Modern Era
Sinking of the Bismarck (1941): The Hunt for Germany's Battleship
HMS Hood was sunk with almost all hands, but the Bismarck was tracked down and sunk on 27 May 1941 with the loss of most of her crew.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Modern Era
October Revolution (1917): Lenin and the Bolshevik Takeover
The Bolsheviks overthrew the Provisional Government and set up a Soviet government led by Lenin, leading to civil war and the Soviet state.
Modern Era
Boshin War (1868-1869): The Civil War of the Meiji Restoration
The new imperial government defeated the shogunate and its northern allies, securing the Meiji Restoration and ending more than 260 years of Tokugawa rule.
Modern Era
California Gold Rush (1848-1855): The Rush That Built the West
About 300,000 people migrated to California, which became a state in 1850, while its Native population collapsed.
Modern Era
First Transcontinental Railroad (1863-1869): The Golden Spike
The Central Pacific and Union Pacific lines met at Promontory Summit on 10 May 1869, creating a continuous rail link from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast.
Modern Era
Battle of Waterloo (1815): Wellington, Blücher and Napoleon
Decisive victory for Wellington's Allied army and Blücher's Prussians; Napoleon abdicated four days later, ending the Napoleonic Wars.
Middle Ages
Moundville: The Mississippian Capital in Alabama
Moundville became the second-largest Mississippian centre after Cahokia, then turned into a ceremonial and burial centre before its decline in the 15th century.
Middle Ages
Abu Bakr II's Atlantic Voyage: Mali's Lost Expedition (c. 1311)
According to Mansa Musa, the ruler and his fleet vanished at sea, leaving Musa on the throne; there is no evidence that any of the ships reached the Americas.
Middle Ages
Sukhothai Kingdom: Founding of the First Thai State
A Tai kingdom independent of the Khmer emerged at Sukhothai; it flourished in the late 13th and 14th centuries before falling under Ayutthaya.
Middle Ages
Tang-Tibet Treaty of 821-822 and the Lhasa Treaty Pillar
Tang China and Tibet agreed a lasting peace and border, which held until the Tibetan Empire broke up in the 840s.
Middle Ages
Muslim Conquest of Sicily (827–902): The Emirate of Sicily
Sicily passed from Byzantine to Muslim rule and became an emirate centred on Palermo until the Norman conquest of the 11th century.
Middle Ages
University of Paris (1200): The Royal Charter and the Sorbonne
The masters and students of Paris became a self-governing corporation with royal and papal privileges, and Paris became the leading centre of theology in Latin Christendom.