Modern Era
First Cholera Pandemic (1817-1824): From Bengal to the World
Cholera spread for the first time far beyond India, killing hundreds of thousands of people across Asia before dying down by 1824.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Modern Era
Operation Pied Piper (1939): Evacuating Britain's Children
About 1.5 million people were evacuated in the first days of the war, though most had returned home by early 1940 when the expected bombing did not come.
Modern Era
German Invasion of Belgium (1914) and the Schlieffen Plan
Germany occupied most of Belgium until 1918, but the invasion brought Britain into the war and Belgian resistance cost the German advance time.
Modern Era
Third Anglo-Maratha War (1817-1818): End of Maratha Power
East India Company victory; the Peshwa's office was abolished, his lands annexed and the remaining Maratha states made subordinate to the Company.
Modern Era
Battle of Tippecanoe (1811): Harrison and Tecumseh's Confederacy
Harrison's force repulsed a dawn attack and then burned Prophetstown, damaging Tenskwatawa's prestige but pushing Tecumseh's confederacy towards alliance with Britain.
Modern Era
Davy Safety Lamp (1815): Humphry Davy and the Coal Miners' Lamp
The Davy lamp gave miners a light that would not normally ignite firedamp, though it did not end mine explosions.
Modern Era
Battle of Copenhagen (1801): Nelson Turns a Blind Eye
British victory; Denmark-Norway agreed an armistice and withdrew from the League of Armed Neutrality.
Middle Ages
Wari Empire: The First Andean Empire Before the Inca
Wari created the first large multi-regional state in the Andes, whose roads, administration and record-keeping anticipated the Inca Empire.
Middle Ages
Trans-Saharan Trade: Gold, Salt and Camel Caravans Across Africa
The caravan trade made West African gold a mainstay of Mediterranean economies and carried Islam, Arabic literacy and new states into the Sahel.
Middle Ages
Kailasa Temple at Ellora: India's Rock-Cut Masterpiece
The Rashtrakutas created the largest monolithic rock-cut temple in the world, dedicated to Shiva as lord of Mount Kailasa.
Middle Ages
Grand Canal of China: Emperor Yang's Great Waterway (605)
A connected inland waterway of roughly 2,000 to 2,700 km linked the Yangtze and Yellow River basins, carrying southern grain north for the next thousand years.
Middle Ages
Battle of the Trench (627): The Siege of Medina Repelled
The confederate siege failed and the besiegers withdrew; Mecca never again attacked Medina.