Modern Era
Napoleon's Exile to Elba (1814): An Emperor's Small Kingdom
Napoleon ruled Elba as a sovereign prince for about ten months before escaping to France on 26 February 1815 to begin the Hundred Days.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Middle Ages
Eight Deer Jaguar Claw: The Mixtec Conqueror of Tilantongo
Eight Deer unified much of the Mixteca under Tilantongo through conquest and alliance, but was captured and sacrificed in 1115; his realm soon divided again.
Middle Ages
Yekuno Amlak and the Solomonic Dynasty of Ethiopia (1270)
The Zagwe dynasty was overthrown and the Solomonic dynasty took power, ruling Ethiopia, with interruptions, until the deposition of Haile Selassie in 1974.
Middle Ages
Razia Sultan (1236-1240): Delhi's Only Woman Sultan
Razia ruled for about three and a half years before being deposed by Turkish nobles; she was killed in October 1240 after a failed attempt to regain the throne.
Middle Ages
Heian-kyo: The Founding of Kyoto as Japan's Capital (794)
Heian-kyo became Japan's imperial capital for more than a thousand years, until 1869, and gave its name to the Heian period (794–1185).
Middle Ages
Al-Khwarizmi and the Birth of Algebra in Abbasid Baghdad
Al-Khwarizmi's books made algebra a distinct field of mathematics and spread Hindu-Arabic numerals to the Islamic world and Europe.
Middle Ages
Battle of Alarcos (1195): Almohad Victory Over Castile
Decisive Almohad victory; Castile lost its southern frontier fortresses, and the defeat later spurred the Christian coalition that won at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212.
Middle Ages
Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731)
Bede's five-book history became the foundation of early English history and helped make AD dating standard in Western Europe.
Middle Ages
Mount Athos: The Monastic Republic Founded in 963
Athos became the leading centre of Orthodox monasticism, a self-governing community of 20 monasteries that survives today.
Early Modern
Founding of Saint Petersburg (1703): Peter the Great's Capital
A fortress on the Neva grew into a planned European-style city that became the capital of the Russian Empire from about 1712 to 1918.
Early Modern
Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery (1688)
Quaker meetings declined to rule on the petition, but it became the earliest known written protest against slavery in English America.
Early Modern
Founding of Georgia (1733): Oglethorpe's Colony at Savannah
The Trustees' colony of Georgia was established at Savannah, the last of Britain's thirteen mainland colonies, with a planned town and an early ban on slavery that was lifted in 1751.