Contemporary
European Coal and Steel Community (1951): First Step to the EU
Six states created the first supranational European community, which ran a common market for coal and steel from 1952 to 2002 and became the model for the EEC.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Contemporary
1948 London Olympics: The Austerity Games After World War II
The first Olympics since 1936 were staged successfully on a small budget, with 59 nations and about 4,100 athletes.
Contemporary
Salk Polio Vaccine (1955): The Field Trial That Beat Polio
The inactivated polio vaccine was declared safe and effective and licensed in 1955, and polio cases in the United States fell sharply within a few years.
Contemporary
Indian Independence 1947: How the British Raj Came to an End
British rule ended and power passed to two independent dominions, India and Pakistan, under the Indian Independence Act 1947.
Contemporary
Truman Doctrine (1947): America's Pledge to Contain Communism
Congress approved $400 million in aid to Greece and Turkey, and containment of communism became the basis of US foreign policy in the Cold War.
Ancient World
Nebra Sky Disc: Bronze Age Europe's Map of the Heavens
Recovered in a police sting in 2002, the disc is now in the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle and on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.
Ancient World
Nok Culture: Terracotta Sculptures and Iron of Ancient Nigeria
The Nok culture produced the earliest large-scale figurative sculpture in sub-Saharan Africa and some of its earliest iron smelting.
Ancient World
Sanxingdui: The Mysterious Bronze Masks of Ancient Sichuan
The finds revealed an independent Bronze Age civilisation in the Sichuan Basin, distinct from but in contact with the Shang of the Yellow River valley.
Ancient World
Indus Script: The Undeciphered Writing of the Harappans
The script remains undeciphered; its language is unknown and no proposed reading has won general acceptance.
Ancient World
First Secession of the Plebs (494 BC) and the Tribunes
The plebeians returned after the patricians agreed to create sacrosanct tribunes of the plebs to protect them, opening the Conflict of the Orders.
Ancient World
Akrotiri (c. 1600 BC): The Bronze Age Town Buried by Thera
A prosperous Cycladic town preserved under volcanic ash, revealing multi-storey houses and some of the finest wall paintings of the Aegean Bronze Age.
Ancient World
Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara: Egypt's First Pyramid
Egypt's first pyramid was completed as a six-step tomb at the heart of a vast stone funerary complex, opening the age of pyramid building.