Searchable world history database
Search structured historical records across world history, including wars, battles, political leaders, revolutions, scientific discoveries and major events. Explore by event, person, place, country or date, then follow connected timelines, biographies, chronology and specialist collections.
Independent historical research resource maintained by Malcolm Badley · About · Editorial method · Sources & provenance
World history research
The World History Database connects dates, people, places, countries, events and subject categories in structured records. It is designed for moving from a broad historical question to a focused event, biography, location, date or chronological sequence.
Use the Full Database for the widest search, World History Timelines for date-ordered research, Biography for historical people, and Place Search for location-based history.
Search the complete World History Database across events, people, places, countries, subjects and dates.
Build a focused world history timeline by keyword, country, subject, person, event, place and year range.
Chronological research↗ ↕Display matching records in chronological order to follow sequences, developments and timelines.
Chronology view↗ ✦Search event-centred records and compare a named event across years, countries, categories and people.
Events and milestones↗ ♙Research historical figures through countries, names, categories, roles and connected events.
People↗ ◷Find records for a year, month, day or exact date, with optional country and category filters.
Dates↗ ⌖Move from a country or place to the people, years, subjects and events connected with that location.
Locations↗Search the World History Database by pattern, country, year, person, category, event or place and display matching records in date order.
Chronological research↗ ◷Follow connected historical records and developments through time using the chronology view.
Sequences and dates↗ ◫Start from a year, month, day or exact date and move into the surrounding historical context.
Search by date↗Build a concise event fact sheet from connected archive records and focused dropdown selections.
Focused summaries↗ ◎Create a concise person-focused fact sheet using country, surname and given-name selections.
Biography summaries↗ ◫Select a country and year to build a compact view of connected historical events and records.
Year summaries↗Move directly into major specialist collections, then follow people and events back into the wider database.
On 6 June 1944 Allied airborne and amphibious forces opened a major Western Front in Normandy. Explore Operation Overlord, the beach landings, Caen, Cherbourg, Operation Cobra and the Falaise fighting.
Explore D-Day records →Explore 28 major turning points in world history through historical images, dedicated research pages and searchable World History Database records.
The seizure of the Bastille in Paris became one of the defining opening events of the French Revolution and a powerful symbol of the collapse of royal authority.
View Storming of the Bastille records → Jean-Pierre Houël, Storming of the Bastille, 1789 · Wikimedia Commons
Titanic left Southampton on her maiden voyage on 10 April 1912. Five days later the liner sank in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg.
View RMS Titanic sinking records → RMS Titanic departing Southampton, 1912 · Wikimedia Commons
Operation Overlord began with airborne assaults and amphibious landings across five Normandy beaches, creating the Allied bridgehead for the campaign in north-west Europe.
View D-Day and the Normandy landings records → U.S. Coast Guard, Into the Jaws of Death · Wikimedia Commons
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.
View Apollo 11 Moon landing records → NASA, Buzz Aldrin on the Moon, Apollo 11 · Wikimedia Commons
William of Normandy defeated King Harold II near Hastings, opening the way for the Norman Conquest of England.
View Battle of Hastings records → Bayeux Tapestry, Battle of Hastings · Wikimedia Commons
King John accepted Magna Carta at Runnymede, creating an enduring symbol of limits on royal authority and the rule of law.
View Magna Carta records → Magna Carta, 1215 · British Library · Wikimedia Commons
Christopher Columbus’s first Atlantic voyage reached an island in the Bahamas, beginning sustained contact between Europe and the Americas.
View Columbus reaches the Americas records → Dióscoro Puebla, First Landing of Columbus · Wikimedia Commons
A major fire swept through the City of London, destroying thousands of buildings and reshaping the capital’s built environment.
View Great Fire of London records → Great Fire of London, c.1670 · Wikimedia Commons
The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, asserting the thirteen colonies’ separation from Great Britain.
View Declaration of Independence records → John Trumbull, Declaration of Independence · Wikimedia Commons
Napoleon’s final army was defeated by Allied forces under Wellington and Blücher, ending the Hundred Days and Napoleon’s rule.
View Battle of Waterloo records → William Sadler, Battle of Waterloo · Wikimedia Commons
Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Sophie in Sarajevo, triggering the diplomatic crisis that led to the First World War.
View Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand records → Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, June 1914 · Wikimedia Commons
Bolshevik forces overthrew the Russian Provisional Government in Petrograd, a decisive moment in the Russian Revolution.
View October Revolution records → Winter Palace after the October Revolution · Wikimedia Commons
The armistice between Germany and the Allies took effect at 11 a.m., ending the fighting on the Western Front.
View Armistice ends fighting in the First World War records → Armistice Day in London, 1918 · Imperial War Museums · Wikimedia Commons
Japanese aircraft attacked the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States directly into the Second World War.
View Attack on Pearl Harbor records → Battleship Row during the Pearl Harbor attack · U.S. National Park Service · Wikimedia Commons
Victory in Europe Day marked the formal end of the war against Nazi Germany, prompting celebrations across Britain and Allied countries.
View Victory in Europe Day records → VE Day celebrations in London, 1945 · Wikimedia Commons
East Germany opened its borders and crowds crossed the Berlin Wall, accelerating German reunification and the collapse of communist rule in Eastern Europe.
View Fall of the Berlin Wall records → People on the Berlin Wall, 9 November 1989 · Sue Ream · Wikimedia Commons
The plague pandemic devastated communities across Europe, North Africa and Asia, causing enormous mortality and long-term demographic, economic and social change.
View Black Death records → Historical depiction of the Black Death · Wikimedia Commons
Philip II’s invasion fleet failed to secure control of the English Channel, a major episode in the Anglo-Spanish War and Elizabethan history.
View Spanish Armada records → Defeat of the Spanish Armada · Wikimedia Commons
Union and Confederate armies fought a decisive three-day battle in Pennsylvania, producing enormous casualties and ending Lee’s invasion of the North.
View Battle of Gettysburg records → Gettysburg battlefield aftermath, 1863 · Library of Congress · Wikimedia Commons
A German U-boat torpedoed the British liner Lusitania off Ireland, killing nearly 1,200 people and intensifying international opposition to unrestricted submarine warfare.
View Sinking of RMS Lusitania records → Contemporary Associated Press depiction of Lusitania sinking · Wikimedia Commons
The United States dropped the first atomic bomb used in war on Hiroshima, causing catastrophic immediate destruction and long-term human consequences.
View Atomic bombing of Hiroshima records → Atomic cloud over Hiroshima, 6 August 1945 · U.S. Government · Wikimedia Commons
The United States and Soviet Union confronted one another over nuclear missiles in Cuba, bringing the Cold War close to direct nuclear conflict.
View Cuban Missile Crisis records → U-2 reconnaissance image of Soviet missile deployment in Cuba · CIA · Wikimedia Commons
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated during a motorcade through Dallas, an event followed by major investigations and enduring historical debate.
View Assassination of John F. Kennedy records → Kennedy motorcade in Dallas, 22 November 1963 · Library of Congress · Wikimedia Commons
An explosion and fire at Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant released large quantities of radioactive material across parts of Europe.
View Chernobyl disaster records → Chernobyl Reactor 4 after the 1986 accident · Wikimedia Commons
Martin Luther circulated his Ninety-five Theses challenging the sale of indulgences, an episode that became a catalyst for the Protestant Reformation.
View Martin Luther and the Ninety-five Theses records → Ferdinand Pauwels, Luther and the Ninety-five Theses · Wikimedia Commons
American colonists destroyed East India Company tea in Boston Harbor in protest against British taxation and imperial policy, escalating the crisis that led to revolution.
View Boston Tea Party records → Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor, historical lithograph · Wikimedia Commons
The peace treaty signed at Versailles formally ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied powers and reshaped the political settlement after the First World War.
View Treaty of Versailles records → William Orpen, The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors · Wikimedia Commons
Israel, Britain and France attacked Egypt after the nationalisation of the Suez Canal, triggering a major international crisis and intense U.S. and Soviet pressure.
View Suez Crisis records → British tanks in Port Said, November 1956 · Imperial War Museums · Wikimedia CommonsExplore historical figures through photographs, biographies, events and the wider chronology in the World History Database.
Britain's wartime prime minister was central to Allied strategy, diplomacy and the political history of the Second World War.
View Winston Churchill historical records → War Office photograph · Wikimedia Commons
Brunel's railways, bridges, tunnels and steamships made him one of the defining engineers of Britain's industrial age.
View Isambard Kingdom Brunel historical records → Robert Howlett photograph · Wikimedia Commons
Explore Kennedy's presidency, Cold War decisions, assassination in Dallas and the investigations that followed.
View John F. Kennedy historical records → Cecil W. Stoughton · U.S. Government photograph
Einstein's work transformed modern physics and connects the database's histories of science, astronomy and twentieth-century ideas.
View Albert Einstein historical records → Ferdinand Schmutzer photograph · Wikimedia Commons
Lincoln led the United States through the Civil War, opposed the expansion of slavery and issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
View Abraham Lincoln historical records → Alexander Gardner portrait · public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Curie's research on radioactivity transformed modern physics and chemistry and made her the first person to win Nobel Prizes in two sciences.
View Marie Curie historical records → Historical portrait · public domain · Wikimedia Commons
British naval commander whose victories at the Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar made him one of the defining military figures of the Napoleonic Wars.
View Horatio Nelson historical records → Lemuel Francis Abbott portrait · Wikimedia Commons
Victoria's long reign coincided with industrial expansion, imperial growth and major political and social change across nineteenth-century Britain.
View Queen Victoria historical records → Royal Collection portrait · public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Leader of Nazi Germany whose dictatorship destroyed democratic institutions, pursued racial persecution and drove Europe into the Second World War.
View Adolf Hitler historical records → Historical portrait · Wikimedia Commons
Soviet leader associated with forced industrialisation, mass repression, wartime leadership and the emergence of the USSR as a superpower.
View Joseph Stalin historical records → Historical portrait · Wikimedia Commons
Leader of the Indian independence movement who made mass civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance central political methods.
View Mahatma Gandhi historical records → Historical portrait · Wikimedia Commons
Civil-rights leader whose nonviolent campaigns challenged segregation and helped build support for major civil-rights legislation.
View Martin Luther King Jr. historical records → Historical portrait · Wikimedia Commons
Naturalist whose work on evolution by natural selection transformed biology and the scientific understanding of life.
View Charles Darwin historical records → Historical portrait · Wikimedia Commons
Anti-apartheid leader, political prisoner and president who helped negotiate South Africa's transition to multiracial democracy.
View Nelson Mandela historical records → Historical portrait · Wikimedia Commons
Final Soviet leader whose reforms and diplomacy reshaped the USSR and contributed to the end of the Cold War.
View Mikhail Gorbachev historical records → Historical portrait · Wikimedia Commons
British prime minister whose governments reshaped economic policy, trade unions, privatisation and Britain's late-Cold-War politics.
View Margaret Thatcher historical records → Historical portrait · Wikimedia Commons
U.S. president who led the country through the Great Depression and most of the Second World War, reshaping federal government and international policy.
View Franklin D. Roosevelt historical records → Historical portrait · Wikimedia Commons
Bolshevik revolutionary who led the October Revolution and became the central political figure in the creation of Soviet Russia.
View Vladimir Lenin historical records → Historical portrait · Wikimedia Commons
Civil-rights activist whose arrest in Montgomery became a catalyst for the bus boycott and a landmark moment in the struggle against racial segregation.
View Rosa Parks historical records → Historical portrait · Wikimedia Commons
Nurse, statistician and reformer whose work during and after the Crimean War helped transform hospital practice and professional nursing.
View Florence Nightingale historical records → Historical portrait · Wikimedia Commons
U.S. president whose career included Cold War diplomacy, the opening to China, détente with the Soviet Union and the Watergate scandal that led to his resignation.
View Richard Nixon historical records → Official presidential portrait · U.S. Government · Wikimedia Commons
British prime minister associated with the Munich Agreement, the policy of appeasement and Britain's entry into the Second World War in September 1939.
View Neville Chamberlain historical records → Bassano Ltd portrait, 1936 · Wikimedia Commons
NASA astronaut and test pilot who commanded Apollo 11 and became the first person to walk on the Moon in July 1969.
View Neil Armstrong historical records → Historical portrait · Wikimedia Commons
Soviet cosmonaut who became the first human to travel into outer space and orbit Earth aboard Vostok 1 in April 1961.
View Yuri Gagarin historical records → Historical portrait · Wikimedia CommonsDatabase records. The World History Database is an independent historical research resource compiled and maintained by Malcolm Badley. The event, person, place and chronology pages on this site are generated from the same structured database used by the Full Database search.
Historical images. Images displayed on the homepage and event pages are credited alongside the image to their source page. Many are public-domain historical works or government photographs hosted by Wikimedia Commons; where a source carries reuse conditions, the linked source page provides the relevant attribution and licence information.
Use and verification. The database is designed as a research and discovery tool. For academic publication or formal citation, users should verify important dates, quotations and interpretations against the cited image source, primary evidence and appropriate published historical scholarship.
Corrections. Historical records and attribution details may be corrected as new evidence or better sourcing becomes available. Site owner: Malcolm Badley · [email protected].