Key Dates in Modern European & World History (1806-2023)

Posted on Mar 28, 2025 in International Relations

Key European & World History Dates: 1806-1906

  • 1806: Abolition of the Holy Roman Empire by Francis II.
  • October 1814 – June 1815: Congress of Vienna.
  • 18 June 1815: Battle of Waterloo.
  • September 1815: Signature of the Holy Alliance.
  • 1820-1823: Spanish Liberal Triennium.
  • 1825: Decembrist Revolt.
  • July 1830: July French Revolution. Beginning of the July Monarchy in France.
  • August 1830: Belgian Revolution.
  • 1832: Lord Grey’s Electoral Reform Law in England.
  • February 1848: Revolution breaks out in Paris. Second French Republic established.
  • 4 March 1848: Albertine Statute.
  • 13-18 March 1848: Revolution breaks out in Vienna and Berlin.
  • May 1848: Constitution of the Frankfurt Parliament (until May 1849).
  • 1850: Prussian constitution granted by Frederick William IV (until 1918).
  • 1858: Cavour meets Napoleon III at Plombières.
  • 1859: Battles of Magenta and Solferino.
  • 14 March 1861: Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy.
  • 1862: Bismarck heads the Prussian Council of Ministers (until 1890).
  • 1866: Austrians are defeated by Prussians at Sadowa.
  • 1868: Spanish Glorious Revolution.
  • July 1870: Beginning of the Franco-Prussian War (until May 1871).
  • 18 Jan 1871: William I of Prussia is proclaimed Emperor in Versailles, head of the Second Reich.
  • March-May 1871: Paris Commune.
  • 1873-1874: First Spanish Republic.
  • 1882: Bismarck forges the Triple Alliance (Prussia, Austria, and Italy).
  • 1890: Bismarck’s resignation.
  • 1892: Franco-Russian Alliance.
  • 1904: Beginning of the Russo-Japanese War (until Sept 1905).
  • 1905: First Russian Revolution.
  • 1906: Nicholas II endorses the first Russian constitution.

Major Global Events Timeline: 1914-1945

  • 28 June 1914: Sarajevo assassination.
  • 5-12 Sept 1914: Battle of the Marne. Beginning of trench warfare.
  • Feb-Dec 1916: Battle of Verdun.
  • May 1917: French mutinies.
  • Oct 1917: Soviet Revolution.
  • March 1918: Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
  • 11 Nov 1918: Compiègne Armistice.
  • Jan 1919: Spartacist Revolution.
  • March 1919: Foundation of the Comintern.
  • 28 June 1919: Treaty of Versailles.
  • July 1919: Weimar Constitution.
  • Oct 1922: March on Rome.
  • Dec 1922: Creation of the Soviet Union.
  • Jan 1924: Death of Lenin.
  • June 1924: Assassination of Matteotti.
  • 1927: Stalin seizes power (XV Congress of the SUCP).
  • Oct 1929: Wall Street crisis.
  • 1932: First election of FDR in the US.
  • Jan 1933: Hitler appointed Chancellor.
  • March 1933: Enabling Act.
  • July 1934: Night of the Long Knives.
  • 1936: Beginning of the Moscow Trials (Stalin’s Great Purges).
  • March 1938: Austrian Anschluss.
  • Sept 1938: Munich Agreement (Sudetenland).
  • August 1939: Non-Aggression Pact (Hitler + Stalin).
  • 1 Sept 1939: German invasion of Poland. Beginning of World War II.
  • 17 Sept 1939: Russian invasion of Poland.
  • April-May 1940: Katyn Massacre.
  • June 1940: France surrenders to Germany.
  • June 1941: Wehrmacht invades Russia.
  • Dec 1941: Pearl Harbor attack.
  • Jan 1942: Wannsee Conference.
  • Jan 1943: Von Paulus surrenders at Stalingrad.
  • July 1943: Mussolini is dismissed.
  • 6 June 1944: Landing of the Allies at Normandy (D-Day).
  • May 7, 1945: Unconditional surrender of Germany.
  • August 1945: Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Post-War World History Timeline: 1946-1969

  • 9 Feb 1946: UNO condemns the Francoist Regime; Spain isolated.
  • 5 March 1946: Churchill’s ‘Iron Curtain’ speech. Opening of the Cold War.
  • 2 June 1946: Appearance of the Italian Republic.
  • 1947: Marshall Plan announced.
  • 9 May 1948: Beginning of the Hague Congress.
  • 24 June 1948: Beginning of the Berlin Blockade (until 12 May 1949). Berlin Airlift commences.
  • 4 April 1949: Creation of NATO.
  • 8 May 1949: Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany adopted.
  • 1 Oct 1949: Mao proclaims the People’s Republic of China.
  • 25 June 1950: Beginning of the Korean War (until 1953).
  • 18 April 1951: Signature of the Treaty of Paris (effective 23 July 1952 – Expired 23 July 2002). Beginning of the European integration process; European Coal and Steel Community established.
  • 5 March 1953: Death of Stalin.
  • 27 July 1953: End of the Korean War.
  • 13 March – 7 May 1954: Defeat at Dien Bien Phu. End of French presence in Indochina; proclamation of the Vietnam Republic.
  • 14-25 Feb 1956: 20th Congress of the CPSU. End of Stalinism (Khrushchev).
  • 23 Oct 1956: Beginning of the Hungarian Revolt (Until USSR military invasion, 10 Nov).
  • 25 March 1957: Treaties of Rome signed. Appearance of the European Economic Community.
  • 1958: De Gaulle returns to power in France (until 1969).
  • 1 Jan 1959: Triumph of the Cuban Revolution (Fidel Castro).
  • 13 August 1961: Beginning of the building of the Berlin Wall (until 1989).
  • 16-28 Oct 1962: Missile crisis in Cuba.
  • 22 Nov 1963: Assassination of JFK.
  • 1964: Beginning of the Vietnam War (Until 30 April 1975 – Fall of Saigon).
  • 1966: Beginning of the Cultural Revolution in China.
  • 9 Oct 1967: Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara is killed in Bolivia.
  • 5 Jan 1968: Beginning of the Prague Spring (Dubček). Until USSR military invasion (21 Aug).
  • May 1968: Revolution in Paris.
  • 28 April 1969: De Gaulle resigns the French Presidency.

Modern World History Highlights: 1973-2010

  • March 29, 1973: US withdraws from Vietnam.
  • 11 Sept 1973: Military coup in Chile against Allende.
  • 9 Aug 1974: President Nixon resigns to avoid impeachment after the Watergate Scandal.
  • 17 April 1975: Fall of Phnom Penh. Khmer Rouge revolution in Cambodia. Beginning of Pol Pot’s genocide.
  • 30 April 1975: Fall of Saigon. End of the Vietnam War.
  • 20 Nov 1975: Death of Franco in Madrid.
  • 9 Sept 1976: Death of Mao Zedong.
  • 15 June 1977: First democratic election in Spain since 1936.
  • 1978: Deng Xiaoping opens up the Chinese Economy to capitalism (Market Socialism).
  • 4 Nov 1979: Beginning of the Iran Hostage Crisis (until 20 Jan 1981).
  • 3 Dec 1979: Ayatollah Khomeini becomes Supreme Leader of Iran’s Islamic Republic, the first Islamic Radical State.
  • 23 Feb 1981: Military coup attempt fails in Spain.
  • 10 May 1981: François Mitterrand becomes the first socialist President of the French Fifth Republic (until 17 May 1995).
  • 1985: Gorbachev comes to power in the USSR.
  • 15 April – 4 June 1989: Tiananmen Square revolt in China.
  • 9 Nov 1989: Fall of the Berlin Wall.
  • 31 Aug 1990: Unification Treaty of Germany.
  • 22 Sept 1990: 2 Plus Four Agreement; Germany recovers full sovereignty.
  • Dec 1991: Dissolution of the USSR.
  • 7 Feb 1992: Maastricht Treaty signed. Appearance of the EU (Effective 1 Nov 1993).
  • 11 Sept 2001: Islamist terrorism hits the US (9/11 attacks).
  • 11 March 2004: Terrorist attack in Madrid. Bombs on different trains kill 191 and injure over 1900 persons.
  • 22 Nov 2005: First election of Angela Merkel as Chancellor of Germany.
  • 2008: First election of Barack Obama as US President.
  • 1 Dec 2009: Treaty of Lisbon enters into force (signed on 13 Dec 2007).
  • 11 May 2010: David Cameron becomes British Prime Minister.

Contemporary World Events: 2012 – Nov 2018

  • 6 May 2012: Socialist François Hollande is elected President of France with 51.6%, against Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2012).
  • 6 Nov 2012: Obama reelected as US President.
  • 17 Dec 2013: Beginning of Merkel’s third term ahead of a Coalition Government with Socialists.
  • 19 June 2014: Philip VI becomes King of Spain after the abdication of Juan Carlos I.
  • 18 Sept 2014: Scottish independence referendum. 55.3% of Scots voted to remain in the UK (turnout 84.6%).
  • 7 Jan 2015: Two radical Islamists kill 11 people and injure 11 belonging to the staff of the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo.
  • 7 May 2015: Reelection of David Cameron as British Prime Minister.
  • 13 Nov 2015: Simultaneous Islamist terrorist attacks in Paris kill 130 people (90 at the Bataclan theatre) and injure 368.
  • 23 June 2016: Brexit Referendum held in the UK.
  • 8 Nov 2016: Election of Donald Trump as US President.
  • 7 May 2017: Emmanuel Macron elected President of France.
  • 27 Oct 2017: Catalan Parliament approves a Unilateral Declaration of Independence. The Spanish Government suspends the Autonomous Government of Catalonia (Article 155 of the Constitution) and calls for new elections in Catalonia for 21 Dec.
  • 27 Nov 2017: Former Catalan President Puigdemont flees Spain for Belgium.
  • 4 March 2018: Populists Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio win General Elections in Italy.
  • 27 April 2018: First time since the end of the Korean War: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in meet at the border (Demilitarized Zone: DMZ).
  • 1 June 2018: Conservative Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy dismissed by a Vote of No Confidence and replaced by Pedro Sánchez.
  • 6 November 2018: Midterm elections in the US; Democrats get control of the House of Representatives.

Recent Global Developments: Nov 2018 – Jan 2021

  • 18 November 2018: Detention by Japanese authorities of Carlos Ghosn, former Renault and Nissan CEO.
  • 1 December 2018: Leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador elected President of Mexico.
  • 28 April 2019: General Election in Spain. No clear majority makes forming a government impossible.
  • 23-26 May 2019: European Parliament Elections. For the first time, EPP and PES together do not hold a majority in the EP.
  • 16 July 2019: Conservative German Ursula von der Leyen is elected as President of the European Commission, the first woman in the EU’s history to hold this office.
  • 14 October 2019: Catalan independentist leaders sentenced to jail by the Spanish Supreme Court.
  • 10 November 2019: New General Election in Spain.
  • 12 Nov 2019: Bolivian President Evo Morales flees his country accused of electoral fraud and seeks asylum in Mexico.
  • 12 Dec 2019: British General Elections. The Conservative Party obtains a majority. Boris Johnson is confirmed as Prime Minister.
  • 18 Dec 2019: Donald Trump is impeached by the House of Representatives because of the Ukrainian scandal for Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress.
  • 30 Dec 2019: Carlos Ghosn, former Nissan and Renault CEO, flees Japan for Lebanon after one year in detention.
  • 7 January 2020: After 240 days without a regular Government, Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez is elected as Spanish Prime Minister.
  • 31 January 2020: The UK leaves the European Union.
  • March 2020: Beginning of the expansion of the COVID-19 Pandemic all over the world.
  • 6 January 2021: Assault on the US Capitol by Trump supporters.
  • 17 January 2021: Political opponent to Putin, Alexei Navalny, arrested in Moscow. He came back to Russia after recovering in Germany from an attempt of poisoning.
  • 20 January 2021: Joe Biden takes office as the 46th US President.

Current World Affairs Timeline: April 2021 – Jan 2023

  • 14 April 2021: Biden announces the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.
  • 23 July 2021: Opening of the Tokyo Olympic Games.
  • 15 August 2021: Kabul is conquered by Taliban forces.
  • 30 August 2021: Last US Troops leave Afghanistan.
  • 8 Dec 2021: Angela Merkel retires as Chancellor after 16 years as head of the CDU and the German Government. Replaced by SPD leader Olaf Scholz.
  • 24 Feb 2022: Russian troops invade Ukraine. The EU responds firmly against Russian aggression, supporting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
  • 10-24 April 2022: French Presidential elections. Emmanuel Macron reelected.
  • 12-19 June 2022: Legislative elections in France. Macron does not achieve an absolute majority.
  • 6 Sept 2022: Boris Johnson resigns as Prime Minister and is replaced by Liz Truss.
  • 8 Sept 2022: Elizabeth II of England dies at Balmoral Castle, aged 96, after 70 years of reign (since 6 February 1952).
  • 25 Sept 2022: General elections in Italy. Giorgia Meloni becomes the first woman to head the Italian Government (takes office 22 October).
  • 25 Oct 2022: Liz Truss resigns and is replaced by Rishi Sunak as British Prime Minister.
  • 30 Oct 2022: Lula da Silva is reelected President of Brazil.
  • 13 Dec 2022: European Council of the EU lifts all travel restrictions between EU countries related to COVID-19.
  • 14 Dec 2022: Ukrainian Troops reconquer the city of Kherson from Russian occupation.
  • 1 Jan 2023: Lula da Silva takes office as President of Brazil.
  • 8 Jan 2023: Thousands of far-right supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro storm the country’s Congress, Supreme Court, and Presidential Palace in Brasilia.

Historical Context: Foundational Events

Survival Universal Model

  • 800: Charlemagne’s crowning as Emperor.
  • 962: Otto I is crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (First Reich).
  • 1054: Eastern Schism.
  • 1075: Dictatus Papae – Gregory VII (1073-1085) head of the Gregorian Reform.
  • 1155-1190: Reign of Frederick I Barbarossa.
  • 1198-1216: Papacy of Innocent III, chief exponent of Papal theocracy.
  • 1220-1250: Reign of Frederick II Hohenstaufen.
  • 1378-1417: Western Schism.
  • 1520: Beginning of the Lutheran Reformation.
  • 1534: Henry VIII of England breaks with Rome.
  • 1804: Napoleon becomes Emperor of the French. First French Empire.
  • 1806: End of the Holy Roman Empire (First Reich).
  • 1852-1870: Second French Empire (Napoleon III).
  • 1871-1918: Second Reich (German Empire).
  • 1933-1945: Third Reich.

Crown of Aragon History

  • 1137: Marriage in Barbastro (Aragon) of Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona, and Petronila, daughter of the King of Aragon and heir to the Aragonese throne.
  • 1164-1196: Alfonso II of Aragon and I of Barcelona, son of Ramon Berenguer IV and Petronila, becomes King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona.
  • 1238: James I of Aragon (1213-1276) conquers Valencia.
  • 1276: At the death of James I of Aragon, the Kingdom of Valencia joins the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of Barcelona in a composite monarchy.
  • 1283: Integration of the Kingdom of Sicily into the Crown of Aragon.
  • 1312: Integration of the Valley of Aran into the Crown of Aragon.
  • 1349: After the victory of Peter IV of Aragon over James III of Mallorca, the Kingdom of Mallorca is integrated into the Crown of Aragon.
  • 1442: Integration of the Kingdom of Naples into the Crown of Aragon.

Spanish Monarchy to State Formation

  • 1469: Wedding of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile in Valladolid.
  • 1474: Isabella becomes Queen of Castile.
  • 1479: Ferdinand becomes King of Aragon.
  • 1517: Charles I becomes King of Castile and King of Aragon.
  • 1700: Philip V becomes King of Spain.
  • 1701-1714: War of the Spanish Succession. “Nueva Planta” Decrees lead to the end of public autonomy for Valencia (1707), Aragon (1711), Mallorca (1715), and Catalonia (1716).
  • 1841: The Kingdom of Navarre reaches an Agreement (Ley Paccionada, 16 August 1841) within the Kingdom of Spain after the First Carlist War (1833-1839).
  • 1873-1874: The First Spanish Republic does not succeed in creating a “federal” Spain.
  • 1876: Integration of the Basque Provinces into the Kingdom of Spain after the Third Carlist War (1872-1876).
  • 1878: Economic Agreement (Concierto Económico) between the Kingdom of Spain state and the Basque Provinces of Álava, Guipúzcoa, and Vizcaya.
  • 1931: The Second Spanish Republic creates the “Integral State”. The Catalan Statute appears in 1932 and the Basque Statute in 1936.
  • 1939: Franco’s victory brings a totally unified Spain until 1978.
  • 1979: Under the 1978 Spanish Constitution, the first Autonomy Statutes for the Basque Country and Catalonia are approved. Catalonia would have a second one approved in 2006.

United Kingdom Historical Milestones

  • 1535-1542: Integration of Wales (“Laws in Wales Acts”) into the Kingdom of England.
  • 1603: James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England when Elizabeth I dies without descendants. The Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England share the same King (Union of the Crowns).
  • 1707: Forming of the Kingdom of Great Britain (Acts of Union 1707). Integration into one kingdom of England, Scotland, and Wales. The Union Jack flag appears.
  • 1801: Ireland gets integrated into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (Act of Union 1800).
  • 1922: Creation of the Irish Free State. The UK becomes the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Irish Free State is replaced by the new state of Ireland (Eire) in 1937.
  • 1949: The Republic of Ireland is formally declared (effective date).
  • 1997: Scottish Devolution Referendum. 74.3% of Scottish voters vote in favour of the restoration of their own Parliament.
  • 18 Sept 2014: Scottish Independence Referendum. 55.3% of Scots (2,001,926) say “no” to independence, against 44.7% (1,617,989) that voted “yes”.