Ancient World
Umm el-Qa'ab at Abydos: Royal Cemetery of the First Pharaohs
The cemetery preserved the burials of Egypt's earliest kings and later became revered as the tomb of the god Osiris.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Ancient World
Warka Vase: Uruk's Carved Alabaster Masterpiece from Sumer
One of the earliest surviving works of narrative relief sculpture, it was stolen in April 2003 and returned damaged in June 2003, then restored.
Prehistory
Green Sahara: The African Humid Period and Why It Ended
The Sahara turned from savanna and lakes back into desert, pushing people towards the Nile, the Sahel and oases.
Prehistory
Abu Hureyra: Early Farming and Climate Change in Syria
One of the most important records of the transition from foraging to farming; the site was flooded by the Tabqa Dam reservoir in the 1970s.
Prehistory
Oldowan Tools: The First Stone Tool Industry of Olduvai
The Oldowan became the first stone tool tradition to spread widely across Africa and into Eurasia, and it was the technological base from which the Acheulean developed.
Prehistory
Ardi (Ardipithecus ramidus): A 4.4-Million-Year-Old Ancestor
The partial skeleton ARA-VP-6/500, published in 2009, showed an early hominin adapted both to climbing in trees and to walking upright on the ground.
Prehistory
Titanoboa: The Giant Snake of Colombia's Paleocene Rainforest
Fossils from the Cerrejón Formation revealed the largest snake known from good fossil remains, estimated at around 13 metres and over a tonne.
Prehistory
Formation of the Earth: How Our Planet Was Born
A layered rocky planet with an iron core, a silicate mantle and an early crust emerged, opening the Hadean Eon.
Modern Era
Mount Tambora Eruption (1815): The Largest Blast in History
A VEI 7 eruption destroyed the summit and two local kingdoms, killed tens of thousands through blast, famine and disease, and cooled the world's climate in 1816.
Modern Era
Winter War (1939–1940): Finland's Stand Against the Soviets
Finland kept its independence but ceded about a tenth of its territory, including Viipuri and the Karelian Isthmus, under the Moscow Peace Treaty.
Modern Era
First Battle of the Marne (1914): The Miracle That Saved Paris
Decisive Allied strategic victory; the German armies retreated to the Aisne, ending hopes of a quick German victory in the west.
Modern Era
Vellore Mutiny (1806): The Sepoy Revolt in South India
The rising was crushed within hours, but the dress regulations were withdrawn and the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Madras were recalled.