Early Modern
Zemene Mesafint (1769-1855): Ethiopia's Era of the Princes
Imperial power collapsed into rule by regional warlords for over 80 years, until Kassa Hailu reunited Ethiopia as Tewodros II in 1855.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Early Modern
Siege of Fort William Henry (1757): Montcalm and the Massacre
The British garrison surrendered on terms; the next day Native warriors attacked the departing column, killing and capturing many, and the French destroyed the fort.
Early Modern
Fall of Beijing (1644): Li Zicheng and the End of the Ming
Li Zicheng's Shun regime captured Beijing and the last Ming emperor died by suicide; six weeks later the Manchu Qing took the city.
Early Modern
Jahangir and Nur Jahan: Power and Art at the Mughal Court
Nur Jahan exercised unusual political power alongside Jahangir until his death in 1627, when Shah Jahan took the throne and she retired to Lahore.
Early Modern
Fahrenheit Scale (1724): Daniel Fahrenheit's Mercury Thermometer
Fahrenheit's accurate mercury thermometers and scale became a standard in Britain and its colonies, while the centigrade scale of Celsius later became the international norm.
Early Modern
Beeldenstorm (1566): The Iconoclastic Fury in the Netherlands
Churches across the Netherlands were stripped of images, and Philip II responded by sending the Duke of Alba with an army, a step towards the Dutch Revolt.
Early Modern
Narváez Expedition and Cabeza de Vaca's Odyssey (1527-1536)
The expedition was destroyed; of about 300 men who marched inland only four completed the journey, reaching Mexico City in 1536 after crossing much of the continent on foot.
Contemporary
Hurricane Mitch (1998): Catastrophe in Honduras and Nicaragua
Mitch killed about 11,000 people, left thousands more missing and over 2 million homeless or displaced, and destroyed infrastructure and harvests across Central America.
Contemporary
Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995): Vukovar to Storm
Croatia secured its independence and regained control of its full territory, completed by the peaceful reintegration of Eastern Slavonia in 1998.
Contemporary
Dagenham Ford Strike (1968): Women Machinists and Equal Pay
The machinists won a pay rise to 92 per cent of the men's rate, though not regrading; the strike helped push the government to pass the Equal Pay Act 1970.
Contemporary
Skylab (1973-1979): America's First Space Station
Three crews spent a total of 171 days aboard, proving that astronauts could live and work in orbit for months; the empty station re-entered over the Indian Ocean and Western Australia in 1979.
Contemporary
Indonesian Mass Killings 1965-1966: The Anti-Communist Purge
An estimated 500,000 to 1 million people were killed, the Communist Party of Indonesia was destroyed and Suharto replaced Sukarno, establishing the New Order.