Ancient World
Ban Zhao: China's First Known Female Historian and Scholar
Ban Zhao completed the Book of Han and wrote Lessons for Women, one of the most influential texts on women's conduct in Chinese history.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Ancient World
Sigiriya: King Kashyapa's Rock Fortress in Sri Lanka (AD 477)
A short-lived royal capital that later became a monastery and is now one of South Asia's best-preserved ancient urban sites.
Ancient World
Battle of Zela (47 BC): Veni, Vidi, Vici Against Pharnaces
Rapid victory for Caesar; Pharnaces II fled to the Bosporus and Roman control of Asia Minor was restored.
Ancient World
Battle of Aegospotami (405 BC): Lysander Destroys Athens' Fleet
Decisive Spartan victory: about 170 Athenian ships were captured, Athens was besieged and surrendered in 404 BC, ending the Peloponnesian War.
Ancient World
KV5: Tomb of the Sons of Ramesses II in the Valley of the Kings
A family tomb for the king's sons became the largest known tomb in the valley, revealed in 1995 to have well over 100 chambers.
Ancient World
Fall of Babylon to Cyrus the Great (539 BC): End of an Empire
Persian victory; the Neo-Babylonian Empire ended and Mesopotamia, Syria and the Levant passed under Achaemenid rule.
Prehistory
Permian-Triassic Extinction: Earth's Worst Mass Extinction
An estimated 80 to 90 percent or more of marine species and around two-thirds or more of land vertebrate species died out, ending the Paleozoic Era and reshaping life for the Mesozoic.
Modern Era
Treblinka Extermination Camp (1942–1943): History and Revolt
Between about 700,000 and 900,000 Jews were murdered; a prisoner revolt on 2 August 1943 preceded the camp's closure and demolition that autumn.
Modern Era
Founding of the Weimar Republic (1919): Germany's First Democracy
Germany became a parliamentary republic with a democratic constitution, but the new state was burdened from the start by defeat, the peace terms and political violence.
Modern Era
Jameson Raid (1895-1896): The Failed Coup Against the Transvaal
The raiders surrendered at Doornkop; Rhodes resigned as Cape premier and Anglo-Boer relations were badly damaged.
Modern Era
Reconstruction Era (1865-1877): Rebuilding the United States
Slavery was abolished and the 14th and 15th Amendments wrote birthright citizenship, equal protection and Black male suffrage into the Constitution, but white Southern resistance and Northern retreat ended federal intervention in 1877.
Modern Era
Diesel Engine (1893): Rudolf Diesel's Compression-Ignition Engine
Diesel's compression-ignition engine became the most efficient heat engine of its time and later powered most ships, trucks and locomotives.