Middle Ages
Kublai Khan and the Founding of the Yuan Dynasty (1271)
Kublai founded the Yuan dynasty, conquered the Song by 1279 and became the first non-Chinese ruler of all of China.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Middle Ages
Maimonides and the Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190)
Maimonides completed the Guide for the Perplexed around 1190, a landmark of medieval philosophy that shaped Jewish, Islamic and Christian thought.
Middle Ages
Jacquerie (1358): The French Peasants' Revolt After Poitiers
The revolt was crushed within about a month, followed by noble reprisals that killed thousands of peasants.
Middle Ages
Erik the Red and the Norse Settlement of Greenland (985)
Norse farming communities were established in south-west Greenland and survived for more than four centuries before being abandoned.
Middle Ages
Ivan III the Great: Gathering the Russian Lands, 1462–1505
Ivan III tripled the territory ruled from Moscow, ended Tatar overlordship and laid the foundations of a centralised Russian state.
Early Modern
Fall of Robespierre (1794): The Thermidorian Reaction Begins
Robespierre and his closest allies were outlawed and guillotined, ending the Reign of Terror and opening the Thermidorian Reaction.
Early Modern
Whiskey Rebellion (1791–1794): Revolt Against the Whiskey Tax
A federal militia army of about 13,000 ended the resistance without a battle, establishing the new government's power to enforce federal law.
Early Modern
Peace of Westphalia (1648): Treaties That Ended Two Wars
The Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Years' War ended; Dutch independence was recognised and France and Sweden gained territory, but the Franco-Spanish war continued until 1659.
Early Modern
Roggeveen Reaches Easter Island (1722): First European Visit
The Dutch expedition named the island Easter Island and recorded the first European description of Rapa Nui and its standing moai; a clash on shore left about ten islanders dead.
Contemporary
Hurricane Maria (2017): Devastation of Puerto Rico and Dominica
Maria caused around 90 billion US dollars of damage in Puerto Rico, the longest blackout in US history and an officially accepted 2,975 excess deaths, while devastating Dominica.
Contemporary
Rwandan Genocide 1994: One Hundred Days of Mass Killing
An estimated 500,000-800,000 people, overwhelmingly Tutsi, were murdered before the Rwandan Patriotic Front defeated the genocidal government in July 1994.
Contemporary
Stanislav Petrov (1983): The False Alarm That Averted Nuclear War
Petrov reported the alarm as a system malfunction, no retaliation was considered, and the warning was later traced to sunlight reflecting off clouds.