7000 BCE – 1900 BCE
Free
The Indus Valley
From farming villages to great planned cities, the Indus Valley civilisation rose across South Asia and left an enduring legacy despite its many mysteries.
Read story→Stories of History
History Timeline
Explore a world history timeline of 61 stories spanning 7000 BCE – 2026 CE — from the earliest civilisations to the modern era. Includes 14 free stories.
World History Timeline
Timeline
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Swipe through a few highlights, then browse the full chronology.
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Free
7000 BCE - 1900 BCE
The Indus Valley
Planned cities, trade and an undeciphered script.
Free
6500 BCE - 539 BCE
Mesopotamia
The first cities, writing, law and empire.
Free
5000 BCE - 771 BCE
Early China
Bronze, oracle bones and the making of Chinese civilisation.
Free
3100 BCE - 30 BCE
Ancient Egypt
Pharaohs, pyramids and Nile power across three millennia.
Filter timeline61 stories
All eras · All access · 61 stories
Chronological stories
61 total
Prehistoric
Free7000 BCE - 1900 BCE
The Indus Valley
Planned cities, trade and an undeciphered script.
Free6500 BCE - 539 BCE
Mesopotamia
The first cities, writing, law and empire.
Free5000 BCE - 771 BCE
Early China
Bronze, oracle bones and the making of Chinese civilisation.
Free3100 BCE - 30 BCE
Ancient Egypt
Pharaohs, pyramids and Nile power across three millennia.
Free800 BCE - 146 BCE
Ancient Greece
City-states, philosophy and wars that shaped the West.
Premium800 BCE - 400 CE
The Celtic World Before Rome
Tribes, Druids and art before Roman conquest.
Classical
Premium509 BCE - 27 BCE
The Roman Republic
Republic, conquest and the road to empire.
Premium359 BCE - 30 BCE
Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic World
Alexander conquers Persia and remakes the ancient world.
Free27 BCE - 476 CE
The Roman Empire
Augustus, empire and the long fall of the West.
Premium376 CE - 800 CE
The Fall of Rome to Early Medieval Europe
From imperial collapse to Europe’s medieval order.
Free410 CE - 886 CE
The Anglo-Saxons
Kingdoms, conversion and Viking pressure in England.
Premium476 CE - 1309 CE
The Rise of the Medieval Church
Monasteries, missions and the rise of papal power.
Middle Ages
Free793 CE - 1066 CE
The Viking Age
Raids, settlements and far-reaching voyages.
Premium800 CE - 1300 CE
Feudalism and Medieval Society
Land, loyalty and everyday power in medieval Europe.
Premium862 CE - 1240 CE
Kievan Rus
River routes, golden domes and the making of Rus.
Free911 CE - 1154 CE
The Norman Conquest of England
1066, castles and the remaking of England.
Premium1095 CE - 1291 CE
The Crusades
Holy war, Jerusalem and the struggle for the Levant.
Premium1162 CE - 1294 CE
The Mongol Empire
Steppe conquest, terror, trade and empire.
Premium1200 CE - 1521 CE
The Aztec Empire
Tenochtitlan, tribute and the fall of an empire.
Premium1299 CE - 1923 CE
The Ottoman Empire
Frontier rise, imperial power, reform, and the reshaping of the modern Middle East and Balkans.
Premium1304 CE - 1600 CE
The Renaissance
Classical revival, humanism, art, and science reshape Europe.
Premium1415 CE - 1600 CE
The Age of Exploration
Ocean routes, empires and the first global age.
Early Modern
Premium1485 CE - 1603 CE
The Tudor Dynasty
Reformation, rebellion and Tudor royal power.
Premium1500 CE - 1720 CE
The Scientific Revolution
Observation, experiment and the remaking of knowledge.
Premium1527 CE - 1603 CE
The English Reformation
A royal divorce becomes a religious revolution.
Premium1558 CE - 1603 CE
The Elizabethan Age
Theatre, sea power and intrigue under Elizabeth I.
Premium1588 CE - 1947 CE
The British Empire
Sea power, slavery, industry, conquest, resistance, and decolonisation.
Premium1642 CE - 1660 CE
The English Civil War
Crown, Parliament and the battle for England.
Premium1644 CE - 1912 CE
The Qing Dynasty
Conquest, prosperity, rebellion and the fall of imperial China.
Free1700 CE - 1870 CE
The Industrial Revolution
Steam, factories and the birth of modern industry.
Modern (1750–present)
Premium1763 CE - 1791 CE
The American Revolution and Early Republic
Rebellion, independence and the birth of a republic.
Premium1787 CE - 1799 CE
The French Revolution
Crisis, republic, terror and the birth of modern politics.
Premium1789 CE - 1815 CE
Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars
Revolution, empire, total war, and the remaking of Europe.
Premium1861 CE - 1865 CE
The American Civil War and the Abolition of Slavery
Slavery, secession, emancipation and Union victory.
Premium1880 CE - 1902 CE
The Anglo Boer Conflict
Empire, gold and guerrilla war in South Africa.
Premium1905 CE - 1922 CE
The Russian Revolution
War, revolution, civil conflict, and the birth of Soviet power.
Free1914 CE - 1918 CE
The First World War
Sarajevo, trenches and the shock of total war.
Premium1917 CE - 1991 CE
The Soviets
Revolution, Stalinism, superpower and collapse.
Premium1918 CE - 1933 CE
The Treaty of Versailles and Its Consequences
Reparations, resentment and the road to war.
Premium1919 CE - 1939 CE
The Causes of the Second World War
Versailles, fascism, appeasement and the road to total war.
Premium1919 CE - 1934 CE
The Rise of Adolf Hitler
Crisis, propaganda and democracy’s destruction.
Premium1919 CE - 1933 CE
Weimar Republic
Democracy, crisis and culture before dictatorship.
Premium1931 CE - 1945 CE
The Pacific War
Empire, carriers, occupation and the road to surrender.
Premium1933 CE - 1945 CE
Nazi Germany
Dictatorship, propaganda, war and catastrophe.
Premium1933 CE - 1945 CE
The Holocaust
Persecution, genocide, resistance and memory.
Free1939 CE - 1945 CE
The Second World War
Dictatorship, genocide and global war.
Premium1940 CE - 1942 CE
Operation Barbarossa
Ideology, invasion, annihilation, and the failure before Moscow.
Premium1940 CE
The Battle of Britain
Air power, invasion threat and Britain’s stand in 1940.
Premium1941 CE - 1947 CE
Origins of the Cold War
How allies became rivals and divided the world.
Premium1943 CE - 1945 CE
D-Day and the Liberation of Europe
Overlord, liberation, civilian cost, and the drive into Germany.
Free1945 CE - 1991 CE
The Cold War
Superpower rivalry, proxy wars and nuclear fear.
Premium1945 CE - 2026 CE
The Kim Dynasty
Dynastic rule, ideology and survival in North Korea.
Premium1945 CE - 1999 CE
The Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia
Union, socialism, nationalism and collapse.
Premium1949 CE - 1976 CE
Mao's China
Revolution, mass campaigns, famine, and the legacy of Maoist rule.
Premium1950 CE - 1953 CE
The Korean War
Invasion, intervention and Korea’s enduring divide.
Premium1955 CE - 1975 CE
The Vietnam War
Decolonisation, escalation, protest and reunification.
Premium1962 CE
The Cuban Missile Crisis
Thirteen days at the edge of nuclear war.
Premium1976 CE - 2020 CE
The Rise of China
Reform, factories, party control, and China's path from recovery to rivalry.
Premium1985 CE - 1991 CE
The Collapse of the Soviet Union
Reform, nationalism and the end of a superpower.
Free1991 CE - 2020 CE
The World After The Cold War
Globalisation, terror and renewed great-power rivalry.
Premium2001 CE - 2021 CE
The United States After 9/11
Shock, war, surveillance and the remaking of American power.
Timeline fallbackChronological story list61 stories
This list mirrors the interactive timeline for keyboard navigation, screen readers, and readers who prefer a steady chronological view.
6500 BCE – 539 BCE
Free
Mesopotamia
Ancient Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, was one of the birthplaces of urban civilisation. In this Tigris and Euphrates civilization, communities built some of the first cities, developed cuneiform writing, organised law codes, and created early empires. From Sumer and Akkad to Babylon and Assyria, this history of Mesopotamia shows how farming, irrigation, temples, kingship, trade, and record-keeping helped create the structures of complex society. It also works as a Mesopotamia timeline and Mesopotamia civilization overview, with clear Mesopotamia facts tracing how Mesopotamian civilization grew from villages into states and empires.
Read story→5000 BCE – 771 BCE
Free
Early China
From Neolithic farming villages to the Shang and Zhou dynasties, Early China built the writing, bronze culture, and political doctrines that gave Chinese civilisation its enduring character.
Read story→3100 BCE – 30 BCE
Free
Ancient Egypt
Follow Ancient Egypt from its unification around 3100 BCE to Cleopatra's defeat in 30 BCE. This story explains how the Nile River, pharaohs, pyramids, gods, temples, hieroglyphics and burial beliefs helped one of history's longest-lasting civilizations endure for more than 3,000 years.
Read story→800 BCE – 146 BCE
Free
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece was a civilisation of city-states, sailors, philosophers, soldiers, artists, and political experiments whose influence reached far beyond the Aegean world. From Athens and Sparta to the Persian Wars, democracy, philosophy, drama, and Alexander the Great, Greek history helped shape ideas about citizenship, empire, knowledge, and culture. Its legacy survived through Rome, Byzantium, Islam, and modern Europe, making Ancient Greece central to the story of the classical world.
Read story→800 BCE – 400 CE
The Celtic World Before Rome
Celtic tribes spanned Europe, shaping culture, conflict, and a lasting legacy.
Read story→509 BCE – 27 BCE
The Roman Republic
From the expulsion of Rome’s kings to the rise of Augustus, the Roman Republic built a powerful mixed constitution, expanded across the Mediterranean, and ultimately collapsed into civil war and one-man rule.
Read story→359 BCE – 30 BCE
Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic World
From Philip II's military reforms to the fall of the last Hellenistic kingdom, this story follows Alexander's conquests, the wars of his successors, and the spread of Greek culture across the ancient Near East.
Read story→27 BCE – 476 CE
Free
The Roman Empire
From Augustus to the fall of the Western Empire, Rome built a vast imperial system whose law, cities, armies and ideas shaped the ancient and medieval worlds.
Read story→376 CE – 800 CE
The Fall of Rome to Early Medieval Europe
From the arrival of Gothic peoples at the Danube to the crowning of Charlemagne, this story traces how the Western Roman Empire fragmented into successor kingdoms and how a new medieval world took shape.
Read story→410 CE – 886 CE
Free
The Anglo-Saxons
The Anglo-Saxons were the peoples and kingdoms that shaped Anglo-Saxon England after the end of Roman rule in Britain. From migration and settlement in Anglo-Saxon Britain to Christian conversion, Viking attacks, Alfred the Great, and the road to 1066, Anglo-Saxon history explains how early medieval England took form. Their language, laws, kingdoms, monasteries, and political traditions left a lasting mark on English identity before the Norman Conquest transformed the realm.
Read story→476 CE – 1309 CE
The Rise of the Medieval Church
From the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the Avignon papacy, this story traces how the Christian Church built its authority through bishops, monasteries, missions, reform, and direct confrontation with Europe's rulers.
Read story→793 CE – 1066 CE
Free
The Viking Age
From raiders to traders, Vikings built kingdoms and networks that reshaped Europe and beyond.
Read story→800 CE – 1300 CE
Feudalism and Medieval Society
From the estates of Charlemagne's empire to the flowering of Gothic cathedrals, this story explores how feudal hierarchies, manorial agriculture, and Church authority shaped the lives of kings, knights, and peasants alike.
Read story→862 CE – 1240 CE
911 CE – 1154 CE
Free
The Norman Conquest of England
From Viking settlers to conquerors, the Normans reshaped England, Italy, and the medieval Mediterranean.
Read story→1095 CE – 1291 CE
The Crusades
From Pope Urban II's call at Clermont to the fall of Acre, the Crusades reshaped the medieval world through religious war, cross-cultural encounter, and lasting consequences for Europe and the Middle East.
Read story→1162 CE – 1294 CE
The Mongol Empire
From scattered steppe tribes to the largest contiguous empire in history, the Mongols reshaped Eurasia through conquest, terror, and trade.
Read story→1200 CE – 1521 CE
The Aztec Empire
From migrants to empire, the Aztecs built a powerful civilisation before collapsing after Spanish conquest.
Read story→1299 CE – 1923 CE
The Ottoman Empire
From a small frontier principality in Anatolia, the Ottomans built a multiethnic empire across Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa before reform, nationalism, and world war ended imperial rule.
Read story→1304 CE – 1600 CE
The Renaissance
From Petrarch to printing, from Florence to northern Europe, the Renaissance transformed learning, art, politics, religion, and science while linking medieval inheritance to modern change.
Read story→1415 CE – 1600 CE
The Age of Exploration
An era of exploration and empire linking continents through trade, conquest, and cultural exchange.
Read story→1485 CE – 1603 CE
The Tudor Dynasty
The Tudors strengthened royal power, drove religious change, and shaped early modern England.
Read story→1500 CE – 1720 CE
The Scientific Revolution
The Scientific Revolution transformed how humans understand the world, replacing tradition with observation, experimentation and mathematical laws that still shape modern science.
Read story→1527 CE – 1603 CE
The English Reformation
Henry VIII’s break with Rome reshaped religion, politics, and identity through decades of upheaval.
Read story→1558 CE – 1603 CE
The Elizabethan Age
Elizabeth I’s reign brought stability, cultural flourishing, exploration, and victory over the Spanish Armada.
Read story→1588 CE – 1947 CE
The British Empire
Britain built the largest empire in history through sea power, trade, slavery, industrial wealth, conquest, and rule, before decolonisation reshaped the modern world.
Read story→1642 CE – 1660 CE
The English Civil War
Civil war between king and Parliament led to regicide, a republic, and lasting constitutional change.
Read story→1644 CE – 1912 CE
The Qing Dynasty
From Manchu conquest to republican revolution, the Qing dynasty built China's largest empire, oversaw centuries of prosperity, and then struggled to survive foreign intervention, rebellion, and the collapse of imperial legitimacy.
Read story→1700 CE – 1870 CE
Free
The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution began in Britain and spread globally, transforming economies, societies and everyday life through machines, factories and new energy sources.
Read story→1763 CE – 1791 CE
The American Revolution and Early Republic
From colonial tensions to independence, this traces the birth and early struggles of the United States of America.
Read story→1787 CE – 1799 CE
The French Revolution
From royal debt and social inequality to republic, terror, and Napoleon, the French Revolution dismantled the old order and produced the political ideas of citizenship, rights, and nationalism that defined the modern world.
Read story→1789 CE – 1815 CE
Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleon turned revolutionary opportunity into continental empire, then lost it in total war that still transformed European politics, states, and nationalism.
Read story→1861 CE – 1865 CE
The American Civil War and the Abolition of Slavery
The American Civil War determined the survival of the Union and led to the abolition of slavery, fundamentally reshaping the United States.
Read story→1880 CE – 1902 CE
The Anglo Boer Conflict
A war between Britain and Boer republics that exposed imperial costs and reshaped South Africa.
Read story→1905 CE – 1922 CE
The Russian Revolution
From the 1905 crisis to the creation of the USSR, the Russian Revolution transformed imperial collapse into a new one-party socialist state.
Read story→1914 CE – 1918 CE
Free
The First World War
World War I reshaped empires, borders, and societies, setting the stage for World War II.
Read story→1917 CE – 1991 CE
The Soviets
From revolution to superpower, the Soviet Union rose, struggled internally, and collapsed in 1991.
Read story→1918 CE – 1933 CE
The Treaty of Versailles and Its Consequences
From the armistice of November 1918 to Hitler's rise in 1933, this story traces how the Treaty of Versailles — its punishment, its borders, its reparations, and its resentments — helped shape the conditions for a second world war.
Read story→1919 CE – 1939 CE
The Causes of the Second World War
From the flawed peace of 1919 to the invasion of Poland in 1939, this story traces the interlocking causes of the Second World War across two decades of crisis, ideology, and failed deterrence.
Read story→1919 CE – 1934 CE
The Rise of Adolf Hitler
From the ashes of World War I to the Night of the Long Knives, this story traces the political rise of Adolf Hitler and the collapse of the Weimar Republic.
Read story→1919 CE – 1933 CE
Weimar Republic
A fragile democracy marked by crisis and innovation, whose collapse paved the way for Nazi rule.
Read story→1931 CE – 1945 CE
The Pacific War
From imperial expansion in Manchuria to surrender in 1945, the Pacific War remade Asia through conquest, occupation, naval warfare, and devastating defeat.
Read story→1933 CE – 1945 CE
Nazi Germany
From Weimar collapse to WWII, Nazi Germany imposed totalitarian rule, expansion, and genocide.
Read story→1933 CE – 1945 CE
The Holocaust
From legal discrimination to genocide, the Holocaust traces twelve years of escalating persecution that killed six million Jews and millions of others across Nazi-occupied Europe.
Read story→1939 CE – 1945 CE
Free
The Second World War
From fragile peace to global war, WWII reshaped the world through conflict, genocide, and new power orders.
Read story→1940 CE – 1942 CE
Operation Barbarossa
From Hitler's ideological war in the east to Soviet survival before Moscow, Barbarossa turned expected blitzkrieg into prolonged attritional catastrophe.
Read story→1940 CE
The Battle of Britain
In 1940, Britain’s air defense held against German attack, blocking invasion plans and preserving a vital base for eventual Allied victory in Europe.
Read story→1941 CE – 1947 CE
Origins of the Cold War
From the Grand Alliance to the Truman Doctrine, this story traces how the United States and Soviet Union shifted from wartime cooperation to global confrontation.
Read story→1943 CE – 1945 CE
D-Day and the Liberation of Europe
From Operation Overlord to the Rhine crossing, this story traces how the western Allies opened a decisive front, liberated occupied Europe, and helped defeat Nazi Germany.
Read story→1945 CE – 1991 CE
Free
The Cold War
Rivalry between East and West shapes global politics - through proxy wars, propaganda, and nuclear tension.
Read story→1945 CE – 2026 CE
The Kim Dynasty
North Korea’s Kim dynasty built a nuclear-armed regime, maintaining power through crises and control.
Read story→1945 CE – 1999 CE
The Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia fractured through crisis, nationalism, and war, collapsing violently in the 1990s.
Read story→1949 CE – 1976 CE
Mao's China
After 1949, Mao transformed China through party rule, collectivisation, ideological campaigns, and mass upheaval, leaving a legacy of power, trauma, and state continuity.
Read story→1950 CE – 1953 CE
The Korean War
A Cold War conflict that divided Korea, ending in stalemate and a lasting unresolved border.
Read story→1955 CE – 1975 CE
The Vietnam War
From decolonisation to Cold War conflict, the Vietnam War reshaped Southeast Asia and global politics.
Read story→1962 CE
The Cuban Missile Crisis
From the discovery of Soviet missiles in Cuba to the secret deal that ended the standoff, this story examines the most dangerous confrontation of the Cold War.
Read story→1976 CE – 2020 CE
The Rise of China
After Mao, China combined market reform with one-party rule, using exports, cities, technology, and nationalism to become one of the world's most powerful states.
Read story→1985 CE – 1991 CE
The Collapse of the Soviet Union
From Gorbachev’s reforms to the lowering of the Soviet flag over the Kremlin, this story traces the rapid unravelling of the USSR and the end of the Cold War.
Read story→1991 CE – 2020 CE
Free
The World After The Cold War
From the fall of the Soviet Union to the rise of China and global terrorism, this story traces the turbulent reshaping of the international order after 1991.
Read story→2001 CE – 2021 CE
The United States After 9/11
After 9/11, the United States launched the War on Terror, invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, expanded surveillance and homeland security, and entered a long era of costly war and deep political division.
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