• Bronze Age
• Sumerians invent the wheel, oars to propel ships and ploughs to till the land.
• Rise of Egypt

• Sumerians produce first system of writing in the world

• Egyptians develop the Solar calendar and build elaborate tombs - pyramids

• Reign of Sargon - founder of the Akkadian Empire
• Indus civilization in India at its peak
• Indo-Europeans (Hittites) enter Asia Minor

• Indo-Europeans develop a new war weapon - the chariot
• Reign of Hammurabi, king of the first Babylonian Empire and the law-codes
• The rise of Assyria
• End of Indus civilisation
• China in the Bronze Age and ruled by the Shang Dynasty

• Egyptian Empire at its peak with a population of 3 million
• Technique for making steel (adding carbon to Iron) controlled by the Hittites - beginning of the Iron Age
• Israelites enter Canaan
• Phoenicians develop first successful Alphabet
• Feudalism in China
• Trojan Wars (1193-1184 BC)

• Assyria reaches its height and falls
• The Iliad and Odyssey are written by Homer
• "Zero" is invented in India
• Olympic games are established in Greece
• Phoenicians circumnavigate Africa
• First Emperor in Japan
• Rome expels its king and Establishes a Republic

• Greek victory over the Persian army at Marathon - 490 BC
• Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta - 431 to 404 BC
• Plato and Aristotle in Athens
• Reign of Alexander the Great - 336 to 323 BC
• Hellenistic Kingdoms

• Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage 264-146 BC
• Ceaser establishes dictatorship and is assassinated
• Mark Antony and Cleopatra
• Octavian (Ceaser's great nephew) establishes the Roman Empire in place of the Republic - 27 BC
• Herod rules over Judea (died 4 BC)
• Jesus of Nazareth is born

• Jesus of Nazareth is Crucified
• St. Paul and the founding of Christianity
• China is the most advanced nation
• Jews rebel against Rome and the Second Temple is destroyed
• Reign of Hadrian (117-138). He builds a 72 mile wall (Hadrian's Wall) to keep the Picts out of Britain
• Paper is invented in China
• Constantinople becomes capital of the Holy Roman Empire - 330
• Division of the Roman Empire into east and west - 395
• Sack of Rome by Alaric - 410

• Mohammed flees to Medina (Hegira) - 622
• Death of the Prophet Mohammed - 632
• T'ang dynasty in China
• Death of Imam Hussein at Kerbala - 680
• Victory of Charles Martel over the Saracens at Poitiers - 732
• Carolingians in France (751-987)
• Reign of Charlemagne (768-814)
• Reign of Alfred the Great in England (871-899)
• Fatimid Caliphat in Egypt (909 - 1171)

• Brian Boru at the battle of Clontarf (1014) drives Vikings out of Ireland
• William of Normandy ("the Conqueror") takes over England at the Battle of Hastings - 1066
• First Crusade, capture of Antiochus and Jerusalem by the crusaders (1096-1099)
• Reign of Saladin in Egypt and Syria (1171-1193)
• John of England forced to sign the Magna Carta, which guarantees the rights of the nobility and of freedom generally against encroachment by the Crown.
• Travels of Marco Polo (1260-1295)
• Ibn Battuta, Arab geographer and traveller (1304-1377)
• The Black Death strikes Europe (1347)
• Hundred Years' War between England and France (1337-1453)
• Joan of Arc forces the English to retreat at Orleans. In 1431 she is captured by the English and burned as a witch in Rouen.
• Tamerlane, Turko-Mongol conqueror (1336-1405)
• Incas establish Empire in South America
• The War of the Roses starts in 1455
• Invention of printing

Safavid Dynasty
1502 - 1737

Reign of Shah Abbas I (1571-1629), reconstruction of Isfahan begins

Reign of Nader Shah
1736-1747

Zand Dynasty (1750-1779), capital moved to Shiraz

Qajar Dynasty (1794-1925) moves capital to Tehran

• Michelangelo paints the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508-1512)
• Reign of Henry VIII of England (1509-1547)
• Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation
• Reign of the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566)
• Spanish conquistadors destroy the Aztec civilisation of Mexico and the Inca civilisation of Peru
• Reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England (1558-1603)
• Isaac Newton (1642 -1727) invents calculus, designs the first reflecting telescope, and works out the laws of motion and universal gravitation.
• American War of Independence (1775-1783)
• Beginning of the French Revolution (1789)
• Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon exiled to St Helena (1815)
• American Civil War (1861-1865)
• The British Empire at its peak

• Kemal Ataturk abolishes Ottoman Sultanate, proclaims the Turkish Republic (1922-1923)
• Boer War (1899 - 1902)
• Wright brother invent the aeroplane (1903) and Ford (1863-1947) produces cheap cars by mass production
• Titanic sinks on its maiden voyage (1912)
• World War I (1914 - 1918)
• Albert Einstein in 1916 develops the General Theory of Relativity
• New York stock market crashes (Oct. 24, 1929)
• Great Depression
• World War II (1939-1943)

• Soviet and British troops invade Iran in August 1941, to secure overland routes through Iran to USSR, during WW2
• Reza Shah Pahlavi abdicates on September 16 in favour of his eldest son Mohammed Reza Shah

• Mossadegh (leader of the National Front) becomes prime minister
• Nationalisation of Oil (NIOC)

• Fall of Mossadegh's government and the return to power of the Shah

• In 1962, the Shah launches a series of reforms, known as the "White Revolution" aimed in particular at the rural population who form the majority of the country
• Although the program is popular among the workers and peasants there is opposition from the clergy led by Ayatollah Khomeini. He is arrested in June 1963 and exiled to Turkey the following year.
• Celebrations at Persepolis to commemorate the 2500^th anniversary of the Persian Empire - Oct 1971

• World oil prices quadruple and Iran's oil revenues increase significantly which allows the Shah to carry out a vast program of Industrial expansion. It is criticized for concentrating on extravagant and costly projects badly adapted to the needs of the country.
• This boom in oil revenue is also attended by rapid inflation, massive migration into urban centres, housing shortages and growing resentment among the poorer and lower middle classes at the widening gap in incomes.
• In 1975 the Shah abolishes political parties and creates a one party state. The mistreatment of political prisoners by the state security organisation, SAVAK, is the subject of widespread criticism.
• A slump in oil sales between 1975 and '77 forces the government to reduce social spending even further to finance building projects and the purchase of armaments

• In January and February 1978 demonstrations and riots led by the clerics or seminary students occur in Qum and Tabriz and rapidly spread to cities and towns all over the country.
• In September hundreds of thousands march in Tehran
• The leadership of the protest movement is passed to Ayatollah Khomenini, who from exile calls for the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of an Islamic republic.
• In a last attempt to keep control, the Shah appoints Shahpur Bakhtiar, a National Front politician, premier at the end of 1978

• On January 16^th the Shah is forced to flee the country with his family, and eventually dies in Egypt in 1980.

• On February 1, Khomeini denounces Bakhtiar and returns to Tehran.
• A referendum is held on March 31 - April 1, and an Islamic Republic declared. This requires all institutions, laws, and economic and social policies to be based on Islam
• On 4th November US diplomats are taken hostage at the American Embassy in Tehran. They are released in January 1981.

• From July 1980 the skirmishes at the Iranian Iraqi frontier intensify and in September Iraqi forces enter Khuzestan. Though Iranian forces succeed in retaking virtually all lost territory in early 1982, Khomeini refuses to end the war, vowing to overthrow Saddam Hussein and his secular government.
• Fighting continues until July 1998 killing hundreds of thousands on both sides. A cease-fire is finally negotiated (United Nations Resolution 598) with neither side having achieved its objective.
• Ayatollah Khomeini dies on June 3 1989
• He is succeeded by Seyyed Ali Khamenei who becomes the head of state and Guide of the Revolution on 4 June 1989 and Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani who becomes president of the Republic in July 1989.