Search by year
Find records from a single year and display them in historical sequence.
Chronological world history search
World History Timeline & Chronology
Explore a searchable world history timeline and chronology. Search historical records by year, country, place, person, event and category, then display matching events in chronological order by year, month and day across wars, battles, governments, revolutions, treaties, science, exploration and major world events.
Historical timeline
Wars and battles
Leaders and governments
Revolutions and treaties
Science and exploration
World events by date
Search by event
Look up battles, elections, deaths, wars, treaties, revolutions and discoveries.
Search by country
Filter the chronology by country to follow national and international history.
Search by name
Find records connected with leaders, commanders, politicians and historical figures.
Chronology search
Choose how to search
Use one row at a time. Start on the left and the next dropdown will unlock automatically. Country, person, place and category lists are divided into alphabetical A-Z sections.
Select a route, work from left to right, then press the Search button on that row.
History in pictures Landmark events across the chronology
Explore significant historical events and their dedicated pages.
Use these visual starting points to move from a famous event into the people, dates, places and specialist collections connected with it.
14 July 1789
Storming of the Bastille
The fall of the Bastille became a defining opening event of the French Revolution and a symbol of the collapse of royal authority in Paris.
10–15 April 1912
RMS Titanic
Titanic left Southampton on her maiden voyage on 10 April 1912 and sank in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg five days later.
6 June 1944
D-Day and Normandy
Allied airborne and amphibious forces opened a major Western Front in Normandy during Operation Overlord and established a bridgehead in occupied France.
20–21 July 1969
Apollo 11 Moon landing
Apollo 11 carried Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to the Moon; Armstrong and Aldrin became the first people to walk on another world.
28 July 1914
Outbreak of the First World War
Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, beginning a conflict that expanded across Europe and beyond.
1 September 1939
Outbreak of the Second World War
Germany invaded Poland, precipitating the European war after Britain and France declared war on Germany.
18 June 1815
Battle of Waterloo
Napoleon’s defeat near Waterloo brought his Hundred Days campaign to an end.
9 November 1989
Fall of the Berlin Wall
The opening of crossings in Berlin became a symbol of the end of division between East and West Germany.
4 July 1776
American Declaration of Independence
Delegates adopted the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, marking a foundational moment in the American Revolution.
14–15 April 1865
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
President Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theatre on 14 April and died the following morning.
28 June 1914
Assassination in Sarajevo
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Sophie in Sarajevo precipitated the July Crisis before the First World War.
6 August 1945
Atomic bombing of Hiroshima
The first wartime use of a nuclear weapon devastated Hiroshima during the final phase of the Second World War.
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Explore major events in world history by date and subject
A chronology connects events to the wider history around them. Use the search above to compare developments in the same year, trace events in one country, or follow an individual across several decades. Dates may be recorded to the year, month or day depending on the available evidence.
Revolutions and political change
The French Revolution began in 1789 and reshaped French government, law and European politics. Compare events by year and explore people associated with the revolution in the historical biographies.
World wars and turning points
Follow campaigns across the First World War and Second World War. The D-Day landings of 6 June 1944 provide a focused entry into the liberation of Western Europe.
Exploration, science and technology
Historical timelines also cover discovery and innovation. The astronomy and space history collection includes the Apollo era, while history by date connects scientific milestones to events elsewhere in the world.
People, places and historical evidence
Start with history by place to explore geographical connections or use the full historical database for additional fields. Entries vary in depth and source coverage; important claims should be checked against the underlying historical evidence.
Search world history in chronological order
The World History Chronology is designed for timeline-style historical research. It displays matching records by year, month and day, making it useful for tracing wars, battles, governments, leaders, revolutions, diplomatic agreements, scientific discoveries and major global events.
Search for a single year, a country, a place, a surname, a broad historical category or a specific event. Explore linked examples including First World War battles, Second World War battles, D-Day and Normandy, the French Revolution, Titanic and Apollo 11, astronomy and space history.
For wider field-level searches and table sorting, use the World History Database Search.
Wars, battles and campaigns
Leaders, states and governments
Science, exploration and culture
Historical data, methodology and provenance
Structured chronology
The World History Database stores historical events as structured records. Chronology results combine date information with category, event, person, country, place and description fields, then present the selected records in chronological order.
Editorial approach
Records are concise database entries rather than automatically generated narrative articles. The search interface groups records by year, displays month names where available and suppresses duplicate display entries so repeated database material does not dominate a chronology.
Sources and verification
Image sources are linked alongside the historical picture cards. Record-level source citation coverage is being expanded across the database. Where an individual record does not yet display a citation, important dates or claims should be checked against primary sources or reputable scholarly and reference works.
Coverage and corrections
Coverage varies by period, country and subject as the collection develops. Historical records may be corrected or refined when errors, clearer dates or better supporting evidence are identified. This page was last materially updated on .
Site owner: Malcolm Badley · [email protected]