Moscow

capital and most populous city of Russia

63 dated entries naming Moscow, drawn from 58 separate years between 1147 CE and 2025 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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12th century

1147The first known reference to Moscow as a meeting place of Rurikid princes Yuri Dolgoruky and Sviatoslav Olgovich.source
1156Yuri Dolgorukiy, Grand Prince of Kiev, founds and fortifies the town of Moscow and erects a wooden Kremlin within the settlement (approximate date).source
1177Moscow is burned down by Gleb I, prince of Ryazan, and its inhabitants are killed.source

13th century

1238January 15–20 – Siege of Moscow: The Mongols under Batu Khan and Subutai campaign across the northern heartland of the Kievan Rus', committing numerous atrocities across multiple settlements, including the sacking of an insignificant town known as Moscow. According to the Chronicle of Novgorod, Moscow is a fortified village, a trading post "on a crossroads of four rivers". The village is taken by the Mongols after 5 days of siege.source
1240Alexander Nevsky quarrels with the nobles (boyars) and merchants of Novgorod, probably about peaceful trade with the westerners. He is banished, along with his mother, wife and his druzhina to take up residence in the region around Moscow, a minor town on the western border of the Grand Principality of Vladimir.source

14th century

1368Moscow attacks Tver, which counter-attacks with the aid of Lithuania and the Blue Horde.source
1370December 6 – Algirdas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, leads a siege of Moscow itself, the capital of the Grand Principality, and his forces burn and pillage the city as Moscow's Grand Prince Dmitry Donskoy retreats to the safety of the Kremlin. Donskoy's allies, his cousin Vladimir the Bold of Serpukhov and Prince Vladimir Dmitrievich Yaroslavich of Pronsk, come to Moscow's aid.source
1379Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow raids Estonia.source
1397The Sretensky Monastery is founded in Moscow.source

15th century

1434March 16 – Muscovite War of Succession: Yury of Zvenigorod defeats his nephew, Vasily II, Grand Prince of Moscow, in a battle at Rostov, about 125 mi from Moscow.source
1434March 31 – Yury of Zvenigorod marches into Moscow with his army and plunders Vasily II's treasury.source
1441March 19 – Isidore of Kiev, the Russian Orthodox Church Metropolitan of Kiev and all Russia, returns to his home in Moscow after having attended the Council of Florence, where he agreed to unify the Russian Church with the Roman Catholic Church. When he arrives, he is arrested on the order of Grand Prince Vasily II and imprisoned under minimum security.source
1441September 15 – The Metropolitan Isidore of Kiev is allowed by Grand Prince Vasily II to escape from imprisonment in Moscow, along with two of his disciples, Gregory the Bulgarian and Afanasy. He flees to Tver and then to Novogrudok and eventually to Rome.source
1445July 7 – The Battle of Suzdal takes place 120 mi from Moscow when Ulugh Muhammad of the Khanate of Kazan attacks Nizhny Novgorod, part of the Grand Principality of Moscow. The Grand Prince Vasily II of Moscow is captured in battle as a prisoner of war and held for ransom until the payment of 200,000 rubles is completed in November.source
1446October 10 – An earthquake occurs in Moscow but causes little damagesource
1447March 26 – Dmitry Shemyaka flees Moscow from the supporters of Vasily II.source
1480October 8 – The Great Stand on the Ugra River begins as troops of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, led by the Grand Duke Ivan III and General Ivan Molodoy battle against the invading Mongol armies of the Golden Horde, led by their ruling monarch, Akhmat Khan. The invasion began after Ivan III stopped paying tribute to the Horde. The Theotokos of Vladimir icon is credited with saving Moscow. The standoff between the troops lasts five weeks before Akhmat and the Mongol troops retreat.source

16th century

1547January 16 – Grand Prince Ivan IV is crowned as Tsar of all Russia at the Dormition Cathedral in Moscow, thereby proclaiming the Tsardom of Russia.source
1551February 23– At the Kremlin in Moscow, Tsar Ivan IV and the Metropolitan Macarius, present the proposed code of laws, drafted by the Stoglavy Synod, to the clergy, nobility and principal Russian citizens for their approval.source
1552June 16 – Yuri of Uglich, the only brother of the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible, is placed in charge of Russia's domestic affairs as Ivan departs Moscow to lead 150,000 troops in the Russo-Kazan War.source
1561August 20 – English merchant Anthony Jenkinson arrives in Moscow on his second expedition to the Grand Duchy of Moscow.source
1562March 15 – English merchant Anthony Jenkinson has an audience with Ivan the Terrible in Moscow, before departing the city on April 27 and continuing his second expedition through the Grand Duchy of Moscow to Qazvin, capital of the Safavid dynasty in Persia.source
1564December 3 – Ivan the Terrible, Tsar of all the Russias, sends his government a letter of abdication, ostensibly because of embezzlement and treason by the aristocracy and the clergy. Ivan leaves Moscow and moves to the city of Alexandrovskaya Sloboda, taking with him the relics of the palace and most of his royal court, until being persuaded to return in February on the promise that he will have absolute power.source
1571May 24 – Moscow is burnt by the Crimean army, under Devlet I Giray.source
1591August 9 – The Khan of the Crimean Tatara, Ğazı II Giray, is wounded by the defenders against his siege of Moscow. Gazi's brother, Fetih I Giray, continues the siege, which is finally settled with a peace agreement and payment of 10,000 rubles in 1594.source
1591July 13 – A Crimean army, led by the Tatar Khan Ğazı II Giray, begins a siege of Moscow.source
1599November – Persian embassy to Europe (1599–1602): A diplomatic delegation from Safavid Persia, led by Hossein Ali Beg Bayat and his staff after being dispatched by the Shah Abbas the Great, arrives in Moscow as part of a mission to enlist European nations into an alliance against the Ottoman Empire. The Persians are accompanied by English adventurer Anthony Shirley, who had persuaded Shah Abbas to undertake the initiative.source

17th century

1608September 23 – The siege of the Troitsky monastery by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth begins in Russia north of Moscow, but fails after 16 months.source
1610July 4 – (June 24 O.S.); Polish–Russian War – Battle of Klushino: The outnumbered forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth defeat the combined Russian and Swedish armies; Polish troops go on to occupy Moscow.source
1610September 21 (September 11 O.S.) – Forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth capture Moscow and begin occupation of the Kremlin for the next two years.source
1611March 19–20 – The Moscow Uprising, an armed rising of the inhabitants of Moscow in the Tsardom of Russia against the military Polish–Lithuanian occupation of Moscow (Fall 1610–Fall 1612), results in the occupying forces starting a major fire in the city and the death of 6–7,000 Muscovites.source
1612September 1 – Battle of Moscow (1612): Led by General Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, a relief force from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, whose troops had been occupying Moscow for two years, make an unsuccessful attempt to break the Russian siege of the Kremlin, where General Mikolaj Strus and his troops are trapped. Both the Russians (led by Dmitry Pozharsky) and the Commonwealth troops suffer at least 1,000 deaths, but the Russians prevail. General Chodkiewicz tries a second attack the next day and fails.source
1613May 12 – Mikhail Romanov arrives in Moscow to begin his reign as Tsar of Russia, after having been elected on March 3.source
1649June 1 – Alexis, Tsar of the Russian Empire orders all English merchants to leave Moscow.source
1668December 28 – Fritz Cronman arrives in Moscow as the Swedish Empire's ambassador to the Russian Empire, accompanied by a staff of 35 people.source

18th century

1712January 16 – A military engineering school is established in Moscow which is to become the A.F. Mozhaysky Military-Space Academy.source
1712May 19 – Peter the Great moves the capital of Russia from Moscow to Saint Petersburg.source
1728January 9 – The coronation of Peter II as the Tsar of the Russian Empire takes place in Moscow.source
1735November 25 – The largest bell in the world, the 22 foot diameter Tsar Kolokol, is successfully cast in Moscow within the Kremlin.source
1748June 1 – A fire in Moscow kills 482 people and destroys 5,000 buildings.source
1752June 3 – A fire destroys 13,000 houses in Moscow in the Russian Empire, only 11 days after a May 23 fire destroyed 5,000 homes; by June 6, two-thirds of the city has been damaged or destroyed.source
1753November 12 – A fire destroys the Emperor's Palace in Moscow.source
1771April 4 – The first quarantines are started in Moscow and Saint Petersburg to fight the bubonic plague epidemic. Over the next 12 months, more than 52,000 people die from the plague in Moscow alone.source
1772December 14 – Russian government offices reopen at Moscow and Saint Petersburg after being closed for 15 months because of an epidemic of bubonic plague.source
1776March 28 – Foundation of the ballet troupe which becomes the world-renowned Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, Russian Empire.source

19th century

1812August 16–18 – Battle of Smolensk: The Grande Armée (180,000 men) under Emperor Napoleon I defeats the Russian army on the road to Moscow.source
1886March 23 – Tchaikovsky’s Manfred symphony premieres in Moscow, Russia.source

20th century

1901November 9 – Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 is premiered in Moscow with the composer playing the solo part.source
1922May 8 – In Moscow, eight priests, two laymen and one woman are sentenced to death for opposition to the Soviet government's confiscation of church property.source
1931December 5 – The original Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow (1883) is demolished, by order of Joseph Stalin.source
1949December 21 – Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin's 70th Birthday is Held in Moscow.source
1956July 31 – Luzhniki Stadium, well known sports venue of Russia and the Soviet Union, officially opens in Moscow.source
1964April 20 – British businessman Greville Wynne, imprisoned in Moscow since 1963 for spying, is exchanged for Soviet spy Gordon Lonsdale.source
1969June 5 – An international communist conference begins in Moscow.source
1977January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.source
1985May 9 – The 3rd total Victory Day Parade (the first being in 1945 and the next in 1965) is held on Red Square in Moscow in the Soviet Union. It features T-34-85 tanks, veterans of World War II from Poland, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, and is the first parade to be held during the reign of Mikhail Gorbachev.source
1987November 7 – The Soviet Union celebrates the 70th Anniversary of The October Revolution with a Parade on Moscow's Red Square.source
1989May 3 – Cold War: Perestroika – The first McDonald's restaurant in the USSR begins construction in Moscow. It will open on January 31, 1990.source
1991June 28 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Comecon is dissolved in Moscow, Russia.source

21st century

2002October 23–26 – Chechen rebels take control of the Nord-Ost theatre in Moscow and hold the audience hostage. At least 170 people are killed following a Russian attempt to subdue the militants.source
2009May 12–16 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 takes place in Moscow, Russia, and is won by Norwegian entrant Alexander Rybak with the song "Fairytale".source
2024December 8 – Syrian civil war: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flees from Damascus to Moscow after being overthrown, ending his presidency and the Ba'athist Syria regime after a total of 61 years. The Syrian opposition forms the Syrian transitional government as a provisional government.source
2025September 20 – Intervision 2025 is held in Moscow, Russia. Vietnamese contestant Đức Phúc wins with the song "Phù Đổng Thiên Vương".source