Middle Ages
Jingnan Campaign (1399–1402): The Yongle Emperor Seizes Power
Zhu Di captured Nanjing in July 1402, the Jianwen Emperor disappeared, and Zhu Di took the throne as the Yongle Emperor.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Middle Ages
Ulugh Beg Observatory: Astronomy in Timurid Samarkand
The observatory produced the Zij-i Sultani, with the most accurate star catalogue of its age, before it was abandoned after Ulugh Beg's murder in 1449.
Middle Ages
Gutenberg's Printing Press: Movable Type Changes Europe
Printing with movable metal type spread to more than 250 European towns by 1500, transforming the production of books and the circulation of ideas.
Ancient World
Baths of Caracalla (AD 212-216): Rome's Imperial Bath Complex
Rome gained one of its largest and most lavish public baths, which operated for three centuries and survives as a monumental ruin and summer opera venue.
Ancient World
Sack of Corinth (146 BC): Rome Destroys the Achaean League
Corinth was sacked and largely destroyed, the Achaean League was dissolved and southern Greece came under Roman control.
Modern Era
Battle of Okinawa (1945): The Last Great Battle of the Pacific
US victory after nearly three months; Okinawa became the main staging base for a planned invasion of Japan, at a cost of well over 200,000 military and civilian lives.
Modern Era
Munich Agreement (1938): Chamberlain, Appeasement and Hitler
Britain, France and Italy agreed that Germany could annex the Sudetenland; Czechoslovakia, which was not present, was forced to comply, and war was postponed by less than a year.
Middle Ages
Kinkaku-ji (1397): Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's Golden Pavilion
Yoshimitsu's Kitayama villa, centred on a gilded pavilion, became the Zen temple Rokuon-ji; the pavilion survived until an arson attack in 1950 and was rebuilt in 1955.
Middle Ages
Battle of Ankara (1402): Timur Defeats Sultan Bayezid I
Decisive Timurid victory; Bayezid I was captured and the Ottoman state fell into a decade of civil war.
Middle Ages
Ghent Altarpiece: Van Eyck's Masterpiece of Oil Painting
A landmark of early Netherlandish painting that survived iconoclasm, war, looting and theft, and is still displayed in Ghent.
Ancient World
Constitutio Antoniniana (AD 212): Citizenship for All Free Men
Nearly all free inhabitants of the empire became Roman citizens, ending the old divide between citizens and provincials.
Ancient World
Hipparchus (c. 150 BC): Star Catalogue and Precession Found
Hipparchus laid the foundations of quantitative Greek astronomy, including precession, a star catalogue and the first known chord tables.