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650 BC A climate change affects all the Bronze Age cultures in Europe with colder and wetter climate, and tribes from the Scandinavian Nordic Bronze Age cultures are pushed downwards into the European continent.
49 The spread of Christianity
into Europe, especially at Rome
and at Philippia (according to Saint Paul
).
100 Lion
s have become extinct in Europe by this date.
380 The annexation of western provinces by Gupta give him control over commerce with Europe and Egypt
.
476 Romulus Augustus, the last Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, is deposed by Odoacer
. This is the conventional date for the fall of the Roman Empire, and is widely considered the end of ancient history (and hence the beginning of the European Dark Ages).
600 Smallpox
arrives in Europe for the first time.
807 The record of sun spots appears in Europe.
1185 Founding of Katedralskolan in Lund
, Sweden
. The school is the oldest in northern Europe, and one of the oldest in Europe.
1220 Middle Ages in Europe
1252 Pope Innocent IV
issues the papal bull
''Ad exstirpanda'', which authorizes the torture
of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition. Torture quickly gains widespread usage across Catholic
Europe.
1253 King Louis IX of France
dispatches William of Rubruck
from Constantinople
on a missionary journey to convert the Tatars
of central and eastern Asia. Later that year, William records the first recorded meeting between European Christian
s and Buddhists
.
1259 Kings Louis IX of France
and Henry III of England
agree to the Treaty of Paris, in which Henry renounces his claims to French
-controlled territory on continental Europe (including Normandy
) in exchange for Louis withdrawing his support for English rebels.
1269 King Otakar II of Bohemia inherits Carinthia and part of Carniola, making him the most powerful prince within the Holy Roman Empire
; the empire lacking an emperor during the ongoing ''great interregnum
'', Otakar II was one of the most powerful men in Europe.
1270 Witelo translates Alhazen's 200-year-old treatise on optics, ''Kitab al-Manazir'', from Arabic
into Latin
, bringing the work to European academic circles for the first time.
1278 Kings Rudolph I of Germany
and Ladislaus IV of Hungary
defeat King Otakar II of Bohemia in the Battle of Marchfield, a match of over 80,000 men and the largest battle of knight
s in the Middle Ages. The battle ends a power struggle between Rudolph and Otakar over the fate of central Europe, and Rudolph's Habsburg
family will continue to rule Austria
and other captured territories until the end of World War I
in 1918.
1283 The Libro de los juegos, an early European treatise on board games (including chess
, dice, and a version of backgammon), is commissioned by King Alfonso X of Castile
between 1251 and 1283.
1284 The Republic of Venice
begins coining the ducat, a gold
coin
that is to become the standard of European coinage for the following 600 years.
1287 Mongol
Ilhan
Arghun Khan
dispatches Rabban Bar Sauma to the leaders of Europe to negotiate an alliance against Muslim
states, specifically the Mamluk
sultanate of Egypt
.
1400 Europe has about 52 million inhabitants.
1415 Portugal
conquers the city of Ceuta
from the Moors, initiating the Portuguese Empire and European expansion and colonial era)
1419 The University of Rostock is established as the oldest university of northern Europe.
1456 The university of Greifswald, later Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald is established, making it the second oldest university in northern Europe (also for a period the oldest in Sweden
, and Prussia
)
1482 Diogo Cão, a Portuguese
navigator, becomes the first European
to sail up the Congo.
1486 Sigismund, Archduke of Tyrol
, issues Europe's first large silver coin, the guldengroschen. This coin later becomes the thaler.
1488 Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal
lands in Mossel Bay after rounding the Cape of Good Hope
, at the tip of Africa
becoming the first known European to travel this far south.
1489 Jeannetto de Tassis is appointed Chief Master of Postal Services in Innsbruck
, his descendants the Turn und Taxis family later run much of the postal system of Europe.
1492 Christopher Columbus becomes the first known European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola
.
1500 Europe's population was ~60 million. (''Spielvogel'')
1500 Diogo Dias is the first European
to see Madagascar
.
1500 Vicente Yáñez Pinzón becomes the first European to discover Brazil
.
1519 Ferdinand Magellan
leaves Europe to circumnavigate the world.
1520 After navigating through the South America
n strait, three ships under the command of Portuguese
explorer Ferdinand Magellan
reach the Pacific Ocean
, becoming the first Europeans to sail from the Atlantic Ocean
to the Pacific (the strait was later named the Strait of Magellan).
1525 European brought diseases sweep through the Andes
, killing thousands including the Inca.
1561 Pensacola, Florida
, the first European settlement in North America, and its support fleet were both destroyed by a hurricane. Two survivors managed to walk the long arduous journey to Mexico City. The city was not re-settled until 1698.
1565 St. Augustine, Florida (named after St. Augustine), established. It is the oldest remaining European settlement in the United States
.
1593 Ottoman Empire
defeated in Battle of Sisak, their first defeat in Europe.
1627 England
places the first European settlers on Barbados
.
1650 Cafés begin to become popular in Europe.
1684 Pope Innocent XI
forms a Holy League with the Habsburg Empire, Venice
and Poland
to liberate Europe from the Ottoman Turkish
rule.
1684 The British East India Company
receives Chinese
permission to build a trading station at Canton
. Tea
sells in Europe for less than a shilling a pound, but the import duty of 5 shillings makes it too expensive for most English
people to afford
1688 The Nine Years War begins in Europe and America
.
1709 June 28 (Old Style)- Peter the Great
defeats Charles XII of Sweden
at the Battle of Poltava, thus effectively ending Sweden
's role as a major power in Europe(see below)
1719 Prussia
conducts Europe's first systematic census
1737 February 12 — The San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, is inaugurated in Naples, Italy.
1767 Samuel Wallis, an English
sea captain, sighted Tahiti
and is considered the first European to reach the island.
1791 The Polish
Sejm (Parliament
) proclaims the Constitution of third May, the first modern codified constitution
in Europe.
1815 End of the Congress of Vienna: new European political situation is set.
1818 Formal installation of border markers for the European
territory of Moresnet.
1823 Monroe Doctrine: USA separates the spheres of influence between Europe and the Americas
.
1840 Stockport viaduct (located in Greater Manchester, England
) was completed in this year. It is one of the largest brick structures in Europe.
1848 One of the few successes of the Revolutions of 1848, the Swiss Federal Constitution, patterned on the US Constitution, enters into force, creating a federal republic and one of the first modern democratic
states in Europe.
1857 Speculation in U.S.
railway shares causes financial crisis in Europe.
1884 Timisoara is the first town of Europe with streets illuminated by electric light.
1884 The Berlin Conference which regulated European colonisation and trade in Africa
begins (ends February 26, 1885).
1885 Final Act of the Berlin Conference regulates European colonisation and trade in Africa
.
1918 December 4 — US President Woodrow Wilson
sails for the Paris Peace Conference, becoming the first US president to travel to Europe while in offi
1925 Pionerskaya Pravda, one of the oldest children's newspapers in Europe, is founded
1937 The ''Kamikaze'' arrives at Croydon Airport in London
- it is the first Japan
ese-built aircraft to fly to Europe.
1938 European crisis over German demand for annexation of Sudeten
borderland of Czechoslovakia
.
1939 Holocaust: The SS ''St. Louis'', a ship carrying a cargo of 963 Jew
ish refugees, is denied permission to land in Florida
after already having been turned away from Cuba
. Forced to return to Europe, most of its passengers later die in Nazi
concentration camps.
1939 World War II
: Invasion of Poland - Nazi Germany
attacks Poland
, beginning the Second World War in Europe.
1942 World War II
: The first American forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland
.
1943 General Eisenhower is selected to command the allied armies in Europe.
1943 World War II: The Allied invasion of Sicily marks the beginning allied
invasion of Axis
-controlled Europe with landings on the island of Sicily
, off mainland Italy
by the U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division
.
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Timeline
