The 550s BC
36 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 6th century BC. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.
559 BCE4 entries
- Cyrus the Great succeeds his father Cambyses I of Anshan.
- In the year of his accession (560–559 BC), the Babylonian king Neriglissar commands the declaration of an intercalendary month, so that his first year of kingship begins on Nisan 1 of 559 BC.
558 BCE3 entries
- The Chinese state of Jin defeats its rival state of Qin in battle.
557 BCE4 entries
- May 19: The Persians besiege Larissa (Calah) but fail to capture it. However, when a solar eclipse occurs, the inhabitants leave their city and it is taken.
- Labashi-Marduk is king of Babylon during this year, succeeding Neriglissar, who reigned three years, and is followed by Nabonidus, who reigns 17 years.
- Santorini, Greece suffers from a volcanic eruption.
556 BCE5 entries
- Nabonidus succeeds Labashi-Marduk as king of Babylon.
- Pisistratus is expelled to Euboea from Athens, and makes his fortune from Thrace's mines.
- Labashi-Marduk succeeds Neriglissar as king of Babylon.
555 BCE1 entries
554 BCE1 entries
553 BCE2 entries
- Cyrus II of Persia revolts against Astyages of the Medes.
552 BCE1 entries
- The Battle of Hyrba is fought between the Medians and the Persians led by Cyrus the Great.
551 BCE2 entries
550 BCE13 entries
- Cyrus II the Great overthrows Astyages of the Medes, establishing the Achaemenid Empire.
- The Temple of Hera I is built in what is now Paestum, Italy (approximate date).
- Siddhartha Gautama founds Buddhism in Northern India after achieving enlightenment after six years of practicing penance and meditation.