Prehistory
Domestication of the Cat: How Wildcats Joined Early Farmers
The Near Eastern wildcat became the domestic cat, which spread with farmers and traders to nearly every part of the world.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Prehistory
Ice Age Flutes of Swabia: The Oldest Musical Instruments
The flutes show that early modern humans in Europe made carefully designed musical instruments by about 40,000 years ago.
Prehistory
Paranthropus boisei: Mary Leakey's 'Nutcracker Man' Skull
The OH 5 skull revealed a robust, big-toothed hominin and, through one of the first potassium-argon dates, showed that human evolution in Africa was far older than thought.
Prehistory
Woolly Mammoth: The Ice Age Giant, Its Fossils and Its Extinction
The woolly mammoth vanished from the mainland around 10,000 years ago; the last known population, on Wrangel Island, died out about 4,000 years ago.
Prehistory
Pongola Glaciation: Earth's Earliest Known Ice Age
The oldest known evidence of glaciers on Earth, showing that ice could form even under the faint young Sun of the Archean.
Modern Era
Northern Chinese Famine (1876-1879): Drought and Starvation
An estimated 9–13 million people died of starvation and disease; the famine spurred new forms of Chinese and international relief.
Modern Era
Auschwitz-Birkenau: History of the Largest Nazi Death Camp
About 1.1 million people, around 1 million of them Jews, were murdered; the camp was liberated by the Red Army on 27 January 1945.
Modern Era
Second Battle of Ypres (1915): The First Poison Gas Attack
German tactical gains; the Ypres salient was reduced in size but held by Allied forces.
Modern Era
First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1842): The Retreat from Kabul
British failure; the Kabul garrison was destroyed in retreat, and after a punitive campaign Britain withdrew and Dost Mohammad returned to power.
Modern Era
Battle of Maipú (1818): San Martín Secures Chile's Independence
Decisive patriot victory; the royalist army was destroyed and Chilean independence was secured.
Modern Era
Analytical Engine (1837): Babbage, Ada Lovelace and Computing
The Analytical Engine was never completed, but its design anticipated the main parts of the modern computer, and Lovelace's notes included the first published algorithm intended for such a machine.
Modern Era
Continental System (1806): Napoleon's Blockade of Britain
Britain was hurt but not defeated; enforcing the blockade drew Napoleon into Portugal, Spain and Russia and helped bring about his fall.