slug: william-the-silent

label: William the Silent

description: Dutch statesman and revolt leader (1533-1584)

date: May 23

text: May 23 – Battle of Heiligerlee: Troops under Louis of Nassau, brother of William the Silent, defeat a smaller loyalist force under Jean de Ligne, in an attempt to invade the Northern Netherlands. This effectively begins the Eighty Years' War.

title: 1568

section: Events › April–June

date: November 12

text: November 12 – Dutch rebels commanded by William the Silent defeat Spanish Habsburg troops led by Sancho d'Avila in the battle of Le Quesnoy in northern France.

title: 1568

section: Events › October–December

date: October 20

text: October 20 – Battle of Jodoigne: Spanish forces under the Duke of Alba destroy William the Silent's rearguard and William abandons his offensive.

title: 1568

date: October 5

text: October 5 – William the Silent invades the southeastern Netherlands.

title: 1568

date: June 24

text: June 24 – William the Silent, Prince of Orange, marries Charlotte of Bourbon.

title: 1575

date: April 25

text: April 25 – Documents for the Union of Delft are signed by Dutch leader Willem van Oranj to create a federation of Holland and Zeeland.

title: 1576

section: Religion & Belief

date: February 8

text: February 8 – The city council of Amsterdam in the Netherlands ratifies a treaty placing the city under the authority of Willem, Prince of Orange, and joining the States of Holland.

title: 1578

section: Events › January–March

date: January 23

text: January 23 – The Union of Utrecht unites the northern Netherlands in a confederation called the United Provinces. William the Silent becomes Stadtholder, and the Duc d'Anjou, younger brother of Henry III of France, is invited to become hereditary sovereign.

title: 1579

date: February 10

text: February 10 – François, Duke of Anjou, arrives in the Netherlands, where he is personally welcomed by William the Silent.

title: 1582

date: July 10

text: July 10 – Willem van Oranje, the leader of the Dutch Republic as Stadtholder of Holland, is assassinated in Delft. Balthasar Gérard, who bought two wheel-lock pistols and then made an appointment with at the Prinsenhof, shoots William in the chest at close range and fatally wounds him, making William the first head of state to be assassinated with a handgun.

title: 1584

section: Events › July–September

date: July 14

text: July 14 – Balthasar Gérard, French assassin of William the Silent (executed; b. 1557)

title: 1584

date: March 16

text: March 16 – Countess Emilia of Nassau, Dutch noble, daughter of William the Silent (b. 1559)

title: 1629


slug: williamsburg-virginia

label: Williamsburg, Virginia

description: independent city in Virginia, United States

section: Culture & Society

text: February 8 – The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia is granted a Royal charter.

title: 1693

section: Technology & Infrastructure

date: August 8

text: August 8 – The Wren Building is started in Williamsburg, Virginia (completed in 1700).

title: 1695

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

date: May 1

text: May 1 (O.S.) – A series of five student orations at the College of William & Mary precipitate the Colony of Virginia's capital moving from Jamestown to Middle Plantation, resulting in the establishment of Williamsburg.

title: 1699

date: November

text: November – In Williamsburg, capital of the Colony of Virginia in America, construction of the Capitol Building is completed.

title: 1705

date: December 5

text: December 5 – The first presentation of a Shakespearean play in America is performed when a company of players stages The Merchant of Venice in Williamsburg, Virginia.

title: 1752

section: Health & Medicine

date: October 12

text: October 12 – America's first insane asylum opens for Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds in Williamsburg, Virginia.

title: 1773

text: The Bishop James Madison Society is founded at the College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia.

title: 1812

section: Events › Date unknown

date: November 27

text: November 27 – The restoration of Colonial Williamsburg begins in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States.

title: 1926

section: Events › November

date: May 28

text: May 28 – The 9th G7 summit begins at Williamsburg, Virginia, United States.

title: 1983

section: Events › May


slug: willibrord

label: Willibrord

description: Anglo-Saxon monk, bishop and missionary (c.658–739)

section: Births

text: Willibrord, Anglo-Saxon missionary

title: 658

text: Willibrord, Anglo-Saxon missionary, travels from York with 12 Benedictine monks to Westkapelle, (modern Netherlands) to Christianize the pagan Frisians.

title: 690

section: Events › By topic › Religion

date: November 21

text: November 21 – Willibrord, Northumbrian missionary, becomes the first bishop of Utrecht (Netherlands). He returns to Frisia to preach, and builds numerous churches (approximate date).

title: 695

text: Willibrord, Anglo-Saxon missionary, establishes an abbey at Echternach (Luxembourg), presented to him by Irmina, daughter of King Dagobert II.

title: 698

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: Willibrord, Anglo-Saxon missionary, founds a mission post at Emmerich am Rhein (Germany), in the Utrecht Diocese.

title: 700

text: Wilfrid, Anglo-Saxon bishop, travels to Rome again, and is supported in his struggle to retain his see of York by the pope. On his way Wilfrid stops in Frisia (modern Netherlands), to visit Willibrord.

title: 703

text: Civil War within the Pepinid clan: A revolt erupts between the Neustrian Franks and Frisians. King Radbod forces bishop Willibrord and his Benedictine monks to flee, and advances as far as Cologne (Germany). Frisia (modern-day Netherlands) once again becomes independent.

title: 714

section: Events › By place › Europe

text: Boniface, Anglo-Saxon missionary, leaves England and travels to Frisia (the western parts of the modern-day Netherlands) to assist Willibrord, bishop of Utrecht, in his work to convert the pagan Frisians.

title: 716

section: Deaths

text: Willibrord, Anglo-Saxon bishop

title: 739

text: Willibrord, the first bishop of Utrecht in the Netherlands, and Northumbrian missionary, dies at Echternach (modern Luxembourg).

title: 739


slug: wiltshire

label: Wiltshire

description: ceremonial county of England (use Q21694746 for administrative unitary authority)

section: Conflict & Security

text: King Cynric and his son Ceawlin of Wessex fight against the Britons at Beranburh, now identified as Barbury Castle (Wiltshire) in South West England.

title: 556

section: Events › By place › Britain

text: Battle of Woden's Burg: Kings Ine of Wessex and Ceolred of Mercia clash at Woden's Burg (Wiltshire).

title: 715

text: Battle of Kempsford: Æthelmund, ealdorman of Hwicce, is killed during the battle by his rival Weohstan, who levies West Saxon Wiltshire.

title: 802

date: May

text: May – Battle of Edington: Supported by all the levies of Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire, Alfred the Great decisively defeats the main body of Danish Vikings, led by King Guthrum, at modern-day Edington, Wiltshire (near Bratton Castle).

title: 878

date: November 16

text: November 16 – Ælfric of Abingdon, archbishop of Canterbury, leaves ships to the people of Wiltshire and Kent in his will, leaving the best, equipped for 60 men, to King Æthelred the Unready.

title: 1005

section: Events › By place › British Isles

date: August 25

text: August 25 – Council of London: Archbishop Lanfranc instigates the movement of English bishoprics. One of these is the bishopric of Sherborne and Wilton which is moved to Old Sarum.

title: 1075

section: Events › By place › England

text: Osmund, bishop of Salisbury, builds Devizes Castle in Wiltshire.

title: 1080

section: Crime & Justice

text: Eleanor of Aquitaine is held under house arrest at Old Sarum Castle in Wiltshire. She is kept in comfort there – fine clothes for her are dispatched regularly from London.

title: 1175

date: August 13

text: August 13 – King Henry III orders the sheriffs of Hampshire, Dorsetshire and Wiltshire to give Simon de Montfort the possession of the lands of his father, Simon de Montfort the elder.

title: 1231

date: October 23

text: October 23 – Hannah Twynnoy, a 24-year-old barmaid in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, becomes the first person to be killed in Great Britain by a tiger. While working at the White Lion Inn, where a group of wild animals is on exhibit, she is mauled after bothering the tiger.

title: 1703


slug: winchester

label: Winchester

description: city and unparished area within the larger City of Winchester, Hampshire, England

section: Religion & Belief

text: Wine, bishop of Winchester, moves the episcopal see north again to Dorchester.

title: 663

text: Summer – Viking raiders led by Weland sail to England and attack Winchester (the capital of Wessex), which is set ablaze. He spreads inland, but is defeated by West Saxon forces, who deprive him of all he has gained.

title: 860

text: Alfred makes Winchester his residence. The Danish armies colonize areas of north, central and eastern England, which become known as the Danelaw.

title: 871

section: Culture & Society

text: Edward the Elder takes the title "King of the Anglo-Saxons". His mother, Dowager-Queen Ealhswith, founds the Nunnaminster at Winchester and retires into a religious life there.

title: 901

text: In the Council of Winchester, Edgar I accepts a 'Monastic Agreement' (called the Regularis Concordia). The document is compiled by Bishop Æthelwold and serves as a rule for how monastic life should be performed.

title: 973

date: May 31

text: May 31 – Waltheof, Earl of Northumbria, a participant in the Revolt of the Earls against King William the Conqueror, is beheaded near Winchester.

title: 1076

date: August 2

text: August 2 – By the Treaty of Alton, ratified at Winchester, Robert abandons his claim to the throne, recognising Henry as King of England.

title: 1101

date: August 5

text: August 5 – Matilda of Scotland, queen of England as wife of Henry I, gives birth to their first son William Adelin at Winchester. They already have a daughter, Princess Matilda.

title: 1103

date: April

text: April – John and William de Longchamp meet at Winchester to discuss their differences. Several senior bishops are appointed as arbitrators. At the end of the meeting, both John and William agree to follow the recommendations. William is to return Lincoln Castle to Gerard de Canville and accepts limits to his powers. In return, John is to surrender Nottingham and Tickhill castles.

title: 1191

date: April 17

text: April 17 – Richard I is crowned for the second time, at Winchester, to underline his rightful position as monarch. During the coronation, he wears a golden crown and is followed by notables from the Church and State.

title: 1194

date: May 21

text: May 21 – Prince Louis of France, son of King Philip II ("Augustus"), invades England in support of the barons, landing in Thanet. He enters London without opposition, and is proclaimed, but not crowned, King of England at Old St Paul's Cathedral. In June, Louis captures Rochester Castle and Winchester, and soon controls over half of the English kingdom.

title: 1216

section: Events › By continent › Europe

text: April – Gilbert de Clare leads a massacre of the Jews at Canterbury, during the outbreak of the Second Barons' War. In the meantime, another of de Montfort's followers, John FitzJohn, leads a massacre against the Jews in London. The Jewish communities of Northampton, Winchester, Cambridge, and Lincoln are looted. The archæ (official chest of records) is destroyed or deposited at the headquarters of de Montfort's supporters at Ely.

title: 1264

date: November 23

text: November 23 – King Richard II of England summons the English Parliament to assemble at Winchester on January 20.

title: 1392

section: Events › October–December

date: November 24

text: November 24 – Loys of Gruuthuse, Earl of Winchester (b. c. 1427)

title: 1492

text: August 25 – The Bloody Assizes begin in Winchester: Lord Chief Justice of England George Jeffreys tries over 1000 of Monmouth's rebels and condemns them to death or transportation.

title: 1685

section: Events › July–September


slug: windsor-castle

label: Windsor Castle

description: historic castle, royal residence at Windsor in Berkshire, England, UK

text: King Henry I has improvements made at Windsor Castle, including a chapel, so that he can use the castle as his formal residence.

title: 1110

date: June

text: June – The rebel English barons besiege Windsor Castle and Dover Castle; the latter is strategically important as the 'gateway to England', controlling the shortest route to France. Meanwhile, King John uses Corfe Castle in the southwest as his base of operations while he plans his campaign against the barons and the French invading army under Louis.

title: 1216

text: Spring – King Edward I of England ("Longshanks") demands a meeting with Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, prince of Wales, at Chester to pay homage, but Llywelyn refuses. In an attempt to stir up internal problems, Llywelyn seeks to marry 23-year-old Eleanor de Montfort, daughter of Simon de Montfort, but she is captured by English pirates (employed by Edward) on the journey from France to meet Llywelyn. She is held prisoner at Windsor Castle and used as a bargaining chip over the coming years in Edward's attempts to subjugate Llywelyn and Wales.

title: 1275

date: October 10

text: October 10 – Edward the Black Prince marries Joan of Kent at Windsor Castle.

title: 1361

section: Events › January–December

date: February 7

text: February 7 – During a visit to Windsor Castle as guests of King Henry VII of England, Philip the Handsome, Duke of Burgundy, plays a game of tennis against Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset in the first recorded use of tennis rackets. A year later, a chronicler notes that on the 7th of February, "the kynge of Castelle played w the Rackete and gave the marques xv".

title: 1505

section: Events › January–March

text: St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle is completed.

title: 1528

section: Events › Date unknown

date: July 30

text: July 30 – Eleven-year-old Prince William, Duke of Gloucester, dies of "a malignant fever" at Windsor Castle, leaving the Protestant succession to the British throne in doubt.

title: 1700

date: July 24

text: July 24 – Italian Dorando Pietri wins the Olympic marathon (run from Windsor Castle to London) in one of the most dramatic arrivals in Olympic history, only to be disqualified soon afterwards for receiving assistance; victory is awarded to Irish-American Johnny Hayes.

title: 1908

section: Events › July

date: March 1

text: March 1 – Bernard Freyberg, 1st Baron Freyberg is made deputy constable and lieutenant governor of Windsor Castle.

title: 1953

section: Events › March

date: September 19

text: September 19 – The state funeral of Elizabeth II is held in Westminster Abbey, London. Her coffin is then taken by procession to Windsor Castle for burial with her husband, parents and sister in the King George VI Memorial Chapel. The funeral is speculated to be the most watched television event in world history.

title: 2022

section: Events › September


slug: winston-churchill

label: Winston Churchill

description: British statesman, soldier and writer (1874–1965)

section: Births

date: November 3

text: November 3 – Leonard Jerome, American entrepreneur, grandfather of Sir Winston Churchill (d. 1891)

title: 1817

section: Births › July–December

date: January 3

text: January 3 – Siege of Sidney Street in London: Two Latvian anarchists die, after a seven-hour siege against a combined police and military force. Home Secretary Winston Churchill arrives to oversee events.

title: 1911

section: Events › January

section: Deaths

date: June 29

text: June 29 – Lady Randolph Churchill, mother of Winston Churchill (b. 1854)

title: 1921

section: Deaths › May–June

date: April 28

text: April 28 – Presenting the Stanley Baldwin government's budget, Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill announces Britain's return to the gold standard.

title: 1925

section: Events › April

date: August 12

text: August 12 – British politician Winston Churchill makes his first speech publicly warning of the dangers of German rearmament.

title: 1933

section: Events › August

date: October 16

text: October 16 – Winston Churchill, in a broadcast address to the United States, condemns the Munich Agreement as a defeat, and calls upon America and western Europe to prepare for armed resistance against Hitler.

title: 1938

section: Events › October

date: September 21

text: September 21 – Winston Churchill warns of grave consequences to European security, if Czechoslovakia is partitioned. The same day, Soviet Foreign Commissar Maxim Litvinov makes a similar statement in the League of Nations.

title: 1938

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

date: September

text: Chamberlain offers the war cabinet post of First Lord of the Admiralty to Winston Churchill, who returns to government for the first time since June 4, 1929.

title: 1939

text: Winston Churchill tells the House of Commons of the United Kingdom: "The Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin... if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, This was their finest hour."

title: 1940

section: Events › June

date: May

text: With the resignation of Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

title: 1940

section: Events › May

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: Winston Churchill, in his first address as Prime Minister, tells the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, "I have nothing to offer you but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

title: 1940

date: August 9

text: August 9 – Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet on board ship at Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland. The Atlantic Charter (released August 14), setting goals for postwar international cooperation, is created as a result.

title: 1941

date: December 26

text: December 26 – WWII: Winston Churchill becomes the first British Prime Minister to address a joint session of the United States Congress.

title: 1941

section: Events › December

date: January 14

text: January 14 – In a BBC radio broadcast from London, Victor de Laveleye asks all Belgians to use the letter "V" as a rallying sign, being the first letter of victoire (victory) in French and of vrijheid (freedom) in Dutch. This is the beginning of the "V campaign" which sees "V" graffities on the walls of Belgium and later all of Europe and introduces the use of the "V sign" for victory and freedom. Winston Churchill adopts the sign soon afterwards, though he sometimes gets it the wrong way around and uses the common insult gesture.

title: 1941

date: June 22

text: June 22 – WWII: Operation Barbarossa: Nazi Germany (with allies) invades the Soviet Union and declares war on it. Winston Churchill promises all possible British assistance to the Soviet Union in a worldwide broadcast: "Any man or state who fights against Nazidom will have our aid. Any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe." Italy and Romania declare war on the Soviet Union.

title: 1941

date: August 14

text: August 14 – The Quadrant Conference begins in Quebec City; Canadian Prime Minister MacKenzie King meets with Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

title: 1943

date: May 19

text: May 19 – Winston Churchill addresses a joint session of the United States Congress.

title: 1943

date: November 22

text: November 22–26 – WWII: Cairo Conference ("Sextant") – President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill and Chairman of the National Government of China Chiang Kai-shek meet at Cairo, Egypt, to discuss ways to defeat Japan in the Pacific War.

title: 1943

section: Events › November

date: May 15

text: May 15 – WWII: Allied military and political leaders, including Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, George Patton, Bernard Montgomery and more, meet for the final D-Day joint briefing at St. Paul's School in London.

title: 1944

date: October 9

text: October 9 – WWII: Fourth Moscow Conference: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin begin a 9-day conference in Moscow, to discuss the future of Europe.

title: 1944

date: February 4

text: February 4–11 – WWII: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin hold the Yalta Conference.

title: 1945

section: Events › February

date: July 26

text: July 26 – Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, after his Conservative Party is soundly defeated by the Labour Party in the 1945 general election. Clement Attlee becomes the new prime minister. It is the first time that Labour has governed Britain with a majority in the House of Commons.

title: 1945

date: March 5

text: March 5 – In a speech at Westminster College, in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill talks about the Iron Curtain.

title: 1946

date: November 28

text: November 28 – Winston Churchill makes a landmark speech in support of the idea of a European Union, at Kingsway Hall, London - but does not see UK as part of it, "The British Government have rightly stated that they cannot commit this country to entering any European Union without the agreement of the other members of the British Commonwealth".

title: 1949

date: August 8

text: August 8 – Winston Churchill supports the idea of a pan-European army, allied with Canada and the U.S.

title: 1950

date: February

text: In an election speech at Edinburgh, Winston Churchill proposes "a parley at the summit" with Soviet leaders, the first use of the term "summit" for such a meeting.

title: 1950

date: October 26

text: October 26 – Winston Churchill is re-elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (a month before his 77th birthday) in a general election which sees the defeat of Clement Attlee's Labour government, after 6 years in power.

title: 1951

section: Health & Medicine

date: April 5

text: April 5 – Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, due to ill-health, at the age of 80.

title: 1955

date: January 30

text: January 30 – The state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill takes place in London with the largest assembly of dignitaries in the world until the 2005 funeral of Pope John Paul II.

title: 1965

section: Events › January–February

date: June 6

text: June 6 – Randolph Churchill, British politician, son of Winston Churchill (b. 1911)

title: 1968

section: Deaths › June


slug: wittenberg

label: Wittenberg

description: town in Germany

section: Religion & Belief

text: All Saints' Church, the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg, is begun.

title: 1490

section: Events › Date unknown

date: December 27

text: December 27 – The Zwickau prophets arrive in Wittenberg, disturbing the peace and spreading the idea of rejecting infant baptism.

title: 1521

section: Events › October–December

date: March 6

text: March 6 – Protestant reformer Martin Luther returns to Wittenberg in Germany after getting cleared to return home by his protector, Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony.

title: 1522

section: Events › January–March

section: Culture & Society

text: c. July – Martin Luther's translation of the Pentateuch into German (Das allte Testament Deutsch) is published by Melchior Lotter Jr. in Wittenberg.

title: 1523

section: Events › July–September

date: April 4

text: April 4 – Under a plan organized by Sister Katharina von Bora and Protestant reformer Martin Luther, fish merchant Leonhard Köppe helps carry out the rescue of Von Bora and other Cistercian Catholic nuns from the Nimbschen Abbey in Germany near Grimma and Leipzig. On the day before Easter, Köppe arrives at the convent under the pretext of bringing delivering herring and other foods to the Abbey, then uses empty barrels to smuggle the nuns to Wittenberg. Von Bora will later become Luther's wife.

title: 1523

section: Events › April–June

date: October 4

text: October 4 – As the Michaelmas fair opens in Wittenberg, Martin Luther's translation of the complete Christian Bible into German is offered for sale for the first time. The work, printed on 1,824 pages in two volumes by Hans Lufft adds the Old Testament including the deuterocanonical books to Luther's 1522 translation of the New Testament, and includes woodcut illustrations.

title: 1534

text: The earliest (partially) preserved printed book in Estonian, a Catechism with a translation by Johann Koell from the Middle Low German Lutheran text of Simon Wanradt, is printed by Hans Lufft in Wittenberg, for use in Tallinn.

title: 1535

date: May 28

text: May 28 – The first installment of the translation by Jurij Dalmatin of the Bible into the Slovene language, Bibilija, tu je vse svetu pismu stariga inu noviga testamenta (The Bible, featuring the complete Old and New Testaments), is published in Wittenberg.

title: 1583

section: Science & Discovery

date: February 27

text: February 27 – Sunspots are observed by telescope, by Frisian astronomers Johannes Fabricius and David Fabricius. Johannes publishes the results of these observations, in De Maculis in Sole observatis in Wittenberg, later this year. Such early discoveries are overlooked, however, and the first sighting is claimed a few months later, by Galileo Galilei and Christoph Scheiner.

title: 1611


slug: wolfgang-amadeus-mozart

label: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

description: Austrian composer of the Classical period (1756-1791)

section: Births

date: November 14

text: November 14 – Leopold Mozart, German/Austrian composer, father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (d. 1787)

title: 1719

section: Births › November

date: December 24

text: December 24 – Anna Maria Mozart (née Pertl; d. 1778), wife of Leopold Mozart and mother of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Maria Anna Mozart

title: 1720

date: July 30

text: July 30 – Maria Anna Mozart ("Nannerl"), Austrian musician and composer, sister of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (d. 1829)

title: 1751

date: January 27

text: January 27 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born in Salzburg, Austria, to Anna Maria and Leopold Mozart.

title: 1756

date: September 25

text: September 25 – Maria Anna Thekla Mozart called Marianne, known as Bäsle ("little cousin"), cousin of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (d. 1841)

title: 1758

date: July 9

text: July 9 – The Mozart family grand tour of Europe began, lifting the profile of child prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus.

title: 1763

date: April 27

text: April 27 – Eight-year-old child prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart performs a private concert before King George III and Queen Charlotte in Great Britain, and has an encore on May 19.

title: 1764

section: Events › January–June

date: November 29

text: November 29 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart returns to Salzburg, after the Mozart family grand tour of Europe.

title: 1766

date: March 4

text: March 4 – Mozart departs Italy, after the last of his three tours there.

title: 1769

text: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart writes his five violin concertos in Salzburg at about this date.

title: 1775

date: January 5

text: January 5 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart finishes a Sonata for Keyboard in C.

title: 1775

date: July 21

text: July 21 – Mozart's Serenade No. 7 (the "Haffner") is first performed in Salzburg, Austria.

title: 1776

section: Events › July–August

date: March 16

text: March 16 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart arrives in Vienna after being fired by the Archbishop of Salzburg. He would stay there for the rest of his brief life.

title: 1781

date: July 16

text: July 16 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail premieres at the Burgtheater in Vienna.

title: 1782

date: October 17

text: October 17 – Mozart's Great Mass is first performed, in Salzburg, Austria.

title: 1783

date: May 1

text: May 1 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera The Marriage of Figaro premieres in Vienna.

title: 1786

date: August 10

text: August 10 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composes his famous Eine kleine Nachtmusik.

title: 1787

date: January 19

text: January 19 – Mozart's Symphony No. 38 is premièred in Prague.

title: 1787

date: October 29

text: October 29 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Don Giovanni (libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte) premieres in the Estates Theatre in Prague.

title: 1787

text: August 10 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in Vienna, completes his final symphony, the Symphony No. 41 in C Major, and nicknamed (after his death) The Jupiter.

title: 1788

date: July 28

text: July 28 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in Vienna, completes his penultimate symphony, the Symphony No. 40 in G Minor.

title: 1788

date: June 26

text: June 26 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in Vienna, completes his antepenultimate symphony, the Symphony No. 39 in E-flat.

title: 1788

date: January 26

text: January 26 – Mozart's opera Così fan tutte premieres in Vienna.

title: 1790

section: Deaths

date: December 5

text: December 5 – Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies early this morning aged 35 at his home in Vienna, having been bedridden since November 20 with a serious illness, perhaps acute rheumatic fever. On a mild and misty December 7, following a funeral service in St. Stephen's Cathedral, he is buried in a common unmarked grave (as customary at this time) in St. Marx Cemetery in the presence of Salieri, Süssmayr, van Swieten (his patron) and two other musicians.

title: 1791

date: September 30

text: September 30 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's singspiel opera The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte) premières at the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna with Mozart conducting.

title: 1791

date: September 6

text: September 6 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera seria, La clemenza di Tito, premières at the Estates Theatre in Prague with Mozart conducting to mark the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia.

title: 1791

text: October 29 – Maria Anna Mozart ("Nannerl"), Austrian musician and composer, sister of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (b. 1751)

title: 1829

section: Deaths › July–December

date: August 17

text: August 17 – Lorenzo Da Ponte, librettist for Mozart (b. 1749)

title: 1838

text: March 6 – Constanze Mozart, German-born wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (b.1762)

title: 1842

section: Deaths › January–June


slug: woodrow-wilson

label: Woodrow Wilson

description: 28th President of the United States (1913–1921)

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

date: November 5

text: November 5 – 1912 United States presidential election: New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson beats former president Theodore Roosevelt and incumbent president William Howard Taft.

title: 1912

section: Events › November

date: December 23

text: December 23 – The Federal Reserve System is created as the central banking system of the United States, by Woodrow Wilson's signature of the Federal Reserve Act.

title: 1913

section: Events › December

section: Technology & Infrastructure

date: October 10

text: October 10 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike, ending construction on the Panama Canal.

title: 1913

section: Events › October

section: Health & Medicine

date: December 17

text: December 17 – United States President Woodrow Wilson signs the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act. This begins the ongoing international war on drugs.

title: 1914

date: June 1

text: June 1 – Woodrow Wilson's envoy, Edward Mandell House, meets Kaiser Wilhelm II.

title: 1914

section: Events › June

date: December 18

text: December 18 – United States president Woodrow Wilson marries Edith B. Galt, in Washington, D.C.

title: 1915

date: June 15

text: June 15 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signs a bill incorporating the Boy Scouts of America.

title: 1916

section: Conflict & Security

date: March 15

text: March 15 – United States President Woodrow Wilson sends 12,000 United States troops over the U.S.–Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa; the 13th Cavalry regiment enters Mexican territory.

title: 1916

section: Events › March

date: November 7

text: November 7 – 1916 United States presidential election: Democratic President Woodrow Wilson narrowly defeats Republican Charles Evans Hughes, when California is called a week after Election Day.

title: 1916

date: December 26

text: December 26 – United States President Woodrow Wilson uses the Federal Possession and Control Act to place most U.S. railroads under the United States Railroad Administration, hoping to transport troops and materials for the war effort more efficiently.

title: 1917

date: December 4

text: December 4 – President Woodrow Wilson departs by ship to the Paris Peace Conference, becoming the first United States President to travel to Europe while holding office.

title: 1918

date: January 8

text: January 8 – American president Woodrow Wilson presents the Fourteen Points as a basis for peace negotiations to end the war.

title: 1918

section: Events › January

date: May 14

text: May 14 – The University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, establishes probably the world's first chair in International Politics, endowed by David Davies and his sisters in honour of Woodrow Wilson, with Alfred Eckhard Zimmern as first professor.

title: 1919

section: Events › May

date: October 2

text: October 2 – President of the United States Woodrow Wilson suffers a serious stroke, rendering him an invalid for the remainder of his life.

title: 1919

date: October 28

text: October 28 – Prohibition in the United States: The United States Congress passes the Volstead Act, over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. Prohibition goes into effect on January 17, 1920, under the provisions of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

title: 1919


slug: world-health-organization

label: World Health Organization

description: United Nations agency concerned with international public health

date: April 7

text: April 7– The World Health Organization is established by the United Nations.

title: 1948

section: Events › April

date: June 24

text: June 24 – The first World Health Assembly of the World Health Organization is held in Geneva.

title: 1948

date: October 26

text: October 26 – The eradication of the smallpox virus is announced by the World Health Organization, making smallpox the first of only two human diseases that have been driven to extinction (rinderpest in 2011 being the other).

title: 1979

date: May 8

text: May 8 – Global eradication of smallpox certified by the World Health Organization.

title: 1980

date: May 17

text: May 17 – The World Health Organization removes homosexuality from its list of diseases.

title: 1990

date: April 23

text: April 23 – The World Health Organization declares tuberculosis a global emergency.

title: 1993

date: March 12

text: March 12 – The World Health Organization issues a global alert on SARS when it spreads to Hong Kong and Vietnam after originating in Mainland China.

title: 2003

date: May 21

text: May 21 – The World Health Organization adopts its first treaty, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

title: 2003

date: August 10

text: August 10 – The World Health Organization declares the H1N1 influenza pandemic over, saying worldwide flu activity has returned to typical seasonal patterns.

title: 2010

section: Events › August

section: Culture & Society

date: September 22

text: September 22 – The United Kingdom informs the World Health Organization about a novel coronavirus case originating from Saudi Arabia.

title: 2012

section: Events › September

date: May 15

text: May 15 – The World Health Organization names the novel coronavirus Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).

title: 2013

date: August 8

text: August 8 – The World Health Organization (WHO) declares the Ebola outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

title: 2014

date: May 5

text: May 5 – The World Health Organization identifies the spread of poliomyelitis in at least 10 countries as a major worldwide health emergency.

title: 2014

date: April 29

text: April 29 – The World Health Organization (WHO) declares that rubella has been eradicated from the Americas.

title: 2015

date: January 28

text: January 28 – The World Health Organization announces an outbreak of the Zika virus.

title: 2016

date: June 25

text: June 25 – The World Health Organization estimates that the 2016–17 Yemen cholera outbreak has over 200,000 cases.

title: 2017

date: July 17

text: July 17 – The World Health Organization (WHO) declares the Kivu Ebola epidemic to be a public health emergency of international concern.

title: 2019

section: Events › July

date: April 14

text: April 14 – U.S. president Donald Trump announces that the U.S. will suspend funding towards the World Health Organization (WHO) pending an investigation of its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and its relationship with China.

title: 2020

text: December 4 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 65 million worldwide, with the global death toll exceeding 1.5 million. Figures reflect that, in the last week, over 10,000 people worldwide have died on average every day, with one death every nine seconds. According to the World Health Organization, COVID-19 had caused more deaths in 2020 than tuberculosis in 2019, as well as four times the number of deaths than malaria.

title: 2020

text: June 1 – Kivu Ebola epidemic: The World Health Organization reports six new cases of Ebola, and UNICEF reports five deaths, in a renewed outbreak of the disease in Mbandaka, Équateur Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

title: 2020

date: May 18

text: May 18 – In a historic move, the World Health Organization holds its annual World Health Assembly using video conferencing instead of in-person meetings.

title: 2020

date: February 9

text: February 9 – COVID-19 pandemic: A joint WHO–China investigation into the source of the outbreak concludes. Investigators deem a Wuhan laboratory leak to be "extremely unlikely", with a "natural reservoir" in bats being a more likely origin.

title: 2021

section: Events › February

date: November 26

text: November 26 – COVID-19 pandemic: The World Health Organization convenes an emergency meeting in Geneva amid concerns over Omicron, a highly mutated variant of COVID-19 first identified in South Africa that appears more infectious than Delta.

title: 2021

date: October 6

text: October 6 – The World Health Organization endorses the first malaria vaccine.

title: 2021

date: July 23

text: July 23 – The World Health Organization (WHO) declares the recent monkeypox outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, as the number of reported cases exceeds 17,000 in 75 countries.

title: 2022

date: May 20

text: May 20 – 2022 monkeypox outbreak: The World Health Organization (WHO) holds an emergency meeting to discuss the spread of monkeypox in nearly a dozen countries, as the number of reported cases reaches 100.

title: 2022

date: May 11

text: May 11 – The World Health Organization ends its declaration of mpox being a global health emergency.

title: 2023

text: May 5 – The World Health Organization ends its declaration of COVID-19 being a global health emergency, but continues to refer to it as a pandemic.

title: 2023

date: August 14

text: August 14 – The World Health Organization (WHO) declares mpox a public health emergency of international concern for the second time in two years, following the spread of the virus in African countries.

title: 2024


slug: world-war-i

label: World War I

description: 1914–1918 global conflict

date: November 11

text: November 11 – Otto IV is elected by the German nobles as king of Germany at Frankfurt. He is engaged to Beatrice and travels to Milan where he receives the Iron Crown and the title of King of Italy, which continues until the end of World War I in 1918.

title: 1208

section: Events › By place › Europe

date: August 26

text: August 26 – Battle on the Marchfeld: German-Hungarian forces (some 9,000 men) led by Kings Rudolf I of Germany in alliance with Ladislaus IV of Hungary ("the Cuman"), defeat and kill Ottokar II, ruler of Bohemia. The battle ends the power struggle between Rudolf and Ottokar over the fate of Central Europe. Rudolf's House of Habsburg will continue to rule Austria and other captured territories until the end of World War I in 1918.

title: 1278

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

date: September 27

text: September 27 – The Teutonic Knights sign the Treaty of Melno with the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, after the brief Gollub War. The Prussian–Lithuanian border established by the treaty remains unchanged, until World War I.

title: 1422

section: Events › July–September

section: Births

date: December 17

text: December 17 – Michel-Joseph Maunoury, French general during World War I (d. 1923)

title: 1847

section: Births › December

date: June 26

text: June 26 – Robert Borden, Canadian lawyer and politician, 8th Prime Minister of Canada, leader in World War I (d. 1937)

title: 1854

section: Births › April–June

date: January 10

text: January 10 – Hubert Latham, pioneer French aviator of the pre-World War I era (d. 1912)

title: 1883

section: Births › January–February

date: December 13

text: December 13 – Alvin York, American World War I hero (d. 1964)

title: 1887

section: Births › November–December

date: February 29

text: February 29 – Serbia and Bulgaria secretly sign a treaty of alliance for a term of eight years, with each pledging to come to the defence of the other during war. The treaty would eventually be dishonored in World War I.

title: 1912

date: August 4

text: August 4 – World War I: German invasion of Belgium – At 08:02 (local time) Imperial German Army troops enter Belgium, bringing the July Crisis to a climax. At 23:00 (GMT) the British entry into World War I takes place when King George V in London declares war on Germany for this violation of Belgian neutrality (protected by the Treaty of London (1839)) and especially to defend France. This means a declaration of war by the whole British Empire against the German Empire. The United States declares neutrality.

title: 1914

date: December 24

text: December 24 – World War I: An unofficial and temporary Christmas truce begins between British and German soldiers on the Western Front.

title: 1914

date: June 28

text: June 28 – Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria: Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip, 19, assassinates Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Duchess Sophie, in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, triggering the July Crisis overnight and eventually World War I. Anti-Serb riots in Sarajevo and Zagreb break out.

title: 1914

section: Economy & Finance

date: November 28

text: November 28 – World War I: Following a war-induced closure in July, the New York Stock Exchange re-opens for bond trading.

title: 1914

date: July 21

text: July 21 – Sergeant Stubby, World War I American hero war dog (d. 1926)

title: 1916

section: Births › July

text: June 28 – The Treaty of Versailles is signed, formally ending World War I, five years to the day since the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. John Maynard Keynes, who has been present at the conference and is unhappy with the terms of the treaty, brings out his own analysis later in the year, entitled The Economic Consequences of the Peace.

title: 1919

text: November 28 – FIDAC (French: Fédération Interalliée des Anciens Combattants, English: The Interallied Federation of War Veterans Organisations) is established in Paris at the initiative of veterans from World War I, predominantly pacifists, joined by associations of veterans from France, the United Kingdom, United States, Belgium, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Italy and Serbia.

title: 1920

section: Deaths

date: March 16

text: March 16 – Sergeant Stubby, World War I American hero war dog (b. 1916)

title: 1926

section: Deaths › January–March

date: November 24

text: November 24 – Georges Clemenceau, Prime Minister of France, leader during World War I (b. 1841)

title: 1929

section: Deaths › November

date: January 3

text: January 3 – Joseph Joffre, French World War I general (b. 1852)

title: 1931

section: Deaths › January

text: July 23 – Marshal Philippe Pétain, former Prime Minister and Head of State of France, Chief of State of Vichy France during World War II, hero commander of World War I who led the French Army to victory at the nine-month-long Battle of Verdun, for which he was called "the Lion of Verdun", dies while serving a sentence of life-imprisonment on the island of Île-d'Yeu at 95 years old.

title: 1951

date: June 18

text: June 18 – René Fonck, French aviator, top Allied World War I Flying Ace (b. 1894)

title: 1953

section: Deaths › June

date: September 2

text: September 2 – Alvin York, American hero of World War I (born 1887)

title: 1964

section: Deaths › September

text: July 23 – Eddie Rickenbacker, American World War I flying ace and race car driver (b. 1890)

title: 1973

section: Deaths › July

date: October 3

text: October 3 – Germany makes final reparation payment for World War I.

title: 2010

date: July 28

text: July 28 – 100-year anniversary of World War I's commencement (Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia).

title: 2014

date: May 27

text: May 27 – COVID-19 pandemic: The U.S. death toll passes 100,000 – more Americans than were killed in the Vietnam War and Korean War combined, and approaching that of the First World War, where 116,000 Americans died in combat. The total number of cases continues to rise, although the rate is slowing.

title: 2020

date: April 24

text: April 24 – U.S. president Joe Biden becomes the first U.S. president to formally recognize the Ottoman killings of Armenians during World War I as genocide.

title: 2021


slug: world-war-ii

label: World War II

description: 1939–1945 global conflict

section: Health & Medicine

text: The registers of population are prepared in Japan. Fifty houses are made a township, and for each township there is appointed an elder. The houses are all associated in groups of five for mutual protection, with one elder to supervise them one with another. This system prevails until the era of World War II.

title: 652

section: Events › By place › Asia

section: Crime & Justice

text: The Cross of Saint Euphrosyne, commissioned by Euphrosyne of Polotsk in Belarus, is created by craftsman Lazar Bohsha. (It goes missing during World War II, and is not recovered subsequently).

title: 1161

section: Events › By topic › Religion

date: May 21

text: May 21 – The Holy Roman Empire, ruled by Leopold I, repurchases the territory of the Duchy of Opole and Racibórz (Oppeln und Ratibor), which it had ceded to Poland in 1645, for the sum of 120,000 guldens and consolidates it with Upper Silesia. The territory will be ceded from Germany to Poland in 1945 at the end of World War II.

title: 1666

section: Events › April–June

date: January 1

text: January 1 – Wilhelm Canaris, head of German military intelligence in World War II (d. 1945)

title: 1887

section: Culture & Society

date: May 26

text: May 26 – Românul de la Pind, the longest-running newspaper by and about Aromanians until World War II, is founded.

title: 1903

section: Events › May

date: November 21

text: November 21 – S. M. Ahsan, Pakistani Vice Admiral, Naval Commander, and recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross for his role in World War II (d. 1989)

title: 1920

section: Births › November

section: Conflict & Security

date: November 5

text: November 5 – World War II: In the Reich Chancellery, Adolf Hitler holds a secret meeting and states his plans for acquiring "living space" for the German people (recorded in the Hossbach Memorandum).

title: 1937

section: Events › November

date: September 9

text: September 9 – Notorious World War II veteran Edwin Alonzo Boyd commits his first career bank robbery, in Toronto.

title: 1949

section: Events › September

date: December 12

text: December 12 – Peter Fraser, New Zealand political figure, 24th Prime Minister of New Zealand, leader of World War II (b. 1884)

title: 1950

section: Deaths › December

date: July 23

title: 1951

section: Events › July

date: July 4

text: July 4 – Food rationing in Great Britain ends, with the lifting of restrictions on sale and purchase of meat, 14 years after it began early in World War II, and nearly a decade after the war's end.

title: 1954

date: May 14

text: May 14 – Heinz Guderian, German World War II general (b. 1888)

title: 1954

section: Deaths › May

section: Technology & Infrastructure

date: January 15

text: January 15 – The Soviet Union conducts its first census after World War II.

title: 1959

section: Events › January

date: September 19

text: September 19 – Pakistani Forces achieve a decisive victory at the Battle of Chawinda, ultimately halting the Indian advance and successfully stabilizing the Sialkot Front; it is the world's largest tank battle since the Battle of Kursk in the Second World War between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

title: 1965

section: Events › September–October

text: November 5 – Dietrich von Choltitz, Nazi German military governor of Paris in World War II (b. 1894)

title: 1966

date: February 6

text: February 6 – Henry Morgenthau Jr., United States Secretary of the Treasury during World War II (b. 1891)

title: 1967

section: Deaths › February

date: April 9

text: April 9 – FS Hussain, Pakistani aerobatic pilot who fought in World War II (b. 1924)

title: 1969

section: Deaths › April

date: December 22

text: December 22 – Enrique Peñaranda, Bolivian general, 38th President of Bolivia, leader during World War II (b. 1892)

title: 1969

date: May 15

text: May 15 – Guy Simonds, Canadian Lieutenant-General, commander of the Canadian Armed Forces in World War II (b. 1903)

title: 1974

date: January 6

text: January 6 – The Holy Crown of Hungary (also known as Stephen of Hungary Crown) is returned to Hungary from the United States, where it was held since World War II.

title: 1978

date: November 15

text: November 15 – British art historian and former Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures Anthony Blunt's role as the "fourth man" of the 'Cambridge Five' double agents for the Soviet NKVD during World War II is revealed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom; she gives further details on November 21.

title: 1979

section: Climate & Environment

text: February 29 – A Nazi document implicates Kurt Waldheim in World War II deportations.

title: 1988

section: Events › February

date: June 21

text: June 21 – The Poole explosion of 1988 caused 3,500 people to be evacuated out of the town centre in the biggest peacetime evacuation the United Kingdom had seen since the World War II.

title: 1988

section: Events › June

date: May 12

text: May 12 – Following the 6 May United Kingdom general election, the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties agree to form a coalition government, the UK's first since the Second World War.

title: 2010

date: November 22

text: November 22 – The International Court of Justice finds Ratko Mladić guilty of genocide committed in Srebrenica during the 1990s Bosnian War, the worst massacre in Europe since World War II. He is sentenced to life in prison.

title: 2017

date: April 14

text: April 14 – 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine: The Russian flagship Moskva becomes the largest warship to be sunk in action since World War II. Ukraine claims to have struck it with Neptune anti-ship missiles, while Russia claims it sank during stormy weather after an onboard fire.

title: 2022

section: Events › April

date: September 29

text: September 29 – 2024 Austrian legislative election: Far-right Freedom Party secures a historical victory, but does not reach a majority in the National Council. The results are deemed the first far-right win since World War II.

title: 2024

date: May 6

text: May 6 – 2025 German federal election: Friedrich Merz is elected Chancellor of Germany in the second round of parliamentary voting, hours after being defeated in the first round, a first in post-WWII German history.

title: 2025


slug: worms-germany

label: Worms, Germany

description: town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

year_label: 14 BCE

text: The Roman general Nero Claudius Drusus fortifies Augusta Vangionum, the modern city of Worms, Germany.

title: 14 BC

section: Events › By place › Roman Empire

section: Deaths

text: The Huns led by Octar attack the Burgundians, who occupied territory on the Rhine near the city of Worms (Germany). During the fighting Octar dies, and his army is destroyed.

title: 430

text: End of the Burgundian Revolt of Gunther: Flavius Aetius, Roman general (magister militum), attempts to put an end to Burgundian raids in Gaul. He calls in Hun mercenaries under the command of Attila and his brother Bleda, which plunder Augusta Vangionum, killing some 20,000 Burgundians. The Kingdom of the Burgundians is destroyed; King Gunther and his family are killed (this epic disaster will later provide the source for the Nibelungenlied).

title: 436

section: Events › By place › Europe

date: April 7

text: April 7 – Attila's forces invade Gaul and sack Metz. The major cities of Strasbourg, Worms, Mainz, Trier, Cologne, Reims, Tournai, Cambrai, Amiens and Beauvais are destroyed by the Huns.

title: 451

section: Culture & Society

date: October

text: October – Charlemagne marries Fastrada, the 18-year-old daughter of a Frankish count named Rudolph, and makes her his queen at Worms. The probable reason behind the marriage is to solidify a Frankish alliance east of the Rhine, against the Saxons in Lower Saxony (modern Germany).

title: 783

section: Religion & Belief

date: May 20

text: May 20 — Thirteen months before his death, Louis the Pious, successor to his father Charlemagne, consents to the division of Charlemagne's empire among his sons in a declaration at Worms. Upon Louis I's death in 840, Lothair (age 45) is devised Middle Francia that includes Switzerland and northern Italy; Louis the German (Louis II), age 36, receives Eastern Francia that includes much of Germany; and Charles the Bald (17) gets West Francia that incorporates most of France.

title: 839

text: Summer – Viking raiders sack the cities of Paris, Cologne, Aachen, Worms and Toulouse.

title: 861

text: Summer – Charles the Fat designates his illegitimate son Bernard as his heir, ignoring the claims of his nephew, Arnulf of Carinthia (illegitimate son of Carloman of Bavaria), and Charles the Simple (5-year-old son of King Louis the Stammerer). The Frankish bishops protest, so Charles summons Pope Adrian III to an assembly in Worms, to resolve the issue. Adrian leaves Rome in the hands of Bishop John of Pavia and heads to Germany, but dies on the way, just after crossing the River Po.

title: 885

date: July 8

text: July 8 – Pope Adrian III dies after a 1½ reign near Modena (Lombardy), while en route to an Imperial Diet, summoned by Charles the Fat at Worms. He is succeeded by Stephen V, as the 110th pope of the Catholic Church.

title: 885

section: Events › By topic › Religion

date: May

text: May – Arnulf of Carinthia summons the Imperial Diet in his residence at Worms. Angered by the non-appearance of Charles the Simple, he again supports Odo's claim to the throne of the West Frankish Kingdom. In the same assembly, he crowns Zwentibold as king of Lotharingia.

title: 895

text: The nobles of Lotharingia under Gilbert, duke of Lorraine, revolt against King Charles III ("the Simple"). They recognize King Henry I ("the Fowler") as their sovereign. Charles invades Lotharingia as far as Pfeddersheim (near Worms), but retreats when he learns that Henry is mobilizing an army to attack the West Frankish Kingdom.

title: 920

text: Spring – A Hungarian army led by Bulcsú crosses the Rhine. He camps at Worms in the capital of his ally Conrad the Red, duke of Lorraine. Bulcsú heads west, attacking the domains of King Otto I, by crossing the rivers Moselle and Maas.

title: 954

date: May 26

text: May 26 – Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor elects his 6-year-old son Otto II as heir apparent and co-ruler at the Imperial Diet in Worms. He is crowned at Aachen, and placed under the tutelage of his grandmother Matilda and his half-brother William of Mainz. Otto's own brother Bruno I is charged with the provisional government of Lorraine again.

title: 961

text: Winter – Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor appoints his cousin, Bishop Bruno of Toul (related to the counts of Egisheim-Dagsburg in Upper Alsace) as successor of Damasus II at an assembly at Worms.

title: 1048

date: January 24

text: January 24 – Synod of Worms: Emperor Henry IV, holds a synod in Worms (modern Germany). The assembly declares Pope Gregory VII deposed, and the bishops abandon their allegiance to him.

title: 1076

date: May 18

text: May 18–26 – The Worms massacre: Members of the People's Crusade under Emicho besiege Worms in the Rhineland before killing at least 800 Jews, despite the intervention of Bishop Adalbert II. He tries to hide some of them in the bishop's palace, others chose to remain outside its walls. One of the victims is Minna of Worms, an influential Jew among the Christian nobility.

title: 1096

section: Events › By place › First Crusade

date: January 7

text: January 7 – Emperor Henry V marries Matilda (or Maude), 11-year-old daughter of King Henry I of England, at Worms (modern Germany). A political conflict breaks out across the Holy Roman Empire after the marriage, triggered when Henry arrests Chancellor Adalbert and various other German princes.

title: 1114

date: May 23

text: May 23 – Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, dies of cancer in Utrecht after leading an expedition against King Louis VI ("the Fat") of France and then against the citizens of Worms. Having no legitimate children, Henry leaves his possessions to his nephew, Frederick II ("the One-Eyed"), duke of Swabia. At the Hoftag diet in Regensburg, Lothair, duke of Saxony, is elected King of Germany and crowned at Aachen on September 13.

title: 1125

text: William II, anti-king of Germany, holds a diet (princely convention) at Worms, in which the German cities are represented for the first time. He gives orders to build strong castles in Heemskerk and Haarlem.

title: 1254

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

date: March 26

text: March 26 – The inaugural session of the Diet of Worms (Wormser Reichstag), a gathering of the electors and princes of the Holy Roman Empire to discuss reforms of the government, is opened at Worms, Germany, by Maximilian I, the acting Holy Roman Emperor.

title: 1495

section: Events › January–March

section: Crime & Justice

date: April 26

text: April 26 – Martin Luther leaves Worms and disappears for around a year – he is rumored to be murdered, but is actually in hiding at the Wartburg castle.

title: 1521

section: Events › April–June

section: Health & Medicine

date: January 22

text: January 22 – Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, opens the Diet of Worms in Worms, Germany.

title: 1521

text: Printing of the first edition of William Tyndale's New Testament Bible translation into English in Cologne is interrupted by anti-Lutheran forces and Tyndale flees to Worms (finished copies reach England in 1526).

title: 1525

section: Events › Date unknown

date: February 27

text: February 27 – The League of Torgau is formed as an alliance of German princes to oppose the 1521 Edict of Worms.

title: 1526

date: March

text: March – The first complete printed translation of the New Testament of the Bible into the English language by William Tyndale arrives in England from Germany, where printing had been completed in Worms by Peter Schöffer the younger, towards the end of February.

title: 1526


slug: wu-sangui

label: Wu Sangui

description: Chinese general and rebel (1612-1678)

section: Conflict & Security

date: April 25

text: April 25 – The Battle of Songjin begins in the modern-day North Korean city of Kimch'aek, at the time part of the Chinese Empire controlled by the Ming dynasty. The Ming, led by General Wu Sangui, defeat the Qing rebels.

title: 1641

date: June 6

text: June 6 – The invading Qing army, with the help of Ming general Wu Sangui, captures Beijing in China, marking the beginning of Manchu rule over China proper, which will last until 1912.

title: 1644

date: May 25

text: May 25 – Ming general Wu Sangui forms an alliance with the invading Manchus and opens the gates of the Great Wall of China at Shanhaiguan Pass, letting the Manchus through towards the capital Beijing.

title: 1644

date: May 27

text: May 27 – Battle of Shanhai Pass: The Manchu Qing dynasty and Wu Sangui gain a decisive victory over Li Zicheng's Shun dynasty.

title: 1644

date: December 21

text: December 21 – General Wu Sangui of China arrives in Burma with 20,000 troops and demands that the Burmese surrender Yongli, the last of the Ming dynasty rulers of Southern China before the Qing dynasty consolidated its rule. Burma's King Pye Min hands Yongli over to General Wu on January 15, and Yongli is subsequently executed.

title: 1661

section: Events › October–December

text: January 22 – Former Chinese Emperor Yongli, who had surrendered to General Wu Sangui in December, is put on a boat along with his sons and grandsons at Sagaing in Burma (at the time, Burma), leaving under the promise that they will be given safe passage elsewhere in Burma. Instead, the former Emperor is taken back to China and executed on June 1.

title: 1662

date: December 28

text: December 28 – In China, General Wu Sangui begins the Revolt of the Three Feudatories, a rebellion against the Qing dynasty by killing the Governor of the Yunnan province, Zhu Guozhi. Within 10 days, he leads troops on an expedition to take over the neighboring Guizhou province and by 1676 controls 11 of China's provinces.

title: 1673

text: January 7 – In the Chinese Empire, General Wu Sangui leads troops into the Giuzhou province, and soon takes control of the entire territory without a loss.

title: 1674

date: March 23

text: March 23 – Revolt of the Three Feudatories in southern China: rebel general Wu Sangui, lord of the Yunnan fief, takes the imperial crown, names himself monarch of "The Great Zhou", based in the Hunan province, with Hengyang as his capital. He contracts dysentery over the summer and dies on October 2, ending the rebellion against the Kangxi Emperor.

title: 1678

date: December 7

text: December 7 – Wu Shifan, grandson of Chinese general Wu Sangui, commits suicide at Kunming in Yunnan province, ending the 8-year Revolt of the Three Feudatories against the Kangxi Emperor and the Qing dynasty in China.

title: 1681


slug: wu-state

label: Wu (state)

description: ancient Chinese state under the Zhou dynasty centered on Suzhou (then known as Wu)

year_label: 529 BCE

text: 529 BC—The Chinese state of Zhoulai is conquered by Wu.

title: 520s BC

section: Events

year_label: 515 BCE

text: King Liao of Wu (Chinese: 吳王僚), king of the state of Wu in the Spring and Autumn period from 526 to 515 BC, assassinated by Zhuan Zhu in 515 BC

title: 515 BC

year_label: 514 BCE

text: King Helü of Wu ascends to the throne of the state of Wu and orders Wu Zixu to build a new capital at what is now Suzhou.

title: 514 BC

section: Events › By place › China

year_label: 512 BCE

text: Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War, begins serving King Helü of the State of Wu as his general and military strategist (approximate date).

title: 512 BC

text: The State of Xu is disestablished following attacks by the states of Wu and Chu.

title: 512 BC

year_label: 496 BCE

text: King Helü of Wu, king of the Chinese State of Wu

title: 496 BC

year_label: 484 BCE

text: Wu Zixu, political advisor from Chu who has been employed at the court of the State of Wu during the reign of King Helü of Wu; all Chinese people with the surname Wu consider him their first ancestor (born 526 BC)

title: 484 BC

year_label: 482 BCE

text: While King Fuchai of Wu attends a meeting in Huangchi, in an attempt to gain hegemony over all the other duchies of Zhou dynasty China, his capital city in the State of Wu is captured in a surprise assault by King Goujian of Yue. In 473 BC the State of Wu will be annexed by the State of Yue.

title: 482 BC

year_label: 473 BCE

text: The State of Wu is annexed by the State of Yue.

title: 473 BC

text: King Fuchai of Wu, the last king of Wu in Zhou dynasty, China

title: 473 BC


slug: wu-ten-kingdoms

label: Wu (Ten Kingdoms)

section: Births

text: Xu Wen, general and regent of Wu (d. 927)

title: 862

text: Li Decheng, general of Wu (Five Dynasties) (d. 940)

title: 863

text: Yang Wo, emperor of Wu (Ten Kingdoms) (d. 908)

title: 886

text: Yang Longyan, king of Wu (d. 920)

title: 897

text: Yang Pu, emperor of Wu (d. 939)

title: 900

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: The short-lived Wu Kingdom is founded by Yang Wo (Prince of Hongnong) in Jiangdu (South Central China). He refuses to acknowledge the rule of Zhu Quanzhong.

title: 907

date: June 9

text: June 9 – The generals Zhang Hao and Xu Wen assassinate Yang Wo (Prince of Hongnong). He is succeeded by his 11-year-old brother Yang Longyan as ruler of the Wu Kingdom.

title: 908

text: June 9 – Yang Wo, emperor of Wu (b. 886)

title: 908

text: Battle of Langshan Jiang: The Wuyue navy (500 dragon ships) under Prince Qian Yuanguan who is preparing an invasion to attack the Wu Kingdom, defeats the naval forces of General Peng Yanzhang on the Yangtze River. Due to the use of flamethrower ships (using gunpowder to ignite petrol, like Greek fire) Qian Yuanguan manages to destroy 400 enemy ships and captures 7,000 prisoners.

title: 919

section: Events › By Place › China

text: Xu Jingqian, official and regent of Wu (d. 937)

title: 919

text: Yang Longyan, king of Wu (b. 897)

title: 920

date: November 20

text: November 20 – Xu Wen, general and regent of Wu (b. 862)

title: 927

text: Xu Zhixun, general of Wu (Ten Kingdoms)

title: 934

date: November 10

text: November 10 – Li Bian usurps the throne and deposes Emperor Yang Pu. The Wu State is replaced and Li (called "Xu Zhigao") becomes the first emperor of Southern Tang, one of the Ten Kingdoms in southern China.

title: 937

section: Events › By place › Asia

date: October 10

text: October 10 – Wang Lingmou, chancellor of Wu

title: 937

date: February 3

text: February 3 – Zhou Ben, general of Wu (b. 862)

title: 938

date: January 21

text: January 21 – Yang Pu, emperor of Wu (b. 900)

title: 939

text: Yang Lian, crown prince of Wu (Ten Kingdoms)

title: 940

text: Autumn – The Min Kingdom is destroyed by the Southern Tang. Emperor Yuan Zong expands its domains beyond those of the former Wu Kingdom. He annexes Min territory into its own boundaries.

title: 945


slug: wu-zetian

label: Wu Zetian

description: founding empress of Zhou dynasty (r. 690–705); de facto ruler of Tang dynasty from 665 to 690

text: Wu Shihuo, father of Wu Zetian (d. 635)

title: 559

date: February 17

text: February 17 – Wu Zetian, Empress of the Zhou dynasty (d. 705)

title: 624

section: Deaths

text: Wu Shihuo, father of Wu Zetian (b. 559)

title: 635

text: Emperor Gao Zong suffers from an illness (possibly slow-poisoning). His wife Wu Zetian starts to rule the Chinese Empire.

title: 660

section: Events › By place › Korea

text: Wu Zetian, the wife of the Chinese emperor, unofficially becomes an absolute ruler by eliminating her political rivals.

title: 665

text: Chinese troops sent by the Tang dynasty emperor Gao Zong complete their expedition in the Korean Peninsula. Leaders of the expedition have been selected by the emperor's powerful concubine Wu Zetian. The kingdom of Goguryeo is overthrown; the Unified Silla period starts.

title: 668

date: January 3

text: January 3 – Zhong Zong succeeds his father Gao Zong, and becomes emperor of the Tang dynasty. His mother Wu Zetian remains the power behind the throne in China.

title: 684

text: Empress Wu Zetian sends a pair of giant pandas to the Japanese court of Emperor Tenmu, as a diplomatic gift (approximate date).

title: 685

date: October 16

text: October 16 – Wu Zetian ascends to the throne of the Tang dynasty, and proclaims herself ruler of the Chinese Empire as "Holy and Divine Emperor". She becomes the first and only female "emperor" in 5,000 years of Chinese history. Wu Zetian changes the dynasty's name to the Zhou Dynasty, and begins to murder throne pretendants and ministers who try to oppose her. During her reign she elevates the status of Buddhism above Taoism.

title: 690

text: Empress Wu Zetian regains control of the Kingdom of Khotan in the Tarim Basin (Northwest China).

title: 692

date: July 22

text: July 22 – Wu Chengsi, nephew of Chinese sovereign Wu Zetian

title: 698

date: December 16

text: December 16 – Wu Zetian, Empress of the Zhou Dynasty (b. 624)

title: 705

date: February 22

text: February 22 – Empress Wu Zetian is deposed in a coup d'état organized by her chancellor Zhang Jianzhi, after a 15-year reign. His chief ministers gain support from some generals to seize the imperial palace and execute the Zhang brothers. They reinstall her son Zhong Zong, whom she deposed 15 years ago, restoring the Tang dynasty. This marks the end of the short-lived Zhou dynasty in China.

title: 705

section: Culture & Society

date: July 2

text: July 2 – Emperor Zhong Zong has the remains of his mother and recently deceased ruling empress Wu Zetian, her son Li Xian, her grandson Li Chongrun, and granddaughter Li Xianhui, all interred in the same tomb complex as his father and Wu Zetian's husband Gao Zong, outside Chang'an, known as the Qianling Mausoleum, located on Mount Liang, which will then remain unopened until 1960.

title: 706


slug: wurzburg

label: Würzburg

description: city in the region of Franconia, Northern Bavaria, Germany

text: Hedan II, duke of Thuringia, completes the circular Marienkirche, in Fortress Marienberg near Würzburg (Germany).

title: 702

section: Events › By place › Europe

section: Religion & Belief

text: The Abbey of St. Jacob is founded in Würzburg.

title: 1134

section: Events › By topic › Religion

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

date: January 13

text: January 13 – Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, is stripped of his duchies and all his imperial fiefs at an Imperial Diet in Würzburg for violating the king's peace. On April 13, Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa issues the Gelnhausen Charter, formally dissolving Henry's former domains. A portion of Saxony is reorganized as the Duchy of Westphalia, while other territories are granted to his ally, Otto I the Redhead, Duke of Bavaria.

title: 1180

text: Spring – Henry VI persuades a diet at Würzburg. He manages to convince the majority of the German nobles and clergy to recognize his 2-year-old son, Frederick II, as king of the Romans and heir to the imperial throne. However, Archbishop Adolf of Cologne thwarts the will of the diet and arouses the resistance of several Saxon and Thuringian nobles against Henry, who realizes that he is unable to establish a hereditary monarchy (his Erbreichsplan) in the Holy Roman Empire without resistance.

title: 1196

date: March 16

text: March 16 – Synod of Würzburg: A church council is held by Cardinal Giovanni Boccamazza and King Rudolf I at Würzburg. During the assembly, Giovanni announces the taxation of the clergy to finance the expedition of Rudolf (known as the Italienzug) to Rome and the imperial coronation.

title: 1287

text: Johannes Trithemius becomes abbot of the monastery of St. Jacob, at Würzburg.

title: 1506

date: July 10

text: July 10 – The German Catholic League is formed in Munich by Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria to counteract the Protestant Union. Maximilian assembles representatives from Augsburg, Konstanz, Passau, Regensburg, and Würzburg in an alliance "for the defense of the Catholic religion and peace" within the Holy Roman Empire.

title: 1609

section: Events › July–September

section: Disasters & Accidents

date: July 16

text: July 16 – The city of Würzburg is taken by Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, putting an end to the Würzburg witch trials, but not before an estimated 900 people from the city and its environs have been burned at the stake for witchcraft.

title: 1631

date: August 2

text: August 2 – The first Hep-Hep riots, communal pogroms against Ashkenazi Jews in the German Federation begin at Würzburg in Bavaria. They continue until October with many Jews killed.

title: 1819


slug: wuyue

label: Wuyue

description: one of the Ten Kingdoms of 10th-century China, based in Hangzhou

year_label: 203 BCE

section: Conflict & Security

text: Xiang Yu flees toward Wuyue and, pursued by Han cavalry, commits suicide.

title: 203 BC

text: Shen Song, chancellor of Wuyue (d. 938)

title: 863

text: Cao Zhongda, official and chancellor of Wuyue (d. 943)

title: 882

text: Qian Yuanguan, king of Wuyue (Ten Kingdoms) (d. 941)

title: 887

date: December 1

text: December 1 – The Wuyue Kingdom is founded by the warlord Qian Liu in Hangzhou. His proclaims himself king, his power is centered in Jiangsu province (Eastern China).

title: 907

text: Battle of Langshan Jiang: The Wuyue navy (500 dragon ships) under Prince Qian Yuanguan who is preparing an invasion to attack the Wu Kingdom, defeats the naval forces of General Peng Yanzhang on the Yangtze River. Due to the use of flamethrower ships (using gunpowder to ignite petrol, like Greek fire) Qian Yuanguan manages to destroy 400 enemy ships and captures 7,000 prisoners.

title: 919

text: Ma Chuo, general and official of Wuyue (or 923)

title: 922

text: Qian Hongzun, heir apparent of Wuyue (d. 940)

title: 925

date: August 14

text: August 14 – Qian Hongzuo, king of Wuyue (d. 947)

title: 928

date: September 29

text: September 29 – Qian Chu, king of Wuyue (d. 988)

title: 929

text: Shen Song, chancellor of Wuyue (b. 863)

title: 938

date: June 7

text: June 7 – Qian Hongzun, heir apparent of Wuyue (b. 925)

title: 940

text: Qian Yuanguan, king of Wuyue (b. 887)

title: 941

text: March 16 – Pi Guangye, chancellor of Wuyue (b. 877)

title: 943

date: June 22

text: June 22 – Qian Hongzuo, king of Wuyue (b. 928)

title: 947

date: February 12

text: February 12 – King Qian Hongzong is deposed by general Hu Jinsi during a coup. He establishes his younger brother Qian Chu as ruler of Wuyue.

title: 948

date: October 22

text: October 22 – Qian Weijun, king of Wuyue (Ten Kingdoms) (d. 991)

title: 955

text: Qian Hongzong, king of Wuyue (approximate date)

title: 971

date: June 9

text: June 9 – King Qian Chu surrenders his territories and pledges allegiance to the Song Dynasty, saving his people from war and economic destruction. Qian Chu remains ruler and moves 3,000 members of his household to Bianjing (modern-day Kaifeng). Wuyue is absorbed into the Song Dynasty, effectively ending the kingdom.

title: 978

date: October 7

text: October 7 – Qian Chu, king of Wuyue (d. 929)

title: 988

text: Qian Weijun, king of Wuyue (Ten Kingdoms) (b. 955)

title: 991


slug: xi-an

label: Xi'an

description: capital of Shaanxi Province, China

text: Emperor Wen of the Sui dynasty orders the building of a new capital, which he calls Daxing (Great Prosperity), on a site southeast of Chang'an (modern Xi'an).

title: 582

text: The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda at Ci'en Temple, Xi'an (Shanxi) is first erected during the Tang dynasty (approximate date).

title: 645

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: The Giant Wild Goose Pagoda is constructed in Chang'an (modern Xi'an), during the Tang dynasty (China). It is completed in the same year, during the reign of Emperor Gao Zong.

title: 652

date: February 5

text: February 5 – An Lushan declares himself emperor at Luoyang, establishing a new empire, called the Great Yan. He pushes on towards the primary Tang capital at Chang'an (now Xi'an). An decides to seize southern China, to cut off loyalist reinforcements. Meanwhile, numerous soldiers join the rebellion.

title: 756

section: Events › By place › Chinese Empire

date: November 18

text: November 18 – Forces of the Tibetan Empire, under Trisong Detsen, occupy the Tang capital of Chang'an (modern Xi'an) for 15 days, and install a puppet emperor. Tibetans take over the horse pastures.

title: 763

text: The city of Xi'an in Ming dynasty China is given a new defensive city wall.

title: 1370

section: Events › Date unknown

date: March 29

text: March 29 – The Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang is discovered at Xi'an, China.

title: 1974

section: Events › March–April

date: December 16

text: December 16 – Train 87 from Nanjing to Xining collides with train 368 from Xi'an to Xuzhou near Yangzhuang railway station in China, killing 106, injuring 218.

title: 1978

section: Events › December

date: April 21

text: April 21 – Students from Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an and Nanjing begin protesting in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

title: 1989

section: Events › April


slug: xianbei

label: Xianbei

description: Ancient people in Manchuria and Mongolia (circa 3rd century BC–3rd century AD)

year_label: 45 CE

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: Chinese general Ma Yuan conducts an expedition against the Xiongnu and the Xianbei (in Manchuria).

title: 40s

section: Timeline › AD 45

year_label: 93 CE

text: The Xianbei incorporates 100,000 Xiongnu, and establishes the Xianbei State in Mongolia (approximate date).

title: AD 93

section: Events › By place › Asia

text: Chinese troops suffer a crushing defeat against a confederacy of Central Asian tribes, led by the Xianbei (see Wu Hu).

title: AD 177

section: Health & Medicine

text: Tuoba Liwei becomes the first chieftain of the Tuoba clan of the Xianbei people.

title: 219

section: Events › By place › China

text: The Eastern Jin dynasty loses its territories to the north of the Yangtze River, to the benefit of the Xiongnu and the Xianbei. The Former Zhao state is proclaimed; Liu Can and the state ruling family at Pingyang is executed in a coup d'état by Jin Zhun, who is in turn overthrown by Shi Le and Liu Yao.

title: 318

section: Births

text: Murong De, Chinese emperor of the Xianbei state (d. 405)

title: 336

text: Duan Liao, Chinese chieftain of the Duan state (Xianbei)

title: 339

text: Goguryeo is invaded by Murong Huang of the Xianbei.

title: 342

text: Murong Wei, emperor of the Xianbei state Former Yan (d. 385);

title: 350

section: Crime & Justice

text: Ran Wei is destroyed after Ran Min is killed by Murong Jun, the Xianbei emperor of the Former Yan.

title: 352

text: Murong Hong, founder of the Xianbei state Western Yan

title: 384

section: Deaths › Date unknown

text: Murong Chao, emperor of the Xianbei state Southern Yan (d. 410)

title: 385

text: The Northern Wei Dynasty begins in China. The Tuoba clan of the Xianbei tribe (proto-Mongol people) is politically separated from the Chinese dynasties established in Jiankang (modern Nanjing). The Northern Wei rulers are ardent supporters of Buddhism. Prince Dao Wu Di, age 15, becomes the first emperor (see Northern dynasties).

title: 386

text: Qifu Guoren, Chinese ruler of the Xianbei-led Western Qin state

title: 388

text: Gao Yun, duke of the Xianbei state Northern Wei (d. 487)

title: 390

text: Ming Yuan Di, emperor of the Xianbei state Northern Wei (d. 423)

title: 392

text: Murong Yong, emperor of the Xianbei state Western Yan

title: 394

date: May 27

text: May 27 – Murong Bao, emperor of the Xianbei state Later Yan (b. 355)

title: 398

text: Xianbei kingdom of Southern Yan conquers Qing Province (modern central and eastern Shandong) from the Eastern Jin.

title: 399

text: Tufa Wugu, prince of the Xianbei state Southern Liang

title: 399

text: Murong Sheng, emperor of the Xianbei state Later Yan (b. 373)

title: 401

text: Tufa Lilugu, prince of the Xianbei state Southern Liang

title: 402

text: Murong De, emperor of the Xianbei state Southern Yan (b. 336)

title: 405

text: Murong Xi, emperor of the Xianbei state Later Yan (b. 385)

title: 407

text: Yujiulü Shelun, khagan (emperor) of Xianbei

title: 410

text: Qifu Gangui, prince of the Xianbei state Western Qin

title: 412

date: December 23

text: December 23 – Ming Yuan Di, ruler of the Xianbei state Northern Wei (b. 392)

title: 423

text: Tuoba Huang, prince of the Xianbei state Northern Wei (d. 451)

title: 428

text: Qifu Mumo, prince of the Chinese Xianbei state Western Qin

title: 431


slug: xiang-yu

label: Xiang Yu

description: Chinese military leader

year_label: 232 BCE

text: Xiang Yu, Chinese rebel general against the Qin dynasty, as well as the later nemesis of Liu Bang in the civil war of the Chu-Han contention (d. 202 BC)

title: 232 BC

year_label: 208 BCE

text: Xiang Liang's nephew Xiang Yu seizes control of Liang's army.

title: 208 BC

year_label: 207 BCE

text: The Chu rebel Xiang Yu defeats the Qin general Zhang Han in the Battle of Julu and becomes the leader of the rebellion against the Qin dynasty.

title: 207 BC

year_label: 206 BCE

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: Xiang Yu divides China in a power-sharing arrangement known as the Eighteen Kingdoms, with himself the de facto supreme ruler as Hegemon-King of Western Chu.

title: 206 BC

year_label: 205 BCE

text: Xiang Yu defeats Liu Bang in the Battle of Pengcheng.

title: 205 BC

year_label: 204 BCE

text: Han Xin completes the conquest of Zhao and receives the surrender of Yan. He captures the Zhao capital of Handan and defeats Chu relief forces sent by Xiang Yu.

title: 204 BC

text: After Xiang Yu fails to persuade Han Xin to remain neutral, Han Xin and Liu Bang launch a five-pronged invasion of Chu. They decisively defeat Xiang Yu in the Battle of Chen and the Battle of Gaixia.

title: 203 BC

year_label: 202 BCE

section: Deaths

text: Xiang Yu, rebel leader against the Qin dynasty and nemesis of Liu Bang in the Chu–Han Contention (b. 232 BC)

title: 202 BC


slug: xin-dynasty

label: Xin dynasty

description: The dynasty declared by Wang Mang during his rule over imperial China during AD 9-23

year_label: 45 BCE

text: Wang Mang, usurper of the Han dynasty and emperor of the Xin dynasty (d. AD 23)

title: 45 BC

year_label: 8 CE

section: Conflict & Security

text: AD 8 – Wang Mang crushes a rebellion by Chai I, and on the winter solstice (which has been dated January 10 of the following year) officially assumes the title emperor, establishing the short-lived Xin dynasty.

title: 0s

section: Events › China

year_label: 10 CE

text: The usurper Wang Mang (who rules during a brief interregnum known as the Xin dynasty) outlaws the private purchase and use of crossbows. Despite this, Liu Xiu, the later Emperor Guangwu of Han, buys crossbows in the winter of AD 22 to aid the rebellion of his brother Liu Yan (styled Bosheng) and Li Tong.

title: 10s

section: Events › 10 AD › China

year_label: 11 CE

section: Climate & Environment

text: The Yellow River experiences a major flood. This flood is credited for the downfall of the short-lived Xin dynasty.

title: 10s

section: Events › 11 AD › China

year_label: 14 CE

section: Culture & Society

text: First year of tianfeng era of the Chinese Xin Dynasty.

title: 10s

section: Events › 14 AD › China

year_label: 19 CE

text: Last year (6th) of Tianfeng era of the Chinese Xin Dynasty.

title: 10s

section: Events › 19 AD › Asia

year_label: 21 CE

text: Wang (or Xiaomu), Chinese empress of the Xin Dynasty

title: 20s

section: Deaths › 21 AD

year_label: 23 CE

text: Liu Xuan, a descendant of the Han dynasty royal family and leader of insurgents against the Xin dynasty, proclaims himself emperor against Wang Mang.

title: 20s

section: Events › 23 AD › China

date: October 6

text: October 6 – Wang Mang, Chinese emperor of the Xin dynasty (b. c. 45 BC)

title: 20s

section: Deaths › 23 AD


slug: xiongnu

label: Xiongnu

description: Ancient Chinese empire in Northern Asia

year_label: 265 BCE

text: The State of Zhao stations general Li Mu in Yanmen Commandery, where he proceeds to win multiple victories over the Xiongnu.

title: 265 BC

section: Events › By place › China

year_label: 234 BCE

text: Mete Khan, Xiongnu emperor, (d. 174 BC)

title: 234 BC

year_label: 214 BCE

text: The Qin armies under Meng Tian campaign against the Xiongnu and other northern peoples and expand their territories along the north basin of the Yellow River. They subjugate the Luliang region, drive back the Xiongnu tribes to the northwest of the Ordos Plateau, and seize Gaoque, Mt. Tao and Beijia.

title: 214 BC

year_label: 209 BCE

text: Modun khaan inherits Teoman's Hunnu confederations and founds the Xiongnu Empire in Mongolia proper. Modu's forces push into Northern China, threatening the Qin Empire and forcing them to further fortify the Great Wall.

title: 209 BC

section: Events › By place › Central Asia

text: Touman, chanyu of the Xiongnu Empire. (Killed by his successor)

title: 209 BC

year_label: 201 BCE

text: King Xin of Han, in alliance with Modu Chanyu of the Xiongnu, launches a rebellion against the Han dynasty in the Taiyuan Commandery. He is defeated by Emperor Gaozu of Han and his generals, who chase Xin of Han into Xiongnu territory.

title: 201 BC

year_label: 200 BCE

text: The Han emperor Gaozu is defeated by the Xiongnu, led by Modu Chanyu, in the Battle of Baideng.

title: 200 BC

year_label: 198 BCE

text: Following the defeat of the Han at the hands of Modu Chanyu of the Xiongnu at Baideng in 200 BC, the soldier and advisor Lou Jing is dispatched by the emperor Gaozu for negotiations. The peace settlement eventually reached between the parties includes a Han princess given in marriage to the chanyu, initiating a policy of or marriage alliances; periodic tribute of silk, liquor and rice to the Xiongnu; equal status between the states; and the Great Wall as the mutual border. This treaty sets the pattern for relations between the Han and the Xiongnu for some sixty years.

title: 198 BC

year_label: 174 BCE

text: The Xiongnu attack the Yuezhi, and force them away from Gansu.

title: 174 BC

section: Events › By place › Mongolia

text: Mete Khan, emperor and founder of the Xiongnu Empire, who has united various Hun confederations under his rule (b. 234 BC)

title: 174 BC

year_label: 166 BCE

text: Laoshang leads 140,000 Xiongnu cavalry in a raid in Anding, and they reach as far as the royal retreat at Yong.

title: 166 BC

year_label: 139 BCE

text: Emperor Wu of Han sends the diplomat Zhang Qian west to form an alliance with the Yuezhi against the Xiongnu. Wu does this after learning from Xiongnu defectors that the Xiongnu had defeated and killed the king of the Yuezhi, had expelled the Yuezhi from their lands and were using their king's skull as a wine goblet. The Yuezhi had subsequently migrated further west.

title: 139 BC

year_label: 133 BCE

date: June

text: June – A large army of the Han dynasty, under the overall command of Han Anguo, attempts to ambush the Xiongnu leader Junchen Chanyu in the Battle of Mayi. By pretending to betray the city of Mayi, a Han official had lured Junchen onto Han soil. However, a captured Chinese officer tips off Junchen, and so he avoids the ambush. The episode abrogates the Xiongnu-Han treaty (called heqin 和親 or "harmonious kinship") and marks the beginning of Emperor Wu's Han-Xiongnu War.

title: 133 BC

year_label: 129 BCE

text: Spring: the Xiongnu raid Shanggu, killing officials and other inhabitants.

title: 129 BC

year_label: 127 BCE

text: Wei Qing defeats a Xiongnu army near Gaoque. He then invades the Ordos Plateau, defeats the Xiongnu and their Baiyang and Loufan allies in the battles of Puni and Fuli, and then defeats the main Xiongnu force. The conquered territory becomes Shuofang Commandery. Wu orders the foundation of Shuofang City, and the system of defenses that had been built by the Qin dynasty general Meng Tian are repaired.

title: 127 BC

year_label: 126 BCE

text: Summer: In retaliation for the Han conquest of the Ordos Plateau in the previous year, the Xiongnu invade the province of Dai, kill its governor, Gong You, and capture over 1000 of its inhabitants.

title: 126 BC

year_label: 125 BCE

text: In retaliation for the Han conquest of the Ordos Plateau two years prior, three Xiongnu forces raid the Prefectures of Dai, Dingxiang and Shang.

title: 125 BC

year_label: 124 BCE

text: Spring: The Han general Wei Qing, with an army of 30,000 cavalry, proceeds from Gaoque into Xiongnu territory, and in a night attack surrounds the Tuqi King of the Right in his camp. The Tuqi escapes, but numerous petty chiefs are captured in this and a second engagement.

title: 124 BC

year_label: 121 BCE

text: Spring - The Han general Huo Qubing attacks the Supu, vassals of the Xiongnu, and kills their king. He then invades the Hexi Corridor, where he fights a six-day running battle against a son of Yizhixie Chanyu. The Xiongnu are defeated, and the ruler of Lan and king Lu, both vassals of the Xiongnu, are killed in the fighting. Huo Qubing then attacks and defeats the Hunye, capturing the son of the Hunye king and his ministers and chief commandants.

title: 121 BC

year_label: 120 BCE

text: Retaliating against the Han conquest of the Hexi Corridor in the previous year, the Xiongnu invade the provinces of Youbeiping and Dingxiang, killing or capturing over 1000 inhabitants.

title: 120 BC

year_label: 119 BCE

text: Spring: Han Chinese forces under the General-in-Chief Wei Qing and the cavalry general Huo Qubing invade the Xiongnu Empire.

title: 119 BC

year_label: 111 BCE

text: Han-Xiongnu War: the Han generals Gongsun He and Zhao Ponu invade deep into Xiongnu territory, Gongsun marching from Wuhuan and Zhao from Lingju. However, neither come upon a Xiongnu army. There follows a period of several years in which the Han and Xiongnu seek to establish peace.

title: 111 BC

year_label: 108 BCE

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: Emperor Wu of Han founds Jiuquan in the Hexi Corridor as a military outpost on the Silk Road to Central Asia. It serves to protect diplomats and merchants, and it cuts off the kings of the region from the Xiongnu. He also founds Xianlei in present-day Inner Mongolia, extending Han control further north than before.

title: 108 BC

section: Events › By place › Asia

year_label: 105 BCE

text: Wuwei Chanyu of the Xiongnu dies and is succeeded by his youthful son Er Chanyu. That winter heavy snowstorms lead to the deaths of many livestock, and there is discontent with the new ruler, who is regarded as belligerent.

title: 105 BC

year_label: 98 BCE

text: Emperor Wu of Han sends the Han general Gongsun Ao on a mission to rescue general Li Ling from Xiongnu captivity. Gongsun achieves little but receives incorrect information that Li has been training Xiongnu soldiers. Enraged, Emperor Wu exterminates Li's clan.

title: 98 BC

year_label: 97 BCE

text: The Han generals Li Guangli, Gongsun Ao, Han Yue and Lu Bode lead armies into Xiongnu territory. The campaign achieves little, and Gongsun Ao suffers a defeat. Emperor Wu of Han condemns him to death due to his troops suffering heavy losses, but he escapes by feigning his death. He is eventually discovered and executed during the witchcraft trials of 91 BC.

title: 97 BC

year_label: 91 BCE

date: September

text: September - The Xiongnu invade the prefectures of Shanggu and Wuyuan.

title: 91 BC

year_label: 90 BCE

text: The Xiongnu invade the Prefectures of Wuyuan and Jiuquan and kill the commandants of both Prefectures.

title: 90 BC

year_label: 67 BCE

date: December

text: December – The army of the Han dynasty Chinese commander Zheng Ji is victorious over the Xiongnu in the Battle of Jushi.

title: 67 BC

year_label: 51 BCE

text: The Xiongnu split into two hordes. The Eastern horde is subject to China.

title: 51 BC

year_label: 36 BCE

text: Zhizhi Chanyu, Chinese ruler of the Xiongnu Empire

title: 36 BC

text: October–December – The Han dynasty Chinese army under General Chen Tang and General Gan Yanshou defeat the Xiongnu leader Zhizhi Chanyu in the Battle of Zhizhi. This leads to half a century of peace between the Han dynasty and the Xiongnu until Wang Mang enrages them in the year AD 10, resuming hostilities between both sides.

title: 36 BC

text: Fuzhulei Ruodi, ruler of the Xiongnu Empire

title: 20 BC

text: Chinese general Ma Yuan conducts an expedition against the Xiongnu and the Xianbei (in Manchuria).

title: 40s

text: A drought and an invasion of locusts hit the Mongolian steppes, causing a famine and a revolt at Xiongnu.

title: 40s

text: Emperor Guang Wu of Han, restores Chinese domination of Inner Mongolia. The Xiongnu are made confederates and guard the Northern border of the empire.

title: 40s

text: Ban Chao (Pan-Ch’ao), competing with the Xiongnu, imposes a Chinese protectorate on the kings of Lop Nor and Khotan in the Tarim Basin, with the aim of controlling the Silk Road.

title: AD 73

text: February – The Chinese Han dynasty launches a major campaign against the Xiongnu, whom they confront in the Battle of Yiwulu in the Kumul oasis, an ultimate Han military victory led by General Dou Gu (d. AD 88).

title: AD 73

text: Revolt against the Chinese in Tarim: Cachera and Turpan are besieged. Luoyang orders the evacuation of Tarim. Ban Chao makes the rebels retreat towards Khotan. At the same time, the Chinese army of Ganzhou reconquers Turpan in Northern Xiongnu. Ban Chao convinces the emperor of the need to control Central Asia in the fight against Xiongnu.

title: AD 75

text: June – Battle of Ikh Bayan: The Han Chinese army under Dou Xian, allied with the southern Xiongnu, is victorious over the Northern Xiongnu.

title: AD 89

text: The Xianbei incorporates 100,000 Xiongnu, and establishes the Xianbei State in Mongolia (approximate date).

title: AD 93

text: Yufuluo, Chanyu of the southern Xiongnu (d. 196)

title: AD 150

text: Qiangqui, Chinese ruler of the southern Xiongnu

title: AD 188

text: In China, the Xiongnu federation crosses the Great Wall and establishes itself in Shanxi Province.

title: AD 195

text: Sixteen Kingdoms: The Xiongnu establishes the Han-Zhao state under Liu Yuan, often seen as the start of the Upheaval of the Five Barbarians.

title: 304

text: Dan, Chinese empress of Xiongnu (or Han-Zhao)

title: 310

text: Huyan, Chinese empress of the Xiongnu state

title: 312

text: Guangxian, Chinese empress of the Xiongnu state

title: 313

text: March 14 – Emperor Huai of Jin is executed by Liu Cong, ruler of the Xiongnu state (Han-Zhao). At the imperial new year he and a number of former Jin officials are poisoned. Crown prince Min of Jin, age 13, succeeds, in Chang'an, his uncle Huai of Jin and becomes the new emperor of the Jin Dynasty.

title: 313

text: Liu E (or Lihua), Chinese empress of the Xiongnu state

title: 314

text: The Eastern Jin dynasty loses its territories to the north of the Yangtze River, to the benefit of the Xiongnu and the Xianbei. The Former Zhao state is proclaimed; Liu Can and the state ruling family at Pingyang is executed in a coup d'état by Jin Zhun, who is in turn overthrown by Shi Le and Liu Yao.

title: 318

text: The Han-Zhao dynasty, a Southern Xiongnu state during the Sixteen Kingdoms, ends.

title: 329

text: Helian Bobo, Chinese emperor of the Xiongnu state Xia (d. 425)

title: 381

text: The Xiongnu occupy the Gansu area, an economically important province situated along the Silk Road.

title: 397

text: Helian Bobo, emperor of the Chinese Xiongnu state Xia (born 381)

title: 425

text: Helian Ding, emperor of the Chinese Xiongnu state Xia.

title: 432

text: Juqu Mengxun, prince of the Xiongnu state Northern Liang (b. 368)

title: 433

text: Helian Chang, emperor of the Chinese Xiongnu state Xia

title: 434

text: Li Jingshou, princess of the Xiongnu state Northern Liang

title: 437

text: Juqu Anzhou, prince of the Chinese Xiongnu states Northern Liang

title: 460


slug: xuande-emperor

label: Xuande Emperor

description: emperor of the Ming Dynasty (1399-1435)

section: Births

date: March 16

text: March 16 – Xuande Emperor of China (d. 1435)

title: 1399

text: The Tibetan lama Je Tsongkhapa, of the Gelug school of Buddhism, declines the offer of the Emperor Cheng Zu of China to appear in the capital at Nanjing, although he sends his disciple Chosrje Shākya Yeshes, who is given the title "State Teacher". The later Xuande Emperor will grant Yeshes the title of a king, upon a return visit to China (to the new capital at Beijing).

title: 1414

section: Events › Date unknown

section: Deaths

date: November 1

text: November 1 – Zhu Zhanji is designated as the Crown Prince of Ming dynasty China by his father, the Hongxi Emperor. The Emperor dies eight months later and Zhu Zhanji becomes the Xuande Emperor on June 27, 1425.

title: 1424

section: Events › October –December

date: June 27

text: June 27 – Zhu Zhanji is formally enthroned as the Ming dynasty Emperor of China as the Emperor Xuanzong, beginning the Xuande Era.

title: 1425

section: Events › April –June

date: May 29

text: May 29 – China's Emperor Renzong dies after a reign of only nine months. He is succeeded by his son, Prince Zhu Zhanji, who becomes the Xuande Emperor.

title: 1425

date: February 8

text: February 8 – The Xuande Era begins in Ming dynasty China as the first Lunar New Year of the reign of the Emperor Xuanzong.

title: 1426

section: Events › January–March

date: November 12

text: November 12 – To avoid further destruction of the Chinese army, General Wang Tong begins withdrawing troops from northern Vietnam's Jiaozhi region, having accepted a proposal by Vietnam without the approval of China's Xuande Emperor. The Emperor is informed of the proposal and agrees on November 20 to accept terms of peace.

title: 1427

section: Events › October–December

date: February 20

text: February 20 – Zhu Qizhen, son of China's Emperor Xuanzong of Ming, is named as the Crown Prince of Ming dynasty China by his father. He will become the Emperor Yingzong of Ming in 1435.

title: 1428

section: Technology & Infrastructure

date: March 25

text: March 25 – China's Emperor Xuanzong of Ming directs Admiral Zheng He to oversee the rebuilding of the Porcelain Tower of Nanjing. The construction of the temple was completed in 1431.

title: 1428

date: September 14

text: September 14 – Emperor Xuanzong of Ming dynasty China welcomes the envoys of 11 foreign nations that had sent representatives to travel back to China with Admiral Zheng He's fleet. Present at the Imperial Court as guests are envoys of the kings of Samudera, Kingdom of Kotte, Kingdom of Cochin, Calicut, Dhofar, Aden, Coimbatore, Hormuz, Jayile and Mecca.

title: 1433

section: Events › July–September

date: January 31

text: January 31 – China's Emperor Xuanzong dies after a nine-year reign, leaving a question of whether his younger brother Zhu Zhanshan, or his 7-year-old son, Crown Prince Zhu Qizhen, should be the successor.

title: 1435