0079-08-24 13:00 UTC
Vesuvius buries Pompeii
August 24, 79
Mount Vesuvius erupts above the Bay of Naples, burying Pompeii and Herculaneum under ash and sealing a Roman afternoon in place.
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Curated minutes from history.
Held permanently by the registry. Never for sale.
- 0476-09-04 12:00 UTC
The last Western emperor is deposed
September 4, 476
Odoacer removes Romulus Augustulus at Ravenna, the date later historians chose as the end of the Western Roman Empire.
Not for saleOpen record - 0622-07-16 12:00 UTC
The Hijra begins
July 16, 622
Muhammad's migration from Mecca to Medina starts the year that becomes the first of the Islamic calendar.
Not for saleOpen record - 0800-12-25 09:00 UTC
Charlemagne is crowned emperor
December 25, 800
Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne in Rome on Christmas Day, reviving an imperial title in the West after three centuries.
Not for saleOpen record - 1066-10-14 15:00 UTC
Harold falls at Hastings
October 14, 1066
A day-long battle on Senlac Hill ends with the death of Harold Godwinson and the Norman conquest of England.
Not for saleOpen record - 1206-05-01 12:00 UTC
Temüjin becomes Genghis Khan
May 1, 1206
A council on the Mongolian steppe proclaims Temüjin ruler of all the tribes, founding the Mongol Empire.
Not for saleOpen record - 1215-06-15 12:00 UTC
Magna Carta is sealed
June 15, 1215
King John seals a charter at Runnymede accepting that the king is subject to law.
Not for saleOpen record - 1347-10-01 12:00 UTC
Plague ships reach Messina
October 1, 1347
Galleys arriving in Sicily carry the Black Death into Europe, beginning the deadliest pandemic in recorded history.
Not for saleOpen record - 1431-05-30 09:00 UTC
Joan of Arc is executed at Rouen
May 30, 1431
Condemned for heresy at nineteen, Joan of Arc is burned in the market square of Rouen.
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Photo: International Printing Museum · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons 1440-01-01 00:00 UTCMovable type in Mainz
January 1, 1440
Johannes Gutenberg begins printing with movable metal type, and the cost of a page collapses.
Not for saleOpen record- 1453-05-29 05:00 UTC
Constantinople falls
May 29, 1453
After a fifty-three-day siege, Ottoman forces enter Constantinople and the Eastern Roman Empire ends.
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Photo: The Bureau of Engraving and Printing · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons 1492-10-12 00:00 UTCLandfall in the Americas
October 12, 1492
A Spanish expedition under Columbus reaches an island in the Bahamas, opening four centuries of contact and conquest.
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Photo: Martin Luther · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons 1517-10-31 00:00 UTCNinety-five theses
October 31, 1517
Martin Luther circulates his objections to indulgences in Wittenberg.
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Photo: Abraham Ortelius · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons 1522-09-06 00:00 UTCThe first circumnavigation returns
September 6, 1522
The Victoria reaches Sanlucar de Barrameda with eighteen survivors, the first ship to circle the world.
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Photo: derivative work of Johannes Petreius 1543 edition of File:Ni · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons 1543-05-24 00:00 UTCThe Earth is not the centre
May 24, 1543
Copernicus receives the printed De revolutionibus on the day he dies.
Not for saleOpen record- 1582-10-15 00:00 UTC
The Gregorian calendar begins
October 15, 1582
Catholic Europe wakes on 15 October, ten days having been deleted overnight to correct the drifting Julian year.
Not for saleOpen record - 1600-02-17 08:00 UTC
Giordano Bruno is burned in Rome
February 17, 1600
The philosopher who argued for an infinite universe of other suns is executed in the Campo de' Fiori.
Not for saleOpen record - 1602-03-20 12:00 UTC
The first multinational corporation is chartered
March 20, 1602
The Dutch East India Company receives a twenty-one-year monopoly and issues the first publicly traded shares.
Not for saleOpen record - 1610-01-07 19:00 UTC
Galileo sees moons around Jupiter
January 7, 1610
Through a homemade telescope, Galileo notes three small stars beside Jupiter that move with it.
Not for saleOpen record - 1620-11-21 12:00 UTC
The Mayflower Compact is signed
November 21, 1620
Forty-one men aboard a ship off Cape Cod agree to govern themselves by majority consent.
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Photo: The original uploader was Zhaladshar at English Wikisource. · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons 1687-07-05 00:00 UTCPrincipia is published
July 5, 1687
Newton sets out the laws of motion and universal gravitation.
Not for saleOpen record- 1755-11-01 09:40 UTC
The Lisbon earthquake
November 1, 1755
A massive quake, then a tsunami, then fire destroys Lisbon on All Saints' Day and shakes European philosophy.
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Photo: original: w:Second Continental Congress; reproduction: Willi · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons 1776-07-04 00:00 UTCThe Declaration is adopted
July 4, 1776
The Second Continental Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia.
Not for saleOpen record- 1783-11-21 13:54 UTC
The first human flight
November 21, 1783
Pilâtre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes lift off from Paris in a Montgolfier balloon.
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Photo: Unidentified painter · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons 1789-07-14 00:00 UTCThe Bastille falls
July 14, 1789
A Paris crowd takes the fortress, and the French Revolution has its symbol.
Not for saleOpen record- 1791-08-22 20:00 UTC
The Haitian Revolution begins
August 22, 1791
Enslaved people in the north of Saint-Domingue rise against the plantation system in the only successful slave revolution in history.
Not for saleOpen record - 1804-12-02 11:00 UTC
Napoleon crowns himself
December 2, 1804
At Notre-Dame, Napoleon takes the crown from the pope's hands and places it on his own head.
Not for saleOpen record - 1815-06-18 19:30 UTC
Waterloo is decided
June 18, 1815
The Imperial Guard breaks as Prussian forces arrive, ending twenty-three years of European war.
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Photo: Nicéphore Niépce · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons 1826-07-01 00:00 UTCThe first photograph
July 1, 1826
Nicephore Niepce fixes a view from his window at Le Gras after hours of exposure.
Not for saleOpen record- 1848-02-21 12:00 UTC
The Communist Manifesto is published
February 21, 1848
A pamphlet printed in London sets out a theory of history that will organise and divide the next century.
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Photo: John Murray, Publisher · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons 1859-11-24 00:00 UTCOn the Origin of Species
November 24, 1859
Darwin publishes, and the first print run sells out the same day.
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Photo: Thomas Nast · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons 1863-01-01 00:00 UTCThe Emancipation Proclamation
January 1, 1863
Lincoln declares enslaved people in the rebelling states to be free.
Not for saleOpen record- 1865-04-15 03:15 UTC
Lincoln is shot at Ford's Theatre
April 15, 1865
Five days after the surrender at Appomattox, the president is shot during a performance in Washington.
Not for saleOpen record - 1869-05-10 19:47 UTC
The golden spike
May 10, 1869
A telegraph key wired to a ceremonial spike at Promontory Summit transmits one word, "done", and joins a continent by rail.
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Photo: NASA · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons 1869-11-17 00:00 UTCThe Suez Canal opens
November 17, 1869
Two seas are joined and the route to Asia is cut by thousands of miles.
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Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons 1876-03-10 00:00 UTCThe first telephone call
March 10, 1876
Alexander Graham Bell speaks the first words transmitted by telephone to Thomas Watson in Boston.
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Photo: KMJ, alpha masking by Edokter · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons 1879-10-22 00:00 UTCA lamp that burns for hours
October 22, 1879
Edison and his team run a carbon filament lamp long enough to make electric light practical.
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Photo: Benh LIEU SONG · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons 1889-03-31 00:00 UTCThe Eiffel Tower opens
March 31, 1889
Gustave Eiffel raises the French flag at the top of the tallest structure in the world.
Not for saleOpen record- 1893-09-19 12:00 UTC
New Zealand gives women the vote
September 19, 1893
The Electoral Act receives royal assent, making New Zealand the first self-governing country with universal women's suffrage.
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Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons 1895-12-28 00:00 UTCThe first public film screening
December 28, 1895
The Lumiere brothers show paying audiences moving pictures at the Grand Cafe in Paris.
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Photo: Émile Gilliéron · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons 1896-04-06 00:00 UTCThe first modern Olympics
April 6, 1896
The Games open in Athens with fourteen nations.
Not for saleOpen record- 1898-12-26 12:00 UTC
Radium is announced
December 26, 1898
Marie and Pierre Curie report a new, intensely radioactive element to the French Academy of Sciences.
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