Timeline of World History, A.D.

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Approx. Time Events & People
1 ADUnfortunately, since the scholars designing the new calendar didn't have the concept of zero, the new Gregorian calendar is calculated to start at year 1.
9 ADBattle of Teutoberg Forest - 20,000 Roman soldiers under the command of Publius Quinctilius Varus in Germany are ambushed while in a long convoy line through the Teutoberg Forest. Many years later Emperor Augustus, desperately needing those legions, went around the palace late at night muttering, "Varus, give me back my legions."
30 Jesus is crucified.
70Jerusalem, after 6 month siege, is destroyed by Titus. 1.5 million Jews die.
85-165Claudius Ptolemy devises a framework of Astronomy which will last for 1400 years. He calculates pi as 3+8/60+30/602 which in decimals is "3.1416666...", not to bad as estimate for the time.
96-180 Rome has several consecutive "Good Emperors": Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antonius Pius and Marcus Aurelius .
120s Roman Emperor Hadrian begins the impressive defensive wall in the north of England to keep out the Picts and other warring tribes.
313Edict of Milan is issued. Christians are now tolerated in the Roman Empire.
361 Emperor Julian, "The Apostate," tries to return the Empire back to the Pagan religions.
378, January 8 Mayan envoy "Fire Is Born" enters the city of Waka. He will consolidate the small Mayan city states and launch the Mayan golden age that will endure for five centuries.
378, August 9The Battle of Adrianople (Hadrianopolis) - the beginning of the end of Roman military power. Not waiting for reinforcements, Emperor Valens gives the order to his weary men to attack the circled wagons of the Goths. In a surprise to all, the absent Gothic Cavalry returns just as the battle is about to begin. The heavy Cavalry routes the light horsemen of the Romans and is victorious over the Roman infantry. Some scholars think this was a historic turning point in the tactics of warfare when the Cavalry gained supremacy over infantry. Others counter that the Roman infantry could have withstood the Cavalry if they had been properly rested, trained, and had a better commander. In either case the Battle of Adrianople shook the confidence of the Roman Empire and the Romans dealt in a defensive manner with the Goths. The Goths were originally glad to be allowed to enter the Empire, but were treated very badly and abused by corrupt Roman administrators. This treatment angered the Goths and they turned against the Romans.
410Rome sacked by Visigoths under Alaric
496Clovis converts to orthodox Christianity
570Mohammad born. Syria, Jerusalem, Egypt, Persia, & N. Africa fall to Muslim armies many decades later.
632 Muhammad dies.
637 A vastly superior army of Iranian Sassanians is defeated by determined Arab Muslims in the battle of Qadisiyya.
657-680 The earliest poem written in English, Caedmon's Hymn, is composed.
732Battle of Tours, Charles Martel stops a Muslim army and the Muslim advance into Western Europe.
793 Vikings start raiding Ireland.
800The "Medieval Warming Period" starts and lasts until 1315 or 1350. The Vikings settle Greenland. English farmers grow grapes for wine. Temperatures rise in Europe and farming does well. The population on Europe swells.
999 Gerbert (940-1003) becomes Pope Sylvester II and writes about "Arabic" numerals. Unfortunately the new numbering system doesn't really take hold in Europe until the 14th century. From Paul Gans "It should be noted that the Arabic numerals were neither invented by nor used by the Arabs. They were developed in India by the Hindus around 600 AD." (I dimly remember reading about "counting boards" being used with roman numerals in US Colonial times. Does anyone else remember hearing that?)
1009 An army led by Caliph al-Hakim destroys the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. This desecration will be a rallying point for the Crusades to come.
1095 Pope Urban II calls for the First Crusade to protect the Christian pilgrims from attack. In 1099 they succeed.
1024 The Chinese issue the first paper money.
1066 Harold Godwinson wins the Battle of Stamford Bridge and a second battle at Fulford against the Viking invaders of England lead by Harold Hardraada. Harold then marched his weary army to Hastings to meet yet another invader, Duke William of Normandy. Harold Godwinson was defeated, and the period of Norman domination began. William brought with him the French practice of building stone castles. Few stone castles had been in England before, but by only 1100 England had 84.
1086 The Doomsday Book is written for William the Conqueror to detail the wealth and property of England.
1099 The first crusade captures Jerusalem.
1140 Angkor Wat, a huge temple complex, is built in Cambodia.
1144 Second Crusade started by Bernard of Clairveaux after the Christian kingdom of Edessa falls to Muslims.
1149 Oxford University is founded in Oxford England.
1175 The Toltec civilization collapses in Mexico.
1187 The magnetic compass becomes common for ocean going ships.
1202 Leonardo Fibonacci publishes "The Book of the Abacus" and revolutionizes mathematics in Europe.
1206 Genghis Khan leads the Mongol armies. 30 to 60 million people are killed in their campaigns building the largest known land empire. It stretched from the Pacific Ocean to the Black Sea.
1204 On the way to the holy land for the Fourth Crusade, the Crusaders get a little confused and take over Constantinople instead.
1215, June 15 King John of England and his nobles sign the Magna Carta.
1223 Genghis Kahn invades Russia.
1241 April 9The Battle of Liegnitz is fought between Prince Henry and the Mongols commanded by Batu Khan for control of Poland. Tho Mongols successfully defeated another European army.
1250 European sailors now begin to use the magnetic compass.
1251, June 15 England's King John puts his stamp on the Magna Carta binding himself to obey the country's laws such as Habeas Corpus
No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned,...or in any other way destroyed...except by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to none will we deny or delay, right or justice..
1275 Marco Polo starts on his alleged trip to China. He returns in 1295 to Venice.
1281, August After conquering most of Asia, Kublai Khan invades Japan with 4,400 ships and 140,000 soldiers, but a Typhoon, a "Divine wind", (Kamikaze) destroys most of the fleet. 70,000 troops die in the storm - the worst naval disaster in history.
1285 Spectacles for the farsighted are invented in Italy.
1300 Eyeglasses are common in Rome for scholars.
1300 After 1,500 years, the Anasazi of Arizona abandon their cliff dwellings for unknown reasons.
1300 Gunpowder is being used for warfare in England after being introduced to Europe in 1242.
1315Great Famine of 1315-1317Torrential rains and cool weather devastate crops in Europe. Millions die. Criminal activity increases. Acts of cannibalism, infanticide, and child abandonment abound.
1309 Pope Clement V moves papacy to Avignon, starting the 70 year "Babylonian Exile".
1337 Timur-i Lang (Tamerlane) a Muslim conqueror of Mongol descent, is born. Through a savage campaign, he wins a huge territory in the middle east and Asia. Some think his feats rival Alexander the Great. 17 million people may have died from his conquests.
1346 The Black Plague (aka Bubonic) enters Europe and kills about 75 million. Contemporary accounts place the death toll at one third of inhabitants. Vast social changes result. Workers become a scarce commodity, increasing their bargaining power with employers. Farm land reverts back to forests as the number of farmers decrease.
1346 English defeat the French at battle of Crecy.
1415 Using the Welsh longbow, the English devastate the French at Agincourt.
1431 Joan of Arc burned at the stake. She is credited with leading the French in victory over the English. The English had been dominating France since Agincourt. The Welsh Longbow was a major reason. Joan of Arc was helped by artillery that could now damage castle walls.
1453The Christian kingdom of Constantinople finally falls to the Muslims. Mahomet II using European artillery mercenaries destroys the walls. This is the first use of a forward observer to direct artillery fire whose crews cannot see their targets. In a sense this is the final fall of the Roman Empire.
1455 German inventor Johann Gutenberg revolutionizes knowledge transfer. He improves or invents three items: the printing press, movable metal type, and an oil-based ink. His first work is the 42-line Bible.
1476 The Chimu civilization in Peru is defeated by the rising power of the Inca. The Chimu started around 1100.
1485 The "Sweating Sickness", a devastating illness, hits England. Henry VIII's older brother dies of the disease, paving the way for him to become king. Several outbreaks occur until 1551 when it mysteriously disappears.
1487 Aztec ruler Ahuitzotl sacrifices 20,000 prisoners to the Aztec war god Huitzilopochtli.
1489 Instead of using abbreviated words to indicate addition and subtraction, German mathematician Johann Widmann starts the practice of using the symbols "+" and "-".
1492, October 12 Queen Isabella's advisers correctly state that China could be visited by going West since they knew the earth was round, but that a ship would run out of supplies first since it was so far. Christopher Columbus uses some creative math and Fortunately for Christopher Columbus the Americas got in the way. He lands in the Bahamas. He dies in 1506 still thinking he had landed in Asia.
1494 Charles VIII invades Italy with new bronze cannons. The French break through in eight hours the fortress walls of Monte San Giovanni, which had previously withstood a siege of seven years. The arrival of the mobile cannon greatly reduces the value of fortresses and had wide political impact - mostly increasing the power of kings over their nobles, since nobles could no longer defy the king and hide behind their castle walls.
1498, May 20 Captain Vasco da Gama becomes the first European to travel to India via sea. He arrives in the city of Calicut and receives a hostile welcome from the traders. Tensions run high; many people are killed. daGama returns later with 20 warships to enforce trade agreements.
1504, Feb. 29 Columbus is shipwrecked on Jamaica with the locals being less inclined to provide food for his sailors. Columbus, after consulting his almanac, tells the Jamaicans that God is displeased with them and He will blot out the moon in three days. An eclipse does occur and the locals energetically resupply Columbus.
1513 Vasco Nunez de Balboa is the first European to see the Pacific ocean. Jealous of his fame, members of the Spanish court convince the King that Balboa is guilty of treason. Balboa is beheaded in 1519.
1514 After studying in Italy, Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) returns to Poland convinced that the earth revolves around the sun. He dedicates his work to his friend Pope Paul III.
1517 An Augustinian monk, Martin Luther, nails his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg; unknowingly initiating the Protestant revolution.
1519 Ferdinand Magellan starts what will be the first circumnavigation of the globe. He is killed in 1521, but 15 of his sailors will continue back to Europe.
1521 Hernando Cortez conquers the Aztec empire by turning its neighbors against it.
1521, May The Constable of France, Charles de Bourbon, attacks Rome. He is killed early by a crossbow dart, but his army sacks the treasures of ages from the eternal city.
1533 With 150 men Francisco Pizarro conquers the Inca empire of six million people.
1536 John Calvin writes The Institutes of the Christian Religion.
1550-1850 The Little Ice Age strikes Europe. After the Medieval Warming Period, when climate was ideal for raising grains in Europe, temperatures start to fall, and with them the fortunes of many in Europe. Crops fail and many starve and freeze to death.
1556 Earthquake in China kills 830,000.
1572 The Massacre of St. Bartholomew. Tens of thousands of Huguenots (French Protestants) are killed in France.
1575 In Japan two armies meet. The side with guns wins for the first time, yet by mutual agreement, guns are outlawed 100 years later.
1585Thomas Hariot first writes about an amazing herbal remedy introduced to him by the local peoples of America called tobacco. (It's really the revenge of the indigenous peoples of America - its killed more Europeans than they could have imagined).
1582, October 4To correct for the drifting of the equinox from March 21, Pope Gregory XIII decrees that the next day would be October 15. Not all countries obey his edict and many disputes arise over interest to be paid, and wages.
1569Gerardus Mercator publishes his cylindrical projection of the earth.
1588, May 19Philip II's "Invincible" Spanish Armada of 130 ships embark for England, but are delayed by bad weather, giving the English more time to prepare. The outnumbered English navy win a decisive victory and destroy half the Armada.
March 20, 1602 United East India Company (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie ), or the VOC founded. This was the first multinational joint-stock company, a landmark in economic development. The VOC prospered for centuries, but went bankrupt in 1795 due to corruption and poor management.
1603, Feb 7 Battle at Glenfruin when the MacGregors slaughtered the Colquhouns (my ancestors).
1617, Apr 4 John Napier, inventor of logarithms (1614) and Napier's Bones (ivory sticks which foreshadowed the slide rule) dies in Edinburgh.
1619 Johann Kepler finally solves the mystery of the motion of the planets. The early Greeks thought the study of the heavens was the highest calling of mankind and Johann discovered the plan. He stated three laws of planetary motion. His third law states: "The squares of the planets' orbital periods are proportional to the cubes of the semi-major axes of their orbits." I personally think he is one of the most underrated scientist in history.
16481/4 of Polish Jews are massacred, many move to Jerusalem.
1685 The Edict of Nantes revoked by Louis XIV in France. Many Huguenots are killed and many (like my ancestors) flee France.
1653,Dec 16 Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1686 Isaac Newton writes Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy which shows the laws of the heavens are the same as the laws of earth.
1707, OctoberFour British warships lead by Admiral Shovell run aground on the Scilly Islands off the English coast killing 2000 sailors. This intensifies the search for a solution to "The Longitude Problem". Eventually solved by John Harrison with an accurate clock.
1712Thomas Newcomen creates the first successful steam engine used to evacuate water from mines
1735Carolus Linneaus creates a taxonomic system for naming species
1754Scottish chemist Joseph Black discovers carbon dioxide and later the latent heat of fusion.
1763, February 10The French and Indian War is ended with the Treaty of Paris. Britain gains all of North American east of the Mississippi (sans New Orleans), important parts of India, and various islands from the French. Many American colonists, most notably George Washington, gain military experience in the conflict.
1776The American colonies declare themselves independent of Great Britain.
1776, September 6David Bushnell navigates his primitive submarine, the Turtle, toward a British ship. His attempt at sinking the ship fails, but scares the blockading British ship away.
1777, September 7A British sharpshooter, Major Patrick Ferguson, has an American officer in his sights, but does not fire, since it would be unprofessional to kill an unsuspecting officer. The officer is later revealed to be George Washington.
1778, January 18James Cook is the first European to travel to Hawaii.
1781, October 19General Cornwallis surrenders to the colonists in American while the band plays "The World Turned Upside Down". 25,000 Americans died in the war.
1783, November 21First manned hot air balloon flight in Paris by Jean Francois Pilatre de Rozier and Marquis D'Arlands.
1786 Sir William Jones, Chief Justice of India, proposes that Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and many European languages were all descended from a common Proto-Indo-European language.
1789, July 14The French Revolution begins with the storming of the Bastille to free prisoners. Oddly enough the Bastille was empty of any real prisoners.
1795The Metric system of measurement was introduced into France.
1796, May 14After noticing that milkmaids who had contracted cowpox never suffered the horrors of smallpox, English physician Edward Jenner infects a boy with cowpox and later infects him with smallpox. The boy never develops smallpox. Countless lives are saved through his simple observation.
1798Thomas Malthus publishes An Essay on the Principle of Population claiming starvation was inevitable for the human race. Oddly enough, 200 years later the world is better feed than ever, but many still believe him.
1798, June 18Napoleon Bonaparte conquers Malta and outlaws slavery.
1801Joseph-Marie Jacquard invents a loom that uses punched cards to create designs in fabric. Workers fearful for their jobs threw their sabots, or shoes, into the machines to destroy them; giving rise to our word 'sabotage'.
1804Napoleon is crowned Emperor of France.
1805 Napoleon's navy defeated at the Battle of Trafalgar by Nelson.
1805, April 27 William Eaton leads the first American overseas military action on land. Against enormous odds, the Marines and mercenaries take the city of Derna, Tripoli.
1809 Napoleon Bonaparte awards Nicolas Appert the 12,000 franc prize for preserving food in bottles. Napoleon now had a way to easily supply his troops with food. Appert is known as the father of canning. He put food in jars and heating them for as long as he thought necessary. The process was killing bacteria, although Louis Pasteur would not discover why Appert method worked for 100 years.
1812, June 24 Napoleon takes Moscow, but its a hallow victory. The city is burned to the ground and the Tsar does not surrender. Napoleon and whats left of the Grand Armee retreat.
1814 The Battle of Trafalgar. The British fleet under the command of Horatio Nelson defeats a combined Spanish-French Fleet. AGAMEMNON was the name of one of his ships (see Babylon5).
1814 During the War of 1812, the British under the command of General Robert Ross attack Washington DC and burned the White House, but not before enjoying a lovely dinner prepared by Dolly Madison before she fled.
1815, June 18 Napoleon defeated at Waterloo
1816 The Year Without a Summer. Mount Tambora erupts and throws so much dust in the air that it causes 10 inches of snow to fall in June in New England (US). Crops fail and famine is common. Many blame Benjamin Franklin and his experiments with electricity for the freak weather. Mary Shelley is forced inside and writes Frankenstein.
1822 Jakob Grimm, of Grimm Fairy Tales fame, proposes 'Grimm's Law' - that many consonants have shifted in a consistent way from Non-Germanic languages (like Latin and Greek) to Germanic languages (like English). For example, 'p's become 'f's, as in Latin 'pater' becoming English 'father'; Latin 'pisces' becomes English 'fish'.
1833 Charles Babbage designs the Difference Machine - a forerunner of the modern computer. Traditionally it was thought to fail because metallurgy was not yet advanced enough. Recent views blame his machinist for wasting the money and being lazy.
1833 England outlaws slavery and frees 780,993 slaves in its possessions.
1838, October 5 Killough Massacre - an outpost of settlers in East Texas is attacked by renegade Cherokee, Caddo, Coushatta, Mexicans and several runaway slaves. Eighteen people were killed or kidnapped. This lead to an outrage of white settlers and many of the Cherokee were forced to leave Texas.
1844, May 24Samuel Morse telegraphs "What hath God wrought?" from Washington to Baltimore. Many people thought the telegraph would help end wars, since opposing sides could "talk" out their differences.
1845-1848 The Great Hunger (aka Potato Famine). Blight causes potato crop to fail. 1.5 million die of starvation and disease. Ireland still exports grain to England to pay rents. Help from England was too little too late.
1847, Sept 14United States troops enter Mexico City under the command of General Winfield Scott. A treaty ending the Mexican American war was signed in February.
1847Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian doctor, noticing the high incidence of childhood fevers, suggests that after doing autopsies physicians should wash their hands before delivering babies. His theory that disease is transmitted by some "cadaveric material" instead of an imbalance of humors is ridiculed and he is eventually fired.
1848, February 26Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels publish a little pamphlet, The Communist Manifesto.
1854, July 8 Admiral Perry visits Japan with his Black Ships and forces Japan to trade with the US. Japan had been in virtual isolation for two hundred years and had no defense against the cannons of Perry's fleet. This initiated a rapid industrialization in Japan resulting in a world class navy which defeated the Russians in 1904.
1854, October 25 During the Crimean War, Lord Cardigan led the British cavalry against the Russians in what would become known as "The Charge of the Light Brigade".
1856Louis Pasteur shows that disease is spread from tiny, little organisms, instead of bad vapors. Germ theory is born.
1859 Charles Darwin publishes Origin of Species.
1859Edwin Drake drills the first producing oil well in Titusville, PA.
1860 James Clerk Maxwell completes his four equations of electromagnetism.
1860 Herman Hollerith invents an electronic tabulator for the US Census. He starts a company that eventually becomes IBM.
1850Le Napoleon, the first steam-powered warship with screws for propulsion is built.
1860, JulyBased on the Le Napoleon design, the ironclad French warship, La Gloire is commissioned with 4.7-inch iron plates to protect her sides. A single screw and three masts provide power. The British quickly counter with the larger ironclad HMS Warrior. France does not have the industrial base to produce many of the ships, and the British soon take the lead in an expensive arms race.
1862, March 8 The ironclad CSS Virginia destroys two Union ships sweeping away hundreds of years of military ship design - the days of the wooden warship in the New World end today.
1864, February 17 The Confederate H. L. Hunley becomes the first submarine to sink an enemy ship, the Union Housatonic. The Hunley sinks shortly afterwords killing all nine men on board.
1864, April 19 The CSS Albemarle, a Confederate ironclad designed by a 19 year old, and built in a corn field from scrap iron, sinks a Union ship and wins the Battle of Plymouth for the South.
1865 Augustinian monk Gregor Mendel lays the foundation for modern genetics
1862, May 4 A scout in the Civil War became the first person to be killed by a pressure activated land mine. This novel instrument of war was developed by Southern Gabriel J. Rains. and has been a scourge of the earth ever since. Land mines caused a third of the American injuries in Vietnam War.
1866 Prussia invades Austria. Prussia had smartly sent observers to the American Civil War. They learned of railroads, telegraphs, and new firearms. The Prussians used this newfound knowledge in a war with Austria. They slaughtered the Austrians using their new Needle guns which used a cartridge instead of muzzle loading, and could be reloaded in a prone position. With the railroads they brought fresh troops quickly to battle areas.
1866 The United States and Europe are connected by a 2,500 mile long telegraph table.
1867, August 2 Using their new .50 caliber Springfield breech loading rifles, 26 soldiers from Fort Kearny, Wyoming fend off 1,500 Lakota Indians led by Red Cloud in "The Wagon Box Fight". The Lakota attacked in waves. The second wave expected to kill the reloading soldiers, but instead were greeted by a round of bullets from the new repeating rifles. Three soldiers and approximately 50 Indians were killed.
1876 Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.
1876 Michelson and Morley fail to verify the existence of the ether.
1876 At the Battle of Little Big Horn, the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Crow Indians defeated General George Custer's troops. Many have speculated that if Custer had not split his troops, and kept the cannon, he could have won easily. 25% of the Indians are estimated to have had superior weapons than the US Cavalry. The Indians had Spencers, Winchesters, and Henry repeating rifles. Custer's men were armed primarily with the Springfield single shot rifles.
August 26,1883 The island volcano of Krakatoa in Indonesia brilliantly explodes. 36,000 people are killed. The tide is influenced in England and fine volcanic dust settles in New York. The sound of the explosion is heard 3,000 miles away.
1898, 13 August The USS Maine explodes in Havana harbor. Initial investigations blame a Spanish mine. This fuels the fire in America and the Spanish-American war starts. Later results show the explosion was probably caused by a coal dust explosion - how mighty events are set in motion from a tiny spark.
1899-1902 The descendants of the Dutch fight for independence from Britain in the Boer War. The technology foreshadow WWI - machine guns and barb wire.
1901 Guglielmo Marconi sends the first wireless transatlantic radio signal from England to Newfoundland.
1904 Japanese sink half the Russian fleet in the opening move of the Russo-Japanese war. The Russians badly underestimate the modern Japanese fleet which a year later destroys most of the remaining navy.
1905A patent clerk, Albert Einstein, publishes his theory of relativity and also states energy equals matter (E = mc2)
1906 HMS Dreadnought starts new era in warships. It was unique in some of the following ways: more armor (11 inch plate), larger than predecessors (18,000 tons), used steam turbine engine for more power, had only large 12 inch caliber guns. The Dreadnought battleship made all other ships obsolete and started a very expensive arms race.
1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright fly the first heavier than air craft.
1911 Rutherford proposes the 'Solar System' model of the atom.
1911 Instead of each state's legislature selecting them, United States senators are to be elected by popular vote.
1912 The unsinkable Titanic goes down with over 1,500 souls. A steward from the White Star Line is reported as having said, "Not even God Himself can sink this ship". "Hubris" is what the Greeks called it.
1914, August 3 Germany declares war on France starting the "war to end all wars".
1916, April Ernest Shackleton, Frank Worsley, and four others begin a treacherous 800-mile ocean crossing from Antarctica to South Georgia Island in what will be, according to many, the greatest sailing journey of all time. Their original ship, the Endurance was crushed in the ice so six of the men set sail in one of the life boats, the James Caird, to get help for the others trapped back in Antarctica.
1916 Einstein publishes his 'General Relativity' paper.
1916, 31 May The Battle of Jutland. The first and last great battle of the Dreadnought class ships. Britain and Germany spent untold fortunes to build and man these ship, but battle was inconclusive. Airpower would soon make these largely obsolete.
1916 The First Battle of the Somme began. It lasted five months and the death toll of over one million was for the sake of an Allied advance of 125 square miles.
1917, Apr 6The United States enters World War I against Germany. The tide of the war is already against the Germans. 10 million people will die from the war.
1918, November 11On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month World War II is officially over. The treaty was signed at 5am with hostilities to cease at 11am. During those 6 hours, 2,738 soldiers died, 320 of those were American. American commanders who knew the war was to be over in hours still sent soldiers into battle to "punish" the Germans.
1918Influenza virus kills 20 million people. About a quarter of the US population catches it and 2 to 3% die from it.
1923DeBroglie proposes the matter-wave theory.
1923Heisenberg probably stated his uncertainty principle.
1928 First Soviet 5-year Plan. 5 million Ukrainian peasants are deliberately starved to death. Visiting journalists ignore famine and praise Stalin's success.
1928 Sept 15Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming notices penicillin mold killing a staphylococcus culture. The revolution of antibiotics is started.
1930 The "planet" Pluto discovered
1932 Sir James Chadwick discovers the neutron
1933 Ernst Ruska creates the first electron microscope in Germany. His invention was fundamental to the progression of science since scientist could now peer deeper into living cells.
1937, May 6 The German airship Hindenburg explodes in New Jersey. Amazingly 61 of the 97 persons aboard survive.
1938 Samuel Morse demonstrates the telegraph in public
1938, November 10 Kristallnacht, a night of terror visited upon the Jews of Germany by the Nazis. Hundreds of Jews are killed and the glass from synagogues and businesses are shattered onto the streets.
1939, November 30 The Soviet Union invades Finland and starts the Russo-Finish War. The Soviets do so poorly against such a weaker opponent that Hitler is confirmed in his belief that the political purge eviscerated the Red Army. The Soviets do win the war on March 12, 1940.
1940 Alan Turing with help from Polish sources and Cambridge mathematician, W. G. Welchman breaks the German Enigma code saving countless Allied lives.
1941, June 22 Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia, is launched 129 years to the day after Napoleon crossed the Niemen into Russia. Stalin did not believe the numerous intelligence reports detailing the German buildup. It was the largest military operation ever mounted.
1941, December 8 Japanese attack Wake island. The defenders of the tiny island fight against overwhelming odds and hold the island, providing the first victory for the US in the Pacific. Reinforcements are sent from Hawaii, but later, in a very controversial decision, recalled back to Hawaii. The Wake island defenders push back advancing Japanese soldiers, but the American officers surrender the island on December 23, in another controversial decision.
1942, December 2At the University of Chicago Enrico Fermi and friends generate the first self-sustained nuclear reaction.
1942, February 23A Japanese submarine shells an oil refinery near Santa Barbara California
1942, May 7Carrier groups of Japanese and Americans fight the Battle of the Coral Sea. This is the first time that the ships fighting never had sight of each other; airplanes did the damage. Although the battle is a draw, one carrier loss for both sides, the Japanese invasion plans in the south are thwarted.
1943, July 12The largest tank engagement, the Battle of Kursk, is fought between the Germans and the Russians.
1943, September 9The battleship Roma is attacked by two German Fritz X bombs, becoming the first vessel sunk by a guided weapon.
1944, June 6The largest amphibious landing in history, the invasion of Normandy, starts. This begins the end for the Third Reich (well, unless you talk with the Russians about the Eastern Front).
1945, March 9-10First fire-bombing of Tokyo.
1945, August 6 At 08:16, the B-29 Enola Gay, piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets, dropped an atomic bomb containing 60 kg of uranium-235 on Hiroshima Japan, killing an estimated 80,000 civilians outright and perhaps over 200,000 total.
1945, August 9The B-29 named "Bocks Car" dropped a the bomb, "Fat Man", containing 8 kg of plutonium-239 on Nagasaki Japan. (The B-29 program cost 3 million dollars, while the atomic bomb cost less, 2 million).
1945, August 14 VJ Day - Japan surrenders in WWII eight days after the second atom bomb is dropped. His subjects hear Emperor Hirohito voice the next day for the first time on the radio as he announces the surrender.
1946 Jack T. Mullin builds a tape recorder based on the German Magnetophon he saw in studio of Radio Frankfurt in Bad Nauheim after the war. Bing Crosby uses it to tape delay his show. Radio was never the same.
1949 Half of all the gold mined in history, 22,000 tons, is in the United States.
1954, January 21 Nautilus, the first nuclear powered submarine, is launched.
1957 Sputnik I becomes the first man-made satellite.
1960, January 23 Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh travel to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the lowest point on earth, in the Bathyscaphe Trieste. Oddly, no one has ever gone back a second time.
1961, January 3 An experimental nuclear power plant in Idaho, the SL-1, goes "prompt critical" during maintenance and kills three Army specialists. The reactor is buried on site.
1961, April 11 Yuri A. Gargarin becomes the first human in space and to orbit the earth
1964 Quarks are proposed to be the basic building blocks of most matter.
1966, January 17A US B52 bomber loaded with four nuclear weapons taking part in operation Chrome Dome crashes after colliding with its refueling tanker near Palomare Spain. Three of the four weapons are recovered quickly and the fourth falls into the Mediterranean and is recovered later as "the most expensive, intensive, harrowing and feverish underwater search for a man-made object in world history." Some plutonium is scattered around the area and cleaned up by the US government.
1967, June 11A UN brokered cease fire ends the Arab-Israeli six day war. Israel doubles in size and gains all of Jerusalem.
1969The first four nodes of the ARPAnet are connected, becoming the forerunner of this thing we call "The Internet".
1969, July 20Neil Armstrong walks on the surface of the moon.
1973Gary Kildall writes the CP/M operating system for his home computer so he doesn't have to drive to work to program the mainframe.
1984Largest bio-terrorist attack in the United States modern history occurs in The Dalles, Oregon. 751 people become ill with the salmonella bacteria spread by followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.
1994Hutus massacre 800,000 Tutsis in a few weeks using machetes and clubs (Why can't we all just get along?)
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