100 Important Events

Question 1

The Agricultural Revolution: Humans Domesticate Plants and Animals

Answer 1

c. 11,000 - 4,000 BCE

Question 2

The First Cities Emerge in Mesopotamia

Answer 2

c. 4000 - 3000 BCE (Iraq)

Question 3

The First Wheeled Vehicles Appear in Mesopotamia, Eastern Europe and the Caucasus

Answer 3

c. 3500 BCE (Iraq, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania)

Question 4

The First Writing Systems Appear in Mesopotamia (Cuneiform), Egypt (Hieroglyphics) and the Indus Valley (Indus Script)

Answer 4

c. 3200 BCE

Question 5

The Ancient Egyptians Build the Great Pyramid of Giza for Pharaoh Khufu

Answer 5

c. 2560 BCE (Egypt)

Question 6

The Origin and Development of Modern Alphabets

Answer 6

c. 1850 - 800 BCE (Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Greece)

Question 7

Babylonian King Hammurabi Issues the Code of Hammurabi, One of the Earliest Legal Codes

Answer 7

c. 1754 BCE (Iraq)

Question 8

As Knowledge of Iron Metallurgy Spreads, the Bronze Age Ends and the Iron Age Begins

Answer 8

c. 1200 - 500 BCE

Question 9

The Rise of Ancient Greek Civilization

Answer 9

c. 800 - 336 BCE (Greece)

Question 10

The Rise and Fall of Ancient Roman Civilization

Answer 10

c. 753 BCE – 476 CE (Italy)

— 753 BCE: Legendary date of founding of Rome
— 509 BCE: Legendary date of founding of the Roman Republic
— 202 BCE: Rome under Scipio Africanus defeats Carthage under Hannibal at the Battle of Zama to end the Second Punic War (Tunisia)
— 146 BCE: Roman armies destroy the city of Carthage at the end of the Third Punic War (Tunisia)
— 49 BCE: Julius Caesar and his army cross the Rubicon, starting Roman Civil War
— 44 BCE: Julius Caesar is assassinated in the Senate by Brutus, Cassius and others
— 31 BCE: Octavian defeats Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium, ending the Roman civil wars (Greece)
— 27 BCE: The Senate makes Octavian (later called Augustus) Imperator, effectively ceding power to him and marking the beginning of the Roman Empire
— 27 BCE-180 CE: Pax Romana, a period of relative peace in the Roman Empire
— 9 CE: In the Battle of Teutoberg Forest, Germanic forces led by Arminius ambush and destroy three Roman legions led by Publius Quinctilius Varus (Germany)
— 312 CE: Constantine defeats rival Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge to become co-emperor
— 313 CE: Co-emperors Constantine and Licinius issue the Edict of Milan, which makes Christianity legal in the Roman Empire
— 390 CE: Theodosius the Great issues the Edict of Thessalonica, which makes Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire
— 395 CE: Death of Theodosius; from this point, the Roman Empire is permanently divided between Eastern and Western portions
— 410 CE: Sack of Rome by the Visigoths under Alaric
— 476 CE: Flavius Odoacer leads a revolt that deposes Emperor Romulus Augustulus, marking the end of the Western Roman Empire

Question 11

The Life of the Buddha and Birth of Buddhism

Answer 11

c. 563 - 400 BCE (India)

Question 12

The Life of Confucius and Birth of Confucianism

Answer 12

551 - 479 BCE (China)

Question 13

Alexander the Great Creates an Immense Empire

Answer 13

336 - 323 BCE (Greece)

Question 14

Unification of China under Emperor Qin Shi Huang, Who Begins Building The Great Wall

Answer 14

221 - 206 BCE

Question 15

The Birth of the Modern Calendar (Roman, Julius Caesar)

Answer 15

45 BCE (Italy)

Question 16

The Life of Jesus and the Birth of Christianity

Answer 16

c. 4 BCE - 70 CE (Israel)

Question 17

The Life of Muhammad and the Birth of Islam

Answer 17

570 - 630 CE (Saudi Arabia)

Question 18

The Franks, Led by Charles Martel, Defeat a Umayyad Caliphate Army under Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi at the Battle of Tours-Poitiers, Halting the Muslim Advance into Western Europe

Answer 18

732 CE (France)

Question 19

Pope Leo III Crowns Charlemagne, Carolingian King of the Franks and the Lombards, as the First Holy Roman Emperor

Answer 19

800 CE (France, Germany)

Question 20

The Invention of Gunpowder and its Use in Weaponry

Answer 20

c. 800 - 1300 (China)

Question 21

Norse Explorers Discover and Colonize New Lands in the North Atlantic

Answer 21

c. 870 - 1000 CE (Iceland, Greenland, US)

Question 22

Norman Conquest of England

Answer 22

1066 CE (UK)

Question 23

The First University Is Established, at Bologna

Answer 23

1088 CE (Italy)

Question 24

The First Crusade

Answer 24

1095 - 1099 (France, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Israel)

Question 25

King Suryavarman II of the Khmer Empire Builds Angkor Wat; Originally Dedicated to the Hindu God Vishnu, It Became a Buddhist Temple by the End of the 12th Century

Answer 25

c. 1150 CE (Cambodia)

Question 26

Shogun Minamato no Yorimoto Overthrows the Taira Emperor, Establishing the Kamakura Shogunate; Start of 675 Years of Shogunate Rule in Japan

Answer 26

1192 CE

Question 27

Genghis Khan Establishes a Vast Mongol Empire, Which Is Expanded After His Death

Answer 27

1206 - 1260 (Central Asia, China)

Question 28

English Nobles Force King John to Sign the Magna Charta Restricting His Powers

Answer 28

1215 (UK)

Question 29

Europe Hears Tales of the Far East From Marco Polo

Answer 29

1271 - 1300 (Italy; Asia)

Question 30

The Rise and Fall of the Aztec Civilization

Answer 30

1325 - 1521 (Mexico)

Question 31

The Black Death (Bubonic Plague) Devastates Europe, Killing One-Third of the Population

Answer 31

1347 - 1348 (Europe)

Question 32

The Renaissance: A Rediscovery of Classical Knowledge Brings About Innovations and Achievements in Arts and Culture

Answer 32

c. 1350 - 1600 (Italy, Europe)

Question 33

The Inca People Create an Empire

Answer 33

1438 - 1533 (Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Colombia)

Question 34

Johannes Gutenberg Invents a Printing Press Using Movable Metal Type and Oil-Based Ink, Bringing Inexpensive Printing of Books and Papers to the West

Answer 34

1440 - 1455 (Germany)

Question 35

The Ottoman Turks Take Constantinople, Marking the Fall of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire

Answer 35

1453 (Turkey)

Question 36

Christopher Columbus Arrives in the West Indies and Claims the Land for Spain; European Conquest of the Americas Begins

Answer 36

1492 (The Bahamas)

Question 37

Portuguese Explorer Vasco da Gama Finds a Sea Route from Europe to India, Allowing Portugal To Create a Trading Empire

Answer 37

1498

Question 38

Spanish and English Explorers Returning to Europe Bring Back New World Foods, Including Tomatoes, Potatoes, Corn (Maize), Squash and Cacao

Answer 38

1500 - 1600

Question 39

The Slave Trade: Enslaved African People Are Brought to the Americas

Answer 39

1502 - 1619 (US, Haiti, Dominican Republic)

Question 40

Martin Luther Sends his 95 Theses to the Archbishop of Mainz, Marking the Start of the Protestant Reformation

Answer 40

1517 (Germany)

Question 41

Suleiman the Magnificent Rules Ottoman Empire During Period of Great Expansion

Answer 41

1520 - 1566 (Turkey)

Question 42

Ferdinand Magellan’s Expedition Is the First to Circumnavigates the Globe, Although Magellan Is Killed in the Philippines and Does Not Complete the Voyage

Answer 42

1522

Question 43

Polish Scientist Nicolaus Copernicus’s On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres Shows that the Movement of Heavenly Bodies Is Best Explained By a Heliocentric Model (That Is, the Earth Revolves Around the Sun, and Not the Other Way Around)

Answer 43

1543

Question 44

England under Queen Elizabeth I Repels a Spanish Invasion by Defeating the Spanish Armada

Answer 44

1588 (UK)

Question 45

William Shakespeare Writes Hamlet

Answer 45

1599 - 1601 (UK)

Question 46

English Colonists Establish Their First Permanent Settlement in the New World at Jamestown, Virginia

Answer 46

1607 (US)

Question 47

Galileo Galilei Publishes The Starry Messenger, Which Announces a Series of Astronomical Discoveries Made Using a Home-Made Telescope

Answer 47

1609 - 1610 (Italy)

Question 48

England Undergoes A Civil War

Answer 48

1642 - 1660

Question 49

Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan Builds the Taj Mahal, a Mausoleum for his Favorite Wife, Mumtaz Mahal

Answer 49

1632 - 1653 (India)

Question 50

The Power of Steam is Harnessed in the Steam Engine

Answer 50

1663 - 1801 (UK)

Question 51

The Holy Roman Empire, the Hapsburg Monarchy and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Join Forces to Defeat the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Vienna, Halting Ottoman Expansion into Western Europe

Answer 51

1683 (Austria)

Question 52

Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica Explains Universal Laws of Motion and Gravitation That Provide a Foundation for the Science of Physics Until Einstein

Answer 52

1687 (UK)

Question 53

Innovations in the British Textile Industry Spark the Industrial Revolution

Answer 53

1733 - 1785

Question 54

The Boston Tea Party: American Colonists Protest New British Taxes by Throwing Tea in Boston Harbor

Answer 54

12/16/1773 (US)

Question 55

The American Revolution (declaration of independence)

Answer 55

1775 - 1783 (US) (1776)

Question 56

The French Revolution

Answer 56

1789 - 1799 (France)

Question 57

The Medical Revolution

Answer 57

1796 - 1885 (UK; US; France)

Question 58

The Birth of Rail Transport

Answer 58

1802 - 1830 (UK)

Question 59

Enslaved People in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, Having Fought a Successful Revolution, Establish the New Nation of Haiti

Answer 59

1804

Question 60

The Napoleonic Wars:

Answer 60

1799 - 1815 (France, Europe)

Question 61

The End of the African Slave Trade and Abolition of Slavery

Answer 61

1807 - 1888 (UK, US, Mexico, Brazil) — 1807: The United Kingdom abolishes the slave trade — 1808: The United States bans the importation of slaves — 1824: Mexico abolishes slavery — 1833: Slavery is abolished in the British Empire — 1836: The Republic of Texas declares independence from Mexico and reinstates slavery — 1865: The Thirteenth Amendment to the American Constitution abolishes slavery (US) — 1888: Brazil abolishes slavery

Question 62

Spain’s Colonies in Central and South America Fight for and Win Independence

Answer 62

1817 - 1825

Question 63

The Invention of the Telegraph Revolutionizes Communication

Answer 63

1832 - 1840

Question 64

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Publish The Communist Manifesto, Which Explains History in Terms of Class Struggle and Proposes That Workers Unite and Overthrow Capitalism

Answer 64

1848 (UK)

Question 65

Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species, which Proves that Natural Selection is the Mechanism of Biological Evolution

Answer 65

1859 (UK)

Question 66

The American Civil War

Answer 66

1860 - 1865

Question 67

The Meiji Restoration: Tokugawa Yoshinobu Abdicates to Emperor Meiji, Ending Shogun Rule in Japan

Answer 67

1867 CE

Question 68

Opening of the Suez Canal Linking the Mediterranean and the Red Sea

Answer 68

1869 (Egypt)

Question 69

Alexander Graham Bell Patents the Telephone

Answer 69

1876 (US)

Question 70

European Powers Colonize Africa

Answer 70

1880s (Europe, Africa) — 1830: France invades and colonizes Algeria — 1884-1885: At the Berlin Conference, European leaders divide up Africa — 1885: King Leopold of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State as a private corporate colony (Democratic Republic of Congo) — 1895: France establishes French West Africa, a consolidation of eight French colonial territories (Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, French Guinea, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Benin, Niger) — 1908: Belgium annexes the Congo Free State — 1910: France establishes French Equatorial Africa from its central African colonies (Chad, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Gabon) — 1912: Italy forms the colony of Italian Libya from colonies taken from the Ottoman Empire

Question 71

The Suffrage Movement: Women Fight For the Right to Vote

Answer 71

1893 - 1928

Question 71

The Suffrage Movement: Women Fight For the Right to Vote

Answer 71

1893 - 1928

Question 72

The Invention of Radio

Answer 72

1879 - 1901

Question 73

The Discovery of X-Rays

Answer 73

1895

Question 74

Orville & Wilbur Wright Fly the First Heavier-than-Air Powered Aircraft

Answer 74

12/17/1903 (US)

Question 75

After Defeating Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, Japan Is Recognized as a World Power

Answer 75

1904 - 1905

Question 76

Albert Einstein’s Annus Mirabilis

Answer 76

1905 (Switzerland)

Question 77

World War I

Answer 77

1914 - 1918 (Europe, Asia, Africa)

Question 78

The Russian Revolution

Answer 78

1917 - 1922

Question 79

A Global Influenza Epidemic Kills 20 Million People

Answer 79

1918

Question 80

The Invention of Television

Answer 80

1925 - 1929

Question 81

Global Depression Follows Crash of US Stock Market

Answer 81

1929 - 1940 (US; Europe; Asia)

Question 82

The Rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis

Answer 82

1920 - 1939 (Germany)

Question 83

Revolution in China

Answer 83

1911 - 1949

Question 84

World War II

Answer 84

1939 - 1945 (US, Europe, Asia, Africa)

Question 85

The United Nations Is Formed

Answer 85

1945 - 1946 (Europe, N. & S. America, Asia, Africa, Australia)

Question 86

The Digital Revolution: The Invention of the Digital Electric Computer

Answer 86

1965: Olivetti introduces the Programma 101, the first commercially produced personal desktop computer (Italy)

Question 87

After Long Struggle, India Obtains Its Independence from the UK

Answer 87

1947

Question 88

The Cold War

Answer 88

1945 - 1989 (US, Russia, Europe)

Question 89

The Discovery of the Double Helical Structure of DNA

Answer 89

1953 (UK)

Question 90

U.S. Civil Rights Movement

Answer 90

1954 - 1968 (US) — 5/17/1954: The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Brown v. Board of Education that segregated education is unconstitutional — 12/1/1955: Rosa Parks refuses to sit in the back of the bus, sparking Montgomery bus boycott — 1957: President Eisenhower sends US troops to protect black students attending Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas — 1960: First lunch counter protest in Greensboro, North Carolina — 8/28/1963: Martin Luther King, Jr. leads march on Washington, makes “I Have a Dream” speech — 9/15/1963: Four black girls killed in bombing of church in Birmingham, Alabama — 7/2/1964: President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act — 2/21/1965: Assassination of Malcolm X — 3/7/1965: Protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama — 8/6/1965: President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act — 4/4/1968: Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Question 91

The Vietnam War

Answer 91

1955 - 1975 (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos)

Question 92

Soviet Union Launches Sputnik, First Man-Made Satellite

Answer 92

10/4/1957 (Russia)

Question 93

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration Approves the First Contraceptive Pill

Answer 93

5/9/1960 (US)

Question 94

Yuri Gagarin Becomes the First Man in Space

Answer 94

1961 (Russia)

Question 95

U.S. President John F. Kennedy Is Assassinated in Dallas, Texas

Answer 95

11/22/1963 (US)

Question 96

Apollo 11 Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin Land on the Moon and Walk on its Surface

Answer 96

7/20-21/1969 (US, Moon)

Question 97

The Birth of the Internet

Answer 97

1965 - 1995 (US) — 1985: The first dot-com domain name is registered — 1989: America Online (AOL) is launched

Question 98

The Cold War Ends

Answer 98

1989 - 1991 (Europe, Russia) — 11/9/1989: Opening of gates between East and West Berlin; demolition of Berlin Wall begins (Germany) — 1989-1990: Fall of Communist governments in Eastern Europe — 1990: Reunification of Germany — 12/26/1991: Soviet Union is dissolved

Question 99

The End of Apartheid in South Africa

Answer 99

1990 - 1994

Question 100

Al Qaeda Terrorists Attack New York City and Washington, D.C. With Hijacked Planes, Destroying World Trade Towers; US Declares “War on Terror”

Answer 100

9/11/2001 (US)