Middle Ages
Chola Invasion of Srivijaya (1025): Rajendra's Naval Raid
The Chola fleet sacked a series of Srivijayan ports and captured their king; Srivijaya survived but was weakened, and Chola influence in the region grew.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Middle Ages
Princess Wencheng's Marriage to Songtsen Gampo of Tibet (641)
The marriage sealed peace between Tang China and the Tibetan Empire for a time; later Tibetan tradition credited Wencheng with helping bring Buddhism and Chinese crafts to Tibet.
Middle Ages
First Fitna (656-661): Civil War After Uthman's Murder
Ali was assassinated in 661, his son Hasan abdicated and Mu'awiya founded the Umayyad caliphate; the conflict created lasting divisions within Islam.
Middle Ages
Concordat of Worms (1122): Ending the Investiture Controversy
The emperor gave up investing bishops with ring and staff and allowed free church elections, while keeping a role in elections and in granting their lands.
Middle Ages
Execution of Queen Brunhilda (613): End of a Merovingian Feud
Brunhilda and her great-grandsons were killed, and Chlothar II became sole king of all the Frankish kingdoms.
Middle Ages
Arab Siege of Constantinople (717-718): Leo III Holds the City
Decisive Byzantine victory; the Umayyad army and fleet suffered heavy losses and the caliphate abandoned attempts to conquer Constantinople.
Early Modern
Eyam Plague Village (1665): The Village That Quarantined Itself
The villagers' self-imposed quarantine is credited with keeping plague out of the surrounding area, but about 260 people in Eyam died.
Early Modern
Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba: Resisting Portuguese Angola
Nzinga preserved an independent kingdom in Matamba against Portuguese expansion, made peace with Portugal in 1656 and died as queen in 1663.
Early Modern
Pequot War (1636–1638): The Mystic Massacre and Its Aftermath
The Pequot were defeated and their nation formally dissolved by the Treaty of Hartford in 1638, opening their lands to English settlement.
Early Modern
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1582-1598): The Peasant Who Unified Japan
Hideyoshi brought all of Japan under one authority by 1590 and laid the social and fiscal foundations of early modern Japan, but his invasions of Korea failed and his dynasty did not survive him.
Early Modern
Battle of Preveza (1538): Barbarossa's Naval Triumph
Ottoman victory; the Holy League fleet withdrew and Venice soon made a costly separate peace, leaving the Ottomans dominant at sea for over three decades.
Early Modern
William Harvey and the Circulation of the Blood (1628)
Harvey overturned the Galenic model of the blood and established that the heart drives a continuous circulation, a foundation of modern physiology.