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476
Fall of Western Rome Empire
The last Roman emperor in the west was overthrown by the Germanic leader Odoacer, who became the first Barbarian to rule in Rome. -
Period: 476 to 1400
The Middle Ages
Time between the fall of the Roman Empire to the fall of Constantinople -
Period: 800 to
The Holy Roman Empire
Multi-ethnic complex of territories in Central Europe -
Period: 1095 to 1291
Crusades
A series of religious wars sanctioned by the Latin Church in the medieval period -
1271
Marco Polo
Italian explorer Marco Polo sets off for Asia -
Period: 1300 to
The Renaissance
The Renaissance was a time of great beauty and art. Artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo created greats works of art during this time. Writers like William Shakespeare were producing their own masterpieces. -
Period: 1315 to 1317
The Great Famine
The Great Famine started with bad weather in spring 1315. Crop failures lasted through 1316 until the summer harvest in 1317, and Europe did not fully recover until 1322. The period was marked by extreme levels of crime, disease, mass death and even cannibalism and infanticide. -
Period: 1337 to 1453
The Hundred Years' War
A long-running struggle from 1337 to 1453 between two royal dynasties, the Plantagenets of England and the Valois of France, for the throne of France. -
Period: 1347 to 1353
The Black Death
One of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia -
Period: 1378 to 1417
The Great Schism (Great Western Schism)
The division of the Roman Catholic Church in which rival popes were in Rome and Avignon -
Apr 15, 1452
Birth of Leonardo Da Vinci
Regarded as "one of the greatest minds the world has ever produced", Leonardo (artist, scientist, inventor and polymath) was born in Italy -
1492
Discovery of the Americas
Christopher Colombus discovers the Americas -
Period: 1517 to
The Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a schism in Western Christianity. Protestants argued for a religious and political redistribution of power into the hands of Bible -
Period: 1543 to
The Scientific Revolution
A series of events that marked the emergence of modern science during the early modern period -
Globe Theater Built
William Shakespeare builds the famous Globe Theater. Over the next few years, he'll write great plays like Hamlet -
Discovery of moons of Jupiter
Galileo Galilei discovered four of Jupiter's moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto -
Period: to
Thirty Years' War
A religious civil war between the Protestants and Roman Catholics in Germany that engaged the Austrian Habsburgs and the German princes -
Period: to
The Enlightenment
European politics, philosophy, science and communications were radically reoriented. Enlightenment thinkers throughout Europe questioned traditional authority and embraced the notion that humanity could be improved through rational change -
Period: to
Seven Years' War
The fighting between French and colonists merged into a European conflict involving France, Austria, and Russia against Prussia and Britain
