History Flat-Listed

Simply listing events and observing when they happen – no grouping, no hierarchies, just a big long flat list. The aim of this list is to forcefully mesh together many cognitively partitioned historical events, at the expense of contextualization. These items in this list, of course, reflect my own biases and interests (mainly the courses I’ve taken). Work in progress.

Topics I will be adding soon: Israel/Palestine; revolutions of America, France, India, and China; histories of small states (e.g. East Timor, Bhutan, Andorra, San Marino, Haiti, etc.); history of philosophy; recent Middle East conflict; US presidential history

3100 BCE - 1600 BCE: Stonehenge construction
3000 BCE: Egyptian base-10 number system appears
2700 BCE - 1500 BCE: Egyptian pyramids construction
2600 BCE - 2500 BCE: peak of Indus Valley civilization
2600 BCE: The Egyptian Hieratic Numeration system is introduced, using distinct symbols for 1-9 and each power of 10.
2070 BCE: Xia Dynasty in China starts
2000 BCE: Babylonian base-60 place-value number system appear
1900 BCE - 1600 BCE: dates of many astronomical cuniform tablets
1792 BCE - 1750 BCE: Reign of Hammurabi, Babylonian king
1650 BCE: The Rhind Papyrus approximates the area of a unit circle as \(4 (8/9)^2\).
1600 BCE: date of the Edwin Smith Papyrus, Egyptian surgical text
1600 BCE: The Babylonians use spaces to indicate missing places in theri place value statement
1600 BCE: Shang Dynasty in China starts
1550 BCE: date of the Ebers papyrus, Egyptian herbal medicine text
10th century BCE: Veneti people inhabit Venice area
1046 BCE - 256 BCE: Zhou Dynasty in China
800 BCE - 400 BCE: Development of Upanishads in India and key Hindu texts
770 BCE - 476 BCE: Spring and Autumn Period in China
753 BCE: Rome founded by Romulus and Remus, twin brothers of Mars
717 BCE: Numa Pompilius becomes second king of Rome, introduces the Roman lunar calendar
700 BCE: Hesiod, Works and Days and Theogony
624 BCE - 546 BCE: Thales of Miletus active, “first scientist” – searches for an “arche”, or natural explanation for natural phenomena
624 BCE - 428 BCE: Ionian philosophers active (Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, etc.) – propose different arche (water, apeiron, air, fire, bundle, etc.)
570 BCE - 490 BCE: Pythagoras active
559 BCE - 500 BCE: Persian expansion under Cyrus the Great
546 BCE: Kingdom of Lydia (controls Ionian cities) falls to Persia
515 BCE - 450 BCE: Parmenides active – rejects Heraclitus, proposes a static universe
509 BCE: Roman Republic founded after overthrow of Etruscan king
500 BCE: defeat of the king of Rome, oligarchy senate (Roman Republic) established
500 BCE - 428 BCE: Anaxagoras active – proposes “nous” as the arche
500 BCE: roughly the time Confucius was active
499 BCE - 493 BCE: Ionian Revolt against Persia, crushed
494 BCE: First Secession of the Plebs in Rome, plebeians demand political representation
492 BCE - 449 BCE: Persian Wars; Athens and Sparta defeat Persia
484 BCE - 424 BCE: Empedocles active – proposes four elements
480 BCE - 420 BCE: Leucippus active – proposes atomism
480 BCE - 479 BCE: Second Persian invasion of Greece, Athens is burned, but Persians defeated at Salamis
475 BCE - 221 BCE: Warring States Period in China
470 BCE - 399 BCE: Socrates active – develops dialectic
460 BCE - 370 BCE: Democritus active – develops atomism
460 BCE - 370 BCE: Hippocrates active – develops medicine, humor theory
451 - 450 BCE: The Twelve Tables, Roman law code
431 BCE - 404 BCE: Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta over hegemony of Greece; results in Athenian defeat
427 BCE - 347 BCE: Plato active – develops idealism
400 BCE: The Mayan numeration system uses dots for 1, bars for 5, and a positional system generally based on 20, as well as a shell symbol for zero
4th century BCE: rise of Asclepian healing temples
4th century BCE: Babylonians put a dot to avoid ambiguity in spacing to represent absent places in their place value system
384 BCE - 322 BCE: Aristotle active – develops “empiricism”
380 BCE: Plato writes The Republic
367 BCE: Lician-Sextian reforms, allowing plebeians to become consuls
343 BCE - 290 BCE: Latin and Samnite wars (central Italy)
341 BCE - 270 BCE: Epicurus active – develops atomism, hedonism
340 BCE: Aristotle writes the Nicomachean Ethics
338 BCE: Philip II of Macedon defeats Greece at Chaeronea
325 BCE - 265 BCE: Euclid active – develops geometry
323 BCE: Alexander the Great dies
322 BCE: Aristotle moves from Athens, thinking it is no longer safe, and dies
300 BCE: Euclid publishes Elements of Geometry
3rd century BCE: Archimedes writes The Sand Reckoner
287 BCE - 212 BCE: Archimedes active – develops mathematics, physics
287 BCE: Lex Hortensia, gives decisions of the plebeian council the force of law
264 BCE - 146 BCE: Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage
240 BCE: Archimedes shows that \(\pi\) is between \(3 \frac{10}{71}\) and \(3 \frac{10}{70}\).
221 BCE: Qin Dynasty unifies China, starts the Great Wall
212 BCE: Rome conquers Syracuse
212 BCE: Archimedes killed by Roman soldier in siege of Syracuse
206 BCE: Han Dynasty in China starts
168 BCE: Roman conquest of Greece
133 BCE - 121 CE: Gracchi Reforms, Tiberius and Gaius attempt law reforms
107 BCE - 78 BCE: Marius and Sulla reform the army and politicla system
100 BCE - 44 BCE: Julius Caesar active – conquers Gaul, civil war, dictator
100 BCE: The Chinese Nine Chapters on Mathematical Art is written, containing similar notation for fractions to our contemporary one
99 BCE - 55 BCE: Lucretius active, revives Epicureanism with political dimensions
59 BCE: Florence established by Romans as a colony for veteran soldiers
59 BCE - 44 BCE: Rise of Julius Caesar
58 - 50 BCE: Caesar conquers Gaul (modern France)
50s BCE: Lucretius writes On the Nature of Things
49 BCE: Caesar crosses the Rubicon, civil war begins
47 BCE: Vitruvius writes On Architecture
44 BCE: Julius Caesar assassinated
43 BCE: Second Triumvirate formed by Octavian, Antony, Lepidus
31 BCE: Battle of Actium, Octavian defeats Antony and Cleopatra
27 BCE: Roman Empire established, Augustus (Octavian) becomes first emperor
14 BCE: Tiberius becomes emperor of Roman Empire
1 BCE - 65: Seneca active – develops Stoicism
0: Jesus of Nazareth born
23 - 79: Pliny the Elder active – writes Natural History, “cut and paste”
37 - 41: Caligula becomes emperor of Roman Empire
41 - 54: Claudius becomes emperor of Roman Empire
43: Roman conquest of Britain
54: Claudius is poisoned by Agrippina the Younger to ensure Nero’s succession
54 - 68: Nero becomes emperor of Roman Empire
61 - 112: Pliny the Younger active – writes letters, civil historian
64: Great Fire of Rome
68: Nero overthrown, commits suicide and declared enemy of the state
68 - 69: Year of the Four Emporers, civil war between Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian
69 - 79: Vespasian becomes emporer of the Roman Empire, begins construction of the Colosseum
70: Romans expel Jews from Judea, creating Jewish diaspora
79: Eruption of Mount Vesuvius
80: Fire in Rome
81 - 96: Domitian becomes emporer of Roman Empire
98 - 117: Trajan becomes emporer of Roman Empire, expands Empire to its greatest territorial extent
100 - 170: Claudius Ptolemy active – develops astronomy
117: Hadrian becomes emporer of Roman Empire
129 - 216: Galen active – develops medicine, anatomy
150: Ptolemy publishes Almagest (“The Greatest”)
150: Ptolemy uses \(377 / 120\) for \(\pi\)
155 - 220: Tertullian active – “What has Athens to teach Jerusalem?”
161 - 180: Marcus Aurelius becomes emporer of Roman Empire
170: Marcus Aurelius writes Meditations
200 - 280: Three Kingdoms Period between Wei, Shu, Wu
313: Edict of Milan legalizes Christianity
324: Constantinople founded on Byzantium
330: Constantine moves capital of Roman Empire to Constantinople from Rome
354 - 430: Augustine of Hippo active – develops theology, philosophy
370 - 415: Hypatia active – develops mathematics, astronomy
380: Theodosius I makes Christianity the state religion
394 - 400: Augustine writes Confessions, reflection on scripture vs. classical philosophy, “handmaid”
410: Visigoths sack Rome
415: Hypatia killed by Christian mob (What does Hypatia stand for in scientific history?)
420 - 589: Southern and North Dynasties in China
421: Dedication of first church on Rialto (Venice), San Giacomo
476: Fall of the Western Roman Empire when Odoacer deposes the last emporer Roulus Augustus, Byzantine Empire continues
476: “Middle Ages” / “Dark Ages” / “Medeilval Period” begins
480 - 524: Boethius active, establishes the seven liberal arts
480 - 547: Benedict of Nursia active, establishes monasticism
480: Zu Chongzhi uses \(355/113\) to approximate \(\pi\)
490 - 585: Cassiodorus active, establishes monastic handbook
500: Aryabhata uses \(62832/20000\) for \(\pi\).
537: Siege of Rome by Ostrogoths during GOTHIC WAR
570: Muhammad born, prophet of Islam
581 - 618: Sui Dynasty
590: Gregory I becomes pope
600s: Indians had already developed place-value system in base 10, using the digits 0 to 9. A small circle was used as a placeholder, “sunya” was an absence of quantity
610: Muhammad receives first revelation
618 - 907: Tang Dynasty in China
636: Isidore of Selville dies, “last scholar of the ancient world”
697: First Doge of Venice, Paolo Lucio Anafesto, elected; Republic of Venice established
End of the 7th century: Brahmagupta starts to recognize and work with negative quantities, treating them as debts and doing arithmetic with them, yet still not allowing negative solutions to equations
8th century: Islamic “Golden Age” begins
732: Battle of Tours, Charles Martel defeats Muslim forces
735: “The Venerable Bede” dies, monasterial intellectual tradition
774: Charlemagne conquers Florence
790 - 850: Al-Khwarizmi active – develops algebra, algorithm
800: Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III, reviving the Roman Empire concept
9th century: emergence of “cathedral schools” for training preists and clerics, teaching the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, logic) and quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy)
9th century: Mahavira declares that \(n \cdot 0 = 0\) and \(n - 0 = n\), claiming \(n / 0 = n\); Bhaskara II later proposes that \(n / 0 = \infty\). Arabs adopt the Indian system during Islamic expansion into India, using “sifr” for zero
850: Mahavira introduces the “invert and multiply” rule for dividing fractions
10th century: erbert d’Aurillac (Pope Sylvester II) visits Spain to lain mathematics and reorganizes the cathedral school in Rheims, France to introduce the study of arithmetic and geometry, using Hindu-Arabic numerals
907 - 960: Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period in China
960 - 12279: Song Dynasty in China
965 - 1040: Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) active – develops optics, scientific method
980 - 1037: Ibn Sina (Avicenna) active – develops medicine, philosophy
1000: start of the “High Middle Ages”
1058 - 1111: al-Ghazali active – develops theology, philosophy
1084: Rome sacked by Robert Guiscard
1095: al-Ghazali writes “The Incoherence of the Philosophers.
1096: evidence of teaching at Oxford
1096 - 1291: First Crusade initiated by Pope Urban II to capture Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim control
12th century: Al-Khwarizmi’s works introduce zero to Europe
12th century: Arbs insert a horizontal bar between top and bottom numbers in fractions
1100 - 1156: Thierry of Chartres active – develops metaphysics, theology, neo-Platonism
1145: Translation of Al-Khwarizmi’s algebra book by Robert of Chesta
1115: Florentine Republic established
1126 - 1198: Ibn Rushd (Averroes) active – develops philosophy, science, theology
1147 - 1149: Second Crusade (failure in Anatolia and Syria)
1189 - 1192: Third Crusade (Richard the Lionheart vs. Saladin); failed to retake Jerusalem but secured Christian access
13th century: Venice becomes most properous city in Europe due to trading extensively with the Byzantine Empire and the Middle East
13th century: “fall” of Islamic “Golden Age”
1200 - 1280: Albertus Magnus active – develops theology, philosophy, science
1201 - 1274: al-Tusi active – develops mathematics, astronomy, proposes the al-Tusi couple
1202: Leonardo of Pisa writes the Liber Abbaci (Book of Calculation), exploring quadratic equations geometrically and addressing practical problems of currency conversion and profits
1202 - 1204: Fourth Crusade (sack of Constantinople), damaged Western vs. Eastern Christian relaions
1206 - 1368: Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan and successors; largest contiguous land empire
1210: Grosseteste becomes a “secular master” at Oxford, develops light metaphysics
1214 - 1292: Roger Bacon active – develops optics, scientific method
1217 - 1221: Fifth Crusade (failed to capture Egypt)
1225 - 1274: Thomas Aquinas active – develops theology, philosophy, science
1228 - 1229: Sixth Crusade (Frederick II captures Jerusalem peacefully via negotiation)
1240 - 1284: Siger of Brabant, proponent of Averroism, professor at Paris
1248 - 1254: Seventh Crusade (Louis IX of France captured in Egypt)
1259: Maragheh observatory established
1265 - 1274: Thomas Aquinas writes Summa Theologica
1270: Bishop condemns 13 propositions of Aristotle in Paris
1270: Eighth Crusade (Louis IX of France dies in Tunisia of disease)
1271 - 1272: Ninth Crusade (Edward I of England fails to capture Acre)
1271 - 1368: Yuan Dynasty in China
1277: Condemnations of 1277, rejection of Aristotelianism in Paris universities
1287 - 1347: William of Ockham active – develops nominalism, theology, philosophy
1299: Ottoman Empire established in Anatolia
1300: end of the “High Middle Ages”, start of the “Late Middle Ages”
1301 - 1358: Jean Buridan active – develops physics, impetus theory (solution to projectile motion)
1323: Aquinas becomes a saint, defends the Christianization of Aristotle
1323 - 1382: Nicole Oresme active, develops physics (e.g. mean speed theorem)
1326: Ottomans capture Bursa, cutting off Byzantine Empire from Anatolia / Asia Minor
1346 - 1351: Black Death in Europe
14th century: Oxford Calculators (Merton College, Oxford) take a mathematical rather than causal approach to physics
1368 - 1644: Ming Dynasty in China
1420: Ulugh Beg establishes Samarkand observatory, in modern Uzbekistan
1436: the Chinese abacus is first mentioned
1470s: Regiomonatus uses “et” for addition and unconventional symbols, e.g. “5 et 6 7-4” to represent 5 + 6 - 7 = 4
1492: Christopher Columbus reaches the Americas
1453: Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire to Sultan Mehmed II the Conquerer, end of the Byzantine Empire
1473 - 1543: Nicolaus Copernicus active – develops heliocentrism
1489: Johann Widman introduces + and - for addition and subtraction in print, using “5 + 6 - 7 das ist 4” to represent 5 + 6 - 7 = 4
1493 - 1541: Paracelsus active – develops medicine, alchemy, proposes “wandering around” as a method, likes Aristotle but opposes the institutionalization of his thought
1494 - 1559: Italian Wars, France and Spain vy for control of Italy
1494: Luca Pacioli uses p for plus and m for minus, “using 5 p 6 m 7 - 4” to represent 5 + 6 - 7 = 4
1498: Girolamo Savonarola executed in Florence for heresy – accuses the Pope of corruption, lambasts attachment to material riches
1499 - 1557: Niccolo Tartaglia active – improves upon the Aristoteilan explanation for projectile motion, combination of violent and natural motion
15th century: establishment of Jesuit schools worldwide
15th century: Artists explore perspective, leading to mathematical insights
1500: start of the “Early Modern Period”
16th century: printing of Luca Pacioli’s Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalita (Venice, 1494) introduces double-entry bookkeeping, early work on algebraic notation by European “cossists”
16th century: porminent mathematicians like Cardano, VIete, and Stifel reject negative numbers, calling them fictiious or absurd
1500s: Discovery of methods for solving cubic equations by Sciopione del Ferro, Niccolo Tartaglia, and Gerolamo Cardano
1501 - 1504: Michelangelo sculpts David in Florence
1506: Construction begins on St. Peter’s Basilica under Pope Julius II
1510: Copernicus writes Commentariolus, suggesting heliocentrism
1512: Michelangelo finishes painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling
1513: Niccolo Machiavelli writes The Prince
1517: Martin Luther nails 95 Theses to church door, beginning of Protestant Reformation, scorns Copernicus
1519 - 1521: Hernan Cortes conquers Aztec Empire
1526: Mughal Empire established in India
1526 - 1572: Rafael Bombelli active; addresses issues in Cardano’s method for solving cubic equations involving square roots of negative numbers, initiates the development of complex number
1527: Sack of Rome by Charles V
1531: Florence becomes a monarchy
1532: Niccolo Machiavelli writes The Prince
1535 - 1615: Giambattista della Porta active – develops “natural magic”
1543: On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres by Copernicus published
1543: supposed start of the “Scientific Revolution”
1545 - 1612: John Gerard active – writes Herball, herbal medicine
1545: Council of Trent begins, Catholic Counter-Reformation
1545: Cardano publishes the Ars Magna, generalizing Tartaglia’s method for solving all cubic equations and fourth-egree equations
1556: Agricola writes De Re Metallica, mining and metallurgy
1557: Robert Recorde introduces the equality symbol =, explaining it as “no two things can be more equal than parallel lines”, writing “5 + 6 - 7 = 4” to represent 5 + 6 - 7 = 4
1561 - 1626: Francis Bacon active – develops empiricism, inductive reasoning, experimental method
1570s: Francois Viete is active, introducing systematic algebraic notation with vowels for unknowns and consonants for knowns, pursues equidimensionality in algebraic quantities, links Greek analysis to algebra, and promotes algebra as a field
1585: Simon Stevin publishes The Tenth, introduces decimal fractions, contributes to the acceptance of irrationals and transcendentals as numbers
1596 - 1650: Rene Decartes active, advancing algebraic notation, developing coordinate geometry
1598 - 1647: Bonaventura Cavalieri active – develops the “principle of indivisibles”, considering planar regions as infinite sets of parallel lines, computing areas of curved figures
Late 16th century: Elizabethan government grants patents for inventions
1600s: Fermat active, introducing new algebraic problems focused on whole numbers and proving negative propositions (there are no solutions for some equations)
Early 17th century: Thomas Harriot develops Harriot’s principle by proposing rewriting equations in the form \(f(x) = 0\), revolutionizing algebraic problem solving by linking roots to zero properties of integral domains, popularized by Rene Decartes in analytic geometry
1629 - 1631: Italian plague; kills 1/3 of Venice’s citizens
1629: Albert Girard uses ÷ for subtraction and division interchangeably
1631: William Oughtred advocates for +, -, = and use scolons for grouping: :5 + 6 :-7 = 4. Popularizes the \(\times\) symbolf ro multiplication.
1637: Rene Decartes uses unconventional symbols, delaying the widespread acceptance of the = symbol.
1641: Rene Descartes writes Meditations on First Philosophy
1642 - 1651: English Civil War, execution of Charles I and rule of Oliver Cromwell
1643 - 1727: Isaac Newton active – develops calculus, physics, optics, gravity
1664 - 1912: Qing Dynasty in China
1651: Thomas Hobbes writes Leviathan
1655: John Wallis argues in Arithmetica Infinitorum that negative numbers are larger than infinity, since 3/0 is infinite and 3/-1 = -3 should be larger
1660: Royal Society of London founded
1677: Baruch Spinoza’s Ethics published
Late 1600s: Isaac Newton an Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz independently develop calculus, Newton using “fluxions” and Leibniz using “infinitesimals”
1687: Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Newton published
1696: Johann Bernoulli teaches calculus to Marquis de l’Hospital, leading to the first calculus textbook (Analyse des Infiniment Petits)
1698: Leibniz introduces the raised dot for multiplication to avoid confusion with the variable \(x\) and advocates for the colon for division
Early 1700s: parentheses become standard for grouping terms in arithmetic expressions, promoted by Leibniz, the Bernoullis, and Euler
1713: Treaty of Utrecht transfers Italian territories to Austrian Hapsburgs
1725 - 1783: Leonhard Euler active – advances calculus and applies to a variety of contexts, develops the concept of functions, introduces a lot of modern matehmatical notation, pioneered graph theory
1730s: Euler adopts symbol \(\pi\) for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, which becomes standard by the end of the century
1734: George Berkeley publishes The Analyst, criticizing the foundations of calculus, calling Newton’s and Leibniz’s methods “ghosts of departed quantities”; Jean le Rond d’Alembert encourages faith in calculus, “Persist, and faith will come”
1762: Jean-Jacques Rousseau writes The Social Contract
1765: Johann Lambert proves that \(\pi\) is an irrational number
1770s - 1827: Pierre-Simon Laplace is active, writing extensively on celestial mechanics and probability
1770: Euler demonstrates comfort over dealing with negative quantities, published in Elements of Algebra
1775 - 1783: American Revolutionary War
1781: Immanuel Kant writes Critique of Pure Reason
1789: French Revolution begins, Declaration of the Rights of Man; influences mathematics and education with emphasis on technical education to create a skilled middle class
1791: Catherine the Great establishes the Pale of Settlement in Russia
1791: Enslaved Haitians revolt against French rule
1792 - 1797: War of the First Coalition (France vs. UK, Austria, Prussia, etc.)
1794: French National Convention abolishes slavery in all French territories
1795: French Academy of Sciences develops the metric system and is adopted, then spread internationally later by the late 19th century
1796 - 1814: Napoleon invades Italy
1797: Republic of Venice loses independence to Napolean Bonparte
1798: Austrians take control of Venice by agreement
1798: French forces under Napoleon occupy Rome, briefly ending papal rule
1801: Carl Friedrich Gauss publishes Disquisitiones Arithmeticae (Arithmetic Investigations), marking rigorous developments in number theory
1804: Haiti becomes independent from France; massacre of French colonists
1805: Venice taken back again from Austria by Napolean
1805 - 1814: Kingdom of Italy
1807: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel writes Phenomenology of Spirit
1812: War of 1812 (US vs. UK)
1813: Joseph-Louis Lagrange dies; he analyzed permutations of polynomial roots to understand solutions for equations.
1814: Venice returned to Austria following Napolean’s defeat
1815: Congress of Vienna reinforces fragmented Italian states
1818: Arthur Schopenhauer writes The World as Will and Representation
1821: Augustin Louis Cauchy publishes Cours d’Analyse (The Ecole Polytechnique Analysis Course), introducing the concept of limits and continuity rigorously, highlighting the fundamental theorem of calculus
1820s - 1830s: Gauss, János Bolyai, Nicolai Lobachevsky, and Bernhard Riemann develop non-Euclidean geometry
1822: Niels Henrik Abel proves that there is no general solution in radicals to the general polynomial equation of degree five or higher
1825: France forces Haiti to pay crippling reparations for independence
1830: France invades and colonizes Algeria
1831 - 1861: Resurgence movement aims to unify Italy under a single state
1831: British logician Augustus De Morgan writes that imaginary and negative expressions are equally imaginary / inconsistent / absurd
1832: Evariste Galois develops Galois theory, linking group theory and algebraic equations.
1833: Abolition of slavery in British colonies
1839: Beginning of Tanzimat reforms in the Ottoman Empire
1839 - 1842: First Opium War between UK and China
1843: Soren Kierkegaard writes Fear and Trembling
1846 - 1848: Mexican-American War (US annexes Texas, California, etc.)
1848 - 1849: Revlutions across Italy push for unification and liberal reforms
1848: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels write The Communist Manifesto
1850 - 1864: Taiping Rebellion in China against the Qing Dynasty
1856: Imperial Reform Decree in the Ottoman Empire
1856 - 1860: Second Opium War between UK and China
1857 - 1858: Indian Rebellion (Sepoy Mutiny) against British rule
1858: Ottoman land reform enabling private land sales
1859: The Riemann Hypothesis is proposed by Bernhard Riemann
1859 - 1861: Kingdom of Sardinia begins unifying Italy; Lombardy annexed after Second Italian War of Independence (1859)
1861 - 1865: American Civil War
1861: Abraham Lincoln becomes president of US
1861: Karl Weierstrauss develops the epsilon-delta definition of limit, rigorously defining continuity and differentiability
1865: Florence becomes the capital of Italy
1865: Andrew Johnson becomes president of US
1866: Third Italian War of Independence between Kingdom of Italy and Austrian Empire; Venetia annexed
1869: Ottoman citizenship law allows non-Muslims to become citizens
1869: Ulysses S. Grant becomes president of US
1870: Italy annexes Rome from the Papal States during the Franco-Prussian War, completing unification
1871: Rome is declared the capital of Italy
1871: Mokrani revolt in Algeria against French rule by Algerian Berbers an Arabs
1872: Jerusalem designated as an independent Ottoman district
1873: William Shanks computes a decimal value of \(\pi\) to 607 places, taking him more than 15 years.
1877: Rutherford B. Hayes becomes president of US
1879 - 1884: Georg Cantor develops set theory, introducing the concept of infinite sets and cardinality
1881: James Garfield becomes president of US
1881: Chester Arthur becomes president of US after Garfield’s assassination by Charles Guiteau for no apparent materialist reason
1880s: porgroms in Russia lead to Jewish emigration to the US and Palestine
1882 - 1903: First Aliyah to Palestine from Eastern Europe and Yemen motivated by Zionism and persecution
1882: Italy joins the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary
1883: Friedrich Nietzsche writes Thus Spoke Zarathustra
1884 - 1885: The Scramble for Africa, Europeans divide Africa at Berlin Conference
1885: Grover Cleveland becomes president of US
1894 - 1896: First Sino-Japanese War, Japan emerges as a colonial power
1886: Friedrich Nietzsche writes Beyond Good and Evil
1888: Richard Dedekind formalizes arithmetic, publishing “Was sind und was sollen die Zahlen?” (What are numbers and what should they be?)
1889: Giuseppe Peano publishes the Peano axioms for arithmetic
1889: Benjamin Harrison becomes president of US
1890: Eritrea becomes an Italian colony
1893: Mao Zedong is born in Hunan Province, China to a peasant family
1893: Grover Cleveland becomes president of US
1895: Japan takes Taiwan from China
1896: Italy suffers a humiliating defeat in Ethiopia trying to colonize it
1897: William McKinley becomes president of US
1898: “100 Days of Reform” in China, attempt to modernize and reform the Qing Dynasty, fails
1898: Spanish-American War (US annexes Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico)
1899: Philippine-American War
1899: The Communist Manifesto is first translated into Chinese
1900: Hilbert’s 23 problems are presented at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris
1900: Boxer Rebellion in China against foreign influence
1901: Australia becomes a federation within the British Empire
1901: Theodore Roosevelt becomes president of US after McKinley’s assassination
1904 - 1914: Second Aliyah to Palestine by Jews fleeing pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe
1904 - 1905: Russo-Japanese War, Japan emerges as colonial power
1905: Partition of Bengal by British
1907: Peak of Second Boer War, British consolidate control over South Africa
1908: Empress Dowager Cixi dies, leaves the two-year-old Puyi as emperor
1909: William Howard Taft becomes president of US
1910: Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead write Principia Mathematica
1910: Japan annexes Korea as a colony
1911: Wuchang Uprising in China, beginning of the Xinhai Revolution
1911: Xinhai Revolution overthrows Qing Dynasty
1912: Sun-Yat Sen voted provincial president of Republic of China
1912: The Kuomintang (Guomindang) is founded by Sun Yat-Sen
1913: Yuan Shikai becomes president of Republic of China
1913: Woodrow Wilson becomes president of US
1913: Song Jiaoren, leader of the Guomindang, is assassinated supposedly by Yuan Shikai
1914 - 1918: World War I
1914: Ramanujan comes to England to work with Hardy
1914: Sun Yat-Sen organizes the new Chinese Revolutionary Party
1915 - 1934: US occupation of Haiti
1915: Italy enters WWI on the Allies’ side, hoping to gain territory
1915 - 1916: McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, British promise of Arab independence
1915: Chen Duxiu founds the influential journal New Youth
1915: Japan gives Yuan Shikai the “Twenty-One Demands”, increasing Japanese influence in China
1915: New Culture Movement in China, promoting Western-style modernization and democracy
1916: Sykes-Picot Agreement, British and French carve up the Middle East
1916: Yuan Shikai dies, starts Warlord Era in China
1916: Easter Rising in Ireland against British rule
1916 - 1918: 150k Chinese contract workers sent to work in Europe
1917: Russian Revolution; Bolsheviks take power and establish Soviet Union
1917: Balfour Declaration, British support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine
1917: British fofrces capture Palestine from the Ottomans
1917: Sun Yat-Sen fails to re-establish the Republic of China
1919: League of Nations Convenant Article 22 establishes Mandate system
1919 - 1923: Third Aliyah to Palestine, supporte by Balfour Declaration
1919: Treaty of Versailles establishes League of Nations manates
1919: Amritsar Massacre in India, British kill hundreds of protesters
1920: Gandhi launches non-cooperation movement in India
1920: San Remo Resolution applies the mandate system to Palestine and incorporates the Balfour declaration
1920s: 40-50k landowners in Canton escape to Hong Kong to avoid executions by Communist-led farmer uprisings, which were extremely violent and hateful
1920: Nabi Musa riots in Jerusalem, Haycraft commission investigates
1920: Mao Zedong talks with Chen Duxiu and is convinced by communism
1920 - 1921: Famine in China under warlord rule, kills ~0.5 million
1921: Warren G. Harding becomes president of US
1921 - 1922: The episodic novella The True Story of Ah Q is published by Lu Xun, the first time vernacular Chinese is used in literature, criticizing Chinese people and their revolutionary leaders
1921: Comintern agent Grigorii Vointinsky helps facilitate a meeting in the French Concession of Shanghai that establishes the Chinese Communist Party
1921: Mao Zedong becomes a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party
1921: Attack on the Hadassah house in Hebron
1922: Palestine mandate document finalized
1922: Benito Mussolini and Fascist Party rise to power
1922: Irish Free State established under Anglo-Irish treaty, Northern Ireland remains part of UK
1923: Ottoman Sultanate abolished, Turkey becomes a republic
1923: Chiang Kai-Shek helps Sun Yat-Sen escape assassination by a local warlord
1923: the First United Front is formed between the Guomindang and the Chinese Communist Party
1923: Calvin Coolidge becomes president of US
1923: The Mathematical Association of America recommends abandoning ÷ and : for division in favor of fractional notation
1923: Palestine mandate comes into effect
1924 - 1929: Fourth Aliyah to Palestine, middle-class Jews from Poland and Hungary
1924: Sun Yat-Sen dies, split opens in the United Front between Chiang Kai-Shek and Wang Jingwei
1925: May Thirtieth Incident in Shanghai when police fire on protesters, killing 9, sparks anti-imperialist movement
1926 - 1928: Great Northern Expedition in China, Chiang Kai-Shek attempts to unify China in collaboration with the Communists and the Soviet Union
1926: Mao Zedong writes the “Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society”, asserting that peasants are a semi-proletariat
1927: Martin Heidegger writes Being and Time
1927: Chiang Kai-Shek and the Nationalists (Guomindang) take over Shanghai and establish capital in Nanjing, beginning of the “Nanjing decade”
1927: Chiang Kai-Shek purges communists in Shanghai and United Front breaks down
1927: Mao Zedong writes the “Report on an Investigation of the Peasant movement in hunan”, asserting that violence is necessary to purge China of centuries of oppression
1928 - 1930: Famine in China under warlord rule, kills ~3 million
1928 - 1938: the “Nanjing decade” in China, relative peace with the Nationalist government in Nanjing
1928: Chiang Kai-Shek officially establishes the Nationalist Government following the split of the united front
1929: Wall Street Crash, beginning of the Great Depression
1929 - 1939: Fifth Aliyah, Jews escaping anti-Semitism in Europe and Nazis in Germany
1929: Herbert Hoover becomes president of US
1929: Strike by Beijing rickshaw pullers
1929: Western Wall / Al-Buraq riots; Shaw commission investigates
1929: Lateran Treaty establishes Vatican City
1930: Gandhi leads the Salt March
1930s: A group of young mathematicians writing under the pseudonym Bourbaki writes a series of textbooks on modern mathematics, the Elements of Mathematics
1930: Chiang Kai-shek attempts to eliminate the Communist presence in China with encirclement campaigns
1931: Statute of Westminster grants autonomy to British dominions (Canada, Australia, South Africa)
1931: Japan invades Manchuria, Chiang Kai-Shek refuses to fight
1931: Kurt Godel publishes his incompleteness theorems
1932: An anti-Japanese mob kills a Japanese monk in Shanghai, prompting Japanese arial bombing; over 20k are killed in the one-month conflict
1933: Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany
1933: Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes president of US
1933: Chiang Kai-Shek launches fourth and fifth encirclement campaigns against the Communists
1934: Chiang Kai-Shek launches the “New Life Movement” to simultaneously promote Confucianism, Christianity, and fascism
1934: Chinese Communists start the long march to escape Nationalist forces
1934 - 1948: Aliyah Bet, illegal Jewish immigration to Palestine
1935: Izz al-Din al-Qassam is killed by British forces, becomes a symbol of Palestinian resistance (even until today)
1935: Italian invasion of Ethiopia under Mussolini
1935: Chinese Communists reach Yan’an, establish base
1935: December Ninth demonstrations by Beijing students protesting Chiang Kai-Shek’s civil war with the communists and refusal to fight Japan
1936: Arab Revolt against British rule and Zionist expansion
1936: Chiang Kai-shek flies to Xi’an to destroy the Communist base in Yan’an but is held hostage by Zhang Xueliang to form a second United Front to fight Japan
1937: Peel Commission investigates 1936 Arab Revolt and recommends partition
1937: Second Sino-Japanese War begins when Japan launches a full-scale invasion of China
1937: “Black Saturday” — 1000 people killed in Shanghai
1937: The “Rape of Nanking” by Japanese forces
1938: Chinese unified front breaks dams on the Yellow River to slow the Japanese advance, killing 500k locals either due to drowning or starvation
1938: Mao Zedong marries Jiang Qing, Shanghai actress
1939: White Paper limits Jewish immigration into Palestine
1939: Italy signs Pact of Steel with Germany
1939 - 1945: World War II
1940: Japan allows Wang Jingwei to establish a puppet government in Nanjing
1941: Amin al-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, meets with Adolf Hitler in Berlin
1941: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, US enters WWII
1942: Biltmore Conference in New York calls for a Jewish state in Palestine
1942: Japanese attack Burma
1942: Chiang Kai-shek meets with Mohatma Gandhi in India
1942: Henan famine in China, 2-3 million people die
1942: Mao begins the Rectification Movement
1943: Mussolini deposed, Italy surreners to Allies
1943: Jean-Paul Sartre writes Being and Nothingness
1944: Assassination of Lord Moyne by the Stern Gang, extremist Zionist group
1944: Japanese launch Operation Ichigo
1944: Rome is liberated by Allied forces during WWII
1944: Wang Jingwei dies
1945: Roosevelt dies on April 12, Truman becomes president
1945: Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings on August 6 and 9
1945: Harry Truman becomes president of US
1945: Mao Zedong visits Chongqing to negotiate with Chiang Kai-Shek in August
1945: End of World War II, establishment of the United Nations, beginning of the Cold War
1945: Setif and Guelma Massacres, French forces kill thousands of protesting Algerians
1945: Taiwan is returned to China from Japan
1946: Italians vote in referendum to abolish monarchy, establishing Italian Republic
1946: Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry investigates Jewish-Arab conflict
1946: Land reform begins in “old liberated areas” in Northern China under Communist influence
1947: Exodus steamship carrying Jewish refugees is returned to Germany
1947: UN General Assembly Resolution 181 proposes partition of Palestine
1947: Partition of India, creation of Pakistan
1947: Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer write Dialectic of Enlightenment
1948: Deir Yassin massacre by Irgun and Lehi, Jewish paramilitary groups
1948: Apartheid established in South Africa
1948: Communist forces surround the Chinese cities Shenyang and Changchun
1948: Israel declares independence on May 14
1948: British Mandate ends; Arab-Israeli War begins May 15
1949: Indonesian independence recognized by Netherlands after armed struggle
1949: Simone de Beauvoir writes The Second Sex
1949: John von Neumann uses the ENIAC computer to work out \(\pi\) to 2035 decimal places
1949: Armistic agreements signed, forming Green Line
1949: Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Wuhan, and Hangzhou fall to the Communists
1949: Mao Zedong declares the People’s Republic of China on October 1
1949: The new Communist government closes 224 brothels and arrests 1,286 prostitutes in Beijings
1950 - 1953: Korean War
1950: CCP passes the Agrarian Reform Law, redistributing land to peasants
1950: Israel passes Absentee Property Law which allows confiscation of Palestinian property, and Preventing Infiltration Law which allows expulsion of Palestinians, denies right of return to Palestinians expelled during the 1948 war
1950: Sino-Soviet Friendship Treaty signed
1950: CCP passes the Marriage Law, affirming the euqal rights of both sexes and protection of lawful interests of women and children
1950 - 1951: CCP launches aggressive anti-counter-revolutionary campaign, arresting 2.6m and carrying out 712k
1950 - 1951: Tens of thousands of intellectuals go through thought reform at revolutionary universities in China
1951: King Abdullah of Jordan is assassinated at Al-Aqsa Mosque for perceived collaboration with Israelis
1951 - 1952: Three Antis campaign by CCP targets corruption, waste, and mismanagement
1952: Mau Mau Urprising in Kenya against British rule
1952: Eritrea federated with Ethopia under UN resolution
1952: “Land to the Tiller” movement complete under Communist China; 43% of cultivated land redistributed to 60% of rural population; 88% of households affected
1952: Five Antis Campaign by CCP targets bribery and tax evasion by businessmen
1952: Dismantling of secret societies in Shanghai by CCP
1953: Qibya Massacre by Israeli forces
1953: Death of Stalin; Khrushchev becomes leader of USSR
1953: CCP announces end of “new democracy” phase, beginning of First Five-Year Plan, emphasizing central planning and growth of industry
1953 - 1954: CCP introuces new quota-based district-level system for agricultural production
1953: Dwigth D. Eisenhower becomes president of US
1954: First Indochina War ends, Vietnam divided at 17th parallel
1954 - 1962: Algerian War of Independence against France
1954: Full achievement of CCP state building in China; state and Party organs function fully in China
1955 - 1975: Vietnam War
1955: Mao aims to accelerate cooperatization by encouraging labor-intensive industries
1956: Suez Crisis, Egypt nationalizes the Suez Canal – UK, France, and Israel invade Egypt, Israel temporarily occupies Sinai and Gaza
1956 - 1957: Israeli occupation of Gaza following the Suez Crisis
1956: Believing that intellectuals were not voicing their concerns, Mao Zedong launches the Hundred Flowers Campaign, inviting criticism of the government
1956 - 1957: Large-scale strike in Shanghai
1956: CCP announces 5-7 year plan to reduce illiteracy, process of simplifying Chinese characters begins
1956: Mao launches the hundred flowers campaign
1957: Population of the urban industrial working class in China reaches 10 million; urban population reaches 100 million
1957 - 1958: Anti-rightist campaign in China, 1.1m people branded as rightists
1958: Coup in Iraq overthrows King Faisal II
1958 - 1961: Great Leap Forward in China, Mao’s attempt to rapidly industrialize and collectivize agriculture, away from the Soviet model. China should rely on its one major resource – people.
1958: In Jiangsu, Pi County, peasants produce 105k paintings, drawings, and murals depicting a glorious Communist future
1958: The CCP knows about widening famine in regions but continues with the Great Leap Forward
1959: Mao Zedong orders a second Great Leap Forward, leading to the worst famine in human history
1960: Rome hosts the Summer Olympics
1961: Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba by US
1961: Eritrean War of Independence begins
1961: John F. Kennedy becomes president of US
1962: Cuban Missile Crisis, peak of US-Soviet tensions
1962: Following the 1958 Central Committee announcement that official labors should do labor, 2 million urbanites have been sent to the countryside for 1-year stints, although this appeared not to have reduced bureaucratism and factionalism, leading to the Cultural Revolution
1962: Ethiopia annexes Eritrea
1962: Evian accords grant Algerian independence from France
1962: China and India fight a brief border war
1962: Taming of CCP agricultural policy; 30% of households are farming inependently; the CCP launches the Socialist Education Movement to ensure ideological alignment and pinning the Great Leap Forward’s failures on local officials
1963: Assassination of John F. Kennedy
1963: Lyndon B. Johnson becomes president of US
1964 - 1973: US involvement in the Vietnam War
1964: Founding of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in East Jerusalem (Jordan)
1964: France recognizes the People’s Republic of China
1964: China successfuly tests a nuclear bomb
1965: Voting Rights Act passes
1965: Indian-Pakistan War
1965: Malcolm X assassinated
1965: Rhodesia declares independence from UK
1965: Civil War in Dominican Republic, US intervenes
1965: Indonesia anti-communist purge/coup begins
1966: Chinese Cultural Revolution begins
1966: Formation of the Black Panther Party
1966: Botswana and Lesotho gain independence
1966: South African border war begins
1967: Six-Day War, Israel occupies West Bank, Gaza, Sinai, Golan Heights
1967: Jacques Derrida writes Of Grammatology
1967: UN Resolution 242 calls for “land for peace”
1967: Summer of Love in San Francisco
1967: Che Guevara captured and executed
1967: Loving v. Virginia, Supreme Court strikes down anti-miscegenation laws
1967: Nigerian Civil War, >1 million killed mainly from famine
1968: Fair Housing Act passed
1968: Prague Spring and USSR invasion of Czechoslovakia
1968: Mai Lai massacre in Vietnam
1968: Tet Offensive and beginning of US withdrawal from Vietnam
1968: Huge student protests in the US, France, Mexico, Germany, Italy
1968: Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated
1968: Robert F. Kennedy assassinated
1968: Hellen Keller dies
1968: John Steinbeck dies
1968: Edith Piaf dies
1968: Yuri Gagarin dies
1968: Paris May riots against Charles de Gaulle, nearly topples government
1968: Battle of Karameh between Palestinians and Israelis
1968: Democratic National Convention riots in Chicago
1968: Tlatelolco massacre against protesters in the Mexico City Olympic Games
1968: Italy’s Hot Autumn, massive strikes and protests
1969: Apollo 11 mission, first moon landing
1969: Muammar Gaddafi leads coup in Libya
1969: Richard Nixon becomes president of US
1969: Stonewall riots in New York City
1969: The Troubles begin in Northern Ireland between Catholics and Protestants
1969: China-USSR border conflicts at the Ussuri River border
1969: Woodstock music festival
1970: Incursion of Vietnam War into Cambodia
1970: Overthrow of Cambodian government by Khmer Rouge, leading to genocide in 1975
1970: Black September in Jordan, PLO is expelled from Jordan
1970: Dawson’s Field Hijackings in Jordan by PFLP
1970: American journalist Edgar Snow is invited to stand beside Mao at the 1970 national day parade
1970: Kent State shootings
1970: Death of Abdel Nasser, Sadat becomes president of Egypt
1970: Black September in Jordan, PLO vs. Jordanian government
1971: Nixon declares War on Drugs
1971: Bangladesh War of Independence / Liberation War
1971: Lin Biao, who attempted a coup against Mao, is put on a plane fleeing China, crashing in Mongolia
1971: UN awards China a seat
1971: “Ping-Pong” diplomacy trip between American ping pong team and Chinese
1972: Israeli athletes killed at the Munich Olympics by Black September
1972: Watergate scandal
1972: Nixon visits China
1972: Intel Releases the 4004 Microprocessor
1972: Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland, British Army kills 13 unarmed protesters in Derry
1973: Yom Kippur War, surprise attack by Egypt and Syria on Israel
1973: Roe v. Wade, Supreme Court legalizes abortion
1973: US ends draft for Vietnam War
1973: Pinochet overthrows Allende with U.S. support, establishing military dictatorship in Chile
1974: China seizes the Xisha islands from South Vietnam
1974: Nixon resigns, Gerald Ford becomes president of US
1975: Michel Foucault writes Discipline and Punish
1975: Deng Xiao Ping is reinstated to inner circle of power in CCP
1976: Zhou Enlai dies; radicals demonstrate in his memory in Tiananmen Square
1976: A devastating earthquake kills a quarter of a million people in Tangshan, China – the “mandate of heaven” has been lost
1976: Mao Zedong dies on September 9th
1977: Jimmy Carter becomes president of US
1979: Camp David Accords, Israel withdraws from Sinai and establishes peace with Egypt
1979: United States removes troops and diplomatic recognition from Taiwan
1980: Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari write A Thousand Plateaus
1980: Saul Kripke writes Naming and Necessity
1981: Ronald Reagan becomes president of US
1982: First Lebanon War; Israel invades Lebanont to expel PLO
1982: Sabra and Shatila Massacres under Israeli watch and support
1983: Invasion of Grenada by US
1987: First Intifada begins in Gaza and West Bank
1987: Yasumasa Kanada works out \(\pi\) to 134217000 decimal places.
1987: CCP endorses authoritarian state capitalism, mixing market economy with tight political control.
1988: Hamas founded as offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood
1989: Invasion of Panama by US
1989: George H.W. Bush becomes president of US
1990 - 1991: Gulf War
1991 - 2002: Algerian Civil War, over 150k killed
1991: The Eritrean Liberation Front defeats Ethiopia, Eritrea becomes independent
1993: Oslo I Accord signed, establishing mutual recognition
1993: Eritrea votes for independence in UN supervised referendum and becomes fully sovereign state
1993: Bill Clinton becomes president of US
1994: Massacre at Al-Aqsa Mosque by Jewish extremist
1995: Oslo II Accord signed, establishing Palestinian Authority and limited self-rule
1995: Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin by Jewish extremist
1998 - 2000: Border dispute leads Eritrea to war with Ethopia
2000: Camp David talks collapse
2000: Second Intifada begins after Ariel Sharon visits Temple Mount
2001: 9/11 attacks
2001 - 2021: War in Afghanistan
2001: George W. Bush becomes president of US
2003 - 2011: Iraq War
2005: Israel withdraws settlers and military forces from Gaza
2006: Second Lebanon War begins
2008: Global financial crisis due to subprime mortgage crisis
2009: Barack Obama becomes president of US
2011: US intervention in Libya
2011: Arab Spring uprisings throughout the Middle East
2014: Third Gaza War becomes most deadly conflict in Gaza
2017: Donald Trump becomes president of US
2018: Great March of Return protests in Gaza
2018: Eritrea and Ethiopia sign peace agreement
2018: the “Nation State Law” / “Basic Law” is passed by Israel
2020: Israel establishes normalization agreements with Bahrain, UAE, Morocco
2021: Joseph Biden becomes president of US
2021: Fourth Gaza War
2023: October 7th Massacre by Hamas in Israel
2023 - present: Hamas-Israeli war in Gaza
2024: Fall of the Syrian Assad regime
2025: Donald Trump becomes president of US again