Humanities Timeline

By DragonBoyF
  • 44 BCE

    Julius Caesar death

    Julius Ceasar gets stabbed to death.
  • Period: 44 BCE to 476

    Rome

  • 27 BCE

    Empire begins

    The Roman Empire is founded.
  • 117

    Rome at the greatest extent

    The Roman Empire in 117, at its greatest extent.
  • Period: 284 to 305

    Rule of Diocletian

    Diocletian, born Diocles, was a Roman emperor from 284 to 305.
  • Period: 306 to 337

    Rule of Constantine

    Constantine the Great, also known as Constantine I, was a Roman Emperor who ruled between 306 and 337.
  • 313

    Legalization of Christianity

    Constantine the Great issued the Edict of Milan, Christianity became legal in the Roman Empire.
  • 330

    Split of the Roman Empire and move to Constantinople

    Constantine the Great, moved the capital of the Roman Empire to the city of Byzantium in 330, and renamed it Constantinople
  • 410

    Sack of Rome

    The Sack of Rome occurred in 410. The city was attacked by the Visigoths led by King Alaric. At that time, Rome was no longer the capital of the Western Roman Empire.
  • 476

    End of Western Empire

    Romulus, the last of the Roman emperors in the west, was overthrown by the Germanic leader Odoacer, who became the first Barbarian to rule in Rome.
  • Period: 476 to 1453

    Middle Ages

  • Period: 527 to 565

    Reign of Justinian

    Justinian I was the Byzantine emperor, noted for his administrative reorganization of the imperial government.
  • Period: 647 to 709

    Muslims Conquer North Africa

    The Muslim conquest of the Maghreb continued the century of rapid Arab Early Muslim conquests into the Byzantine-controlled territories of Northern Africa.
  • 732

    Battle of Tours

    The Battle of Tours – also called the Battle of Poitiers and, by Arab sources, the Battle of the Highway of the Martyrs – marked the victory of the Frankish and Burgundian forces under Charles Martel over the invasion forces of the Umayyad Caliphate led by Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, Governor-General of al-Andalus.
  • Period: 763 to 1066

    Viking Invasions

    The Vikings first invaded Britain in 793 and last invaded in 1066 when William the Conqueror became King of England after the Battle of Hastings. The first place the Vikings raided in Britain was the monastery at Lindisfarne, a small holy island located off the northeast coast of England.
  • Period: 768 to 814

    Rule of Charlemagne

    Charlemagne, also known as Karl and Charles the Great, was a medieval emperor who ruled much of Western Europe from 768 to 814.
  • 862

    Missionary of St. Cyril and Methodius

    When Prince Rostislav of Great Moravia asked Constantinople for missionaries, the emperor Michael III and the patriarch Photius named Cyril and Methodius.
  • 1054

    East-West Schism

    The East-West Schism was the break of communion between what are now the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox churches, which had lasted until the 11th century.
  • Period: 1096 to 1291

    Crusades

    The Crusades were a series of religious wars between Christians and Muslims started primarily to secure control of holy sites considered sacred by both groups.
  • 1215

    Magna Carta

    Magna Carta Libertatum (Medieval Latin for "the Great Charter of the Liberties"), commonly called Magna Carta, is a charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215.
  • 1236

    Mongol Invasion

    The Mongol invasion of Europe in the 13th century was the conquest of Europe by the Mongol Empire, by way of the destruction of East Slavic principalities, such as Kiev and Vladimir.
  • Period: 1300 to

    Renaissance

  • 1320

    Dante writes his epic poem the Divine Comedy

    Inferno is the first part of Italian writer Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. The Inferno tells the journey of Dante through Hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil.
  • Period: 1337 to 1453

    100 year war

    The Hundred Years' War was a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the French House of Valois, over the right to rule the Kingdom of France. Each side drew many allies into the war.
  • Period: 1347 to 1351

    Plague

    The Black Death, also known as the Great Plague, the Black Plague, or simply the Plague, was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia and peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351.
  • Period: 1376 to 1377

    The Papacy returned to Rome

    The most influential decision in the reign of Pope Gregory XI (1370–1378) was the return to Rome, beginning on 13 September 1376 and ending with his arrival on 17 January 1377.
  • 1415

    Jan Hus Dies

    Jan Hus, was a Czech theologian, philosopher, master, dean, and rector.
  • 1436

    Architect Brunelleschi designs the dome for the Florence Cathedral

    It was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to a design of Arnolfo di Cambio and was structurally completed by 1436, with the dome designed by Filippo Brunelleschi.
  • 1439

    Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press.

    Invented around 1439, Gutenberg's movable type printing press initiated nothing less than a revolution in print technology. His press allowed manuscripts to be mass-produced at relatively affordable costs. The 42-line 'Gutenberg Bible', printed around 1455, was Gutenberg's most well known printed item.
  • 1440

    The invention of printing press

    Europeans, however, took to movable type quickly. Before the invention of the printing press, most European texts were printed using xylography, a form of woodblock printing similar to the Chinese method used to print "The Diamond Sutra" in 868.
  • 1453

    End of Eastern Empire

    After an Ottoman army stormed Constantinople. The fall of Constantinople marked the end of a glorious era for the Byzantine Empire.
  • 1469

    Lorenzo de Medici ascends to power in Florence

    Lorenzo de'Medici was a statesman and patron of the arts in Florence, Italy, during the 15th century. He was so important that people referred to him as 'il Magnifico,' the Magnificent. Lorenzo de'Medici (1449-1492) lived during the Italian Renaissance.
  • Period: 1473 to 1481

    Sistine Chapel is built

    The present chapel, on the site of the Cappella Maggiore, was designed by Baccio Pontelli for Pope Sixtus IV, for whom it is named, and built under the supervision of Giovannino de Dolci between 1473 and 1481. The proportions of the present chapel appear to closely follow those of the original.
  • 1486

    Botticelli completed the painting The Birth of Venus

    The Birth of Venus is a painting by the Italian artist Sandro Botticelli probably made in the mid-1480s. It depicts the goddess Venus arriving at the shore after her birth when she had emerged from the sea fully-grown. The painting is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.
  • 1500

    Start of Counter-Reformation

    The Counter-Reformation was a movement within the Roman Catholic Church. Its main aim was to reform and improve it. It started in the 1500s. Its first period is called the Catholic Reformation.
  • 1503

    Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa

    The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci that has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world".
  • Period: 1509 to 1547

    King Henry VIII Ruled

    Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was King of England from 1509 until his death. Henry was the second Tudor monarch, succeeding his father, Henry VII.
  • 1511

    Erasmus published The Praise of Folly

    The Praise of Folly is an essay written in Latin in 1509 by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam and first printed in June 1511.
  • 1517

    Martin Luther nails 95 Theses

    Popular legend has it that on October 31, 1517, Luther defiantly nailed a copy of his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle church.
  • Period: 1517 to

    Reformation

  • 1543

    Copernicus’ Heliocentric Theory

    Copernican heliocentrism is the name given to the astronomical model developed by Nicolaus Copernicus and published in 1543. It positioned the Sun near the center of the Universe, motionless, with Earth and the other planets orbiting around it in circular paths modified by epicycles and at uniform speeds.
  • Period: 1543 to

    Scientific Revolution

  • 1558

    Elizabeth I became Queen of England.

    Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death on 24 March 1603. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the last of the five monarchs of the House of Tudor.

  • The invention of the microscope

    When the microscope was invented around 1590, suddenly we saw a new world of living things in our water, in our food and under our nose. But it's unclear who invented the microscope. Some historians say it was Hans Lippershey, most famous for filing the first patent for a telescope.

  • William Shakespeare builds the Globe theatre

    The Globe Theatre was a theatre in London associated with William Shakespeare. It was built in 1599 by Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, on land owned by Thomas Brend and inherited by his son, Nicholas Brend and grandson Sir Matthew Brend,

  • Galileo studies planets with his telescope

    In 1609, using this early version of the telescope, Galileo became the first person to record observations of the sky made with the help of a telescope. He soon made his first astronomical discovery.

  • Kepler discovered elliptical orbits

    Johannes Kepler published his first two laws about planetary motion in 1609, having found them by analyzing the astronomical observations of Tycho Brahe. Kepler's third law was published in 1619.

  • Galileo was warned by the Catholic Church

    With these observations he promoted the heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus (published in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium in 1543). Galileo's initial discoveries were met with opposition within the Catholic Church, and in 1616 the Inquisition declared heliocentrism to be formally heretical.
  • Period: to

    30 Years War

    The Thirty Years' War was a war fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648. One of the most destructive conflicts in human history, it resulted in eight million fatalities not only from military engagements but also from violence, famine, and plague.

  • Bacon published Novum Organum

    The Novum Organum, fully Novum Organum Scientiarum, is a philosophical work by Francis Bacon, written in Latin and published in 1620. The title is a reference to Aristotle's work Organon, which was his treatise on logic and syllogism.
  • Period: to

    Peace of Westphalia

    The Peace of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties signed between May and October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster, largely ending the European wars of religion.