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3500 BCE
When humans first used bow and arrow
The use of bow and arrow had developed and been used for thousands of years as a popular hunting method. -
3000 BCE
When horses were first domesticated
Humans acquire their most important single ally from the animal kingdom when they domesticate the horse, in about 3000 BC. Wild horses of various kinds have spread throughout most of the world by the time human history begins -
Period: 499 BCE to 449 BCE
- Greco Persian Wars
he Greco-Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire and Greek city-states -
Period: 431 BCE to 404 BCE
The Peloponnesian War
The Peloponnesian War was an ancient Greek war fought by the Delian League led by Athens against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. -
300 BCE
the development of the trebuchet
The traction trebuchet is believed to be an ancient war engine which was invented in China in 300BC. -
Period: 264 BCE to 146 BCE
- Punic Wars
The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 BC to 146 BC. At the time, they were some of the largest wars that had ever taken place. -
618
The development of the first handcannon
Hand cannons were rudimentary and brutish, but they were the first firearms used during combat in recorded history. Although there have been claims of gunpowder's “discovery” in Europe, the ancient Chinese are generally credited with the original recipe. In 618 A.D -
904
The invention of gunpowder
Gunpowder was invented in 9th-century China and spread throughout most parts of Eurasia by the end of the 13th century. Originally developed by the Taoists for medicinal purposes, gunpowder was first used for warfare about 904 AD. -
Period: 1095 to 1492
Crusades
The crusades were a series of religious wars sanctioned by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best-known crusades are the campaigns in the eastern Mediterranean aimed at recovering the Holy Land from Muslim rule. -
1300
The invention of the longbow
The longbow was invented by the Celts in Wales around 1180 C.E. but was not really used by the English military until the 1300s. -
Period: 1337 to 1453
- One Hundred Years War
The Hundred Years' War was a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Plantagenet, rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the French House of Valois, over the right to rule the Kingdom of France. Each side drew many allies into the war. -
1515
The development of the submarine
Leonardo da Vinci sketched a primitive submarine around 1515, and in 1578, William Bourne drafted the first design for a submersible craft. -
Period: 1519 to 1521
- Spanish Conquest of the Aztec Empire
Between 1519 and 1521, Spanish conquistadors, led by Hernán Cortés, overthrew the Aztec Empire. This event is called the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. Cortés helped old enemies of the Aztecs defeat them in one of the most important events in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. -
Period: to
The thirty years war
The Thirty Years' War was a war fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648. One of the most destructive conflicts in human history, it resulted in eight million fatalities not only from military engagements but also from violence, famine, and plague. -
Period: to
- English Civil War
was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists ("Cavaliers") principally over the manner of England's governance. -
The development of the flintlock musket
Flintlock muskets were the mainstay of European armies between 1660 and 1840. A musket was a muzzle-loading smoothbore long gun that was loaded with a round lead ball, but it could also be loaded with shot for hunting. -
Period: to
The Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of major conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European powers formed into various coalitions, financed and usually led by the United Kingdom. -
The development of the revolver handgun
Samuel Colt submitted a British patent for his revolver in 1835 and an American patent (number 138) on February 25, 1836 for a Revolving gun, and made the first production model on March 5 of that year. Another revolver patent was issued to Samuel Colt on August 29, 1839. -
Period: to
- The Taiping Rebellion
The Taiping Rebellion, which is also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a massive rebellion or civil war that was waged in China from 1850 to 1864 -
Period: to
The American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865, between the North and the South. The Civil War began primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people -
The invention of the first iron-clad warship
The Union's first ironclad warship was of the City class built by James B. Eads for operation on the rivers of the western front of the Civil War. -
The invention of the first machine gun
The first practical self-powered machine gun was invented in 1884 by Sir Hiram Maxim. -
Period: to
- Boxer Rebellion
he Boxer Rebellion, Boxer Uprising, or Yihetuan Movement was an anti-imperialist, anti-foreign, and anti-Christian uprising that took place in China -
The development of the M.O.A.B.
The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) is a large-yield bomb, developed for the United States military by Albert L. Weimorts, Jr. of the Air Force Research Laboratory. -
The development of the first fighter aircraft
The world's first military airplane is demonstrated for the U.S. Army in 1909 by Orville Wright, shown here climbing into the pilot's seat. Wright and Lieutenant Frank Purdy Lahm are catapulted down a rail and launched into the air. -
Period: to
- World War I
World War I, also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe -
The development of the first tank.
The first offensive using tanks took place on 15 September 1916, during the Battle of the Somme -
Period: to
- Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire immediately after the two Russian Revolutions of 1917, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. -
Period: to
- World War II
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. -
The development of the AK-47
is a gas-operated, 7.62×39mm assault rifle, developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is the originating firearm of the Kalashnikov rifle -
The use of the first atomic bomb
On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped its first atomic bomb from a B-29 bomber plane called the Enola Gay on Japanese city of Hiroshima. The “Little Boy” exploded with about 13 kilotons of force, leveling five square miles of the city and killing 80,000 people instantly -
Period: to
- Cold War
The Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension between the Soviet Union with its satellite states, and the United States with its allies after World War II. -
When the first hydrogen bomb was first tested
The first series of thermonuclear tests conducted by the United States took place in November 1952 during Operation IVY. The first test took place on November 1, 1952 on the small Pacific island of Elugelab at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The explosion, nicknamed the "Mike Shot", was very successful. -
Period: to
- Rwandan Genocide
The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, was a mass slaughter of Tutsi, Twa, and moderate Hutu in Rwanda -
Period: to
- Second Congo War
The Second Congo War began in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,little more than a year after the First Congo War, and involved some of the same issues. The war officially ended, when the Transitional Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo took power.