Ancient World
Death of Qin Shi Huang (210 BC) and the Shaqiu Succession Plot
Huhai became the Second Emperor after a forged edict drove Fusu to suicide; the Qin dynasty collapsed within four years.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Ancient World
Edicts of Ashoka: India's Earliest Deciphered Inscriptions
More than thirty inscriptions preserve the Maurya emperor's own words, forming the earliest readable body of writing from South Asia.
Ancient World
Bacchanalia Affair (186 BC): Rome's Crackdown on a Cult
The Senate banned unauthorised Bacchic gatherings throughout Italy; thousands were arrested and many executed.
Ancient World
Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC): Leonidas and the 300
Persian victory; after three days the Greek position was outflanked and Leonidas' rearguard was destroyed, opening central Greece to Xerxes.
Ancient World
Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari
A terraced temple for the cults of Amun and Hatshepsut, damaged in antiquity and largely restored by modern archaeologists.
Ancient World
Battle of Halule (691 BC): Sennacherib Against Babylon and Elam
Disputed: Sennacherib claimed a crushing victory, while a Babylonian chronicle records an Assyrian retreat; Babylon fell to Assyria two years later.
Prehistory
West Kennet Long Barrow: Neolithic Tomb near Avebury
One of the largest and most impressive chambered tombs in Britain, now part of the Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites World Heritage Site.
Prehistory
Areni-1 Cave: The World's Oldest Winery and Leather Shoe
Excavations revealed the oldest known wine-making installation and the oldest known leather shoe, preserved by the cave's dry, stable conditions.
Prehistory
Font-de-Gaume Cave: Polychrome Bison Still Open to Visitors
Font-de-Gaume became a key site for the study of Ice Age art and is one of the last caves with polychrome paintings still open to the public.
Prehistory
Out of Africa: How Homo sapiens Spread Across the World
All living people outside Africa descend mainly from a population that left Africa in this period and mixed along the way with Neanderthals and Denisovans.
Prehistory
Fighting Dinosaurs Fossil: Velociraptor and Protoceratops (1971)
The expedition recovered a unique fossil of a predator and its prey buried in mid-fight, now regarded as a Mongolian national treasure.
Prehistory
Paleozoic Era: From the Cambrian Explosion to the Great Dying
Life spread from the sea onto land and diversified enormously before the era ended with the largest mass extinction in Earth's history.