70 Significant Dates in European History

“What we learn from history is that no one learns from history. “— Otto von Bismarck

I wanted to share with you a sequence of crucial dates in the history of Europe. It is by no means a complete list and I omitted voluntarily a lot of dates. If you’re interested by learning more and dive into the history of Europe, I strongly recommend : “A Short History of Europe From Pericles to Putin”, written by Simon Jenkins

Statue of Europa abducted by Zeus

An example of timeline :

• 1194–1184 : Siege of Troy
• 508 : Cleisthenes installs democracy in Athens
• 490 : Athenians defeat Persians at Marathon
• 461–429 : Golden Age of Athens
• 336–323 : Reign of Alexander the Great
• 241 : Romans drive Carthaginians away from Sicily
• 44 : Assassination of Caesar
• 33 : Death of Jesus Christ
• 286 : Diocletian divides the Roman Empire
• 410 : Alaric sacks Rome
• 451 : Attila is defeated at the Catalaunian Plains by Atius and the Visigoths
• 476 : End of the the Western Roman Empire
• 493 : Clovis acknowledges Theodoric as King of Italy
• 536 : Justinian recaptured Italy
• 632–700 : Muslims conquer one-third of Christendom
• 732 : Charles Martel defeats Abdul Rahman at Poitiers
• 800 : Charlemagne is made first Holy Roman Emperor
• 845 : Vikings sack Paris
• 955 : Otto defeats the Magyars at Lechfeld
• 1015–1017 : Cnut occupies England
• 1054 : Great schism between Rome and Byzantium
• 1066 : Normans conquer England
• 1099 : First crusade conquer Jerusalem
• 1147 : Second crusade
• 1204 : Fourth crusade sacks Constantinople
• 1215 : Magna Carta is issued in England
• 1241 : The Golden Horde reaches Hungary
• 1337 : Outbreak of the Hundred Years war
• 1347–1352 : The black death ravages Europe
• 1453 : Battle of Castillon ends the Hundred Years war and fall of Constantinople to Ottomans
• 1455 : Gutenberg prints the Bible
• 1480 : Ivan drives out the tartars
• 1483 : Torquemada heads the Spanish inquisition
• 1492 : Fall of Moorish Granada, Columbus lands in the Caribbean
• 1519 : Charles V becomes Holy Roman Emperor
• 1526 : Suleiman the Magnificent defeats Hungarians at Mohacs
• 1571 : Catholic defeats Ottomans at Lepanto
• 1572 : Massacre of the St Bartholomew’s day
• 1598 : Edict of Nantes tolerating Protestants is created by Henry IV
• 1618 : The defenestration of Prague begins the Thirty Years war
• 1648 : Peace of Westphalia
• 1672–1678 : Franco-Dutch war
• 1688–1697 : Nine Years war
• 1701–1714 : War of the Spanish Succession
• 1713 : Treaty of Utrecht
• 1740–1748 : War of the Austrian Succession
• 1762 : Catherine the Great seizes the throne of Russia
• 1775–1783 : American war of independence
• 1789 : Beginning of the french revolution
• 1804 : Napoleon is crowned French Emperor
• 1806 : Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire
• 1815 : Battle of Waterloo and fall of Napoleon
• 1830 : Greek independence
• 1853–1856 : Crimean War
• 1861 : Unification of Italy
• 1866 : Bismarck defeats Austria
• 1871 : Bismarck defeats France
• 1914–1918 : First World War
• 1919 : Treaty of Versailles
• 1925 : Treaty of Locarno
• 1939 : Hitler invades Poland, start of the Second World War
• 1939–1945 : Second World War
• 1948–1949 : Blockade of Berlin
• 1949 : Foundation of NATO
• 1957 : Creation of the EEC (European Economic Community)
• 1962 : Cuban missile crisis
• 1989 : Fall of the Berlin wall
• 1991 : Dissolution of the Soviet Union
• 1999 : Putin comes to power

That’s all ! I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know if there are other dates in the comments that you would have included !

If you want to contact me, here is my LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/malo-le-goff-480452170/?locale=en_US