Contemporary
Year of Africa 1960: Seventeen Nations Win Their Independence
Seventeen African countries became independent in a single year, transforming the map of the continent and the membership of the United Nations.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Contemporary
Warsaw Pact (1955): The Soviet Bloc's Military Alliance
The Soviet Union and seven Eastern European states formed a military alliance that lasted until its dissolution in July 1991.
Ancient World
Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC): Fall of Judah to Babylon
Babylonian victory; Jerusalem and the First Temple were destroyed, the Kingdom of Judah ended and much of its elite was deported to Babylonia.
Ancient World
Musawwarat es-Sufra: The Great Enclosure of Ancient Kush
A large Kushite religious centre was built in the semi-desert; its main buildings are now part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Ancient World
Great Wall of China: How the Qin and Han Built the First Walls
Older state walls were joined into a Qin frontier line, which the Han later extended west to Dunhuang and beyond.
Ancient World
Arthashastra: Kautilya's Ancient Indian Treatise on Statecraft
A comprehensive Sanskrit treatise on statecraft survived, was lost from view for centuries and was rediscovered in 1905, reshaping the study of ancient Indian government.
Ancient World
Roman Concrete: How Opus Caementicium Built an Empire
Concrete allowed Romans to build vaults, domes and sea harbours on a new scale, and many structures still stand after two thousand years.
Ancient World
Harmodius and Aristogeiton (514 BC): The Tyrannicides of Athens
Hipparchus was killed but the tyranny of Hippias survived until 510 BC; the killers were later honoured as heroes of Athenian freedom.
Ancient World
Valley of the Kings: Royal Tombs of New Kingdom Egypt
The burial ground of most New Kingdom kings for about 450 years, today a UNESCO World Heritage Site with more than 60 known tombs.
Ancient World
Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III: Assyria's Tribute Monument
A royal monument recording 31 years of Assyrian campaigns and the tribute of five foreign rulers, among them Jehu of Israel.
Prehistory
Dolmen of Menga: Antequera's Giant Megalithic Tomb in Spain
Menga became one of the largest and most sophisticated megalithic monuments in Europe and the centrepiece of the Antequera Dolmens World Heritage Site.
Prehistory
Merimde Beni Salama: Early Farming Village of the Nile Delta
A long-lived farming village whose houses, grain stores and art reveal the beginnings of settled agricultural life in Lower Egypt.