaska to the USA

1869 Suez Canal opens

1870 The Prussians defeat France and establish Germany

1876 Alexander Graham Bell patents the Telephone

1895 X-rays are discovered by German Wilhelm Rontgen

1897 Marconi patents his wireless device, which leads to the establishment of radio stations

1899 Marconi sends radio waves across the English Channel

1899 The Boer War started

1901 Marconi sends the first Transatlantic radio signal

1903 Wilbur and Orville Wright complete the first heavier than air powered flight

1903 Australia is the first sovereign nation to grant women the right to vote

1905 Albert Einstein publishes the Special Theory of Relativity

1906 Around 3,000 die in San Francisco Earthquake

1910 Start of the Mexican Revolution

1912 The Republic of China is established

1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated triggering WW1

1915 The Lusitania is sunk by a German U-boat

1916 Battle of the Somme

1917 Tsar Nicholas II abdicates at the start of the Russian Revolution

1918 An armistice ends WW1

1918 20 million people are killed by a worldwide Influenza Epidemic

1919 The map of Europe is redrawn by the Treaty of Versailles

1920 Amendment 19 to the US Constitution grants women the right to vote

1924 Vladimir Lenin dies

1925 The first television transmissions take place

1925 Hitler publishes Mein Kampf

1928 British women gain full voting rights

1929 Stock Market crash and the Great Global Depression begins lasting until 1940

1933 Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany

1939 Hitler invades Czechoslovakia and Poland

1939 WWII begins

1939 The Second World War begins

1941 The Japanese attack PearlHarbour leading to the USA joining the war

1943 USSR defeats Nazi Germany at the Battle of Stalingrad

1944 Allied Armies invade occupied France at Normandy (D-Day)

1945 Unconditional surrender by Nazi Germany

1945 Atom Bombs destroy the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima leading to the surrender of Japan

1945 The United Nations is formed

1946 The term “Iron Curtain” is used in speech by Winston Churchill

1947 India and Pakistan obtain independence from Britain

1948 Berlin Airlift begins

1953 The Double Helix Structure of DNA is discovered

1957 The USSR launches Sputnik the first satellite

1957 Treaty of Rome creates the European Economic Community

1958 The Microchip is invented

1961 Building of the Berlin Wall commences

1961 Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space

1962 Cuban Missile crisis

1963 John F Kennedy is assassinated

1965 The first personal desktop computer is commercially produced by Olivetti in Italy

1965 The start of the Internet

1965 Bob Dylan “Bringing it All Back Home” released

1966 Beach Boys “Pet Sounds” released

1967 Moody Blues “Days of Future Past” released

1968 Martin Luther King Junior assassinated

1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the Moon

1970 Black Sabbath “Black Sabbath” released

1971 Rod Stewart “Every Picture Tells a Story” released

1972 David Bowie “Ziggy Stardust” released

1973 Pink Floyd “Dark Side of the Moon” released

1973 Elton John “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” released

1973 Alice Cooper “Billion Dollar Babies” released

1974 Resignation of President Richard Nixon

1975 Queen “A Night at the Opera” released

1975 Pink Floyd “Wish You Were Here” released

1976 Boston “Boston” released

1976 Eagles “Hotel California” released

1977 The PC modem is invented

1977 Meat Loaf “Bat Out of Hell” released

1979 AC/DC “Highway to Hell” released

1981 Ronald Reagan becomes US President

1981 Journey “Escape” released

1985 The first .com domain name is registered

1985 Mikhail Gorbachev comes to power in USSR

1986 Space Shuttle Challenger is destroyed in fatal disaster

1987 Guns ‘N Roses “Appetite for Destruction” released

1989 Demolition of the Berlin Wall begins

1989 Tienanmen Square massacre

1999 Vladimir Putin becomes president of Russia