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Europe

terrestrial continent located in north-western Eurasia

72 dated entries naming Europe, drawn from 72 separate years between 650 BCE and 2020 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

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7th century BC

  • 650 BCEA climate change occurs in Europe, affecting all the Bronze Age cultures with colder and wetter climate, and tribes from Scandinavia migrate south into the European continent.source

1st century

  • 49Christianity spreads into Europe, especially at Rome and at Philippi (probable date according to chronology derived from the Acts of the Apostles).source

2nd century

  • 179Roman legionaries of Legio II Adiutrix engrave on the rock of the Trenčín Castle (Slovakia) the name of the town Laugaritio, marking the northernmost point of Roman presence in that part of Europe.source
  • 180Lake Taupō in New Zealand erupts, forming ash clouds as far as China and Europe.source

4th century

  • 370The Huns migrate westward from the Volga into Europe and subjugate the Alans and the Ostrogoths. With their arrival, a tradition of composite bows is introduced.source
  • 380The annexation of western provinces by Chandragupta II gives him commerce with Europe and Egypt.source

5th century

  • 406Cultivation of rye, oats, hops, and spelt (a wheat used for livestock feed) is introduced in Europe by the native Vandals, Alans, and Sciri, who also introduce a heavy wheeled plow to be used for farming.source
  • 450Metal horseshoes come into more common use in the Near East and in Europe, increasing the efficiency of horsepower in agriculture and transportation.source
  • 472Mount Vesuvius erupts. During the volcanic eruption the whole of southern Europe is blanketed by ash.source
  • 476September 4 – Romulus Augustulus, Roman usurper of the Western Roman Empire, is deposed by Odoacer at Ravenna. Odoacer spares the boy's life and gives him a pension of 6,000 solidi, but exiles him to the "Castellum Lucullanum" (Castel dell'Ovo), on the island of Megaride in the Gulf of Naples. This event will later be romanticized in Western literature and history as the Fall of Western Rome, and is traditionally used by historians to mark the beginning of the European Middle Ages.source

6th century

  • 541Plague of Justinian: Bubonic plague appears suddenly in the Egyptian port of Pelusium, spreading to Alexandria and, the following year, to Constantinople. This is the beginning of a 200-year-long pandemic that will devastate Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.source
  • 550The Sassanid Empire, under the reign of King Khosrow I, controls the trade of silk destined for Europe and the Byzantine Empire.source

7th century

  • 601The Franks, Merovingians and Carolingians successively control most of Europe, while strong feudal lords rise in power to gain the allegiance of the people.source
  • 689Byzantine–Bulgarian War: Emperor Justinian II defeats the Bulgars of Macedonia and recaptures Thessalonica, the second most important Byzantine city in Europe. He resettles the subdued Slavs in Anatolia (modern Turkey), where they are required to provide 30,000 men to the Byzantine army.source

8th century

  • 735May 26 – Bede, Anglo-Saxon monk-historian, dies at Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey. He will be remembered as "the Venerable", and is the author of books that are copied and studied later all over Europe. His greatest book is the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, a major source for the history of Britain, in the immediate post-Roman period.source
  • 740Sicily, Sardinia, Provence, and Greece are raided by a fleet of Arab Muslim ships sent by the governor of Ifriqya, the ones raiding South Western Europe are led by Habīb Ibn Abi ‘Ubayda Al-Fihrī, while the fleet raiding Greece is led by Mu’awiya ibn Hishām. All of them are successful, submitting the Islands and returning with much wealth from the spoils of war.source
  • 765European writings make the first known mention of a three-field system in use in medieval Europe. The crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of different types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons. Under this system, the land of an estate or village is divided into three large fields, and makes a given section of land productive 2 years out of 3, instead of every other year (approximate date).source
  • 793Arab traders make Baghdad a financial center of the Silk Road between China and Europe. Caravans carry little or no money on their long journeys; Chinese traders use what they call fei qian (zh) ("flying money") to avoid robbery. The Arabs have adopted a similar banking system known as hawala to transmit funds (approximate date).source
  • 794A paper mill begins production at Baghdad during the Abbasid era, as the Arabs spread the techniques developed by Chinese papermakers. Baghdad becomes a great seat of learning, with Christian and Jewish scholars as well as Muslims, while Europe remains largely unlettered. The Arabs will become the world's most proficient papermakers.source

9th century

  • 885Danish Vikings land in Kent and besiege Rochester. Town defences having been improved, the city holds out long enough for Alfred the Great to organize an army. He forces the Vikings to flee back across the Channel, to the Continent.source
  • 896Summer – Battle of Boulgarophygon: Simeon I invades the Theme of Thrace (in the southeastern Balkans). The Byzantines transfer a new army to Europe, to deal with the Bulgarian threat. The armies clash at Boulgarophygon (modern Turkey); the Byzantines are completely destroyed in battle.source

11th century

  • 1006April 30 – The brightest supernova ever recorded, SN 1006, occurs in the constellation of Lupus. It is observed and described in China, Japan, Iraq, Egypt, and Europe and possibly depicted in North American rock art. Modern astronomers now consider its distance at about 7,200 light-years. The supernova provides enough light to read by on a night with a dark moon.source
  • 1033Panic spreads throughout Europe that the end of the universe may be near, on the 1,000th anniversary of the crucifixion of Christ, due to some unusually harsh spring weather. The Book of Revelation (Chapter 20) predicts the end of the earth after a 1,000 year period after the second return of Jesus Christ.source
  • 1100August 5 – Henry I is crowned King of England, at Westminster Abbey. The power of the new monarch is ill-assured, and to mollify the barons he has to grant them the Charter of Liberties, one of the first examples of a written constitution in Europe.source

12th century

  • 1146A rainy year causes the harvest to fail in Europe; one of the worst famines of the century ensues.source
  • 1149The Italian 'naval republics' of Genoa, Pisa and Venice finance their expanding trade within and outside Europe – trade which includes an arms industry for manufactures and merchants alike (approximate date).source
  • 1170Pope Alexander III addresses a series of letters to the backward Swedish church. He wants to impose the strict canonical requirements on the Swedes, that is, the ecclesiastical legal system. Due to being Christianized in 1050, Sweden is having trouble to fully adapt to the Catholicism that is preached and acted on in Europe.source
  • 1188January 22 – King Ferdinand II dies after returning from a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. He is succeeded by his 16-year-old son Alfonso IX, who becomes ruler of León and Galicia. He convenes representatives of the nobility, clergy and towns at the Basilica of San Isidoro the Cortes of León. These Corteses are considered to be the first parliament in Europe.source
  • 1196April 23 – Béla III of Hungary dies after a 23-year reign in which he has supported the former Byzantine emperor Isaac II Angelos against the invading Bulgarians. Having made the Hungarian court one of the most brilliant in Europe and made his hereditary monarchy. Béla is succeeded by his 22-year-old son Emeric as ruler of Hungary, Croatia and Dalmatia (until 1204).source

13th century

  • 1207The first documentary evidence of forced loans in Venice. This technique becomes the staple of public finance in Europe, until the 16th century.source
  • 1220Gothic architecture becomes increasingly popular in Europe:source
  • 1226March 26 – Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor issues the Golden Bull of Rimini, in which he grants Teutonic Knights the right to all of the lands they will get during the mission in Prussia; he also declares himself a senior of the Teutonic Order and Poland, as well as the universal ruler of Christian Europe.source
  • 1228The first evidence is uncovered of the use of the Knights Templar as cashiers by King Henry III of England, to safely transfer important sums to the continent, using letters of exchange. This shows that large transfers could take place across Europe, even before the emergence of important networks of Italian merchant-bankers.source
  • 1237Autumn – Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus': The Mongol army commanded by Batu Khan and Subutai, invades the Principality of Ryazan (with representatives of all four khanates leading some 100,000 Mongol, Turks and Persian forces into Europe). In December, Batu Khan sends envoys to the Rus' court of Grand Prince Yuri Igorevich and demands the submission of the capital Ryazan.source
  • 1252May 15 – Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull Ad exstirpanda, which authorizes the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition. Torture quickly gains widespread usage across Catholic Europe.source
  • 1254As part of an offensive against usury in north-western Europe, Innocent IV relieves the city of Beauvais from its obligations to its creditors.source
  • 1255Orlando Bonsignori, an Italian minor merchant, forms a consortium called the Gran Tavola ("Great Table"), which becomes the most powerful bank in western Europe. He becomes the exclusive banker for the deposits of the income of the Papal States.source
  • 1258The consequences of the volcanic 1257 Samalas eruption in Indonesia include the following anecdotal accounts: very dry fog in France; lunar eclipses in England; severe winter in Europe; a harsh spring in Iceland; famine in England, Germany, France and Italy; and pestilence in London, parts of France, Austria, Iraq, Syria, and southeast Turkey.source
  • 1275In Ghent, the first instance is recorded of emission of life annuities by a town in the Low Countries; this event confirms a trend of consolidation of local public debt in northwestern Europe, initiated in 1218 by Reims.source
  • 1276Henry of Ghent (or Henricus) becomes the last major theologian openly to consider annuities as a usurious contract. The end of the debate allows for the expansion of the budding practice of renten emission, to become a staple of public finance in northwestern Europe.source
  • 1282June 26 – King Denis of Portugal ("the Poet King") marries the 11-year-old Elizabeth of Aragon, daughter of Peter III, in Trancoso. Elizabeth receives the towns of Óbidos, Abrantes and Porto de Mós as part of her dowry. Denis, known for his poetry, writes several poems and books, with topics of administration and hunting. During his reign, Lisbon becomes one of Europe's centers of art and culture.source
  • 1283The Libro de los juegos, an early European treatise on board games (including chess, dice, and a version of backgammon), is commissioned by King Alfonso X of Castile ("the Wise") (approximate date).source
  • 1285The first record is made of an emission of life annuities, by the city of Lübeck. It is the first instance of issue of public debt in Germany, and it confirms a trend of consolidation of local public debt over north-western Europe (see 1228).source
  • 1286January 6 – The 17-year-old Philip IV (the Fair) is crowned king of France at Reims. He settles the Aragonese conflict, and intensifies his predecessors' efforts to reform and rationalize the administration of the realm. Philip persists in reforms, which strengthen the monarchy's position in Europe. The gabelle – a tax on salt in the form of a state monopoly – will become immensely unpopular and grossly unequal, but persist until 1790.source

14th century

  • 1312September 27 – The Charter of Kortenberg is signed, and is possibly the first constitution which allows democratic decisions in feudal mainland Europe.source
  • 1340Europe has about 74 million inhabitants.source

15th century

  • 1415August 21 – Conquest of Ceuta: Portugal conquers the city of Ceuta from the Moors, initiating the Portuguese Empire, and European expansion and colonialism.source
  • 1416January 27 – The Republic of Ragusa is the first state in Europe to outlaw slavery.source
  • 1441The first enslaved black Africans are brought to Europe at Lagos in the Kingdom of Portugal.source
  • 1482August 4 – Portuguese navigator Diogo Cão and his crew arrive at Loango Bay in West Africa on Saint Dominic's Day, and Cão names the body of water Praia Formosa de São Domingos; from there he and the crew become the first Europeans to enter the Congo River.source
  • 1486Sigismund, Archduke of Tyrol, issues Europe's first large silver coin, the guldengroschen, which will later become the thaler.source

16th century

  • 1501Amerigo Vespucci maps the two stars Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri, as well as the stars of the constellation Crux, which are below the horizon in Europe.source
  • 1515May 20 – "Ulysses", the first known rhinoceros in Europe, arrives at Lisbon in Portugal after being brought by ship from India.source
  • 1540approximate date – The musket is introduced into Japan from Europe.source
  • 1574La Alameda, Seville, is laid out in Spain, as Europe's first public garden.source
  • 1595July 21 – A Spanish expedition of four ships, led by navigator and explorer Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira, makes the first European landing in Polynesia, on the Marquesas Islands. Despite an initially good reception with the natives, fighting begins and the Mendaña ships leave after two weeks. One of the ships, the Santa Ysabel, disappears during the voyage toward the Solomon Islands.source
  • 1596The Black Death hits parts of Europe.source

17th century

  • 1606October – Luís Vaz de Torres is the first European to sail through the Torres Strait.source
  • 1626November 6 (O.S.) – The ship Arms of Amsterdam arrives in Europe from New Netherland (left September 23) with the news: "They have purchased the Island Manhattes [Manhattan] from the Indians for the value of 60 guilders."source
  • 1627February 17 – England lands the first European settlers on Barbados.source
  • 1688September 27 – The Nine Years' War begins in Europe and America after Louis XIV attacks Philippsburg in the Holy Roman Empire.source
  • 1697The use of "litters" (wheelless transports that carried by four servants) increases in Europe.source

18th century

  • 1737November 4 – The Teatro di San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, is inaugurated in Naples, Italy.source
  • 1743April 9 – The Verendrye brothers make the first contact since 1722 between Europeans and the Sioux Indians, whom they refer to as Les Gens de la Fleche Collee ("the people of the sheathed arrow").source

19th century

  • 1851July 28 – Total solar eclipse visible in Canada, Greenland, Iceland and Northern Europe, the first solar eclipse to be photographed.source
  • 1867Delhaize, as predecessor for Ahold Delhaize, a major retail group in Europe, is founded in Belgium.source
  • 1899The 1899–1923 cholera pandemic begins, spreading to Europe, Asia and Africa.source

20th century

  • 1912August 1 – The Jungfrau Railway is inaugurated with the opening of the subterranean Jungfraujoch railway station in the Bernese Oberland of Switzerland, Europe's highest at 3450 m ft above sea level.source
  • 1970September 27 – Richard Nixon begins a tour of Europe, visiting Italy, Yugoslavia, Spain, the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.source
  • 1989February 5 – Eurosport, a multiple-language sports broadcasting station in Europe, begins broadcasting, from Issy-les-Moulineaux, Île-de-France, France.source

21st century

  • 2011February 26 – The Nintendo 3DS has its first release in Japan, following later releases in Europe on March 25, North America on March 27, and Australia on March 31.source
  • 2020May 11 – The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology publishes the result of radiocarbon and DNA analysis from the fossils that has been found in the Bacho Kiro cave, Bulgaria. The result, showing that the fossils belong to Homo sapiens instead of Neanderthal, indicates that modern humans may have arrived in Europe thousands of years earlier than previously thought.source

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