Early Modern
Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582): The First Great Unifier of Japan
Nobunaga ended the Ashikaga shogunate and brought much of central Japan under his control, laying the foundations on which Hideyoshi and Ieyasu completed unification.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Early Modern
Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana): From Captive to Ottoman Empress
Hürrem became Suleiman's legal wife and political partner, the mother of Selim II and a major founder of charitable institutions.
Early Modern
Ambroise Paré and Battlefield Surgery (1545): Gunshot Wounds
Paré's gentler treatment of gunshot wounds and his use of ligatures in amputation helped transform surgery and made him the most famous surgeon of the French Renaissance.
Early Modern
Stockholm Bloodbath (1520): Christian II's Massacre in Sweden
Around 80–100 people were executed; the massacre provoked a Swedish uprising that ended the Kalmar Union and made Gustav Vasa king.
Early Modern
Vasco da Gama's Voyage to India (1497–1499): Sea Route Opened
Da Gama reached Calicut in May 1498 and returned to Lisbon in 1499, opening a direct sea route between Europe and India at the cost of more than half his men.
Contemporary
1964 Alaska Earthquake: The Great Good Friday Quake and Tsunami
About 130 deaths, most of them caused by tsunamis; the earthquake became a key case in confirming plate tectonics and improving tsunami warnings.
Contemporary
Austrian State Treaty (1955): Austria Regains Independence
The four occupying powers restored Austria as a sovereign state; their troops left by October 1955 and Austria declared permanent neutrality.
Contemporary
The Second Sex (1949): Simone de Beauvoir's Feminist Landmark
The two-volume study caused a scandal in France and became a founding text of second-wave feminism and gender theory.
Contemporary
Sputnik 1 (1957): The First Satellite and the Space Race
The Soviet Union placed the first artificial satellite in orbit, shocking the West and launching the Space Race between the USSR and the United States.
Contemporary
Partition of India 1947: Mass Migration, Violence and Two Nations
British India was divided into India and Pakistan; an estimated 10 to 20 million people were displaced and hundreds of thousands to perhaps 2 million were killed.
Contemporary
Hollywood Ten (1947): HUAC Hearings and the Film Blacklist
The ten were convicted of contempt of Congress and imprisoned, and the studios began a blacklist that lasted until about 1960.
Ancient World
Jebel Barkal: The Sacred Mountain and Temples of Napata
Jebel Barkal became the chief sanctuary of Amun in Nubia and the place where the kings of Kush claimed divine authority to rule.