9 German tribal chief Armenius in Teutoberg Forest
massacres three Roman legions (about 20,000)
43-85 Rome goes after Britain
50 Front and rear grid sights used on Chinese
crossbows -- greatly improved accuracy
64 1st persecution of Christians in Roman Empire
66-70 Jewish-Roman War
70 Jerusalem destroyed
74 Fall of Masada (Jews) to Rome
100 Repeating crossbow in China
117 Roman Empire to the max with Emperor
Trajan's successful campaigns
122 Romans begin Hadrian's Wall
132-135 Jewish revolt against Rome
139-142 Roman campaign in Britain/ Antonine Wall
162-166 Parthian War (with Rome)
166-175 First German War (with Rome)
177-180 Second German War (with Rome)
178 Chinese use "tear gas" (lime smoke) to suppress
peasant revolt
193-197 Roman civil war
208-211 Roman campaigns in Britain
235-284 "The Anarchy" Roman civil war
260 Alamanni move into Alvergne country
260 Franks move into Spain
260 Goths cross Danube in large numbers
298 Defeat of Persians by Rome
302 Chinese pottery pictures depict metal stirrup
in use on horses. They may have been in
use for a century or more, perhaps from
origins with the horse-centric people of the
steppes.
303-313 Widespread persecution of Christians
306-337 Constantine era in Roman world
312 Milvian Bridge (first false teeth?), outside
Rome's city walls, collapses as Maxentius
and his troops retreat across it toward the
safety of the walls. Max and his armored
cavalry drown. Constantine is victor and
accepted as emperor of the Western Empire.
He said it was "divine inspiration" from
his new faith in the Christian God.
324-337 Constantine rules all of Roman world
326-330 Constantine moves capital to Constantinople
351 Battle of Mursa (Roman)
363 Julian (Roman) invades Persia
392-395 Christianity is sole official religion of the
Roman Empire
406 Collapse of Rome's Rhine Frontier
410 Rome sacked by Visigoths
410-442 Roman occupation of England ends
429 Vandals invade Africa
439 Vandals take Carthage
450 England begins being invaded big time by Saxons,
Angles, and Jutes
455 Rome sacked by Vandals
476 End of Western Roman Empire
481-511 Clovis is King of Franks
493-526 Theodoric, Ostrogoth, is King of northern Italy
568-774 Lombards rule northern Italy
568 Avars (from the East) invade Hungary, bringing to
Europe the trace harness and stirrup. The harness
made it through Europe as far as Ireland by the
8th century. It increased the pulling capacity of
horses by a factor of 6 or more.
570-632 Mohammed
624-982 Muslim conquests
630 Mohammed takes Mecca
632 Mohammed dies, after unifying most of Arabia
632-644 Moslems capture Syria, Palestine, and Egypt
673-678 Moslems turned back from Constantinople
698 Carthage falls to Moslems
708 Berbers fall to Moslems
711-713 Moslems take Spain from Visigoths
717-718 Moslems turned back from Constantinople, again
732 Battle of Tours, stops Moslem expansion into France
750 Large winch-armed multi-arrow Chinese crossbow with
range of 1160 yards, hand-held 500 yds, horseback 330
768-804 Campaigns of Charlemagne
771-814 Charlemagne is King of Franks
772-803 Charlemagne wars against Saxons
774 Charlemagne defeats Lombards
777 Charlemagne roams around Spain
787 Charlemagne takes Bavaria
800-1453 High Middle Ages (between Dark Ages and Renaissance)
800-814 Charlemagne is Emperor of Romans
827 Moslems invade Sicily
829 Egbert unites seven Saxon kingdoms
843 Treaty of Verdun breaks up Charlemagne's Empire
862 Norse take part of Russia
865-879 Great Viking Army in England
871-900 Alfred the Great ruler of England
885 Vikings besiege Paris, but have no fashion sense
896 Magyar invasions into eastern Europe
900-1300 Europe dominated by feudalism
900 Paper money used by merchants in Szechuan, China
962 Otto I is crowned Emperor of Holy Roman Empire
1000 Leif Erickson sails to America
1017-1042 Normans take Sicily and southern Italy
1023 First governmental currency reserve bank,
in China, with notice on the money stating it
was only good for 3 years (carrying expiration
dates a little far, aren't we) -- counterfeiting
carried the death penalty. First Western paper
money issued in Sweden in 1661, America in 1690,
France in 1720, England in 1797, and Germany in
1806 -- though Marco Polo wrote of it in 1270's.
1042-1066 Edward the Confessor ruler of England
1044 Gasoline-based flamethrowers common in China
(generating a lot of stir-fried enemies). Also in
use are exploding arrows and aerial bombs, primarily
to stun the enemy and cause confusion
1054 Eastern and Western Churches split
1056-1106 Henry IV rules Germany, is at odds with Pope
1066 Battle of Hastings
1066 Norman conquest of England begins with Battle of
Hastings
1072-1090 Christians expel Moors from most of Spain
1077 Henry IV submits to Pope Gregory VII
1078 Jerusalem falls to Seljuk Turks
1096-1102 First Crusade
1099 Jerusalem falls to crusaders (1st Crusade)
1100 Crossbows common in Europe, range 300 meters
1139 Pope Innocent II forbids use of crossbows
against Christians
1147-1149 Second Crusade
1150 Chinese publication describes how to make your own
rocket-powered bowless arrow, covered in poison,
fired from a single tube or launcher box
1154-1214 Angevin-Capetian Wars
1160 Welsh longbow has range of 250 meters, more accurate
than crossbow, and with four times the rate of fire
1182-1226 St. Francis of Assisi
1184 Paved streets in Paris
1187 Battle of Hattin (2nd Crusade)
1189-1192 Third Crusade
1190-1402 Mongol Wars
1191 Battle of Arsuf (3rd Crusade)
1202-1204 Fourth Crusade
1204 Sack of Constantinople, a Christian city, by
the Christian crusaders (4th Crusade)
1206-1227 Genghis Khan on the prowl
1209 Cambridge University founded
1212-1250 Frederick II is ruler of Germany and Sicily
1215 Magna Carta signed
1215 Peking taken by Mongols
1216-1272 Henry III rules England
1218-1221 Fifth Crusade
1220-1250 Frederick II rules Holy Roman Empire
1221 Cast iron bombshells in China (1467 in Europe)
1225-1274 Thomas Aquinas
1228-1229 Sixth Crusade
1237-1240 Mongols conquer Russia
1238-1241 Mongol invasion of Europe
1242 Roger Bacon works on gunpowder formula
1248-1254 Seventh Crusade
1250-1517 Mameluke Dynasty in Egypt
1258 Bagdad sacked by Mongols, overthrowing Abbasid
Dynasty
1260 Mongol emperors in China distrusted native Chinese
and developed civil service of Mongols, Arabs,
and Europeans (greatly aided tech transfer to West)
1266 Opus Maius of Roger Bacon
1266 Polo bros. sans Marco take first trip to Cathay
1266 Pope Clement IV requests copy of Roger Bacon's
manuscript (but he took the final exam on his own)
1270 Eighth Crusade
1271-1295 Marco Polo expeditions
1273-1291 Rudolf is first Hapsburg Emperor
1276 Colored signal flares used to signal troops in
China
1277 Powerful exploding land mines used in China
(appeared in Europe in Pisa-Florence war of 1403)
1250-1280 First true guns in China (in Europe by 1320's)
1291 First Swiss Confederation
1293 Paper manufactured in Bologna
1295 Model Parliament in England
1298 Hanseatic League started
1300-1500 Venice dominates commerce of Western world
1302 First meeting of Estates General in France
1304-1374 Petrarch lives
1320 Four-stage anti-ship rockets used in China, with
range up to 1800 yards, designed to fly 3 to 4 feet
above the water
1326 1st illustration of cannon in the West
1337-1453 Hundred Years' War between France and England
1339 Battle of Laupen, Swiss infantry defeated mounted
knights, using Macedonian style phalanx, with
18 ft pikes
1340 Battle of Sluys (Hundred Years' War)
1340-1400 Geoffrey Chaucer
1346 Battle of Crecy (Hundred Years' War) demonstrates
cavalry's vulnerability to long-range longbow
1346 English use cannon at Crecy
1348-1349 The Black Death
1350-1355 Economic war between Genoa and Venice
1350 Steel crossbows common in Europe
1353 Ottoman Turks cross Dardanelles to the Balkans
1356 Battle of Poitiers (Hundred Years' War)
1364 Battle of Perugia, handheld firearms
1375 Firearms common in Europe
1380 Wycliffe's translation of New Testament
1381 Peasants' Revolt in England
1386 Unification of Lithuania and Poland
1388 1st Urban Sanitary Act by English Parliament
1389 Battle of Kossovo
1390 Heavy smoothbore German gun, arquebus, needs
stand to hold it while firing, uses slow burning
cord for ignition
1397 Unification of Denmark and Norway
1410 Canister artillery rounds
1411 Simple matchlock
1412 Use of sea mines declassified and talked about
freely in China
1415 Oct 26, Battle of Agincourt
1438 Hapsburgs return at top as Holy Roman Emperors
1453 Constantinople falls to Ottoman Turks
1453 Final defeat of Byzantines by Ottoman armies
(using cannon extensively)
1455-1485 War of the Roses
1476-1477 Swiss-Burgundian Wars
1477 Caxton's printing press set up in England
1490 First true field artillery, French mount bronze
cannon on carriages
1492 Granada falls, the last Moslem stronghold in Spain
1492 Lorenzo de Medici dies
1493-1519 Maximillian heads Holy Roman Empire
1500 Grenades first used, limited effect
1500 Leonardo da Vinci sketches wheellock mechanism
1503 Battle of Cerignola, handheld firearms have impact
1504 "Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci
1508 Michelangelo does the Sistine Chapel
1509 Henry VIII of England marries Catherine of Aragon
1513 The Prince written by Machiavelli (not published
until 1532)
1515 "Sister Madonna" by Raphael
1517 Luther posts Ninety-Five Theses
1518 Wheellocks banned within Holy Roman Empire
1519 Cortez enters Mexico City
1519-1522 Magellan's ship goes around the world
1520 Luther burns Papal Bull
1520-1566 Suleiman the Magnificent rules from Bagdad to Hungary
1525 Tyndale translates New Testament into English
1526 Suleiman the Magnificent defeats Hungarians
1527 German troops pillage Rome
1529 Ottoman conquest of Europe stopped at Vienna
1531-1537 Pizarro defeats Incas
1533 Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn
1534-1535 Jacques Cartier in America
1536 Anne Boleyn divorced, executed, causing break with
Papacy
1536-1539 Henry VIII seizes monasteries in England
1540 Cartier sails up St. Lawrence
1540 Pistols
1543 Portuguese take matchlock guns to Japan
1545 Council of Trent opened
1547 Henry VIII dies
1547 Ivan III heads up Russia
1549 First Jesuit missionaries to South America
1550 Rifling in some guns
1550 Chinese mortars fire shells which explode to
cover ground with poison-covered sharp
metal objects
1554 England reconciles with Papacy
1562-1598 English religious wars
1567-1648 Netherlands War of Independence
1570 Heavy muskets popular (with a rest)
1571 Sea battle of Lepanto, Christians defeat Turks,
marks supplanting of oared galleys by heavily
gunned galleons
1577-1580 Drake circumnavigates globe
1580 Kepler and Brahe publish astronomical tables
1587 Execution of Mary Stuart
1588 Spanish Armada suffers ill wind
1603 Dutch East India Company organized
1605 Don Quixote, Part 1, printed
1607 Galileo discovers satellites of Jupiter
1607 Jamestown
1608 Quebec founded
1610 True flintlocks
1611 King James Bible published
1618-1648 Thirty Years' War
1620 During Thirty Years' War, Gustavus Adolphus
standardizes manufacture and size (millimeter
caliber) of rifles and shot, and cannon and shot;
and standard efficient artillery firing procedures
1620 Gustavus Adolphus (Sweden) uses light,
leather-bound cannon
1624-1627 Richelieu controls France (he dies in 1648)
1630-1631 Battle of Magdeburg (Thirty Years' War)
1632 Battle of Luetzen (Thirty Years' War)
1635 Peace of Prague
1637 Japan excludes foreigners
1640 Bayonet in use
1640 Portugal wins independence from Spain
1642-1646 First English Civil War (Great Rebellion), also
called Bishops' War, with Charles I and the Scots
versus Parliament and their backers
1643 French and Swedes attack Bavaria
1644 Battle of Marston Moor (1st English Civil War)
1644 Manchu dynasty in China
1645 Battle of Naseby (1st English Civil War)
1648 Peace of Westphalia recognizes Holland's
independence from Spain (de facto since 1609)
1648-1651 Second English Civil War, continuation of fighting
for power by Charles I (1648) and Charles II later
1649 Liquidation of Russian Duma
1649 Monarchy abolished in England and Commonwealth
established
1651 English Navigation Act
1651 Leviathon written by Hobbes
1652 Anglo-Dutch Naval War
1654 Portuguese take Brazil from Dutch
1655-1658 Military rule in England, with Cromwell in charge
1664 English push Dutch from North America
1666 French Academy of Science founded
1667 Russia takes most of Ukraine
1670 French "Organ gun" machine gun, rows of barrels
1682 La Salle claims Louisiana Territory for France
1682 Pennsylvania founded
1687 Principia written by Newton
1688 "The Glorious Revolution" overthrow of Catholic
James II, by his daughter Mary II and her Dutch
Protestant husband William III. In 1689 the
joint sovereigns (Bill and Mary) acquiesced to
a Bill of Rights, opening way for constitutional
monarchy
1688-1697 War of the League of Augsburg
1689 Peter I, Tsar of Russia
1689-1692 War of the Glorious Revolution
1689 Battle of Londonderry (War of the Glorious Revolution)
1690 Treatises on Government written by Locke
1699 English factory in Canton
1700-1721 Great Northern War
1700s Hand grenade appears widely
1701-1714 War of Spanish Succession
1709 Battle of Pultava (Great Northern War)
1713-1714 Peace of Utrecht
1715 Louis XIV (Fr.) dies
1717 Well-Tempered Clavichord by Bach
1720 Texas under Spanish rule
1721 Walpole is Prime Minister of England
1732 Georgia founded
1733 War of Polish Succession
1738 Methodism founded
1740 Maria Theresa is Empress
1740 Frederick the Great (Prussia) introduced mobile,
horse artillery (no, horses not fired from guns)
1740-1748 War of Austrian Succession
1741 Messiah by Handel
1746 Battle of Culloden, appearance of fluted bayonet
1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle
1751 French publish Encyclopedia
1755 University of Moscow founded
1756-1763 Seven Years' War
1760 French ousted from India
1760 George III is King of England
1762 Catherine II is Tsarina of Russia
1762 The Social Contract written by Rousseau
1763 Treaty of Paris
1764 Hargreave's spinning jenny
1768 Cook's voyage to Pacific
1769 Watt's steam engine
1772 First Partition (aka shrinking) of Poland
1774 First Continental Congress
1775-1783 American Revolution
1775 Battle of Bunker Hill (Amer. Rev.)
1775 Rifles improved in American Revolution
1775 David Bushnell (Amer.) demos dynamite explosion underwater
1776 Bushnell builds one-man sub called Turtle
1776 American Declaration of Independence
1776 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Gibbon
1776 Wealth of Nations, by Smith
1778 French Alliance with America
1781 The Critique of Pure Reason, by Kant
1781 Yorktown surrenders
1782 Rockets by William Congreve (Brit.) used in sea
battles, range 2,000 meters, inaccurate/little damage
1783 Peace of Paris
1784 Mid-air bursting shell, by Lieutenant Henry Shrapnel
1785 Cartwright's power loom
1786 The Marriage of Figaro, by Mozart
1786-1798 Wars in India
1789 French Revolution
1791 Canadian Act
1792 Austria and Prussia fight France
1792 Battery, by Alessandro Volta
1792-1802 French Revolution
1793 "Reign of Terror" in France
1793 Execution of Louis XVI
1793 Second Partition (aka shrinking) of Poland
1793 Whitney's cotton gin
1794 French tethered balloon provided intel about Austrians
at Battle of Fleurus
1795 Directory (France)
1795 Napoleon given command of French army
1795 Third Partition (aka shrinking) of Poland
1796 Death of Catherine II
1798 Napoleon in Egypt
1799 Napoleon is First Consul
1799 Rosetta stone discovered, spurring Egyptology
1803 Louisiana Purchase
1803-1815 Napoleonic Wars
1804 Civil Code in France
1804 Napoleon is Emperor
1805 Battle of Trafalgar
1805 Percussion cap developed by Reverend Alexander Forsyth
1806 Battle of Jena
1806 Confederation of the Rhine
1807 British slave trade illegal
1807 Fulton's steamboat
1807 Percussion ignition patented (Dr. Forsyth)
1808 5th Symphony, by Beethoven
1812 Battle of Leipzig
1812 Cartridge breech-loader patented (Pauly)
1812-1815 War of 1812 (US-Brit)
1815 Congress of Vienna
1815 Waterloo
1819 Britain acquires Singapore
1819 Krupp Co. founded
1820 Italian revolts
1820 Revolt in Spain
1822 Modern camera, recording on glass plates
1823 Monroe Doctrine
1825 Erie Canal
1825 Russian Decembrist uprising
1825 Aluminum first isolated, by Hans Oersted
1828 Russo-Turkish War
1830 French Revolution
1833 British Factory Act
1833 Slavery ends in British Empire
1835 Colt patents his first revolver
1837 Queen Victoria
1839 Anglo-Chinese War
1839 Belgium and Holland separate
1840 Livingstone to Africa
1840 Prussians use needle gun
1843 US develops a controlled mine (not mind)
1845 Texas in Union
1846-1848 US-Mexican War
1847 Battle of Vera Cruz (US-Mexican War)
1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
1849 Minie ball bullet developed
1849 Austrians tried to use unmanned balloons to drop
bombs on Venetians, paper balloons with 30 pound
fused bombs, little damage done
1850 Minie rifles begin replacing smoothbore muskets
1850 Screw propeller for ships
1852 Henri Giffard (Fr.) flew propeller powered balloon
with 3 h.p. engine
1853 Taiping Rebellion
1853-1856 Crimean War
1854 Battle of Balaclava (Crimean War)
1854 Battle of Sebastopol (Crimean War)
1854 In Crimean, 1st use of rifled, breech-loading cannon
by British
1854 Perry, treaty with Japan
1855 French introduce iron plating on wooden ship hulls
1857-1858 Indian Mutiny
1858 French go with rifled artillery
1858 Second Anglo-Chinese War
1858 Aerial photos, from balloon, by Gaston Tournachon
1859 First armored ship, frigate La Gloire (Fr.)
with 110 mm iron plates
1859 Lead-acid battery developed by Gaston Plante'
1859-1870 Unification of Italy
1860 British H.M.S. Warrior, first iron-hulled (not plated)
warship
1860 Nitro-cellulose (gun-cotton) explosive developed
by Christian Schoenbein
1861-1865 American Civil War
1861 Battle of Ft Sumter (US Civil War)
1861 Battle of First Bull Run (US Civil War)
1861 Emancipation of Russian serfs
1861 Kingdom of Italy proclaimed
1862 Battle of Antietam (US Civil War)
1862 Battle of Second Bull Run (US Civil War)
1862 Battle of Shiloh (US Civil War)
1862 Bismarck is Prussian Minister/Pres.
1862 Chemically triggered contact mines developed
1862 Gatling gun
1862 Merrimac and Monitor, end of wooden men-of-war
1863 Battle of Chancellorsville (US Civil War)
1863 Battle of Chickamauga (US Civil War)
1863 Battle of Gettysburg (US Civil War)
1863 Battle of Vicksburg (US Civil War)
1864 Danish War
1864-1865 Battle of Petersburg (US Civil War)
1866 Austro-Prussian War
1866 Self-propelled torpedoes introduced
1867 Alaska purchased
1867 Dominion of Canada declared
1869 Suez Canal opened
1870 Compulsory education in Britain
1870 Franco-German War
1870 French use mitrailleuse, 25-barrel machine gun,
125 rds/min, 2000 yds
1870 Italy takes Rome
1870 Modern firing pin introduced in Prussian
Dreyse "needle gun"
1870 During seige of Paris, Krupp Co. developed 37mm
antiaircraft gun to try to shoot down French balloons
1870-71 French free-flight balloons, from Paris, carried
microfilm messages and homing pigeons for replies
1871 Franco-Prussian War, breech-loading rifle
standard in Europe
1871 German Empire declared
1871 Third French Republic
1873 Economic Depression
1874 Barbed wire machine developed by Joseph Glidden (Amer.)
1875 British control Suez Canal
1875 Smokeless ballistite by Alfred Nobel
1875 Spool film (100 exposure), by Leon Warnerke
1876 Telephone, by Bell
1877 French develop timed fuses for artillery shells
1877 Russo-Turkish War
1877 Victoria declared Empress of India
1878 Treaty of Berlin
1879 Austro-German Alliance
1879 Electric lamp, by Edison
1879 16' submarine, by John Philip Holland, Irish-American
schoolteacher
1880-1881 First Boer War
1880s Guns as big as 75 tons, firing 1-ton shell 16,000 meters
1881 Tsar Alexander II assassinated
1882 Triple Alliance formed
1882-1889 British Egyptian and Sudan Campaigns
1883 Fabian Society founded
1883 Maxim patents machine gun
1884 Smokeless powder developed by French (just a
pinch between cheek and gum?), more stable
and potent than black powder
1884 Steam turbine developed
1886 French develop smokeless powder cartridges
1888 Konrad Haussner develops long-recoil hydraulic
cylinders which help stabilize artillery, increase
rate of fire and accuracy
1888 William II is German Emperor
1889 Brazil is a Republic
1890 Bismarck resigns
1890 Hiram Maxim's portable machine gun, 600 rds/min
1890 The Influence of Seapower Upon History, by Mahan
1891 British synthesize cordite, new shell explosive
1893 Evolution and Ethics, by Huxley
1894 Franco-Russian Alliance
1894 Sino-Japanese War
1894 Tsar Nicholas II ascends
1895 Gyroscope
1895 X-rays discovered
1897 First Zionist Conference
1898 Russian Social Democratic Party formed
1898 Spanish-American War
1899 "The White Man's Burden," by Kipling
1899 Boer War
1899 Boer War sees use of Maxim's "pom-pom," first
automated cannon
1899 Hague Conference
1899-1902 Second Boer War
1900 Hiram Maxim develops portable machine gun
capable of 600 rds/min
1900 Frederick Simms (British) develops armored "war car"
1900 LZ1 rigid airship by Colonel Count von Zeppelin (Ger.)
1900 Labour Party founded in Britain
1900 About 80 percent of world's ships built by British
1901 Transatlantic wireless
1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance
1903 1st sustained flight by Wright brothers
1903 Bolshevik Party started
1904 Anglo-French Entente
1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War
Back to Table of Contents