World History Timeline — Major Historical Events by Century

The major events of world history in one table — by century and by region, so you can see what was happening at the same time in different parts of the world.

Most timelines answer "what came after what". This one also answers "what was happening at the same time": events from different regions sit side by side in the same row when they happened in the same century. Historians call this a synchronistic table. It shows connections a single list hides — that the Battle of Hastings and the Great Schism were twelve years apart, or that Peter the Great, Louis XIV and the Kangxi Emperor were reigning at the same time.

How to read the table

Rows are centuries, columns are regions of the world. Each cell holds the one or two most significant events of that century in that region, from the Panchronia database. Click an event to open its page, or a century to see everything that happened in it.

Timeline of world history by century

Century	Europe	Russia & Eastern Europe	Middle East & Africa	Asia	Americas
36th century BC	c. 3500 BC The invention of the wheel
33rd century BC			c. 3200 BC Invention of writing in Sumer
32nd century BC			c. 3100 BC Unification of Egypt under Narmer
31st century BC	c. 3000 BC–2000 BC Building of Stonehenge		c. 3000 BC End of the Green Sahara
27th century BC					c. 2600 BC Rise of Caral
26th century BC			c. 2560 BC Great Pyramid of Giza	c. 2500 BC Rise of Mohenjo-daro
24th century BC			c. 2334 BC Sargon founds the Akkadian Empire
23rd century BC			c. 2200 BC–2100 BC 4.2-kiloyear drought
21st century BC				c. 2000 BC Last woolly mammoths
20th century BC	c. 1900 BC Palace of Knossos
18th century BC			c. 1754 BC Code of Hammurabi
17th century BC	c. 1600 BC Minoan eruption of Thera			c. 1600 BC Founding of the Shang dynasty
16th century BC				c. 1500 BC Composition of the Rigveda	c. 1500 BC Emergence of the Lapita culture
14th century BC			c. 1346 BC Akhenaten founds Akhetaten
13th century BC			1274 BC Battle of Kadesh c. 1264 BC Temples of Abu Simbel	c. 1250 BC Oracle bone inscriptions	c. 1200 BC Rise of Olmec San Lorenzo
12th century BC			c. 1184 BC Trojan War
11th century BC			c. 1050 BC Phoenician alphabet	1046 BC Battle of Muye
9th century BC			c. 814 BC Founding of Carthage
8th century BC	776 BC First Olympic Games c. 753 BC Founding of Rome		763 BC Assyrian eclipse c. 727 BC Kushite conquest of Egypt
7th century BC			c. 650 BC Library of Ashurbanipal 612 BC Fall of Nineveh
6th century BC	c. 509 BC Founding of the Roman Republic 508 BC Cleisthenes' reforms and the birth of democracy		587 BC Destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar 550 BC Cyrus the Great founds the Achaemenid Empire	c. 563 BC Birth of the Buddha 551 BC Birth of Confucius
5th century BC	490 BC Battle of Marathon 480 BC Battle of Thermopylae			c. 483 BC Death of the Buddha 479 BC Death of Confucius
4th century BC			331 BC Battle of Gaugamela 331 BC Founding of Alexandria	c. 322 BC Founding of the Maurya Empire	c. 300 BC Maya script
3rd century BC	218 BC Hannibal crosses the Alps 216 BC Battle of Cannae		c. 285 BC Library of Alexandria	c. 261 BC Kalinga War 221 BC Qin Shi Huang unifies China
2nd century BC			149 BC–146 BC Third Punic War	c. 138 BC–126 BC Zhang Qian's mission to the West
1st century BC	58 BC–50 BC Caesar's conquest of Gaul 44 BC Assassination of Julius Caesar		30 BC Death of Cleopatra c. 4 BC Nativity of Jesus
1st century	9 Battle of the Teutoburg Forest		c. 33 Crucifixion of Jesus 70 Siege of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple
2nd century	165–180 Antonine Plague			105 Cai Lun and the invention of paper	c. 200 Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan
3rd century			224 Rise of the Sasanian Empire 249–262 Plague of Cyprian	220 Fall of the Han and the Three Kingdoms	c. 232 Hatepe eruption of Taupō c. 250 Rise of the Classic Maya cities
4th century	313 Edict of Milan 330 Founding of Constantinople		c. 330 Aksum adopts Christianity	c. 320 Founding of the Gupta Empire
5th century	410 Sack of Rome by the Visigoths 476 Fall of the Western Roman Empire		c. 405 Mesrop Mashtots creates the Armenian alphabet c. 500 Completion of the Babylonian Talmud	c. 427 Founding of Nalanda	c. 431 Ilopango eruption c. 500 Rise of Tiwanaku
6th century	537 Hagia Sophia consecrated 541–549 Plague of Justinian		529–534 Code of Justinian	589 Sui dynasty reunifies China
7th century			622 Hijra: Muhammad's migration to Medina 698 Fall of Carthage and the Arab conquest of the Maghreb	605–610 Grand Canal of China 618 Founding of the Tang dynasty
8th century	711–718 Umayyad conquest of Hispania 800 Coronation of Charlemagne		762 Founding of Baghdad		c. 800–950 Drought and the Classic Maya collapse
9th century	843 Treaty of Verdun	c. 862 Calling of the Varangians 882 Oleg takes Kiev	859 Fatima al-Fihri founds al-Qarawiyyin c. 900 The bronzes of Igbo-Ukwu	802 Founding of the Khmer Empire 868 The Diamond Sutra is printed	c. 900 Rise of Chichen Itza
10th century	c. 939 Eldgjá eruption 962 Coronation of Otto I	966 Baptism of Poland 988 Christianization of Kievan Rus'	969 Founding of Cairo 972 Al-Azhar Mosque opens	946 Millennium Eruption of Mount Paektu 960 Founding of the Song dynasty	c. 950–1250 Medieval Warm Period
11th century	1066 Battle of Hastings 1066 Halley's Comet over England	c. 1037 Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev	1054 East–West Schism 1099 Crusaders capture Jerusalem	c. 1010 The Tale of Genji 1044 First gunpowder formulas in the Wujing Zongyao	1021 Norse in North America
12th century	1163–1345 Notre-Dame de Paris begun	1113 Vladimir Monomakh in Kiev c. 1113 The Primary Chronicle		c. 1113–1150 Construction of Angkor Wat 1192–1333 First shogunate in Japan
13th century	1215 Magna Carta c. 1300 Onset of the Little Ice Age	1223 Battle of the Kalka River 1237–1240 Mongol invasion of Rus'	1258 Mongol sack of Baghdad	1206 Temüjin proclaimed Genghis Khan 1206 Founding of the Delhi Sultanate	c. 1250 The moai of Easter Island c. 1280 Polynesians settle New Zealand
14th century	1337–1453 Hundred Years' War 1347–1351 Black Death	c. 1337 Sergius of Radonezh founds his monastery 1380 Battle of Kulikovo	1324 Hajj of Mansa Musa c. 1327 The Djinguereber Mosque in Timbuktu	1368 Founding of the Ming dynasty 1370 Timur makes Samarkand his capital	c. 1325 Founding of Tenochtitlan
15th century	c. 1450 Gutenberg's printing press 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas	1410 Battle of Grunwald c. 1411 Andrei Rublev's Trinity	1453 Fall of Constantinople 1488 Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope	1405–1433 Voyages of Zheng He 1498 Vasco da Gama reaches India	c. 1438 Pachacuti founds the Inca Empire 1492 Columbus reaches the Americas
16th century	1517 Luther's Ninety-five Theses 1543 Copernicus publishes heliocentrism	1547 Ivan IV crowned Tsar 1569 Union of Lublin	1501 Founding of Safavid Iran 1520–1566 Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent	1511 Portuguese capture of Malacca 1526 First Battle of Panipat	1519–1522 Magellan's circumnavigation 1521 Fall of Tenochtitlan
17th century	1618–1648 Thirty Years' War 1648 Peace of Westphalia	1612 Minin and Pozharsky liberate Moscow 1613 Election of Michael Romanov as Tsar	1624–1663 Nzinga becomes Queen of Ndongo 1662 Last sighting of the dodo	1632–1653 Building of the Taj Mahal 1644 Fall of the Ming, rise of the Qing	c. 1605–1694 Quilombo of Palmares 1607 Founding of Jamestown
18th century	1755 Lisbon earthquake c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution	1703 Founding of Saint Petersburg 1721 Proclamation of the Russian Empire	1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state 1798 Battle of the Pyramids	1757 Battle of Plassey	1768–1771 Cook's first voyage 1776 US Declaration of Independence
19th century	1804 Coronation of Napoleon 1814–1815 Congress of Vienna	1812 Napoleon's invasion of Russia 1853–1856 Crimean War	1804–1903 Usman dan Fodio's jihad and the Sokoto Caliphate 1805–1848 Muhammad Ali becomes ruler of Egypt	1815 Eruption of Mount Tambora 1853–1854 Commodore Perry's Black Ships	1803 Louisiana Purchase 1876 Invention of the telephone
20th century	1905 Einstein's miracle year and relativity 1919 Treaty of Versailles	1917 October Revolution 1917–1922 Russian Civil War	1908 Oil struck at Masjed Soleyman 1915 Armenian genocide	1945 Atomic bombing of Hiroshima 1953 First ascent of Everest	1914 Opening of the Panama Canal 1929 Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression
21st century	2002 Euro notes and coins 2012 Discovery of the Higgs boson			2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami	2001 September 11 attacks 2003 Human genome sequenced

Turning points of world history

Year	Event
c. 9000 BC	The dawn of farming
c. 3200 BC	Invention of writing in Sumer
221 BC	Qin Shi Huang unifies China
476	Fall of the Western Roman Empire
622	Hijra: Muhammad's migration to Medina
1206	Temüjin proclaimed Genghis Khan
1450	Gutenberg's printing press
1492	Columbus reaches the Americas
1760	Start of the Industrial Revolution
1914	World War I
1945	Atomic bombing of Hiroshima
1989	Fall of the Berlin Wall

What the timeline shows

Ancient history. The first civilisations — Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley and China — appear within a thousand years of each other but almost independently. See the Map of the ancient world: civilizations from Sumer to Rome.
The Axial Age (6th–5th century BC). Confucius, the Buddha, Greek philosophers and Hebrew prophets live within a few generations of each other.
Rome and Han. Around the turn of the eras, two empires of similar size control the two ends of Eurasia, linked by the Silk Road.
The 13th century. The Mongol conquests connect almost all of Eurasia: the Mongol invasion of Rus', the Mongol sack of Baghdad and the conquest of China happen within one generation, while England sees the Magna Carta.
The 15th–16th centuries. The Fall of Constantinople, the printing press and Columbus's voyage come within forty years — the end of the Middle Ages in Europe.
The 20th century. Two world wars, revolutions, the Cold War and decolonisation reshape the whole planet in one lifetime.

Build your own timeline on the globe

On the Panchronia globe the timeline holds more than 800 events. Choose a year and switch to Columns view — regions of the world line up side by side like a synchronistic table, and the "Meanwhile" panel gathers the events, people and rulers of those years. Open columns for 1600

The Rulers & styles view turns the timeline into parallel lanes — the rulers of England, France, Russia, the Ottoman Empire and China one under another — so you can see at a glance who was a contemporary of whom. Open the rulers lanes

Questions

What are the major events in world history?

Among the turning points: the Neolithic Revolution, the invention of writing, the rise and fall of Rome, the spread of Islam, the Mongol conquests, the printing press, the voyages of Columbus, the Industrial Revolution and the two world wars.

What is a synchronistic table?

A timeline in which events from different countries are placed side by side, so that events in the same row happened at the same time. It shows who was a contemporary of whom.

Where can I see what happened in the world in a given year?

On the Panchronia globe: pick a year on the timeline and the "Meanwhile" panel shows events, people and rulers from every continent, while the globe shows the borders of that year.

World history timeline: major events by century and region