Middle Ages
Cologne Cathedral: A Gothic Church 632 Years in the Making
The medieval choir was finished in 1322, but the nave and towers were completed only between 1842 and 1880, following the original thirteenth-century design.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Middle Ages
Frankish Capture of Barcelona (801) and the Spanish March
Barcelona passed from the Emirate of Córdoba to the Franks and became the leading county of the frontier zone later called the Spanish March.
Middle Ages
Anna Komnene and the Alexiad: A Byzantine Princess Historian
Anna's Alexiad became the main narrative source for the reign of Alexios I and the Byzantine view of the First Crusade.
Early Modern
Battle of Culloden (1746): The Last Pitched Battle in Britain
Decisive government victory; the Jacobite army was destroyed in under an hour, ending the 1745 rising and the Stuart cause as a military force.
Early Modern
Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade (1787)
The society built a national campaign of petitions, publications and boycotts that helped bring about the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807.
Early Modern
Townshend Acts (1767): Duties That Revived Colonial Resistance
Colonial boycotts led Parliament to repeal most of the duties in 1770, keeping only the tax on tea.
Early Modern
Siege of Fort Zeelandia (1661): Koxinga Takes Dutch Taiwan
The Dutch East India Company surrendered Fort Zeelandia and left Taiwan; Koxinga's family ruled the island until 1683.
Early Modern
Treaty of Zuhab (1639): The Ottoman-Persian Frontier Fixed
Peace between the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Iran: Iraq went to the Ottomans, Yerevan and the eastern Caucasus to Iran.
Early Modern
Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws (1748): Separation of Powers
The book made the separation of legislative, executive and judicial powers a central principle of modern constitutional government.
Early Modern
St Bartholomew's Day Massacre (1572): Slaughter in Paris
Coligny and many Huguenot leaders were killed along with thousands of Protestants; the Wars of Religion resumed and grew more bitter.
Early Modern
Jacques Cartier's Voyages to Canada (1534-1542)
Cartier mapped the St Lawrence and established France's claim to Canada, but his attempted colony of 1541-1543 failed.
Contemporary
2003 European Heatwave: The Summer That Killed Tens of Thousands
An estimated 70,000 excess deaths across Europe; France and other countries introduced national heatwave warning and care plans.