Timeline Index

History Timelines

Each timeline is a structured path through events, people, causes, and consequences.

U.S. troops leaving a landing craft and wading toward Omaha Beach on D-Day

World War II Timeline

A guided route through appeasement, invasion, global expansion, occupation, turning points, surrender, and postwar reckoning in World War II.

World War IINazi GermanyPacific WarPostwar Order

Roman marble statue of Eirene, the personification of peace

Roman Empire Timeline: Key Dates from 27 BCE to 1453

Use this Roman Empire timeline and Roman history timeline to place the key dates in order: 27 BCE for Augustus and imperial rule, 313 for Christian toleration, 330 for Constantinople, 476 for the western imperial office, and 1453 for the fall of Constantinople.

Roman RepublicRoman EmpireByzantine EmpireImperial Rule

Industrial Revolution energy, factory labor, and transport

Industrial Revolution Timeline

A timeline of industrialization, infrastructure, capital, labor, and the global pressures that followed mechanized production.

IndustryTechnologyCapitalismEmpire

World War I crisis, total war, and settlement timeline

World War I Timeline: 1914 to 1918 and the Peace Settlement

Start this World War 1 timeline in 1914 with Sarajevo and the July Crisis, then follow the Marne, Gallipoli, Verdun, the Somme, U.S. entry, the 1918 Armistice, and the Versailles peace settlement.

World War IWestern FrontDiplomacyPostwar Order

Earth rising above the lunar surface as seen during the Apollo 8 mission

Cold War Timeline

Follow the Cold War from postwar bargaining and containment through Berlin, Korea, nuclear danger, Vietnam, reform, and the collapse of the Soviet bloc.

Cold WarContainmentNuclear WeaponsDecolonization

Achaemenid stone relief showing two servants in procession with food and drink

Ancient Empires Timeline

A chronological guide to classical empires, city-states, battlefield turning points, imperial state formation, and political memory.

Ancient EmpiresCity-StatesImperial RuleWarfare

Religion, reform, translation, and public ideas

Religion, Reform, and Ideas Timeline

Trace religious authority, doctrine, reform, conflict, and intellectual change from late antiquity into the early modern world.

ReligionReformIdeasAuthority

Science, technology, discovery, systems, and trust timeline

Science, Technology, and Discovery Timeline

A route through scientific publishing, vaccination, evolution, infrastructure, communication, space technology, computing, and genomics.

ScienceTechnologyMedicineDiscovery

Blue-and-white Ming porcelain jar decorated with carp and lotus pond imagery

Trade, Disease, and Global Exchange Timeline

Follow routes, companies, voyages, disease, commerce, and public health across the connected world.

TradeDiseaseGlobal ExchangeEmpire

Rights, independence movements, claims, and tactics timeline

Rights, Independence, and Social Movements Timeline

Connect abolition, suffrage, civil disobedience, civil rights, anti-apartheid, labor, democracy, and independence movements.

RightsIndependenceSocial MovementsDemocracy

Benin brass plaque showing an equestrian oba with attendants

African Kingdoms and Independence Timeline

Follow African state formation, trade, religion, Atlantic violence, anti-colonial resistance, Pan-Africanism, and independence from Kush to Ghana and apartheid's end.

AfricaAfrican KingdomsTradeDecolonization

First Peoples, Migrations, and Pacific Worlds Timeline

Follow human origins, migrations, farming, Southeast Asian trade, Pacific voyaging, Indigenous settlement, colonial contact, and the Pacific War as one long oceanic and deep-time route.

PrehistorySoutheast AsiaOceaniaMigration

Planispheric astrolabe with engraved circular astronomical plates

Islamic World and Indian Ocean Timeline

A long route through early Islam, caliphates, Baghdad, Indian Ocean travel, South Asian sultanates, Mughal power, company rule, rebellion, partition, and Bangladesh.

Islamic WorldIndian OceanSouth AsiaCaliphates

Swahili Coast, dhows, Zanzibar, and Indian Ocean routes

Swahili Coast and East Africa Timeline

A route through Swahili city-states, Kilwa, Great Zimbabwe, Indian Ocean travel, Portuguese and Omani rivalry, Zanzibar, colonial rule, rebellion, independence, and Tanzanian socialism.

Swahili CoastEast AfricaIndian OceanDecolonization

Ottoman-Safavid frontier, gunpowder, and imperial diplomacy

Ottoman, Safavid, and Modern Middle East Timeline

A route from early Islamic and gunpowder imperial rivalry through Ottoman reform, genocide, oil politics, revolution, war, peace processes, and contemporary crisis.

Ottoman EmpireSafavid EmpireMiddle EastOil

Maritime Southeast Asia, straits, port polities, and empire

Southeast Asia Maritime and Modern Timeline

A route through early mainland and island state formation, port-polities, colonial companies, resistance, revolution, independence, Cold War conflict, and ASEAN regionalism.

Southeast AsiaIndian OceanColonialismDecolonization

African decolonization, Bandung, and postcolonial state-building

African Decolonization and Postcolonial States Timeline

A route through Pan-African organizing, Ghana, Mau Mau, Algeria, Congo, OAU, Biafra, Angola, Soweto, Rwanda, truth commissions, and postcolonial state-building.

AfricaDecolonizationPostcolonial StatesPan-Africanism

Global South decolonization, Bandung, the UN, and new states

Decolonization and Global South Timeline

A route through anti-colonial resistance, postwar independence, Bandung, African institutions, civil wars, liberation movements, apartheid, genocide, and transitional justice.

DecolonizationGlobal SouthCold WarPostcolonial States

Indigenous American cities, landscapes, and food systems

Indigenous Americas and Pre-Columbian Civilizations Timeline

A route through Olmec, Chavin, Zapotec, Nazca, Teotihuacan, Maya, Tiwanaku, Cahokia, Chaco, Aztec, Inca, conquest, Pueblo resistance, and Indigenous rights.

Indigenous AmericasPre-Columbian CivilizationsMesoamericaAndes

Atlantic slavery, abolition, and diaspora memory

Atlantic Slavery and Abolition Timeline

A route through Atlantic forts, forced migration, resistance, legal cases, Haiti, abolition laws, emancipation, Brazil, and international anti-slavery law.

Atlantic SlaveryAbolitionResistanceDiaspora

Latin American Revolutions and Modern States Timeline

A route through conquest, silver, independence wars, new republics, abolition, regional wars, revolution, Cold War coups, democracy, trade, and Indigenous rights.

Latin AmericaIndependenceRevolutionCold War

Pacific voyaging, island sovereignty, and climate diplomacy

Pacific and Oceania Sovereignty Timeline

A route through Polynesian settlement, Pacific chiefdoms, Rapa Nui, Australia, Hawaii, Waitangi, Maori politics, nuclear testing, decolonization, and climate diplomacy.

OceaniaPacificIndigenous SovereigntyNuclear Testing

East Asia Dynasties, Reform, and Modernity Timeline

A route through Sui reunification, Tang and Song state formation, Japan and Korea, Mongol and Ming transitions, Qing conquest, treaty ports, war, revolution, reform, and Hong Kong.

East AsiaChinaJapanKorea

Illuminated medieval manuscript scene showing people working in a bakery

Medieval Power, Law, and Conquest Timeline

A cross-regional route through late antique religion, Islamic expansion, imperial courts, African and Asian trade states, charters, conquest, plague, and early modern religious conflict.

Medieval PowerLawReligionConquest

Colonialism, Exchange, and Global Empires Timeline

A long route from Atlantic crossings and Indian Ocean pressure to slavery, conquest, chartered companies, imperial infrastructure, anti-colonial resistance, and late imperial handovers.

ColonialismExchangeSlaveryImperialism