Humantities Timeline

By st-013811
  • Period: 753 BCE to 1453

    Rome

    Julius Caesar death
    Empire begins
    Rome at the greatest extent
    Rule of Diocletian
    Rule of Constantine
    Split of the Roman Empire and move to Constantinople
    Legalization of Christianity
    First Sack of Rome
    End of Western Empire
    Reign of Justinian
    Muslims Conquer North Africa
    Missionary of St. Cyril and Methodius
    End of Eastern Empire
  • 44 BCE

    Julius Caesar death

    The assassination of Caesar was the result of a conspiracy by many Roman senators led by Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, and Marcus Junius Brutus. They stabbed Caesar (23 times) to death in a location adjacent to the Theatre of Pompey on the Ides of March 15 March 44 BC.
  • 27 BCE

    Empire begins

    It began in Rome in 753 BC. Rome controlled over two million square miles stretching from the Rhine River to Egypt and from Britain to Asia Minor. This timeline highlights the major events in the history of Ancient Rome. This timeline goes from 753 BC to 27 BC and then from 64 AD to 1453 AD.
  • 117

    Rome at the greatest extent

    The Roman Empire in AD 117, at its greatest extent at the time of Trajan's death (with its vassals in pink).
  • 293

    Rule of Diocletian

    Diocletian delegated further on 1 March 293, appointing Galerius and Constantius as Caesars, junior co-emperors, under himself and Maximian respectively. Under this 'tetrarchy', or "rule of four", each emperor would rule over a quarter-division of the empire.
  • 312

    Rule of Constantine

    Constantine the Great, also known as Constantine I, was a Roman Emperor who ruled between 306 and 337 AD. Born on the territory now known as Niš, he was the son of Flavius Valerius Constantius, a Roman Army officer. His mother was Empress Helena. His father became Caesar, the deputy emperor in the west, in 293 AD.
  • 313

    Legalization of Christianity

    Roman legalization. The accession of Constantine was a turning point for the Christian Church. ... In 313 Constantine issued the Edict of Milan reaffirming the tolerance of Christians and returning previously confiscated property to the churches.
  • 330

    Split of the Roman Empire and move to Constantinople

    The founder of the Byzantine Empire and its first emperor, Constantine the Great, moved the capital of the Roman Empire to the city of Byzantium in 330 CE, and renamed it Constantinople. ... Constantinople became the largest city in the empire and a major commercial center, while the Western Roman Empire fell in 476 CE.
  • 410

    First Sack of Rome

    The Sack of Rome occurred on 24 August 410. The city was attacked by the Visigoths led by King Alaric. At that time, Rome was no longer the capital of the Western Roman Empire, having been replaced in that position first by Mediolanum in 286 and then by Ravenna in 402.
  • 476

    End of Western Empire

    In 476 C.E. Romulus, the last of the Roman emperors in the west, was overthrown by the Germanic leader Odoacer, who became the first Barbarian to rule in Rome. The order that the Roman Empire had brought to western Europe for 1000 years was no more.
  • Period: 476 to 1453

    Middle Ages

    DescriptionIn the history of Europe, the Middle Ages lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery.
  • 527

    Reign of Justinian

    As Justin became senile near the end of his reign, Justinian became the de facto ruler. Justinian was appointed consul in 521 and later commander of the army of the east. Upon Justin's death on 1 August 527, Justinian became the sole sovereign.
  • 632

    Muslims Conquer North Africa

    The Muslim conquest of the Maghreb (Arabic: الفَتْحُ الإسْلَامِيُّ لِلمَغْرِبِ‎) continued the century of rapid Arab Early Muslim conquests following the death of Muhammad in 632 AD and into the Byzantine-controlled territories of Northern Africa.
  • Oct 3, 732

    Battle of Tours

    The Battle of Tours – also called the Battle of Poitiers and, by Arab sources, the Battle of the Highway of the Martyrs – marked the victory of the Frankish and Burgundian forces under Charles Martel over the invasion forces of the Umayyad Caliphate led by Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, Governor-General of al-Andalus.
  • 768

    Rule of Charlemagne

    Charlemagne (c.742-814), also known as Karl and Charles the Great, was a medieval emperor who ruled much of Western Europe from 768 to 814. ... In 800, Pope Leo III (750-816) crowned Charlemagne emperor of the Romans. In this role, he encouraged the Carolingian Renaissance, a cultural and intellectual revival in Europe.
  • 793

    Viking Invasions

    Viking expansion is the process by which Norse explorers, traders and warriors, the latter known in modern scholarship as Vikings, sailed most of the North Atlantic, reaching south to North Africa and east to Russia, Constantinople and the Middle East as looters, traders, colonists and mercenaries.
  • 862

    Missionary of St. Cyril and Methodius

    Saints Cyril and Methodius. ... In 862, when Prince Rostislav of Great Moravia asked Constantinople for missionaries, the emperor Michael III and the patriarch Photius named Cyril and Methodius. In 863 they started their work among the Slavs, using Slavonic in the liturgy.
  • 1054

    East-West Schism

    The East–West Schism, also called the Great Schism and the Schism of 1054, was the break of communion between what are now the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox churches, which had lasted until the 11th century.
  • Period: 1096 to 1291

    Crusades

    The Crusades were a series of religious wars between Christians and Muslims started primarily to secure control of holy sites considered sacred by both groups. In all, eight major Crusade expeditions occurred between 1096 and 1291.
  • Jun 15, 1215

    Magna Carta

    Magna Carta Libertatum, commonly called Magna Carta, is a charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215.
  • Period: 1296 to 1436

    Architect Brunelleschi designs the dome for the Florence Cathedral

    It was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style to a design of Arnolfo di Cambio and was structurally completed by 1436, with the dome designed by Filippo Brunelleschi.
  • 1300

    Mongol Invasion

    The Mongol invasion of Europe in the 13th century was the conquest of Europe by the Mongol Empire, by way of the destruction of East Slavic principalities, such as Kiev and Vladimir.
  • Period: 1300 to

    Renaissance

    The Renaissance is a period in European history, covering the span between the 14th and 17th centuries and marking the transition from the middle ages to modernity.
  • Period: 1308 to 1320

    Dante writes his epic poem the Divine Comedy.

    Inferno is the first part of Italian writer Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. The Inferno tells the journey of Dante through Hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil.
  • Period: 1337 to 1453

    100 year 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.
  • Period: 1347 to 1351

    Plague

    The Black Death, also known as the Great Plague, the Black Plague, or simply the Plague, was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia and peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351.
  • Period: Sep 13, 1376 to Jan 17, 1377

    The Papacy returned to Rome

    The most influential decision in the reign of Pope Gregory XI (1370–1378) was the return to Rome, beginning on 13 September 1376 and ending with his arrival on 17 January 1377.
  • Jul 6, 1415

    Jan Hus Dies

    Jan Hus , (1369 – 6 July, 1415),[2] sometimes Anglicized as John Hus or John Huss, also referred to in historical texts as Iohannes Hus or Johannes Huss) was a Czech theologian, philosopher, master, dean, and rector[3] of the Charles University in Prague who became a church reformer, an inspirer of Hussitism, a key predecessor to Protestantism and a seminal figure in the Bohemian Reformation.
  • 1418

    Henry the Navigator sets up School of Navigation

    School of Navigation: About 1418, Prince Henry started the first school for oceanic navigation along with an astronomical observatory at Sagres, Portugal. In this school, people were trained in nagivation, map-making, and science, in order to sail down the west of Africa.
  • 1418

    Dias sails around southern tip of Africa

    In 1488, Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias (c. 1450-1500) became the first European mariner to round the southern tip of Africa, opening the way for a sea route from Europe to Asia.
  • 1439

    Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press.

    Invented around 1439, Gutenberg's movable type printing press initiated nothing less than a revolution in print technology. His press allowed manuscripts to be mass-produced at relatively affordable costs. The 42-line 'Gutenberg Bible', printed around 1455, was Gutenberg's most well known printed item.
  • 1445

    The invention of printing press

    Johannes Gutenberg is usually cited as the inventor of the printing press. Indeed, the German goldsmith's 15th-century contribution to the technology was revolutionary — enabling the mass production of books and the rapid dissemination of knowledge throughout Europe.
  • May 29, 1453

    End of Eastern Empire

    On May 29, 1453, after an Ottoman army stormed Constantinople, Mehmed triumphantly entered the Hagia Sophia, which would soon be converted to the city's leading mosque. The fall of Constantinople marked the end of a glorious era for the Byzantine Empire.Aug 24, 2010
  • Period: Dec 2, 1469 to Apr 8, 1492

    Lorenzo de Medici ascends to power in Florence

    Thereafter, Lorenzo, like his grandfather Cosimo de' Medici, pursued a policy of maintaining peace, balancing power between the northern Italian states and keeping major European states such as France and the Holy Roman Empire out of Italy.
  • Period: 1477 to 1480

    Sistine Chapel

    The ceiling is that of the Sistine Chapel, the large papal chapel built within the Vatican between 1477 and 1480 by Pope Sixtus IV, for whom the chapel is named. It was painted at the commission of Pope Julius II. The chapel is the location for papal conclaves and many other important services.[1]
  • 1486

    Botticelli completed the painting The Birth of Venus.

    The Birth of Venus is a painting by the Italian artist Sandro Botticelli probably made in the mid 1480s. It depicts the goddess Venus arriving at the shore after her birth, when she had emerged from the sea fully-grown. The painting is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.
  • Period: Jun 28, 1491 to Jan 28, 1547

    King Henry VIII

    Henry VIII was King of England from 1509 until his death. Henry was the second Tudor monarch, succeeding his father, Henry VII. Henry is best known for his six marriages, in particular his efforts to have his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, annulled.
  • Aug 3, 1492

    Christopher Columbus sailed to Americas

    Christopher Columbus Discovers America, 1492. Columbus led his three ships - the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria - out of the Spanish port of Palos on August 3, 1492. His objective was to sail west until he reached Asia (the Indies) where the riches of gold, pearls and spice awaited.
  • Period: 1497 to 1499

    De Gama sails to India

    The discovery of the sea route to India is the description sometimes used in Europe and among the Portuguese for the first recorded trip made directly from Europe to India via the Atlantic Ocean. It was undertaken under the command of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama during the reign of King Manuel I in 1497–1499.
  • 1500

    Start of Counter-Reformation

    The Counter-Reformation was a movement within the Roman Catholic Church. Its main aim was to reform and improve it. It started in the 1500s. Its first period is called the Catholic Reformation.
  • 1500

    Pedro Cabral lands on Brazil

    It depicts Pedro Álvares Cabral, leader of the Portuguese expedition that discovered the land that would later be known as Brazil in 1500. Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese explorer who is credited with discovering Brazil in South America. He landed near present-day Bahia off the eastern coast of South America.
  • Period: 1500 to

    Age of Exploration

    The Novum Organum, fully Novum Organum Scientiarum, is a philosophical work by Francis Bacon, written in Latin and published in 1620. The title is a reference to Aristotle's work Organon, which was his treatise on logic and syllogism.
  • Period: 1503 to 1506

    Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa.

    The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci that has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world".
  • 1511

    Erasmus published The Praise of Folly

    In Praise of Folly, also translated as The Praise of Folly, is an essay written in Latin in 1509 by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam and first printed in June 1511.
  • Period: 1517 to

    Reformation

    The Reformation (more fully the Protestant Reformation, or the European Reformation) was a schism in Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther and continued by Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin and other Protestant Reformers in 16th-century Europe.
  • Nov 10, 1517

    Martin Luther nails 95 Theses

    The Ninety-five Theses or Disputation on the Power of Indulgences[a] is a list of propositions for an academic disputation written in 1517 by Martin Luther, professor of moral theology at the University of Wittenberg, Germany, that started the Reformation, a schism in the Roman Catholic Church which profoundly changed Europe.
  • 1519

    Magellan sails around the world (or his crew does)

    Magellan's Crew Sails.. Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese sea captain. In September 1519, he set sail on an expedition for Spain. The purpose of his voyage was to reach Asia by sailing around the Americas.
  • Period: Feb 1, 1519 to Aug 23, 1525

    Cortez defeats Aztecs

    The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, or the Spanish–Aztec War, was the conquest of the Aztec Empire by the Spanish Empire within the context of the Spanish colonization of the Americas. It was one of the most significant and complex events in world history.
  • 1520

    da Verrazzano sailed to North America

    Giovanni da Verrazzano was born around 1485 near Val di Greve, 30 miles south of Florence, Italy. Around 1506 or 1507, he began pursuing a maritime career, and in the 1520s, he was sent by King Francis I of France to explore the East Coast of North America for a route to the Pacific.
  • Period: 1532 to 1572

    Pizarro defeats Incas

    The Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, commonly known as the Spanish conquest of Peru, was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
  • 1543

    Scientific Revolution

    The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human anatomy) and chemistry transformed the views of society about nature.
  • 1543

    Copernicus’ Heliocentric Theory

    Copernican heliocentrism is the name given to the astronomical model developed by Nicolaus Copernicus and published in 1543. It positioned the Sun near the center of the Universe, motionless, with Earth and the other planets orbiting around it in circular paths modified by epicycles and at uniform speeds.
  • Period: Nov 17, 1558 to

    Elizabeth I became Queen of England.

    Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death on 24 March 1603. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the last of the five monarchs of the House of Tudor.

  • The invention of the microscope

    When the microscope was invented around 1590, suddenly we saw a new world of living things in our water, in our food and under our nose. But it's unclear who invented the microscope. Some historians say it was Hans Lippershey, most famous for filing the first patent for a telescope.

  • Hudson sails to North America

    Hudson decided to sail west to seek western passage to the Orient. According to some historians, he had heard of a way to the Pacific Ocean from North America from English explorer John Smith. Crossing the Atlantic Ocean, Hudson and his crew reached land that July, coming ashore at what is now Nova Scotia.

  • Galileo studies planets with his telescope

    In 1609, using this early version of the telescope, Galileo became the first person to record observations of the sky made with the help of a telescope. ... When Galileo pointed his telescope at Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, he made a startling discovery. The planet had four "stars" surrounding it.

  • William Shakespeare builds the Globe theatre. He will write many of his great plays over the next few years including Hamlet and Macbeth.

    William Shakespeare wrote some of the most famous plays in the world. Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Macbeth are among his best known works. Many of his plays were performed at the original Globe Theatre, a short distance from here. It burnt down in 1613, during a performance of Henry VIII.
  • Period: to

    30 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.

  • Bacon published Novum Organum

    The Novum Organum, fully Novum Organum Scientiarum, is a philosophical work by Francis Bacon, written in Latin and published in 1620. The title is a reference to Aristotle's work Organon, which was his treatise on logic and syllogism.

  • Galileo was warned by the Catholic Church

    Galileo was ordered to turn himself in to the Holy Office to begin trial for holding the belief that the Earth revolves around the Sun, which was deemed heretical by the Catholic Church. Standard practice demanded that the accused be imprisoned and secluded during the trial.

  • Peace of Westphalia

    The Peace of Westphalia (German: Westfälischer Friede) was a series of peace treaties signed between May and October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster, largely ending the European wars of religion. ... The Peace of Westphalia established the precedent of peace established by diplomatic congress.

  • Hobbes publishes Leviathan

    Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil—commonly referred to as Leviathan—is a book written by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and published in 1651 (revised Latin edition 1668).
  • Period: to

    Age of Enlightenment

    European politics, philosophy, science and communications were radically reoriented during the course of the “long 18th century” (1685-1815) as part of a movement referred to by its participants as the Age of Reason, or simply the Enlightenment.

  • Kepler discovered elliptical orbits

    Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion. While Copernicus rightly observed that the planets revolve around the Sun, it was Kepler who correctly defined their orbits. ... For many years, he struggled to make Brahe's observations of the motions of Mars match up with a circular orbit.

  • John Locke publishes Two Treatises of Government

    The Latter Is an Essay Concerning The True Original, Extent, and End of Civil Government) is a work of political philosophy published anonymously in 1689 by John Locke.

  • Montesquieu published The Spirit of Laws

    The Spirit of the Laws (French: De l'esprit des lois, originally spelled De l'esprit des loix; also sometimes translated The Spirit of Laws) is a treatise on political theory, as well as a pioneering work in comparative law, published in 1748 by Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu.

  • Voltaire publishes Candide

    Candide, ou l'Optimisme is a French satire first published in 1759 by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. The novella has been widely translated, with English versions titled Candide: or, All for the Best; Candide: or, The Optimist; and Candide: Optimism.

  • Beccaria published On Crimes and Punishments

    On Crimes and Punishments (Italian: Dei delitti e delle pene [dei deˈlitti e ddelle ˈpeːne]), is a treatise written by Cesare Beccaria in 1764. The treatise condemned torture and the death penalty and was a founding work in the field of penology.
  • Period: to

    American Revolution

    The American Revolution was a colonial revolt that took place between 1765 and 1783. The American Patriots in the Thirteen Colonies won independence from Great Britain, becoming the United States of America. They defeated the British in the American Revolutionary War in alliance with France and others.
  • Period: to

    French Revolution

    The French Revolution was a period of far-reaching social and political upheaval in France and its colonies beginning in 1789.