Important Dates

Some important dates that will be needed for the APWH test.

Foundations (8000 BCE - 600 CE)

 * 8000 BCE - Beginnings of agriculture
 * 3000 BCE - Beginnings of Bronze Age - early civilizations
 * 1300 BCE - Iron Age
 * 6th Century - Life of Buddha, Confucius , Laozi (beginnings of Confucianism , Buddhism , Taoism )
 * 5th Century - Greek Golden Age - philosophers
 * 323 BCE - Alexander the Great
 * 221 BCE - Qin unified China
 * 184 BCE - Fall of Mauryan Dynasty
 * 32 CE - Beginnings of Christianity
 * 180 - End of Pax Romana
 * 220 - End of Han Dynasty
 * 312 - Emperor Constantine converts to Christianity
 * 333 - Roman capital moved to Constantinople
 * 4th Century - Beginnings of Trans-Saharan Trade Routes
 * 476 - Fall of Rome
 * 527 - Justinian rule of Byzantine Empire
 * 550 - Fall of Gupta Dynasty /Empire

600 - 1450

 * 622 - Founding of Islam
 * ca 730 - Printing invented in China
 * 732 - Battle of Tours (end of Muslim move into France)
 * ca 900 - Decline of classical Maya
 * 1054 - Great Schism in Christian Church (Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox)
 * 1066 - Norman conquest of England
 * 1071 - Battle of Manzikert (Seljuk Turks deafeat Byzantine)
 * 1095 - First Crusade
 * 1206 - Chinggis (Genghis) Khan begins Mongol conquests
 * 1258 - Mongols sack Baghdad
 * 1271-1295 - Marco Polo's travels
 * 1279-1368 - Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty in China
 * 1324 - Mansa Musa's pilgrimage
 * 1325-1349 - Travels of Ibn Battuta
 * 1347-1348 - Bubonic plague in Europe
 * 1368-1644 - Ming Dynasty
 * 1405-1433 - Zheng He's voyages
 * 1438 - Rise of Inca Empire

1450 - 1750

 * 1453 - Ottomans capture Constantinople
 * ca 1480s - Height of Aztec Empire
 * 1488 - Dias rounded Cape of Good Hope
 * 1492 - Columbus / Reconquista of Spain
 * 1502 - First African slaves to Americas
 * 1517 - Martin Luther / 95 theses
 * 1521 - Cortez conquered the Aztecs
 * 1529 - First unsuccessful Ottoman siege of Vienna (Suleiman )
 * 1533 - Pizarro toppled the Inca
 * 1545 - Discovery of silver at Potosí
 * 1571 - Battle of Lepanto (naval defeat of Ottomans)
 * 1588 - Defeat of the Spanish Armada by the British
 * 1600 - Battle of Sekigahara (beginning of the Tokugawa Shogunate )
 * 1607 - Foundation of Jamestown
 * 1618-1648 - 30 Years War
 * 1644 - End of Ming/Beginning of Qing Dynasty
 * 1653 - Cape Town colony founded (Dutch)
 * 1683 - Second unsuccessful Ottoman siege of Vienna (Mehmet IV )
 * 1689 - Glorious Revolution/ English Bill of Rights

1750 - 1900
The Industrial Revolution
 * 1756-1763 - 7 Years War / French and Indian War
 * 1767 - Invention of the Spinning Jenny (using machines to manufacture)
 * 1776 - American Revolution / Adam Smith writes Wealth of Nations
 * 1789 - French Revolution begins
 * 1796 - Jenner's smallpox vaccine
 * 1804 - Haitian independence
 * 1807 - British abolition of Trans-Atlantic slave trade
 * 1815 - Congress of Vienna
 * 1820s - Independence of Latin America
 * 1839 - First Opium War in China
 * 1848 - European revolutions / Marx and Engles write Communist Manifesto
 * 1853 - Commodore Perry opens Japan
 * 1857 - Sepoy Mutiny
 * 1861 - End of Russian serfdom / Italian unification
 * 1863 - Emancipation Proclamation in US
 * 1871 - German unification
 * 1885 - Berlin Conference division of Africa
 * 1893 - New Zealand grants women suffrage
 * 1896 - Battle of Adowa (Ethiopians defeat Italians)
 * 1898 - Spanish-American War (US acquires Philippines, Cuba, Guam, and Puerto Rico)
 * 1899-1902 - Boer War, British in control of South Africa

1900 - Present

 * 1905 - Russo-Japanese war
 * 1910-1920 - Mexican Revolution
 * 1911 - Chinese Revolution
 * 1914 - World War I
 * 1917 - Russian Revolution
 * 1919 - Treaty of Versailles end of World War I
 * 1929 - Stock market crash
 * 1931 - Japanese Invasion of Manchuria
 * 1935 - Italian invasion of Ethiopia
 * 1939 - German blitzkrieg in Poland
 * 1941 - Pearl Harbor, entry of US into World War II
 * 1945 - End of World War II
 * 1947 - Independence and partition of India
 * 1948 - Birth of Israel
 * 1949 - Chinese Communist Revolution
 * 1950-1953 - Korean War
 * 1954 - Vietnamese defeat French at Dien Bien Phu
 * 1956 - destalinization / Nat'lization of Suez Canal
 * 1959 - Cuban Revolution
 * 1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis
 * 1967 - 6-Day War / Chinese Cultural Revolution
 * 1973 - Yom Kippur war
 * 1979 - Iranian Revolution
 * 1987 - Tiananmen Square / fall of Berlin Wall
 * 1990 - Namibia gains independence (last African colony to do so)
 * 1991 - fall of USSR / First Gulf War
 * 1994 - Genocide in Rwanda / First all race elections in South Africa
 * 2001 - 9/11 Attacks
 * 2007 - Global "Great Recession" begins
 * 2011 - Wikileaks, "Arab Spring" democracy movement