Earliest civilizations in Mesopotamia & Egypt

Law code of Hammurapi (c. 1700 BC)

Achaean migrations into Greece

Creation & flood myths (Sumer)

Belief in immortality (Egypt)

Beginning of mathematical sciences

Foundations of medical science

Invention of writing

Gilgamesh epic poetry

First temples & palaces

Pyramids of Gizeh (Egypt)

Dorian invasions of Greece

Trojan war (legendary)

"Dark Ages" of Greece (1200-800)

Rome founded "Dark Ages" of Greece (1200-800)

"Homeric Age" of Greece

Greek city-states founded

Greek colonization of the Mediterranean and Black Seas

Assyrian Empire (c. 900-600 BC)

Roman Republic founded (c. 500 BC)

Twelve Tablets of Roman law (c. 450 BC)

Persian Wars in Greece (c. 490-460 BC)

Athenian supremacy and empire

Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC)

King Philip II of Macedon (d. 336 BC)

King Alexander the Great of Macedon, d. 323 BC

Civil Disorders in Egypt

Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul (58-51 BC)

Overthrow of the Roman Republic (79-30 BC)

Augustus (d. 14 AD) and the foundations of the Roman Empire

Pax Romana (27 BC-AD 180)

Moses and the Hebrew Covenant

Age of the major Hebrew prophets (750-539 BC)

First Olympic games honoring Zeus

Parmenides

Growth of mystery cults (Greece)

Protagoras, d. 411 BC and Sophists

Socrates, d. 399 BC

Plato, d. 347 BC

Aristotle, d. 322 BC

Epicurus, d. 270 BC

Zeno, d. 264 BC

Cicero, d. 43 BC

Lucretius, d. 55 BC

Homer and Greek epics

Hesiod

Aeschylus, d. 456 BC
Herodotus, d. 425 BC
Sophocles, d. 406 BC
Aristophanes, d. 380 BC
Euripides, d. 407 BC
Thucydides, d. 400 BC
Hecataeus of Miletus, d. 476 BC

Virgil, d. 19 BC

Horace, d. 8 BC

Ovid, d. 17 AD

Greek archaic style of architecture

Palace of Persepolis (Persia)

Classical style

Phidias

Parthenon

Myron

Praxiteles

Hellenistic style

Period of "barracks emperors" and Roman military despotism and anarchy (235-280)

Diocletian, d. 305

Constantine, d. 337

Theodosius (395)

Germanic invasions begin (406)

Sack of Rome by Visigoths (410)

Sack of Rome by Vandals (455)

End of western half of Roman Empire (476)

Roman law codified by Eastern emperor Justinian, d. 565

Islamic conquest of Middle East and Mediterranean World

Rise of Carolingian Dynasty

Rivalry of Mithraism and Christianity

Last great persecution of the Christians (303-312)

St. Antony the Great (hermit monk, d. 356)

Last great persecution of the Christians (303-312)

Council of Nicaea (325)

Christianity becomes official Roman faith (393)

St. Jerome, d. 420, and Vulgate

St. Augustine, d. 430

Recognition of papacy in the West

St. Benedict, d. 547, and his monastic rule

Mohammed, d. 632, and the Koran

The Hegira, 622

Pont du Gard, Roman aqueduct, south of France (c. 50)

Baths of Diocletian, Roman building dedicated in 306

Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, completed 537

Charlemagne crowned "Roman Emperor" by Pope Leo III (800)

Division of Islamic conquests (Sunnis vs. Shiites), breakup of Saracen empire

Breakup of Charlemagne's empire (843)

Invasions of Western Europe by Norsemen, Muslims, and Magyars

Emergence of feudal and manorial systems

Partial recovery of Central authority in France and Germany

Revival of trade

Norman conquest of England

Rise of towns and guilds

The crusades (1096-1204)

Magna Carta, 1215

Origins of English Parliament (1295)

Emergence of capitalism

Growth of banking

Hundreds Years' War (1337-1453)

Decline of feudal and manorial systems

Domestic system of production (1400-1750)

Age of despots in Italy: Cosimo de' Medici, Francesco Sforza

Conquest of Constantinople by Ottoman Turks, 1453

Expulsion of Muslims from Spain, 1492

Jacob Fugger, banker, d. 1525

Monastic reform movements: Cluny

Separation of Greek and Latin churches (1054)

Ecclesiastical reform: Hildebrand (Pope St. Gregory VII), d. 1085

College of Cardinals created by Gregory VII (1059)

Cistercian order (1098)

Widespread persecution of Jews

Rise of universities

Papacy at height of power: Innocent III, d. 1216

Founding of mendicant friars, Franciscans (1209) and Dominicans (1216)

Thomas Aquinas, d. 1274

Scholastic philosophy dominant

Papal Inquisition, c. 1231

Decline of Papal power: Pope Boniface VIII, d. 1303

"Babylonian Captivity" of Papacy (1309-76)

Renaissance humanism (1350-1600)

Great Schism (1379-1417)

John Wiclif, d. 1384

John Hus, d. 1415

Neo-Platonism (Florentine Academy)

Marsilio Ficino, scholar, d. 1499

Pico della Mirandola, d. 1494

Niccolo Machiavelli, d. 1527

Growth of vernacular literature

Chivalric romances

Goliardic poetry

Song of Roland, c. 1100

Dante Alighieri, poet, d. 1321

Geoffrey Chaucer, poet, d. 1400

Giovanni Boccaccio, writer and scholar, d. 1375

Laurentius Valla, humanist scholar, d. 1457

Gutenburg, inventor of printing, d. 1468

Charlemagne's Palace at Aachen 796-805

Romanesque style of architecture

St. Trophime Cathedral (Arles)

Gothic style

Chartres Cathedral

Florence Cathedral

Giotto, painter, d. 1337

Merchants Hall and Tower (Bruges)

Renaissance style of architecture: Brunelleschi, d. 1446, Donatello, d. 1466

Overseas exploration: Columbus (d. 1506), Vasco DaGama (d. 1525), Ferdinand Magellan (d. 1521)

Establishment of Spanish American kingdoms: Hernán Cortes (d. 1547), Francisco Pizzaro (d. 1541)

Rise of national monarchies: King Henry VIII of England (d. 1547), King Francis I of France (d. 1547)

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, d. 1558

King Philip II of Spain, d. 1598

Religious Wars (Thirty Years War in Germany, 1618-48)

Hugo Grotius (d. 1645) and emergence of international law

Peace of Wesphalia of 1648, concludes Thirty Years War

Louis XIV, d. 1715

English "Glorious Revolution," 1688

Oliver Cromwell, d. 1658

Mercantilism

Age of Absolutism

Rise of Prussia and Russia: Peter the Great (d. 1725), Frederick the Great (d. 1786)

Industrial Revolution and beginning of factory system

American Revolution (1776-1781)

French Revolution (1789)

Martin Luther (beginning of Protestant Reformation), d. 1546
John Calvin, d. 1564
Pope Paul III (beginning of Catholic Reformation), d. 1549
Nicholas Copernicus, d. 1543
Ignatius Loyola, d. 1556, founder of Society of Jesus
Council of Trent (1545-63)

Francis Bacon, English philosopher, d. 1626

Johann Kepler, astronomer, d. 1630; Galileo Galilei, astronomer, d. 1642

René Descartes, d. 1650

Royal Society of London, 1662
Thomas Hobbes, d. 1679
Jacques Bossuet, d. 1704
John Locke, d. 1704
Isaac Newton, d. 1727

The Enlightenment

Deism

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, d. 1778

Adam Smith, d. 1790

Marquis de Condorcet, d. 1794

Edmund Burke, d. 1797

Desiderius Erasmus, d. 1536
Baldassare Castiglione, writer, d. 1529
St. Thomas More, English writer and statesman, d. 1535
François Rabelais, French writer, d. 1553
Benevenuto Cellini, artist and writer, d. 1571
Michel Montaigne, essayist, d. 1592

William Shakespeare, d. 1616

Ben Jonson, d. 1637

Age of classicism

Jean Racine, d. 1699

Alexander Pope, d. 1744

Voltaire, 1788

Denis Diderot, d. 1784

Thomas Jefferson, d. 1826

St. Peter's Basilica, completed 1615

Jan Breughel, d. 1625

Baroque style

Peter Paul Rubens, d. 1640
Rembrandt van Rijn, d. 1669
Lorenzo Bernini, d. 1680
Versailles Palace built 1661-1710
Christopher Wren, d. 1723

St. Paul's Cathedral, rebuilt 1710

Antoine Watteau, Belgian painter, d. 1721

Joshua Reynolds, d. 1792

Rococo style

Classical revival syle

Jacques-Louis David, d. 1825

Napoleon Bonaparte (d. 1821) and the empire of the French

Congress of Vienna (1815)

Metternich system of collective security

Spread of political and economical liberalism

Growth of nationalism
German unification and empire: Otto von Bismarck, d. 1898
Rise of corporate big business
Rise of labor unions
Urbanization of Western society
The New Imperialism
Triple Alliance

Triple Entente, c. 1907

First World War, 1914-18

Georg Hegel, d. 1831

Utopian socialists: Saint-Simon (d. 1825), Fourier (1837), Owen (1858)

Auguste Comte (1857)

Vladimir Lenin, d. 1924

Sigmund Freud, d. 1939

Albert Einstein, d. 1955

Johann Goethe, d. 1832
Age of romanticism
William Wordsworth, d. 1850
Honoré Balzac, d. 1850

Romanticism: Francisco Goya, d. 1828

Gothic revival style

Houses of Parliament

J. M. W. Turner, d. 1851; John Constable, d. 1837

Eugène Delacroix, d. 1863

Gustave Courbet, d. 1877

Honoré Daumier, d. 1879

Impressionism: Claude Monet, d. 1926

Paul Cézanne, 1906

Expressionism: Vincent Van Gogh, d. 1890

Organic style: Frank Lloyd Wright, d. 1959

International Style: Walter Gropius, d. 1969; Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, d. 1969

Le Corbusier, d. 1965

Pablo Picasso, d. 1973

League of Nations, 1919-1946

Russian Revolution, 1917: communism and Josef Stalin, d. 1953

Rise of fascism and nazism: Benito Mussolini, d. 1945; Adolph Hitler, d. 1945

Great Depression (1930-1940)

President Franklin D. Roosevelt (d. 1945) and the New Deal

Second World War, 1939-45

Atomic bomb, 1945

United Nations founded, 1946

The Cold War (1947-91)

Liquidation of colonialism: Mahatma Gandhi, d. 1948

Mao Tse-tung, d. 1976

Indochina War (1961-1975)

Student movement

Struggle against racism

Women's movement

World population and resources crisis

Ernest Rutherford, d. 1937; Niels Bohr, d. 1962

Existentialism

Paul Tillich, d. 1965

Pope John XXIII, d. 1963

Twenty-first Ecumencial Council of Bishops (Second Vatican Council), 1962-65

Rev. Martin Luther King, d. 1968

Pope Paul VI, d. 1978

Man on moon (1969)

New youth culture

Jean-Paul Sartre, d. 1980

Norman Mailer, d. 2007

Jackson Pollock, d. 1956

Henry Moore, d. 1986

Oscar Niemeyer