Timeline of Modern history

## 1500s

* 1500: Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain was born.
* 1500: Guru Nanak the beginning and spreading of the 5th largest religion in the world Sikhism.
* 1500: Spanish navigator Vicente Yáñez Pinzón encounters Brazil but is prevented from claiming it by the Treaty of Tordesillas.
* 1500: Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral claims Brazil for Portugal.
* 1500: The Ottoman fleet of Kemal Reis defeats the Venetians at the Second Battle of Lepanto.
* 1501: Michelangelo returns to his native Florence to begin work on the statue *David*.
* 1501: Safavid dynasty reunified Iran and ruled over it until 1736. Safavids adopt a Shia branch of Islam.
* 1502: First reported African slaves in The New World
* 1503: Foundation of the Sultanate of Sennar by Amara Dunqas, in what is modern Sudan
* 1503: Spain defeats France at the Battle of Cerignola. Considered to be the first battle in history won by gunpowder small arms.
* 1503: Leonardo da Vinci begins painting the *Mona Lisa* and completes it three years later.
* 1503: Nostradamus was born on either December 14, or December 21.
* 1504: A period of drought, with famine in all of Spain.
* 1504: Death of Isabella I of Castile, Joanna of Castille became the Queen.
* 1505: Zhengde Emperor ascended the throne of Ming Dynasty.
* 1505: Martin Luther enters St. Augustine's Monastery at Erfurt, Germany, on 17 July and begins his journey to instigating the Reformation.
* 1505: King Sultan Trenggono built the first Muslim kingdom in Java, called Demak, in Indonesia. Many other small kingdoms were established in other islands to fight against Portuguese. Each kingdom introduced local language as a way of communication and unity.
* 1506: Leonardo da Vinci completes the *Mona Lisa*.
* 1506: King Afonso I of Kongo wins the battle of Mbanza Kongo, resulting in Catholicism becoming Kongo's state religion.
* 1506: At least two thousand converted Jews are massacred in a Lisbon riot, Portugal.
* 1506: Christopher Columbus dies in Valladolid, Spain.
* 1506: Poland is invaded by Tatars from the Crimean Khanate.
* 1507: The first recorded epidemic of smallpox in the New World on the island of Hispaniola. It devastates the native Taíno population.
* 1507: Afonso de Albuquerque conquered Hormuz and Muscat, among other bases in the Persian Gulf, taking control of the region at the entrance of the Gulf.
* 1508–1512: Michelangelo paints the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
* 1509: The Battle of Diu marks the beginning of Portuguese dominance of the Spice trade and the Indian Ocean.
* 1509: The Portuguese king sends Diogo Lopes de Sequeira to find Malacca, the eastern terminus of Asian trade. After initially receiving Sequeira, Sultan Mahmud Syah captures and/or kills several of his men and attempts an assault on the four Portuguese ships, which escape. The Javanese fleet is also destroyed in Malacca.

   .

## 1510s

* 1509–10: The 'great plague' in various parts of Tudor England.
* 1511: Afonso de Albuquerque of Portugal conquers Malacca, the capital of the Sultanate of Malacca in present-day Malaysia.
* 1512: Copernicus writes *Commentariolus*, and proclaims the sun the center of the solar system.
* 1512: The southern part (historical core) of the Kingdom of Navarre is invaded by Castile and Aragon.
* 1512: The first Portuguese exploratory expedition was sent eastward from Malacca (in present-day Malaysia) to search for the 'Spice Islands' (Maluku) led by Francisco Serrão. Serrao is shipwrecked but struggles on to Hitu (northern Ambon) and wins the favour of the local rulers.
* 1513: Machiavelli writes *The Prince*, a treatise about political philosophy
* 1513: The Portuguese mariner Jorge Álvares lands at Macau, China, during the Ming Dynasty.
* 1513: Henry VIII defeats the French at the Battle of the Spurs.
* 1513: The Battle of Flodden Field in which invading Scots are defeated by Henry VIII's forces.
* 1513: Sultan Selim I ("The Grim") orders the massacre of Shia Muslims in Anatolia (present-day Turkey).
* 1513: Vasco Núñez de Balboa, in service of Spain arrives at the Pacific Ocean (which he called Mar del Sur) across the Isthmus of Panama. He was the first European to do so.
* 1514: The Battle of Orsha halts Muscovy's expansion into Eastern Europe.
* 1514: Dózsa rebellion (peasant revolt) in Hungary.
* 1514: The Battle of Chaldiran, the Ottoman Empire gains decisive victory against Safavid dynasty.
* 1515: The Ottoman Empire wrests Eastern Anatolia from the Safavids after the Battle of Chaldiran.
* 1516–1517: The Ottomans defeat the Mamluks and gain control of Egypt, Arabia, and the Levant.
* 1517: The Sweating sickness epidemic in Tudor England.
* 1517: The Protestant Reformation begins when Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses in Saxony.
* 1518: Mir Chakar Khan Rind leaves Baluchistan and settles in Punjab.
* 1518: Leo Africanus, also known as al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan al-Fasi, an Andalusian Berber diplomat who is best known for his book *Descrittione dell’Africa* (Description of Africa), is captured by Spanish pirates; he is taken to Rome and presented to Pope Leo X.
* 1518: The dancing plague of 1518 begins in Strasbourg, lasting for about one month.
* 1519: Leonardo da Vinci dies of natural causes on May 2.
* 1519: Wang Yangming, the Chinese philosopher and governor of Jiangxi province, describes his intent to use the firepower of the *fo-lang-ji*, a breech-loading Portuguese culverin, in order to suppress the rebellion of Prince Zhu Chen-hao.
* 1519: Barbary pirates led by Hayreddin Barbarossa a Turk appointed to ruling position in Algiers by the Ottoman Empire, raid Provence and Toulon in southern France.
* 1519: Charles I of Spain becomes Emperor of Holy Roman Empire as Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (ruled until 1556).
* 1519–1522: Spanish expedition commanded by Magellan and Elcano first to circle Earth
* 1519–1521: Hernán Cortés leads the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

## 1520s

* 1520–1566: The reign of Suleiman the Magnificent marks the zenith of the Ottoman Empire.
* 1520: The first European diplomatic mission to Ethiopia, sent by the Portuguese, arrives at Massawa 9 April, and reaches the imperial encampment of Emperor Dawit II in Shewa 9 October.
* 1520: The Yousafzais defeat Dilazaks at the battle of Katlang to found the Yousafzai dynasty in Pakhtunkhwa in modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan.
* 1520: The Portuguese established a trading post in the village of Lamakera on the eastern side of Solor (in present-day Indonesia) as a transit harbour between Maluku and Malacca.
* 1520: Sultan Ali Mughayat Shah of Aceh begins an expansionist campaign capturing Daya on the west Sumatran coast (in present-day Indonesia), and the pepper and gold producing lands on the east coast.
* 1521: Belgrade (in present-day Serbia) is captured by the Ottoman Empire.
* 1521: After building fortifications at Tuen Mun, the Portuguese attempt to invade Ming Dynasty China, but are expelled by Chinese naval forces.
* 1521: Philippines encountered by Ferdinand Magellan. He was later killed in battle in central Philippines in the same year.
* 1521: Jiajing Emperor ascended the throne of Ming Dynasty, China.
* 1521: November, Ferdinand Magellan's expedition reaches Maluku (in present-day Indonesia) and after trade with Ternate returns to Europe with a load of cloves.
* 1521: Pati Unus led invasion of Malacca (in present-day Malaysia) against the Portuguese occupation. Pati Unus was killed in this battle, and was succeeded by his brother, king Trenggana.
* 1522: Rhodes falls to the Ottomans in the days of Suleiman the Magnificent.
* 1522: The Portuguese ally themselves with the rulers of Ternate (in present-day Indonesia) and begin construction of a fort.
* 1522: August, Luso Sundanese Treaty signed between Portugal and Sunda Kingdom granted Portuguese permit to build fortress in Sunda Kelapa
* 1523: Sweden gains independence from the Kalmar Union.
* 1523: The cacao bean was introduced to Spain by Hernán Cortés
* 1524–1525: German Peasants' War in the Holy Roman Empire.
* 1524 – Giovanni da Verrazzano is the first European to explore the Atlantic coast of North America between South Carolina and Newfoundland.
* 1524 – Ismail I, the founder of Safavid dynasty, dies and Tahmasp I becomes king.
* 1525: Spain and Germany defeat France at the Battle of Pavia, Francis I of France is captured.
* 1526: The Ottomans defeat the Kingdom of Hungary at the Battle of Mohács.
* 1526: Mughal Empire, founded by Babur, rules India until 1857.
* 1527: Sack of Rome with Pope Clement VII escaping and the Swiss Guards defending the Vatican being killed. The sack of the city of Rome considered the end of the Italian Renaissance.

* 1527: Protestant Reformation begins in Sweden.
* 1527: The last ruler of Majapahit falls from power. This state (located in present-day Indonesia) was finally extinguished at the hands of the Demak. A large number of courtiers, artisans, priests, and members of the royalty moved east to the island of Bali; however, the power and the seat of government transferred to Demak under the leadership of Pangeran, later Sultan Fatah.
* 1527: June 22, The Javanese Prince Fatahillah of the Cirebon Sultanate successfully defeated the Portuguese armed forces at the site of the Sunda Kelapa Harbor. The city was then renamed Jayakarta, meaning "a glorious victory." This eventful day came to be acknowledged as Jakarta's Founding Anniversary.
* 1529: The Austrians defeat the Ottoman Empire at the Siege of Vienna.
* 1529: Treaty of Zaragoza defined the antimeridian of Tordesillas attributing the Moluccas to Portugal and Philippines to Spain.
* 1529: Imam Ahmad Gragn defeats the Ethiopian Emperor Dawit II in the Battle of Shimbra Kure, the opening clash of the Ethiopian–Adal War

## 1530s

* 1531–32: The Church of England breaks away from the Roman Catholic Church and recognizes King Henry VIII as the head of the Church.
* 1531: The Inca Civil War is fought between the two brothers, Atahualpa and Huáscar.
* 1532: Francisco Pizarro leads the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire.
* 1533: Anne Boleyn becomes Queen of England.
* 1533: Elizabeth Tudor is born.
* 1534: Jacques Cartier claims Quebec for France.
* 1534: The Ottomans capture Baghdad.
* 1534: Affair of the Placards – Francis becomes more active in repression of French Protestants.
* 1535: The Münster Rebellion, an attempt of radical, millennialist, Anabaptists to establish a theocracy, ends in bloodshed.
* 1535: The Portuguese in Ternate depose Sultan Tabariji (or Tabarija) and send him to Portuguese Goa where he converts to Christianity and bequeaths his Portuguese godfather Jordao de Freitas the island of Ambon.
* 1536: Katherine of Aragon dies in Kimbolton Castle, in England.
* 1536: In England, Anne Boleyn is beheaded for adultery and treason.
* 1536: Establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal
* 1536: Foundation of Buenos Aires (in present-day Argentina) by Pedro de Mendoza
* 1537: Portuguese establishes Recife in Pernambuco, north-east of Brazil.
* 1537: William Tyndale's partial translation of the Bible into English is published, which would eventually be incorporated into the King James Bible.
* 1538: Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada founds Bogotá.
* 1538: Spanish–Venetian fleet is defeated by the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Preveza.
* 1539: Hernando de Soto explores inland North America.

## 1540s

* 1540: Sher Shah Suri founds Suri dynasty in South Asia, an ethnic Pashtun (Pathan) of the house of Sur, who supplanted the Mughal dynasty as rulers of North India during the reign of the relatively ineffectual second Mughal emperor Humayun. Sher Shah decisively defeats Central Asian invader Humayun in the Battle of Bilgram (May 17, 1540).
* 1541: Pedro de Valdivia founds Santiago de Chile.
* 1541: An Algerian military campaign by Charles V of Spain (Habsburg) is unsuccessful.
* 1541: Amazon River is encountered and explored by Francisco de Orellana.
* 1541: Capture of Buda and the absorption of the major part of Hungary by the Ottoman Empire.
* 1541: Sahib I Giray of Crimea invades Russia.
* 1542: War resumes between Francis I of France and Emperor Charles V. This time Henry VIII is allied with the Emperor, while James V of Scotland and Sultan Suleiman I are allied with the French.
* 1542: Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the island of Samar and Leyte *Las Islas Filipinas* honoring Philip II of Spain and became the official name of the archipelago.
* 1543: Ethiopian/Portuguese troops decisively defeat the Adal-Ottoman Muslim army at the Battle of Wayna Daga; Imam Ahmad Gragn killed.
* 1543: Copernicus publishes his theory that the Earth and the other planets revolve around the Sun

* 1543: The Nanban trade period begins after Portuguese traders make contact with Japan.
* 1544: The French defeat an Imperial–Spanish army at the Battle of Ceresole.
* 1544: Battle of the Shirts in Scotland. The Frasers and Macdonalds of Clan Ranald fight over a disputed chiefship; reportedly, 5 Frasers and 8 Macdonalds survive.
* 1545: Songhai forces sack the Malian capital of Niani
* 1545: The Council of Trent meets for the first time in Trent (in northern Italy).
* 1546: Michelangelo Buonarroti is made chief architect of St. Peter's Basilica.
* 1546: Francis Xavier works among the peoples of Ambon, Ternate and Morotai (Moro) laying the foundations for a permanent mission. (to 1547)
* 1547: Henry VIII dies in the Palace of Whitehall on 28 January at the age of 55.
* 1547: Francis I dies in the Château de Rambouillet on 31 March at the age of 52.
* 1547: Edward VI becomes King of England and Ireland on 28 January and is crowned on 20 February at the age of 9.
* 1547: Emperor Charles V decisively dismantles the Schmalkaldic League at the Battle of Mühlberg.
* 1547: Grand Prince Ivan the Terrible is crowned tsar of (All)Russia, thenceforth becoming the first Russian tsar.
* 1548: Battle of Uedahara: Firearms are used for the first time on the battlefield in Japan, and Takeda Shingen is defeated by Murakami Yoshikiyo.
* 1548 Askia Daoud, who reigned from 1548 to 1583, establishes public libraries in Timbuktu (in present-day Mali).
* 1548: The Ming Dynasty government of China issues a decree banning all foreign trade and closes down all seaports along the coast; these Hai jin laws came during the Wokou wars with Japanese pirates.
* 1549: Tomé de Sousa establishes Salvador in Bahia, north-east of Brazil.
* 1549: Arya Penangsang with the support of his teacher, Sunan Kudus, avenged the death of Raden Kikin by sending an envoy named Rangkud to kill Sunan Prawoto by Keris Kyai Satan Kober (in present-day Indonesia).

## 1550s

* 1550: The architect Mimar Sinan builds the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul.
* 1550: Mongols led by Altan Khan invade China and besiege Beijing.
* 1550–1551: Valladolid debate concerning the human rights of the Indigenous people of the Americas
* 1551: Fifth outbreak of sweating sickness in England. John Caius of Shrewsbury writes the first full contemporary account of the symptoms of the disease.
* 1551: North African pirates enslave the entire population of the Maltese island Gozo, between 5,000 and 6,000, sending them to Libya.
* 1552: Russia conquers the Khanate of Kazan in central Asia.
* 1552: Jesuit China Mission, Francis Xavier
* 1553: Mary Tudor becomes the first queen regnant of England and restores the Church of England under Papal authority.
* 1553: Portuguese found a settlement at Macau.
* 1554: Portuguese missionaries José de Anchieta and Manuel da Nóbrega establishes São Paulo, southeast Brazil.
* 1554: Princess Elizabeth is imprisoned in the Tower of London upon the orders of Mary I for suspicion of being involved in the Wyatt rebellion.
* 1555: The Muscovy Company is the first major English joint stock trading company.
* 1556: Publication in Venice of Delle Navigiationi et Viaggi (terzo volume) by Giovanni Battista Ramusio, secretary of Council of Ten, with plan *La Terra de Hochelaga*, an illustration of the Hochelaga.
* 1556: The Shaanxi earthquake in China is history's deadliest known earthquake during the Ming dynasty.
* 1556: Georgius Agricola, the "Father of Mineralogy", publishes his *De re metallica*.
* 1556: Akbar the Great defeats the Sultan of Bengal at the Second battle of Panipat
* 1556: Russia conquers the Astrakhan Khanate.
* 1556–1605: During his reign, Akbar expands the Mughal Empire in a series of conquests (in the Indian subcontinent).
* 1556: Mir Chakar Khan Rind captured Delhi with Emperor Humayun.
* 1556: Pomponio Algerio, radical theologian, is executed by boiling in oil as part of the Roman inquisition.
* 1557: Habsburg Spain declares bankruptcy. Philip II of Spain had to declare four state bankruptcies in 1557, 1560, 1575 and 1596.
* 1557: The Portuguese settle in Macau (on the western side of the Pearl River Delta across from present-day Hong Kong).
* 1557: The Ottomans capture Massawa, all but isolating Ethiopia from the rest of the world.
* 1558 Elizabeth Tudor becomes Queen Elizabeth I at age 25.
* 1558–1603: The Elizabethan era is considered the height of the English Renaissance.
* 1558–1583: Livonian War between Poland, Grand Principality of Lithuania, Sweden, Denmark and Russia.
* 1558: After 200 years, the Kingdom of England loses Calais to France.
* 1559: With the Peace of Cateau Cambrésis, the Italian Wars conclude.
* 1559: Sultan Khairun of Ternate (in present-day Indonesia) protests the Portuguese's Christianisation activities in his lands. Hostilities between Ternate and the Portuguese.

## 1560s

* 1560: Ottoman navy defeats the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Djerba.
* 1560: Elizabeth Bathory is born in Nyirbator, Hungary.
* 1560: By winning the Battle of Okehazama, Oda Nobunaga becomes one of the pre-eminent warlords of Japan
* 1560: Jeanne d'Albret declares Calvinism the official religion of Navarre.
* 1560: Lazarus Church, Macau
* 1561: Sir Francis Bacon is born in London.
* 1561: The fourth battle of Kawanakajima between the Uesugi and Takeda at Hachimanbara takes place.
* 1561: Guido de Bres draws up the Belgic Confession of Protestant faith.
* 1562: Mughal leader Akbar reconciles the Muslim and Hindu factions by marrying into the powerful Rajput Hindu caste.
* 1562–98: French Wars of Religion between Catholics and Huguenots.
* 1562: Massacre of Wassy and Battle of Dreux in the French Wars of Religion.
* 1562: Portuguese Dominican priests build a palm-trunk fortress which Javanese Muslims burned down the following year. The fort was rebuilt from more durable materials and the Dominicans commenced the Christianisation of the local population.
* 1563: Plague outbreak claimed 80,000 people in Elizabethan England. In London alone, over 20,000 people died of the disease.
* 1564: Galileo Galilei born on February 15
* 1564: William Shakespeare baptized 26 April
* 1565: Battle of Talikota fought between the Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar and the Deccan sultanates.
* 1565: Mir Chakar Khan Rind died age of 97.
* 1565: Estácio de Sá establishes Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
* 1565: The Hospitallers, a Crusading Order, defeat the Ottoman Empire at the Siege of Malta (1565).
* 1565: Miguel López de Legazpi establishes in Cebu the first Spanish settlement in the Philippines starting a period of Spanish colonization that would last over three hundred years.
* 1565: Spanish navigator Andres de Urdaneta discovers the maritime route from Asia to the Americas across the Pacific Ocean, also known as the *tornaviaje*.
* 1565: Royal Exchange, Thomas Gresham
* 1566 Suleiman the Magnificent, ruler of the Ottoman Empire, dies on September 7, during the battle of Szigetvar.
* 1566–1648: Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Netherlands.
* 1566: Da le Balle Contrade d'Oriente, composed by Cipriano de Rore.
* 1567: After 45 years' reign, Jiajing Emperor died in the Forbidden City, Longqing Emperor ascended the throne of Ming Dynasty.
* 1567: Mary, Queen of Scots, is imprisoned by Elizabeth I.
* 1568: The Transylvanian Diet, under the patronage of the prince John Sigismund Zápolya, the former king of Hungary, inspired by the teachings of Ferenc Dávid, the founder of the Unitarian Church of Transylvania, promulgates the Edict of Torda, the first law of freedom of religion and of conscience in the World.
* 1568–1571: Morisco Revolt in Spain.
* 1568–1600: The Azuchi-Momoyama period in Japan.
* 1568: Hadiwijaya sent his adopted son and son in-law Sutawijaya, who would later become the first ruler of the Mataram dynasty of Indonesia, to kill Aryo Penangsang.
* 1569: Rising of the North in England.
* 1569: Mercator 1569 world map published by Gerardus Mercator.
* 1569: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth is created with the Union of Lublin which lasts until 1795.
* 1569: Peace treaty signed by Sultan Khairun of Ternate and Governor Lopez De Mesquita of Portugal.

## 1570s

* 1570: Ivan the Terrible, tsar of Russia, orders the massacre of inhabitants of Novgorod.
* 1570: Pope Pius V issues *Regnans in Excelsis*, a papal bull excommunicating all who obeyed Elizabeth I and calling on all Roman Catholics to rebel against her.
* 1570: Sultan Hairun of Ternate (in present-day Indonesia) is killed by the Portuguese. The reign of Sultan Baabullah.
* 1571: Pope Pius V completes the Holy League as a united front against the Ottoman Turks.
* 1571: The Spanish-led Holy League navy destroys the Ottoman Empire navy at the Battle of Lepanto.
* 1571: Crimean Tatars attack and sack Moscow, burning everything but the Kremlin.
* 1571: American Indians kill Spanish missionaries in what would later be Jamestown, Virginia.
* 1571: Spanish conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi establishes Manila, Philippines as the capital of the Spanish East Indies.
* 1572: Brielle is taken from Habsburg Spain by Protestant Watergeuzen in the Capture of Brielle, in the Eighty Years' War.
* 1572: Spanish conquistadores apprehend the last Inca leader Tupak Amaru at Vilcabamba, Peru, and execute him in Cuzco.
* 1572: Jeanne d'Albret dies aged 43 and is succeeded by Henry of Navarre.
* 1572: Catherine de' Medici instigates the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre which takes the lives of Protestant leader Gaspard de Coligny and thousands of Huguenots. The violence spreads from Paris to other cities and the countryside.
* 1572: First edition of the epic The Lusiads of Luís Vaz de Camões, three years after the author returned from the East.
* 1572: The 9 years old Taizi, Zhu Yijun ascended the throne of Ming Dynasty, known as Wanli Emperor.
* 1573: After heavy losses on both sides the Siege of Haarlem ends in a Spanish victory.
* 1574: in the Eighty Years' War the capital of Zeeland, Middelburg declares for the Protestants.
* 1574: After a siege of 4 months the Siege of Leiden ends in a comprehensive Dutch rebel victory.
* 1575: Oda Nobunaga finally captures Nagashima fortress.
* 1575: Following a five-year war, the Ternateans under Sultan Baabullah defeated the Portuguese.
* 1576: Tahmasp I, Safavid king, died.
* 1576: Sack of Antwerp by badly paid Spanish soldiers.
* 1577–80: Francis Drake circles the world.
* 1577: Ki Ageng Pemanahan built his palace in Pasargede or Kotagede.
* 1578: King Sebastian of Portugal is killed at the Battle of Alcazarquivir.
* 1578:The Portuguese establish a fort on Tidore but the main centre for Portuguese activities in Maluku becomes Ambon.
* 1578: Sonam Gyatso is conferred the title of Dalai Lama by Tumed Mongol ruler, Altan Khan. Recognised as the reincarnation of two previous Lamas, Sonam Gyatso becomes the third Dalai Lama in the lineage.
* 1579: The Union of Utrecht unifies the northern Netherlands, a foundation for the later Dutch Republic.
* 1579: The Union of Arras unifies the southern Netherlands, a foundation for the later states of the Spanish Netherlands, the Austrian Netherlands and Belgium
* 1579: The British navigator Sir Francis Drake passes through Maluku and transit in Ternate on his circumnavigation of the world. The Portuguese establish a fort on Tidore but the main centre for Portuguese activities in Maluku becomes Ambon.

## 1580s

* 1580: Drake's royal reception after his attacks on Spanish possessions influences Philip II of Spain to build up the Spanish Armada. English ships in Spanish harbours are impounded.
* 1580: Spain unifies with Portugal under Philip II. The struggle for the throne of Portugal ends the Portuguese Empire. The Spanish and Portuguese crowns are united for 60 years, i.e. until 1640.
* 1580–86: Nagasaki under Jesuit control
* 1582: Oda Nobunaga is assassinated by his general, Akechi Mitsuhide.
* 1582: Pope Gregory XIII issues the Gregorian calendar. The last day of the Julian calendar was Thursday, 4 October 1582 and this was followed by the first day of the Gregorian calendar, Friday, 15 October 1582
* 1582: Yermak Timofeyevich conquers the Siberia Khanate on behalf of the Stroganovs.
* 1583: Denmark builds the world's first theme park, Bakken.
* 1583: Death of Sultan Baabullah of Ternate.
* 1584–85: After the Siege of Antwerp, many of its merchants flee to Amsterdam. According to Luc-Normand Tellier, "At its peak, between 1510 and 1557, Antwerp concentrated about 40% of the world trade...It is estimated that the port of Antwerp was earning the Spanish crown seven times more revenues than the Americas."
* 1581 : Death of Bayinnaung.
* 1584 : Ki Ageng Pemanahan died. Sultan Pajang raised Sutawijaya, son of Ki Ageng Pemanahan as the new ruler in Mataram, titled "Loring Ngabehi Market" (because of his home in the north of the market).
* 1585 : Colony at Roanoke founded in North America
* 1585–1604: The Anglo-Spanish War is fought on both sides of the Atlantic.
* 1587 : Mary, Queen of Scots is executed by Elizabeth I.
* 1587 – The reign of Abbas I marks the zenith of the Safavid dynasty.
* 1587 : troops that would invade Pajang Sultanate of Mataram storm ravaged the eruption of Mount Merapi. Sutawijaya and his men survived.
* 1588 : Mataram into the kingdom with Sutawijaya as Sultan, titled "Senapati Ingalaga Sayidin Panatagama" means the warlord and cleric Manager Religious Life.
* 1588: England repulses the Spanish Armada.
* 1589: Spain repulses the English Armada.
* 1589 : Catherine de' Medici dies aged 69.

## 1590s

* 1590: Siege of Odawara the Go-Hojo clan surrendered to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Japan was unified (1590).
* 1591: Gazi Giray leads a huge Tatar expedition against Moscow.
* 1591: In Mali, Moroccan forces of the Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur led by Judar Pasha defeat the Songhai Empire at the Battle of Tondibi.
* 1592–1593: John Stow reports 10,675 plague deaths in London, a city of approximately 200,000 people.
* 1592–1598: Korea, with the help of Ming Dynasty China, repels two Japanese invasions.
* 1593–1606: The Long War between the Habsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Turks.
* 1594: St. Paul's College, Macau, Alessandro Valignano
* 1595: First Dutch expedition to Indonesia sets sail for the East Indies with two hundred and forty-nine men and sixty-four cannons led by Cornelis de Houtman.
* 1596: Birth of René Descartes.
* 1596: June, de Houtman's expedition reaches Banten the main pepper port of West Java where they clash with both the Portuguese and Indonesians. It then sails east along the north coast of Java losing twelve crew to a Javanese attack at Sidayu and killing a local ruler in Madura.
* 1597 – *Romeo and Juliet* published
* 1597: de Houtman's expedition returns to the Netherlands with enough spices to make a considerable profit.
* 1598: The Edict of Nantes ends the French Wars of Religion.
* 1598: Abbas I moved Safavids capital from Qazvin to Isfahan in 1598.
* 1598–1613: Russia descends into anarchy during the Time of Troubles.
* 1598: The Portuguese require an armada of 90 ships to put down a Solorese uprising. (to 1599)
* 1598: More Dutch fleets leave for Indonesia and most are profitable.
* 1598: Death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

* 1599: The Mali Empire is defeated at the Battle of Jenné
* 1599: The van Neck expedition returns to Europe. The expedition makes a 400 per cent profit. (to 1600)
* 1599: March, Leaving Europe the previous year, a fleet of eight ships under Jacob van Neck was the first Dutch fleet to reach the ‘Spice Islands’ of Maluku.
* 1600: Giordano Bruno is burned at the stake for heresy in Rome.
* 1600: Battle of Sekigahara in Japan. End of the Warring States period and beginning of the Edo period.
* 1600: The Portuguese win a major naval battle in the bay of Ambon. Later in the year, the Dutch join forces with the local Hituese in an anti-Portuguese alliance, in return for which the Dutch would have the sole right to purchase spices from Hitu.
* 1600: Elizabeth I grants a charter to the British East India Company beginning the English advance in Asia.

## 1600s

* 1600: On February 17 Giordano Bruno is burned at the stake by the Inquisition.
* 1600: Michael the Brave unifies the three Romanian countries: Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania after the Battle of ?elimbar from 1599.
* 1601: Battle of Kinsale, England defeats Irish and Spanish forces at the town of Kinsale, driving the Gaelic aristocracy out of Ireland and destroying the Gaelic clan system.
* 1601: Michael the Brave (first unifier of Romania), voivode of Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania, is assassinated by the order of the Habsburg general Giorgio Basta at Câmpia Turzii.
* 1601–1603: The Russian famine of 1601–1603 kills perhaps one-third of Russia.
* 1601: Panembahan Senopati, first king of Mataram, dies and passes rule to his son Panembahan Seda ing Krapyak
* 1601: Matteo Ricci is given permission to live in Beijing.
* 1602: Matteo Ricci produces the Map of the Myriad Countries of the World (??????, *Kunyú Wànguó Quántú*), a world map that will be used throughout East Asia for centuries.
* 1602: The Portuguese send a major (and last) expeditionary force from Malacca which succeeded in reimposing a degree of Portuguese control.
* 1602: The Dutch East India Company (VOC) is established by merging competing Dutch trading companies. Its success contributes to the Dutch Golden Age.
* 1602: June, British East India Company's first voyage, commanded by Sir James Lancaster, arrives in Aceh and sails on to Bantam where he is allowed to build trading post which becomes the centre of British trade in Indonesia until 1682.
* 1602: Two emissaries from the Aceh Sultanate visit the Dutch Republic.
* 1603: Elizabeth I of England dies and is succeeded by her cousin King James VI of Scotland, uniting the crowns of Scotland and England.
* 1603: Tokugawa Ieyasu takes the title of *shogun*, establishing the Tokugawa shogunate. This begins the Edo period, which will last until 1868.
* 1603–1623: After modernizing his army, Abbas I expands the Persian Empire by capturing territory from the Ottomans and the Portuguese.
* 1603: First permanent Dutch trading post is established in Banten, West Java. First successful VOC privateering raid on a Portuguese ship.
* 1604: A second English East India Company voyage commanded by Sir Henry Middleton reaches Ternate, Tidore, Ambon and Banda. Fierce VOC hostility is encountered in Banda thus beginning Anglo-Dutch competition for access to spices
* 1605: Tokugawa Ieyasu passes the title of *shogun* to his son, Tokugawa Hidetada, and "retires" to Sunpu Domain.
* 1605: Gunpowder Plot failed in England.
* 1605: The fortresses of Veszprém and Visegrad are retaken by the Ottomans.
* 1605: February, The VOC in alliance with Hitu prepare to attack a Portuguese fort in Ambon but the Portuguese surrender.
* 1605: Panembahan Seda ing Krapyak of Mataram establishes control over Demak, former center of the Demak Sultanate.
* 1605: The King of Gowa, a Makassarese kingdom in South Sulawesi, converts to Islam
* 1606: The Long War between the Ottoman Empire and Austria is ended with the Peace of Zsitvatorok—Austria abandons Transylvania.
* 1606: Treaty of Vienna ends anti-Habsburg uprising in Royal Hungary.
* 1606: Assassination of Stephen Bocskay of Transylvania.
* 1606: Time of Troubles: Vasili IV becomes Tzar of Russia.
* 1606: The Dutch East India Company enters into an alliance with the Johor Sultanate to attack Portuguese Malacca, but they are repelled.
* 1606: Captain Willem Janszoon and his crew aboard the Dutch East India Company ship Duyfken becomes the first recorded Europeans to sight and make landfall in Australia.
* 1606: A Spanish fleet occupies Ternate and Tidore in Maluku.
* 1607: Jamestown, Virginia, is settled as what would become the first permanent English colony in North America.
* 1607: Flight of the Earls (the fleeing of most of the native Gaelic aristocracy) occurs from County Donegal in the west of Ulster in Ireland.
* 1607: Iskandar Muda becomes the Sultan of Aceh (r. 1607–1637). He will launch a series of naval conquests that will transform Aceh into a great power in the western Maritime Southeast Asia.
* 1608: Quebec City founded by Samuel de Champlain in New France (present-day Canada).
* 1608: The Dutch East India Company establishes a settlement in Siamese Ayutthaya.
* 1609: The Netherlands and Spain agree to a Twelve Years' Truce in the Eighty Years' War.
* 1609: Maximilian of Bavaria establishes the Catholic League.
* 1609: The Dutch East India Company establishes a factory in Hirado, Japan. VOC traders also make forays into South Sulawesi and Banjarmasin, Borneo.

## 1610s

* 1610: Pedro de Peralta, governor of New Mexico, establishes the settlement of Santa Fe.
* 1610: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth army defeats combined Russian- Swedish forces at the Battle of Klushino and conquers Moscow.
* 1610: The VOC appoints Pieter Both as its first Governor-General to enable firmer control of their affairs in Asia. Previously all business had (in theory) required the approval of the *Heeren XVII*, a group of seventeen shareholders in Amsterdam.
* 1610: Ottoman Grand Vizier Kuyucu Murad Pasha is able to crush the major remnants of the Jelali Revolts, bringing an end to general anarchy in Anatolia.
* 1610: Matteo Ricci dies in Beijing.
* 1610: Panembahan Seda ing Krapyak of Mataram in Central Java attacks Surabaya, a major power on the north coast.
* 1610: King Henry IV of France is assassinated by François Ravaillac.
* 1611: The Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, the oldest existing university in Asia, established by the Dominican Order in Manila
* 1611: The English establish trading posts at Sukadana (southwest Kalimantan), Makassar, Jayakarta and Jepara in Java, and Aceh, Pariaman and Jambi in (Sumatra) threatening Dutch ambitions for a monopoly on East Indies trade.
* 1611: The Kingdom of Gowa ends its major push to convert the Makassarese and Bugis in South Sulawesi to Islam.
* 1611: The Dutch establish a post at Jayakarta (later 'Batavia' and then 'Jakarta').
* 1611: A Dutch trader is killed in Banjarmasin and the Dutch East India Trading Company sacks the city.
* 1611: The first publication of the King James Bible.
* 1612: Sultan Iskandar Muda of Aceh captures the North Sumatran port of Deli.
* 1612: Costwold Olympic Games, Robert Dover
* 1613: The Time of Troubles in Russia ends with the establishment of the House of Romanov, which rules until 1917.
* 1613–1617: Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth is invaded by the Tatars dozens of times.
* 1613: The Dutch expel the Portuguese from their Solor fort, but won't stay for long.
* 1613: The Dutch East India Company makes its first forays into Timor.
* 1613: Sultan Iskandar Muda of Aceh captures the North Sumatran port of Aru, subjugating the Sultanate of Deli. This allows Aceh to focus its expansionary efforts on the Straits of Malacca. Iskandar Muda continues on to sack Johor and kidnap its Sultan's family, but is later forced to retreat back to Aceh.
* 1613: The Dutch East India Company is forced to evacuate Gresik because of the Mataram siege of neighboring Surabaya. The VOC enters into negotiations with Mataram and is allowed to set up a trading post in Jepara.
* 1613: Panembahan Seda ing Krapyak of Mataram dies and is succeeded by his son.
* 1614: John Napier publishes Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio, the first table of logarithms.
* 1614: Sultan Iskandar Muda of Aceh sinks a Portuguese fleet off of Bintan Island.
* 1615: The Battle of Osaka (last major threat to Tokugawa shogunate) ends.
* 1615: A Dutch East India Company attack on Portuguese Malacca is repelled.
* 1615: The Portuguese stop hiring Japanese mercenaries after a brawl in Malacca.
* 1615: Panembahan ing Alaga of Mataram conquers the Eastern Salient of Java (the heartland of the old Majapahit Empire).
* 1615: The Dutch East India Company is in open hostilities with the Kingdom of Gowa, South Sulawesi.
* 1616: The last remaining Moriscos (Moors who had nominally converted to Christianity) in Spain are expelled.
* 1616: Death of retired *shogun* Tokugawa Ieyasu.
* 1616: English poet and playwright William Shakespeare dies.
* 1617: Sultan Iskandar Muda of Aceh conquers Pahang on the South China Sea.
* 1617: Panembahan ing Alaga of Mataram puts down a major revolt in Pajang.
* 1618: The Defenestration of Prague.
* 1618: The Bohemian Revolt precipitates the Thirty Years' War, which devastates Europe in the years 1618–48.
* 1618: Bethlen Gabor, Prince of Transylvania joins Protestant Rebels.
* 1618: The Manchus start invading China. Their conquest eventually topples the Ming dynasty.
* 1618: Dispute leads to the execution of Dutchmen in Mataram-controlled Jepara.
* 1619: Bethlen Gabor is defeated outside Vienna.
* 1619: Jan Pieterszoon Coen appointed Governor-General of the VOC who would show he had no scruples about using brute force to establish the VOC on a firm footing. While Ambon and Pattani had been the major VOC trading centers to this point, Coen is convinced that Dutch need a more central location near the Sunda Strait.
* 1619: Dutch East India Company, English East India Company, and Sultanate of Banten all fighting over port city of Jayakarta. VOC forces storm the city and withstand a months-long siege by the combined English, Bantenese, and Jayakartan forces. They are relieved by Jan Pieterszoon Coen and a fleet of nineteen ships out of Ambon. Coen had burned Jepara and its EIC post along the way. The VOC levels the old city of Jayakarta and builds its new headquarters, Batavia, on top of it.

## 1620s

* 1620: Emperor Ferdinand II defeats the Bohemian rebels in the Battle of White Mountain.
* 1620: The Brownist Pilgrims arrive in the Mayflower at Cape Cod.
* 1620–1621: Polish-Ottoman War over Moldavia.
* 1620: Bethlen Gabor allies with the Ottomans and an invasion of Moldavia takes place. The Polish suffer a disaster at Cecora on the River Prut.
* 1620: Almost the entire native population of Banda Islands was deported, driven away, starved to death or killed in an attempt to replace them with Dutch colonial slave labour.
* 1620: Diplomatic agreements in Europe commence a three-year period of cooperation between the Dutch and the English over the spice trade.
* 1621: The Battle of Chocim: Poles and Cossacks under Jan Karol Chodkiewicz defeat the Ottomans.
* 1622: Capture of Ormuz; The island of Hormuz was captured by an Anglo-Persian force from Portuguese.
* 1622: Deposition and regicide of Ottoman sultan Osman II.
* 1622: Jamestown massacre: Algonquian natives kill 347 English settlers outside Jamestown, Virginia (one-third of the colony's population) and burn the Henricus settlement.
* 1623: Maffeo Barberini is elected Pope Urban VIII at the Papal conclave of 1623.
* 1623: In a notorious but disputed incident, known as the 'Amboyna massacre', ten English and ten Japanese traders are arrested, tried and beheaded for conspiracy against the Dutch Government. The English quietly withdraw from most of their Indonesian activities (except trading in Bantam) and focus on other Asian interests.
* 1624–1642: As chief minister, Cardinal Richelieu centralises power in France.
* 1624: The Dutch West India Company invades the Portuguese colony of Bahia in Brazil.
* 1625: New Amsterdam founded by the Dutch West India Company in North America.
* 1625: Sultan Agung of Mataram Sultanate conquered Surabaya, a merchant city and Mataram's strongest rival in east Java.
* 1626: St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican completed.
* 1627: Cardinal Richelieu lays siege to Protestant La Rochelle, which eventually capitulates.
* 1627: Aurochs go extinct.
* 1628—1629: Sultan Agung of Mataram launched a failed campaign to conquer Dutch Batavia.
* 1629: Abbas I, the Safavids king, died.
* 1629: Cardinal Richelieu allies with Swedish Protestant forces in the Thirty Years' War to counter Ferdinand II's expansion.
* 1629: Iskandar Muda of Aceh Sultanate launched a failed attempt to take Portuguese Malacca.

## 1630s

* 1630 : Birth of Chatrapati Shivaji at Shivneri fort
* 1630: The Dutch West India Company invades the Portuguese colony of Pernambuco and founds Dutch Brazil.
* 1631: Mount Vesuvius erupts.
* 1632: Battle of Lützen, death of king of Sweden Gustav II Adolf.
* 1632: Taj Mahal building work started in Agra, India.
* 1633: Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition.
* 1633–1639: Japan transforms into "locked country".
* 1634: Battle of Nördlingen results in Catholic victory.
* 1634: Emperor Fasilides expels the Catholic Patriarch Afonso Mendes and several Jesuit missionaries from Ethiopia.
* 1636: Emperor Fasilides founds the city of Gondar, which becomes the capital of Ethiopia for the next two centuries.
* 1636: Harvard University is founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
* 1636: The Portuguese are expelled again from their Solor fort by the Dutch following a reoccupation.
* 1637: Shimabara Rebellion of Japanese Christians, ronin and peasants against Edo.
* 1637: René Descartes publishes "Discours de la Méthode" ("The Discourse on the Method") in French.
* 1637: The first opera house, Teatro San Cassiano, opens in Venice.
* 1637: Qing dynasty attacked Joseon dynasty.
* 1639: Naval Battle of the Downs – Republic of the United Provinces fleet decisively defeats a Spanish fleet in English waters.
* 1639: Disagreements between the Farnese and Barberini Pope Urban VIII escalate into the Wars of Castro and last until 1649.
* 1639–1651: Wars of the Three Kingdoms, civil wars throughout Scotland, Ireland, and England.

## 1640s

* 1640: King Charles was compelled to summon Parliament due to the revolt of the Scots.
* 1640–1668: The Portuguese Restoration War led to the end of the Iberian Union.
* 1640: Torture is outlawed in England.
* 1641: The Irish Rebellion.
* 1641: René Descartes publishes *Meditationes de prima philosophia* Meditations on First Philosophy.
* 1642: 5th Dalai Lama swept power in Tibet, he established the theocratic state in Tibet after series battles against regional Kingdoms.
* 1642: Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman achieves the first recorded European sighting of New Zealand.
* 1642: Beginning of English Civil War, conflict will end in 1649 with the execution of King Charles I, abolishment of the monarchy and the establishment of the supremacy of Parliament over the king.
* 1643: Louis XIV is crowned King of France. He reigned over the Kingdom of France until his death in 1715, making his reign the longest of any monarch in history at 72 years and 110 days.
* 1643: L'incoronazione di Poppea, Monterverdi
* 1644: Giovanni Battista Pamphili is elected Pope Innocent X at the Papal conclave of 1644.
* 1644: The Manchu conquer China ending the Ming dynasty. The subsequent Qing dynasty rules until 1912.
* 1644–1674: The Mauritanian Thirty-Year War.
* 1644: An alliance with Scotland enables Parliamentarian forces to win the Battle of Marston Moor
* 1645-1647: East Anglian Witch Hunt; catalysed by Matthew Hopkins
* 1645: The death of Miyamoto Musashi, legendary Japanese Samurai warrior, of natural causes.
* 1645–1669: Ottoman war with Venice. The Ottomans invade Crete and capture Canea.
* 1645: British Royale Society
* 1646: Sultan Agung of Mataram dies – and is buried at his graveyard at Imogiri
* 1646: Defeated, King Charles I flees and surrenders to the Scottish. The First Civil War has ended in a victory for Parliament.
* 1647: Seven-year-old Mehmed IV becomes sultan.
* 1647–1652: The Great Plague of Seville.
* 1648: The Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Years' War and marks the ends of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire as major European powers.
* 1648–1653: Fronde civil war in France.
* 1648–1657: The Khmelnytsky Uprising – a Cossack rebellion in Ukraine which turned into a Ukrainian war of liberation from Poland.
* 1648–1667: The Deluge wars leave Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in ruins.
* 1648–1669: The Ottomans capture Crete from the Venetians after the Siege of Candia.
* 1649: King Charles I is executed for High treason, the first and only English king to be subjected to legal proceedings in a High Court of Justice and put to death.
* 1649–1653: The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.

## 1650s

* 1650: Francesco Redi challenges the theory of spontaneous generation by demonstrating that maggots come from eggs of flies.
* 1651: English Civil War ends with the Parliamentarian victory at the Battle of Worcester.
* 1652: Cape Town founded by the Dutch East India Company in South Africa.
* 1653: Oliver Cromwell dissolves the Rump Parliament and replaces it with the Nominated Assembly (also called the Assembly of Saints or Barebones Parliament.) After three months, the Nominated Assembly passes a motion to dissolve itself and Cromwell establishes the Protectorate.
* 1656–1661: Mehmed Köprülü is Grand Vizier.
* 1655: The English, led by Sir William Penn and General Robert Venables, took over the last Spanish fort in Jamaica.
* 1655–1661: The Northern Wars cement Sweden's rise as a Great Power.
* 1658: After his father Shah Jahan completes the Taj Mahal, his son Aurangzeb deposes him as ruler of the Mughal Empire.
* 1658: Cromwell dies and his son Richard becomes Lord Protector.
* 1659: Richard Cromwell is pressured into dissolving the Protectorate; the Rump Parliament is restored.

## 1660s

* 1660: The Commonwealth of England ends and the monarchy is brought back during the English Restoration.
* 1660: Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge founded.
* 1660: Royale General Post Office
* 1661: Mehmed Köprülü dies and is succeeded by his son Ahmed.
* 1661: The reign of the Kangxi Emperor of China begins.
* 1661: Cardinal Mazarin, de facto ruler of France, dies.
* 1662: Koxinga captures Taiwan from the Dutch and founds the Kingdom of Tungning, which rules until 1683.
* 1662: Jacques Aymar-Vernay, who later reintroduced Dowsing into popular use in Europe, is born.
* 1663: Ottoman war against Habsburg Hungary.
* 1663: France takes full political and military control over its colonial possessions in New France.
* 1663: Robert Hooke discovers cells using a microscope.
* 1664: The Battle of St. Gotthard: count Raimondo Montecuccoli defeats the Ottomans. The Peace of Vasvar – intended to keep the peace for 20 years.
* 1664: British troops capture New Amsterdam and rename it New York.
* 1664: John Evelyn's forestry book, *Sylva*, is published in England.
* 1665: The Great Plague of London.
* 1665: Portugal defeats the Kongo Empire at the Battle of Mbwila.
* 1665–1667: The Second Anglo-Dutch War fought between England and the United Provinces.
* 1666: The 10th Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh is born in Patna Sahib.
* 1666- The Great Shivaji-Agra Visit
* 1666: The Great Fire of London.
* 1667: The Raid on the Medway during the Second Anglo-Dutch War.
* 1667–1668: The War of Devolution; France invades the Netherlands. The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668) brings this to a halt.
* 1667–1699: The Great Turkish War halts the Ottoman Empire's expansion into Europe.
* 1667: As a result of the Treaty of Breda between Dutch and England, the Dutch secured a worldwide monopoly on nutmeg by forcing England to give up their claim on Run, the most remote of the Banda Islands. While the Dutch did not press their claims on New Netherland.
* 1668: Peace Treaty of Lisbon between Spain and Portugal recognizes Portugal as independent country.
* 1669: The Ottomans capture Crete.

## 1670s

* 1670: The Hudson's Bay Company was founded in New France (Modern-day Canada)
* 1670: The city of Charleston is founded in present-day South Carolina.
* 1672–1673: Ottoman campaign to help the Ukrainian Cossacks. John Sobieski defeats the Ottomans at the second battle of Khotyn (1673).
* 1672–1676: Polish-Ottoman War.
* 1672: Rampjaar in the Netherlands – Combined attack by France, England and two German states on the Republic of the United Provinces.
* 1672: Lynching of Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis de Witt in the Hague – William III of Orange takes power.
* 1672–1678: Franco-Dutch War.
* 1673: Antoni van Leeuwenhoek is the first to observe microbes with a homemade microscope, using samples he collected from his teeth scrapings, raindrops, and his own feces. He calls them "animalcules."
* 1674: The Treaty of Westminster ends the war between England and the Republic of the United Provinces.
* 1674: Maratha Empire founded in India by Shivaji.
* 1676: The Treaty of Zurawno brings Polish-Ottoman hostilities to a halt.
* 1675: Greenwich Observatory
* 1676: Kara Mustafa becomes Grand Vizier.
* 1676–1681: Russia and the Ottoman Empire commence the Russo-Turkish Wars.
* 1678: The Treaty of Nijmegen ends various interconnected wars among France, the Dutch Republic, Spain, Brandenburg, Sweden, Denmark, the Prince-Bishopric of Münster, and the Holy Roman Empire.

## 1680s

* 1680: The Pueblo Revolt drives the Spanish out of New Mexico until 1692.
* 1680: Johnathan's Coffee-House, John Miles
* 1681: The Pasha of Buda supports Imre Thököly's rebellion in Hungary.
* 1682: Sultan Mehmed IV, advised by Kara Mustafa, decides to disregard the existing peace treaty with Leopold I, due to expire in 1684.
* 1682: Peter the Great becomes joint ruler of Russia (sole tsar in 1696).
* 1682: La Salle explores the length of the Mississippi River and claims Louisiana for France.
* 1682: Chateau de Versailles, Saint-Gobain
* 1683: China conquers the Kingdom of Tungning and annexes Taiwan.
* 1683: The Ottoman Empire is defeated in the second Siege of Vienna.
* 1683-1699: The Great Turkish War leads to the conquest of most of Ottoman Hungary by the Habsburgs.
* 1685: Edict of Fontainebleau outlaws Protestantism in France. King Charles II dies.
* 1687: Isaac Newton publishes *Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica*.
* 1688: The Siege of Derry.
* 1688: Siamese revolution of 1688 ousted French influence and virtually severed all ties with the West until the 19th century.
* 1688–1689: The Glorious Revolution starts with the Dutch Republic invading England, England becomes a constitutional monarchy.
* 1688–1691: The War of the Two Kings in Ireland.
* 1688–1697: The Grand Alliance sought to stop French expansion during the Nine Years War.
* 1689: William and Mary ascend to the throne over England, Scotland, and Ireland.
* 1689: John Locke publishes his first 'Letter Concerning Toleration'.
* 1689: The Treaty of Nerchinsk established a border between Russia and China.
* 1689: The Battle of Killiecrankie is fought between Jacobite and Williamite forces in Highland Perthshire.
* 1689: The Karposh rebellion is crushed in present-day North Macedonia, Skopje is retaken by the Ottoman Turks. Karposh is killed, and the rebels are defeated.
* 1689: Two Treatises of Government, John Locke
* 1689: Bill of Rights

## 1690s

* 1690: The Battle of the Boyne in Ireland.
* 1692: Salem witch trials in Massachusetts.
* 1692: Port Royal in Jamaica is destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami, estimated 2000 die, 2300 are injured.
* 1692–1694: Famine in France kills 2 million.
* 1693: The College of William and Mary is founded in Williamsburg, Virginia, by a royal charter.
* 1694: The Bank of England is established.
* 1694: Mary II of England dies.
* 1695: The Mughal Empire nearly bans the East India Company in response to pirate Henry Every's capture of the *Ganj-i-Sawai*.
* 1696–1697: Famine in Finland wipes out almost one-third of the population.
* 1697: The earliest known first-class cricket match takes place in Sussex.
* 1697-1699: Grand Embassy of Peter the Great
* 1699: The 10th Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh, establishes the Khalsa.
* 1699: The Treaty of Karlowitz ends the Great Turkish War.
* 1699: Thomas Savery demonstrates his first steam engine to the Royal Society.
* 1700: With the decline of the spice trade, textiles are now the most important trade item in the Dutch East Indies.

## 1700s

* 1700–1721: Great Northern War between the Russian and Swedish Empires.
* 1701: Kingdom of Prussia declared under King Frederick I.
* 1701: Ashanti Empire is formed under Osei Kofi Tutu I.
* 1701–1714: The War of the Spanish Succession is fought, involving most of continental Europe.
* 1701–1702: *The Daily Courant* and *The Norwich Post* become the first daily newspapers in England.
* 1702: Forty-seven ronin attack Kira Yoshinaka and then commit seppuku in Japan.
* 1702–1715: Camisard Rebellion in France.
* 1703: Saint Petersburg is founded by Peter the Great; it is the Russian capital until 1918.
* 1703–1711: The Rákóczi Uprising against the Habsburg Monarchy.
* 1704: End of Japan's Genroku period.
* 1704: First Javanese War of Succession.
* 1705: George Frideric Handel's first opera, *Almira*, premieres.
* 1706: War of the Spanish Succession: French troops defeated at the battles of Ramillies and Turin.
* 1706: The first English-language edition of the *Arabian Nights* is published.
* 1707: The Act of Union is passed, merging the Scottish and English Parliaments, thus establishing the Kingdom of Great Britain.
* 1707: After Aurangzeb's death, the Mughal Empire enters a long decline and the Maratha Empire slowly replaces it.
* 1707: Mount Fuji erupts in Japan for the first time since 1700.
* 1707: War of 27 Years between the Marathas and Mughals ends in India.
* 1708: The Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies and English Company Trading to the East Indies merge to form the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies.
* 1708–1709: Famine kills one-third of East Prussia's population.
* 1709: The Great Frost of 1709 marks the coldest winter in 500 years.
* 1709: Hotak dynasty founded in Afghanistan.
* 1709: Charles XII of Sweden flees to the Ottoman Empire after Peter I of Russia defeats his army at the Battle of Poltava.

## 1710s

* 1710: The world's first copyright legislation, Britain's Statute of Anne, takes effect.
* 1710–1711: Ottoman Empire fights Russia in the Russo-Turkish War.
* 1711–1715: Tuscarora War between British, Dutch, and German settlers and the Tuscarora people of North Carolina.
* 1712: War of the Spanish Succession: The French defeat a combined Dutch-Austrian force at the Battle of Denain.
* 1712: The first shipment of coffee from Java reaches Amsterdam.
* 1713: The Treaty of Utrecht ends the War of the Spanish Succession.
* 1713–1714: Tarabai establishes the rival Maratha Empire government in Kolhapur against Chattrapati Shahu.
* 1714: Accession of George I, Elector of Hanover, to the throne of Great Britain.
* 1715: The first Jacobite rising breaks out; the British halt the Jacobite advance at the Battle of Sheriffmuir; Battle of Preston.
* 1715: Louis XIV dies, leaving France greatly enlarged but deep in debt; The Regency takes power under Philippe d'Orleans.
* 1715: Pope Clement XI declares Catholicism and Confucianism incompatible.
* 1716: Establishment of the Sikh Confederacy along the present-day India-Pakistan border.
* 1717: The Netherlands, Britain and France sign the Triple Alliance.
* 1717: Surabaya rebels against the VOC.
* 1718: The city of New Orleans is founded by the French in North America.
* 1718: Blackbeard (Edward Teach) is killed by Robert Maynard in a North Carolina inlet on the inner side of Ocracoke Island.
* 1718–1730: Tulip period of the Ottoman Empire.
* 1719: The Spanish attempt to restart the Jacobite rebellion fails.
* 1719: Second Javanese War of Succession.

## 1720s

* 1720: The South Sea Bubble.
* 1720: Spanish military embarks on the Villasur expedition, traveling north from Mexico into the Great Plains.
* 1720–1721: The Great Plague of Marseille.
* 1721: Robert Walpole becomes the first Prime Minister of Great Britain (de facto).
* 1721: The Treaty of Nystad is signed, ending the Great Northern War.
* 1721: Kangxi Emperor bans Christian missionaries because of Pope Clement XI's decree.
* 1721: Peter I reforms the Russian Orthodox Church.
* 1722: Afghans conquer much of Iran, overthrowing the Safavid Shah Sultan Husayn.
* 1722: Kangxi Emperor of China dies.
* 1722: Bartholomew Roberts is killed in a sea battle off the African coast.
* 1722–1723: Russo-Persian War.
* 1722–1725: Controversy over William Wood's halfpence leads to the *Drapier's Letters* and begins the Irish economic independence from England movement.
* 1723: Slavery is abolished in Russia; Peter the Great converts household slaves into house serfs.
* 1723–1730: The "Great Disaster", an invasion of Kazakh territories by the Dzungars.
* 1724: The Treaty of Constantinople is signed, partitioning Persia between the Ottoman Empire and Russia.
* 1725: The Fulani nomads take complete control of Futa Jallon and set up the first of many Fulani jihad states to come.
* 1726: The enormous Chinese encyclopedia *Gujin Tushu Jicheng* of over 100 million written Chinese characters in over 800,000 pages is printed in 60 different copies using copper-based Chinese movable type printing.
* 1729: Afghans ousted from Iran by Nader Shah; Safavids restored to the throne.
* 1727–1729: Anglo-Spanish War.
* 1729–1735: Charles Wesley and John Wesley begin Methodism in England.

## 1730s

* 1730: Mahmud I takes over Ottoman Empire after the Patrona Halil revolt, ending the Tulip period.
* 1730–1760: The First Great Awakening takes place in Great Britain and North America.
* 1732–1734: Crimean Tatar raids into Russia.
* 1733–1738: War of the Polish Succession.
* 1734: Letters Concerning on the English Nations, Voltaire
* 1735–1739: Russo-Turkish War.
* 1735–1799: The Qianlong Emperor of China oversees a huge expansion in territory.
* 1735: Governor-General Dirck van Cloon dies, one of many victims of malaria in Batavia.
* 1736: Nader Shah assumes the title of Shah of Persia and founds the Afsharid dynasty; he rules until his death in 1747.
* 1736: Qing Dynasty Chinese court painters recreate Zhang Zeduan's classic panoramic painting, *Along the River During Qingming Festival*.
* 1738–1756: Famine across the Sahel; half the population of Timbuktu dies.
* 1738: Pope Clement XII issues *In eminenti apostolatus*, prohibiting Catholics from becoming Freemasons.
* 1738: Turlough O'Carolan, famous Irish harper, dies.
* 1739: Nader Shah defeats the Mughals at the Battle of Karnal and sacks Delhi.
* 1739: Great Britain and Spain fight the War of Jenkins' Ear in the Caribbean.

## 1740s

* 1740: Frederick the Great comes to power in Prussia.
* 1740: Great Awakening, George Whitefield
* 1740: The British attempt to capture St. Augustine, Florida but lose to the Spanish during the Siege of St. Augustine.
* 1740–1741: Famine in Ireland kills ten percent of the population.
* 1740–1748: War of the Austrian Succession.
* 1740: 9 October, a massacre of Batavia's ethnic Chinese begins after they are suspected by the VOC of planning a rebellion; approximately 10,000 are killed and the Chinese quarter is burned.
* 1741: Russians begin settling the Aleutian Islands.
* 1741: Pope Benedict XIV issues *Immensa Pastorum principis* against slavery.
* 1742: The rebellion of Juan Santos Atahualpa.
* 1742: Marvel's Mill, the first water-powered cotton mill, begins operation in England.
* 1743: The capital of the Sultanate of Mataram Kartasura fell under the Geger Pecinan uprising — Raden Mas Garendi (Sunan Kuning) led Chinese mercenaries in revolt against Pakubuwono II.
* 1744: The First Saudi State is founded by Mohammed Ibn Saud.
* 1744: The French attempt to restart the Jacobite rebellion fails.
* 1744–1748: The First Carnatic War is fought between the British, the French, the Marathas, and Mysore in India.
* 1745: Second Jacobite rising is begun by Charles Edward Stuart in Scotland.
* 1745: 17 February, Pakubuwono II establishes a new kraton in Sala village, along with Surakarta Sunanate.
* 1747: Ahmed Shah Durrani founds the Durrani Empire in modern-day Afghanistan.
* 1748: The Treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession and First Carnatic War.
* 1748–1754: The Second Carnatic War is fought between the British, the French, the Marathas, and Mysore in India.

## 1750s

* 1750: Peak of the Little Ice Age.
* 1754: The Treaty of Pondicherry ends the Second Carnatic War and recognizes Muhammed Ali Khan Wallajah as Nawab of the Carnatic.
* 1754: King's College is founded by a royal charter of George II of Great Britain.
* 1754–1763: The French and Indian War, the North American chapter of the Seven Years' War, is fought in colonial North America, mostly by the French and their allies against the English and their allies.
* 1755: The Lisbon earthquake occurs.
* 1755–1763: The Great Upheaval forces transfer of the French Acadian population from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
* 1755: 13 February, the Treaty of Giyanti is signed, effectively partitioning the Mataram Sultanate; the VOC recognizes Mangkubumi as Sultan Hamengkubuwana I, who rules half of Central Java; Hamengkubuwana I then establishes Yogyakarta Sultanate, moves to Yogya and renames the city Yogyakarta.
* 1755: Demand-Supply, Richard Cantillon
* 1756–1763: The Seven Years' War is fought among European powers in various theaters around the world.
* 1756–1763: The Third Carnatic War is fought between the British, the French, the Marathas, and Mysore in India.
* 1757: The Battle of Plassey signals the beginning of formal British rule in India after years of commercial activity under the auspices of the East India Company.
* 1757: 17 March, Salatiga treaty between Prince Sambernyawa with Pakubuwono III and Hamengkubuwono I further partitions the remnant of Mataram Sultanate; the Mangkunegaran Grand Duchy is established.
* 1758: British colonel James Wolfe issues Wolfe's Manifesto.
* 1759: French and Indian War: French commander Louis-Joseph de Montcalm and British commander James Wolfe die during the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.

## 1760s

 File:Catherinethegreatroslin.jpg

* 1760: George III becomes King of Britain.
* 1760: Zand dynasty is founded in Iran.
* 1761: Maratha Empire defeated at Battle of Panipat.
* 1762–1796: Reign of Catherine the Great of Russia.
* 1763: The Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Years' War and Third Carnatic War.
* 1763: Kingdom of Mysore conquers the Kingdom of Keladi.
* 1763: Echelon Formation, Frederick II of Prussia
* 1765: The Stamp Act is introduced into the American colonies by the British Parliament.
* 1766: Christian VII becomes king of Denmark. He was king of Denmark to 1808.
* 1766–1799: Anglo-Mysore Wars.
* 1767: Burmese conquer the Ayutthaya Kingdom.
* 1768: Gurkhas conquer Nepal.
* 1768–1772: War of the Bar Confederation.
* 1768–1774: Russo-Turkish War.
* 1768: Imperial Leather, Count Olov
* 1769: Spanish missionaries establish the first of 21 missions in California.
* 1769–1770: James Cook explores and maps New Zealand and Australia.
* 1769–1773: The Bengal famine of 1770 kills one-third of the Bengal population.
* 1769: French expeditions capture clove plants in Ambon, ending the VOC monopoly of the plant. (to 1772)
* 1769: Court Factor, Mayer Amschel Rothschild

## 1770s

* 1770: James Cook claims the East Coast of Australia (New South Wales) for Great Britain.
* 1770: 5 March, the Boston Massacre
* 1770–1771: Famine in Czech lands kills hundreds of thousands.
* 1770: James Cook stops at Onrust Island in the Bay of Batavia for repairs to his ship *Endeavour* on his voyage around the world.
* 1771: The Plague Riot in Moscow.
* 1771: Richard Arkwright and his partners build the world's first water-powered mill at Cromford.
* 1772: Reformer Johann Friedrich Struensee executed in Denmark.
* 1772: Gustav III of Sweden stages a coup d'état, becoming almost an absolute monarch.
* 1772–1779: Maratha Empire fights Britain and Raghunathrao's forces during the First Anglo-Maratha War.
* 1772–1795: The Partitions of Poland end the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and erase Poland from the map for 123 years.
* 1773–1775: Pugachev's Rebellion, the largest peasant revolt in Russian history.
* 1773: East India Company starts operations in Bengal to smuggle opium into China.
* 1773: 16 December, the Boston Tea Party
* 1775: John Harrison H4 and Larcum Kendall K1 marine chronometers are used to measure longitude by James Cook on his second voyage (1772–1775).
* 1775–1782: First Anglo-Maratha War.
* 1775–1783: American Revolutionary War.
* 1776: Illuminati founded by Adam Weishaupt.
* 1776: The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
* 1776: Adam Smith publishes *The Wealth of Nations*.
* 1778: Tây Son Dynasty is established in Vietnam.
* 1778: James Cook becomes the first European to land on the Hawaiian Islands.
* 1778: 24 April, the Royal Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences is established by a group of Dutch intellectuals; this institution is a pioneer of scientific efforts in Indonesia and the founder of the National Museum of Indonesia.
* 1779: Captain James Cook is killed by Hawaiian natives at Kealakekua Bay, following an attempted kidnapping and ransoming of ruling chief, Kalani?opu?u in return for a stolen boat.
* 1779–1879: Xhosa Wars between British and Boer settlers and the Xhosas in the South African Republic.

## 1780s

* 1780: Outbreak of the indigenous rebellion against Spanish colonization led by Túpac Amaru II in Peru.
* 1781: The city of Los Angeles is founded by Spanish settlers.
* 1781–1785: Serfdom is abolished in the Austrian monarchy (first step; second step in 1848).
* 1783: Famine in Iceland, caused by the eruption of the Laki volcano.
* 1783: Russian Empire annexes the Crimean Khanate.
* 1783: The Treaty of Paris formally ends the American Revolutionary War.
* 1785–1791: Imam Sheikh Mansur, a Chechen warrior and Muslim mystic, leads a coalition of Muslim Caucasian tribes from throughout the Caucasus in a holy war against Russian settlers and military bases in the Caucasus, as well as against local traditionalists, who followed the traditional customs and common law (Adat) rather than the theocratic Sharia.
* 1785–1795: The Northwest Indian War is fought between the United States and Native Americans.
* 1787: The United States Constitution is written in Philadelphia and submitted to the states for ratification.
* 1787: Freed slaves from London establish Freetown in present-day Sierra Leone.
* 1787: Kansei Reforms instituted in Japan by Matsudaira Sadanobu.
* 1787–1792: Russo-Turkish War.
* 1788: First French Quaker community established in Congénies.
* 1788: First permanent European settlement established in Australia by Britain at Sydney.
* 1788–1790: Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790).
* 1788: New Hampshire becomes the 9th state to ratify the United States Constitution, and by the terms of Article VII it takes effect.
* 1788–1789: Inconfidência Mineira, conspiracy against the colonial authorities in Brazil.
* 1789: George Washington is elected the first President of the United States; he serves until 1797.
* 1789: Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
* 1789: Great Britain and Spain dispute the Nootka Sound during the Nootka Crisis.
* 1789–1799: French Revolution.

* 1789: The Liège Revolution.
* 1789: The Brabant Revolution.

## 1790s

* 1790: The United States of Belgium is proclaimed following the Brabant Revolution.
* 1790: Suppression of the United States of Belgium and re-establishment of Austrian control.
* 1790: Establishment of the Polish-Prussian Pact.
* 1791: The Constitutional Act (or Canada Act) creates the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada in British North America.
* 1791: Suppression of the Liège Revolution by Austrian forces and re-establishment of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège.
* 1791–1795: George Vancouver explores the world during the Vancouver Expedition.
* 1791–1804: The Haitian Revolution.
* 1791: Surprise Symphony, Haydn
* 1792–1802: The French Revolutionary Wars lead into the Napoleonic Wars, which last from 1803–1815.
* 1792: The New York Stock & Exchange Board is founded.
* 1792: Polish–Russian War of 1792.
* 1792: King Gustav III of Sweden is assassinated by a conspiracy of noblemen.
* 1792: March, Hamengkubuwana I dies.
* 1793: Former King Louis XVI of France and his wife Marie Antoinette are guillotined. Louis is executed in January, Marie Antoinette in October.
* 1793: Upper Canada bans slavery.
* 1793: The largest yellow fever epidemic in American history kills as many as 5,000 people in Philadelphia, roughly 10% of the population.
* 1793–1796: Revolt in the Vendée against the French Republic at the time of the Revolution.
* 1794–1816: The Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars, which were a series of incidents between settlers and New South Wales Corps and the Aboriginal Australian clans of the Hawkesbury river in Sydney, Australia.
* 1794: Polish revolt.
* 1794: Jay's Treaty is concluded between Great Britain and the United States, by which the Western outposts in the Great Lakes are returned to the U.S. and commerce between the two countries is regulated.
* 1794: Qajar dynasty founded in Iran after replacing the Zand dynasty.
* 1794: The Mysteries of Udolpho, Ann Radcliffe
* 1795: Mohammad Khan Qajar razes Tbilisi to the ground.
* 1795: Establishment of the French-backed Batavian Republic in present-day Netherlands.
* 1795: Pinckney's Treaty between the United States and Spain grants the Mississippi Territory to the U.S.
* 1795: The Marseillaise is officially adopted as the French national anthem.
* 1795: Kamehameha I of the Island of Hawaii defeats the Oahuans at the Battle of Nu'uanu.
* 1796: Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox vaccination; smallpox killed an estimated 400,000 Europeans each year during the 18th century, including five reigning monarchs.
* 1796: War of the First Coalition: The Battle of Montenotte marks Napoleon Bonaparte's first victory as an army commander.
* 1796: The British eject the Dutch from Ceylon.
* 1796: Mungo Park, backed by the African Association, is the first European to set eyes on the Niger River in Africa.
* 1796–1804: The White Lotus Rebellion against the Manchu dynasty in China.
* 1796: Trinidad becomes British
* 1797: Napoleon's invasion and partition of the Republic of Venice ends over 1,000 years of independence for the Serene Republic.
* 1798: The Irish Rebellion fails to overthrow British rule in Ireland.
* 1798–1800: The Quasi-War is fought between the United States and France.
* 1799: Napoleon stages a coup d'état and becomes First Consul of France.
* 1799: Dutch East India Company is dissolved.
* 1799: The assassination of the 14th Tu'i Kanokupolu, Tuku?aho, plunges Tonga into half a century of civil war.
* 1799: Tipu Sultan is killed in a battle with British forces.

## 1800

* The bankrupt Dutch East India Company (VOC) is formally dissolved and the nationalised Dutch East Indies are established.

## 1800s

See also: Timeline of the Napoleonic era
* 1801: Giuseppe Piazzi discovers the dwarf planet Ceres. – Italy
* 1801: Thomas Jefferson elected President of the United States by the House of Representatives, following a tie in the Electoral College – United States
* 1801: The Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merge to form the United Kingdom.
* 1801: Ranjit Singh crowned as King of Punjab.
* 1801: Napoleon signs the Concordat of 1801 with the Pope.
* 1801: Cairo falls to the British.
* 1801: Assassination of Tsar Paul I of Russia.
* 1801: British defeat French at the Second Battle of Abukir
* 1801–1815: the First Barbary War and the Second Barbary War between the United States and the Barbary States of North Africa
* 1802: Treaty of Amiens between France and the United Kingdom ends the War of the Second Coalition.
* 1802: Ludwig van Beethoven performs his *Moonlight Sonata* for the first time.
* 1803: William Symington demonstrates his *Charlotte Dundas*, the "first practical steamboat".
* 1803: The United States more than doubles in size when it buys out France's territorial claims in North America via the Louisiana Purchase. This begins the U.S.'s westward expansion to the Pacific referred to as its Manifest Destiny which involves annexing and conquering land from Mexico, Britain, and Native Americans.
* 1803: The Wahhabis of the First Saudi State capture Mecca and Medina.
* 1803: War breaks out between Britain and France; this is considered by some to be the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars.
* 1803: First phase of Padri War. (to 1825)
* 1804: Haiti gains independence from France and becomes the first black republic.
* 1804–1813: Russo-Persian War.
* 1804: Austrian Empire founded by Francis I.
* 1804: Napoleon crowns himself Emperor of the French.
* 1804: World population reaches 1 billion.
* 1804: First steam locomotive begins operation.
* 1804: Morphine first isolated.
* 1804–1810: Fulani Jihad in Nigeria.
* 1804–1815: Serbian revolution erupts against the Ottoman rule. Suzerainty of Serbia recognized in 1817.
* 1805: The Battle of Trafalgar eliminates the French and Spanish naval fleets and allows for British dominance of the seas, a major factor for the success of the British Empire later in the century.
* 1805: Napoleon decisively defeats an Austrian-Russian army at the Battle of Austerlitz.
* 1805–1848: Muhammad Ali modernizes Egypt.
* 1806: Holy Roman Empire dissolved as a consequence of the Treaty of Pressburg.
* 1806: Cape Colony becomes part of the British Empire.
* 1806–1812: Russo-Turkish War, Treaty of Bucharest.
* 1807: Britain declares the Slave Trade illegal.
* 1807: Potassium and Sodium are individually isolated by Sir Humphry Davy.
* 1808: Beethoven performs his Fifth Symphony
* 1808–1809: Russia conquers Finland from Sweden in the Finnish War.
* 1808–1814: Spanish guerrillas fight in the Peninsular War.
* 1808: Herman Willem Daendels the Governor-general of the Dutch East Indies (1808–1811) begin the construction of Java Great Post Road.
* 1809: Napoleon strips the Teutonic Knights of their last holdings in Bad Mergentheim.

## 1810s

* 1810: The University of Berlin was founded. Among its students and faculty are Hegel, Marx, and Bismarck. The German university reform proves to be so successful that its model is copied around the world (see History of European research universities).
* 1810: The Grito de Dolores begins the Mexican War of Independence.
* 1810: The trumpet gets valves.
* 1810s–1820s: Most of the Latin American colonies free themselves from the Spanish and Portuguese Empires after the Latin American wars of independence.
* 1810s–1820s: Punjab War between the Sikh Empire and British Empire.
* 1812: The French invasion of Russia is a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars.
* 1812: British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated.
* 1812–1815: War of 1812 between the United States and Britain; ends in a draw, except that Native Americans lose power
* 1813: Jane Austen publishes *Pride and Prejudice*
* 1813–1837: Afghan-Sikh Wars.
* 1814: Napoleon abdicates and is exiled to Elba.
* 1814: Elisha Collier invents the Flintlock Revolver.
* 1814–16: Anglo-Nepalese War between Nepal (Gurkha Empire) and British Empire.

* 1815: The Congress of Vienna redraws the European map. Reaction and conservatism dominate all of Europe. The Concert of Europe attempts to preserve this settlement, but the forces of liberalism and nationalism make for dramatic changes. It marks the beginning of a Pax Britannica which lasts until 1914.
* 1815: Napoleon escapes exile and begins the Hundred Days before finally being defeated at the Battle of Waterloo and exiled to St Helena. His defeat brings a conclusion to the Napoleonic Wars
* 1815: April, Mount Tambora in Sumbawa island erupts, becoming the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history, destroying Tambora culture, and killing at least 71,000 people, including its aftermath. The eruption created global climate anomalies known as "volcanic winter".
* 1815: Jane Austen publishes Emma in December.
* 1816: Year Without a Summer: Unusually cold conditions wreak havoc throughout the Northern Hemisphere, likely influenced by the 1815 explosion of Mount Tambora.
* 1816: Independence of Argentina.
* 1816–1828: Shaka's Zulu Kingdom becomes the largest in Southern Africa.
* 1817: Principality of Serbia becomes suzerain from the Ottoman Empire. Officially independent in 1867.
* 1817: First Seminole War begins in Florida.
* 1817: Russia commences its conquest of the Caucasus.
* 1817: Princess Charlotte of Wales dies following childbirth.
* 1818: Mary Shelley publishes *Frankenstein*.
* 1818: Independence of Chile.
* 1819: John Keats writes his odes of 1819.
* 1819: Peterloo massacre in England.
* 1819: The modern city of Singapore is established by the British East India Company.
* 1819: Théodore Géricault paints his masterpiece *The Raft of the Medusa*, and exhibits it in the French Salon of 1819 at the Louvre.

## 1820s

* 1820: Missouri Compromise.
* 1820: Regency period ends in the United Kingdom.
* 1820: Revolutions of 1820 in Southern Europe
* 1820: Discovery of Antarctica.
* 1820: Liberia founded by the American Colonization Society for freed American slaves.
* 1820: Dissolution of the Maratha Empire.
* 1820–1835: At least 5000 Mexicans die in Apache raids, and 100 settlements are destroyed.
* 1821: Napoleon Bonaparte dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena.
* 1821: Mexico gains independence from Spain with the Treaty of Córdoba.
* 1821: Peru declares its independence from Spain.
* 1821: Navarino Massacre.
* 1821–1830: Greece becomes the first country to break away from the Ottoman Empire after the Greek War of Independence.
* 1822–1823: First Mexican Empire, as Mexico's first post-independent government, ruled by Emperor Agustín I of Mexico.
* 1822: Prince Pedro of Brazil proclaimed the Brazilian independence on 7 September. On 1 December, he was crowned as Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil.
* 1823–1887: The British Empire annexed Burma (now also called Myanmar) after three Anglo-Burmese Wars.
* 1823: Monroe Doctrine declared by US President James Monroe.
* 1824: Premiere of Beethoven's *Ninth Symphony*.
* 1824: Cadbury is established in Birmingham.
* 1825: Erie Canal opened connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.
* 1825: First isolation of aluminum.
* 1825: Independence of Bolivia.
* 1825: The Stockton and Darlington Railway, the first public railway in the world, is opened.
* 1825: The Decembrist revolt.

* 1825–1828: The Cisplatine War results in the independence of Uruguay.
* 1825: Java War. (to 1830)
* 1826: Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine.
* 1826–1828: After the final Russo-Persian War, the Persian Empire took back territory lost to Russia from the previous war.
* 1826: Auspicious Incident; the end of Janissaries in the Ottoman Empire
* 1827: Death of William Blake, Ludwig van Beethoven
* 1828–1832: Black War in Tasmania leads to the near extinction of the Tasmanian aborigines
* 1829: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's *Faust* premieres.
* 1829: First electric motor built.
* 1829: Sir Robert Peel founds the Metropolitan Police Service, the first modern police force.
* 1829: Treaty of Edirne (1829) following the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829

## 1830s

* 1830: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is established on 6 April 1830.
* 1830: Anglo-Russian rivalry over Afghanistan, the Great Game, commences and concludes in 1895.
* 1830: July Revolution in France.
* 1830: The Belgian Revolution in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands led to the creation of Belgium.
* 1830: Greater Colombia dissolved and the nations of Colombia (including modern-day Panama), Ecuador, and Venezuela took its place.
* 1830: November Uprising in Poland against Russia.
* 1830: End of the Diponegoro war. The whole area of Yogyakarta and Surakarta Manca nagara Dutch seized. 27 September, Klaten Agreement determines a fixed boundary between Surakarta and Yogyakarta and permanently divide the kingdom of Mataram was signed by Sasradiningrat, Pepatih Dalem Surakarta, and Danurejo, Pepatih Dalem Yogyakarta. Mataram is a de facto and de yure controlled by the Dutch East Indies.
* 1831: France invades and occupies Algeria.
* 1831: Ioannis Kapodistrias, the First Governor of Greece is murdered at Nauplion.
* 1831: The Belgian constitution is ratified and Leopold I is crowned as first "King of the Belgians".
* 1831: Great Bosnian uprising against Ottoman rule occurs.
* 1831–1836: Charles Darwin's journey aboard HMS Beagle.
* 1831: November Uprising ends with crushing defeat for Poland in the Battle of Warsaw.
* 1831–1833: Egyptian–Ottoman War.
* 1831: Second phase of Padri War. (to 1838)
* 1832: The British Parliament passes the Great Reform Act.
* 1833: Slavery Abolition Act bans slavery throughout the British Empire.
* 1833–1876: Carlist Wars in Spain.
* 1834: The German Customs Union is formed.
* 1834: Spanish Inquisition officially ends.
* 1834: Britain amends the Poor Law demanding that any paupers requesting assistance must go to a workhouse.
* 1834–1859: Imam Shamil's rebellion in Russian-occupied Caucasus.
* 1835–1836: The Texas Revolution in Mexico resulted in the short-lived Republic of Texas.
* 1836: Battle of the Alamo ends with defeat for Texan separatists.
* 1836: Battle of San Jacinto leads to the capture of General Santa Anna.
* 1836: Samuel Colt popularizes the revolver and sets up a firearms company to manufacture his invention of the Colt Paterson revolver a six bullets firearm shot one by one without reloading manually.
* 1836–1839: War of the Confederation begins between Chile and the Peru-Bolivian Confederation, ending with Chilean victory.
* 1837: Telegraphy patented.
* 1837: Charles Dickens publishes *Oliver Twist*.
* 1837: Death of Alexander Pushkin.
* 1837–1838: Rebellions of 1837 in Canada.
* 1837–1901: Queen Victoria's reign is considered the apex of the British Empire and is referred to as the Victorian era.
* 1838: By this time, 46,000 Native Americans have been forcibly relocated in the Trail of Tears.
* 1838–1840: Civil war in the Federal Republic of Central America led to the foundings of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.
* 1839: Kingdom of Belgium declared.
* 1839–1851: Uruguayan Civil War.
* 1839–1860: After the First and Second Opium Wars, France, the United Kingdom, the United States and Russia gain many trade and associated concessions from China resulting in the start of the decline of the Qing dynasty.
* 1839–1919: Anglo-Afghan Wars lead to stalemate and the establishment of the Durand line

## 1840s

* 1840: New Zealand is founded, as the Treaty of Waitangi is signed by the Maori and British.
* 1840: Upper and Lower Canada are merged into the Province of Canada.
* 1841: The word "dinosaur" is coined by Richard Owen
* 1842: Treaty of Nanking cedes Hong Kong to the British.
* 1842: Anaesthesia used for the first time.
* 1843: The first wagon train sets out from Missouri.
* 1843: Short stories *A Christmas Carol* and *The Tell-Tale Heart* published.
* 1844: Persian Prophet the Báb announces his revelation on 23 May, founding Bábísm. He announced to the world of the coming of "He whom God shall make manifest". He is considered the forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith.
* 1844: First publicly funded telegraph line in the world—between Baltimore and Washington—sends demonstration message on 24 May, ushering in the age of the telegraph. This message read "What hath God wrought?" (Bible, Numbers 23:23)
* 1844: Millerite movement awaits the Second Advent of Jesus Christ on 22 October. Christ's non-appearance becomes known as the Great Disappointment.
* 1844: The great auk is rendered extinct.
* 1844: Dominican War of Independence from Haiti.
* 1844: Heinrich Heine coins the term "Lisztomania" in regards to the public's frenzied reaction to the pianist Franz Liszt.
* 1845: Unification of the Kingdom of Tonga under Taufa?ahau (King George Tupou I).
* 1845: Lunacy Act 1845 passes through Parliament.
* 1845–1846: First Anglo-Sikh War.
* 1845–1872: The New Zealand Land Wars.
* 1845–1849: The Irish Potato Famine leads to the Irish diaspora.
* 1846–1848: The Mexican–American War leads to Mexico's cession of much of the modern-day Southwestern United States.
* 1846–1847: Mormon migration to Utah.
* 1847: The Brontë sisters publish *Jane Eyre*, *Wuthering Heights* and *Agnes Grey*.
* 1847: Ignaz Semmelweis proposes hand washing as a way to stop the spread of diseases.
* 1847–1901: The Caste War of Yucatán.
* 1848–1849: Second Anglo-Sikh War
* 1848: *The Communist Manifesto* published.
* 1848: Revolutions of 1848 in Europe.
* 1848: Seneca Falls Convention is the first women's rights convention in the United States and leads to the battle for women's suffrage.
* 1848–1858: California Gold Rush.
* 1848: William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti found the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
* 1849: The first boatloads of gold prospectors arrive in California, giving them the nickname 49ers.
* 1849: Roman Republic's constitutional law becomes the first to abolish capital punishment.
* 1849: The safety pin and the gas mask are invented.
* 1849: Earliest recorded air raid, as Austria launches from land and from the ship SMS *Vulcano'* some 200 incendiary balloons against Venice.

## 1850s

* 1850: The Little Ice Age ends around this time.
* 1850: Alfred Tennyson is appointed Poet Laureate after the death of William Wordsworth.
* 1850–1864: Taiping Rebellion is the bloodiest conflict of the century, leading to the deaths of 20 million people.
* 1851: The Great Exhibition in London was the world's first international Expo or World Fair.
* 1851: Louis Napoleon assumes power in France in a coup.
* 1851–1852: The Platine War ends and the Empire of Brazil has the hegemony over South America.
* 1851–1860s: Victorian gold rush in Australia
* 1851: Herman Melville publishes Moby-Dick.
* 1852: Frederick Douglass delivers his speech "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" in Rochester, New York.
* 1853: William Wells Brown (1814–1884) wrote first novel published by an African American, Clotel
* 1853: Twelve Years a Slave is a memoir and slave narrative by American Solomon Northup as told to and edited by David Wilson.
* 1853: United States Commodore Matthew C. Perry threatens the Japanese capital Edo with gunships, demanding that they agree to open trade.
* 1853–1856: Crimean War between France, the United Kingdom, the Ottoman Empire and Russia
* 1854: Battle of Balaclava and the Charge of the Light Brigade.
* 1854: The Convention of Kanagawa formally ends Japan's policy of isolation.
* 1854: SS Arctic disaster: The steamship SS Arctic collides with the SS Vesta and sinks off the coast of Newfoundland.
* 1854–1855: Siege of Sevastapol; city falls to French and British forces.
* 1855: Bessemer process enables steel to be mass-produced.
* 1855: Walt Whitman publishes the first edition of *Leaves of Grass*.
* 1855: Cocaine is isolated by Friedrich Gaedcke.
* 1856: Rana dynasty of Nepal established by Jung Bahadur Rana.
* 1856: World's first oil refinery in Romania
* 1856: Neanderthal man first identified. Age still unknown.
* 1857: Sir Joseph Whitworth designs the first long-range sniper rifle.
* 1857–1858: Indian Rebellion of 1857. The British Empire assumes control of India from the East India Company.
* 1858–1947: British Empire in India lasts for 90 years.
* 1858: Invention of the phonautograph, the first true device for recording sound.
* 1858: Construction of Big Ben is completed.
* 1859: Charles Darwin publishes *On the Origin of Species*.
* 1859–1869: Suez Canal is constructed.

## 1860s

* 1860: Giuseppe Garibaldi launches the Expedition of the Thousand.
* 1860: The Pony Express started.
* 1861–1865: American Civil War between the Union and seceding Confederacy.
* 1861: Russia abolishes serfdom.
* 1861–1867: French intervention in Mexico and the creation of the Second Mexican Empire, ruled by Maximilian I of Mexico and his consort Carlota of Mexico.
* 1861: Death of Prince Albert.
* 1861: James Clerk Maxwell publishes *On Physical Lines of Force*, formulating the four Maxwell's Equations.
* 1862: The Pony Express ended.
* 1862: Victor Hugo publishes *Les Misérables*.
* 1862: French gain first foothold in Southeast Asia.
* 1862–1877: Muslim Rebellion in north-west China.
* 1863: United States President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln issued a preliminary on September 22, 1862, warning that in all states still in rebellion (Confederacy) on January 1, 1863, he would declare their slaves "then, thenceforward, and forever free." The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1865, officially abolished slavery in the entire country.
* 1863: Bahá'u'lláh declares his station as "He whom God shall make manifest". This date is celebrated in the Bahá'í Faith as The Festival of Ridván.
* 1863: Formation of the International Red Cross is followed by the adoption of the First Geneva Convention in 1864.
* 1863: First section of the London Underground opens.
* 1863: France annexes Cambodia.
* 1863: Édouard Manet exhibits his painting *The Luncheon on the Grass*, sparking public outrage.
* 1863: Gordon (slave) Gordon, or "Whipped Peter", was an enslaved African American who escaped from a Louisiana plantation in March 1863
* 1863–1865: Polish uprising against the Russian Empire.
* 1864: Circassian Genocide.(21 May 1864)
* 1864–1866: The Chincha Islands War was an attempt by Spain to regain its South American colonies.
* 1864–1870: The Paraguayan War ends Paraguayan ambitions for expansion and destroys much of the Paraguayan population.
* 1864: June, The first railway track in Indonesia was laid between Semarang and Tanggung, Central Java by the Dutch colonial government.
* 1865–1877: Reconstruction in the United States; Slavery is banned in the United States by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
* 1865-9 April 1865: Robert E. Lee surrenders the Army of Northern Virginia (26,765 troops) to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil War.
* 1865-14 April 1865: United States President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by actor and Confederate sympathiser John Wilkes Booth, while attending a performance at Ford's Theater, Washington, D.C.. He dies approximately nine hours after being shot on 15 April 1865.
* 1865: Gregor Mendel formulates his laws of inheritance.
* 1865: Lewis Carroll publishes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
* 1866: Successful transatlantic telegraph cable follows an earlier attempt in 1858.
* 1866: Austro-Prussian War results in the dissolution of the German Confederation and the creation of the North German Confederation and the Austrian-Hungarian Dual Monarchy.
* 1866–1868: Famine in Finland.
* 1866–1869: After the Meiji Restoration, Japan embarks on a program of rapid modernization.
* 1867: The United States purchases Alaska from Russia.
* 1867–1869: Famine in Sweden.
* 1867: Canadian Confederation formed.
* 1867: Alfred Nobel invents dynamite.
* 1867: The Principality of Serbia passes a Constitution which defines its independence from the Ottoman Empire. International recognition followed in 1878.
* 1867: The Luxembourg Crisis: diplomatic confrontation between France and Prussia on the status of Luxembourg and the towns fortifications are torn down.
* 1867: The Marquess of Queensberry Rules for boxing are published.
* 1868: The Expatriation Act of 1868 is approved by the U.S. Congress, one of the early blows which would eventually lead to the death of the common law doctrine of perpetual allegiance
* 1868: The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is approved.
* 1868: Cro-Magnon man first identified.
* 1868: Michael Barrett is the last person to be publicly hanged in England.
* 1868–1878: Ten Years' War between Cuba and Spain.
* 1868: The Batavian Museum (today National Museum of Indonesia) was officially opened by Dutch East Indies government.
* 1869: Leo Tolstoy publishes *War and Peace*.
* 1869: First Transcontinental Railroad completed in United States on 10 May. – United States
* 1869: Dmitri Mendeleev created the Periodic table.
* 1869: The Suez Canal opens linking the Mediterranean to the Red Sea.

## 1870s

* 1870: Rasmus Malling-Hansen's invention the Hansen Writing Ball becomes the first commercially sold typewriter.
* 1870–1871: The Franco-Prussian War results in the unifications of Germany and Italy, the collapse of the Second French Empire and the emergence of a New Imperialism.
* 1870: Official dismantling of the Cultivation System and beginning of a 'Liberal Policy' of deregulated exploitation of the Netherlands East Indies.
* 1870–1890: Long Depression in Western Europe and North America.
* 1871–1878: In Germany, Otto von Bismarck attacks the privileges of the Catholic Church in the *Kulturkampf* ("Culture War")
* 1871–1872: Famine in Persia is believed to have caused the death of 2 million.
* 1871–1914: Second Industrial Revolution
* 1871: Royal Albert Hall opens in London.
* 1871: The Paris Commune briefly rules the French capital.
* 1871: The feudal system is dismantled in Japan.
* 1871: Henry Morton Stanley meets Dr. David Livingstone near Lake Tanganyika.
* 1872: Yellowstone National Park, the first national park, is created.
* 1872: The first recognised international soccer match, between England and Scotland, is played.
* 1873: The Panic of 1873 starts the "Long Depression".
* 1873: Maxwell's *A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism* published.
* 1873: The samurai class is abolished in Japan.
* 1873: Blue jeans and barbed wire are invented.
* 1873: The beginning of the bloody Aceh War for Dutch occupation of the province.
* 1874: The *Société Anonyme Coopérative des Artistes Peintres, Sculpteurs, and Graveurs*, better known as the Impressionists, organize and present their first public group exhibition at the Paris studio of the photographer Nadar.
* 1874: The Home Rule Movement is established in Ireland.
* 1874: The British East India Company is dissolved.
* 1874–1875: First Republic in Spain.
* 1875: *HMS Challenger* surveys the deepest point in the Earth's oceans, the Challenger Deep
* 1875–1900: 26 million Indians perish in India due to famine.
* 1875: Georges Bizet's opera Carmen premiers in Paris.
* 1876: Bulgarians instigate the April Uprising against Ottoman rule.
* 1876: Richard Wagner's *Ring Cycle* is first performed in its entirety.
* 1876: Queen Victoria becomes Empress of India.
* 1876: Battle of the Little Bighorn leads to the death of General Custer and victory for the alliance of Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho
* 1876–1879: 13 million Chinese die of famine in northern China.
* 1876–1914: The massive expansion in population, territory, industry and wealth in the United States is referred to as the Gilded Age.
* 1877: Great Railroad Strike in the United States may have been the world's first nationwide labour strike.
* 1877: Crazy Horse surrenders and is later killed
* 1877: Asaph Hall discovers the moons of Mars
* 1877: Thomas Edison invents the phonograph
* 1877: On August 17, Henry McCarty (who later becomes Billy the Kid) kills a blacksmith named Francis Cahill who becomes his first murder victim.
* 1877: The first test cricket match, between England and Australia, is played.
* 1877–1878: Following the Russo-Turkish War, the Treaty of Berlin recognizes formal independence of the Principality of Serbia, Montenegro and Romania. Bulgaria becomes autonomous.
* 1878: First commercial telephone exchange in New Haven, Connecticut.
* 1879: Anglo-Zulu War in South Africa. – South Africa
* 1879: Thomas Edison tests his first light bulb.
* 1879–1880: Little War against Spanish rule in Cuba leads to rebel defeat.
* 1879–1883: Chile battles with Peru and Bolivia over Andean territory in the War of the Pacific.
* 1879–1884: Belgium is engulfed in a political crisis, dubbed the First School War, over the role of religion in state education.
* 1879: 21 April, Kartini was born in Jepara, today the date is commemorated as women's emancipation day in Indonesia.

## 1880s

* 1880–1881: the First Boer War.
* 1881: Tsar Alexander II is assassinated.
* 1881: Wave of pogroms begins in the Russian Empire.
* 1881: Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Sitting Bull surrenders.
* 1881: First electrical power plant and grid in Godalming, Britain.
* 1881: President James A. Garfield is assassinated.
* 1881–1882: The Jules Ferry laws are passed in France establishing free, secular education.
* 1881–1899: The Mahdist War in Sudan.
* 1882: The British invasion and subsequent occupation of Egypt
* 1883: Krakatoa volcano explosion, one of the largest in modern history.
* 1883: The quagga is rendered extinct.
* 1883: Robert Louis Stevenson's *Treasure Island* is published.
* 1884: Siege of Khartoum.
* 1884: Germany gains control of Cameroon.
* 1884: Mark Twain publishes *The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn*.
* 1884: Sir Hiram Maxim invents the first self-powered Machine gun.
* 1884–1885: The Berlin Conference signals the start of the European "scramble for Africa". Attending nations also agree to ban trade in slaves.
* 1884–1885: The Sino-French War led to the formation of French Indochina.
* 1885: Louis Pasteur creates the first successful vaccine against rabies for a young boy who had been bitten 14 times by a rabid dog.
* 1885: King Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo Free State as a personal fiefdom.
* 1885: Britain establishes a protectorate over Bechuanaland (modern Botswana).
* 1885: Singer begins production of the 'Vibrating Shuttle'. which would become the most popular model of sewing machine.
* 1885: Rock Springs massacre: White miners rioted, killing at least 28 Chinese immigrant miners.
* 1886: "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson is published.
* 1886: Burma is presented to Queen Victoria as a birthday gift.
* 1886: Karl Benz sells the first commercial automobile.
* 1886: Construction of the Statue of Liberty; Coca-Cola is developed.
* 1887: The British Empire takes over Balochistan.
* 1887: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle publishes his first Sherlock Holmes story, *A Study in Scarlet*.
* 1888: Louis Le Prince records the *Roundhay Garden Scene*, the earliest surviving film.
* 1888: Jack the Ripper murders occur in Whitechapel, London.
* 1888: Slavery banned in Brazil.
* 1888: Founding of the shipping line *Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij* (KPM) that supported the unification and development of the colonial economy.
* 1889: The Mayerling Incident: Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and Baroness Mary Vetsera are found dead in an apparent murder-suicide.
* 1889: Eiffel Tower is inaugurated in Paris.
* 1889: Mirza Ghulam Ahmad establishes the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, a reform sect of Islam.
* 1889: End of the Brazilian Empire and the beginning of the Brazilian Republic.
* 1889: Vincent van Gogh paints *Starry Night*.
* 1889: Aspirin patented.
* 1889: Moulin Rouge opens in Paris.

## 1890s

* 1890: The Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota was the last battle in the American Indian Wars. This event represents the end of the American Old West.
* 1890: Italy annexes Eritrea.
* 1890: First use of the electric chair as a method of execution.
* 1890: Independence of Luxembourg.
* 1890: Death of Vincent van Gogh.
* 1890: The cardboard box is invented.
* 1891: Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadiyya movement, claims to be Promised Messiah and Imam Mahdi.
* 1891: 1891 Chilean Civil War.
* 1891: Wrigley Company is founded in Illinois.
* 1891: Pope Leo XIII launches the encyclical Rerum Novarum, the first major catholic document on social justice
* 1892: Basketball is invented.
* 1892: The World's Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago celebrating the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World.
* 1892: Fingerprinting is officially adopted for the first time.
* 1892: Tchaikovsky's *Nutcracker Suite* premières in St Petersberg.
* 1892: John Froelich develops and constructs the first gasoline/petrol-powered tractor.
* 1893: US forces overthrow the government of Hawaii.
* 1893: The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation is formed.
* 1893: New Zealand becomes the first country to enact women's suffrage.
* 1893: The Coremans-de Vriendt law is passed in Belgium, creating legal equality for French and Dutch languages.
* 1894: First commercial film release by Jean Aimé Le Roy.
* 1894: First gramophone record.
* 1894: Karl Elsener invents the Swiss Army knife.
* 1894: France and the Russian Empire form a military alliance.
* 1894–1895: After the First Sino-Japanese War, China cedes Taiwan to Japan and grants Japan a free hand in Korea.
* 1894–1906: Dreyfuss Affair in France.
* 1894: Lombok War The Dutch looted and destroyed the Cakranegara palace of Mataram. J. L. A. Brandes, a Dutch philologist discovered and secured Nagarakretagama manuscript in Lombok royal library.
* 1895: Taiwan is ceded to the Empire of Japan as a result of the First Sino-Japanese war.
* 1895: Volleyball is invented.
* 1895: Trial of Oscar Wilde and premiere of his play *The Importance of Being Earnest*.
* 1895: French troops capture Antananarivo in Madagascar.
* 1895: Wilhelm Röntgen identifies x-rays.
* 1895–1896: Abyssinia defeats Italy in the First Italo–Ethiopian War.
* 1895–1898: Cuban War for Independence results in Cuban independence from Spain.
* 1896: Olympic Games revived in Athens.
* 1896: Philippine Revolution ends declaring Philippines free from Spanish rule.
* 1896: Ethiopia defeated Italy at the Battle of Adwa.
* 1896: Klondike Gold Rush in Canada.
* 1896: Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity; J. J. Thomson identifies the electron, though not by name.
* 1897: Gojong, or Emperor Gwangmu, proclaims the short-lived Korean Empire: lasts until 1910.
* 1897: Benin Expedition of 1897 loots and burns Benin.
* 1897: Greco-Turkish War.
* 1897: Bram Stoker writes Dracula.
* 1898: The United States gains control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines after the Spanish–American War.
* 1898: Empress Dowager Cixi of China engineers a coup d'état, marking the end of the Hundred Days' Reform; the Guangxu Emperor is arrested.
* 1898: H. G. Wells publishes *The War of the Worlds*
* 1898: Empress Elisabeth of Austria is assassinated by anarchist Luigi Lucheni.
* 1898–1900: The Boxer Rebellion in China is suppressed by an Eight-Nation Alliance.
* 1898–1902: The Thousand Days' War in Colombia breaks out between the "Liberales" and "Conservadores", culminating with the loss of Panama in 1903.
* 1898: General van Heutz becomes chief of staff of Aceh campaign. Wilhelmina becomes queen of the Netherlands.
* 1899–1902: Second Boer War begins.
* 1899–1913: Philippine–American War begins.
* 1899–1900: Indian famine kills over 1 million people.

## 1900

* Hawaii becomes an official U.S. territory.
* Galveston Hurricane in Texas kills 8000 people.
* L. Frank Baum publishes The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
* King Umberto I of Italy is assassinated.
* Exposition Universelle held in Paris, prominently featuring the growing art trend Art Nouveau.
* Eight nations invaded China at the same time and ransacked Forbidden City.

## 1900s

See also: Edwardian Era, Gilded Age, Progressive Era
* 1901: First Nobel Prizes awarded. The Australian colonies federated. Boxer Rebellion ends. Edward VII becomes King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India upon the death of Queen Victoria. Platt Amendment limits the autonomy of Cuba in exchange for withdrawal of American troops. Assassination of William McKinley. Emily Hobhouse reports on the terrible conditions in the 45 British concentration camps for Boer women and children in South Africa. Guglielmo Marconi receives the first trans-Atlantic radio signal.
* 1902: Second Boer War ends. Philippine–American War ends. Cuba gains independence from the United States. Willis Carrier invents the first modern electrical air conditioning unit. Unification of Saudi Arabia begins. Venezuela Crisis, in which Britain, Germany and Italy sustain a naval blockade on Venezuela in order to enforce collection of outstanding financial claims.
* 1903: First controlled heavier-than-air flight of the Wright Brothers. Herero and Namaqua Genocide, the first genocide of the 20th century, begins in German South-West Africa. In Russia the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks form from the breakup of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. Pius X becomes Pope. The teddy bear is invented. The first Tour de France is held. Independence of Panama, the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama. The Ottoman Empire and the German Empire sign an agreement to build the Constantinople-Baghdad Railway.
* 1904: Entente cordiale signed between Britain and France. A Japanese surprise attack on Port Arthur (Lushun) starts the Russo-Japanese War. Trans-Siberian railway is completed. Construction of the Panama Canal begins. Roger Casement publishes his account of Belgian atrocities in the Congo Free State. End of British expedition to Tibet.
* 1905: Russo-Japanese War ends. Revolution of 1905 in Russia. Persian Constitutional Revolution begins. Trans-Siberian Railway opened. Albert Einstein's formulation of relativity. Schlieffen Plan proposed. The British Indian Province of Bengal, was partitioned by the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon. First Moroccan Crisis. The Norwegian Parliament declares the union with Sweden dissolved, and Norway achieves full independence.
* 1906: Earthquakes in San Francisco, California (death toll: 3000) and Valparaíso, Chile (death toll: 20,000) occur. Dreyfus Affair ends. Stolypin reform in Russia creates a new class of affluent kulaks. Brazilian inventor Alberto Santos-Dumont takes off and flies his 14-bis to a crowd in Paris. The Muslim League is formed by Nawab Salimullah Khan of Dacca. The US began the Second Occupation of Cuba.
* 1907: Herero and Namaqua Genocide ends. A peasants' revolt in Romania kills roughly 11,000. The Indian National Congress splits into two factions at its Surat session, presided by Rash Behari Bose. Persian Constitutional Revolution ends with the establishment of a parliament. Japan–Korea Treaty of 1907. The Anglo-Russian Entente bring a pause in The Great Game in Central Asia. Elections to the new Parliament of Finland are the first in the world with woman candidates, as well as the first elections in Europe where universal suffrage is applied.
* 1908: First commercial radio transmissions. The Ford Motor Company invents the Model T. First commercial Middle-Eastern oilfield established, at Masjed Soleyman in southwest Persia. The Tunguska impact devastates thousands of square kilometres of Siberia. Young Turk Revolution in the Ottoman Empire. Independence of Bulgaria. Austro-Hungary annexes Bosnia-Herzegovina, triggering the Bosnian Crisis. Pu Yi, the last Emperor of China, assumes the throne. 1908 Messina earthquake kills over 70,000 people. Start of publication of Robert Baden-Powell's *Scouting for Boys* in London.
* 1909: United States troops leave Cuba. Bosnian crisis ends with Austro-Hungary's annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Robert E. Peary claims to have reached the North Pole though the claim is subsequently heavily contested. Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909. Ottoman countercoup fails in the Ottoman Empire. A revolution forces Mohammad Ali Shah, Persian Shah of the Qajar dynasty to abdicate in favor of his son Ahmad Shah Qajar. Japan and China sign the Jiandao/Gando Treaty

## 1910s

See also: Timeline of World War I
* 1910: Beginning of the Mexican Revolution. George V becomes King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India. Union of South Africa created. 5 October 1910 revolution in Portugal and proclamation of the First Portuguese Republic. Imperial Japan annexes Korea. Boy Scouts of America is founded. Halley's Comet returns. Montenegro is proclaimed an independent kingdom. Albanian Revolt of 1910.
* 1911: Xinhai Revolution in China overthrows the Qing Dynasty. Roald Amundsen first reaches the South Pole. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire results in the deaths of 146 workers and leads to sweeping workplace safety reforms. New Delhi becomes the capital of British India. Ernest Rutherford identifies the atomic nucleus. The Italo-Turkish war leads to the capture of Libya by Italy. Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS *Pennsylvania* stationed in San Francisco harbor, marking the first time an aircraft lands on a ship. Agadir Crisis.
* 1912: End of the Chinese Empire; Republic of China established. The African National Congress is founded. Morocco becomes a protectorate of France. Sinking of the *RMS Titanic*. First Balkan War begins. Woodrow Wilson is elected 28th President of the United States. Arizona becomes the last state to be admitted to the continental Union. United States occupation of Nicaragua begins. The Kuomintang, the Chinese nationalist party, is founded.
* 1913: Niels Bohr formulates the first cohesive model of the atomic nucleus, and in the process paves the way to quantum mechanics. In the 1913 Ottoman coup d'état, Ismail Enver comes to power. Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line. La Decena Trágica in Mexico City. Yuan Shikai uses military force to dissolve China's parliament and rules as a dictator. Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring infamously premiers in Paris. Treaty of London. Second Balkan War and Treaty of Bucharest. The Federal Reserve System is created.
* 1914: Gavrilo Princip assassinates Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo, triggering the start of World War I. First Battle of the Marne. The Race to the Sea leaves Germany and the Allies entrenched along the Western Front. The United Kingdom establishes the Sultanate of Egypt as a protectorate. Panama Canal opens. Benedict XV becomes Pope. Battle of Tannenberg. Martha, last known passenger pigeon, dies.
* 1915: The *RMS Lusitania* is sunk. The United States occupation of Haiti begins. Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation is released. First use of poison gas at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle and Second Battle of Ypres. The Treaty of London brings Italy into the war.
* 1916: Easter Rising in Ireland. The implementation of daylight saving time. Brusilov Offensive. Warlord Era begins in China. David Lloyd George becomes the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The Gallipoli Campaign fails. First use of tanks at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. Battle of the Somme. Grigory Rasputin is assassinated by H.H. Prince Felix Youssoupov. The Pact is agreed upon by both the Congress and the Muslim League at the Indian city of Lucknow. Sinking of the HMHS Britannic. Battle of Verdun. The Arab Revolt begins
* 1917: Russian Revolution ends the Russian Empire; beginning of Russian Civil War. Battle of Passchendaele. USA joins the Allies for the last 17 months of World War I. Battle of Caporetto. Independence of Poland and Finland recognised. The Third Battle of Gaza ends in British victory. The first Pulitzer Prizes are awarded. October Revolution in Russia. Ukrainian–Soviet War begins. Apparations of Our Lady of the Rosary in Fatima,Portugal.
* 1918: Spring Offensive. Battle of Amiens. The Hundred Days Offensive sends Germany into defeat. Armistice of 11 November 1918 ends World War I. German Revolution begins. Abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Spanish flu pandemic. Assassination of Tsar Nicholas II and his family. Poland, Ukraine and Belarus are among a number of states to declare independence from Russia. Finnish Civil War. Mehmed VI becomes last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and last Caliph. Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire begins. The Kingdom of Iceland and The State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs are established. The British occupy Palestine. Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen is founded. Azerbaijan Democratic Republic is declared. Armenian–Azerbaijani War begins. Polish–Ukrainian War begins.
* 1919: Treaty of Versailles redraws European borders. German Revolution ends with the collapse of the German Empire and the establishment of the Weimar Republic. Victory for Estonia in the Estonian War of Independence. League of Nations founded in Paris. Polish-Soviet War begins. The Italian National Fascist Party is established by Benito Mussolini. Comintern established. Egyptian Revolution of 1919. Turkish War of Independence begins. End of Polish–Ukrainian War. The International Labour Organization is established. Ernest Rutherford discovers the proton. First experimental evidence for the General theory of relativity obtained by Arthur Eddington.

## 1920s

See also: Roaring Twenties
* 1920: Mexican Revolution ends. Greece restores its monarchy after a referendum. Mandatory Palestine established. Red Army invasion of Azerbaijan and Armenia ends the Armenian–Azerbaijani War and concludes with their incorporation into the Soviet Union. Mohandas Gandhi launches Non-cooperation movement. Prohibition in the United States enforced.
* 1921: Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of the Nazi Party as hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic begins. Russia invades Georgia and incorporates it into the Soviet Union. End of Russian Civil War, Polish-Soviet War and Ukrainian–Soviet War. Coup brings the Pahlavi dynasty to power in Iran. Warren G. Harding becomes 29th President of The United States
* 1922: Ottoman Sultanate abolished by the Turkish Grand National Assembly; Sultan Mehmed VI is deposed. Irish Free State is established, while the Province of Northern Ireland is created within The United Kingdom. The Irish Civil War begins. The Italian reconquest of Libya begins. The union of Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador is dissolved. Egypt gains independence from the United Kingdom, though British forces still occupy the Suez Canal. March on Rome brings Benito Mussolini to power in Italy. Howard Carter discovers Tutankhamen's tomb. Gabriel Narutowicz, President of Poland is assassinated. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the world's first officially Communist state, is formed. Pius XI becomes Pope. James Joyce publishes *Ulysses*. The Washington Naval Treaty is signed. Mohandas Gandhi calls off Non-cooperation movement.
* 1923: Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic ends with the introduction of the Rentenmark. *Time* Magazine is first published. Irish Civil War ends. The Beer Hall Putsch, an attempt to overthrow the Weimar Republic, ends in failure and brief imprisonment for Adolf Hitler but brings the Nazi Party to national attention. A military coup ousts and kills Bulgarian Prime Minister Aleksandar Stamboliyski. The Great Kanto earthquake kills at least 105,000 people in Japan. Turkish War of Independence ends; Kemal Atatürk becomes the first President of the newly established Republic of Turkey; Ankara replaces Istanbul as its capital. The Walt Disney Company is founded. Death of Warren G. Harding; Calvin Coolidge takes presidency in the United States.
* 1924: Death of Vladimir Lenin triggers power struggle between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. The Caliphate is abolished by Kemal Atatürk. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation founded under J. Edgar Hoover. The August Uprising in Georgia against Soviet rule. George Gershwin composes Rhapsody In Blue. U.S. Immigration Act of 1924 significantly restricts immigration from Asia, the Middle East, and Southern Europe.
* 1925: Benito Mussolini gains dictatorial powers in Italy. *Mein Kampf* is published. First televisual image created by John Logie Baird. Locarno Treaties are signed. Serum run to Nome.
* 1926: Hirohito becomes Emperor of Japan. Coups in Greece, Poland and Portugal install new dictatorships.
* 1927: *The Jazz Singer*, the first "talkie", is released. Joseph Stalin becomes leader of the Soviet Union. Chinese Civil War begins. Bath School disaster. Australian Parliament convenes in Canberra for the first time. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland officially becomes the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Saudi Arabia gains independence. The BBC is granted a Royal Charter in the United Kingdom. World population reaches 2 billion. Charles Lindbergh's flight to Paris.
* 1928: Discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming. Warlord Era ends in China. Malta becomes a British Dominion. Bubble gum is invented. King Zog I is crowned in Albania. The Kellogg-Briand Pact is signed in Paris. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is established. Mickey Mouse is created at the Walt Disney Studio. Hassan al-Banna founds the Muslim Brotherhood.
* 1929: Wall Street crash of 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression. Leon Trotsky is exiled. First people sent to the gulag in the Soviet Union as Stalin assumes effective control. Pope Pius XI signs the Lateran Treaty with Italian leader Benito Mussolini. Vatican City is recognised as a sovereign state. Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. The first Academy Awards are presented.

## 1930s

See also: Timeline of the Great Depression
* 1930: Aided by the Great Depression, the Nazi Party increases its share of the vote from 2.6% to 18.3%. Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto. Salt March by Mohandas Gandhi and the official start of civil disobedience in British India. Military coups replace governments in Peru and Brazil. Haile Selassie becomes king of Abyssinia. First FIFA World Cup hosted.
* 1931: Floods in China kill up to 2.5 million people. Independence of South Africa. Construction of the Empire State Building. "The Star-Spangled Banner" is adopted as the United States's national anthem. The Second Spanish Republic is declared. The Chinese Soviet Republic is proclaimed by Mao Zedong. Statute of Westminster creates the British Commonwealth of Nations. Japan invades Manchuria, China and occupies it until the end of World War II.
* 1932: Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected President of the United States. Éamon de Valera becomes President of the Executive Council (prime minister) of the Irish Free State. The Nazi party becomes the largest single party in the German parliament. Military coup in Chile. Siamese Revolution establishes a constitutional monarchy. BBC World Service starts broadcasting. The Neutron is discovered. Lindbergh baby kidnapping.
* 1933: Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. New Deal begins in America. Japan and Germany announce they are going to leave the League of Nations. United States occupation of Nicaragua ends. Prohibition in the United States is abolished.
* 1934: Dictatorships begin in Brazil and Bolivia. Austrian Civil War results in Fascist victory. Mao Zedong begins the Long March. United States occupation of Haiti ends. United States grants more autonomy to the Philippines. Adolf Hitler instigates the Night of the Long Knives, which cements his power over both the Nazi Party and Germany. With the death of President Hindenburg, Hitler declares himself Fuhrer of Germany. Bonnie and Clyde are shot to death in a police ambush. John Dillinger is gunned down by the FBI outside the Biograph Theater.
* 1935: Second Italo-Abyssinian War concludes with the exile of Haile Selassie and the conquest of Abyssinia by Benito Mussolini. Persia becomes Iran. William Lyon Mackenzie King is elected Prime Minister of Canada. Enactment of the Nuremberg racial laws.
* 1936: Beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Great Purge begins under Stalin. Edward VIII becomes King of the British Commonwealth and Emperor of India, before abdicating and handing the throne to his brother, George VI. George Nissen and Larry Griswold build the first modern trampoline. Hoover Dam is completed. Arab Revolt in Palestine against the British begins to oppose Jewish immigration. Italy annexes Ethiopia. "Benjamin", the last known thylacine, dies in Hobart Zoo.
* 1937: Japanese invasion of China, and the beginning of World War II in the Far East. Rape of Nanking. Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The Irish Republican Army attempts to assassinate King George VI of the United Kingdom. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first feature-length animated movie released. German zeppelin Hindenburg crashes in Lakehurst, New Jersey.
* 1938: Anschluss unifies Germany and Austria. Munich agreement hands Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany. Great Purge ends after nearly 700,000 executions. Kristallnacht in Germany, while *Time* Magazine declares Adolf Hitler as Man of the Year. DC Comics hero Superman has its first appearance.
* 1939: End of Spanish Civil War; Francisco Franco becomes dictator of Spain. Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union. Nazi invasion of Poland triggers the beginning of World War II in Europe. Soviet invasion of Poland begins 16 days later. Palestinian revolt against the British ends. Pius XII becomes Pope.