Chronology
4 million years ago
First apes to walk on two legs
Australopithecus.
1.5 million to 0.5 million years ago
Clearly human species, Homo erectus,
tools of stone, wood and bone. Early
old Stone Age.
400,000 to 30,000 years ago
Neanderthal humans in Europe and
Middle Eastsigns of culture and
probable use of language.
150,000 years ago
First modern humans (Homo sapiens
sapiens), probably originated in Africa.
Live by foraging (in small nomadic
groups without classes, states or sexual
oppression). Middle old Stone Age.
80,000 to 14,000 years ago
Modern humans arrive Middle East
(80,000 years ago); cross to Australia
(40,000 years ago); arrive Europe (30,000
years ago); establish Americas (14,000
years ago). Late old Stone Age.
13,000 years ago
Climate allows some humans to settle
in villages a couple of hundred strong
while continuing to live by foraging.
Middle Stone Age (Mesolithic).
10,000 years ago
First agricultural revolution.
Domestication of plants and animals.
Neolithic (new Stone Age). More
advanced tools, use of pottery. Spread
of village-living. First systematic war
between groups. Still no division into
classes or states.
7,000 years ago
Plough begins to be used in Eurasia and
Africa. Agriculture reaches NW
Europe. Chieftainships among some
groups, but no classes or states.
6,000 to 5,000 years ago
Urban revolution in river valleys of
Middle East and Nile Valley, some use
of copper.
5,000 years ago (3000 BC)
States emerge in Mesopotamia and
Old Kingdom Egypt. First alphabets,
bronze discovered, clear division into
social classes, religious hierarchies
and temples. First pyramids in about
2,800 BC. Bronze Age. Tendency for
women to be seen as inferior to men.
4,500 to 4,000 years ago (2500 to
2000 BC)
Growth of city states in Indus Valley.
Sargon establishes first empire to unite
Middle East. Building of stone rings in
western Europe. Probably Nubian
civilisation south of Egypt.
4,000 years ago (around 2000 BC)
Dark Agecollapse of Mesopotamian
Empire and of Egyptian Old Kingdom.
Iron smelted in Asia Minor.
4,000 to 3,600 years ago (2000 to
1600 BC)
Rise of Minoan civilisation in Crete.
Revival of Egypt with Middle
Kingdom and of Mesopotamian
Empire under Hammurabi. Urban
revolution takes off in northern China.
Mycenaean civilisation in Greece.
3,600 years ago (1600 BC)
Crisis in Egypt with collapse of Middle
Kingdom into second intermediate
period. Dark Age with collapse of
Cretan, Indus and then Mycenaean,
civilisations. Disappearance of literacy in
these areas. Bronze Age in northern
China with Shang Empire.
3,000 years ago (1000 BC)
Uxum civilisation in Ethiopia. Growth
of Phoenician city states around
Mediterranean. Urban revolution in
Meso-America with Olmec culture
and in Andean region with Chavin.
2,800 to 2,500 years ago (800 to
500 BC)
New civilisations arise in India, Greece
and Italy. Meroe in Nubia.
2,500 to 2,000 years ago (400 to
1 BC)
Olmec civilisation of Meso-America
invents its own form of writing.
2,000 years ago (1st century AD)
Rise of Teotihuacan in Valley of
Mexicoprobably biggest city in
worlddespite having no use of hard
metals. Deserted after about 400 years.
Followed by rise of civilisations of
Monte Alban and of Mayas in southern
Mexico and Guatemala.
2
 Chronology
1000 to 500 BC
Spread of iron making, weapons and
tools across Asia, Europe, and west and
central Africa. Phonetically based
scripts in Middle East, Indian
subcontinent and Mediterranean area.
Clearing and cultivation of Ganges
valley in India, new civilisation, rise of
four caste system, Vedic religion.
Phoenician, Greek and Italian city
states. Unification of Middle East into
rival empires based on Mesopotamia or
Nile. Emergence of a small number of
warring states in China.
600 to 300 BC
Flowering of classical civilisations.
Confucius and Mencius in China. The
Buddha in India. Aeschylus, Plato,
Aristotle, Democritus in Greece. Class
struggles in Greece.
Conquest of Middle East by
Macedonian armies of Alexander and
of most of Indian subcontinent by
Mauryan Empire of Ashoka.
Struggles between Plebeians and
Patricians in Rome. City conquers
most of Italy.
300 to 1 BC
Disintegration of Mauryan Empire in
India, but continued growth of trade
and handicraft industry. Hindu
Brahmans turn against cow slaughter.
First Chin emperor unifies north
China. Massive growth of iron
working, handicraft industries and
trade. Building of Great Wall and of
canal and road systems. Peasant revolt
brings Han Dynasty to power.
Rome conquers whole Mediterranean
region and Europe south of Rhine.
Spread of slavery and impoverishment of
peasantry in Italy. Peasants support
Gracchus brothers, murdered in 133 and
121. Slave revolts in Sicily (130s) and in
Italy under Spartacus (70s). Civil wars.
Julius Caesar takes power 45. Augustus
becomes emperor 27.
AD 1 to 200
Peak of Roman Empire. Crushes revolt
in Palestine AD 70. Paul of Tarsus
splits new sect of Christians away
from Judaism.
Discovery of steel making in China.
Extension of Han Empire into Korea,
44
central Asia, south China, Indochina.
Confucianism state ideology.
Spread of peasant agriculture and
Hinduism into south India and then to
Malay peninsular and Cambodia.
Indian merchants finance great
Buddhist monasteries, carry religion to
Tibet and Ceylon.
AD 200 to 500
Chinese Han Empire disintegrates.
Collapse of urban economy,
fragmentation of countryside into
aristocratic estates, loss of interest in
classic literature. Buddhism spreads
among certain groups.
Gupta Empire unites much of in India in
5th century, flowering of art and science.
Growing crises in Roman Empire.
Technological and economic stagnation.
Trade declines. Slavery gives way to
taxes and rents from peasants bound to
land. Peasant revolts in France and
Spain. Increased problems in defending
empires borders. Rise of cults of Osiris,
Mithraism and Christianity.
Constantine moves capital to Greek city
of Byzantium (330), makes Christianity
the empires official religion. Persecution
of pagan religions, other Christian
beliefs and Jews. Rise of monasticism.
Division of empire. Loss of England to
empire (407). Alaricks Goths sack
Rome (410).
AD 500 and after
Dark Ages in western Europe.
Population falls by half. Collapse of
trade, town life and literacy.
Eastern empire survives to reach peak
under Justinian in 530s-550s, with
building of Saint Sophia cathedral,
then declines.
Collapse of Gupta Empire in India.
Decline of trade, towns, use of money
and Buddhist religion. Agriculture and
artisan trades carried out in virtually
self contained villages for benefit of
feudal rulers. Ideological domination
by Brahman priests. Full establishment
of elaborate hierarchy of many castes.
Decline in literature, art and science.
Continued fragmentation of China
until rise of Sui Dynasty (581) and
then Tang Dynasty (618) see revival
of economy and trade.
 Chronology
AD 600 to 900
Dark Ages in Europe. Collapse of
trade. Failure of attempts by Franks to
re-establish Roman-type empire
(Charlemagne in 800-814). Invasions
by Norsemen (800-900).
Feudalism in India. Collapse of trade.
Dominance of brahmans and caste
system in villages.
Crisis of Byzantine Empire, loss of
Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia and Balkans.
Technical and economic stagnation.
Mohammed takes Mecca (630). Islamic
Arab armies conquer most of Middle
East (mid-640s), reach Kabul (664),
Spain (711). Abbasid revolution in 750
gives some political influence to
merchants. Growth of trade and
handicraft industry. High point of
Islamic culture, translation of Greek
texts, advances in science, mathematics,
great Islamic philosophers.
Centre of Chinese civilisation moves
towards rice growing areas of Yangtze.
Revival of industry and trade, flourishing
of Buddhism, advances in technology.
Growth of civilisations in west and
coastal east Africa.
10th and 11th centuries
Recovery of agriculture and trade in
Europe. Use of more advanced
techniques. Serfdom replaces slavery.
Muslim Abbasid Empire loses
economic momentum and splits up.
Rise of mystical and magical forms of
Islam. Fatimid Dynasty in Egypt.
Byzantium conquers some of Balkans,
but continued technical stagnation.
West African civilisations adopt Islam
and Arabic script.
High point of Chinese civilisation under
Sung Dynasty (960-1279). Invention of
paper, printing, gunpowder, mechanical
clocks, compass, growth of influence of
merchants.
12th and 13th centuries
Crisis of Islamic Mesopotamia.
Chinese Empire splits in two (Sung
and Chin).
Mongol pastoralists ravage Eurasia
from Poland to Korea. Sack Baghdad
(1258). Conquer China (1279).
West European Crusaders attack
102
Islamic Empire from west. Capture
Jerusalem (1099-1187), sack
Byzantium (1204).
Conquest of north Indian heartland by
Islamic peoples from central Asia. New
growth of trade, use of money.
Growth of agricultural output,
population, trade and handicraft
industries in Europe. Spread of water-
mills, building of cathedrals,
rediscovery through contact with
Islamic Spain of Greek and Latin texts,
first European universities. Use of
techniques discovered in China. Rise
of Italian city states. Dante (born
1265) writes in Italian.
Slave-soldiers (mamlukes) seize power
in Egypt.
Rise of Mali kingdom in west Africa.
Timbuktu a centre of Islamic
scholarship.
14th century
Great crisis of European feudalism.
Famine, black death, revolts in
Flanders, France, England, Wales,
northern Italy. Rival popes. Hundred
Years War between England and
France.
Hunger and plague in China. Red
Turbans rebellion against Mongols in
China, founding of (Chinese) Ming
Dynasty. Revival of agriculture.
Ottoman Turks begin to conquer Asia
Minor.
Building of Great Zimbabwe.
Aztec people found Tenochtitlan.
15th century
Renewed economic growth in China,
fleet sails thousands of miles to east
coast of Africa.
Aztec Empire in Mexico. Incas
conquer whole Andean region after
1438.
Rise of Benin in west Africa.
Slow economic and population recovery
in western Europe. Decline in serfdom.
Spread of market relations. Printing.
Renaissance in northern Italy. Improved
shipbuilding and navigation techniques.
Portuguese sail down west African coast,
reach Cape. Spanish monarchs conquer
Moorish Granada (1492). Columbus
crosses Atlantic (1493).
 Chronology
15th century
Ottomans conquer Constantinople
1453.
High point of Italian Renaissance
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo,
Macchiavelli 1450-1520.
Strengthening of monarchies in
France, Spain, Britain 1490s.
Spanish monarchs conquer Granada
1493.
Columbus lands in Caribbean 1492.
16th century
Portuguese sieze Goa 1510.
Ottomans conquer Cairo 1517, Algiers
1529, besiege Vienna 1529.
Influence of Renaissance spreads
through western Europe. Erasmus in
Holland, Drer in Germany, Rabelais
in France.
Lutheran Reformation sweeps southern
Germany 1518-25.
Corts conquers Aztecs 1519-21.
German Peasant War 1525.
Mogul conquest of northern India 1529.
Pizarro conquers Inca Empire 1532.
Reformation from above and closing of
monasteries in England 1534-39.
First agricultural enclosures in
England.
Copernicus publishes a theory of the
universe after 30 year delay 1540.
Ivan the Terrible centralises power in
Russia, begins conquest of Siberia
(1544-84).
French wars of religion 1550s, 1560s.
Council of Trent inaugurates counter-
Reformation 1560s.
Wave of witch-burning 1560-1630.
Pieter Breughels paintings of life in
Flanders 1540s to 1560s.
The first revolts of Low Countries
against Spanish rule 1560s, 1570s.
Shakespeare writes first plays 1590s.
17th century
Giordano Bruno burnt at stake by
Inquisition 1600.
Kepler in Prague calculates orbits of
planets accurately 1609.
Galileo uses telescope to observe moon
1609.
160
Thirty Years War begins in Bohemia
1618.
First English colonies established in
North America 1620s and 1630s.
Spread of American crops (potatoes,
maize, sweet potatoes, tobacco) across
Eurasia and Africa.
Harvey describes circulation of blood
1628.
Galileo refutes Aristotelian physics
1632, condemned by Inquisition 1637.
Descartes Discourse on Method begins
rationalist school of philosophy 1637.
Holland takes over much of former
Portuguese Empire 1630s.
Rembrandt paints in Amsterdam 1630s
to 1660s.
English Civil War begins 1641-42.
Reign of Shah Jahan in India, building
of Taj Mahal begins 1643.
Collapse of Ming Dynasty in China,
Manchu conquest 1644.
Indian cotton goods exported in ever
greater quantities to Europe.
End of Thirty Years War 1648.
English king beheaded 1649.
Second serfdom dominant in eastern
Europe.
Hobbes Leviathanmaterialist defence
of conservative politics 1651.
Beginning of plantation slavery in
Americas, 20,000 black slaves in
Barbados 1653.
Growing market for Chinese silks and
porcelain in Europe and Latin America.
England wins wars against Holland,
takes Jamaica 1655.
Aurungzeb seizes Mogul throne in
India 1658, war with Marathas 1662.
Boyle discovers law of gases, defends
theory of atoms 1662.
Newton completes revolution in
physics 1687.
Glorious Revolution of 1688 confirms
domination of England by market-
oriented gentry.
Locke inaugurates empiricist school of
philosophy 1690.
Whites and blacks unite in Bacons
rebellion in Virginia in 1687, legislature
bans black-white marriages 1691.
 Chronology
18th century Height of slave trade, growth of Bristol,
Chinese agriculture and industry Liverpool, Bordeaux, Nantes.
recover for half a century. Slave population of North America
Revolts by Sikhs and Marathas lead to 400,000 (out of three million) 1770.
break up of Mogul Empire in India. Arkwright founds first spinning factory
Economic stagnation in much of at Cromford in Derbyshire 1771.
eastern and southern Europe. Attempts at scientific justification for
Peter the Great begins building of St racismLongs History of Jamaica
Petersburg 1703, tries to introduce west 1774.
European science and techniques to Watt and Boulton build first generally
Russia. applicable steam engines 1775.
Unification of England and Scotland Adam Smiths The Wealth of Nations
1707. preaches order based on free labour
Defeat of attempted Stuart and free trade 1776.
Restorations 1716. Agricultural Revolt of North American colonies
revolution in Britain, spread of against British rule, Tom Paines
enclosures to almost all land. Common Sense popularises
British economy overtakes France and Enlightenment ideas for mass
then Holland. audience.
Voltaire publishes first philosophical Declaration of Independence declares
work 1734, praises English system. all men are created equal (but is silent
Bach develops counterpoint and fugue over question of slavery) 1776.
form in music. Henry Cort devises more advanced
Battle of Culloden, defeat of final way of smelting iron using coal 1783.
attempt at Stuart Restoration in Beginnings of industrial revolution in
Britain, bloody destruction of remnants Britain40 percent of people no
of Highland feudalism 1746. longer living on the land.
Diderot begins publication of Mozarts symphonies and operas, The
Encyclopdie to popularise Marriage of Figaro 1786, Don Giovanni
Enlightened ideas 1751. 1787.
British East India Company takes
control of Bengal 1757.
Rousseau publishes Discourse on the
Origins of Inequality 1755 and The
Social Contract 1762.
Voltaire publishes satirical novel
Candide 1759 pouring scorn on
optimism. Banning of Encyclopdie
1759.
Execution of two Protestants in France
1761 and 1766.
Enlightened despotismmonarchs in
Prussia, Russia, Portugal and Austria
try unsuccessfully to reform rule.
Growth of Glasgow as a major
commercial and industrial city.
Scottish Enlightenment of David
Hume, Adam Ferguson and Adam
Smith.
Britain defeats France in war over
control of new colonial lands 1763.

232
 Chronology
1773: Boston Tea Party.
1775: Fighting at Lexington and
Bunker Hill.
1776: American Declaration of
Independence.
1781: British defeat at Yorktown.
1780s to 1830s: Spread of factory
system and mining in Britain.
1789: Storming of Bastille, beginning
of French Revolution.
1791: Slave revolt in St Domingue.
1792: French revolutionary war, Battle
of Valmy, execution of king.
1793-94: Jacobins rule France, end of
feudal dues, terror.
1794 Fall of Jacobins, Thermidor.
1793-98: British take over Saint
Domingue, defeated by ex-slave army.
1797: British naval mutinies.
1798: Rising against British rule in
Ireland, formation of Orange Order to
combat it.
1799: Combination laws ban trade
unions in Britain. Napoleon takes all
power in France.
1801-03: Napoleon tries to reimpose
slavery in Haiti, imprisonment and
death of Toussaint, Dessalines leads ex-
slave army to victory.
1804: Beethovens Eroica symphony.
1805: Napoleon becomes emperor.
1807: Hegels Phenomenology of Mind.
1807: Britain bans slave trade.
1810: First risings against Spanish rule
in Mexico and Venezuela.
1810-16: Luddites attack machines
in north of England.
1814-15: Napoleon defeated.
Restoration of old monarchs. Waterloo.
1811-18: Publication of novels by
Jane Austen and Walter Scott.
1819: Peterloo massacre of working
class demonstrators.
1830: Revolution in Paris replaces one
monarch by another.
1830s: Novels by Stendhal and Balzac.
1830: Worlds first passenger railway.
1831: Faraday discovers electric
induction.
1832: British middle class gets vote.
264
1834: Poor Law Amendment Act
establishes workhouses in Britain.
1838-39: Chartist movement
demands vote for workers.
1839-42: Opium War against China.
1842: General strike in Lancashire.
1840s to 1860s: Novels of Dickens,
George Eliot, Bronts.
Mid-1840s: Tai-ping rebels take
control of nearly half of China.
1846-49: Great Irish Famine.
1847: The Communist Manifesto.
Spring 1848: Revolutions across
Europe, unsuccessful rising in Ireland,
last great Chartist demonstration in
London.
June 1848: Crushing of workers
movement by French bourgeoisie.
1848-49: Restoration of old
monarchies across Europe.
1850s and 1860s: Spread of industry
to Germany and France.
1843-56: British complete conquest of
northern India.
1857: Indian Mutiny.
1857-60: Second Opium War, colonial
concessions in Chinese cities.
1859: Darwins The Origin of Species.
1859-71: Italy unified under king.
1861: American Civil War begins.
Tsar ends serfdom in Russia.
1863: Lincoln declares end of slavery.
1865: Defeat of American South.
1864: Tai-ping rebels finally crushed
by British led troops.
1866: Nobel discovers dynamite.
1867: Meiji revolution from above
ends feudal rule of Tokugawa in Japan.
1867: Marx publishes Capital.
1870: Franco-Prussian War. Fall of
Louis Bonaparte.
1871: Paris Commune, workers control
city, then Republican government
attacks city, killing thousands.
1871: Bismarck establishes German
Empire under Prussian monarchy.
1873: First electrical machine.
Mid-1870s: Troops withdraw from
Southern states of US, rise of Jim
Crow segregation.
 A PEOPLES HISTORY OF THE WORLD
Chronology of the French Revolution
1787-88: Aristocrat reaction
resists taxes on big estates, king
agrees to call Estates-General.
April 1789: Meeting of Estates-
General in Versailles.
June 1789: Third Estate delegate
declare themselves National
Assembly.
July 1789: Parisian crowd storms
Bastille.
October 1789: Womens march on
Versailles, king dragged back to
Paris, Lafayettes national guards
begin to dominate city,
constitutional monarchy.
July 1790: Feast of Federation in
Paris, celebration of harmony
between king and people.
Spring 1791: King tries to flee
Paris.
July 1791: Guards massacre people
in Champs de Mars.
August 1791: Beginning of slave
rising in Saint Domingue (Haiti).
September 1791: Constitution
with tight property qualification.
January 1792: Food riots in Paris.
April 1792: Girondin government
declares war on Austria and Prussia,
serious military defeats.
August 1792: Insurrectionary
journe in Paris, arrest of the king,
Danton joins government.
September 1792: Victory at
Valmy, election of Convention by
male adult suffrage.
January 1793: Execution of king.
February 1793: Britain joins war.
Spring 1793: Advance of
invading armies towards Paris,
Royalist risings in west of France
(Vende).
May-June 1793: Insurrection in
Paris, Jacobin government led by
Robespierre and Danton, civil war.
Summer 1973: Murder of Marat,
end of all feudal payments,
Royalists hand Toulon to British.
September 1793: Journe in Paris,
law setting maximum prices,
beginning of Terror.
October-December 1793: Defeat
of Royalist and Girondist revolts.
February 1794: Jacobins end
slavery throughout French Empire.
March-April 1794: Execution first
of Hbert, then of Danton, by
Jacobins, revolutionary armies
successful on all fronts.
June-July 1794: Great Terror.
July 1794: Thermidor, execution
of Robespierre and other Jacobins.
November-December 1794:
Jacobin club closed, repeal of
maximum laws for prices.
March-May 1795: Vicious
suppression of last popular rising,
1200 arrests, 36 executions.
September 1795: New constitution
with restricted suffrage, government
relies on Bonaparte to suppress
royalist rising, real power with five
man Directory.
November 1799: Bonaparte seizes
power, becomes first consul.
1804: Bonaparte makes himself
Emperor Napoleon I.
278
 Chronology
1880s: Britain occupies Egypt. Carve
up of Africa. Commercial development
of telephone, phonograph, electric
generation and light.
1890-1900: Japan attacks China and
takes Taiwan, Spanish-American war.
Invention of motor car and movies.
1899-1902: Boer WarBritish set up
first concentration camps.
1900: Mendels genetic theory gains
publicity, 16 years after his death.
1903: First airplane.
1904: Russia loses war with Japan.
1905: Revolution in Russia.
Industrial Workers of World founded.
Einsteins Special Theory of Relativity.
1910-14: Great Unrest in Britain,
Orangemen arm in Ireland.
1911: Proclamation of Chinese
Republic. Mexican Revolution.
1912-14: Strikes and barricades in
Russia, Dublin Lockout, Bread and
Roses strike.
1912-13: Balkan Wars.
1913: Ford mass production car plant.
1914: Outbreak of First World War,
collapse of Second International.
1916: Easter Rising in Dublin.
1917: Russian Revolutions in February
and October, mutinies in French army
and German navy, US enters war.
1918: Revolution in German and
Austro-Hungarian empires.
1919: Foundation of Communist
International, murder of Rosa
Luxemburg, civil war in Germany,
Bavarian and Hungarian Soviet
Republics, guerrilla war in Ireland,
Amritsar killings in India, 4 May
movement in China, Versailles Treaty.
1920: German workers defeat Kapp
Putsch. Factory occupations in Italy.
1921: Britain partitions Ireland.
Kronstadt revolt in Russia.
1922: Italian Fascists given power.
1923: French occupation of Ruhr,
great inflation, Communists call off
rising, Nazi putsch.
1925: Heisenbergs quantum theory.
1926: Defeat of General Strike in
Britain.
377
1927: Massacre of workers in
Shanghai. Leon Trotsky exiled.
1928-29: Stalin takes all power, First
Five Year Plan, collectivisation of
agriculture, mass arrests.
1929: Wall Street Crash.
1931: Revolution in Spain.
1933: Hitler takes power in Germany,
famine in Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
1934: Vienna anti-fascist rising, anti-
fascist protests in France, Asturias
rising in Spain, strikes in US.
1936: Popular Front electoral victories
in France and Spain, occupation of
factories in France, military coup and
revolutionary risings in Spain,
formation of CIO in US, General
Motors sit-in. Moscow trials.
1938: Hitler takes over Austria,
Munich agreement.
1939: Victory for Spanish fascists,
German invasion of Poland, Second
World War begins.
1940: Fall of France, Italy enters war.
1941: Hitler attacks Russia. Japan
attacks US fleet.
1942: Nazis draw up plans for
Holocaust, German army defeated at
Stalingrad. Famine in Bengal, Quit
India movement.
1943: Strikes in Turin, Allies land in
southern Italy.
1944: Allied landings in Normandy,
uprising liberates Paris, Warsaw Rising,
Greek resistance attacked by British.
1945: Resistance liberates north
Italian cities, US and Britain take
western Germany, Russia the east.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Britain re-
establishes French rule in Vietnam.
Communist-led governments in
Eastern Europe.
1947: Britain leaves India. Partition
leads to bloodshed. UN backs Israeli
state in Palestine. First computer.
1947-49: Beginning of Cold War.
Marshall Plan, Prague coup, Berlin
airlift, Yugoslav split with Russia,
McCarthyism in US. Chinese Peoples
Liberation Army enters Beijing.
1950: Korean War. Indonesian
independence from Dutch.
1952-57: Mau Mau rebellion against
Britain in Kenya.
1953: Overthrow of Egyptian
monarchy by Nasser. Death of Stalin.
US explodes H-bomb.
1954: Geneva agreement ends war in
Korea and divides Vietnam. CIA
overthrows Guatemalan government.
Revolt against French rule in Algeria.
1955-56: Montgomery bus boycott
starts civil rights movement in US.
1956: Egypt nationalises Suez Canal,
attacked by Britain, France and Israel.
Khrushchev denounces Stalin.
Hungarian Revolution.
1957: Ghana wins independence.
1958: Nationalist revolution in Iraq.
Great Leap Forward in China. De
Gaulle takes power in France.
1959: Castros rebels take Havana.
1960: Nigerian independence.
1961: Abortive CIA invasion of
Cuba. First split between Russia and
China. US advisers in Vietnam.
1962: Cuban Missile Crisis.
1964: Independence for Algeria. US
landing in Dominican Republic.
1965: Military coup in Indonesia, half
a million people killed.
1967: Israel occupies West Bank after
Six Day War. Black uprising in
Detroit. Founding of Black Panthers.
Far right colonels coup in Greece.
1968: Tet Offensive in Vietnam,
student revolts all over Europe. May
events in France. Prague Spring.
1969: Hot autumn in Italy. Cordoba
rising in Argentina. Troubles in
Northern Ireland.
1970: Strikes bring down Gomulka in
Poland. Election of Allende in Chile.
US invasion of Cambodia, students
shot dead at Kent State University.
1973: Coup in Chile, war in Middle
East, polytechnic rising in Greece.
1974: Outbreak of world recession,
second miners strike and fall of Heath
government in Britain. Revolution in
Portugal, fall of Greek colonels.
1975: Historic compromise in Italy.
Independence for Portuguese colonies.
Defeat of revolutionary left in Portugal.
Guerrilla struggle in Rhodesia.
1976: Opposition legalised in Spain.
378
School student uprising in South
Africa. CIA sponsors civil war in
Angola.
1976-77: Turmoil in China after
death of Mao, first market reforms.
1979: Iranian Revolution, Islamic
Republic. Sandinistas take power in
Nicaragua. Thatcher government in
Britain. Russia invades Afghanistan.
1980: Occupation of Polish shipyards,
Solidarnosc workers movement.
Military coup in Turkey. Iraqi war
against Iran with US backing. End of
white rule in Zimbabwe. First personal
computers using silicon chip.
1981: Cruise missiles in Europe.
Second Cold War. Civil war in El
Salvador, US Contra terrorism against
Nicaragua. Polish military crush
Solidarnosc.
1982: Falklands War.
1983: US invasion of Grenada.
1984-85: British miners strike.
1987: Glasnost permits first free debate
for 60 years in USSR.
1988: Demonstrations in non-Russian
republics of USSR. Miners strikes in
Poland. Strike waves in Yugoslavia and
South Korea. Near uprising in Algeria.
1989: Non-Communist government
in Poland, Tiananmen Square protests
in China, miners strike in Russia,
political revolutions across Eastern
Europe. Rise of Milosovic in Serbia.
US invasion of Panama. Scientists
begin to warn about danger of
greenhouse effect.
1991: US-led war against Iraq. Failed
coup in Russia, disbandment of USSR.
Civil war in Yugoslavia and Algeria.
1992: Famine and civil war in
Somalia. Civil war in Tajikistan.
Slump in Russian economy.
1994: Black rule in South Africa.
1995: Strikes rock French government.
1998 Economic crisis across east Asia,
collapse of Suharto in Indonesia.
1999: US-led war against Serbia.