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Jan 1, 1096
Crusades are Fought
The Crusades were holy wars fought between Christians in Europe and Muslims in the Middle East between 1095 and 1291. Although the main goal of the Crusades was to take control of Jerusalem away from the Muslims, there were many reasons why European knights and others were willing to travel and fight a war in a foreign land. -
Jan 1, 1347
Black Death Begins in Europe
Within a day or two, the swellings appeared. They were hard, painful, burning lumps on the neck, under the arms, and on the inner thighs. Soon they turned black, split open, and began to ooze pus and blood. They may have grown to the size of an orange. -
Jan 1, 1350
Renaissance Begins
People wanted to show they were wealthy, people purchased art. literature, this new area of art and literature became known as the renaissance, The renaissance: French for the Rebirth -
Jan 1, 1431
Joan of arc burned at the stake
Joan of Arc was born in 1412 in France. Most of her childhood was relatively uneventful, until in 1424, when she began having visions. In her visions, Saint Margaret, Saint Catherine, and Saint Michael told Joan that she needed to support King Charles VII and help rid France of the English. During the many battles of the Hundred Years War that were to come, despite her young age, Joan, a simple peasant girl, was instrumental in capturing Orleans. This accomplishment was immense, but she later we -
Jan 1, 1440
Johannes Gutenberg printing press
While Gutenberg was growing up a new way of making books came into use, which was a great deal better than copying by hand. It was what is called block-printing. The printer first cut a block of hard wood the size of the page that he was going to print. Then he cut out every word of the written page upon the smooth face of his block. This had to be very carefully done. -
Jan 1, 1443
Voyages of Zheng He
Between 1405 and 1433, Zheng He had, over a period of 28 years, eight times been ordered to act as envoy to countries lying to the west of China. Each time he had under his command a big fleet and a staff of more than 20,000 men. -
Jan 1, 1453
Ottomans conquer contantinople
The capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Army, under the command Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II on 29th May 1453. With this conquest Ottomans became an Empire and one of the most powerful empires, The Eastern Roman Empire fell and lasted. Mehmed also took the title “The Conqueror” added to his name. -
Jan 1, 1453
100 Years War Begins
The Hundred Years' War was a long struggle between England and France over succession to the French throne. It lasted from 1337 to 1453, so it might more accurately be called the "116 Years' War." The war starts off with several stunning successes on Britain's part, and the English forces dominate France for decades. Then, the struggle see-saws back and forth. In the 1360s, the French are winning. From 1415-1422, the English are winning. After 1415, King Henry V of England revives the campaign a -
Jan 1, 1492
1st Voyage of Columbus
On October 12, Rodrigo de Triana, a sailor aboard the Pinta, first sighted land. Columbus himself later claimed that he had seen a sort of light or aura before Triana did, allowing him to keep the reward he had promised to give whomever spotted land first. The land turned out to be a small island in the present-day Bahamas. Columbus named the island San Salvador, although he remarked in his journal that the natives referred to it as Guanahani. There is some debate over which island was Columbus’ -
Jan 1, 1492
Jews, Gypsies, & Moors expelled from Spain
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Jan 1, 1498
Da Gama lands in India
Da Gama sailed from Lisbon, Portugal, in July 1497, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and anchored at Malindi on the east coast of Africa. With the aid of an Indian merchant he met there, he then set off across the Indian Ocean. The Portuguese explorer was not greeted warmly by the Muslim merchants of Calicut, and in 1499 he had to fight his way out of the harbor on his return trip home. In 1502, he led a squadron of ships to Calicut to avenge the massacre of Portuguese explorers there and succeede -
Jan 1, 1502
Name of the new world
in the year 1513, a group of men led by Vasco Núñez de Balboa marched across the Isthmus of Panama and discovered the Pacific Ocean. They had been looking for it—they knew existed—and, familiar as they were with oceans, they had no difficulty in recognizing it when they saw it. On their way, however, they saw a good many things they had not been looking for and were not familiar with. When they returned to Spain to tell what they had seen, it was not a simple matter to find words for everythin -
Jan 1, 1506
Da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa
“Mona Lisa” [Credit: Scala/Art Resource, New York]oil painting on a poplar wood panel by the Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer Leonardo da Vinci, probably the world’s most-famous painting. It was painted sometime between 1503 and 1506, when da Vinci was living in Florence, and it now hangs in the Louvre, in Paris, where it remains an object of pilgrimage in the 21st century. -
Jan 1, 1508
Michelangelo Begins painting sistine Chapel
Today millions of visitor’s come to Rome and rush to the Vatican Museums, for the most part to make their way to the Sistine Chapel to stand in awe, necks strained to see the work of a genius. No artist since has come close to the scale, technical skill and majestic composition and design of this masterpiece. His Last Judgement (1535) painted on the alter wall completes the most powerful cycle of painting in the western world. In the Sistine Chapel the great sculptor became a great painter. -
Jan 1, 1517
Martin Luther posts 95 Theses
On this day in 1517, the priest and scholar Martin Luther approaches the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and nails a piece of paper to it containing the 95 revolutionary opinions that would begin the Protestant Reformation. -
Jan 1, 1522
Magellan Starts his around the world trip
Since Magellan was a Portuguese explorer in charge of a Spanish fleet, the early part of the voyage to the west was riddled with problems. Several of the Spanish captains on the ships in the expedition plotted to kill him but their plans were never realized and many of them were held prisoner and/or executed. In addition, Magellan had to avoid Portuguese territory since he was sailing for Spain. -
Jan 1, 1526
Mughal Empire begins
Under Akbar the Great, the empire grew considerably, and continued to expand until the end of Aurangzeb's rule. Jahangir, the son of Akbar, ruled the empire between 1605 and 1627. When Shah Jahan, Jehangir's son, became emperor in October 1627, the empire was large and wealthy enough to be considered one of the greatest empires in the world at that time. -
Jan 1, 1534
Henry VIII Founds anglican church
The beginning of the sixteenth century showed significant discontent with the Roman church. Martin Luther's famous 95 Theses were nailed to the door of the church in Wittenburg in 1517, and news of this challenge had certainly reached England when, 20 years later, the Anglican branch of the church formally challenged the authority of Rome. Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries and abbeys in 1536. -
Jan 1, 1537
Pizarro invades the Inca Empire
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Jan 1, 1563
Council of Trent
The Council of Trent (Latin: Concilium Tridentinum), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trento (Trent) and Bologna, northern Italy, was one of the Roman Catholic Church's most important ecumenical councils. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation, it has been described as the embodiment of the Counter-Reformation. -
Philip II rules spain
Philip, the firstborn of Charles V (ruled 1516–1556 as Charles I [Spain]; Holy Roman emperor, ruled 1519–1556) and Empress Isabella, was reared in Castile. The emperor's frequent absences limited Philip's contact with his father, and he was raised in his mother's court until her death in 1539. -
Elisabeth I becomes Queen of England
Two months after the death of her half-sister, Queen Mary I of England, Elizabeth Tudor, the 25-year-old daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, is crowned Queen Elizabeth I at Westminster Abbey in London. -
Jamestown colony in Virginia founded
On May 14, 1607, a group of roughly 100 members of a joint venture called the Virginia Company founded the first permanent English settlement in North America on the banks of the James River. -
Louis XIV becomes King of France
The reign of France’s Louis XIV (1638-1718), known as the Sun King, lasted for 72 years, longer than that of any other known European sovereign. In that time, he transformed the monarchy, ushered in a golden age of art and literature, presided over a dazzling royal court at Versailles, annexed key territories and established his country as the dominant European power. -
Ming Dynasty in China
Born Zhu Yuanzhang in 1328 and orphaned at age 16, the man who would found the Ming dynasty survived by begging before becoming a novice at a Buddhist monastery. When his monastery was burned down a few years later during a conflict between Yuan dynasty soldiers and rebels from a Buddhist sect known as the “Red Turbans,” Zhu joined the rebels, quickly rising through the ranks and even marrying the daughter of one of his commanders. -
Qing dynasty in China Begins
By the end of the 19th century, the Western powers and Japan had forced China's ruling Qing dynasty to accept wide foreign control over the country's economic affairs. In the Opium Wars, popular rebellions, and the Sino-Japanese War, China had fought to resist the foreigners, but it lacked a modernized military and suffered millions of casualties. -
Thomas Hobbes writes Lebiathan
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Oliver Cromwell rules england
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Peter I becomes Czar
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Safavid Empire
After the disastrous invasion of Mongols, in the 1200s, migrated Turks and Mongolian tribes adopted the Persian customs and even language. In the 1300s, the Ilkhanids, a dynasty founded by the "Genghis Khan's" grandson, Holagu Khan, had been an influential factor in Persia. During these turbulent years of 13th century, the Persians had submerged themselves deeper in Islamic devotion and Sufism. - See more at: http://www.iranchamber.com/history/safavids/safavids.php#sthash.yGyjxDif.dpuf -
French Revolution Begins
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U.S.Constitution is ratified
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Age of enlightment
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Reign of Terror Begins
Instead of a democracy the Convention established a war dictatorship operating through the Committee of Public Safety, the Committee of General Security, and numerous agencies such as the Revolutionary Tribunal. Known to history as the Reign of Terror, this period represented the efforts of a few men to govern the country and wage war in a time of crisis. -
Catherine the Great rules Russia
In 1744, she arrived in Russia, as the Grand Duchess Catherine Alekseyevna, and married Peter, grandson of Peter the Great and heir to the throne. Russia at the time was ruled by Peter's mother, the empress Elizabeth. -
Napoleon becomes emperor
Napoleon had many remarkable qualities as a warrior and a statesman. Among them was a curious combination of mathematical logic and breathtaking audacity. He rose from penniless captain in the army to the Emperor of France in little more than ten years. He would go on to create the biggest empire since the days of Rome. -
Slave Trade across Atlantic
Philip Curtin, a leading authority on the African slave trade, estimates that roughly 6.3 million slaves were shipped from West Africa to North America and South America, about 4.5 million of that number between 1701 and 1810. Perhaps as high a number as 5,000 a year were shipped from the Slave Coast alone. -
Napoleon defeated @ Waterloo
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Copernicus publishes heliocentric theory
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Tokugawa Shogunate ends
