Prehistory
Venus of Lespugue: The Stylised Ice Age Ivory Figurine
Found in 1922, the figurine became a classic example of Gravettian art and early evidence for string and fibre technology.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Prehistory
Homo floresiensis: The 'Hobbit' Humans of Flores, Indonesia
The discovery revealed a small-bodied, small-brained human species that survived on an isolated island until about 50,000 years ago, reshaping views of human evolution in Asia.
Prehistory
Spinosaurus: Stromer's Egyptian Find and Its Loss in 1944
Stromer named Spinosaurus aegyptiacus in 1915, but the original fossils were destroyed in an Allied air raid on Munich in April 1944, leaving only drawings, notes and photographs.
Prehistory
Charnia: The Precambrian Fossil Found by an English Schoolboy
The fossil, named Charnia masoni in 1958, was the first complex fossil found in rocks already known to be Precambrian, proving that large organisms lived before the Cambrian.
Modern Era
Great Mississippi Flood of 1927: America's Worst River Flood
Some 27,000 square miles were flooded and hundreds of thousands displaced; Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1928, making flood control a federal responsibility.
Modern Era
Siege of Tobruk (1941): How the Rats of Tobruk Held Out
The Allied garrison held Tobruk for about 241 days until it was relieved during Operation Crusader in late November 1941.
Modern Era
Battle of Passchendaele (1917): Third Ypres and the Flanders Mud
British and Empire forces advanced about 8 km and took Passchendaele ridge at enormous cost, without the hoped-for breakthrough.
Modern Era
King Chulalongkorn (1868-1910): Modernising Siam Under Pressure
Siam became a centralised modern kingdom, abolished slavery and remained independent, though it ceded large border territories to France and Britain.
Modern Era
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848): Mexico Cedes the Southwest
Mexico ceded about 525,000 square miles, including California and New Mexico, and accepted the Rio Grande border with Texas.
Modern Era
Metropolitan Railway (1863): London Opens the First Underground
The world's first underground passenger railway opened in London and carried millions in its first year, beginning the London Underground.
Modern Era
Napoleon on Saint Helena (1815–1821): Exile and Death
Napoleon spent the last five and a half years of his life as a British prisoner and died on the island on 5 May 1821; his remains were returned to Paris in 1840.
Middle Ages
Nan Madol: The Basalt City of Pohnpei's Saudeleur Dynasty
Nan Madol served as the political and religious centre of a unified Pohnpei until the Saudeleur dynasty fell, traditionally around 1628; it is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.