Ancient History

Before Christ (B.C.) or Before the Common Era (B.C.E.)

4.5 billion – 1B.C. World History

Some Ancient Civilizations

Ra, Egyptian
Sun God
(3000–2000 B.C.)
See also Egyptian Mythology

The Great Pyramid at Giza
(c. 2680 B.C.)

Kim Storm

Stonehenge (c. 3000–1500 B.C.)

Peter F. Harrington

Pythagoras

Pythagoras
(582?–507? B.C.)

Buddha

Buddha
(563?–483? B.C.)

Confucius

Confucius(551–479 B.C.)

Parthenon(447–432 B.C.)
See also Greek and Roman Mythology

Tina Diodati

Plato

Plato
(427?–348 or 347 B.C.)

Augustus

Augustus Caesar
(63 B.C.–A.D. 14)

Mayan Hieroglyphics
(c. 200 B.C.)

the Pantheon

Pantheon in Rome(27 B.C.; c. A.D. 118–128)
See also Greek and Roman Mythology

Elaine Ouellette

4.5 billion B.C.: Planet Earth formed.

3 billion B.C.: First signs of primeval life (bacteria and blue-green algae) appear in oceans.

600 million B.C.: Earliest date to which fossils can be traced.

4.4 million B.C.: Earliest known hominid fossils (Ardipithecus ramidus) found in Aramis, Ethiopia, 1994.

4.2 million B.C.: Australopithecus anamensis found in Lake Turkana, Kenya, 1995.

3.2 million B.C.: Australopithecus afarenis (nicknamed “Lucy”) found in Ethiopia, 1974.

2.5 million B.C.: Homo habilis (“Skillful Man”). First brain expansion; is believed to have used stone tools.

1.8 million B.C.: Homo erectus (“Upright Man”). Brain size twice that of Australopithecine species.

1.7 million B.C.: Homo erectus leaves Africa.

100,000 B.C.: First modern Homo sapiens in South Africa.

70,000 B.C.: Neanderthal man (use of fire and advanced tools).

35,000 B.C.: Neanderthal man replaced by later groups of Homo sapiens (i.e., Cro-Magnon man, etc.).

18,000 B.C.: Cro-Magnons replaced by later cultures.

15,000 B.C.: Migrations across Bering Straits into the Americas.

10,000 B.C.: Semi-permanent agricultural settlements in Old World.

10,000–4,000 B.C.: Development of settlements into cities and development of skills such as the wheel, pottery, and improved methods of cultivation in Mesopotamia and elsewhere.

5500–3000 B.C.: Predynastic Egyptian cultures develop (5500–3100 B.C.); begin using agriculture(c. 5000 B.C.). Earliest known civilization arises in Sumer (4500–4000 B.C.).Earliest recorded date in Egyptian calendar (4241 B.C.). First year of Jewish calendar (3760 B.C.). First phonetic writing appears (c. 3500 B.C.). Sumerians develop a city-state civilization (c. 3000 B.C.). Copper used by Egyptians and Sumerians. Western Europe is neolithic, without metals or written records.

3000–2000 B.C.: Pharaonic rule begins in Egypt. King Khufu (Cheops), 4th dynasty (2700–2675B.C.), completes construction of the Great Pyramid at Giza (c. 2680 B.C.). The Great Sphinx of Giza (c. 2540 B.C.) is built by King Khafre. Earliest Egyptian mummies. Papyrus. Phoenician settlements on coast of what is now Syria and Lebanon. Semitic tribes settle in Assyria. Sargon, first Akkadian king, builds Mesopotamian empire. The Gilgamesh epic (c. 3000 B.C.). Systematic astronomy in Egypt, Babylon, India, China.

3000–1500 B.C.: The most ancient civilization on the Indian subcontinent, the sophisticated and extensive Indus Valley civilization, flourishes in what is today Pakistan. In Britain, Stonehenge erected according to some unknown astronomical rationale. Its three main phases of construction are thought to span c. 3000–1500 B.C.

2000–1500 B.C.: Hyksos invaders drive Egyptians from Lower Egypt (17th century B.C.). Amosis I frees Egypt from Hyksos (c. 1600 B.C.). Assyrians rise to power—cities of Ashur and Nineveh. Twenty-four-character alphabet in Egypt. Cuneiform inscriptions used by Hittites. Peak of Minoan culture on Isle of Crete—earliest form of written Greek. Hammurabi, king of Babylon, develops oldest existing code of laws (18th century B.C.).

1500–1000 B.C.: Ikhnaton develops monotheistic religion in Egypt (c. 1375 B.C.). His successor, Tutankhamen, returns to earlier gods. Greeks destroy Troy (c. 1193 B.C.). End of Greek civilization in Mycenae with invasion of Dorians. Chinese civilization develops under Shang Dynasty. Olmec civilization in Mexico—stone monuments; picture writing.

1000–900 B.C.: Solomon succeeds King David, builds Jerusalem temple. After Solomon’s death, kingdom divided into Israel and Judah. Hebrew elders begin to write Old Testament books of Bible. Phoenicians colonize Spain with settlement at Cadiz.

900–800 B.C.: Phoenicians establish Carthage (c. 810 B.C.). The Iliad and the Odyssey, perhaps composed by Greek poet Homer.

800–700 B.C.: Prophets Amos, Hosea, Isaiah. First recorded Olympic games (776 B.C.).Legendary founding of Rome by Romulus (753 B.C.). Assyrian king Sargon II conquers Hittites, Chaldeans, Samaria (end of Kingdom of Israel). Earliest written music. Chariots introduced into Italy by Etruscans.

700–600 B.C.: End of Assyrian Empire (616 B.C.)—Nineveh destroyed by Chaldeans (Neo-Babylonians) and Medes (612 B.C.). Founding of Byzantium by Greeks (c. 660B.C.). Building of the Acropolis in Athens. Solon, Greek lawgiver (640–560 B.C.).Sappho of Lesbos, Greek poet (fl. c. 610–580 B.C.). Lao-tse, Chinese philosopher and founder of Taoism (born c. 604 B.C.).

600–500 B.C.: Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar builds empire, destroys Jerusalem (586 B.C.).Babylonian Captivity of the Jews (starting 587 B.C.). Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Cyrus the Great of Persia creates great empire, conquers Babylon (539 B.C.), frees the Jews. Athenian democracy develops. Aeschylus, Greek dramatist (525–465B.C.). Pythagoras, Greek philosopher and mathematician (582?–507? B.C.). Confucius (551–479 B.C.) develops ethical and social philosophy in China. TheAnalects or Lun-yü (“collected sayings”) are compiled by the second generation of Confucian disciples. Buddha (563?–483? B.C.) founds Buddhism in India.

500–400 B.C.: Greeks defeat Persians: battles of Marathon (490 B.C.), Thermopylae (480 B.C.),Salamis (480 B.C.). Peloponnesian Wars between Athens and Sparta (431–404B.C.)—Sparta victorious. Pericles comes to power in Athens (462 B.C.). Flowering of Greek culture during the Age of Pericles (450–400 B.C.). The Parthenon is built in Athens as a temple of the goddess Athena (447–432 B.C.). Ictinus and Callicrates are the architects and Phidias is responsible for the sculpture. Sophocles, Greek dramatist (496?–406 B.C.). Hippocrates, Greek “Father of Medicine” (born 460 B.C.). Xerxes I, king of Persia (rules 485–465 B.C.).

400–300 B.C.: Pentateuch—first five books of the Old Testament evolve in final form. Philip of Macedon, who believed himself to be a descendant of the Greek people, assassinated (336 B.C.) after subduing the Greek city-states; succeeded by son, Alexander the Great (356–323 B.C.), who destroys Thebes (335 B.C.), conquers Tyre and Jerusalem (332 B.C.), occupies Babylon (330 B.C.), invades India, and dies in Babylon. His empire is divided among his generals; one of them, Seleucis I, establishes Middle East empire with capitals at Antioch (Syria) and Seleucia (in Iraq). Trial and execution of Greek philosopher Socrates (399 B.C.). Dialogues recorded by his student, Plato (c. 427–348 or 347 B.C.). Euclid’s work on geometry(323 B.C.). Aristotle, Greek philosopher (384–322 B.C.). Demosthenes, Greek orator (384–322 B.C.). Praxiteles, Greek sculptor (400–330 B.C.).

300–251 B.C.: First Punic War (264–241 B.C.): Rome defeats the Carthaginians and begins its domination of the Mediterranean. Temple of the Sun at Teotihuacán, Mexico (c. 300 B.C.). Invention of Mayan calendar in Yucatán—more exact than older calendars. First Roman gladiatorial games (264 B.C.). Archimedes, Greek mathematician (287–212 B.C.).

250–201 B.C.: Second Punic War (219–201 B.C.): Hannibal, Carthaginian general (246–142B.C.), crosses the Alps (218 B.C.), reaches gates of Rome (211 B.C.), retreats, and is defeated by Scipio Africanus at Zama (202 B.C.). Great Wall of China built (c. 215 B.C.).

200–151 B.C.: Romans defeat Seleucid King Antiochus III at Thermopylae (191 B.C.)—beginning of Roman world domination. Maccabean revolt against Seleucids (167 B.C.).

150–101 B.C.: Third Punic War (149–146 B.C.): Rome destroys Carthage, killing 450,000 and enslaving the remaining 50,000 inhabitants. Roman armies conquer Macedonia, Greece, Anatolia, Balearic Islands, and southern France. Venus de Milo (c. 140B.C.). Cicero, Roman orator (106–43 B.C.).

100–51 B.C.: Julius Caesar (100–44 B.C.) invades Britain (55 B.C.) and conquers Gaul (France)(c. 50 B.C.). Spartacus leads slave revolt against Rome (71 B.C.). Romans conquer Seleucid empire. Roman general Pompey conquers Jerusalem (63 B.C.).Cleopatra on Egyptian throne (51–31 B.C.). Chinese develop use of paper (c. 100B.C.). Virgil, Roman poet (70–19 B.C.). Horace, Roman poet (65–8 B.C.).

50–1 B.C.: Caesar crosses Rubicon to fight Pompey (50 B.C.). Herod made Roman governor of Judea (37 B.C.). Caesar murdered (44 B.C.). Caesar’s nephew, Octavian, defeats Mark Antony and Cleopatra at Battle of Actium (31 B.C.), and establishes Roman empire as Emperor Augustus; rules 27 B.C.–A.D. 14. Pantheon built for the first time under Agrippa, 27 B.C. Ovid, Roman poet (43 B.C.–A.D. 18).

1–999 (A.D.) World History

Roman AqueductMontpellier, France

Tina Diodati

Christ

Celtic Cross

Renée Scott

Mayan Pyramid at
Chichén Itzá

Renée Scott

Japanese Pagoda

Erik Hjortshoj

Viking Ship (c. 900)

1–49: Birth of Jesus Christ (variously given from 4 B.C. to A.D. 7). After Augustus, Tiberius becomes emperor (dies, A.D. 37), succeeded by Caligula (assassinated, A.D. 41), who is followed by Claudius. Crucifixion of Jesus (probably A.D. 30). Han dynasty in China founded by Emperor Kuang Wu Ti. Buddhism introduced to China.

50–99: Claudius poisoned (A.D. 54), succeeded by Nero (commits suicide, A.D. 68). Missionary journeys of Paul the Apostle (A.D. 34–60). Jews revolt against Rome; Jerusalem destroyed (A.D. 70). Roman persecutions of Christians begin (A.D. 64).Colosseum built in Rome (A.D. 71–80). Trajan (rules A.D. 98–116); Roman empire extends to Mesopotamia, Arabia, Balkans. First Gospels of St. Mark, St. John, St. Matthew.

100–149: Hadrian rules Rome (A.D. 117–138); codifies Roman law, rebuilds Pantheon, establishes postal system, builds wall between England and Scotland. Jews revolt under Bar Kokhba (A.D. 122–135); final Diaspora (dispersion) of Jews begins.

150–199: Marcus Aurelius rules Rome (A.D. 161–180). Oldest Mayan temples in Central America (c. A.D. 200).

200–249: Goths invade Asia Minor (c. A.D. 220). Roman persecutions of Christians increase. Persian (Sassanid) empire re-established. End of Chinese Han dynasty.

250–299: Increasing invasions of the Roman empire by Franks and Goths. Buddhism spreads in China. Classic period of Mayan civilization (A.D. 250–900); develop hieroglyphic writing, advances in art, architecture, science.

300–349: Constantine the Great (rules A.D. 312–337) reunites eastern and western Roman empires, with new capital (Constantinople) on site of Byzantium (A.D. 330); issues Edict of Milan legalizing Christianity (A.D. 313); becomes a Christian on his deathbed(A.D. 337). Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325) defines orthodox Christian doctrine. First Gupta dynasty in India (c. A.D. 320).

350–399: Huns (Mongols) invade Europe (c. A.D. 360). Theodosius the Great (rules A.D. 392–395)—last emperor of a united Roman empire. Roman empire permanently divided inA.D. 395: western empire ruled from Rome; eastern empire ruled from Constantinople.

400–449: Western Roman empire disintegrates under weak emperors. Alaric, king of the Visigoths, sacks Rome (A.D. 410). Attila, Hun chieftain, attacks Roman provinces(A.D. 433). St. Patrick returns to Ireland (A.D. 432) and brings Christianity to the island. St. Augustine’s City of God (A.D. 411).

450–499: Vandals destroy Rome (A.D. 455). Western Roman empire ends as Odoacer, German chieftain, overthrows last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, and becomes king of Italy (A.D. 476). Ostrogothic kingdom of Italy established by Theodoric the Great (A.D.493). Clovis, ruler of the Franks, is converted to Christianity (A.D. 496). First schism between western and eastern churches (A.D. 484).

500–549: Eastern and western churches reconciled (519). Justinian I, the Great (483–565),becomes Byzantine emperor (527), issues his first code of civil laws (529), conquers North Africa, Italy, and part of Spain. Plague spreads through Europe (542 et seq.). Arthur, semi-legendary king of the Britons (killed, c. 537). Boëthius, Roman scholar (executed, 524).

550–599: Beginnings of European silk industry after Justinian’s missionaries smuggle silkworms out of China (553). Mohammed, founder of Islam (570–632). Buddhism in Japan (c. 560). St. Augustine of Canterbury brings Christianity to Britain (597). After killing about half the population, plague in Europe subsides (594).

600–649: Mohammed flees from Mecca to Medina (the Hegira); first year of the Muslim calendar(622). Muslim empire grows (634). Arabs conquer Jerusalem (637), conquer Persians(641).

650–699: Arabs attack North Africa (670), destroy Carthage (697). Venerable Bede, English monk (672–735).

700–749: Arab empire extends from Lisbon to China (by 716). Charles Martel, Frankish leader, defeats Arabs at Tours/Poitiers, halting Arab advance in Europe (732). Charlemagne(742–814). Introduction of pagodas in Japan from China.

750–799: Charlemagne becomes king of the Franks (771). Caliph Harun al-Rashid rules Arab empire (786–809): the “golden age” of Arab culture. Vikings begin attacks on Britain(790), land in Ireland (795). City of Machu Picchu flourishes in Peru.

800–849: Charlemagne crowned first Holy Roman Emperor in Rome (800). Charlemagne dies(814), succeeded by his son, Louis the Pious, who divides France among his sons(817). Arabs conquer Crete, Sicily, and Sardinia (826–827).

850–899: Norsemen attack as far south as the Mediterranean but are thwarted (859), discover Iceland (861). Alfred the Great becomes king of Britain (871), defeats Danish invaders(878). Russian nation founded by Vikings under Prince Rurik, establishing capital at Novgorod (855–879).

900–949: Beginning of Mayan Post-Classical period (900–1519). Vikings discover Greenland(c. 900). Arab Spain under Abd ar-Rahman III becomes center of learning (912–961).Otto I becomes King of Germany (936).

950–999: Mieczyslaw I becomes first ruler of Poland (960). Eric the Red establishes first Viking colony in Greenland (982). Hugh Capet elected King of France in 987; Capetian dynasty to rule until 1328. Musical notation systematized (c. 990). Vikings and Danes attack Britain (988–999). Otto I crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XII (962).

1000–1099 (A.D.) World History

Mesa VerdeCliff Dwellings(c. 1000–1300)

Pete Maio

leaning tower of Pisa

Cathedral and Tower at Pisa

Tasha Vincent

c. 1000–1300: Classic Pueblo period of Anasazi culture; cliff dwellings.

c. 1000: Hungary and Scandinavia converted to Christianity. Viking raider Leif Eriksson discovers North America, calls it Vinland. Beowulf, Old English epic.

c. 1008: Murasaki Shikibu finishes The Tale of Genji, the world’s first novel.

1009: Muslims destroy Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

1013: Danes control England. Canute takes throne (1016), conquers Norway (1028), dies(1035); kingdom divided among his sons: Harold Harefoot (England), Sweyn (Norway), Hardecanute (Denmark).

1040: Macbeth murders Duncan, king of Scotland.

1053: Robert Guiscard, Norman invader, establishes kingdom in Italy, conquers Sicily(1072).

1054: Final separation between Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Roman) churches.

1055: Seljuk Turks, Asian nomads, move west, capture Baghdad, Armenia (1064), Syria, and Palestine (1075).

1066: William of Normandy invades England, defeats last Saxon king, Harold II, at Battle of Hastings, crowned William I of England (“the Conqueror”).

1068: Construction on the cathedral in Pisa, Italy, begins.

1073: Emergence of strong papacy when Gregory VII is elected. Conflict with English and French kings and German emperors will continue throughout medieval period.

1095: At Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II calls for a holy war to wrest control of Jerusalem from Muslims, which launches the First Crusade (1096), one of at least 8 European military campaigns between 1095 and 1291 to regain the Holy Land. (For detailed chronology, see The Crusades.)

1100–1199 (A.D.) World History

Chartres Cathedral

Tasha Vincent

1100–1300: Construction of Cathedral at Chartres, France.

1144: Second Crusade begins.

c. 1150: Angkor Wat is completed.

1150–1167: Universities of Paris and Oxford founded in France and England.

1162: Thomas á Becket named Archbishop of Canterbury, murdered by Henry II’s men(1170). Troubadours (wandering minstrels) glorify romantic concepts of feudalism.

1169: Ibn-Rushd begins translating Aristotle’s works.

1189: Richard I (“the Lionhearted”) succeeds Henry II in England, killed in France (1199), succeeded by King John. Third Crusade.

1200–1299 (A.D.) World History

The Crusades

King John
(1167–1216)

Thomas Aquinas
(1225–1274)

1200–1204: Fourth Crusade.

1211: Genghis Khan invades China, captures Peking (1214), conquers Persia (1218),invades Russia (1223), dies (1227).

1212: Children’s Crusade.

1215: King John forced by barons to sign Magna Carta at Runneymede, limiting royal power.

1217: Fifth Crusade.

1228: Sixth Crusade.

1231: The Inquisition begins as Pope Gregory IX assigns Dominicans responsibility for combating heresy. Torture used (1252). Ferdinand and Isabella establish Spanish Inquisition (1478). Tourquemada, Grand Inquisitor, forces conversion or expulsion of Spanish Jews (1492). Forced conversion of Moors (1499). Inquisition in Portugal(1531). First Protestants burned at the stake in Spain (1543). Spanish Inquisition abolished (1834).

1241: Mongols defeat Germans in Silesia, invade Poland and Hungary, withdraw from Europe after Ughetai, Mongol leader, dies.

1248: Seventh Crusade.

1251: Kublai Khan governs China, becomes ruler of Mongols (1259), establishes Yuan dynasty in China (1280), invades Burma(1287), dies (1294).

1260: Chartres cathedral consecrated.

1270: Eighth Crusade.

1271: Marco Polo of Venice travels to China, in court of Kublai Khan (1275–1292), returns to Genoa (1295) and writes Travels.

1273: Thomas Aquinas stops work on Summa Theologica, the basis of all Catholic theological teaching; never completes it.

1295: English King Edward I summons the Model Parliament.

1300–1399 (A.D.) World History

1312–1337: Mali Empire reaches its height in Africa under King Mansa Musa.

c. 1325: The beginning of the Renaissance in Italy: writers Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio; painter Giotto. Development of Noh drama in Japan. Aztecs establish Tenochtitlán on site of modern Mexico City. Peak of Muslim culture in Spain. Small cannon in use.

1337–1453: Hundred Years’ War—English and French kings fight for control of France.

1347–1351: At least 25 million people die in Europe’s “Black Death” (bubonic plague).

1368: Ming Dynasty begins in China.

1376–1382: John Wycliffe, pre-Reformation religious reformer, and followers translate Latin Bible into English.

1378: The Great Schism (to 1417)—rival popes in Rome and Avignon, France, fight for control of Roman Catholic Church.

c. 1387: Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

1398: Tamerlane, the Mongol conqueror, begins last great conquest—Delhi.

Cite

History and Government > World History > 1000–1899 (A.D.) World History

1400–1499 (A.D.) World History

The Duomo in
Florence

Linda J. Barnes

Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc
(1412–1431)

1407: Casa di San Giorgio, one of the first public banks, founded in Genoa.

1415: Henry V defeats French at Agincourt. Jan Hus, Bohemian preacher and follower of Wycliffe, burned at stake in Constance as heretic.

1418–1460: Portugal’s Prince Henry the Navigator sponsors exploration of Africa’s coast.

1420: Brunelleschi begins work on the Duomo in Florence.

1428: Joan of Arc leads French against English, captured by Burgundians (1430) and turned over to the English, burned at the stake as a witch after ecclesiastical trial(1431).

1438: Incas rule in Peru.

1450: Florence becomes center of Renaissance arts and learning under the Medicis.

1453: Turks conquer Constantinople, end of the Byzantine empire, beginning of theOttoman empire.

1455: The Wars of the Roses, civil wars between rival noble factions, begin in England (to1485). Having invented printing with movable type at Mainz, Germany, Johann Gutenberg completes first Bible.

1462: Ivan the Great rules Russia until 1505 as first czar; ends payment of tribute to Mongols.

1492: Moors conquered in Spain by troops of Ferdinand and Isabella. Columbus becomes first European to encounter Caribbean islands, returns to Spain (1493). Second voyage to Dominica, Jamaica, Puerto Rico (1493–1496). Third voyage to Orinoco(1498). Fourth voyage to Honduras and Panama (1502–1504).

1497: Vasco da Gama sails around Africa and discovers sea route to India (1498). Establishes Portuguese colony in India (1502).John Cabot, employed by England, reaches and explores Canadian coast. Michelangelo‘s Bacchus sculpture.

1500–1599 (A.D.) World History

Michelangelo’s David
(1504)

Tasha Vincent

Martin Luther

Martin Luther
(1483–1546)

Henry VIII

Henry VIII(1491–1547)

Queen Elizabeth I

Queen Elizabeth I
(1533–1603)

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare
(1564–1616)

Rembrandt van Rijn
(1606–1669)

Catherine de Medici

Catherine de Medici
(1519–1589)

1501: First black slaves in America brought to Spanish colony of Santo Domingo.

c. 1503: Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa. Michelangelo sculpts the David(1504).

1506: St. Peter’s Church started in Rome; designed and decorated by such artists and architects as Bramante, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Raphael, and Bernini before its completion in 1626.

1509: Henry VIII ascends English throne. Michelangelo paints the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

1513: Balboa becomes the first European to encounter the Pacific Ocean. Machiavelli writesThe Prince.

1517: Turks conquer Egypt, control Arabia. Martin Luther posts his 95 theses denouncing church abuses on church door in Wittenberg—start of the Reformation in Germany.

1519: Ulrich Zwingli begins Reformation in Switzerland. Hernando Cortes conquers Mexico for Spain. Charles I of Spain is chosen Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sets out to circumnavigate the globe.

1520: Luther excommunicated by Pope Leo X. Suleiman I (“the Magnificent”) becomes Sultan of Turkey, invades Hungary (1521), Rhodes (1522), attacks Austria (1529),annexes Hungary (1541), Tripoli (1551), makes peace with Persia (1553), destroys Spanish fleet (1560), dies (1566). Magellan reaches the Pacific, is killed by Philippine natives (1521). One of his ships under Juan Sebastián del Cano continues around the world, reaches Spain (1522).

1524: Verrazano, sailing under the French flag, explores the New England coast and New York Bay.

1527: Troops of the Holy Roman Empire attack Rome, imprison Pope Clement VII—the end of the Italian Renaissance. Castiglione writes The Courtier. The Medici family expelled from Florence.

1532: Pizarro marches from Panama to Peru, kills the Inca chieftain, Atahualpa, of Peru(1533). Machiavelli’s The Prince published posthumously.

1535: Reformation begins as Henry VIII makes himself head of English Church after being excommunicated by Pope. Sir Thomas More executed as traitor for refusal to acknowledge king’s religious authority. Jacques Cartier sails up the St. Lawrence River, basis of French claims to Canada.

1536: Henry VIII executes second wife, Anne Boleyn. John Calvin establishes Reformed and Presbyterian form of Protestantism in Switzerland, writes Institutes of the Christian Religion. Danish and Norwegian Reformations. Michelangelo’s Last Judgment.

1541: John Knox leads Reformation in Scotland, establishes Presbyterian church there(1560).

1543: Publication of On the Revolution of Heavenly Bodies by Polish scholar Nicolaus Copernicus—giving his theory that the earth revolves around the sun.

1545: Council of Trent to meet intermittently until 1563 to define Catholic dogma and doctrine, reiterate papal authority.

1547: Ivan IV (“the Terrible”) crowned as czar of Russia, begins conquest of Astrakhan and Kazan (1552), battles nobles (boyars) for power (1564), kills his son (1580), dies, and is succeeded by his weak and feeble-minded son, Fyodor I.

1553: Roman Catholicism restored in England by Queen Mary I.

1556: Akbar the Great becomes Mogul emperor of India, conquers Afghanistan (1581),continues wars of conquest (until 1605).

1558: Queen Elizabeth I ascends the throne (rules to 1603). Restores Protestantism, establishes state Church of England (Anglicanism). Renaissance will reach height in England—Shakespeare, Marlowe, Spenser.

1561: Persecution of Huguenots in France stopped by Edict of Orleans. French religious wars begin again with massacre of Huguenots at Vassy. St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre—thousands of Huguenots murdered (1572). Amnesty granted (1573).Persecution continues periodically until Edict of Nantes (1598) gives Huguenots religious freedom (until 1685).

1568: Protestant Netherlands revolts against Catholic Spain; independence will be acknowledged by Spain in 1648.

1570: Japan permits visits of foreign ships. Queen Elizabeth I excommunicated by Pope. Turks attack Cyprus and war on Venice. Turkish fleet defeated at Battle of Lepanto by Spanish and Italian fleets (1571). Peace of Constantinople (1572) ends Turkish attacks on Europe.

1580: Francis Drake returns to England after circumnavigating the globe; knighted by Queen Elizabeth I (1581). Montaigne’s Essays published.

1582: Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian calendar.

1583: William of Orange rules the Netherlands; assassinated on orders of Philip II of Spain(1584).

1587: Mary, Queen of Scots, executed for treason by order of Queen Elizabeth I. Monteverdi’s First Book of Madrigals.

1588: Defeat of the Spanish Armada by English. Henry, King of Navarre and Protestant leader, recognized as Henry IV, first Bourbon king of France. Converts to Roman Catholicism in 1593 in attempt to end religious wars.

1590: Henry IV enters Paris, wars on Spain (1595), marries Marie de Medici (1600), assassinated (1610). Spenser’s The Faerie Queen. El Greco’s St. Jerome. Galileo’s experiments with falling objects.

1598: Boris Godunov becomes Russian czar. Tycho Brahe describes his astronomical experiments.

1600–1699 (A.D.) World History

The Revolutionary War

Pocahontas
(c. 1595–1617)

The Library of Congress Picture Collection

Galileo Galilei

Galileo
(1564–1642)

Johannes Keppler

Johannes Kepler
(1571–1630)

The Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal

The Library of Congress Picture Collection

John Milton
(1608–1674)

1600: Giordano Bruno burned as a heretic. English East India Company established.

1603: Ieyasu rules Japan, moves capital to Edo (Tokyo). Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

1605: Cervantes‘s Don Quixote de la Mancha, the first modern novel.

1607: Jamestown, Virginia, established—first permanent English colony on American mainland. Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, saves life of John Smith.

1609: Samuel de Champlain establishes French colony of Quebec. The Relation, the first newspaper, debuts in Germany.

1610: Galileo sees the moons of Jupiter through his telescope.

1611: Gustavus Adolphus elected King of Sweden. King James Version of the Bible published in England. Rubens paints his Descent from the Cross.

1614: John Napier discovers logarithms.

1618: Start of the Thirty Years’ War > Protestants revolt against Catholic oppression; Denmark, Sweden, and France will invade Germany in later phases of war. Kepler proposes last of three laws of planetary motion.

1619: A Dutch ship brings the first African slaves to British North America.

1620: Pilgrims, after three-month voyage in Mayflower, land at Plymouth Rock. Francis Bacon’s Novum Organum.

1623: New Netherland founded by Dutch West India Company.

1630: Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1632: Maryland founded by Lord Baltimore.

1633: Inquisition forces Galileo (astronomer) to recant his belief in Copernican theory.

1642: English Civil War. Cavaliers, supporters of Charles I, against Roundheads, parliamentary forces. Oliver Cromwell defeats Royalists (1646). Parliament demands reforms. Charles I offers concessions, brought to trial (1648), beheaded(1649). Cromwell becomes Lord Protector (1653). Rembrandt paints his Night Watch.

1643: Taj Mahal completed.

1644: End of Ming Dynasty in China—Manchus come to power. Descartes‘s Principles of Philosophy.

1648: End of the Thirty Years’ War. German population about half of what it was in 1618because of war and pestilence.

1658: Cromwell dies; son Richard resigns and Puritan government collapses.

1660: English Parliament calls for the restoration of the monarchy; invites Charles II to return from France.

1661: Charles II is crowned King of England. Louis XIV begins personal rule as absolute monarch; starts to build Versailles.

1664: British take New Amsterdam from the Dutch. English limit “Nonconformity” with reestablished Anglican Church. Isaac Newton’s experiments with gravity.

1665: Great Plague in London kills 75,000.

1666: Great Fire of London. Molière’s Misanthrope.

1667: Milton‘s Paradise Lost, widely considered the greatest epic poem in English.

1682: Pennsylvania founded by William Penn.

1683: War of European powers against the Turks (to 1699). Vienna withstands three-month Turkish siege; high point of Turkish advance in Europe.

1684: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s calculus published.

1685: James II succeeds Charles II in England, calls for freedom of conscience (1687). Protestants fear restoration of Catholicism and demand “Glorious Revolution.” William of Orange invited to England and James II escapes to France (1688). William III and his wife, Mary, crowned. In France, Edict of Nantes of 1598, granting freedom of worship to Huguenots, is revoked by Louis XIV; thousands of Protestants flee.

1689: Peter the Great becomes Czar of Russia—attempts to westernize nation and build Russia as a military power. Defeats Charles XII of Sweden at Poltava (1709). Beginning of the French and Indian Wars (to 1763), campaigns in America linked to a series of wars between France and England for domination of Europe.

1690: William III of England defeats former king James II and Irish rebels at Battle of the Boyne in Ireland. John Locke‘s Human Understanding.

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History and Government > World History > 1000–1899 (A.D.) World History

1700–1799 (A.D.) World History

French Revolution (1789–1799)

Benjamin Franklin
(1706–1790)

Frederick the Great

Frederick the Great
(1712–1786)

Samuel Johnson
(1709–1784)

George Washington

George Washington (1732–1799)

Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton
(1755–1804)

Napoléon Bonaparte
(1769–1821)

1701: War of the Spanish Succession begins—the last of Louis XIV’s wars for domination of the continent. The Peace of Utrecht (1714) will end the conflict and mark the rise of the British Empire. Called Queen Anne’s War in America, it ends with the British taking New Foundland, Acadia, and Hudson’s Bay Territory from France, and Gibraltar and Minorca from Spain.

1704: Deerfield (Mass.) Massacre of English colonists by French and Indians. Bach‘s first cantata. Jonathan Swift‘s Tale of a Tub. Boston News Letter—first newspaper in America.

1707: United Kingdom of Great Britain formed—England, Wales, and Scotland joined by parliamentary Act of Union.

1729: Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Isaac Newton‘s Principia translated from Latin into English.

1732: Benjamin Franklin begins publishing Poor Richard’s Almanack. James Oglethorpe and others found Georgia.

1735: John Peter Zenger, New York editor, acquitted of libel in New York, establishing press freedom.

1740: Capt. Vitus Bering, Dane employed by Russia, discovers Alaska. Frederick II “the Great” crowned king of Prussia.

1746: British defeat Scots under Stuart Pretender Prince Charles at Culloden Moor. Last battle fought on British soil.

1751: Publication of the Encyclopédie begins in France, the “bible” of the Enlightenment.

1755: Samuel Johnson‘s Dictionary first published. Great earthquake in Lisbon, Portugal—over 60,000 die. U.S. postal service established.

1756: Seven Years’ War (French and Indian Wars in America) (to 1763), in which Britain and Prussia defeat France, Spain, Austria, and Russia. France loses North American colonies; Spain cedes Florida to Britain in exchange for Cuba. In India, over 100 British prisoners die in “Black Hole of Calcutta.”

1757: Beginning of British Empire in India as Robert Clive, British commander, defeats Nawab of Bengal at Plassey.

1759: British capture Quebec from French. Voltaire‘s Candide. Haydn‘s Symphony No. 1.

1762: Catherine II (“the Great”) becomes czarina of Russia. Jean Jacques Rousseau‘sSocial Contract. Mozart tours Europe as six-year-old prodigy.

1765: James Watt invents the steam engine. Britain imposes the Stamp Act on the American colonists.

1769: Sir William Arkwright patents a spinning machine—an early step in the Industrial Revolution.

1770: The Boston Massacre.

1772: Joseph Priestley and Daniel Rutherford independently discover nitrogen. Partition of Poland—in 1772, 1793, and 1795, Austria, Prussia, and Russia divide land and people of Poland, end its independence.

1773: The Boston Tea Party.

1774: First Continental Congress drafts “Declaration of Rights and Grievances.”

1775: The American Revolution begins with battle of Lexington and Concord. Second Continental Congress. Priestley discovers hydrochloric and sulfuric acids.

1776: Declaration of Independence. Gen. George Washington crosses the Delaware Christmas night. Adam Smith‘s Wealth of Nations. Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Thomas Paine‘s Common Sense. Fragonard’s Washerwoman.Mozart’s Haffner Serenade.

1778: Capt. James Cook discovers Hawaii. Franz Mesmer uses hypnotism.

1781: Immanuel Kant‘s Critique of Pure Reason. Herschel discovers Uranus.

1783: Revolutionary War ends with Treaty of Paris. William Blake’s poems. Beethoven‘s first printed works.

1784: Crimea annexed by Russia. John Wesley‘s Deed of Declaration, the basic work of Methodism.

1785: Russians settle Aleutian Islands.

1787: The Constitution of the United States signed. Lavoisier’s work on chemical nomenclature. Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

1788: French Parlement presents grievances to Louis XVI who agrees to convening of Estates-General in 1789—not called since1613. Goethe‘s Egmont. Laplace’s Laws of the Planetary System.

1789: French Revolution begins with the storming of the Bastille. (For detailed chronology, see French Revolution (1789–1799).) In U.S., Washington elected president with all 69 votes of the Electoral College, takes oath of office in New York City. Vice President: John Adams. Secretary of State: Thomas Jefferson. Secretary of Treasury: Alexander Hamilton.

1790: H.M.S. Bounty mutineers settle on Pitcairn Island. Aloisio Galvani experiments on electrical stimulation of the muscles. Philadelphia temporary capital of U.S. as Congress votes to establish new capital on Potomac. U.S. population about 3,929,000, including 698,000 slaves. Lavoisier formulates Table of 31 chemical elements.

1791: U.S. Bill of Rights ratified. Boswell’s Life of Johnson.

1792: Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

1793: Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette executed. Reign of Terror begins in France. Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin, spurring the growth of the cotton industry and helping to institutionalize slavery in the U.S. South.

1794: Kosciusko‘s uprising in Poland quelled by the Russians. In U.S., Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania as farmers object to liquor taxes. Reign of Terror ends with execution of Robespierre.

1796: Napoléon Bonaparte, French general, defeats Austrians. In the U.S., Washington’s Farewell Address (Sept. 17); John Adams elected president; Thomas Jefferson, vice president. Edward Jenner introduces smallpox vaccination.

1798: Napoleon extends French conquests to Rome and Egypt. U.S. Navy Department established.

1799: Rosetta Stone discovered in Egypt. Napoleon leads coup that overthrows Directory, establishes the Consulate, becomes First Consul—one of three who rule France together.

1800–1899 (A.D.) World History

War of 1812

The Civil War

Spanish-American War (1898–1899)

Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770–1827)

Richard Wagner
(1813–1883)

Archive Photos

Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar Allan Poe
(1809–1849)

The Library of Congress Picture Collection

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass
(1817–1895)

National Archives and Records Admin.

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman
(c. 1820–1913)

The Library of Congress Picture Collection

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Harriet Beecher Stowe
(1811–1896)

National Archives and Records Admin.

Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman
(1819–1892)

The Library of Congress Picture Collection

Dred Scott
(1795?–1858)

The Library of Congress Picture Collection

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln
(1809–1865)

National Archives and Records Admin.

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin
(1809–1882)

Robert E. Lee

Robert E. Lee
(1807–1870)

National Archives and Records Admin.

William Tecumseh Sherman
(1820–1891)

National Archives and Records Admin.

Chief Joseph

Chief Joseph
(c. 1840–1904)

National Archives and Records Admin.

Statue of Liberty

Tasha Vincent

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
(1835–1910)

The Library of Congress Picture Collection

The Eiffel Tower

Tasha Vincent

Marie Curie

Marie Curie
(1867–1934)

AIP Niels Bohr Library

1800: Napoleon conquers Italy, firmly establishes himself as First Consul in France. In the U.S., federal government moves to Washington, D.C. Robert Owen’s social reforms in England. William Herschel discovers infrared rays. Alessandro Volta produces electricity.

1801: Austria makes temporary peace with France. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland established with one monarch and one parliament; Catholics excluded from voting.

1803: U.S. negotiates Louisiana Purchase from France: for $15 million, U.S. doubles its domain, increasing its territory by 827,000 sq mi (2,144,500 sq km), from Mississippi River to Rockies and from Gulf of Mexico to British North America.

1804: Haiti declares independence from France; first black nation to gain freedom from European colonial rule. Napoleon transforms the Consulate of France into an empire, proclaims himself emperor of France, systematizes French law under Code Napoleon. In the U.S., Alexander Hamilton is mortally wounded in duel with Aaron Burr. Lewis and Clark expedition begins exploration of what is now northwest U.S.

1805: Lord Nelson defeats the French-Spanish fleets in the Battle of Trafalgar. Napoleon victorious over Austrian and Russian forces at the Battle of Austerlitz.

1807: Robert Fulton makes first successful steamboat trip on Clermont between New York City and Albany.

1808: French armies occupy Rome and Spain, extending Napoleon’s empire. Britain begins aiding Spanish guerrillas against Napoleon in Peninsular War. In the U.S., Congress bars importation of slaves. Beethoven’s Fifth and Sixth Symphoniesperformed.

1812: Napoleon’s Grand Army invades Russia in June. Forced to retreat in winter, most of Napoleon’s 600,000 men are lost. In the U.S., war with Britain declared over freedom of the seas for U.S. vessels (War of 1812). USS Constitution (For detailed chronology, see War of 1812.) sinks British frigate.

1814: French defeated by allies (Britain, Austria, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Portugal) in War of Liberation. Napoleon exiled to Elba, off Italian coast. Bourbon king Louis XVIII takes French throne. George Stephenson builds first practical steam locomotive.

1815: Napoleon returns: “Hundred Days” begin. Napoleon defeated by Wellington at Waterloo, banished again to St. Helena in South Atlantic. Congress of Vienna: victorious allies change the map of Europe. War of 1812 ends with Treaty of Ghent.

1819: Simón Bolívar liberates New Granada (now Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador) as Spain loses hold on South American countries; named president of Colombia.

1820: Missouri Compromise > Missouri admitted as slave state but slavery barred in rest of Louisiana Purchase north of 36°30′ N.

1821: Guatemala, Panama, and Santo Domingo proclaim independence from Spain.

1822: Greeks proclaim a republic and independence from Turkey. Turks invade Greece. Russia declares war on Turkey (1828). Greece also aided by France and Britain. War ends and Turks recognize Greek independence (1829). Brazil becomes independent of Portugal. Schubert’s Eighth Symphony (“The Unfinished”).

1823: U.S. Monroe Doctrine warns European nations not to interfere in Western Hemisphere.

1824: Mexico becomes a republic, three years after declaring independence from Spain. Bolívar liberates Peru, becomes its president. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

1825: First passenger-carrying railroad in England.

1826: Joseph-Nicéphore Niepce takes the world’s first photograph.

1830: French invade Algeria. Louis Philippe becomes “Citizen King” as revolution forces Charles X to abdicate. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints formed in U.S. by Joseph Smith.

1831: Polish revolt against Russia fails. Belgium separates from the Netherlands. In U.S.,Nat Turner leads unsuccessful slave rebellion.

1833: Slavery abolished in British Empire.

1834: Charles Babbage invents “analytical engine,” precursor of computer. McCormick patents reaper.

1836: Boer farmers start “Great Trek”—Natal, Transvaal, and Orange Free State founded in South Africa. Mexican army besieges Texans in Alamo. Entire garrison, including Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, wiped out. Texans gain independence from Mexico after winning Battle of San Jacinto. Dickens‘s Pickwick Papers.

1837: Victoria becomes queen of Great Britain. Mob kills Elijah P. Lovejoy, Illinois abolitionist publisher.

1839: First Opium War (to 1842) between Britain and China, over importation of drug into China.

1840: Lower and Upper Canada united.

1841: U.S. President Harrison dies (April 4) one month after inauguration; John Tyler becomes first vice president to succeed to presidency.

1842: Crawford Long uses first anesthetic (ether).

1843: Wagner‘s opera The Flying Dutchman.

1844: Democratic convention calls for annexation of Texas and acquisition of Oregon (“Fifty-four-forty-or-fight”). Five Chinese ports opened to U.S. ships. Samuel F. B.Morse patents telegraph.

1845: Congress adopts joint resolution for annexation of Texas. Edgar Allan Poepublishes The Raven and Other Poems.

1846: U.S. declares war on Mexico. California and New Mexico annexed by U.S. Brigham Young leads Mormons to Great Salt Lake. W. T. Morton uses ether as anesthetic. Sewing machine patented by Elias Howe. Frederick Douglass launches abolitionist newspaper The North Star. Failure of potato crop causes famine in Ireland.

1848: Revolt in Paris: Louis Philippe abdicates; Louis Napoleon elected president of French Republic. Revolutions in Vienna, Venice, Berlin, Milan, Rome, and Warsaw. Put down by royal troops in 1848–1849. U.S.-Mexico War ends; Mexico cedes claims to Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada. U.S. treaty with Britain sets Oregon Territory boundary at 49th parallel. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s Communist Manifesto. Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery and joins theUnderground Railroad. Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y.

1849: California gold rush begins.

1850: Henry Clay opens great debate on slavery, warns South against secession.

1851: Herman Melville‘s Moby-Dick.

1852: South African Republic established. Louis Napoleon proclaims himself Napoleon III (“Second Empire”). Harriet Beecher Stowe‘s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

1853: Crimean War begins as Turkey declares war on Russia. Commodore Perryreaches Tokyo.

1854: Britain and France join Turkey in war on Russia. In U.S., Kansas-Nebraska Actpermits local option on slavery; rioting and bloodshed. Japanese allow American trade. Antislavery men in Michigan form Republican Party. Tennyson‘s Charge of the Light Brigade. Thoreau‘s Walden.

1855: Armed clashes in Kansas between pro- and anti-slavery forces. Florence Nightingale nurses wounded in Crimea. Walt Whitman‘s Leaves of Grass.

1856: Flaubert‘s Madame Bovary.

1857: Supreme Court, in Dred Scott decision, rules that a slave is not a citizen. Financial crisis in Europe and U.S. Great Mutiny (Sepoy Rebellion) begins in India. India placed under crown rule as a result.

1858: Pro-slavery constitution rejected in Kansas. Abraham Lincoln makes strong antislavery speech in Springfield, Ill.: “This Government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.” Lincoln-Douglas debates. First trans-Atlantic telegraph cable completed by Cyrus W. Field.

1859: John Brown raids Harpers Ferry; is captured and hanged. Work begins on Suez Canal. Unification of Italy starts under leadership of Count Cavour, Sardinian premier. Joined by France in war against Austria. Jean-Joseph-Étienne Lenoir builds first practical internal-combustion engine. Edward Fitzgerald’s translation ofThe Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Charles Darwin‘s Origin of Species. J. S. Mill‘s On Liberty.

1860: South Carolina secedes from the Union.

1861: U.S. Civil War begins as attempts at compromise fail. Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas secede; with South Carolina, they form the Confederate States of America, with Jefferson Davis as president. Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina secede and join Confederacy. First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas).(For detailed chronology, see The Civil War.) Congress creates Colorado, Dakota, and Nevada territories; adopts income tax; Lincoln inaugurated. Serfs emancipated in Russia. Pasteur‘s theory of germs. Independent Kingdom of Italy proclaimed under Sardinian king Victor Emmanuel II.

1862: Several major Civil War battles: Battle of Shiloh, Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), Battle of Antietam. Salon des Refusés introduces impressionism.

1863: French capture Mexico City; proclaim Archduke Maximilian of Austria emperor. Battle of Gettysburg.

1864: Gen. Sherman’s Atlanta campaign and “march to the sea.”

1865: Gen. Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox; the Civil War is over. Lincoln fatally shot at Ford’s Theater by John Wilkes Booth. Vice President Johnson sworn as successor. Booth caught and dies of gunshot wounds; four conspirators are hanged.Joseph Lister begins antiseptic surgery. Gregor Mendel‘s Law of Heredity. Lewis Carroll‘s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

1866: Alfred Nobel invents dynamite (patented in Britain, 1867). Seven Weeks’ War: Austria defeated by Prussia and Italy.

1867: Austria-Hungary Dual Monarchy established. French leave Mexico; Maximilian executed. Dominion of Canada established. U.S. buys Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000. South African diamond field discovered. Japan ends 675–year shogun rule. Volume I of Marx’s Das Kapital. Strauss‘s Blue Danube.

1868: Revolution in Spain; Queen Isabella deposed, flees to France. In U.S., Fourteenth Amendment giving civil rights to blacks is ratified. Georgia under military government after legislature expels blacks.

1869: First U.S. transcontinental rail route completed. James Fisk and Jay Gould‘s attempt to control gold market causes Black Friday panic. Suez Canal opens.Mendeleev‘s periodic table of elements.

1870: Franco-Prussian War (to 1871): Napoleon III capitulates at Sedan. Revolt in Paris; Third Republic proclaimed.

1871: France surrenders Alsace-Lorraine to Germany; war ends. German Empire proclaimed with Prussian King as Kaiser Wilhelm I. Fighting with Apaches begins in American West. Boss Tweed corruption exposed in New York. The Chicago Fire, with 250 deaths and $196-million damage. Stanley meets Livingstone in Africa.

1872: Congress gives amnesty to most Confederates. Jules Verne‘s Around the World in 80 Days.

1873: Economic crisis in Europe. U.S. establishes gold standard.

1875: First Kentucky Derby.

1876: Sioux kill Gen. George A. Custer and 264 troopers at Little Big Horn River.Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.

1877: After presidential election of 1876, electoral commission gives disputed electoral college votes to Rutherford B. Hayes despite Tilden’s popular majority. Russo-Turkish war (ends in 1878 with power of Turkey in Europe broken). Reconstructionends in the American South. Thomas Edison patents phonograph. The Nez Perce leader Chief Joseph is forced to surrender. Tchaikovsky‘s Swan Lake.

1878: Congress of Berlin revises Treaty of San Stefano, ending Russo-Turkish War; makes extensive redivision of southeast Europe. First commercial telephone exchange opened in New Haven, Conn.

1879: Thomas A. Edison invents practical electric light.

1880: U.S.-China treaty allows U.S. to restrict immigration of Chinese labor.

1881: President Garfield fatally shot by assassin; Vice President Arthur succeeds him. Charles J. Guiteau convicted and executed (1882).

1882: Terrorism in Ireland after land evictions. Britain invades and conquers Egypt. Germany, Austria, and Italy form Triple Alliance. In U.S., Congress adopts Chinese Exclusion Act. Rockefeller‘s Standard Oil Trust is first industrial monopoly. In Berlin, Robert Koch announces discovery of tuberculosis germ.

1883: Congress creates Civil Service Commission. Brooklyn Bridge and Metropolitan Opera House completed.

1884: Berlin West Africa Conference held in Berlin (lasting until Feb. 1885), at which the major European nations discuss expansion in Africa.

1885: British general Charles G. “Chinese” Gordon killed at Khartoum in Egyptian Sudan. World’s first skyscraper built in Chicago.

1886: Bombing at Haymarket Square, Chicago, kills seven policemen and injures many others. Eight alleged anarchists accused—three imprisoned, one commits suicide, four hanged. (In 1893, Illinois governor Altgeld, critical of trial, pardons three survivors.) Statue of Liberty dedicated. Geronimo, Apache Indian chief, surrenders.

1887: Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle‘s first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet.

1888: Historic March blizzard in northeast U.S.—many perish, property damage exceeds $25 million. George Eastman‘s box camera (the Kodak). J. B. Dunlop invents pneumatic tire. Jack the Ripper murders in London.

1889: Second (Socialist) International founded in Paris. Indian Territory in Oklahoma opened to settlement. Thousands die in Johnstown, Pa. flood. Eiffel Tower built for the Paris exposition. Mark Twain‘s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

1890: Congress votes to pass Sherman Antitrust Act. Sioux chief Sitting Bull arrested and killed by police on Pine Ridge reservation; two weeks later, U.S. troops kill over 200 Sioux at Battle of Wounded Knee.

1892: Battle between steel strikers and Pinkerton guards at Homestead, Pa.; union defeated after militia intervenes. Silver mine strikers in Idaho fight non-union workers; U.S. troops dispatched. Diesel engine patented.

1893: New Zealand becomes first country in the world to grant women the vote.

1894: Sino-Japanese War begins (ends in 1895 with China’s defeat). In France, Capt. Alfred Dreyfus convicted on false treason charge (pardoned in 1906). In U.S., Jacob S. Coxey of Ohio leads “Coxey’s Army” of unemployed on Washington. Eugene V. Debs calls general strike of rail workers to support Pullman Company strikers; strike broken, Debs jailed for six months.Edison‘s kinetoscope given first public showing in New York City.

1895: X-rays discovered by German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen. Auguste and Louis Lumière premiere motion pictures at a café in Paris.

1896: Supreme Court’s Plessy v. Ferguson decision—“separate but equal” doctrine. Alfred Nobel’s will establishes prizes for peace, science, and literature. Marconi receives first wireless patent in Britain. William Jennings Bryan delivers “Cross of Gold” speech at Democratic Convention in Chicago. First modern Olympic games held in Athens, Greece.

1897: Theodor Herzl launches Zionist movement.

1898: Chinese “Boxers,” anti-foreign organization, established. They stage uprisings against Europeans in 1900; U.S. and other Western troops relieve Peking legations. U.S. Battleship Maine is sunk in Havana Harbor. Spanish-American War begins. U.S. destroys Spanish fleet near Santiago, Cuba. (For detailed chronology, see Spanish-American War.) Pierre and MarieCurie discover radium and polonium.

1899: Boer War (or South African War): conflict between British and Boers (descendants of Dutch settlers of South Africa). Causes rooted in longstanding territorial disputes and in friction over political rights for English and other “uitlanders” following 1886 discovery of vast gold deposits in Transvaal. (British victorious as war ends in 1902.) Casualties: 5,774 British dead, about 4,000 Boers. Union of South Africa established in 1908 as confederation of colonies; becomes British dominion in 1910.

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1900 – 1909 World History

Sigmund Freud
(1856–1939)

Leo Baeck Inst./Archive Photos

Henri Matisse
(1869–1954)

The Library of Congress Picture Collection

W.E.B. Du Bois

W.E.B. Du Bois
(1868–1963)

The Library of Congress Picture Collection

1900: Hurricane ravages Galveston, Tex.; 6,000–8,000 dead. Fauvist movement in painting begins, led by Henri Matisse. Sigmund Freud‘s The Interpretation of Dreams. Carrie Chapman Catt succeeds Susan B. Anthony as president of National Woman Suffrage Association.

1901: Queen Victoria dies, and is succeeded by her son, Edward VII. As PresidentMcKinley begins second term, he is shot fatally by anarchist Leon Czolgosz.Theodore Roosevelt sworn in as successor.

1902: Enrico Caruso‘s first gramophone recording. Aswan Dam completed.

1903: Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, fly first powered, controlled, heavier-than-air plane at Kitty Hawk, N.C. Henry Ford organizes Ford Motor Company. The Boston Red Sox win the first World Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. W.E.B. Du Boispublishes The Souls of Black Folk.

1904: Russo-Japanese War begins—competition for Korea and Manchuria. Entente Cordiale: Britain and France settle their international differences. General theory of radioactivity by Rutherford and Soddy. New York City subway opens.

1905: In Russo-Japanese War, Port Arthur surrenders to Japanese; Russia suffers other defeats. President Roosevelt mediates Treaty of Portsmouth, N.H., which recognizes Japan’s control of Korea and restores southern Manchuria to China. The Russian Revolution of 1905 begins on “Bloody Sunday” when troops fire onto a defenseless group of demonstrators in St. Petersburg. Strikes and riots follow. Sailors on battleshipPotemkin mutiny; reforms, including first Duma (parliament), established by CzarNicholas II‘s “October Manifesto.” Albert Einstein‘s special theory of relativity and other key theories in physics. Franz Lehar‘s Merry Widow.

1906: San Francisco earthquake and three-day fire; more than 500 dead. Roald Amundsen, Norwegian explorer, fixes magnetic North Pole.

1907: Second Hague Peace Conference, of 46 nations, adopts 10 conventions on rules of war. Financial panic of 1907 in U.S. Mahler begins work on “Song of the Earth.” Oklahoma becomes 46th state. Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon introduces cubism.

1908: Earthquake kills 150,000 in southern Italy and Sicily. U.S. Supreme Court, in Danbury Hatters’ case, outlaws secondary union boycotts. Model T produced by Ford Motor Company.

1909: North Pole reportedly reached by American explorers Robert E. Peary and Matthew Henson. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is founded in New York by prominent black and white intellectuals and led by W.E.B. Du Bois.

1910 – 1919 World History

Albert Einstein
(1879–1955)

AIP Niels Bohr Library

Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Lenin
(1870–1924)

Novosti Photos

Woodrow Wilson
(1856–1924)

The Library of Congress Picture Collection

1910: Boy Scouts of America incorporated. Angel Island, in San Francisco Bay, becomes immigration center for Asians entering U.S.

1911: First use of aircraft as offensive weapon in Turkish-Italian War. Italy defeats Turks and annexes Tripoli and Libya. Chinese Republic proclaimed after revolution overthrowsManchu dynasty. Sun Yat-sen named president. Mexican Revolution: Porfirio Diaz, president since 1877, replaced by Francisco Madero. Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire in New York; 146 killed. Amundsen reaches South Pole. Ernest Rutherford discovers the structure of the atom. Richard Strauss‘s Der Rosenkavalier.Irving Berlin‘s Alexander’s Ragtime Band.

1912: Balkan Wars(1912–1913) resulting from territorial disputes: Turkey defeated by alliance of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro; London peace treaty (1913)partitions most of European Turkey among the victors. In second war (1913), Bulgaria attacks Serbia and Greece and is defeated after Romania intervenes and Turks recapture Adrianople. Titanic sinks on maiden voyage; over 1,500 drown. New Mexico and Arizona admitted as states.

1913: Suffragists demonstrate in London. Garment workers strike in New York and Boston; win pay raise and shorter hours. Henry Ford develops first moving assembly line. 16th Amendment (income tax) and 17th (popular election of U.S. senators) adopted. Bill creating U.S. Federal Reserve System becomes law. Stravinsky‘s The Rite of Spring.Woodrow Wilson becomes 28th U.S. president. Armory Show introduces modern art to U.S.; Duchamp‘s Nude Descending a Staircase shocks public.

1914: World War I begins: Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and wife Sophie are assassinated; Austria declares war on Serbia, Germany on Russia and France, Britain on Germany. (For detailed chronology see, World War I.) Panama Canalofficially opened. Congress sets up Federal Trade Commission, passes Clayton Antitrust Act. U.S. Marines occupy Veracruz, Mexico, intervening in civil war to protect American interests.

1915: Lusitania sunk by German submarine. Second Battle of Ypres. U.S. banks lend $500 million to France and Britain. Genocide of estimated 600,000 to 1 million Armenians by Turkish soldiers. D. W. Griffith‘s film Birth of a Nation.Albert Einstein‘s General Theory of Relativity.

1916: Congress expands armed forces. Battle of Verdun. Battle of the Somme. Tom Mooney arrested for San Francisco bombing (pardoned in 1939). Pershing fails in raid into Mexico in quest of rebel Pancho Villa. U.S. buys Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million. President Wilson re-elected with “he kept us out of war” slogan. “Black Tom” explosion at munitions dock in Jersey City, N.J., $40,000,000 damages; traced to German saboteurs. Margaret Sanger opens first birth control clinic. Easter Rebellion in Ireland put down by British troops. Jeannette Rankinbecomes first woman elected to Congress.

1917: First U.S. combat troops in France as U.S. declares war on Germany (April 6). Third Battle of Ypres. Russian Revolution of 1917—climax of long unrest under czars. February Revolution—Nicholas II forced to abdicate, liberal government created. Kerensky becomes prime minister and forms provisional government (July). In October Revolution, Bolsheviks seize power in armed coup d’état led by Lenin and Trotsky. Kerensky flees. Balfour Declaration promises Jewish homeland in Palestine. U.S. declares war on Austria-Hungary (Dec. 7). Armistice between new Russian Bolshevik government and Germans (Dec. 15).Sigmund Freud‘s Introduction to Psychoanalysis.

1918: Russian revolutionaries execute the former czar and his family. Russian Civil War between Reds (Bolsheviks) and Whites (anti-Bolsheviks); Reds win in 1920. Allied troops (U.S., British, French) intervene (March); leave in 1919. Second Battle of the Marne (July–Aug.) German Kaiser abdicates (Nov.); hostilities cease on the Western Front. Japanese hold Vladivostokuntil 1922. Worldwide influenza epidemic strikes; by 1920, nearly 20 million are dead. In U.S. alone, 500,000 perish.

1919: Third International (Comintern) establishes Soviet control over international Communist movements. Paris peace conference. Versailles Treaty, incorporating Woodrow Wilson’s draft Covenant of League of Nations, signed by Allies and Germany; rejected by U.S. Senate. Congress formally ends war in 1921. 18th (Prohibition) Amendment adopted. Alcock and Brown make first trans-Atlantic nonstop flight. Mahatma Gandhi initiates satyagraha (“truth force”) campaigns, beginning his nonviolent resistance movement against British rule in India.

Cite

1920 – 1929 World History

Benito Mussolini
(1883–1945)

National Archives and Records Admin.

Bessie Smith

Bessie Smith
(1894–1937)

The Library of Congress Picture Collection

William Butler Yeats
(1865–1939)

Archive Photos

Joseph Stalin
(1879–1953)

U.S. Army Photos

Migrant Mother

Dorothea Lange’s photo “Migrant Mother” (1936) documented the Great Depression (1929–1940)

The Library of Congress Picture Collection

1920: League of Nations holds first meeting at Geneva, Switzerland. U.S. Dept. of Justice “red hunt” nets thousands of radicals; aliens deported. Women’s suffrage (19th) amendment ratified. Treaty of Sèvres dissolves Ottoman Empire. First Agatha Christie mystery. Sinclair Lewis‘s Main Street.

1921: Reparations Commission fixes German liability at 132 billion gold marks. German inflation begins. Major treaties signed at Washington Disarmament Conference limit naval tonnage and pledge to respect territorial integrity of China. In U.S., Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian-born anarchists, convicted of armed robbery murder; case stirs worldwide protests; they are executed in 1927.

1922: Mussolini marches on Rome; forms Fascist government. Irish Free State, a self-governing dominion of British Empire, officially proclaimed. Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern Turkey, overthrows last sultan. James Joyce’s Ulysses.

1923: Adolf Hitler‘s “Beer Hall Putsch” in Munich fails; in 1924 he is sentenced to five years in prison where he writes Mein Kampf; released after eight months. Occupation of Ruhr by French and Belgian troops to enforce reparations payments. Widespread Ku Klux Klan violence in U.S. Earthquake destroys third of Tokyo. George Gershwin‘sRhapsody in Blue. Bessie Smith, known as “the Empress of the Blues,” makes her first record. Irish poet William Butler Yeats wins Nobel Prize in Literature.

1924: Death of Lenin; Stalin wins power struggle, rules as Soviet dictator until death in1953. Italian Fascists murder Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti. Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall and oilmen Harry Sinclair and Edward L. Doheny are charged with conspiracy and bribery in the Teapot Dome scandal, involving fraudulent leases of naval oil reserves. In 1931, Fall is sentenced to year in prison; Doheny and Sinclair acquitted of bribery. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb convicted in “thrill killing” of Bobby Franks in Chicago; defended by Clarence Darrow; sentenced to life imprisonment. (Loeb killed by fellow convict in 1936; Leopold paroled in 1958, dies in1971.) Robert Frost wins first of four Pulitzers.

1925: Nellie Tayloe Ross elected governor of Wyoming; first woman governor elected in U.S. Locarno conferences seek to secure European peace by mutual guarantees. John T. Scopes convicted and fined for teaching evolution in a public school in Tennessee “Monkey Trial”; sentence set aside. John Logie Baird, Scottish inventor, transmits human features by television. Hitler publishes Volume I of Mein Kampf.

1926: General strike in Britain brings nation’s activities to standstill. U.S. marines dispatched to Nicaragua during revolt; they remain until 1933. Gertrude Ederle of U.S. is first woman to swim English Channel. Ernest Hemingway‘s The Sun Also Rises.

1927: German economy collapses. Socialists riot in Vienna; general strike follows acquittal of Nazis for political murder. Trotsky expelled from Russian Communist Party.Charles A. Lindbergh flies first successful solo nonstop flight from New York to Paris. Ruth Snyder and Judd Gray convicted of murder of Albert Snyder; they are executed at Sing Sing prison in 1928. Philo T. Farnsworth demonstrates working television model. Georges Lemaître proposes Big Bang Theory. Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs in the season; record stands for next 34 years. The Jazz Singer, with Al Jolson, first part-talking motion picture.

1928: Kellogg-Briand Pact, outlawing war, signed in Paris by 65 nations. Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin. Richard E. Byrd starts expedition to Antarctic; returns in1930. Anthropologist Margaret Mead publishes Coming of Age in Samoa. Final volume of Oxford English Dictionary published after 44 years of research.

1929: Trotsky expelled from USSR Lateran Treaty establishes independent Vatican City. In U.S., stock market prices collapse, with U.S. securities losing $26 billion—first phase of Depression and world economic crisis. St. Valentine’s Day gangland massacre in Chicago. Edwin Powell Hubble proposes theory of expanding universe.

1930 – 1939 World History

Amelia Earhart
(1897–1937)

The Library of Congress Picture Collection

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
(1882–1945)

National Archives and Records Admin.

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler
(1889–1945)

National Archives and Records Admin.

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso
(1881–1973)

Archive Photos

1930: Britain, U.S., Japan, France, and Italy sign naval disarmament treaty. Nazis gain in German elections. Cyclotron developed by Ernest O. Lawrence, U.S. physicist. Pluto discovered by astronomers.

1931: Spain becomes a republic with overthrow of King Alfonso XIII. German industrialists finance 800,000-strong Nazi party. British parliament enacts statute of Westminster, legalizing dominion equality with Britain. Mukden Incident begins Japanese occupation of Manchuria. In U.S., Hoover proposes one-year moratorium of war debts. Harold C. Urey discovers heavy hydrogen. Gangster Al Capone sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion (freed in 1939; dies in 1947). Notorious Scottsboro trial begins, exposing depth of Southern racism. “The Star Spangled Banner”officially becomes national anthem.

1932: Nazis lead in German elections with 230 Reichstag seats. Famine in USSR. In U.S., Congress sets up Reconstruction Finance Corporation to stimulate economy. Veterans march on Washington—most leave after Senate rejects payment of cash bonuses; others removed by troops under Douglas MacArthur. U.S. protests Japanese aggression in Manchuria. Amelia Earhart is first woman to fly Atlantic solo.Charles A. Lindbergh‘s baby son kidnapped, killed. (Bruno Richard Hauptmannarrested in 1934, convicted in 1935, executed in 1936.)

1933: Hitler appointed German chancellor, gets dictatorial powers. Reichstag fire in Berlin;Nazi terror begins. Germany and Japan withdraw from League of Nations. Giuseppe Zangara executed for attempted assassination of president-elect Roosevelt in which Chicago mayor Cermak is fatally shot. Roosevelt inaugurated (“the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”); launches New Deal. Prohibition repealed. USSRrecognized by U.S.

1934: Chancellor Dollfuss of Austria assassinated by Nazis. Hitler becomes führer. USSR admitted to League of Nations. Dionne sisters, first quintuplets to survive beyond infancy, born in Canada. Mao Zedong begins the Long March north with 100,000 soldiers.

1935: Saar incorporated into Germany after plebiscite. Nazis repudiate Versailles Treaty, introduce compulsory military service. Mussolini invades Ethiopia; League of Nations invokes sanctions. Roosevelt opens second phase of New Deal in U.S., calling for social security, better housing, equitable taxation, and farm assistance. Huey Longassassinated in Louisiana.

1936: Germans occupy Rhineland. Italy annexes Ethiopia. Rome-Berlin Axis proclaimed (Japan to join in 1940). Trotsky exiled to Mexico. King George V dies; succeeded by son, Edward VIII, who soon abdicates to marry an American-born divorcée, and is succeeded by brother, George VI. Spanish civil war begins. Hundreds of Americans join the “Lincoln Brigades.” (Franco‘s fascist forces defeat Loyalist forces by 1939,when Madrid falls.) War between China and Japan begins, to continue through World War II. Japan and Germany sign anti-Comintern pact; joined by Italy in 1937.

1937: Hitler repudiates war guilt clause of Versailles Treaty; continues to build German power. Italy withdraws from League of Nations. U.S. gunboat Panay sunk by Japanese in Yangtze River. Japan invades China, conquers most of coastal area.Amelia Earhart lost somewhere in Pacific on round-the-world flight. Picasso‘sGuernica mural.

1938: Hitler marches into Austria; political and geographical union of Germany and Austria proclaimed. Munich Pact > Britain, France, and Italy agree to let Germany partition Czechoslovakia. Douglas “Wrong-Way” Corrigan flies from New York to Dublin. Fair Labor Standards Act establishes minimum wage. Orson Welles‘s radio broadcastWar of the Worlds.

1939: Germany invades Poland; occupies Bohemia and Moravia; renounces pact with England and concludes 10-year non-aggression pact with USSR. Russo-Finnish War begins; Finns to lose one-tenth of territory in 1940 peace treaty. World War II begins.(For detailed chronology, see World War II.) In U.S., Roosevelt submits $1,319-million defense budget, proclaims U.S. neutrality, and declares limited emergency. Einstein writes FDR about feasibility of atomic bomb. New York World’s Fair opens. DAR refuses to allow Marian Anderson to perform. Gone with the Wind premieres.

1940 – 1949 World History

Winston Churchill
(1874–1965)

National Archives and Records Admin.

Yalta Conference

U.S. Army Photos

Anne Frank

Anne Frank
(1929–1945)

Archive Photos

Harry S. Truman
(1884–1972)

The Library of Congress Picture Collection

Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie
(1912–1967)

Archive Photos

1940: Hitler invades Norway, Denmark (April 9), the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg(May 10), and France (May 12). Churchill becomes Britain’s prime minister. Trotsky assassinated in Mexico (Aug. 20). Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania annexed by USSR. U.S. trades 50 destroyers for leases on British bases in Western Hemisphere.Selective Service Act signed. The first official network television broadcast is put out by NBC.

1941: Germany attacks the Balkans and Russia. Japanese surprise attack on U.S. fleet atPearl Harbor brings U.S. into World War II; U.S. and Britain declare war on Japan.Manhattan Project (atomic bomb research) begins. Roosevelt enunciates “four freedoms,” signs Lend-Lease Act, declares national emergency, promises aid to USSR. Orson Welles‘s Citizen Kane.

1942: Declaration of United Nations signed in Washington (Jan. 1). Nazi leaders attend Wannsee Conference to coordinate the “final solution to the Jewish question,” the systematic genocide of Jews known as the Holocaust. (For detailed chronology of the Holocaust, see The Holocaust.) Women’s military services established. Enrico Fermiachieves nuclear chain reaction. More than 120,000 Japanese and persons of Japanese ancestry living in western U.S. moved to “relocation centers,” some for the duration of the war (Executive Order 9066). Coconut Grove nightclub fire in Boston kills 492 (Nov. 28).

1943: Churchill and Roosevelt hold Casablanca Conference (Jan. 14–23). Mussolinideposed. President freezes prices, salaries, and wages to prevent inflation. Income tax withholding introduced.

1944: Allies invade Normandy on D-Day (June 6). G.I. Bill of Rights enacted. Bretton Woods Conference creates International Monetary Fund and World Bank (July 1–22). Dumbarton Oaks Conference—U.S., British Commonwealth, and USSR propose establishment of United Nations (Aug. 21–Oct. 7). Battle of the Bulge (Dec. 16).Woody Guthrie records “This Land is Your Land.” Gunnar Myrdal‘s An American Dilemma.

1945: Yalta Conference (Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin) plans final defeat of Germany (Feb. 4–11). FDR dies (April 12). Hitler commits suicide (April 30); Germany surrenders(May 7); May 8 is declared V-E Day. Potsdam Conference (Truman, Churchill, Stalin) establishes basis of German reconstruction (July–Aug.). U.S. drops atomic bombson Japanese cities of Hiroshima (Aug. 6) and Nagasaki (Aug. 9). Japan signs official surrender on V-J Day (Sept. 2). United Nations established (Oct. 24). First electronic computer, ENIAC, built.

1946: First meeting of UN General Assembly opens in London (Jan. 10). Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech warns of Soviet expansion (March 5). League of Nations dissolved (April). Italy abolishes monarchy (June). Verdict in Nuremberg war trial: 12Nazi leaders (including 1 tried in absentia) sentenced to hang; 7 imprisoned; 3 acquitted (Oct. 1). Goering commits suicide a few hours before 10 other Nazis are executed (Oct. 15). Juan Perón becomes president of Argentina. Benjamin Spock‘s childcare classic published.

1947: Britain nationalizes coal mines (Jan. 1). Peace treaties for Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Finland signed in Paris (Feb. 10). Soviet Union rejects U.S. plan for UN atomic-energy control (March 4). Truman proposes Truman Doctrine, which was to aid Greece and Turkey in resisting communist expansion (March 12). Marshall Planfor European recovery proposed—a coordinated program to help European nations recover from ravages of war (June). (By the time it ended in 1951, this “European Recovery Program” had cost $13 billion.) India and Pakistan gain independence from Britain (Aug. 15). U.S. Air Force pilot Chuck Yeager becomes first person to break the sound barrier (Oct. 14). Jackie Robinson joins the Brooklyn Dodgers.Anne Frank‘s The Diary of a Young Girl published.

1948: Gandhi assassinated in New Delhi by Hindu fanatic (Jan. 30). Burma (Jan. 4) andCeylon (Feb. 4) granted independence by Britain. Communists seize power in Czechoslovakia (Feb. 23–25). Organization of American States (OAS) Charter signed at Bogotá, Colombia (April 30). Nation of Israel proclaimed; British end mandate at midnight; Arab armies attack (May 14). Berlin blockade begins (June 24),prompting Allied airlift (June 26). (Blockade ends May 12, 1949; airlift continues untilSept. 30, 1949.) Stalin and Tito break (June 28). Independent Republic of Korea is proclaimed, following election supervised by UN (Aug. 15). Verdict in Japanese war trial: 18 imprisoned (Nov. 12); Tojo and six others hanged (Dec. 23). United States ofIndonesia established as Dutch and Indonesians settle conflict (Dec. 27). Alger Hiss, former U.S. State Department official, indicted on perjury charges after denying passing secret documents to communist spy ring; convicted in second trial (1950) and sentenced to five-year prison term. Truman ends racial segregation in military. Alfred Kinsey publishes Sexual Behavior in the American Male. Tennessee Williams‘s A Streetcar Named Desire wins Pulitzer.

1949: Cease-fire in Palestine (Jan. 7). Truman proposes Point Four Program to help world’s less developed areas (Jan. 20). Israel signs armistice with Egypt (Feb. 24). Start of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)—treaty signed by 12 nations (April 4). Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) established (May 23). First successful Soviet atomic test (July 14).Communist People’s Republic of China formally proclaimed by Chairman Mao Zedong (Oct. 1). German Democratic Republic (East Germany) established under Soviet rule (Oct. 7). South Africa institutionalizes apartheid.

1950 – 1959 World History

Atomic Bomb

National Archives and Records Admin.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower
(1890–1969)

National Archives and Records Admin.

Dag Hammarskjold

Dag Hammarskjöld
(1905–1961)

United Nations

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
(1929–1968)

N.A.R.A

Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro
(1926– )

United Nations

1950: Brink’s robbery in Boston; almost $3 million stolen (Jan. 17). Truman orders development of hydrogen bomb (Jan. 31). Robert Schuman proposes Schuman Plan to pool European coal and steel (May 9). Korean War begins when North Korean Communist forces invade South Korea (June 25). (For detailed chronology, seeKorean War.) Assassination attempt on President Truman by Puerto Rican nationalists (Nov. 1). McCarthyism begins.

1951: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg sentenced to death for passing atomic secrets to Russians (March). Spurred by Schuman Plan, six nations form European Coal and Steel Community (April); effective 1952. Japanese peace treaty signed in San Francisco by 49 nations (Sept. 8). Color television introduced in U.S. Libya gains independence (Dec. 24).

1952: George VI dies; his daughter becomes Elizabeth II (Feb. 6). AEC announces “satisfactory” experiments in hydrogen-weapons research; eyewitnesses tell of blasts near Enewetak (Nov.). Ralph Ellison‘s The Invisible Man.

1953: Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower inaugurated president of United States (Jan. 20). Stalindies (March 5). Malenkov becomes Soviet premier; Beria, minister of interior;Molotov, foreign minister (March 6). Dag Hammarskjöld begins term as UN secretary-general (April 10). James Watson and Francis Crick publish their discovery of the molecular model of DNA (April–May). Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal reach top of Mt. Everest (May 29). East Berliners rise against Communist rule; quelled by tanks (June 17). Egypt becomes republic ruled by military junta (June 18). Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed in Sing Sing prison (June 19). Korean armistice signed (July 27). Moscow announces explosion of hydrogen bomb (Aug. 20). Tito becomes president of Yugoslavia. James Watson, Francis Crick, and Rosalind Franklin discover structure of DNA. Ernest Hemingway wins Pulitzer for The Old Man and the Sea.

1954: First atomic submarine Nautilus launched (Jan. 21). Five U.S. congressmen shot on floor of House as Puerto Rican nationalists fire from spectators’ gallery; all five recover(March 1). Soviet Union grants sovereignty to East Germany (March 23). Army v.McCarthy inquiry—Senate subcommittee report blames both sides (April 22–June 17). Dien Bien Phu, French military outpost in Vietnam, falls to Vietminh army (May 7). (For detailed chronology, see Vietnam War.) U.S. Supreme Court (in Brown v.Board of Education of Topeka) unanimously bans racial segregation in public schools (May 17). Eisenhower launches world atomic pool without Soviet Union(Sept. 6). Eight-nation Southeast Asia defense treaty (SEATO) signed at Manila(Sept. 8). Dr. Jonas Salk starts inoculating children against polio. Algerian War of Independence against France begins (Nov.); France struggles to maintain colonial rule until 1962 when it agrees to Algeria’s independence. William Faulkner‘s A Fablewins Pulitzer.

1955: Nikolai A. Bulganin becomes Soviet premier, replacing Malenkov (Feb. 8). Churchillresigns; Anthony Eden succeeds him (April 6). West Germany becomes a sovereign state (May 5). Western European Union (WEU) comes into being (May 6). Warsaw Pact, east European mutual defense agreement, signed (May 14). Argentina oustsPerón (Sept. 19). President Eisenhower suffers coronary thrombosis in Denver (Sept. 24). Rosa Parks refuses to sit at the back of the bus. Martin Luther King, Jr., leads black boycott of Montgomery, Ala., bus system (Dec. 1); desegregated service beginsDec. 21, 1956. AFL and CIO become one organization—AFL-CIO (Dec. 5).Tennessee Williams‘s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof wins Pulitzer.

1956: Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of USSR Communist Party, denounces Stalin’s excesses (Feb. 24). First aerial H-bomb tested over Namu islet, Bikini Atoll > 10 million tons TNT equivalent (May 21). Workers’ uprising against Communist rule inPoznan, Poland, is crushed (June 28–30); rebellion inspires Hungarian students to stage a protest against Communism in Budapest (Oct. 23). Egypt takes control ofSuez Canal (July 26). Hungarian rebellion forces Soviet troops to withdraw from Budapest (Oct.). Israel launches attack on Egypt’s Sinai peninsula and drives toward Suez Canal (Oct. 29). Imre Nagy announces Hungary’s withdrawal from Warsaw Pact(Nov. 1); Soviet troops enter and reclaim Budapest (Nov. 4). British and French invade Port Said on the Suez Canal (Nov. 5). Cease-fire forced by U.S. pressure stops British, French, and Israeli advance (Nov. 6). Morocco gains independence.Ingmar Bergman‘s The Seventh Seal. Allen Ginsberg‘s Howl.

1957: Eisenhower Doctrine calls for aid to Mideast countries which resist armed aggression from Communist-controlled nations (Jan. 5). The “Little Rock Nine” integrate Arkansas high school. Eisenhower sends troops to quell mob and protect school integration(Sept. 24). Russians launch Sputnik I, first Earth-orbiting satellite—the Space Age begins (Oct. 4).

1958: European Economic Community (Common Market) becomes effective (Jan. 1).Army’s Jupiter-C rocket fires first U.S. Earth satellite, Explorer I, into orbit (Jan. 31).Egypt and Syria merge into United Arab Republic (Feb. 1). Khrushchev becomes premier of Soviet Union as Bulganin resigns (Mar. 27). Gen. Charles de Gaulle becomes French premier (June 1),remaining in power until 1969. Eisenhower orders U.S. Marines into Lebanon at request of President Chamoun, who fears overthrow (July 15). New French constitution adopted (Sept. 28), de Gaulle elected president of 5th Republic (Dec. 21).

1959: Cuban President Batista resigns and flees—Castro takes over (Jan. 1). Tibet’s Dalai Lama escapes to India (Mar. 31). St. Lawrence Seaway opens, allowing ocean ships to reach Midwest (April 25). Alaska and Hawaii become states. Leakeys discover hominid fossils.

1960 – 1969 World History

Robert Frost
(1874–1963)

Archive Photos

John Glenn

John H. Glenn, Jr.
(1921– )

The Library of Congress Picture Collection

William Faulkner

William Faulkner
(1897–1962)

Archive Photos

Malcolm X

Malcolm X
(1925–1965)

Archive Photos

John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy
(1917–1963)

John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, Boston

James Meredith

James H. Meredith
(1933–)

The Library of Congress Picture Collection

Betty Friedan

Betty Friedan
(1921–2006)

The Library of Congress Picture Collection

The Beatles

Archive Photos

Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall
(1908–1993)

U.S. Supreme Court

1970 – 1979 World History

Richard Nixon
(1913–1994)

The Library of Congress Picture Collection

Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong
(1893–1976)

Agence France Press/Archive Photos

Ingmar Bergman, film director

Ingmar Bergman
(1918–2007)

Archive Photos

Lyndon B. Johnson

Lyndon B. Johnson
(1908–1973)

The Library of Congress Picture Collection

Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington
(1899–1974)

Archive Photos

Anwar Sadat

Anwar Sadat
(1918–1981)

Archive Photos

Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II
(1920–2005)

Archive Photos

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
(1900–1989)

Permanent Mission of Islamic Republic of Iran to the UN

Tennessee Williams
(1911–1983)

Archive Photos

1980 World History

Ronald Reagan
(1911–2004)

The Republican National Committee

1980: Six U.S. embassy aides escape from Iran with Canadian help (Jan. 29). F.B.I.’s undercover operation “Abscam” (for Arab scam) implicates public officials (Feb. 2).U.S. breaks diplomatic ties with Iran (April 7). Eight U.S. servicemen are killed and five are injured as helicopter and cargo plane collide in abortive desert raid to rescueAmerican hostages in Tehran (April 25). Supreme Court upholds limits on federal aid for abortions (June 30). Shah of Iran dies at 60 (July 27). Anastasio Somoza Debayle, ousted Nicaragua ruler, and two aides assassinated in Asunción, Paraguay capital (Sept. 17). Iraq troops hold 90 square miles of Iran after invasion; 8-year Iran-Iraq war begins (Sept. 19). Ronald Reagan elected president in Republican sweep(Nov. 4). Three U.S. nuns and lay worker found shot in El Salvador (Dec. 4). John Lennon of the Beatles shot dead in New York City (Dec. 8). Smallpox eradicated.

1985 World History

1985: Ronald Reagan, 73, takes oath for second term as 40th president (Jan. 20). General Westmoreland settles libel action against CBS (Feb. 18). Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher addresses Congress, endorsing Reagan’s policies (Feb. 20).USSR leader Chernenko dies at 73 and is replaced by Mikhail Gorbachev, 54 (March 11). Two Shi’ite Muslim gunmen capture TWA airliner with 133 aboard, 104 of them Americans (June 14); 39 remaining hostages freed in Beirut (June 30).Supreme Court, 5–4, bars public school teachers from parochial schools (July 1). Arthur James Walker, 50, retired naval officer, convicted by federal judge of participating in Soviet spy ring operated by his brother, John Walker (Aug. 9). P.L.O.terrorists hijack Achille Lauro, Italian cruise ship, with 80 passengers, plus crew (Oct. 7); American, Leon Klinghoffer, killed(Oct. 8); Italian government toppled by political crisis over hijacking (Oct. 16). John A. Walker and son, Michael I. Walker, 22, sentenced in Navy espionage case (Oct. 28). Reagan and Gorbachev meet at summit (Nov. 19); agree to step up arms control talks and renew cultural contacts (Nov. 21). Terrorists seize Egyptian Boeing 737 airliner after takeoff from Athens(Nov. 23); 59 dead as Egyptian forces storm plane on Malta (Nov. 24). U.S. budget-balancing bill enacted (Dec. 12).

1989 World History

General Colin Powell
(1937– )

U.S. Army Photos

Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama
(1935– )

Priscilla Lee

Mikhail S. Gorbachev

Mikhail S. Gorbachev
(1931– )

Novosti Photos

George Bush, Sr.

George Bush
(1924– )

The Republican National Committee

1989: U.S. planes shoot down two Libyan fighters over international waters in Mediterranean (Jan. 4). Emperor Hirohito of Japan dead at 87 (Jan. 7). George Herbert Walker Bush inaugurated as 41st U.S. president (Jan. 20). Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini declares author Salman Rushdie‘s book The Satanic Verses offensive and sentences him to death (Feb. 14). Ruptured tanker Exxon Valdez sends 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound (March 24). Tens of thousands of Chinese students take over Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in rally for democracy (April 19 et seq.). U.S. jury convicts Oliver North in Iran-Contra affair(May 4). More than one million in Beijing demonstrate for democracy; chaos spreads across nation (mid-May et seq.). Mikhail S. Gorbachev named Soviet president(May 25). Thousands killed in Tiananmen Square as Chinese leaders take hard line toward demonstrators (June 4 et seq.). Army general Colin R. Powell is first black chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff (Aug. 9). P. W. Botha quits as South Africa‘s president (Aug. 14). Voyager 2 spacecraft speeds by Neptune after making startling discoveries about the planet and its moons (Aug. 29). Deng Xiaoping resigns from China’s leadership (Nov. 9). After 28 years, Berlin Wall is open to West (Nov. 11).Czech Parliament ends Communists’ dominant role (Nov. 30). Romanian uprising overthrows Communist government (Dec. 15 et seq.); President Ceausescu and wife executed (Dec. 25). U.S. troops invade Panama, seeking capture of Gen. Manuel Noriega (Dec. 20); resistance to U.S. collapses (Dec. 24). Dalai Lama wins Nobel Peace Prize.

1990 World History

Lech Walesa
(1943– )

Archive Photos

Hubble Space Telescope

NASA

1990: World Wide Web debuts, popularizes Internet. Gen. Manuel Noriega surrenders inPanama (Jan. 3). Yugoslav Communists end 45-year monopoly of power (Jan. 22). Soviet Communists relinquish sole power (Feb. 7). South Africa freesNelson Mandela, imprisoned 27¹/2 years (Feb. 11). Violeta Barrios de Chamorro inaugurated as Nicaraguan president. Hubble Space Telescopelaunched (April 25). U.S.-Soviet summit reaches accord on armaments (June 1).Western Alliance ends cold war and proposes joint action with Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (July 6). U.S. Appeals Court overturns Oliver North’s Iran-Contraconviction (July 20). Iraqi troops invade Kuwait and seize petroleum reserves, setting off Persian Gulf War (For detailed chronology, see The Persian Gulf War.) (Aug. 2 et seq.). East and West Germany reunited (Oct. 3). Republicans set back in midterm elections (Nov. 8). Gorbachev assumes emergency powers(Nov. 17). Leaders of 34 nations in Europe and North America proclaim a united Europe (Nov. 21). Margaret Thatcher resigns as British prime minister (Nov. 22);John Major succeeds her (Nov. 28). Lech Walesa wins Poland‘s runoff presidential election (Dec. 9). Haiti elects leftist priest as president in first democratic election (Dec. 17).

1995 World History

Seamus Heaney
(1939– )

Archive Photos

William J. Clinton

William J. Clinton
(1946– )

The White House

Yitzhak Rabin
(1922–1995)

Archive Photos

1995: Republicans take control of Congress (Jan. 4). More than 5,000 dead in Japaneseearthquake (Jan. 17 et seq.). Criminal trial of O. J. Simpson opens in California(Jan. 24). U.S. rescues Mexico‘s economy with $20-billion aid program (Feb. 21).Senate rejects balanced-budget amendment (March 2). Nerve gas attack in Tokyo subway kills eight and injures thousands. The Aum Shinrikyo (“Supreme Truth”) cult is to blame (March 20). Major League Baseball strike ends (April 2). Appeals court upholds woman’s plea to enter Citadel military academy (April 13). UN Council votes easier sanctions for Iraq (April 14). Scores killed as terrorist’s car bomb blows up block-long Oklahoma City federal building (April 19); Timothy McVeigh, 27, Army veteran, arrested as suspect (April 21); authorities seek second suspect, link right-wing paramilitary groups to bombing (April 22). Death toll 2,000 in Rwanda massacre(April 22). Fighting escalates in Bosnia and Croatia (May 1). U.S. shuttle docks with Russian space station (June 27). F.B.I. suspends four in Idaho siege inquiry (Aug. 11).France explodes nuclear device in Pacific; wide protests ensue (Sept. 5). Senator Bob Packwood of Oregon resigns under pressure for sexual and official misconduct(Sept. 6). Israelis and Palestinians agree on transferring West Bank to Arabs (Sept. 24). Los Angeles jury finds O. J. Simpson not guilty of murder charges (Oct. 3). PopeJohn Paul II visits U.S. on whirlwind tour (Oct. 4–8). Warring parties agree on cease-fire in Bosnia (Oct. 5). Million Man March draws hundreds of thousands of black men to capital (Oct. 16). Quebec narrowly rejects independence from Canada (Oct. 30).Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin slain by Jewish extremist at peace rally (Nov. 4).U.S. servicemen admit rape of Japanese schoolgirl in Okinawa (Nov. 7). Nigeriahangs writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other minority rights advocates (Nov. 10). Irish voters approve end to constitutional ban on divorce (Nov. 24). Combatants sign Bosnia peace treaty (Dec. 14). House move stalls Congress–White House negotiations to avert government shutdown (Dec. 20). Seamus Heaney wins Nobel prize for literature.

1999 World History

Thabo Mbeki
(1942–)

Eileen Collins

Eileen Collins
(1956– )

NASA

1999: U.S. agrees to ease restrictions on Cuba (Jan. 4). Dennis Hastert elected to replace Newt Gingrich as Speaker of the House (Jan. 6). NBA ends 191-day labor dispute(Jan. 6). International Olympic Committee expels six members as bribery scandal widens (Jan. 24). King Hussein of Jordan dies (Feb. 7). Senate acquits President Clinton of impeachment charges (Feb. 12). Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo elected president of Nigeria (Feb. 28). First nonstop balloon flight around world completed in 20 days by Bertrand Piccard (Switzerland) and Brian Jones (UK) (March 1–20).Marine pilot acquitted in killing of 20 in 1998 Italian ski gondola accident; Italians outraged (March 4). U.S. accuses China of stealing nuclear secrets (March 5). Joe DiMaggio dies at age 84 (March 8). Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary join NATO(March 12). NATO launches air strikes on Serbia to end attacks against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo (March 24). Dr. Jack Kevorkian convicted of second-degree murder in assisted-suicide case (March 26). “Melissa” computer virus spreads through the Internet (March 27). Libya hands over two suspects in 1988 Pan Am jet bombing (April 5). Two Colo. students go on shooting spree in Columbine High School, killing 15, including themselves (April 20). NATO bombs mistakenly hit Chinese embassy in Belgrade (May 7). Citadel graduates its first woman (May 8).Crime rate in U.S. falls for seventh consecutive year (May 16). Ehud Barak defeats Benjamin Netanyahu in Israeli prime minister election (May 17). U.S. inspects suspected nuclear weapons site in North Korea, finds nothing (May 20–24). Serbs sign agreement to pull troops out of Kosovo after 11 weeks of NATO air attacks (June 9). Nelson Mandela retires as president of South Africa; succeeded by Thabo Mbeki(June 16). Britain’s Prince Edward marries Sophie Rhys-Jones (June 19). Kurdleader Abdullah Ocalan sentenced to death for treason in Turkey (June 29). White supremacist goes on shooting spree in Midwest, killing three including self and wounding eight (July 2–5). U.S. soccer team tops China for women’s World Cup (July 10). Taiwanese leader Lee Teng-hui challenges “One China” policy (July 11). Serial killer Rafael Reséndez-Ramirez surrenders himself to U.S. authorities (July 13). John F. Kennedy, Jr., wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette killed in plane crash off coast of Martha’s Vineyard (July 16). Col. Eileen Collins becomes first female to head a space shuttle mission (July 16). Falun Gong meditation sect banned by Chinese government (July 22). Day-trader kills 9 and wounds 13 in two Atlanta brokerage offices before committing suicide (July 29).Yeltsin replaces Prime Minister Stepashin with Vladimir Putin in fourth government shakeup in 17 months (Aug. 9). Islamic militants declare independence for Dagestanand announce holy war against Russia (Aug. 10). White supremacist opens fire at Jewish community center in LA, wounding five and killing one as he flees (Aug. 10).More than 17,000 people die in 7.4 earthquake in Turkey (Aug. 17). Attorney General Janet Reno reopens investigation of 1993 Waco, Tex., stand-off (Aug. 25). People of East Timor vote for independence from Indonesia (Aug. 31). Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and PLO leader Yasir Arafat announce peace accord (Sept. 4). Larry Gene Ashbrook goes on rampage in Tex. church, killing seven and himself (Sept. 15). NASA accidentally loses $125 million spacecraft as it orbits Mars (Sept. 23). Dozens of people exposed to radiation in Japan’s worst nuclear accident (Sept. 30). Russia sends ground troops to Chechnya as conflict with Islamic militants intensifies (Oct. 1). World population reaches six billion milestone (Oct. 11).Military coup led by Gen. Pervez Musharraf overthrows Pakistani government (Oct. 12). Tobacco companies admit to harm caused by cigarette smoking (Oct. 13). Senate rejects 1996 nuclear test-ban treaty; international leaders upset by U.S. stand(Oct. 13). Indonesia elects Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid president (Oct. 20). Pro golfer Payne Stewart and five others killed in plane crash (Oct. 25). EgyptAir flight crashes over Atlantic, killing all 217 on board (Oct. 31). Judge finds Microsoft to be a monopoly (Nov. 5). U.S. and China reach landmark trade agreement (Nov. 15). China launches first spacecraft (Nov. 21). Five-year-old Cuban refugee Elián González gets caught in politically charged custody battle (Nov. 25). World Trade Organization conference disrupted by violent protests in Seattle (Nov. 29 et seq.). New Northern Ireland government begins self-rule for first time in 25 years (Dec. 2). Muslim terrorists hijack Indian Airlines jet with 189 on board (Dec. 24).

2000 World History

Hillary Clinton
(1947–)

Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin
(1952–)

Vincente Fox Quesada

Vicente Fox Quesada
(1942–)

Vojislav Kostunica

Vojislav Kostunica
(1944– )

2000: Socialist president, Ricardo Lagos, elected in Chile (Jan. 16). George W. Bush and Al Gore take Iowa caucuses in U.S. presidential race (Jan. 22). Austria at center of European dispute after conservative People’s Party forms coalition with the far-right Freedom Party, headed by xenophobe Jörg Haider (Feb. 3). First Lady Hillary Clintonofficially enters N.Y. Senate race (Feb. 6). Hijackers seize Afghan plane; release hostages in Stansted, England (Feb. 6–12). Britain ends self-rule in Northern Ireland after Irish Republican Army misses disarmament deadline (Feb. 11). NEAR spacecraft becomes first to orbit an asteroid (Feb. 14). Wary investors cause stock plunge; beginning of the end of the Internet stock boom (Feb. 25). Reformists win control of Iranian parliament for first time since 1979 Islamic revolution (Feb. 26). Gun maker Smith & Wesson limits the manufacture and distribution of handguns in light of lawsuits(March 17). Mass murder or suicide of hundreds in Ugandan doomsday cult (March 18). Acting Russian president Vladimir V. Putin formally chosen for post (March 25).Microsoft loses antitrust suit; appeal expected (April 3). Controversial Osprey plane crash kills 19 marines (April 8). Cuban boy Elián González reunited with father after federal raid of Miami relatives’ home (April 22). Vermont approves same-sex unions(April 25). “I love you” virus disrupts computers worldwide (May 4). South Carolina removes Confederate battle flag from capitol dome (May 18). Chile ends Augusto Pinochet’s immunity, clearing way for trial on murder and torture charges during years as dictator (May 24). Israeli troops withdraw from Lebanese security zone after 22 years of occupation (May 24). Former Indonesian president Suharto under house arrest, charged with corruption and abuse of power (May 29). Britain restores parliamentary powers to Northern Ireland after Sinn Fein agrees to disarm (June 4). Presidents of North and South Korea sign peace accord, ending half-century of antagonism (June 15). British find 58 bodies of illegal Asian immigrants suffocated in Dutch truck that transported them (June 20). Elián González returns to Cuba with father (June 23). U.S. navy resumes shelling exercises of Puerto Rico’s Vieques Island, used as a training site (June 25). Human genome deciphered; expected to revolutionize the practice of medicine (June 26). Iraq believed to resume missile program (June 30). Vicente Fox Quesada elected president of Mexico (July 2). Bashar al-Assad succeeds late father, Hafez al-Assad, as Syrian president (July 10). Concorde crash kills 113 near Paris(July 25). Republican convention picks Texas governor George W. Bush as presidential candidate; Dick Cheney for vice presidential spot (Aug. 2). Democratic convention selects Vice President Al Gore and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman to head ticket (Aug. 14).Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee, accused of stealing sensitive nuclear weapons data, freed after serving nine months in prison (Sept. 13). Olympic Games open in Australia(Sept. 15). Six-year Whitewater investigation of the Clintons ends without indictments(Sept. 20). Yugoslav opposition claims victory; incumbent Slobodan Milosevic denies results (Sept. 25). Danish voters reject euro (Sept. 26). Abortion pill, RU-486, wins U.S. approval (Sept. 28). Palestinians and Israelis clash, spurred by visit of right-wing Israeli leader Ariel Sharon to a joint Jewish/Muslim holy site; “Al Aksa intifada” continues unabated (Sept. 30 et seq.). Nationwide uprising overthrows Yugoslavian president Milosevic (Oct. 5). Vojislav Kostunica sworn in as Yugoslav president (Oct. 7). 17 U.S. sailors on navy destroyer Cole die in Yemen terrorist explosion (Oct. 12). U.S. presidential election closest in decades; Bush’s slim lead in Florida leads to automatic recount in that state (Nov. 7–8). Republicans file federal suit to block manual recount of Florida presidential election ballots sought by Democrats (Nov. 11). Philippine presidentJoseph Estrada impeached after receiving gambling payoffs (Nov. 13). Florida Supreme Court rules hand count of presidential ballots may continue (Nov. 21). Global warming talks collapse at Hague conference (Nov. 25). Florida Secretary of StateKatherine Harris certifies Bush as winner by 537 votes (Nov. 26). Mad Cow diseasealarms Europe (Nov. 30 et seq.). Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak resigns (Dec. 9).U.S. Supreme Court orders halt to manual recount of presidential votes in Florida (Dec. 9). Supreme Court seals Bush victory by 5–4; rules there can be no further recounting(Dec. 12).

2001 World History

Yasir Arafat
(1929–2004)

Ariel Sharon

Ariel Sharon
(1928– )

Mohammad Khatami

Mohammad Khatami
(1943–)

World Trade Center

Hamid Karzai

Hamid Karzai
(1957– )

2001

Congo president Laurent Kabila assassinated by bodyguard (Jan. 16). In final days of presidency, Bill Clinton issues controversial pardons, including one for Marc Rich, billionaire fugitive financier (Jan. 20). George W. Bush is sworn in as 43rd president(Jan. 20). Earthquake kills thousands in India (Jan. 26 et seq.). Libyan convicted in Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland (Jan. 31). Right-winger Ariel Sharonwins election in Israel (Feb. 6). U.S. submarine Greeneville sinks Japanese fishing boat, killing 9 (Feb. 9). FBI agent Robert Hanssen is charged with spying for Russia for 15 years (Feb. 20). The long-simmering resentment of Macedonia’s ethnic Albanians erupts into violence (March 15 et seq.). British livestock epidemic, foot-and-mouth disease,reaches crisis levels (March 23). Bush abandons global-warming treaty (Kyoto Protocol), angering European leaders (March 30). U.S. spy plane and Chinese jet collide. The 24 crew members of the U.S. plane are detained for 11 days; U.S. issues a formal statement of regret (April 2 et seq.). Race riots in Cincinnati continue for several days following a shooting of an unarmed black man by a white police officer (April 7 et seq.). U.S. millionaire Dennis Tito becomes first space tourist, visiting the International Space Station aboard a Russian booster (April 28). Former Klansman Thomas E. Blanton convicted of 1963 murder of four black girls in Birmingham, Ala. (May 1). After a Palestinian suicide bomber kills 5 and wounds more than 100 in a Netanya shopping mall, Israeli warplanes retaliate by bombing West Bank and Gaza strip (May 18). Four are declared guilty in 1998 terrorist bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania(May 29). Balance of the Senate shifts after Jim Jeffords of Vermont changes his party affiliation from Republican to Independent. The move strips Republicans of control of the Senate and gives Democrats the narrowest of majorities (50–49–1) (June 5). Bush signs new tax-cut law, cutting taxes by $1.35 trillion over 11 years, the largest tax cut in 2 decades (June 7). Mohammad Khatami, Iran’s moderate president, is reelected in a landslide (June 9). Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh executed (June 11).Syrian forces evacuate Beirut area after decades of occupation (June 19). Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic is delivered to UN tribunal in The Hague to await war-crimes trial (June 29). Without U.S., 178 nations reach agreement on climate accord, which rescues, though dilutes, 1997 Kyoto Protocol (July 23). Bush allows stem cell research, approving federal funds for studies using existing strains of stem cells(Aug. 9). After six months of fighting, a peace agreement is signed between rebels and the Macedonian government (Aug. 13). Budget surplus dwindles; some blame the slowing economy and the Bush tax cut (Aug. 22). Terrorists attack United States.Hijackers ram jetliners into twin towers of New York City’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A fourth hijacked plane crashes 80 mi outside of Pittsburgh. Toll of dead is more than 3,000. Within days, Islamic militant Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda terrorist network are identified as the parties behind the attacks (Sept. 11). Anthraxscare rivets nation, as anthrax-laced letters are sent to various media and government officials. Several die after handling the letters (October 5 et seq.). In response to Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, U.S. and British forces launch bombing campaign against Talibangovernment and al-Qaeda terrorist camps in Afghanistan. Bombings continue on a daily basis (Oct. 7 et seq.). Irish Republican Army announces that it has begun to dismantle its weapons arsenal, marking a dramatic leap forward in Northern Ireland peace process (Oct. 23). Plane crash kills 260 in Queens, N.Y. (Nov. 12). Afghani factions create a post-Taliban government (Nov. 27). Enron Corp., one of world’s largest energy companies, files for bankruptcy (Dec. 2). Israel condemns the Palestinian Authority as a “terror-supporting entity” and severs ties with leader Yasir Arafat following mounting violence against Israelis. The Israeli Army begins bombing Palestinian areas (Dec. 4 et seq.). Taliban regime in Afghanistan collapses after two months of bombing by American warplanes and fighting by Northern Alliance ground troops (Dec. 9). Hamid Karzai,new interim Afghan leader, is sworn in (Dec. 22).

2002 World History

Jacques Chirac
(1932–)

Tony Blair

Tony Blair
(1953–)

President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez

Hugo Chavez
(1954–)

Presindent of the Peoples Republic of China Hu Jintao

Hu Jintao
(1942–)

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva

Luiz Ignácio Lula
da Silva
(1945–)

2002

The euro currency debuts in 12 European countries (Jan. 2). U.S. takes Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners to Guantanamo Bay (Jan. 10). Defrocked priest John Geoghan convicted of child molestation; church’s role in cover-up sparks national outrage (Jan. 18). U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl kidnapped in Pakistan (Jan. 23). Kenneth L. Lay,chairman of bankrupt energy trader Enron, resigns; company under federal investigation for hiding debt and misrepresenting earnings (Jan. 24). President Bush’s first State of Union address labels Iran, Iraq, and North Korea “an axis of evil” (Jan. 29). Queen Elizabeth II of England marks 50 years as monarch (Feb 6). The trial of SlobodanMilosevic on charges of crimes against humanity opens at The Hague (Feb. 12).American Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh charged with supporting terrorism (Feb. 13). Reporter Pearl confirmed dead in Pakistan (Feb. 21). Angolan UNITA rebel leaderJonas Savimbi killed in battle (Feb. 22). Tamil Tigers and Sri Lankan government sign a cease-fire agreement (Feb. 22). Hundreds in India die in Hindu-Muslim clashes(March 2). U.S. and Afghan troops launch Operation Anaconda against remaining al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan (March 2). Saudi peace proposal—offering Israel normal relations with all Arab nations in return for withdrawal from occupied territories—approved at Arab League summit (March 28). Israeli tanks and warplanes attack West Bank towns of Nablus, Jenin, Bethlehem, and others in response to string of Palestinian suicide attacks. In the first three months of 2002, 14 suicide bombers killed dozens of Israeli civilians and wounded hundreds (March 29–April 21). Israeli prime minister Sharon calls for exile of Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat (April 2). UNITA Rebels and Angolan government sign a cease-fire ending 30 years of civil war (April 4).International Criminal Court wins UN ratification, but U.S. refuses to ratify (April 11). Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez ousted in coup, then reinstated (April 12, 14). U.S. and Russia reach landmark arms agreement to cut both countries’ nuclear arsenals by up to two-thirds over the next ten years (May 13). East Timor becomes a new nation(May 20). In letter to Director, FBI lawyer Coleen Rowley criticizes FBI for thwarting terrorist efforts (May 21). Dirty bomb plot foiled with arrest of Jose Padilla (June 10). U.S. abandons 31-year-old Antiballistic Missile treaty (June 13). At national conference, U.S. bishops recommend zero tolerance policy for priests who abuse children (June 14). Arthur Andersen firm convicted of destroying documents relating to former client Enron Corp. (June 15). Bush announces U.S. will not recognize an independent Palestinian state until Yasir Arafat is replaced (June 24). WorldCom, after admitting to misstating profits, files for bankruptcy—largest claim in U.S. history (July 21).Pennsylvania miners rescued after spending 77 hours in a dark, flooded mine shaft(July 28). Bush signs corporate reform bill in response to spate of corporate scandals(July 30). Bush addresses United Nations, calls for a “regime change” in Iraq (Sept. 12).Tyco executives L. Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz indicted in stock-fraud scheme(Sept. 12). Terrorist bomb in Bali kills hundreds (Oct. 12). Government suspended inNorthern Ireland in protest of suspected IRA spy ring (Oct. 14). Former ImClone Executive Sam Waksal pleads guilty to charges including fraud and perjury (Oct. 15). North Korea admits to developing nuclear arms in defiance of treaty (Oct. 16). Vatican calls for softening of U.S. bishops’ abuse policy (Oct. 18). Chechen rebels take 763 hostages in Moscow theater; Russian authorities release a gas into theater, killing 116 hostages and freeing remaining survivors (Oct. 23–26). Snipers prey upon DC suburbs, killing ten and wounding others (Oct. 2–24). Police arrest two sniper suspects, John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo (Oct. 24). CIA kills six al-Qaeda members inYemen (Nov. 4). Republicans retake the Senate in midterm elections; gain additional House seats (Nov. 5). UN Security Council passes unanimous resolution calling on Iraq to disarm or else face “serious consequences” (Nov. 8). China’s Jiang Zemin officially retires as general secretary; Hu Jintao named as his successor (Nov. 14). UN arms inspectors return to Iraq (Nov. 18). EPA relaxes Clean Air Act (Nov. 22). Bush signs legislation creating cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security (Nov. 25). Boston archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law resigns over growing child sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church (Dec. 13). Trent Lott steps down as Republican leader after furor over pro-segregationist remark (Dec. 20). Sen. Bill Frist unanimously elected Republican leader of the Senate (Dec. 23).

2003 World History

George W. Bush
(1946– )

Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein
(1937– )

INA/Reuters/Archive Photos

United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld

Donald H. Rumsfeld
(1932– )

Canadian Prime Minster Paul Martin

Paul Martin
(1938– )

2003: North Korea withdraws from treaty on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons (Jan. 10). Illinois governor George Ryan commutes 167 death row sentences, calling capital punishment flawed (Jan. 11). White House announces huge deficits expected to top $200 billion in 2003 (Jan. 15). The UN’s report on Iraqi weapons inspections is highly critical, but not damning (Jan. 27). In State of the Union address, Bush announces that he is ready to attack Iraq even without a UN mandate (Jan. 28). Ariel Sharon elected Israeli prime minister (Jan. 29). Space shuttle Columbia explodes, killing all seven astronauts (Feb. 1). Nine-week general strike in Venezuela calling for President Chavez’s resignation ends in defeat (Feb. 2). U.S. Secretary of State Powell presents Iraq war rationale to UN, citing Iraqi weapons as imminent threat to world security (Feb. 5). Massive peace demonstrations take place around the world, protesting potential invasion of Iraq (Feb. 15). UN Security Council members France, Germany, and Russia insist that “the military option should only be a last resort” concerning Iraq (Feb. 24).Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic assassinated (March 12). Hu Jintao succeeds Chinese president Jiang Zemin (March 15). The United States and Britain launch war against Iraq (March 19). Baghdad falls to U.S. troops (April 9). European Union expands by ten nations (April 16). First Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas,sworn in (April 29). U.S.-backed “road map” for peace proposed for Middle East (April 30). The United States declares official end to combat operations in Iraq (May 1). U.S. diplomat Paul Bremer becomes civil administrator of occupied Iraq (May 12). Terrorists strike in Saudi Arabia, killing 34 at Western compound; al-Qaeda suspected (May 12).Bush signs ten-year, $350-billion tax-cut package, the third-largest tax cut in U.S. history(May 28). Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi again placed under house arrest by military regime (May 30). Eric Rudolph, Olympic bombing suspect, arrested(May 31). International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) discovers Iran’s concealed nuclear activities and calls for intensified inspections (June 18). The U.S. Supreme Court decisively upholds the use of affirmative action in higher education (June 23).Palestinian militant groups announce cease-fire toward Israel (June 29). Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announces price of Iraq war is about $3.9 billion a month, nearly double the April estimate (July 9). Iraq’s interim governing council is inaugurated(July 13). Saddam Hussein’s sons killed in firefight (July 22). Mutinous troops attempt unsuccessful coup in Philippines (July 27). Terrorist bombing at Indonesian hotel kills ten (Aug. 6). Liberia’s autocratic president Charles Taylor forced to leave civil war–ravaged country (Aug. 11). NATO assumes control of peacekeeping force inAfghanistan (Aug. 11). Libya accepts blame for 1988 bombing of flight over Lockerbie, Scotland; agrees to pay $2.7 billion to the families of the 270 victims (Aug. 15). Suicide bombing destroys UN headquarters in Baghdad, killing 24, including top envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello (Aug. 19). Palestinian suicide bombing in Jerusalem kills 20 Israelis, including 6 children (Aug. 19). Venezuelan opposition files petition for referendum to recall President Hugo Chavez (Aug. 20). After Israel retaliates for suicide bombing by killing top member of Hamas, militant Palestinian groups formally withdraw from cease-fire in effect since June 29 (Aug. 24). Investigation into the loss of space shuttleColumbia cites egregious organizational problems at NASA (Aug. 25). Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas resigns; “road map” to peace effectively collapses(Sept. 6). California governor Gray Davis ousted in recall vote; actor Arnold Schwarzenegger elected in his place (Oct. 7). UN votes in favor of a resolution ordering Israel to end construction of security barrier dividing Israeli and Palestinian areas (Oct. 24). Bush signs bill banning so-called partial-birth abortion procedure (Nov. 5).President Bush signs $87.5 billion emergency package for post-war Iraq reconstruction; this supplements $79 billion approved in April (Nov. 5). New Palestinian prime ministerAhmed Qurei takes office (Nov. 12). Alabama chief justice Roy S. Moore forced from office after his refusal to remove monument of the Ten Commandments (Nov. 13). The Bush administration reverses policy, agrees to transfer power to an interim Iraqi government sooner than originally planned (Nov. 14). Suicide bombers attack two synagogues in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 25 (Nov. 15). Massachusetts Supreme Court rules in favor of gay marriage (Nov. 18). Another terrorist attack in Istanbul kills 26; al-Qaeda suspected in both (Nov. 20). Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze resigns after weeks of protests (Nov. 23). John A. Muhammad, convicted in the 2002 Washington, DC, area shootings, receives death sentence (Nov. 24). President Bush eliminates steel tariffs after WTO says U.S. violated trade laws (Dec. 4). Paul Martin succeeds Jean Chretien as Canadian prime minister (Dec. 12). Saddam Hussein is captured by American troops (Dec. 13). Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi announces he will give up weapons program (Dec. 19).

2004 World History

Viktor Yushchenko
(1954– )

2004: Former Enron CFO Andrew Fastow pleads guilty to defrauding Enron (Jan. 13). Bush proposes ambitious space program that includes flights to the Moon, Mars, and beyond(Jan. 14). Iraq weapons investigator David Kay resigns, says there’s no evidence of weapons of mass destruction, one of the Bush administration’s chief reasons for launching war in Iraq (Jan. 23). About one third of Iran‘s Parliament steps down to protest hard-line Guardian Council’s banning of more than 2,000 reformists from running in parliamentary elections (Feb. 1). A.Q. Khan, founder of Pakistan’s nuclear program, admits he sold nuclear-weapons designs to other countries, including North Korea, Iran, and Libya (Feb. 4). Armed rebels in Haiti force President Aristide to resign and flee the country (Feb. 29). John Kerry secures Democratic nomination after winning nine out of ten primaries and caucuses (March 2). Spain is rocked by terrorist attacks, killing more than 200. Al-Qaeda takes responsibility (March 11). Spain’s governing Popular Party loses election to opposition Socialists. Outcome seen as a reaction to terrorist attacks days before and Popular Party’s support of the U.S.-led war in Iraq(March 14). North Atlantic Treaty Organization formally admits seven new countries: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia (March 29). U.S. troops launch offensive in Falluja in response to killing and mutilation on March 31 of four U.S. civilian contractors. (April 5–May 1). Israeli prime minister Sharon announces plan to unilaterally withdraw fromGaza Strip (April 12). Greek Cypriots reject UN reunification plan with Turkish Cypriots (April 24). U.S. media release graphic photos of American soldiers abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. Images spark outrage around the world (April 30). Gay marriages begin in Massachusetts, the first state in the country to legalize such unions (May 17). Sudan rebels (SPLA) and government reach accord to end 21-year civil war. However, separate war in western Darfur region between Arab militias and black Africans continues unabated (May 26). U.S. hands over power to Iraqi interim government; Iyad Allawi becomes prime minister (June 28). In Rasul v. Bush, Supreme Court rules that “enemy combatants” held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, are legally entitled to file petitions for writs of habeas corpus; and in Hamdi v.Rumsfeld, court rules that the detention of a U.S. citizen held as an enemy combatant is invalid, rejecting government’s claim that the executive branch has unreviewable authority in time of war (June 28). Israeli Supreme Court orders removal of part of security barrier dividing Israeli and Palestinian lands (June 30). Senate Intelligence Committee reports that intelligence on Iraq’s weapons programs was “overstated” and flawed (July 5). Sept. 11 commission harshly criticizes government’s handling of terrorist attacks (July 22). Democratic National Convention in Boston nominates John Kerry for president (July 26–29). Security Council demands Sudanese government disarm militias in Darfur that are massacring civilians (July 30). Florida hit by hurricanes Bonnie (Aug. 12) and Charley (Aug. 13). Summer Olympics take place in Athens, Greece (Aug. 13–29). Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez survives recall referendum (Aug. 16). Pentagon-sponsored Schlesinger report rejects idea that Abu Ghraib prison abuse was work of a few aberrant soldiers, and asserts there were “fundamental failures throughout all levels of command” (Aug. 24). Republican Convention in New York renominates President Bush (Aug. 30–Sept. 2). Chechen terrorists take about 1,200 schoolchildren and others hostage in Beslan, Russia; 340 people die when militants detonate explosives (Sept. 1–3). Hurricane Ivan ravages U.S. south (Sept. 15). U.S.’s final report on Iraq’s weapons finds no WMDs (Sept. 16). UN Atomic Energy Agency tells Iran to stop enriching uranium; a nascent nuclear weapons program suspected (Sept. 18). Bush eases trade restrictions on Libya (Sept. 20). Congress extends tax cuts due to expire at the end of 2005 (Sept. 23). Hurricane Jeanne hits Florida (Sept. 26). 380 tons of explosives reported missing in Iraq (Oct. 25). Bush reelected president (Nov. 2). U.S. troops launch attack on Falluja, stronghold of the Iraqi insurgency (Nov. 8). Yasir Arafat dies in Paris (Nov. 11). Ukraine presidential election declared fraudulent (Nov. 21). Red Cross alleges abuse at U.S.-run Guantánamo prison (Nov. 30). Hamid Karzai inaugurated as Afghanistan‘s first popularly elected president (Dec. 7).Missile test fails; setback for Bush administration’s missile defense system (Dec. 15). Massive protests by supporters of opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko’s lead to a new Ukrainian election; Yushchenko eventually declared prime minister (Dec. 26). Enormous tsunami devastates Asia; at least 225,000 killed (Dec. 26).

2005 World History

Mahmoud Abbas
(1935– )

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
(1956– )

Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel
(1954– )

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf
(1938– )

2005: Worldwide aid pours in to help the 11 Asian countries devastated by the Dec. 26, 2004,tsunami (Jan.). Mahmoud Abbas wins presidency of the Palestinian Authority in a landslide (Jan. 9). The Sudanese government and rebels from southern Sudan sign a peace agreement to end a 20-year conflict that has claimed about 2 million people (Jan. 9). George W. Bush is officially sworn in for his second term as president (Jan. 20). Iraqi elections to select a 275-seat National Assembly take place despite threats of violence. A total of 8.5 million people voted, representing about 58% of those Iraqis eligible to vote(Jan. 30). In State of the Union address, President Bush announces his plan to reform Social Security; despite months of campaigning, his plan receives only a lukewarm reception (Feb. 2). Saudis (men only) are allowed to vote for the first time in municipal elections (Feb. 10). Former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri > a nationalist who had called for Syria’s withdrawal from Lebanon—is assassinated (Feb. 14). The Terry Schiavo case becomes the focus of an emotionally charged battle in Congress (March 20). Schiavo dies 13 days after a federal judge refuses to order the reinsertion of her feeding tube (March 31). Pope John Paul II dies (April 2). Violent protests follow March elections in Kyrgyzstan, which international monitors deem severely flawed. PresidentAskar Akayev flees the country and then resigns (April 4). Benedict XVI becomes the next pope (April 24). The Syrian military, stationed in Lebanon for 29 years, withdraws(April 26). Tony Blair becomes first Labour Party prime minister to win three successive terms, but his party loses a large number of seats in the elections (May 5). South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk announces that he has devised a new procedure to successfully produce human stem cell lines from a cloned human embryo (May 20), but claim is discredited in Dec. 2005. The European Union abandons plans to ratify the proposed European constitution by 2006 after both France and the Netherlands vote against it (June 16). Former Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a hard-line conservative, wins Iran’s presidential election with 62% of the vote. He defiantly pursues Iran’s nuclear ambitions over the course of his first year (June 24). Supreme Court JusticeSandra Day O’Connor announces her retirement (July 1). NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft hits comet Tempel 1 in effort to research primordial remnants of our solar system (July 4). London hit by Islamic terrorist bombings, killing 52 and wounding about 700. It is Britain’s worst attack since World War II (July 7). Group of Eight industrial nations pledge to double aid to Africa to $50 billion a year by 2010, cancel the debt of many poor countries, and open trade. (July 8). Federal appeals court upholds lower court decision that so-called Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act is unlawful because it fails to make an exception to the law for women whose health would be in jeopardy without the late-term procedure (July 8). Pentagon assessment finds Iraq’s police force is, at best, “partially capable” of fighting the country’s insurgency. The U.S.’s eventual withdrawal plan hinges upon Iraqi security forces replacing U.S. soldiers: “As Iraqis stand up, Americans will stand down,” President Bush had stated (July 20). The Irish Republican Army announces it is officially ending its violent campaign for a united Ireland and will instead pursue its goals politically (July 27). President Bush signs the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which will remove trade barriers between the U.S. and Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua(Aug. 2). The Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) sign a peace accord to end their nearly 30-year-long civil war (Aug. 15). Israel begins evacuating about 8,000 Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip, which has been occupied by Israel for the last 38 years (Aug. 15). Hurricane Katrina wreaks catastrophic damage on the Gulf Coast; more than 1,000 die and millions are left homeless. Americans are shaken not simply by the magnitude of the disaster but by how ill-prepared all levels of government were in its aftermath. (Aug. 25–30). Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who served on the U.S. Supreme Court for 33 years, dies (Sept. 3). John Roberts, Jr., becomes 17th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (Sept. 22). Another major hurricane, Rita, ravages the Gulf Coast (Sept. 23). House majority leader Tom DeLay is accused of conspiring to violate Texas’s election laws. He steps aside from his House leadership position (Sept. 28). A 7.6 earthquake centered in the Pakistani-controlled part of the Kashmir region kills more than 80,000 and leaves an estimated 4 million homeless (Oct. 2). President Bushselects Harriet Miers, White House counsel, to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor(Oct. 3). Angela Merkel, leader of the Christian Democratic Union, which narrowly prevailed over Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s Social Democratic Party in September elections, becomes the country’s first female chancellor (Oct. 10). Millions of Iraqi voters ratify a new constitution (Oct. 15). Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein goes on trial for the killing of 143 people in the town of Dujail, Iraq, in 1982 (Oct. 19). Number of deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq reaches 2,000 (Oct. 25). Harriet Miers withdraws her Supreme Court nomination after strong criticism from the president’s conservative base(Oct. 27). Several weeks of violent rioting begins in the impoverished French-Arab and French-African suburbs of Paris after two boys are accidentally killed while hiding from police (Oct. 27). A federal grand jury indicts I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, with obstruction of justice and perjury in connection with a White House investigation (Oct. 28). Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf defeats soccer star George Weah inLiberia’s presidential election. She becomes Africa’s first woman head of state (Nov. 11).Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon quits as head of the Likud Party, which he founded, to start a new, more centrist organization, called Kadima (Nov. 21). California Republican congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham resigns after pleading guilty to taking at least $2.4 million in bribes (Nov. 28). The Sept. 11 Public Discourse Project reports that the country is “alarmingly vulnerable to terrorist strikes” (Dec. 5). The New York Times reports that in 2002, Bush signed a presidential order to allow the National Security Agency to spy on Americans suspected of being connected to terrorist activity without warrants (Dec. 15). About 11 million Iraqis (70% of the country’s registered voters) turn out to select their first permanent Parliament since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein (Dec. 15). Pennsylvania judge rules teaching of intelligent design in biology class is unconstitutional (Dec. 20).

2006 World History

2006

Coalition forces battle insurgents on the streets of Iraq, as secretarian violence intensifies; see Iraq Timeline 2006 for details(all year long). Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon suffers a massive stroke; Ehud Olmert is named acting prime minister(Jan. 5). Iran breaks the seals on three of its nuclear facilities, after stating that it plans to restart work on its “peaceful nuclear energy program.” The U.S. and several European nations condemn the move (Jan. 10). After a year of silence, Osama bin Laden says al-Qaeda is planning to attack the United States. (Jan. 19). The Iraqi election results are released: a coalition ofShiites and Kurds wins 181 out of 275 seats in parliament, just shy of the two-thirds majority required to form their own government. Sunnis take 58 seats (Jan. 20). Militant Palestinian group Hamas wins 74 of 132 seats in legislative elections. Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei of the Fatah party resigns (Jan. 25). The U.S. Senate confirms Samuel Alito as a Supreme Court justice, and Ben Bernanke as chief of the Federal Reserve (Jan. 31). In his fifth State of the Union speech,President Bush denounces Iran, calling it a country “held hostage by a small clerical elite that is isolating and repressing its people” (Jan. 31). Republican John Boehner is elected House Majority Leader (Feb. 2). After a Danish newspaper prints cartoons depicting Muhammad in a negative light (later reprinted in several European countries), angry demonstrators throughout the Muslim world smash windows, set fires, and burn flags (Feb. 4 et seq.). Steven Harper becomes Canada’sfirst Conservative prime minister in over a dozen years (Feb. 6). President Bush signs a law renewing the Patriot Act, including a signing statement stating that he does not consider himself bound by its requirement to tell Congress how the law is being used (Mar. 9). The Olympic winter games open in Turin, Italy (Feb. 10). House releases a report on the response toHurricane Katrina, assigning blame on all levels of government (Feb. 15). The day after the Hamas-led Palestinian paliament opens, Israeli leaders vote to withhold $50 million per month (Feb. 19). Former Yugoslavian president Slobadan Milosevic dies of a heart attack in his cell in the Hague. His four-year war-crimes trial had been nearing its end (Mar. 11).The U.N. Security Council calls on Iran to suspend its enrichment of uranium (Mar. 29). Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist with ties to several members of Congress, is sentenced to six years in prison by a Florida judge on fraud charges (Mar. 29). Saddam Hussein is charged with genocide by an Iraqi court for a campaign against Iraq’s Kurdish population in 1988 (Apr. 4).Representative Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) announces he will leave Congress (Apr. 4). After weeks of crippling student-led protests, French president Jacques Chirac repeals a new labor law that would have made it easier for employers to fire workers under the age of 26 (Apr. 10). Nepal’s King Gyanendra reinstates Parliament after more than two weeks of demonstrations involving over 100,000 people. It meets for the first time in four years (Apr. 28). The International Atomic Energy Agency confirms that Iran has enriched uranium (Apr. 28). A federal jury in Virginia sentences Zacarias Moussaouito life in prison without the chance of parole for his role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks (May 3). Bush administration announces plans to normalize relations with Libya (May 15). 55.4% of Montenegrins vote for independence from Serbia(May 21). George Bush and Tony Blair express regret for the abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison, for removing all Baathists from positions of power in Iraq, and for other missteps (May 25). The U.S. Senate rejects a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage (June 7). In response to an Israeli shelling of a Gaza beach that killed eight civilians, Hamas fires Qassam rockets into Israeli territory, ending a 16-month truce with Israel (June 10). Katharine Jefferts Schorichosen to be the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church; she will be the first woman to lead a church in the Anglican Communion (June 18). Warren Buffett announces that he will donate 85% of his $44 billion fortune to five philanthropic organizations, with about $31 billion going to the Gates Foundation (June 24). Palestinian militants tunnel out of Gaza and into Israel, killing two Israeli soldiers and kidnapping a third. Israeli troops move into Gaza, disabling its only power plant, destroying three bridges, and seizing Hamas political leaders (June 25–29). The Supreme Court rules that military tribunals cannot be set up to try prisoners in the absence of Congressional authorization and that prisoners are entitled to fair trials under the Geneva Conventions (June 29). India test-launches a missile with a range of 1,800 miles (July 9). More than 200 people die and hundreds more are wounded when a series of bombs explode on commuter trains in Mumbai, India during the evening rush hour (July 11). Bush administration concedes that terror suspects are entitled to basic human rights and legal rights under the Geneva Convention (July 11). Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group, fires rockets into Israel. In response, Israel launches a major military attack, sending thousands of troops into Lebanon. (July 13–Aug. 15). President Bush uses his veto power for the first time, striking down legislation that would have expanded the number of stem cell lines available for embryonic research using federal financing. (July 19). Former president Viktor Yanukovich is named prime minister of Ukraine (Aug. 4). The International Astronomical Union reclassifies Pluto as a dwarf planet (Aug. 24). Under pressure from members of his Labor Party, British prime minister Tony Blair says he will resign within a year (Sept. 7). ThaiGen. Sondhi Boonyaratkalin stages a bloodless coup and declares martial law (Sept. 20). U.S. Representative Mark Foley(R-Fla.) steps down from the House of Representatives after reports emerge that he had sent sexually explicit messages to teenage male Congressional pages. He had been the head of House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children (Sept. 29).International outrage and condemnation follows the test of a nuclear missile in the mountains of North Korea (Oct. 9). U.N. Security Council unanimously passes a resolution banning the sale of materials to North Korea that could be used to produce weapons and allowing authorities of other countries to inspect cargo entering and leaving the country (Oct. 14). The U.S. population officially reaches 300 million (Oct. 17). Pakistan military fires missiles at an Islamic school on theAfghanistan border, killing about 80 people who government officials say were militants. Officials also claim the school harbored members of al-Qaeda (Oct. 30). An Iraqi court convicts Saddam Hussein of crimes against humanity and sentences him to death by hanging (Nov. 5). Democrats gain control of both houses of Congress in the midterm elections (Nov. 7).South African parliament votes to legalize same-sex marriage (Nov. 14). Lebanese cabinet minister Pierre Gemayel, a critic of Syria, is assassinated. His father, Amin Gemayel, is a former president of Lebanon (Nov. 21). John Bolton steps down as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations when it becomes clear that he does not have enough votes in the Senate to win confirmation (Dec. 4). Ban Ki-moon of South Korea is sworn in as the secretary general of the United Nations. He replacesKofi Annan (Dec. 14). U.N. Security Council resolution bans the Iranian import and export of materials and technology used to enrich uranium and freezes the assets of several individuals and companies that are active in nuclear and ballistic missile programs (Dec. 23). Gerald Ford, the 38th president, dies at age 93 (Dec. 26). Four days after an appeals court upholds his death sentence, Saddan Hussein is hanged in Baghdad (Dec. 30). On the final day of 2006, the number of U.S. soldiers killed since the start of the Iraq war reaches 3,000. Using the most conservative figures for confirmed deaths from Iraq Body Count, the number of Iraqi civilians killed since the start of the war exceeds 55,000; U.N. estimates are even higher. This summary omits most of the events in Iraq; those can be found at Iraq Timeline 2006.

2007 World History

2007: Coalition forces battle insurgents on the streets of Iraq, as secretarian violence intensifies; see Iraq Timeline 2007for details (all year long). Romania and Bulgaria are admitted to the European Union, expanding it to 27 nations and a population of about 490 million (Jan. 1). Some 3,700 people attend a state funeral in Washington, DC, for Gerald Ford, the 38th president of the United States (Jan. 2). California Democrat Nancy Pelosi becomes the first U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives (Jan. 4). Responding to claims of corruption on the electoral commission and threats by an alliance of political parties to boycott upcoming elections, Bangladeshi president Iajuddin Ahmed declares a state of emergency, resigns as head of the interim government, and postpones elections (Jan. 11).President Bush focuses his sixth State of the Union address on domestic issues, including reducing oil consumption and increasing access to health insurance. He admits that the war in Iraq is not going as planned. “This is not the fight we entered in Iraq, but it is the fight we are in,” he said. “Every one of us wishes that this war were over and won” (Jan. 23). Sinn Fein endorses a plan to support the police in Northern Ireland. Over 15 years, the composition of the force will change to reflect the population of the province. Vote clears the path to pursue a power-sharing government between Catholic and Protestant parties (Jan. 28). The Senate confirms Mike McConnell as the director of National Intelligence (Feb. 6). Harvard University’s Board of Overseers votes to name Drew Gilpin Faust, a historian, as the university’s first female president in its 371-year history (Feb. 7). Leaders from Hamas and Fatah, two Palestinian factions that have been engaged in deadly violence, meet in Mecca and reach deal to end the fighting and to form a unity government (Feb. 8). At a meeting in Beijing with diplomats from the U.S., China, South Korea, Russia, and Japan, North Korea agrees to dismantle its nuclear facilities and allow international inspectors to enter the country in exchange for about $400 million in oil and aid (Feb. 13). International Court of Justice rules that the slaughter of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslims by Bosnian Serbs in Srebrenica in 1995 was genocide, but stops short of saying Serbia was directly responsible (Feb. 26). Gen. George Weightman is removed from his post as head of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center after reports that patients have received inadequate care, have been caught in a maze of bureaucratic red tape, and have been treated in dilapidated facilities (March 1). Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is found guilty of lying to FBI agents and to a grand jury in the investigation of who leaked to the press the name of covert CIA agent, Valerie Plame Wilson (March 6). Khalid Shaikh Mohammed reportedly assumes responsibility for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and a role in many others, including the 1993 bombing of New York’s World Trade Center (March 10). Attorney General Alberto Gonzales admits that the Justice Department made mistakes and exercised poor judgment in firing seven federal prosecutors in late 2006 (March 13). Leaders of Hamas and Fatah agree on a coalition government. The government’s platform does not recognize Israel, accept earlier Israeli-Palestinian accords, or renounce violence, conditions required by Western countries before they resume aid to the Palestinian government (March 15). For the first time, the leaders of Northern Ireland, Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, and Rev. Ian Paisley, the head of the Democratic Unionist Party, meet face-to-face and hash out an agreement for a power-sharing government(March 26). Iranian troops detain 15 Britons, eight sailors and seven marines, claiming they were in Iranian territorial waters. British officials deny the allegation, saying they were in Iraqi waters (March 26). U.S. Supreme Court rules, 5–4, that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate automobile emissions of heat-trapping gases and that the agency cannot shun its responsibility to do so unless it provides a scientific reason (April 2).The 15 sailors and marines who were seized in disputed waters on by Iranian troops are freed (April 4). Iranian resident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the country has the ability to enrich uranium on an industrial scale, which is part of the process to make fuel for a nuclear bomb or reactor (April 9). Some 35 people are killed and hundreds are wounded when suicide bombers attack a government building in Algiers, Algeria, and a police station on the outskirts of the capital. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claims responsibility for the attack (April 11). A suicide bomber attacks Iraq’s Parliament buidling, which is located in Baghdad’s fortified International Zone. Eight people, including two Iraqi legislators, die (April 13). Male student kills two in a Virginia Tech dorm. Two hours later, he kills 30 more in a classroom building before committing suicide. The shooting rampage is the most deadly in U.S. history. Fifteen others are wounded (April 16). U.S. Supreme Court votes, 5–4, to uphold the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, a federal law passed in 2003. It is the first time the Court bans a specific type of abortion procedure (April 18). Nicolas Sarkozy, the conservative candidate, prevails over Ségolène Royal, of the Socialist Party, taking 30.7% of the vote to Royal’s 25.2% in the first round of French presidential elections (April 22). Bush vetoes a $124 billion spending bill passed by Congress for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill called on the Bush administration to establish benchmarks for the Iraqi government that, if met, set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. It was only the second time in Bush’s presidency that he used the veto (May 1). In the second round of French presidential elections, Conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy defeats Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal, 53.1% to 46.9% (May 6). Local government is restored to Northern Ireland as Rev. Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionists, and Martin McGuinness, of Sinn Fein, are sworn in as leader and deputy leader, respectively, of the Northern Ireland executive government (May 8). Tony Blair says he will resign as prime minister of the United Kingdom on June 27 after ten years in the post (May 10). U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, the second-highest-ranking official in the Justice Department, announces he will step down. He cites financial reasons, but many observers speculate that his resignation is linked to the scandal over the dismissal of several federal prosecutors (May 14). Paul Wolfowitz resigns as president of the World Bank after being found guilty of conflict of interest for setting up a lucrative pay raise for his girlfriend (May 17). A grand jury indicts Rep. William Jefferson, Democrat of Louisiana, on 16 corruption-related counts, including racketeering, conspiracy, money laundering, and obstruction of justice (June 4). Leaders of the eight industrialized nations meeting in Heiligendamm, Germany, agree to consider ways to halvegreenhouse gas emissions by 2050 (June 7). After months of negotiation and compromise, an overhaul of the immigration system fails to reach a vote in the Senate as the bill falls short of the required 60 votes to end debate and put it to a vote. The failure of the bill is considered a major blow to President Bush, who has made such legislation a domestic policy priority (June 7). A U.S. federal court rules, 2–1, that President Bush cannot have the military hold a civilian detainee indefinitely who is deemed to be an enemy combatant. Instead, the court says, the detainee must be charged with a crime, used as a material witness, or deported (June 11). Sudanese officials agree to allow a joint peacekeeping force of about 19,000 troops from the African Union and the United Nations be deployed to Darfur, but require that most of the soldiers be African (June 12). Dozens die as fighting intensifies between Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah. Hamas takes control of much of the Gaza Strip. With Fatah holding sway over the West Bank, many fear a civil war is imminent (June 12-13). Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barakis elected head the Labor Party. In addition, Shimon Peres, of the Kadima Party, is elected president by Parliament(June 13). The U.S. Senate and House Judiciary Committees request that Harriet Miers, President Bush’s former counsel, and Sara Taylor, the former deputy assistant to the president and White House director of political affairs, turn over documents relating to the firing of nine U.S. prosecutors in 2006 and testify about the dismissals. President Bush, citing executive privilege, says the White House will not comply with the subpeonas (June 13).Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas dissolves the government, fires Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, the leader of Hamas, and declares a state of emergency. Salam Fayyad, an economist, takes over as interim prime minister(June 14). President Bush vetoes a bill that would have eased restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cellresearch (June 20). Robert Zoellick takes over as the president of the World Bank, succeeding Paul Wolfowitz(June 25). Gordon Brown replaces Tony Blair as the prime minister of Great Britain (June 27). Bitterly divided U.S. Supreme Court rules, 5‒4, that programs in Seattle and Louisville, Ky., which tried to maintain diversity in schools by considering race when assigning students to schools, are unconstitutional (June 28). President Bush commutes the sentence of I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former aid who was convicted of lying to FBI agents and to a grand jury in the investigation of who leaked to the press the name of a covert CIA agent (July 2).Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency verify that North Korea has shut down its weapons-making nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, one part of an agreement reached in February 2007 (July 16). President Bush gives CIA the authority to resume using a number of harsh interrogation methods when questioning terrorism suspects. The order, however, does not allow the use of waterboarding or exposing suspects to extreme heat or cold (July 20).The minimum wage in the U.S. increases to $5.85, up from $5.15. It’s the first increase in 10 years. The wage will increase 70 cents each year through 2009, when it reaches $7.25 an hour (July 24). The U.S. and India agree on a deal that allows India, which has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, to buy nuclear fuel from the U.S. to expand its civilian nuclear energy program and reprocess its spent fuel. India agrees to open the reprocessing facility to international inspectors (July 27). Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, the Khmer Rouge leader who ran the notorious Tuol Sleng prison in Cambodia in the late 1970s, is indicted for crimes against humanity (July 31). An eight-lane interstate bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that is packed with cars breaks into sections and falls into the river, killing 13 people (Aug. 1). President Bush signs into law a bill that legalizes government eavesdropping of telephone conversations and emails of American citizens and people overseas without a warrant as long as there is a “reasonable belief” that one party is not in the United States (Aug. 5). East Timor president José Ramos-Horta names independence activist Xanana Gusmão as prime minister (Aug. 6). Karl Rove, the highly influential and controversial advisor to President Bush, announces he will leave his position as deputy chief of staff at the end of Augus 2007 (Aug. 13). A 8.0-magnitude earthquake occurs 90 miles southeast of Lima, Peru, killing at least 500 people and injuring hundreds more. The cities of Pisco, Chincha, and Ica are among those reporting the most damage (Aug. 15). In Thailand’s first referendum, voters approve a new constitution that was drafted by a panel selected by the military government (Aug. 20). Report, completed in 2005 but not released until now, outlines several bureaucratic and intelligence failures that allowed the 9/11 hijackers to enter the United States and concludes that George Tenet, the former director of the CIA, should be held accountable for not formulating a plan to dismantle al-Qaeda (Aug. 21). The White House announces that Alberto Gonzales, the beleaguered attorney general, has submitted his resignation to President Bush (Aug. 27). Abdullah Gul, of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party, is elected president by parliament in the third round of voting. He is the first Islamist president in modern Turkey’s history (Aug. 28). North Korea says it will disable its nuclear fuel production facility and disclose to international monitors an accounting of all of its nuclear programs by the end of 2007 (Sep. 2). In highly anticipated testimony, Gen. David Petraeus tells members of the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees that the U.S. military needs more time to meet its goals in Iraq. Petraeus rejects suggestions that the U.S. shift from a counterinsurgency operation to training Iraqi forces and fighting terrorists. Instead, he says the U.S. must continue all three missions (Sep 10). Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted in a coup in 1999 byPervez Musharraf, is arrested and deported after trying to re-enter Pakistan from exile in Saudi Arabia (Sep. 10).Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe abruptly announces his resignation. The move follows a string of scandals and July’s stunning defeat in parliamentary elections, in which his Liberal Democratic Party lost control of the upper house to the opposition Democratic Party (Sep. 12). Seventeen Iraqi civilians, including a couple and their infant, are killed when employees of private security company Blackwater USA, which was escorting a diplomatic convoy, fire on a car that failed to stop at the request of a police officer (Sep. 16). Nuon Chea, who was second-in-command to Pol Pot during the four years of Khmer Rouge rule in Cambodia, is charged with war crimes (Sep. 19). Japan’sgoverning Liberal Democratic Party elects Yasuo Fukuda as prime minister, replacing Shinzo Abe (Sep. 23). The U.S. Court of Military Commission Review decides that foreign detainees deemed “unlawful enemy combatants” should be tried for war crimes in military tribunals (Sep. 24). After a month of peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations over sharp price increases in fuel in Myanmar, government forces shoot at crowds, raid pagodas, and arrest monks (Sep. 26). North Korea announces it will disclose details about its nuclear facilities, including how much plutonium it has produced, and dismantle all of its nuclear faculties by the end of 2007. In exchange, it will receive some 950,000 metric tons of fuel oil or financial aid and the Bush administration will start the process of removing North Korea from its list of nations that sponsor terrorism (Oct. 3). President Bush vetoes a bill that would have increased the funding of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to $60 billion from $35 billion to provide health insurance to more than 10 million children (Oct. 3). Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf is easily reelected to a third term by the country’s national and provincial assemblies. The opposition boycotts the vote, however, and only representatives from the governing party participate in the election. In addition, the Supreme Court has yet to rule if he was constitutionally eligible to run for president while still head of the military (Oct. 6).Former vice president Al Gore and the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are awarded theNobel Peace Prize for their work educating the world about human-caused climate change and for outlining ways to reverse global warming (Oct. 12). Benazir Bhutto arrives in Pakistan after eight years in exile. She survives a suicide attack on her convoy, but as many as 135 people die (Oct. 18). Argentina’s first lady, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, is elected president, succeeding her husband, Néstor Kirchner. She’s the first woman in Argentina to be elected president (Oct. 28). Pakistan’s prime minister Pervez Musharraf declares a state of emergency, suspends the country’s constitution, and fires Chief Justice Iflikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and the other judges on the Supreme Court. Analysts suggest that Musharraf was trying to preempt an upcoming ruling by the Supreme Court, which is expected to declare he could not constitutionally run for president while head of military (Nov. 3). More than 50 people, including 18 children, four teachers, and six members of Afghanistan’s Parliament, die in an attack in Baghlan (Nov. 7). After days of protests by opposition parties, Georgia’s president Mikheil Saakashvili imposes a state of emergency. The opposition calls for early elections and the resignation of Saakashvili, who demonstrators accuse of abusing power and stifling the opposition (Nov. 7). Michael Mukasey is confirmed at the U.S. attorney general, replacing Alberto Gonzales (Nov. 8). Federal appeals court in San Francisco rules that the Bush administration’s fuel economy standards for light trucks are not stringent enough and fail to consider how tailpipe emissions affect climate change (Nov. 15). Cyclone Sidr, with winds over 100 miles per hour, kills nearly 3,500 people in southern Bangladesh. The United Nations reports that a million people are left homeless (Nov. 15). Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, who ran Cambodia’s notorious Tuol Sleng prison and is the first Khmer Rouge defendant to appear in court, seeks bail on charges of crimes against humanity (Nov. 20). Two teams of scientists, one in Wisconsin the other in Japan, announce they have discovered a way to make embryonic stem cells without using embryonic stem cells (Nov. 20). A brigade of 5,000 U.S. troops starts to leave Iraq’s Diyala Province, the first significant pullback of U.S. troops (Nov. 24). Australian prime minister John Howard, the leader of the Liberal Party, loses to the Labor Party’s Kevin Rudd (Nov. 24). Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf steps down as military chief. He is replaced by Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the former head of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence. (Nov. 28). A National Intelligence Estimate compiled by the 16 agencies of the U.S. intelligence community says “with high confidence” that Iran froze its nuclear weapons program in 2003. The report contradicts one written in 2005 that stated Iran was determined to continue developing such weapons (Dec. 3). The New York Times reports that in 2005 the CIA destroyed videotapes of the interrogation of two al-Qaeda suspects. The tapes reportedly included agency operative using harsh interrogation techniques (Dec. 6). President Bush signs into law an energy package that requires passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. to have fuel economy standards of 35 mpg by 2020 and an increase in the production of ethanol and other biofuels to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022 (Dec. 6).Report on steroid use in professional baseball, the result of a thorough, far-reaching investigation led by former U.S. senator George Mitchell, accuses 89 current and former Major League Baseball players of using illegal performance-enhancing drugs (Dec. 13). Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf ends emergency rule and restores the Constitution, but he also issues several executive orders and constitutional amendments that preclude any legal challenges related to his actions during and after emergency rule was established (Dec. 14). With the help of the U.S. military, Turkish fighter jets bomb areas in Dohuk Province in northern Iraq, targeting the Kurdish militant group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Dec. 16). Lee Myung-bak, of South Korea’s opposition Grand National Party, wins 48.7% of the vote in presidential elections (Dec. 19). Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is killed in a suicide at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi. President Pervez Musharraf blames al Qaeda for the attack, which kills 23 other people. Bhutto’s supporters, however, accuse Musharraf’s government of orchestrating the bombing (Dec. 27).In the preliminary results of Kenya’s presidential election, opposition candidate Raila Odinga, of the Orange Democratic Movement, leads incumbent Mwai Kibaki, 57% to 39% (Dec. 27). Odinga’s lead diminishes, and Kenya’s election commission declares Kibaki the winner, 46% to 44%. Violence breaks out among members of the Luo and Kikuyu tribes. Odinga is Luo, and Kibaki is Kikuyu. International observers say the vote was rigged (Dec. 30).

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