Ancient World
Great Fire of Rome (AD 64): Nero and the Burning of the City
Three of Rome's fourteen districts were destroyed and seven badly damaged; Nero rebuilt the city under new rules, began the Golden House and blamed the Christians.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Ancient World
Battle of Issus (333 BC): Alexander the Great Defeats Darius III
Decisive Macedonian victory; Darius III fled and his mother, wife and children were captured.
Ancient World
Dendera Temple of Hathor: Ptolemaic Temple, Zodiac and Crypts
One of the best-preserved temples in Egypt was built for the goddess Hathor between the late Ptolemaic and early Roman periods.
Ancient World
Battle of Edessa (260): Shapur I Captures Emperor Valerian
Sasanian victory; the emperor Valerian was captured and died in captivity, deepening Rome's 3rd-century crisis.
Modern Era
Death of Admiral Yamamoto (1943): Operation Vengeance
Admiral Yamamoto was killed when his bomber was shot down; one American fighter and its pilot were lost.
Modern Era
Beer Hall Putsch (1923): Hitler's Failed Coup in Munich
The coup collapsed under police fire at the Feldherrnhalle; Hitler was tried for treason and imprisoned, and the Nazi Party was temporarily banned.
Modern Era
Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905): Japan Defeats a European Power
Japanese victory; Russia ceded southern Sakhalin and its Manchurian leases and recognised Japanese dominance in Korea in the Treaty of Portsmouth.
Modern Era
Great Depression in the United States (1929-1939)
Output fell by about a quarter and unemployment reached about 25 per cent by 1933; recovery began under the New Deal but was completed only with Second World War mobilisation.
Modern Era
Continental Drift (1912): Alfred Wegener's Moving Continents
Wegener's theory of continental drift was widely rejected for decades, then vindicated in the 1960s as part of plate tectonics.
Modern Era
Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871): Fall of the Second Empire
German victory; the French Second Empire fell, the German Empire was proclaimed and France ceded Alsace and part of Lorraine.
Middle Ages
Khanbaliq (Dadu): Kublai Khan's Capital at Beijing (1267)
Dadu became the Yuan dynasty's main capital and laid out the core of the later city of Beijing.
Middle Ages
Third Crusade (1189-1192): Richard the Lionheart and Saladin
The crusaders recovered Acre and the coast from Tyre to Jaffa but not Jerusalem; the Treaty of Jaffa (1192) allowed Christian pilgrims to visit the city.