A historical timeline

1000-1099 1054 Final split between Eastern and Western Christianity 1066 Norman conquest of England 1096 Start of First Crusade (Jerusalem taken 1099) 1100-1199 1151 Hippocratic Oath adopted by Italian physicians 1155 Genghis Khan born 1170 Thomas à Becket murdered at Canterbury 1187 Muslims under Saladin retake Jerusalem 1200-1299 1204 Fourth Crusade attacks, takes Constantinople 1215 Magna Carta sealed by King John 1237 Mongols conquer Russia 1258 British House of Commons established 1271 Marco Polo travels to China 1272 Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologica published 1300-1399 1321 Dante's Divine Comedy published 1349 Black Death kills third of English population 1368 Ming Dynasty established in China 1387 Chaucer's Canterbury Tales published 1400-1499 1414 Publication of Thomas à Kempis's Imitation of Christ 1434 Cosimo de Medici becomes ruler of Florence 1441 Portuguese navigators begin slave trade 1453 Gutenberg Bible printed using moveable type; Turks conquer Constantinople and end Byzantine Empire 1487 Portugese sail to South America 1492 Columbus discovers America 1497 Vasco da Gama discovers a sea route to India 1500-1599 1503 DaVinci's Mona Lisa painted 1508 Michelangelo begins painting Sistine Chapel ceiling 1509 Henry VIII becomes King of England 1513 Ponce de Leon discovers Florida; Balboa discovers the Pacific Ocean 1517 Martin Luther posts 95 Theses in Wittenberg; Spanish conquistadors land in Mexico, begin conquest of the Aztecs and central America 1519 Magellan begins circumnavigation of the earth 1522 Luther completes translation of the New Testament into German 1525 Anabaptist "Swiss Brethren" organized in Zurich; William Tyndale's English Bible printed in Germany 1531 Henry VIII becomes "Supreme Head" of the church in England 1532 Machiavelli's The Prince published 1536 Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion published 1541 John Knox leads Calvinist Reformation in Scotland 1542 Portugese traders and Jesuit missionaries arrive in Japan 1546 Mercator states that the earth has a magnetic pole 1558 Elizabeth I crowned Queen of England 1563 General outbreak of the Black Plague in Europe 1564 William Shakespeare born 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in Paris-2,000 Protestants killed 1577 Sir Francis Drake begins around-the-world cruise 1582 Gregorian calendar adopted 1588 Spanish Armada destroyed in the English Channel 1596 Galileo invents the thermometer 1600-1699 1602 Dutch East India Company founded 1605 Cervantes's Don Quixote published 1607 First permanent English settlement in America at Jamestown 1608 Galileo constructs astronomical telescope 1611 Authorized "King James" Bible published 1616 Shakespeare dies 1619 Harvey discovers the circulation of the blood 1620 Pilgrims sail from Holland to New England-establish Plymouth 1623 First patent law enacted in England 1626 Peter Minuit buys Manhattan Island from Indians for the equivalent of $24 1630 Massachusetts Bay Puritan colony founded 1636 Roger Williams establishes "free" Baptist colony at Providence 1642 English Civil War begins 1646 Westminster Assembly adopts Confession of Faith 1648 Taj Mahal completed in Agra, India 1649 Charles I beheaded 1653 Oliver Cromwell becomes "Lord Protector" of England 1663 John Newton develops the binomial theorem 1665 Isaac Newton invents differential calculus 1675 Christopher Wren begins reconstruction of St. Paul's Cathedral in London 1678 John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress published 1685 Chinese ports opened to foreign trade 1688 London underwriters begin meeting at Lloyd's Coffee House 1689 Peter the Great becomes Czar of Russia; first modern trade fair held at Leiden, Holland 1695 English government ends press censorship 1700-1799 1702 First daily newspaper, The Courant, begins publication in London 1724 Paris Bourse (stock market) established 1730 Methodist denomination founded by the Wesleys 1741 Jonathan Edwards preaches "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"-Great Awakening in New England; Handel's Messiah composed 1755 Lisbon earthquake kills 30,000 1756 W. A. Mozart born in Salzburg 1759 Voltaire's Candide published 1762 Rousseau writes The Social Contract 1770 Beethoven born in Bonn; the Boston Massacre; Captain James Cook discovers Botany Bay, Australia 1771 Encyclopedia Britannica published 1775 American Revolution begins; James Watt perfects the steam engine 1776 U.S. Declaration of Independence signed; Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations 1781 British surrender at Yorktown, ending war 1783 Britain recognizes U.S. independence at the Peace of Versailles 1788 Wilberforce introduces parliamentary motion to ban the slave trade; U.S. Constitution ratified 1789 French Revolution begins with the storming of the Bastille; George Washington becomes first U.S. president; first steam-driven cotton mill opens in Manchester, England 1791 U.S. Bill of Rights (First 10 Amendments) ratified 1793 Eli Whitney invents cotton gin 1796 Edward Jenner introduces vaccination against smallpox 1799 Rosetta Stone found in Egypt 1800-1899 1803 Louisiana Territory purchased by U.S. from France 1804 Napoleon proclaimed Emperor of the French 1805 British win naval battle of Trafalgar 1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition begins 1807 Robert Fulton's steam paddle wheeler Claremont sails the Hudson River; England prohibits the slave trade 1811 Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility published 1812 U.S. declares War on Britain 1814 George Stephenson constructs the first practical steam locomotive; U.S.-Britain War ends with the Treaty of Ghent 1815 Napoleon defeated by Wellington at Waterloo 1817 Simon Bolivar establishes the independent nation of Venezuela 1818 Napier constructs the flat-bed press 1821 Farraday discovers the fundamentals of electromagnetism 1824 Beethoven's 9th symphony performed in Vienna; Simon Bolivar proclaimed Emperor of Peru 1830 First sewing machine invented by Thimonnier in Paris 1831 Charles Darwin sails in the Beagle to South America, New Zealand, and Australia 1834 Charles Babbage develops the principal behind modern computers; McCormick patents the reaper 1837 Victoria becomes Queen of England; Samuel F. B. Morse demonstrates the electric telegraph 1839 Charles Goodyear invents "vulcanization" of rubber 1846 U.S. declares war on Mexico-gains California, Arizona, New Mexico 1848 Communist Manifesto issued by Marx and Engels 1849 Dickens's David Copperfield published 1850 Public libraries established in Britain 1854 The Crimean War (Turkey, Britain, France vs. Russia) 1857 First safety elevator developed and installed by E.G. Otis 1859 Darwin's Origin of Species published; first oil well drilled at Titusville, Pa. 1861 Civil War begins in the United States 1862 Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation 1864 Louis Pasteur invents "pasteurization" process 1865 U.S. Civil War ends with defeat of secessionist South; Joseph Lister initiates antiseptic surgery 1866 Nobel invents dynamite 1867 Karl Marx's Das Kapital published 1869 Suez Canal opened 1870 Franco-Prussian War brings end to 2nd Empire-France becomes a Republic 1876 Stanley finds Livingston in Africa 1877 Thomas Edison invents phonograph 1880 Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov published; Edison devises the first practical electric lights 1884 Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn published 1888 Eastman perfects the "Kodak" box camera 1891 Construction of the Trans-Siberian railroad begins 1892 Rudolf Diesel patents the internal combustion engine 1895 Roentgen invents X-rays; Marconi invents radio telegraphy 1896 Theodor Herzl publishes The Jewish State-beginning of modern Zionism 1898 United States declares war on Spain, takes Philippines, Puerto Rico, et. al.-becomes world power; Count Zeppelin builds his lighter-than-air ship 1899 John Dewey writes School and Society; Boer War begins in South Africa (goes on until 1902) 1900-1999 1900 Max Planck formulates quantum theory; Sigmund Freud publishes The Interpretation of Dreams 1901 Marconi transmits a radio message across the Atlantic 1903 Wright brothers fly at Kitty Hawk, N.C. 1904 Russo-Japanese War 1905 Einstein formulates the "Special Theory of Relativity" 1907 Boy Scouts founded by Baden-Powell 1908 Ford "Model T" first produced 1909 Robert Peary reaches the North Pole 1911 Roald Amundsen reaches the South Pole; Chinese Republic established 1913 U.S. Federal income tax established (16th Amendment); Henry Ford starts assembly-line manufacturing 1914 First World War begins in Europe 1915 Alexander Graham Bell makes first trans-continental phone call; Einstein postulates his "General Theory of Relativity" 1917 U.S. enters world war; Russian Revolution-Czar abdicates, Lenin becomes Chief Commissar 1918 World War I ends as Germany surrenders 1920 League of Nations established; 19th Amendment establishes women's suffrage in the U.S. 1922 Mussolini forms fascist government in Italy; insulin first administered to diabetics; Turkish Republic proclaimed by Ataturk 1923 Sound motion pictures demonstrated by Lee DeForest 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial" in Dayton, Tenn. 1926 Robert Goddard launches first liquid-fuel rocket 1928 First scheduled TV broadcast in Schnectady, N.Y. 1929 Construction of the Empire State Building begins; U.S. stock market crashes 1930 J.M. Keynes writes Treatise on Money 1933 Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany 1935 British develop radar 1937 First jet engine built 1939 Germany invades Poland-World War II begins; Winston Churchill becomes prime minister of Britain 1941 Japan attacks Pearl Harbor-U.S. enters war 1942 Enrico Fermi splits the atom; first automatic computer developed in U.S.; first U.S. jet plane tested by Bell Aircraft; C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters published 1943 Penicillin used to treat chronic diseases 1944 D-Day Landing by allies in Normandy 1945 Hitler commits suicide, Germany surrenders; atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrenders 1946 Churchill delivers "Iron Curtain" speech; United Nations established 1947 British India divided into India and Pakistan and granted independence by Britain; Dead Sea Scrolls found in Palestine 1948 Israel established by UN-Arabs attack; Kinsey Report on human sexuality published 1949 Communists under Mao Tse-tung gain control of China; NATO alliance formed by U.S. and western European nations to counter USSR aggression 1950 North Korea invades South Korea-U.S. comes to the aid of the south; electric power produced by atomic energy; Ludwig Von Mises writes Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis 1952 Korean Armistice signed at Panmunjom; Mt. Everest climbed by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay 1953 U.S. Supreme Court outlaws school segregation (Brown vs. Board of Education); World Council of Churches formed; Salk polio vaccine administered; nuclear submarine launched by U.S. 1955 Rosa Parks refuses to move to the rear of a bus-Civil Rights movement begins 1956 USSR invades Hungary-crushes anti-Communist rebellion; Churchill publishes his History of the English Speaking Peoples; Britain, France, and Israel invade Egypt to protect canal 1957 USSR launches Sputnik-first earth satellite; European Common Market established 1958 Fidel Castro gains control of Cuba and expropriates U.S. property; Charles DeGaulle becomes president under 5th French Republic 1960 USSR sends first man into orbit, U.S. sends first man into space; Belgian Congo gains independence 1961 Cuban Missile Crisis 1962 Civil Rights "March on Washington" led by Martin Luther King; Michael DeBakey uses an artificial heart for the first time; nuclear test ban treaty signed by U.S., USSR, and Britain 1963 President John F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas 1965 U.S. involvement in Vietnam war escalates; Medicare established in U.S. 1966 Martin Luther King shot to death in Memphis, Tenn. 1967 Arabs attack Israel and lose West Bank, Sinai in six-day war 1968 "Czech Spring" liberalization crushed by USSR 1969 Apollo 11 lands on the moon; Neil Armstrong first man on the moon 1972 Dow-Jones Industrial Average passes 1000 for the first time 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision by U.S. Supreme Court legalizes abortion; renewed Arab-Israeli War-Israel takes Golan Heights 1975 South Vietnam collapses, U.S. evacuates 1977 British scientists report complete "gene mapping" of a living organism 1978 "Test tube baby" born in England; Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla becomes Pope John Paul II-first non-Italian to be pope in 456 years 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini leads Iranian revolution-over 100 U.S. citizens taken hostage as Muslims raid U.S. Embassy in Tehran; Margaret Thatcher becomes British prime minister; USSR invades Afghanistan 1980 Ronald Reagan elected U.S. president; Iraq invades Iran, begins eight-year stalemate war 1981 IBM markets first "personal computer" 1982 Falklands War-Britain repulses Argentine invasion 1983 Compact discs first sold 1984 Apple Macintosh with a "mouse" is first marketed; AIDS virus discovered 1986 Space shuttle Challenger explodes, killing seven 1988 Soviet troops begin withdrawal from Afghanistan 1989 Berlin Wall demolished; non-Communist government in power in Poland; Romanian Communist government falls; free government established in Hungary; Chinese troops massacre student protesters in Tiananmen Square in Beijing 1990 Nelson Mandela freed from 25 years imprisonment; Iraq invades Kuwait; East and West Germany are reunified 1991 USSR collapses-Cold War ends; U.S. and allies invade Iraq (Gulf War) 1995 NATO troops enter Bosnia as "peacekeepers"; Nelson Mandela elected president of South Africa 1997 Britain returns Hong Kong colony to China 1998 Former Soviet-bloc members Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland join NATO alliance; Clinton is first elected U.S. president to be impeached 1999 "EURO" common currency and multinational central bank established by EEC countries; NATO air forces attack Serbia over Kosovo "ethnic cleansing"