Prehistory
Céide Fields: The Oldest Known Field Systems in Ireland
A large Neolithic landscape of stone-walled fields, preserved beneath blanket bog and opened to visitors in 1993.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Prehistory
Swimming Reindeer: Ice Age Sculpture in Mammoth Ivory
The carving became one of the best-known works of Ice Age art and a key object in the British Museum's prehistory collection.
Prehistory
Extinction of the Neanderthals: Why Did They Disappear?
Neanderthals disappeared as a distinct population, though part of their DNA survives in most living people outside Africa.
Prehistory
Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event: Life's Second Boom
Marine diversity rose several-fold and the brachiopod-crinoid-bryozoan ecosystems that dominated Paleozoic seas were established.
Modern Era
Wannsee Conference (1942): Planning the 'Final Solution'
Senior SS, Nazi Party and ministry officials agreed to cooperate under Heydrich's lead in the deportation and murder of Europe's Jews.
Modern Era
Armistice of 11 November 1918: The End of Fighting in WWI
Germany accepted Allied terms and fighting on the Western Front stopped at 11 am on 11 November 1918, effectively ending the First World War.
Modern Era
Scramble for Africa (1881-1914): Europe Partitions a Continent
By 1914 European states controlled about 90 per cent of Africa; only Ethiopia and Liberia remained independent.
Modern Era
Homestead Act (1862): Free Land and the Settlement of the West
About 1.6 million homestead claims were eventually approved, transferring some 270 million acres of public land, roughly a tenth of the United States, to private owners.
Modern Era
French Panama Canal (1881-1889): De Lesseps's Failure and Scandal
The French canal company went bankrupt in 1889 after the deaths of an estimated 20,000 or more workers, and the resulting Panama scandal discredited many French politicians.
Modern Era
Belgian Revolution (1830): Birth of an Independent Belgium
Belgium broke away from the Netherlands, became an independent constitutional monarchy under Leopold I in 1831 and was recognised by the Dutch in 1839.
Middle Ages
Founding of Tenochtitlan (1325): Birth of the Aztec Capital
The Mexica established Tenochtitlan, which grew from a marshy settlement into the capital of the Aztec Empire and one of the largest cities in the world by 1519.
Middle Ages
Zara Yaqob (1434-1468): Ethiopian Emperor and Church Reformer
Zara Yaqob strengthened the Solomonic monarchy and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, ended the Sabbath dispute and defeated Adal, but ruled harshly and left a tense court to his son Baeda Maryam.