Western Europe

western part of the European continent

11 dated entries naming Western Europe, drawn from 11 separate years between 600 CE and 1961 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.

JSON Wikipedia article Wikidata Q27496

6th century

600Smallpox arrives in Western Europe for the first time (approximate date).source

8th century

732October 10 – Battle of Tours: The Frankish and Burgundian forces under Charles Martel defeat a large army of Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, near Poitiers, halting the Islamic advance into Western Europe; Rahman Al Ghafiqi is killed during the battle. Charles extends his authority in the south of France, which gives him the nickname Martellus ("The Hammer"). The outcome of the victory is a turning point, and establishes a balance of power between Western Europe and the Byzantine Empire.source
800December 25 – Charlemagne, king of the Franks, is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III as Charles I, with the title "Emperor of the Romans". The coronation takes place during Mass at the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome, on Christmas Day. The Frankish Empire is formed in Western Europe, which is not recognized by Empress Irene at Constantinople. This triggers a series of disputes with the Byzantines around who is officially ruling the former Western Roman Empire.source

10th century

910William I (the Pious) of Aquitaine, donates land in Burgundy for the building of a Benedictine monastery dedicated to the saints Peter and Paul. Hence the Abbey of Cluny, becomes the largest in the West. In the foundation charter, William renounces all rights to the monastery and nominates Berno as the first abbot of Cluny (Eastern France). He places the monastery directly under the control of the Papal See.source
981Spring – Emperor Otto II (the Red) leads the imperial court to Rome, making the city his imperial capital, and receives nobles from all parts of Western Europe. Otto makes plans to conquer Byzantine Italy.source

11th century

1095March – Emperor Alexios I Komnenos send envoys to Pope Urban II at the Council of Piacenza and appeals to the Christian states of Western Europe for military aid against the Seljuk Turks. Urban responds favourably, hoping to heal the Great Schism of 40 years earlier, and to reunite the Catholic Church under papal primacy by helping the Eastern churches.source

12th century

1191The counties of Flanders and Hainaut (modern Belgium) are united under Count Baldwin VIII. Flanders, a feudal fiefdom of France, becomes an important, wealthy independent state of Western Europe.source

13th century

1288August 8 – Pope Nicholas IV proclaims a crusade against the 26-year-old King Ladislaus IV, who had lost credibility by favoring his semi-pagan Cuman subjects in Hungary, and in general refusing to conform to the social standards of Western Europe. Meanwhile, the Hungarian government loses more power because the clergy and most of the nobles rule the kingdom independently.source
1290"Year without winter" – An exceptionally rare instance of uninterrupted transition, from autumn to the following spring, in England and the mainland of Western Europe.source

17th century

1700January 1 – Protestant nations in Western Europe, except England, start using the Gregorian calendar. Catholic nations have been using the Gregorian calendar since its introduction in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII.source

20th century

1961August 13 – Berlin Crisis of 1961: Construction of the Berlin Wall begins, restricting movement between East Berlin and West Berlin, and forming a clear boundary between West Germany and East Germany, Western Europe and Eastern Europe (until 1989, when Berlin and Germany both reunified in 1990, following the Fall of the Berlin Wall). On August 22 Ida Siekmann jumps from a window in her tenement building trying to flee to the West, becoming the first of at least 138 deaths at the Wall.source