| c.2500–c.1450 BC | Minoan ascendancy |
| c.1450–c.1100 | Mycenaean ascendancy |
| c.1194–84 | Siege of Troy |
| 508 | Cleisthenes installs democracy in Athens |
| 490 | Athenians defeat Persians at Marathon |
| 461–429 | Ascendancy of Pericles, Golden Age of Athens |
| 336–323 | Reign of Alexander |
| 241 | Romans drive Carthaginians from Sicily |
| 218–203 | Hannibal in Italy |
| 44 | Assassination of Caesar |
| 27 | Augustus Roman emperor |
| AD c.33 | Death of Jesus Christ |
| 117–38 | Hadrian as emperor |
| 286 | Diocletian divides Roman empire |
| 306–37 | Constantine emperor |
| 325 | Council of Nicaea |
| 410 | Alaric sacks Rome |
| 451 | Attila defeated at Catalaunian Plains |
| 476 | Augustulus toppled, formal end of Roman empire |
| 493 | Clovis acknowledges Theodoric as king of Italy |
| 536 | Justinian recaptures Italy |
| 595 | Gregory the Great sends Augustine to England |
| 632–700 | Muslims conquer one-third of Christendom |
| 732 | Martel defeats Abdul Rahman at Poitiers |
| 800 | Charlemagne made first Holy Roman Emperor |
| 845 | Vikings sack Paris |
| 955 | Otto defeats Magyars at Lechfeld |
| 988 | Vladimir brings Russia into the Byzantine church |
| 1015–17 | Cnut occupies England |
| 1054 | Great Schism between Rome and Byzantium |
| 1066 | Normans conquer England |
| 1077 | Penitent Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, walks to Canossa |
| 1099 | First crusade occupies Jerusalem |
| 1147 | Second crusade |
| 1170 | Murder of Becket at Canterbury |
| 1204 | Fourth crusade sacks Constantinople |
| 1215 | Magna Carta in England |
| 1216 | Innocent III’s Fourth Lateran Council decrees promulgated |
| 1241 | Golden Horde reaches Hungary |
| 1265 | De Montfort’s parliament |
| 1309 | Philip of France establishes Avignon papacy |
| 1337 | Outbreak of Hundred Years War |
| 1346 | Battle of Crécy |
| 1347–51 | Black Death ravages Europe |
| 1378 | Divided papacy causes western schism |
| 1402 | Jan Hus preaches Wycliffe’s teachings in Prague |
| 1415 | Council of Constance, burning of Hus |
| 1417 | End of Western Schism |
| 1453 | Battle of Castillon ends Hundred Years War Fall of Constantinople to Ottomans |
| 1455 | Gutenberg prints Bible |
| 1456 | Sailors sent by Henry the Navigator reach Cape Verde Islands |
| 1480 | Ivan the Great drives out Tartars |
| 1483 | Torquemada heads Spanish Inquisition |
| 1492 | Fall of Moorish Granada Columbus lands in the Caribbean |
| 1494–8 | Savonarola in Florence |
| 1517 | Luther publishes theses against Rome |
| 1519 | Charles V becomes Holy Roman Emperor |
| 1520 | Francis I and Henry VIII meet at the Field of the Cloth of Gold |
| 1526 | Suleiman the Magnificent defeats Hungarians at Mohács |
| 1530 | Diet of Augsburg hears Protestant confession |
| 1545 | Council of Trent hears Catholic rebuttal |
| 1555 | Peace of Augsburg compromises on cuius regio, eius religio |
| 1571 | Catholics defeat Ottomans at Lepanto |
| 1572 | St Bartholomew’s Day massacre |
| 1588 | Defeat of Spanish Armada |
| 1598 | Henry IV passes Edict of Nantes tolerating Protestant Huguenots |
| 1618 | Defenestration of Prague begins Thirty Years War |
| 1648 | Peace of Westphalia |
| 1649 | Execution of Charles I initiates Cromwellian commonwealth |
| 1660 | Restoration of Charles II to English throne |
| 1661 | Louis XIV begins personal rule |
| 1672–8 | Franco–Dutch War |
| 1685 | Louis revokes Edict of Nantes, expels Huguenots |
| 1688 | William of Orange invades England, James II flees to France |
| 1688–97 | Nine Years War |
| 1701–14 | War of Spanish Succession |
| 1713 | Treaty of Utrecht |
| 1740–48 | War of Austrian Succession Frederick of Prussia invades Silesia |
| 1756–63 | Seven Years War |
| 1762 | Catherine the Great seizes throne of Russia |
| 1763 | Treaty of Paris concludes Seven Years War |
| 1773 | Boston Tea Party |
| 1775–83 | American War of Independence |
| 1789 | French Revolution starts |
| 1793 | Robespierre’s Terror |
| 1804 | Napoleon crowns himself French emperor |
| 1805 | Battles of Trafalgar and Austerlitz |
| 1806 | Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire |
| 1812 | Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow |
| 1815 | Battle of Waterloo and fall of Napoleon |
| 1830 | Greek independence First year of abortive revolutions |
| 1832 | British Reform Act abolishes rotten boroughs |
| 1848 | Second year of abortive revolutions |
| 1853–6 | Crimean War |
| 1861 | Unification of Italy |
| 1866 | Bismarck defeats Austria |
| 1871 | Bismarck defeats France |
| 1885 | Second Congress of Berlin defines Europe’s empires |
| 1914–18 | Great War |
| 1917 | Russian revolution |
| 1919 | Treaty of Versailles |
| 1925 | Treaty of Locarno |
| 1929 | Start of Great Depression |
| 1939 | Hitler invades Poland, start of Second World War |
| 1941 | America enters war following Pearl Harbor |
| 1945 | Yalta and Potsdam conferences; war ends |
| 1948–9 | Blockade of Berlin |
| 1949 | Foundation of NATO |
| 1957 | Treaty of Rome sets up EEC |
| 1962 | Cuban missile crisis |
| 1989 | Fall of Berlin Wall |
| 1991 | Dissolution of Soviet Union |
| 1999 | Putin assumes power in Moscow |
| 2002 | Euro becomes pan-European currency |
| 2016 | United Kingdom votes to leave EU |