Modern Era
Unification of Germany (1871): Bismarck and the German Empire
The German states except Austria were united as the German Empire under the Prussian king as German Emperor.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Middle Ages
Mongol Invasions of Japan (1274 and 1281): The Kamikaze
Both invasions failed; Japan remained independent, but the cost of defence weakened the Kamakura shogunate.
Middle Ages
Minaret of Jam: The Ghurid Tower in Afghanistan's Mountains
The minaret survives as one of the finest monuments of Ghurid architecture and became Afghanistan's first UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002.
Middle Ages
Treaty of Brétigny (1360): Edward III's Great Peace With France
England gained a greatly enlarged Aquitaine in full sovereignty, Calais and Ponthieu, but the peace collapsed when war resumed in 1369.
Middle Ages
Election of Hugh Capet (987): The Capetian Dynasty Begins
Hugh Capet became king of the West Franks, ending Carolingian rule and founding a dynasty whose branches ruled France until 1848.
Middle Ages
Great Stand on the Ugra River (1480): End of the Tatar Yoke
Khan Akhmat withdrew without a decisive battle; the event is traditionally seen as the end of Golden Horde overlordship over Muscovy.
Early Modern
Irish Rebellion of 1798: The United Irishmen Rise Against Britain
The rebellion was crushed with heavy loss of life, and it led directly to the Act of Union that merged the Irish and British parliaments in 1801.
Early Modern
Alien and Sedition Acts (1798): Free Speech in the Early Republic
The laws were used to prosecute Republican editors and critics; they became deeply unpopular, contributed to the Federalists' defeat in 1800 and mostly expired by 1801.
Early Modern
The Fronde (1648–1653): France's Civil Wars Against Mazarin
The revolts collapsed; Louis XIV returned to Paris in 1652 and Mazarin in 1653, and royal authority emerged stronger.
Early Modern
Great Northern Expedition (1733-1743): Bering Reaches Alaska
The expedition mapped most of Russia's Arctic coast and reached north-western America in 1741, but Bering died on Bering Island after his ship was wrecked.
Contemporary
Hurricane Harvey (2017): Record Rainfall and the Houston Floods
Harvey killed about 107 people and caused around 125 billion US dollars of damage, tying Katrina as the costliest US hurricane at the time, and set the US record for tropical-cyclone rainfall.
Contemporary
South African General Election 1994: The First Democratic Vote
The ANC won 62.65% of the vote, and Nelson Mandela became president of a Government of National Unity on 10 May 1994, formally ending apartheid.