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Long post Alert….4.5 billion B.C.Planet Earth formed.3 billion B.C.First signs of primeval life (bacteria and blue-green algae) appear in oceans.600 million B.C.Earliest date to which fossils can be traced.4.4 million B.C.Earliest known hominid fossils (Ardipithecus ramidus) found in Aramis, Ethiopia, 1994.4.2 million B.C.Australopithecus anamensis found in Lake Turkana, Kenya, 1995.3.2 million B.C.Australopithecus afarenis (nicknamed “Lucy”) found in Ethiopia, 1974.2.5 million B.C.Homo habilis (“Skillful Man”).First brain expansion; is believed to have used stone tools.1.8 million B.C.Homo erectus (“Upright Man”).Brain size twice that of Australopithecine species.1.7 million B.C.Homo erectus leaves Africa.100,000 B.C.First modern Homo sapiens in South Africa.70,000 B.C.Neanderthal man (use of fire and advanced tools).35,000 B.C.The neanderthal man replaced by later groups of Homo sapiens (i.e., Cro-Magnon man, etc.).18,000 B.C.Cro-Magnons replaced by later cultures.15,000 B.C.Migrations across Bering Straits into the Americas.10,000 B.C.Semi-permanent agricultural settlements in Old World.10,000–4,000 B.C.Development of settlements into cities and development of skills such as the wheel, pottery, and improved methods of cultivation in Mesopotamia and elsewhere.5500–3000 B.C.Predynastic Egyptian cultures develop (5500–3100 B.C.); begin using agriculture (c. 5000 B.C.).The earliest known civilization arises in Sumer (4500–4000 B.C.).Earliest recorded date in the Egyptian calendar (4241 B.C.).First-year of the Jewish calendar (3760 B.C.).First phonetic writing appears (c. 3500 B.C.).Sumerians develop a city-state civilization (c. 3000 B.C.).Copper used by Egyptians and Sumerians.Western Europe is neolithic, without metals or written records.3000–2000 B.C.Pharaonic rule begins in Egypt.King Khufu (Cheops), 4th dynasty (2700–2675 B.C.), completes construction of the Great Pyramid at Giza (c. 2680 B.C.).The Great Sphinx of Giza (c. 2540 B.C.) is built by King Khafre.Earliest Egyptian mummies. Papyrus.Phoenician settlements on the coast of what is now Syria and Lebanon.Semitic tribes settle in Assyria.Sargon, the first Akkadian king, builds the Mesopotamian empire.The Gilgamesh epic (c. 3000 B.C.). Systematic astronomy in Egypt, Babylon, India, China.3000–1500 B.C.The most ancient civilization on the Indian subcontinent, the sophisticated and extensive Indus Valley civilization, flourishes in what is today Pakistan.In Britain, Stonehenge erected according to some unknown astronomical rationale.Its three main phases of construction are thought to span c. 3000–1500 B.C.2000–1500 B.C.Hyksos invaders drive Egyptians from Lower Egypt (17th century B.C.).Amosis I frees Egypt from Hyksos (c. 1600 B.C.).Assyrians rise to power—cities of Ashur and Nineveh.Twenty-four-character alphabet in Egypt.Cuneiform inscriptions used by Hittites.The peak of Minoan culture on Isle of Crete—earliest form of written Greek.Hammurabi, king of Babylon, develops the oldest existing code of laws (18th century B.C.).1500–1000 B.C.Ikhnaton develops a monotheistic religion in Egypt (c. 1375 B.C.).His successor, Tutankhamen, returns to earlier gods.Greeks destroy Troy (c. 1193 B.C.).End of Greek civilization in Mycenae with an invasion of Dorians.Chinese civilization develops under the Shang Dynasty.Olmec civilization in Mexico—stone monuments; picture writing.1000–900 B.C.Solomon succeeds in King David, builds Jerusalem temple.After Solomon's death, the kingdom divided into Israel and Judah.Hebrew elders begin to write Old Testament books of the Bible.Phoenicians colonize Spain with the settlement at Cadiz.900–800 B.C.Phoenicians establish Carthage (c. 810 B.C.).The Iliad and the Odyssey, perhaps composed by Greek poet Homer.800–700 B.C.Prophets Amos, Hosea, Isaiah.First recorded Olympic games (776 B.C.).Legendary founding of Rome by Romulus (753 B.C.).Assyrian king Sargon II conquers Hittites, Chaldeans, Samaria (end of Kingdom of Israel).Earliest written music.Chariots introduced into Italy by Etruscans.700–600 B.C.End of Assyrian Empire (616 B.C.)—Nineveh destroyed by Chaldeans (Neo-Babylonians) and Medes (612 B.C.).The founding of Byzantium by Greeks (c. 660 B.C.).The building of the Acropolis in Athens. Solon, Greek lawgiver (640–560 B.C.).Sappho of Lesbos, Greek poet (fl. c. 610–580 B.C.).Lao-tse, Chinese philosopher and founder of Taoism (born c. 604 B.C.).600–500 B.C.Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar builds an empire, destroys Jerusalem (586 B.C.).Babylonian Captivity of the Jews (starting 587 B.C.).Hanging Gardens of Babylon.Cyrus the Great of Persia creates a great empire, conquers Babylon (539 B.C.), frees the Jews.Athenian democracy develops. Aeschylus, Greek dramatist (525–465 B.C.).Pythagoras, Greek philosopher, and mathematician (582?–507? B.C.).Confucius (551–479 B.C.) develops ethical and social philosophy in China.The Analects or Lun-yü (“collected sayings”) are compiled by the second generation of Confucian disciples.Buddha (563?–483? B.C.) founds Buddhism in India.500–400 B.C.Greeks defeat Persians: battles of Marathon (490 B.C.), Thermopylae (480 B.C.), Salamis (480 B.C.).Peloponnesian Wars between Athens and Sparta (431–404 B.C.)—Sparta victorious.Pericles comes to power in Athens (462 B.C.).The flowering of Greek culture during the Age of Pericles (450–400 B.C.).The Parthenon is built in Athens as a temple of the goddess Athena (447–432 B.C.).Ictinus and Callicrates are the architects and Phidias are responsible for the sculpture.Sophocles, Greek dramatist (496?–406 B.C.).Hippocrates, Greek “Father of Medicine” (born 460 B.C.).Xerxes I, king of Persia (rules 485–465 B.C.).400–300 B.C.Pentateuch—The first five books of the Old Testament evolve in the final form.Philip of Macedon, who believed himself to be a descendant of the Greek people, assassinated (336 B.C.) after subduing the Greek city-states; succeeded by son, Alexander the Great (356–323 B.C.), who destroys Thebes (335 B.C.), conquers Tyre and Jerusalem (332 B.C.), occupies Babylon (330 B.C.), invades India, and dies in Babylon. His empire is divided among his generals; one of them, Seleucis I, establishes the Middle East empire with capitals at Antioch (Syria) and Seleucia (in Iraq).Trial and execution of Greek philosopher Socrates (399 B.C.).Dialogues recorded by his student, Plato (c. 427–348 or 347 B.C.).Euclid's work on geometry (323 B.C.).Aristotle, Greek philosopher (384–322 B.C.).Demosthenes, Greek orator (384–322 B.C.).Praxiteles, Greek sculptor (400–330 B.C.).300–251 B.C.First Punic War (264–241 B.C.): Rome defeats the Carthaginians and begins its domination of the Mediterranean.Temple of the Sun at Teotihuacán, Mexico (c. 300 B.C.).The invention of the Mayan calendar in Yucatán—more exact than older calendars.First Roman gladiatorial games (264 B.C.).Archimedes, Greek mathematician (287–212 B.C.).250–201 B.C.Second Punic War (219–201 B.C.): Hannibal, Carthaginian general (246–142 B.C.), crosses the Alps (218 B.C.), reaches gates of Rome (211 B.C.), retreats, and is defeated by Scipio Africanus at Zama (202 B.C.).Great Wall of China built (c. 215 B.C.).200–151 B.C.Romans defeat Seleucid King Antiochus III at Thermopylae (191 B.C.)—beginning of Roman world domination.Maccabean revolt against Seleucids (167 B.C.).150–101 B.C.Third Punic War (149–146 B.C.): Rome destroys Carthage, killing 450,000 and enslaving the remaining 50,000 inhabitants.Roman armies conquer Macedonia, Greece, Anatolia, Balearic Islands, and southern France.Venus de Milo (c. 140 B.C.).Cicero, Roman orator (106–43 B.C.).100–51 B.C.Julius Caesar (100–44 B.C.) invades Britain (55 B.C.) and conquers Gaul (France) (c. 50 B.C.).Spartacus leads a slave revolt against Rome (71 B.C.).Romans conquer Seleucid empire. Roman general Pompey conquers Jerusalem (63 B.C.).Cleopatra on Egyptian throne (51–31 B.C.).Chinese develop the use of paper (c. 100 B.C.).Virgil, Roman poet (70–19 B.C.).Horace, Roman poet (65–8 B.C.).50–1 B.C.Caesar crosses Rubicon to fight Pompey (50 B.C.).Herod made the Roman governor of Judea (37 B.C.).Caesar murdered (44 B.C.).Caesar's nephew, Octavian, defeats Mark Antony and Cleopatra at Battle of Actium (31 B.C.), and establishes the Roman empire as Emperor Augustus; rules 27 B.C.–A.D. 14.Pantheon built for the first time under Agrippa, 27 B.C.Ovid, Roman poet (43 B.C.–A.D. 18).1–49Birth of Jesus Christ (variously given from 4 B.C. to A.D. 7).After Augustus, Tiberius becomes emperor (dies, A.D. 37), succeeded by Caligula (assassinated, A.D. 41), who is followed by Claudius.The crucifixion of Jesus (probably A.D. 30).Han dynasty in China founded by Emperor Kuang Wu Ti. Buddhism introduced to China.50–99Claudius poisoned (A.D. 54), succeeded by Nero (commits suicide, A.D. 68).Missionary journeys of Paul the Apostle (A.D. 34–60).Jews revolt against Rome; Jerusalem destroyed (A.D. 70).Roman persecutions of Christians begin (A.D. 64).Colosseum built in Rome (A.D. 71–80).Trajan (ruled A.D. 98–116); the Roman empire extends to Mesopotamia, Arabia, Balkans. First Gospels of St. Mark, St. John, St. Matthew.100–149Hadrian rules Rome (A.D. 117–138); codifies Roman law, rebuilds Pantheon, establishes a postal system, builds a wall between England and Scotland.Jews revolt under Bar Kokhba (A.D. 122–135); the final Diaspora (dispersion) of Jews begins.150–199Marcus Aurelius rules Rome (A.D. 161–180).Oldest Mayan temples in Central America (c. A.D. 200).200–249Goths invade Asia Minor (c. A.D. 220).Roman persecutions of Christians increase. Persian (Sassanid) empire re-established.End of Chinese Han dynasty.250–299Increasing invasions of the Roman empire by Franks and Goths.Buddhism spreads in China.The classic period of Mayan civilization (A.D. 250–900); develop hieroglyphic writing, advances in art, architecture, science.300–349Constantine the Great (rules A.D. 312–337) reunites eastern and western Roman empires, with new capital (Constantinople) on site of Byzantium (A.D. 330); issues Edict of Milan legalizing Christianity (A.D. 313); becomes a Christian on his deathbed (A.D. 337).Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325) defines orthodox Christian doctrine.First Gupta dynasty in India (c. A.D. 320).350–399Huns (Mongols) invade Europe (c. A.D. 360).Theodosius the Great (rules A.D. 392–395)—last emperor of a united Roman empire.Roman empire permanently divided in A.D. 395: western empire ruled from Rome; the eastern empire ruled from Constantinople.400–449Western Roman empire disintegrates under weak emperors. Alaric, king of the Visigoths, sacks Rome (A.D. 410).Attila, Hun chieftain, attacks Roman provinces (A.D. 433).St. Patrick returns to Ireland (A.D. 432) and brings Christianity to the island. St. Augustine's City of God (A.D. 411).450–499Vandals destroy Rome (A.D. 455).Western Roman empire ends as Odoacer, German chieftain, overthrows the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus, and becomes king of Italy (A.D. 476).Ostrogothic kingdom of Italy established by Theodoric the Great (A.D. 493).Clovis, the ruler of the Franks, is converted to Christianity (A.D. 496).The first schism between western and eastern churches (A.D. 484).500–549Eastern and western churches reconciled (519).Justinian I, the Great (483–565), becomes the Byzantine emperor (527), issues his first code of civil laws (529), conquers North Africa, Italy, and part of Spain.The plague spreads through Europe (542 et seq.).Arthur, semi-legendary king of the Britons (killed, c. 537).Boëthius, Roman scholar (executed, 524).550–599Beginnings of the European silk industry after Justinian's missionaries smuggle silkworms out of China (553).Mohammed, founder of Islam (570–632).Buddhism in Japan (c. 560).St. Augustine of Canterbury brings Christianity to Britain (597).After killing about half the population, plague in Europe subsides (594).600–649Mohammed flees from Mecca to Medina (the Hegira); the first year of the Muslim calendar (622).Muslim empire grows (634).Arabs conquer Jerusalem (637), conquer Persians (641).650–699Arabs attack North Africa (670), destroy Carthage (697).Venerable Bede, English monk (672–735).700–749The Arab empire extends from Lisbon to China (by 716).Charles Martel, Frankish leader, defeats Arabs at Tours/Poitiers, halting Arab advance in Europe (732).Charlemagne (742–814).Introduction of pagodas in Japan from China.750–799Charlemagne becomes king of the Franks (771).Caliph Harun al-Rashid rules the Arab empire (786–809): the “golden age” of Arab culture.Vikings begin attacks on Britain (790), land in Ireland (795).The city of Machu Picchu flourishes in Peru.800–849Charlemagne crowned the first Holy Roman Emperor in Rome (800).Charlemagne dies (814), succeeded by his son, Louis the Pious, who divides France among his sons (817).Arabs conquer Crete, Sicily, and Sardinia (826–827).850–899Norsemen attack as far south as the Mediterranean but are thwarted (859), discover Iceland (861).Alfred the Great becomes king of Britain (871), defeats Danish invaders (878).The Russian nation founded by Vikings under Prince Rurik, establishing capital at Novgorod (855–879).900–949Beginning of Mayan Post-Classical period (900–1519).Vikings discover Greenland (c. 900).Arab Spain under Abd ar-Rahman III becomes the center of learning (912–961).Otto I becomes King of Germany (936).950–999Mieczyslaw I becomes the first ruler of Poland (960).Eric the Red establishes the first Viking colony in Greenland (982).Hugh Capet elected King of France in 987; the Capetian dynasty to rule until 1328. Musical notation systematized (c. 990).Vikings and Danes attack Britain (988–999).Otto, I crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XII (962).1000–1300Classic Pueblo period of Anasazi culture; cliff dwellings.1000Hungary and Scandinavia converted to Christianity.Viking raider Leif Eriksson discovers North America calls it Vinland.Beowulf, Old English epic.1008Murasaki Shikibu finishes The Tale of Genji, the world's first novel.1009Muslims destroy Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.1013Danes control England.Canute takes the throne (1016), conquers Norway (1028), dies (1035); kingdom divided among his sons: Harold Harefoot (England), Sweyn (Norway), Hardecanute (Denmark).1040Macbeth murders Duncan, king of Scotland.1053Robert Guiscard, Norman invader, establishes the kingdom in Italy, conquers Sicily (1072).1054The final separation between Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Roman) churches.1055Seljuk Turks, Asian nomads, move west, capture Baghdad, Armenia (1064), Syria, and Palestine (1075).1066William of Normandy invades England, defeats last Saxon king, Harold II, at Battle of Hastings, crowned William I of England (“the Conqueror”).1068Construction on the cathedral in Pisa, Italy, begins.1073The emergence of the strong papacy when Gregory VII is elected.Conflict with English and French kings and German emperors will continue throughout the medieval period.1095At Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II calls for a holy war to wrest control of Jerusalem from Muslims, which launches the First Crusade (1096), one of at least 8 European military campaigns between 1095 and 1291 to regain the Holy Land.1100–1300Construction of Cathedral at Chartres, France.1144The second Crusade begins.1150Angkor Wat is completed.1150–1167Universities of Paris and Oxford founded in France and England.1162Thomas á Becket named Archbishop of Canterbury, murdered by Henry II's men (1170).Troubadours (wandering minstrels) glorify romantic concepts of feudalism.1169Ibn-Rushd begins translating Aristotle's works.1189Richard I (“the Lionhearted”) succeeds Henry II in England, killed in France (1199), succeeded by King John. Third Crusade.1200–1204Fourth Crusade.1211Genghis Khan invades China, captures Peking (1214), conquers Persia (1218), invades Russia (1223), dies (1227).1212Children's Crusade.1215King John forced by barons to sign Magna Carta at Runneymede, limiting royal power.1217Fifth Crusade.1228Sixth Crusade.1231The Inquisition begins as Pope Gregory IX assigns Dominicans responsibility for combating heresy.Torture used (1252).Ferdinand and Isabella establish Spanish Inquisition (1478).Torquemada, Grand Inquisitor, forces conversion or expulsion of Spanish Jews (1492). Forced conversion of Moors (1499).Inquisition in Portugal (1531).First Protestants burned at the stake in Spain (1543).Spanish Inquisition abolished (1834).1241Mongols defeat Germans in Silesia, invade Poland and Hungary, withdraw from Europe after Ughetai, Mongol leader, dies.1248Seventh Crusade.1251Kublai Khan governs China, becomes ruler of Mongols (1259), establishes the Yuan dynasty in China (1280), invades Burma (1287), dies (1294).1260Chartres cathedral consecrated.1270Eighth Crusade.1271Marco Polo of Venice travels to China, in the court of Kublai Khan (1275–1292), returns to Genoa (1295) and writes Travels.1273Thomas Aquinas stops work on Summa Theologica, the basis of all Catholic theological teaching; never completes it.1295English King Edward I summons the Model Parliament.1312–1337Mali Empire reaches its height in Africa under King Mansa Musa.1325The beginning of the Renaissance in Italy: writers Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio; painter Giotto.Development of Noh drama in Japan.Aztecs establish Tenochtitlán on site of modern Mexico City.The peak of Muslim culture in Spain.Small cannon in use.1337–1453Hundred Years' War—English and French kings fight for control of France.1347–1351At least 25 million people die in Europe's “Black Death” (bubonic plague).1368Ming Dynasty begins in China.1376–1382John Wycliffe, pre-Reformation religious reformer, and followers translate the Latin Bible into English.1378The Great Schism (to 1417)—rival popes in Rome and Avignon, France, fight for control of the Roman Catholic Church.1387Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.1398Tamerlane, the Mongol conqueror, begins last great conquest—Delhi.1407Casa di San Giorgio, one of the first public banks, founded in Genoa.1415Henry V defeats French at Agincourt.Jan Hus, Bohemian preacher and follower of Wycliffe, burned at stake in Constance as a heretic.1418–1460Portugal's Prince Henry the Navigator sponsors exploration of Africa's coast.1420Brunelleschi begins work on the Duomo in Florence.1428Joan of Arc leads French against English, captured by Burgundians (1430) and turned over to the English, burned at the stake as a witch after ecclesiastical trial (1431).1438Incas rule in Peru.1450Florence becomes the center of Renaissance arts and learning under the Medicis.1453Turks conquer Constantinople, end of the Byzantine Empire, beginning of the Ottoman empire.1455The Wars of the Roses, civil wars between rival noble factions, begin in England (to 1485).Having invented printing with movable type at Mainz, Germany, Johann Gutenberg completes the first Bible.1462Ivan the Great rules Russia until 1505 as the first czar; ends payment of tribute to Mongols.1492Moors conquered in Spain by troops of Ferdinand and Isabella.Columbus becomes the first European to encounter the Caribbean islands, return to Spain (1493).Second voyage to Dominica, Jamaica, Puerto Rico (1493–1496).Third voyage to Orinoco (1498). Fourth voyage to Honduras and Panama (1502–1504).1497Vasco da Gama sails around Africa and discovers the sea route to India (1498).Establishes the Portuguese colony in India (1502).John Cabot, employed by England, reaches and explores the Canadian coast. Michelangelo's Bacchus sculpture.1501First black slaves in America brought to the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo.1503Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa.Michelangelo sculpts David (1504).1506St. Peter's Church started in Rome; designed and decorated by such artists and architects as Bramante, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Raphael, and Bernini before its completion in 1626.1509Henry VIII ascends the English throne.Michelangelo paints the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.1513Balboa becomes the first European to encounter the Pacific Ocean.Machiavelli writes The Prince.1517Turks conquer Egypt, control Arabia.Martin Luther posts his 95 theses denouncing church abuses on the church door in Wittenberg—the start of the Reformation in Germany.1519Ulrich Zwingli begins Reformation in Switzerland.Hernando Cortes conquers Mexico for Spain. Charles I of Spain is chosen Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan sets out to circumnavigate the globe.1520Luther excommunicated by Pope Leo X. Suleiman I (“the Magnificent”) becomes Sultan of Turkey, invades Hungary (1521), Rhodes (1522), attacks Austria (1529), annexes Hungary (1541), Tripoli (1551), makes peace with Persia (1553), destroys Spanish fleet (1560), dies (1566).Magellan reaches the Pacific, is killed by Philippine natives (1521).One of his ships under Juan Sebastián del Cano continues around the world, reaches Spain (1522).1524Verrazano, sailing under the French flag, explores the New England coast and New York Bay.1527Troops of the Holy Roman Empire attack Rome, imprison Pope Clement VII—the end of the Italian Renaissance.Castiglione writes The Courtier.The Medici family expelled from Florence.1532Pizarro marches from Panama to Peru, kills the Inca chieftain, Atahualpa, of Peru (1533).Machiavelli's The Prince published posthumously.1535Reformation begins as Henry VIII makes himself head of English Church after being excommunicated by Pope.Sir Thomas More executed as a traitor for refusal to acknowledge the king's religious authority.Jacques Cartier sails up the St. Lawrence River, the basis of French claims to Canada.1536Henry VIII executes second wife, Anne Boleyn.John Calvin establishes Reformed and Presbyterian form of Protestantism in Switzerland, writes Institutes of the Christian Religion.Danish and Norwegian Reformations.Michelangelo's Last Judgment.1541John Knox leads Reformation in Scotland, establishes Presbyterian church there (1560).1543Publication of On the Revolution of Heavenly Bodies by Polish scholar Nicolaus Copernicus—giving his theory that the earth revolves around the sun.1545Council of Trent to meet intermittently until 1563 to define Catholic dogma and doctrine, reiterate papal authority.1547Ivan IV (“the Terrible”) crowned as czar of Russia, begins the conquest of Astrakhan and Kazan (1552), battles nobles (boyars) for power (1564), kill his son (1580), dies, and is succeeded by his weak and feeble-minded son, Fyodor I.1553Roman Catholicism restored in England by Queen Mary I.1556Akbar the Great becomes the Mogul emperor of India, conquers Afghanistan (1581), continues wars of conquest (until 1605).1558Queen Elizabeth I ascends the throne (rules to 1603).Restores Protestantism, establishes the state Church of England (Anglicanism).Renaissance will reach a height in England—Shakespeare, Marlowe, Spenser.1561Persecution of Huguenots in France stopped by Edict of Orleans.French religious wars begin again with a massacre of Huguenots at Vassy. St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre—thousands of Huguenots murdered (1572).Amnesty granted (1573).Persecution continues periodically until the Edict of Nantes (1598) gives Huguenots religious freedom (until 1685).1568Protestant Netherlands revolts against Catholic Spain; independence will be acknowledged by Spain in 1648.1570Japan permits visits to foreign ships.Queen Elizabeth, I excommunicated by Pope.Turks attack Cyprus and war on Venice.Turkish fleet defeated at the Battle of Lepanto by Spanish and Italian fleets (1571).Peace of Constantinople (1572) ends Turkish attacks on Europe.1580Francis Drake returns to England after circumnavigating the globe; knighted by Queen Elizabeth I (1581).Montaigne's Essays published.1582Pope Gregory XIII implements the Gregorian calendar.1583William of Orange rules the Netherlands; assassinated on orders of Philip II of Spain (1584).1587Mary, Queen of Scots, executed for treason by order of Queen Elizabeth I.Monteverdi's First Book of Madrigals.1588The defeat of the Spanish Armada by English.Henry, King of Navarre and Protestant leader, recognized as Henry IV, first Bourbon king of France.Converts to Roman Catholicism in 1593 in an attempt to end religious wars.1590Henry IV enters Paris, wars on Spain (1595), marries Marie de Medici (1600), assassinated (1610).Spenser's The Faerie Queen. El Greco's St. Jerome.Galileo's experiments with falling objects.1598Boris Godunov becomes Russian czar.Tycho Brahe describes his astronomical experiments.1600Giordano Bruno burned as a heretic.English East India Company established.1603Ieyasu rules Japan, moves the capital to Edo (Tokyo).Shakespeare's Hamlet.1605Cervantes's Don Quixote de la Mancha, the first modern novel.1607Jamestown, Virginia, established—first permanent English colony on the American mainland.Pocahontas, daughter of Chief Powhatan, saves the life of John Smith.1609Samuel de Champlain establishes the French colony of Quebec.The Relation, the first newspaper, debuts in Germany.1610Galileo sees the moons of Jupiter through his telescope.1611Gustavus Adolphus elected King of Sweden.King James Version of the Bible published in England.Rubens paints his Descent from the Cross.1614John Napier discovers logarithms.1618Start of the Thirty Years' War > Protestants revolt against Catholic oppression; Denmark, Sweden, and France will invade Germany in later phases of the war.Kepler proposes last of three laws of planetary motion.1619A Dutch ship brings the first African slaves to British North America.1620Pilgrims, after three-month voyage in Mayflower, land at Plymouth Rock. Francis Bacon's Novum Organum.1623New Netherland founded by Dutch West India Company.1630Massachusetts Bay Colony.1632Maryland founded by Lord Baltimore.1633Inquisition forces Galileo (astronomer) to recant his belief in the Copernican theory.1642English Civil War.Cavaliers, supporters of Charles I, against Roundheads, parliamentary forces.Oliver Cromwell defeats Royalists (1646).Parliament demands reforms.Charles I offers concessions, brought to trial (1648), beheaded (1649).Cromwell becomes Lord Protector (1653).Rembrandt paints his Night Watch.1643Taj Mahal completed.1644End of Ming Dynasty in China—Manchus come to power.Descartes's Principles of Philosophy.1648End of the Thirty Years' War.German population about half of what it was in 1618 because of war and pestilence.1658Cromwell dies; son Richard resigns and the Puritan government collapses.1660English Parliament calls for the restoration of the monarchy; invites Charles II to return from France.1661Charles II is crowned King of England.Louis XIV begins personal rule as an absolute monarch; starts to build Versailles.1664British take New Amsterdam from the Dutch.English limit “Nonconformity” with reestablished Anglican Church.Isaac Newton's experiments with gravity.1665Great Plague in London kills 75,000.1666Great Fire of London. Molière's Misanthrope.1667Milton's Paradise Lost, widely considered the greatest epic poem in English.1682Pennsylvania founded by William Penn.1683War of European powers against the Turks (to 1699).Vienna withstands three-month Turkish siege; the high point of Turkish advance in Europe.1684Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's calculus published.1685James II succeeds Charles II in England, calls for freedom of conscience (1687).Protestants fear the restoration of Catholicism and demand the “Glorious Revolution.” William of Orange invited to England and James II escapes to France (1688).William III and his wife, Mary, crowned.In France, Edict of Nantes of 1598, granting freedom of worship to Huguenots, is revoked by Louis XIV; thousands of Protestants flee.1689Peter the Great becomes Czar of Russia—attempts to westernize nation and build Russia as a military power.Defeats Charles XII of Sweden at Poltava (1709).Beginning of the French and Indian Wars (to 1763), campaigns in America linked to a series of wars between France and England for domination of Europe.1690William III of England defeats former king James II and Irish rebels at Battle of the Boyne in Ireland.John Locke's Human Understanding.1701War of the Spanish Succession begins—the last of Louis XIV's wars for domination of the continent.The Peace of Utrecht (1714) will end the conflict and mark the rise of the British Empire. Called Queen Anne's War in America, it ends with the British taking New Foundland, Acadia, and Hudson's Bay Territory from France, and Gibraltar and Minorca from Spain.1704Deerfield (Mass.) Massacre of English colonists by French and Indians.Bach's first cantata.Jonathan Swift's Tale of a Tub.Boston News-Letter—the first newspaper in America.1707United Kingdom of Great Britain formed—England, Wales, and Scotland joined by the parliamentary Act of Union.1729Bach's St. Matthew Passion.Isaac Newton's Principia translated from Latin into English.1732Benjamin Franklin begins publishing Poor Richard's Almanack.James Oglethorpe and others found Georgia.1735John Peter Zenger, New York editor, acquitted of libel in New York, establishing press freedom.1740Capt. Vitus Bering, Dane employed by Russia, discovers Alaska.Frederick II “the Great” crowned King of Prussia.1746British defeat Scots under Stuart Pretender Prince Charles at Culloden Moor.The last battle fought on British soil.1751Publication of the Encyclopédie begins in France, the “bible” of the Enlightenment.1755Samuel Johnson's Dictionary first published.The great earthquake in Lisbon, Portugal—over 60,000 die.U.S. postal service established.1756Seven Years' War (French and Indian Wars in America) (to 1763), in which Britain and Prussia defeat France, Spain, Austria, and Russia.France loses North American colonies; Spain cedes Florida to Britain in exchange for Cuba.In India, over 100 British prisoners die in “Black Hole of Calcutta.”1757The beginning of British Empire in India as Robert Clive, British commander, defeats Nawab of Bengal at Plassey.1759British capture Quebec from French.Voltaire's Candide.Haydn's Symphony No. 1.1762Catherine II (“the Great”) becomes czarina of Russia.Jean Jacques Rousseau's Social Contract.Mozart tours Europe as a six-year-old prodigy.1765James Watt invents the steam engine.Britain imposes the Stamp Act on the American colonists.1769Sir William Arkwright patents a spinning machine—an early step in the Industrial Revolution.1770The Boston Massacre.1772Joseph Priestley and Daniel Rutherford independently discover nitrogen.Partition of Poland—in 1772, 1793, and 1795, Austria, Prussia, and Russia divide land and people of Poland, end its independence.1773The Boston Tea Party.1774First Continental Congress drafts the “Declaration of Rights and Grievances.”1775The American Revolution begins with the battle of Lexington and Concord.Second Continental Congress.Priestley discovers hydrochloric and sulfuric acids.1776Declaration of Independence. Gen. George Washington crosses the Delaware Christmas night.Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.Thomas Paine's Common Sense.Fragonard's Washerwoman.Mozart's Haffner Serenade.1778Capt. James Cook discovers Hawaii.Franz Mesmer uses hypnotism.1781Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.Herschel discovers Uranus.1783Revolutionary War ends with the Treaty of Paris.William Blake's poems.Beethoven's first printed works.1784Crimea annexed by Russia.John Wesley's Deed of Declaration, the basic work of Methodism.1785Russians settle Aleutian Islands.1787The Constitution of the United States signed.Lavoisier's work on chemical nomenclature.Mozart's Don Giovanni.1788French Parlement presents grievances to Louis XVI who agrees to the convening of Estates-General in 1789—not called since 1613.Goethe's Egmont.Laplace's Laws of the Planetary System.1789French Revolution begins with the storming of the Bastille.In the U.S., Washington elected president with all 69 votes of the Electoral College, takes the oath of office in New York City.Vice President: John Adams. Secretary of State: Thomas Jefferson. Secretary of Treasury: Alexander Hamilton.1790H.M.S. Bounty mutineers settle on Pitcairn Island.Aloisio Galvani experiments on electrical stimulation of the muscles.Philadelphia temporary capital of the U.S. as Congress votes to establish a new capital on Potomac.U.S. population about 3,929,000, including 698,000 slaves.Lavoisier formulates Table of 31 chemical elements.1791U.S. Bill of Rights ratified.Boswell's Life of Johnson.1792Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman.1793Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette executed.Reign of Terror begins in France.Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin, spurring the growth of the cotton industry and helping to institutionalize slavery in the U.S. South.1794Kosciusko's uprising in Poland quelled by the Russians.In the U.S., the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania as farmers object to liquor taxes.Reign of Terror ends with the execution of Robespierre.1796Napoléon Bonaparte, French general, defeats Austrians.In the U.S., Washington's Farewell Address (Sept. 17); John Adams elected president; Thomas Jefferson, vice president.Edward Jenner introduces smallpox vaccination.1798Napoleon extends French conquests to Rome and Egypt.U.S. Navy Department established.1799Rosetta Stone discovered in Egypt.Napoleon leads a coup that overthrows Directory, establishes the Consulate, becomes First Consul—one of three who rule France together.1800Napoleon conquers Italy, firmly establishes himself as First Consul in France.In the U.S., the federal government moves to Washington, D.C. Robert Owen's social reforms in England.William Herschel discovers infrared rays.Alessandro Volta produces electricity.1801Austria makes temporary peace with France.United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland established with one monarch and one parliament; Catholics excluded from voting.1803The U.S. negotiates Louisiana Purchase from France: for $15 million, U.S. doubles its domain, increasing its territory by 827,000 sq mi (2,144,500 sq km), from Mississippi River to the Rockies and from the Gulf of Mexico to British North America.1804Haiti declares independence from France; the first black nation to gain freedom from European colonial rule.Napoleon transforms the Consulate of France into an empire, proclaims himself emperor of France, systematizes French law under Code Napoleon.In the U.S., Alexander Hamilton is mortally wounded in duel with Aaron Burr. Lewis and Clark expedition begins exploration of what is now northwest U.S.1805Lord Nelson defeats the French-Spanish fleets in the Battle of Trafalgar.Napoleon victorious over Austrian and Russian forces at the Battle of Austerlitz.1807Robert Fulton makes the first successful steamboat trip on Clermont between New York City and Albany.1808French armies occupy Rome and Spain, extending Napoleon's empire.Britain begins aiding Spanish guerrillas against Napoleon in the Peninsular War.In the U.S., Congress bars the importation of slaves.Beethoven's Fifth and Sixth Symphonies performed.1812Napoleon's Grand Army invades Russia in June.Forced to retreat in winter, most of Napoleon's 600,000 men are lost.In the U.S., war with Britain declared over freedom of the seas for U.S. vessels (War of 1812).USS Constitution sinks British frigate.1814French defeated by allies (Britain, Austria, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Portugal) in the War of Liberation.Napoleon exiled to Elba, off the Italian coast.Bourbon king Louis XVIII takes the French throne.George Stephenson builds the first practical steam locomotive.1815Napoleon returns: “Hundred Days” begin.Napoleon defeated by Wellington at Waterloo, banished again to St. Helena in South Atlantic.Congress of Vienna: victorious allies change the map of Europe.War of 1812 ends with Treaty of Ghent.1819Simón Bolívar liberates New Granada (now Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador) as Spain loses hold on South American countries; named president of Colombia.1820Missouri Compromise > Missouri admitted as a slave state but slavery barred in rest of Louisiana Purchase north of 36°30' N.1821Guatemala, Panama, and Santo Domingo proclaim independence from Spain.1822Greeks proclaim a republic and independence from Turkey.Turks invade Greece.Russia declares war on Turkey (1828).Greece also aided by France and Britain.War ends and Turks recognize Greek independence (1829). Brazil becomes independent of Portugal.Schubert's Eighth Symphony (“The Unfinished”).1823U.S. Monroe Doctrine warns European nations not to interfere in Western Hemisphere.1824Mexico becomes a republic, three years after declaring independence from Spain.Bolívar liberates Peru, becomes its president.Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.1825First passenger-carrying railroad in England.1826Joseph-Nicéphore Niepce takes the world's first photograph.1830French invade Algeria.Louis Philippe becomes “Citizen King” as revolution forces Charles X to abdicate.Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints formed in the U.S. by Joseph Smith.1831Polish revolt against Russia fails.Belgium separates from the Netherlands.In the U.S., Nat Turner leads an unsuccessful slave rebellion.1833Slavery abolished in the British Empire.1834Charles Babbage invents an “analytical engine,” precursor of the computer.McCormick patent reaper.1836Boer farmers start “Great Trek”—Natal, Transvaal, and Orange Free State founded in South Africa.Mexican army besieges Texans in Alamo.Entire garrison, including Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie, wiped out. Texans gain independence from Mexico after winning the Battle of San Jacinto.Dickens's Pickwick Papers.1837Victoria becomes queen of Great Britain.Mob kills Elijah P. Lovejoy, Illinois abolitionist publisher.1839First Opium War (to 1842) between Britain and China, over importation of drug into China.1840Lower and Upper Canada united.1841U.S. President Harrison dies (April 4) one month after inauguration; John Tyler becomes first vice president to succeed to presidency.1842Crawford Long uses first anesthetic (ether).1843Wagner's opera The Flying Dutchman.1844Democratic convention calls for annexation of Texas and acquisition of Oregon (“Fifty-four-forty-or-fight”).Five Chinese ports opened to U.S. ships.Samuel F. B. Morse patents telegraph.1845Congress adopts the joint resolution for the annexation of Texas.Edgar Allan Poe publishes The Raven and Other Poems.1846The U.S. declares war on Mexico.California and New Mexico annexed by U.S. Brigham Young leads Mormons to the Great Salt Lake.W. T. Morton uses ether as an anesthetic.Sewing machine patented by Elias Howe.Frederick Douglass launches the abolitionist newspaper The North Star.The failure of potato crops causes famine in Ireland.1848Revolt in Paris: Louis Philippe abdicates; Louis Napoleon elected President of the French Republic.Revolutions in Vienna, Venice, Berlin, Milan, Rome, and Warsaw.Put down by royal troops in 1848–1849. U.S.-Mexico War ends; Mexico cedes claims to Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada.U.S. treaty with Britain sets the Oregon Territory boundary at the 49th parallel.Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels's Communist Manifesto.Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery and joins the Underground Railroad.Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y.1849California gold rush begins.1850Henry Clay opens great debate on slavery, warns South against secession.1851Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.1852The South African Republic established.Louis Napoleon proclaims himself Napoleon III (“Second Empire”).Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.1853Crimean War begins as Turkey declares war on Russia.Commodore Perry reaches Tokyo.1854Britain and France join Turkey in the war on Russia.In the U.S., the Kansas-Nebraska Act permits local options on slavery; rioting and bloodshed.Japanese allow American trade.Antislavery men in Michigan form the Republican Party.Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade.Thoreau's Walden.1855Armed clashes in Kansas between pro- and anti-slavery forces.Florence Nightingale nurses wounded in Crimea.Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.1856Flaubert's Madame Bovary.1857Supreme Court, in Dred Scott decision, rules that a slave is not a citizen.The financial crisis in Europe and the U.S.Great Mutiny (Sepoy Rebellion) begins in India.India placed under the crown rule as a result.1858The pro-slavery constitution rejected in Kansas.Abraham Lincoln makes a strong antislavery speech in Springfield, Ill.: “This Government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.”Lincoln-Douglas debates.First trans-Atlantic telegraph cable completed by Cyrus W. Field.1859John Brown raids Harpers Ferry; he is captured and hanged.Work begins on the Suez Canal.Unification of Italy starts under the leadership of Count Cavour, Sardinian premier.Joined by France in the war against Austria.Jean-Joseph-Étienne Lenoir builds first practical internal-combustion engine.Edward Fitzgerald's translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.Charles Darwin's Origin of Species.J. S. Mill's On Liberty.1860South Carolina secedes from the Union.1861U.S. Civil War begins as attempts at compromise fail.Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas secede; with South Carolina, they form the Confederate States of America, with Jefferson Davis as president.Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina secede and join Confederacy.First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas).Congress creates Colorado, Dakota, and Nevada territories; adopts income tax; Lincoln inaugurated.Serfs emancipated in Russia.Pasteur's theory of germs.Independent Kingdom of Italy proclaimed under Sardinian king Victor Emmanuel II.1862Several major Civil War battles: Battle of Shiloh, Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), Battle of Antietam.Salon des Refusés introduces impressionism.1863French capture Mexico City; proclaim Archduke Maximilian of Austria emperor.Battle of Gettysburg.1864Gen. Sherman's Atlanta campaign and “march to the sea.”1865Gen. Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox; the Civil War is over.Lincoln fatally shot at Ford's Theater by John Wilkes Booth.Vice President Johnson swore as successor.Booth caught and dies of gunshot wounds; four conspirators are hanged.Joseph Lister begins antiseptic surgery.Gregor Mendel's Law of Heredity.Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.1866Alfred Nobel invents dynamite (patented in Britain, 1867).Seven Weeks' War: Austria defeated by Prussia and Italy.1867Austria-Hungary Dual Monarchy established. French leave Mexico; Maximilian executed.Dominion of Canada established.The U.S. buys Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000.South African diamond field discovered.Japan ends 675–year shogun rule.Volume I of Marx's Das Kapital.Strauss's Blue Danube.1868Revolution in Spain; Queen Isabella deposed, flees to France.In the U.S., the Fourteenth Amendment giving civil rights to blacks is ratified.Georgia under military government after legislature expels blacks.1869The first U.S. transcontinental rail route completed.James Fisk and Jay Gould's attempt to control the gold market causes Black Friday panic.Suez Canal opens.Mendeleev's periodic table of elements.1870Franco-Prussian War (to 1871): Napoleon III capitulates at Sedan.Revolt in Paris; the Third Republic proclaimed.1871France surrenders Alsace-Lorraine to Germany; war ends.German Empire proclaimed with Prussian King as Kaiser Wilhelm I.Fighting with Apaches begins in American West.Boss Tweed corruption exposed in New York.The Chicago Fire, with 250 deaths and $196-million damage.Stanley meets Livingstone in Africa.1872Congress gives amnesty to most Confederates.Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days.1873The economic crisis in Europe.The U.S. establishes a gold standard.1875First Kentucky Derby.1876Sioux kill Gen. George A. Custer and 264 troopers at Little Big Horn River.Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.1877After the presidential election of 1876, the electoral commission gives disputed electoral college votes to Rutherford B. Hayes despite Tilden's popular majority.Russo-Turkish war (ends in 1878 with the power of Turkey in Europe broken).Reconstruction ends in the American South.Thomas Edison patents phonograph.The Nez Perce leader Chief Joseph is forced to surrender.Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.1878Congress of Berlin revises the Treaty of San Stefano, ending Russo-Turkish War; makes extensive division of southeast Europe.The first commercial telephone exchange opened in New Haven, Conn.1879Thomas A. Edison invents practical electric light.1880U.S.-China treaty allows the U.S. to restrict the immigration of Chinese labor.1881President Garfield fatally shot by an assassin; Vice President Arthur succeeds him.Charles J. Guiteau convicted and executed (1882).1882Terrorism in Ireland after land evictions.Britain invades and conquers Egypt.Germany, Austria, and Italy form the Triple Alliance.In the U.S., Congress adopts the Chinese Exclusion Act.Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust is the first industrial monopoly.In Berlin, Robert Koch announces the discovery of tuberculosis germ.1883Congress creates the Civil Service Commission.Brooklyn Bridge and Metropolitan Opera House completed.1884Berlin West Africa Conference held in Berlin (lasting until Feb. 1885), at which the major European nations discuss expansion in Africa.1885British general Charles G. “Chinese” Gordon killed at Khartoum in Egyptian Sudan.World's first skyscraper built in Chicago.1886Bombing at Haymarket Square, Chicago, kills seven policemen and injures many others.Eight alleged anarchists accused—three imprisoned, one commits suicide, four hanged. (In 1893, Illinois governor Altgeld, critical of trial, pardons three survivors.)Statue of Liberty dedicated.Geronimo, Apache Indian chief, surrenders.1887Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee.Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet.1888Historic March blizzard in the northeast U.S.—many perish, property damage exceeds $25 million.George Eastman's box camera (the Kodak).J. B. Dunlop invents a pneumatic tire.Jack the Ripper murders in London.1889Second (Socialist) International founded in Paris.Indian Territory in Oklahoma opened to settlement.Thousands die in Johnstown, Pa. flood.Eiffel Tower built for the Paris exposition.Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.1890Congress votes to pass the Sherman Antitrust Act.Sioux chief Sitting Bull arrested and killed by police on Pine Ridge reservation; two weeks later, U.S. troops kill over 200 Sioux at Battle of Wounded Knee.1892The battle between steel strikers and Pinkerton guards at Homestead, Pa.; union defeated after militia intervenes.Silvermine strikers in Idaho fight non-union workers; U.S. troops dispatched.Diesel engine patented.1893New Zealand becomes the first country in the world to grant women the vote.1894Sino-Japanese War begins (ends in 1895 with China's defeat).In France, Capt. Alfred Dreyfus convicted on false treason charges (pardoned in 1906).In the U.S., Jacob S. Coxey of Ohio leads “Coxey's Army” of unemployed on Washington.Eugene V. Debs calls a general strike of rail workers to support Pullman Company strikers; strike broken, Debs jailed for six months.Edison's kinetoscope was given the first public showing in New York City.1895X-rays discovered by German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen.Auguste and Louis Lumière premiere motion pictures at a café in Paris.1896Supreme Court's Plessy v. Ferguson decision—“separate but equal” doctrine.Alfred Nobel's will establishes prizes for peace, science, and literature.Marconi receives the first wireless patent in Britain.William Jennings Bryan delivers the “Cross of Gold” speech at the Democratic Convention in Chicago.First modern Olympic games held in Athens, Greece.1897Theodor Herzl launches the Zionist movement.1898Chinese “Boxers,” anti-foreign organization, established.They stage uprisings against Europeans in 1900; the U.S. and other Western troops relieve Peking legations.U.S. Battleship Maine is sunk in Havana Harbor.Spanish-American War begins. The U.S. destroys the Spanish fleet near Santiago, Cuba.Pierre and Marie Curie discover radium and polonium.1899Boer War (or South African War): the conflict between British and Boers (descendants of Dutch settlers of South Africa).Causes rooted in longstanding territorial disputes and in friction over political rights for English and other “uitlanders” following 1886 discovery of vast gold deposits in Transvaal. (British victorious as the war ends in 1902.) Casualties: 5,774 British dead, about 4,000 Boers.Union of South Africa established in 1908 as a confederation of colonies; becomes British dominion in 1910.WE ARE JUST GETTING STARTED LOL1900Hurricane ravages Galveston, Tex.; 6,000–8,000 dead.Fauvist movement in painting begins, led by Henri Matisse.Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams.Carrie Chapman Catt succeeds Susan B. Anthony as president of the National Woman Suffrage Association.1901Queen Victoria dies and is succeeded by her son, Edward VII.As President McKinley begins the second term, he is shot fatally by anarchist Leon Czolgosz.Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as a successor.1902Enrico Caruso's first gramophone recording.Aswan Dam completed.1903Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, fly first powered, controlled, the heavier-than-air plane at Kitty Hawk,N.C. Henry Ford organizes Ford Motor Company.The Boston Red Sox win the first World Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates.W.E.B. Du Bois publishes The Souls of Black Folk.1904Russo-Japanese War begins—competition for Korea and Manchuria.Entente Cordiale: Britain and France settle their international differences.A general theory of radioactivity by Rutherford and Soddy.New York City subway opens.1905In the Russo-Japanese War, Port Arthur surrenders to Japanese; Russia suffers other defeats.President Roosevelt mediates the Treaty of Portsmouth, N.H., which recognizes Japan's control of Korea and restores southern Manchuria to China.The Russian Revolution of 1905 begins on “Bloody Sunday” when troops fire onto a defenseless group of demonstrators in St. Petersburg.Strikes and riots follow.Sailors on battleship Potemkin mutiny; reforms, including first Duma (parliament), established by Czar Nicholas II's “October Manifesto.”Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity and other key theories in physics.Franz Lehar's Merry Widow.1906San Francisco earthquake and three-day fire; more than 500 dead.Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer, fixes the magnetic North Pole.1907Second Hague Peace Conference, of 46 nations, adopts 10 conventions on rules of war.The financial panic of 1907 in the U.S. Mahler begins work on “Song of the Earth.”Oklahoma becomes the 46th state.Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon introduces cubism.1908Earthquake kills 150,000 in southern Italy and Sicily.U.S. Supreme Court, in Danbury Hatters' case, outlaws secondary union boycotts.Model T produced by Ford Motor Company.1909The North Pole reportedly reached by American explorers Robert E. Peary and Matthew Henson.The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is founded in New York by prominent black and white intellectuals and led by W.E.B. Du Bois.1911The first use of aircraft as an offensive weapon in the Turkish-Italian War.Italy defeats Turks and annexes Tripoli and Libya.The Chinese Republic proclaimed after a revolution overthrows the Manchu dynasty.Sun Yat-sen named the president.Mexican Revolution: Porfirio Diaz, president since 1877, replaced by Francisco Madero.Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire in New York; 146 killed.Amundsen reaches the South Pole.Ernest Rutherford discovers the structure of the atom.Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier.Irving Berlin's Alexander's Ragtime Band.1912Balkan Wars (1912–1913) resulting from territorial disputes: Turkey defeated by an alliance of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and Montenegro; London peace treaty (1913) partitions most of European Turkey among the victors.In the second war (1913), Bulgaria attacks Serbia and Greece and is defeated after Romania intervenes and Turks recapture Adrianople.Titanic sinks on the maiden voyage; over 1,500 drown.New Mexico and Arizona admitted as states.1913·Suffragists demonstrate in London.Garment workers strike in New York and Boston; win pay raise and shorter hours.Henry Ford develops the first moving assembly line. 16th Amendment (income tax) and 17th (popular election of U.S. senators) adopted.Bill creating U.S. Federal Reserve System becomes law.Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.Woodrow Wilson becomes 28th U.S. president.Armory Show introduces modern art to the U.S.; Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase shocks public.1914World War I begins: Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and wife Sophie are assassinated; Austria declares war on Serbia, Germany on Russia and France, Britain on GermanPanama Canal officially opened.Congress sets up the Federal Trade Commission, passes the Clayton Antitrust Act.U.S. Marines occupy Veracruz, Mexico, intervening in a civil war to protect American interests.1915Lusitania sunk by a German submarine.Second Battle of Ypres.U.S. banks lend $500 million to France and Britain.Genocide of estimated 600,000 to 1 million Armenians by Turkish soldiers.D. W. Griffith's film Birth of a Nation.Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.1916·Congress expands armed forces.Battle of Verdun.Battle of the Somme.Tom Mooney arrested for the San Francisco bombing (pardoned in 1939).Pershing fails in a raid into Mexico in quest of rebel Pancho Villa.The U.S. buys the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million.President Wilson re-elected with “he kept us out of war” slogan.“Black Tom” explosion at munitions dock in Jersey City, N.J., $40,000,000 damages; traced to German saboteurs.Margaret Sanger opens the first birth control clinic.Easter Rebellion in Ireland put down by British troops.Jeannette Rankin becomes the first woman elected to Congress.1917·First U.S. combat troops in France as the U.S. declares war on Germany (April 6).Third Battle of Ypres.Russian Revolution of 1917—the climax of long unrest under czars.February Revolution—Nicholas II forced to abdicate, the liberal government created.Kerensky becomes prime minister and forms a provisional government (July).In October Revolution, Bolsheviks seize power in armed coup d'état led by Lenin and Trotsky.Kerensky flees.Balfour Declaration promises a Jewish homeland in Palestine.The U.S. declares war on Austria-Hungary (Dec. 7).Armistice between the new Russian Bolshevik government and Germans (Dec. 15).Sigmund Freud's Introduction to Psychoanalysis.1918·Russian revolutionaries executed the former czar and his family.·Russian Civil War between Reds (Bolsheviks) and Whites (anti-Bolsheviks); Reds win in 1920.·Allied troops (U.S., British, French) intervene (March); leave in 1919.·Second Battle of the Marne (July–Aug.)·German Kaiser abdicates (Nov.); hostilities cease on the Western Front.·Japanese hold Vladivostok until 1922.·Worldwide influenza epidemic strikes; by 1920, nearly 20 million are dead.·In the U.S. alone, 500,000 perish.1919·Third International (Comintern) establishes Soviet control over international Communist movements.·Paris peace conference.·Versailles Treaty, incorporating Woodrow Wilson's draft Covenant of League of Nations, signed by Allies and Germany; rejected by U.S. Senate.·Congress formally ends the war in 1921.·18th (Prohibition) Amendment adopted.·Alcock and Brown make a first trans-Atlantic nonstop flight.·Mahatma Gandhi initiates satyagraha (“truth force”) campaigns, beginning his nonviolent resistance movement against British rule in India.1920·League of Nations holds first meeting at Geneva, Switzerland.·U.S. Dept. of Justice “red hunt” nets thousands of radicals; aliens deported.·Women's suffrage (19th) amendment ratified.·Treaty of Sèvres dissolves Ottoman Empire.·First Agatha Christie mystery. Sinclair Lewis's Main Street.1921·Reparations Commission fixes German liability at 132 billion gold marks.·German inflation begins.·Major treaties signed at Washington Disarmament Conference limit naval tonnage and pledge to respect the territorial integrity of China.·In the U.S., Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian-born anarchists, convicted of armed robbery-murder; case stirs worldwide protests; they are executed in 1927.1922·Mussolini marches on Rome; forms a Fascist government.·Irish Free State, a self-governing dominion of the British Empire, officially proclaimed.·Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, overthrows the last sultan.·James Joyce's Ulysses.1923·Adolf Hitler's “Beer Hall Putsch” in Munich fails; in 1924 he is sentenced to five years in prison where he writes Mein Kampf; released after eight months.·Occupation of Ruhr by French and Belgian troops to enforce reparations payments.·Widespread Ku Klux Klan violence in U.S. Earthquake destroys third of Tokyo.·George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.·Bessie Smith, known as “the Empress of the Blues,” makes her first record.·Irish poet William Butler Yeats wins Nobel Prize in Literature.1924·Death of Lenin; Stalin wins the power struggle, rules as Soviet dictator until death in 1953.·Italian Fascists murder Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti.·Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall and oilmen Harry Sinclair and Edward L. Doheny are charged with conspiracy and bribery in the Teapot Dome scandal, involving fraudulent leases of naval oil reserves.·In 1931, Fall is sentenced to a year in prison; Doheny and Sinclair acquitted of bribery.·Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb convicted in the “thrill killing” of Bobby Franks in Chicago; defended by Clarence Darrow; sentenced to life imprisonment. (Loeb killed by a fellow convict in 1936; Leopold paroled in 1958, dies in 1971.)·Robert Frost wins the first of four Pulitzers.1925·Nellie Tayloe Ross elected governor of Wyoming; first woman governor elected in U.S. Locarno conferences seek to secure European peace by mutual guarantees.·John T. Scopes convicted and fined for teaching evolution in a public school in Tennessee “Monkey Trial”; sentence set aside.·John Logie Baird, Scottish inventor, transmits human features by television.·Hitler publishes Volume I of Mein Kampf.1926·A general strike in Britain brings the nation's activities to a standstill.·U.S. marines dispatched to Nicaragua during revolt; they remain until 1933.·Gertrude Ederle of the U.S. is the first woman to swim the English Channel.·Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises.1927·German economy collapses.·Socialists riot in Vienna; general strike follows acquittal of Nazis for political murder.·Trotsky expelled from the Russian Communist Party.·Charles A. Lindbergh flies the first successful solo nonstop flight from New York to Paris.·Ruth Snyder and Judd Gray convicted of the murder of Albert Snyder; they are executed at Sing Sing prison in 1928.·Philo T. Farnsworth demonstrates the working television model.·Georges Lemaître proposes the Big Bang Theory.·Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs in the season; record stands for the next 34 years.·The Jazz Singer, with Al Jolson, first part-talking motion picture.1928·Kellogg-Briand Pact, outlawing war, signed in Paris by 65 nations.·Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.·Richard E. Byrd starts an expedition to the Antarctic; returns in 1930.·Anthropologist Margaret Mead publishes Coming of Age in Samoa.·The final volume of the Oxford English Dictionary published after 44 years of research.1929·Trotsky expelled from USSR Lateran Treaty establishes independent Vatican City.·In the U.S., stock market prices collapse, with U.S. securities losing $26 billion—the first phase of Depression and the world economic crisis.·St. Valentine's Day gangland massacre in Chicago.·Edwin Powell Hubble proposes the theory of expanding the universe.1930·Britain, U.S., Japan, France, and Italy sign naval disarmament treaty.·Nazis gain in German elections. Cyclotron developed by Ernest O. Lawrence, U.S. physicist.·Pluto discovered1931·German industrialists finance 800,000-strong Nazi party.·British parliament enacts statute of Westminster, legalizing dominion equality with Britain.·Harold C. Urey discovers heavy hydrogen.·Gangster Al Capone sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion (freed in 1939; dies in 1947).1932·Nazis lead in German elections with 230 Reichstag seats.·Famine in USSR.·In U.S., Congress sets up Reconstruction Finance Corporation to stimulate economy Amelia Earhart is first woman to fly Atlantic solo.1933·Hitler appointed German chancellor, gets dictatorial powers.·Reichstag fire in Berlin; Nazi terror begins.·Germany and Japan withdraw from League of Nations Roosevelt inaugurated (“the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”); launches New Deal.·Prohibition repealed.·USSR recognized by U.S.1934·Chancellor Dollfuss of Austria assassinated by Nazis·. Hitler becomes führer.·USSR admitted to League of Nations.·Mao Zedong begins the Long March north with 100,000 soldiers.1935·Saar incorporated into Germany after plebiscite.·Nazis repudiate Versailles Treaty, introduce compulsory military service.·Mussolini invades Ethiopia; League of Nations invokes sanctions.·Roosevelt opens second phase of New Deal in U.S., calling for social security, better housing, equitable taxation, and farm assistance.1936·Germans occupy Rhineland.·Italy annexes Ethiopia.·Rome-Berlin Axis proclaimed (Japan to join in 1940).·King George V dies; succeeded by son, Edward VIII, who soon abdicates to marry an American-born divorcée, and is succeeded by brother, George VI.·Spanish civil war begins.·War between China and Japan begins, to continue through World War II.1937·Hitler repudiates war guilt clause of Versailles Treaty; continues to build German power.·Italy withdraws from League of Nations.·Japan invades China, conquers most of coastal area.·Picasso's Guernica mural.1938·Hitler marches into Austria; political and geographical union of Germany and Austria proclaimed.·Fair Labor Standards Act establishes minimum wage.1939·Germany invades Poland; occupies Bohemia and Moravia; renounces pact with England and concludes 10-year non-aggression pact with USSR.·Russo-Finnish War begins; Finns to lose one-tenth of territory in 1940 peace treaty.·World War II begins.·In U.S., Roosevelt submits $1,319-million defense budget, proclaims U.S. neutrality, and declares limited emergency.·Einstein writes FDR about feasibility of atomic bomb.1940·Hitler invades Norway, Denmark (April 9), the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg (May 10), and France (May 12).·Churchill becomes Britain's prime minister.Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania annexed by USSR.·The first official network television broadcast is put out by NBC.1941·Germany attacks the Balkans and Russia.·Japanese surprise attack on U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor brings U.S. into World War II; U.S. and Britain declare war on Japan.·Manhattan Project (atomic bomb research) begins.1942·Declaration of United Nations signed in Washington (Jan. 1).·Enrico Fermi achieves nuclear chain reaction.·More than 120,000 Japanese and persons of Japanese ancestry living in western U.S. moved to “relocation centers,” some for the duration of the war (Executive Order 9066).·Coconut Grove nightclub fire in Boston kills 492 (Nov. 28).1943·Churchill and Roosevelt hold Casablanca Conference (Jan. 14–23).·President freezes prices, salaries, and wages to prevent inflation.·Income tax withholding introduced.1944·Allies invade Normandy on D-Day (June 6).·G.I. Bill of Rights enacted. Bretton Woods Conference creates International Monetary Fund and World Bank (July 1–22).·Dumbarton Oaks Conference—U.S., British Commonwealth, and USSR propose establishment of United Nations (Aug. 21–Oct. 7).·Battle of the Bulge (Dec. 16).·Woody Guthrie records “This Land is Your Land.” Gunnar Myrdal's An American Dilemma.1945·Yalta Conference (Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin) plans final defeat of Germany (Feb. 4–11).·FDR dies (April 12).·Hitler commits suicide (April 30); Germany surrenders (May 7); May 8 is declared V-E Day.·Potsdam Conference (Truman, Churchill, Stalin) establishes basis of German reconstruction (July–Aug.).·U.S. drops atomic bombs on Japanese cities of Hiroshima (Aug. 6) and Nagasaki (Aug. 9).·Japan signs official surrender on V-J Day (Sept. 2).·United Nations established (Oct. 24).·First electronic computer, ENIAC, built.1946·First meeting of UN General Assembly opens in London (Jan. 10).·Winston Churchill's “Iron Curtain” speech warns of Soviet expansion (March 5).·League of Nations dissolved (April·Italy abolishes monarchy (June).·Verdict in Nuremberg war trial: 12 Nazi leaders (including 1 tried in absentia) sentenced to hang; 7 imprisoned; 3 acquitted (Oct. 1).·Goering commits suicide a few hours before 10 other Nazis are executed (Oct. 15).·Juan Perón becomes president of Argentina.·Benjamin Spock's childcare classic published.1947·Britain nationalizes coal mines (Jan. 1).·Peace treaties for Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Finland signed in Paris (Feb. 10).·Soviet Union rejects U.S. plan for UN atomic-energy control (March 4).·India and Pakistan gain independence from Britain (Aug. 15).·U.S. Air Force pilot Chuck Yeager becomes first person to break the sound barrier (Oct. 14).·Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl published.1948·Gandhi assassinated in New Delhi(Jan. 30).·Burma (Jan. 4) and Ceylon (Feb. 4) granted independence by Britain.·Communists seize power in Czechoslovakia (Feb. 23–25).·Nation of Israel proclaimed; British end mandate at midnight; Arab armies attack (May 14).·Berlin blockade begins (June 24), prompting Allied airlift (June 26).·Independent Republic of Korea is proclaimed, following election supervised by UN (Aug. 15).·United States of Indonesia established as Dutch and Indonesians settle conflict (Dec. 27).1949·Cease-fire in Palestine (Jan. 7).·Israel signs armistice with Egypt (Feb. 24).·Start of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)—treaty signed by 12 nations (April 4).·Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) established (May 23).·First successful Soviet atomic test (July 14).·Communist People's Republic of China formally proclaimed by Chairman Mao Zedong (Oct. 1).·German Democratic Republic (East Germany) established under Soviet rule (Oct. 7).1950·Truman orders development of hydrogen bomb (Jan. 31).·Korean War begins when North Korean Communist forces invade South Korea (June 25).1951·Julius and Ethel Rosenberg sentenced to death for passing atomic secrets to Russians (March).·Color television introduced in U.S.·Libya gains independence (Dec. 24).1952·George VI dies; his daughter becomes Elizabeth II (Feb. 6).1953·Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower inaugurated president of United States (Jan. 20).·Stalin dies (March 5).·James Watson and Francis Crick publish their discovery of the molecular model of DNA (April–May).·Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal reach top of Mt. Everest (May 29).·Egypt becomes republic ruled by military junta (June 18).·Korean armistice signed (July 27).·Moscow announces explosion of hydrogen bomb (Aug. 20).·Tito becomes president of Yugoslavia.·James Watson, Francis Crick, and Rosalind Franklin discover structure of DNA.1954·First atomic submarine Nautilus launched (Jan. 21).·Eight-nation Southeast Asia defense treaty (SEATO) signed at Manila (Sept. 8).·Dr. Jonas Salk starts inoculating children against polio.·Algerian War of Independence against France begins (Nov.); France struggles to maintain colonial rule until 1962 when it agrees to Algeria's independence.1955·Churchill resigns; Anthony Eden succeeds him (April 6).·Western European Union (WEU) comes into being (May 6).·Rosa Parks refuses to sit at the back of the bus.1956·First aerial H-bomb tested over Namu islet, Bikini Atoll > 10 million tons TNT equivalent (May 21).·Egypt takes control of Suez Canal (July 26).·Israel launches attack on Egypt's Sinai peninsula and drives toward Suez Canal (Oct. 29).·Cease-fire forced by U.S. pressure stops British, French, and Israeli advance (Nov. 6).·Morocco gains independence.1957·Russians launch Sputnik I, first Earth-orbiting satellite—the Space Age begins (Oct. 4).1958·Army's Jupiter-C rocket fires first U.S. Earth satellite, Explorer I, into orbit (Jan. 31).·Egypt and Syria merge into United Arab Republic (Feb. 1).1959·Tibet's Dalai Lama escapes to India (Mar. 31).1960·Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Madagascar, and Zaire (Belgian Congo) gain independence.1961·U.S. breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba (Jan. 3).·Moscow announces putting first man in orbit around Earth, Maj. Yuri A. Gagarin (April 12).·Virgil Grissom becomes second American astronaut, making 118-mile-high, 303-mile-long rocket flight over Atlantic (July 21).·Gherman Stepanovich Titov is launched in Soviet spaceship Vostok East Germans erect Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin to halt the flood of refugees (Aug. 13).·USSR fires a 50-megaton hydrogen bomb, the biggest explosion in history (Oct. 29).1962·Lt. Col. John H. Glenn, Jr., is first American to orbit Earth—three times in 4 hr 55 min (Feb. 20).·Burundi, Jamaica, Western Samoa, Uganda, and Trinidad and Tobago become independent.1963·Michael E. De Bakey implants an artificial heart in humans for the first time at Houston hospital; plastic device functions and patient lives for four days (April 21).·Martin Luther King delivers “I have a dream” speech (Aug. 28).·President Kennedy shot and killed by a sniper in Dallas, Tex.·Kenya achieves independence.1964·Nelson Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment (June 11).1967·Three Apollo astronauts—Col. Virgil I. Grissom, Col. Edward White II, and Lt. Cmdr. Roger B. Chaffee—killed in spacecraft fire during simulated launch (Jan. 27).·Israeli and Arab forces battle; six-day war ends with Israel occupying the Sinai Peninsula, Golan Heights, Gaza Strip, and the east bank of Suez Canal (June 5).·Red China announces the explosion of its first hydrogen bomb (June 17).1969·Richard M. Nixon is inaugurated 37th president of the U.S. (Jan. 20).·Apollo 11 astronauts—Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., and Michael Collins—take man's first walk on the moon (July 20).1970·Biafra surrenders after 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria (Jan. 15).·U.S. troops invade Cambodia (May 1).1971·UN seats Communist China and expels Nationalist China (Oct. 25).1972·Britain takes over direct rule of Northern Ireland in bid for peace (March 24).·Eleven Israeli athletes at Olympic Games in Munich are killed after eight members of an Arab terrorist group invade Olympic Village; five guerrillas and one policeman are also killed (Sept. 5).1973·Fourth and biggest Arab-Israeli conflict begins as Egyptian and Syrian forces attack Israel as Jews mark Yom Kippur, holiest day in their calendar (Oct. 6)·Egypt and Israel sign U.S.-sponsored cease-fire accord (Nov. 11).1975·Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft take off for U.S.-Soviet link-up in space (July 15).·President Ford escapes assassination attempt in Sacramento, Calif. (Sept. 5).·President Ford escapes the second assassination attempt in 17 days (Sept. 22).1976·Israeli airborne commandos attack Uganda's Entebbe Airport and free 103 hostages held by pro-Palestinian hijackers of Air France plane; one Israeli and several Ugandan soldiers killed in the raid (July 4).1977·Scientists report using bacteria in the lab to make insulin (May 23).·Deng Xiaoping, purged Chinese leader, restored to power as “Gang of Four” is expelled from Communist Party (July 22).·The nuclear-proliferation pact, curbing the spread of nuclear weapons, signed by 15 countries, including the U.S. and USSR (Sept. 21).1978·Rhodesia's prime minister Ian D. Smith and three black leaders agree on the transfer to black majority rule (Feb. 15).·Former Italian premier Aldo Moro kidnapped by left-wing terrorists, who kill five bodyguards (March 16); he is found slain (May 9).·Pope Paul VI, dead at 80, mourned (Aug. 6); new Pope, John Paul I, 65, dies unexpectedly after 34 days in office (Sept. 28); succeeded by Karol Cardinal Wojtyla of Poland as John Paul II (Oct. 16).·“Framework for Peace” in the Middle East signed by Egypt's president Anwar Sadat and Israeli premier Menachem Begin after the 13-day conference at Camp David led by President Carter (Sept. 17).·Jim Jones's followers commit mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana (Nov. 18).1979·Oil spills pollute ocean waters in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico (Jan. 1, June 8, July 21).·Shah leaves Iran after a year of turmoil (Jan. 16); revolutionary forces under Muslim leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, take over (Feb. 1 et seq.).·The nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island, Pa., releases radiation (March 28).·Nicaraguan president Gen. Anastasio Somoza Debayle resigns and flees to Miami (July 17); Sandinistas form a government (July 19).·Iranian militants seize the U.S. embassy in Tehran and hold hostages (Nov. 4).·Soviet invasion of Afghanistan stirs world protests (Dec. 27).1980·Six U.S. embassy aides escape from Iran with Canadian help (Jan. 29).·The U.S. breaks diplomatic ties with Iran (April 7).·Eight U.S. servicemen are killed and five are injured as helicopter and cargo plane collide in the abortive desert raid to rescue American hostages in Tehran (April 25).·Shah of Iran dies at 60 (July 27).·Iraq troops hold 90 square miles of Iran after the invasion; the 8-year Iran-Iraq war begins (Sept. 19).·Ronald Reagan elected president in Republican sweep (Nov. 4).·John Lennon of the Beatles shot dead in New York City (Dec. 8).·Smallpox eradicated.1981·U.S.-Iran agreement frees 52 hostages held in Tehran since 1979 (Jan. 20); hostages welcomed back in U.S. (Jan. 25).·Pope John Paul II wounded by gunman (May 14).·More than 110 die in collapse of aerial walkways in lobby of Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City; 188 injured (July 18).·AIDS is first identified.1982·British overcome Argentina in Falklands war (April 2–June 15).·Israel invades Lebanon in attack on P.L.O. (June 4).·Princess Grace, 52, dies of injuries when car plunges off mountain road; daughter Stephanie, 17, suffers serious injuries (Sept. 14).·Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet leader, dies at 75 (Nov. 10). Yuri V. Andropov, 68, chosen as successor (Nov. 15).·Permanent artificial heart implanted in human for first time in Dr. Barney B. Clark, 61, at University of Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City (Dec. 2).1983·Second space shuttle, Challenger, makes successful maiden voyage, which includes the first U.S. space walk in nine years (April 4).·Sally K. Ride, 32, first U.S. woman astronaut in space as a crew member aboard space shuttle Challenger (June 18) South Korean Boeing 747 jetliner bound for Seoul apparently strays into Soviet airspace and is shot down by a Soviet SU-15 fighter after it had tracked the airliner for two hours; all 269 aboard are killed, including 61 Americans (Aug. 30).·Terrorist explosion kills 237 U.S. Marines in Beirut (Oct. 23).·U.S. and Caribbean allies invade Grenada (Oct. 25).1984·Bell System was broken up (Jan. 1).·France gets the first deliveries of Soviet natural gas (Jan. 1).·Yuri V. Andropov dies at 69; Konstantin U. Chernenko, 72, named Soviet Union leader (Feb. 9).·Italy and Vatican agree to end Roman Catholicism as the state religion (Feb. 18).·Soviet Union withdraws from the summer Olympic games in the U.S., and other bloc nations follow (May 7 et seq.).·Three hundred slain as Indian Army occupies Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar (June 6).·Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi assassinated by two Sikh bodyguards; 1,000 killed in anti-Sikh riots; son Rajiv succeeds her (Oct. 31).·President Reagan re-elected in a landslide with 59% of the vote (Nov. 6). Toxic gas leaks from Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, killing 2,000 and injuring 150,000 (Dec. 3).1985·Ronald Reagan, 73, takes oath for second term as 40th president (Jan. 20).·USSR leader Chernenko dies at 73 and is replaced by Mikhail Gorbachev, 54 (March 11).·Two Shi'ite Muslim gunmen capture TWA airliner with 133 aboard, 104 of them Americans (June 14); 39 remaining hostages freed in Beirut (June 30).·P.L.O. terrorists hijack Achille Lauro, Italian cruise ship, with 80 passengers, plus crew (Oct. 7).·Terrorists seize Egyptian Boeing 737 airliner after takeoff from Athens (Nov. 23); 59 dead as Egyptian forces storm plane on Malta (Nov. 24).1986·Voyager 2 spacecraft reports the secrets of Uranus (Jan. 26).·Space shuttle Challenger explodes after launch at Cape Canaveral, Fla., killing all seven aboard (Jan. 28).·Prime Minister Olof Palme of Sweden shot dead (Feb. 28).·Union Carbide agrees to settlement with victims of Bhopal gas leak in India (March 22).·Halley's comet yields information on a return visit (April 10).·U.S. planes attack Libyan “terrorist centers” (April 14).·The major nuclear accident at Soviet Union's Chernobyl power station alarms world (April 26 et seq.).1987·Iraqi missiles kill 37 in attack on U.S. frigate Stark in Persian Gulf (May 17); Iraqi president apologizes (May 18).·Severe earthquake strikes Los Angeles, leaving 100 injured and six dead (Oct. 1).1988·U.S. and Canada reach free trade agreement (Jan. 2).·U.S. Navy ship shoots down Iranian airliner in Persian Gulf, mistaking it for jet fighter; 290 killed (July 3).·Terrorists kill nine tourists on Aegean cruise (July 11).·Plane blast kills Pakistani president Mohammad Zia ul-Haq (Aug. 17).·Benazir Bhutto, first Islamic woman prime minister, chosen to lead Pakistan (Dec. 1).·Pan-Am 747 explodes from terrorist bomb and crashes in Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 aboard and 11 on ground (Dec. 21).1989·Emperor Hirohito of Japan dead at 87 (Jan. 7).·George Herbert Walker Bush inaugurated as 41st U.S. president (Jan. 20).·Ruptured tanker Exxon Valdez sends 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound (March 24).·Tens of thousands of Chinese students take over Beijing's Tiananmen Square in rally for democracy (April 19 et seq.)·More than one million in Beijing demonstrate for democracy; chaos spreads across nation (mid-May et seq.).·Mikhail S. Gorbachev named Soviet president (May 25).·Thousands killed in Tiananmen Square as Chinese leaders take hard line toward demonstrators (June 4 et seq.).·Voyager 2 spacecraft speeds by Neptune after making startling discoveries about the planet and its moons (Aug. 29).·After 28 years, Berlin Wall is open to West (Nov. 11).·Czech Parliament ends Communists' dominant role (Nov. 30).·Dalai Lama wins Nobel Peace Prize.1990·World Wide Web debuts, popularizes Internet.·South Africa frees Nelson Mandela, imprisoned 27 1/2 years (Feb. 11).·Hubble Space Telescope launched (April 25).·Iraqi troops invade Kuwait and seize petroleum reserves, setting off Persian Gulf War (Aug. 2 et seq.).·East and West Germany reunited (Oct. 3).·Leaders of 34 nations in Europe and North America proclaim a united Europe (Nov. 21).·Margaret Thatcher resigns as British prime minister (Nov. 22); John Major succeeds her (Nov. 28).1991·U.S. and Allies at war with Iraq (Jan. 15).·Europeans end sanctions on South Africa (April 15).·France agrees to sign 1968 treaty banning spread of atomic weapons (June 3).·Boris N. Yeltsin inaugurated as first freely elected president of Russian Republic (July 10).·China accepts nuclear nonproliferation treaty (Aug. 10).·Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia win independence (Aug. 25).·Israel and Soviet Union resume relations after 24 years (Oct. 18).·Soviet Union breaks up after President Gorbachev's resignation.1992·U.S. lifts trade sanctions against China (Feb. 21).·Prince and Princess of Wales agree to separate (Dec. 9).1993·Five arrested, sixth sought in bombing of World Trade Center in New York (March 29).·President of Sri Lanka assassinated (May 1).·Twenty-two UN troops killed in Somalia (June 5).·Toni Morrison wins Nobel prize for literature.1994·Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan attacked (Jan. 6); three arrested in attack (Jan. 13).·Major earthquake jolts Los Angeles; 51 dead (Jan. 17 et seq.).·Four convicted in World Trade Center bombing (March 4).·Rwandan genocide of Tutsis by Hutus begins; estimated 800,000 slaughtered in c. 100 days (April 6).·South Africa holds first interracial national election (April 29); Nelson Mandela elected president.·Israel and Palestinians sign accord (May 4). Small plane crashes into White House (Sept. 12).·Baseball owners end season and cancel World Series (Sept. 14).·Powerful earthquake strikes Japan (Oct. 4).·Israel and Jordan sign peace treaty (Oct. 17).·Reagan, 83, reveals he has Alzheimer's disease (Nov. 6).1995·More than 5,000 dead in Japanese earthquake (Jan. 17 et seq.).·U.S. rescues Mexico's economy with $20-billion aid program (Feb. 21).·Nerve gas attack in Tokyo subway kills eight and injures thousands.·UN Council votes easier sanctions for Iraq (April 14)·Death toll 2,000 in Rwanda massacre (April 22).·U.S. shuttle docks with Russian space station (June 27).·France explodes nuclear device in Pacific; wide protests ensue (Sept. 5).·Israelis and Palestinians agree on transferring West Bank to Arabs (Sept. 24).1996·At least 73 dead in Sri Lankan suicide bombing (Feb. 1).·Suicide bombers kill 59 in Israel (March 4).·Britain alarmed by deadly cow disease (March 20 et seq.).·China agrees to world ban on atomic testing (June 6).·Truck bomb kills 19 at U.S. base in Saudi Arabia (June 25).·Prince Charles and Princess Diana agree on divorce (July 12).·747 airliner crashes in Atlantic off Long Island; all 230 aboard perish (July 17).·Bomb mars Summer Olympic games in Atlanta (July 25).·Taliban Muslim fundamentalists capture Afghan capital (Sept. 27).·Mid-air collision in India kills 342 (Nov. 12).·Texaco settles racial bias suit (Nov. 15).1997·U.S. shuttle joins Russian space station (Jan. 17).·Deng Xiaoping, Chinese leader, dead at 92 (Feb. 19).·Israeli government approves establishment of Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem, a setback in Middle East peace process (Feb. 26).·Tornadoes wreak havoc in Arkansas, Ohio, and Kentucky (March 3).·Hale-Bopp comet is the closest it will be to Earth until 4397 (March 22).·Heaven's Gate cult members commit mass suicide in California (March 27).·Tiger Woods breaks multiple records in Masters golf tournament (April 13).·Fire kills 300 pilgrims outside Mecca (April 15).·Hong Kong returns to Chinese rule (June 30).·U.S. spacecraft begins exploration of Mars (July 4).·U.S. spacecraft transmits thousands of pictures from Mars (Aug. 8).·Princess Diana, 36, killed with two others in Paris car crash (Aug. 31).·Three Islamic suicide bombers kill four persons in Jerusalem (Sept. 4).·Mother Teresa dead at 87 (Sept. 5).·Militant Taliban leaders seize Kabul (Sept. 27).·Pakistani convicted in 1993 CIA killings (Nov. 10).·Two convicted in New York World Trade Center bombing (Nov. 12).·Egyptian Islamic militants kill 62 at Luxor tourist site (Nov. 17).1998·Ramzi Ahmed Yousef sentenced to life for 1993 World Trade Center bombing (Jan. 9).·Thousands dead in Afghanistan quake (Feb. 4 et seq.).·Vajpayee becomes India's prime minister (March 19).·Europeans agree on single currency, the euro (May 3).·India conducts three atomic tests despite worldwide disapproval (May 11, 13).·Indonesian dictator Suharto steps down after 32 years in power (May 21).·Pakistan stages five nuclear tests in response to India's (May 29, 30).·Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha dies (June 8).·Congress votes to overhaul IRS (July 9).·North Korea fires missile across Japan (Aug. 31).·Swissair jet crashes; kills 229 (Sept. 2).·More than 10,000 die in Central American hurricane, Mitch (Nov. 1)·Clinton orders air strikes on Iraq (Dec. 16–19).1999·U.S. agrees to ease restrictions on Cuba (Jan. 4).·King Hussein of Jordan dies (Feb. 7).·Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo elected president of Nigeria (Feb. 28).·U.S. accuses China of stealing nuclear secrets (March 5).·Joe DiMaggio dies at age 84 (March 8).·Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary join NATO (March 12).·NATO launches air strikes on Serbia to end attacks against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo (March 24).·“Melissa” computer virus spreads through the Internet (March 27).·NATO bombs mistakenly hit Chinese embassy in Belgrade (May 7).·Citadel graduates its first woman (May 8).·Nelson Mandela retires as president of South Africa; succeeded by Thabo Mbeki (June 16).·Britain's Prince Edward marries Sophie Rhys-Jones (June 19).·Col. Eileen Collins becomes first female to head a space shuttle mission (July 16).·Yeltsin replaces Prime Minister Stepashin with Vladimir Putin in fourth government shakeup in 17 months (Aug. 9).·Islamic militants declare independence for Dagestan and announce holy war against Russia (Aug. 10).·More than 17,000 people die in 7.4 earthquake in Turkey (Aug. 17).·People of East Timor vote for independence from Indonesia (Aug. 31).·NASA accidentally loses $125 million spacecraft as it orbits Mars (Sept. 23).·Dozens of people exposed to radiation in Japan's worst nuclear accident (Sept. 30).·World population reaches six billion milestone (Oct. 11).·Military coup led by Gen. Pervez Musharraf overthrows Pakistani government (Oct. 12).·Tobacco companies admit to harm caused by cigarette smoking (Oct. 13).·Indonesia elects Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid president (Oct. 20).·Pro golfer Payne Stewart and five others killed in plane crash (Oct. 25).·EgyptAir flight crashes over Atlantic, killing all 217 on board (Oct. 31).·Judge finds Microsoft to be a monopoly (Nov. 5).·China launches first spacecraft (Nov. 21).·Muslim terrorists hijack Indian Airlines jet with 189 on board (Dec. 24).2000·Hijackers seize Afghan plane; release hostages in Stansted, England (Feb. 6–12).·Britain ends self-rule in Northern Ireland after Irish Republican Army misses disarmament deadline (Feb. 11).·NEAR spacecraft becomes first to orbit an asteroid (Feb. 14). Acting Russian president Vladimir V. Putin formally chosen for post (March 25).·Microsoft loses antitrust suit; appeal expected (April 3).·Controversial Osprey plane crash kills 19 marines (April 8).·“I love you” virus disrupts computers worldwide (May 4).·Israeli troops withdraw from Lebanese security zone after 22 years of occupation (May 24).·Britain restores parliamentary powers to Northern Ireland after Sinn Fein agrees to disarm (June 4).·Presidents of North and South Korea sign peace accord, ending half-century of antagonism (June 15).·Human genome deciphered; expected to revolutionize the practice of medicine (June 26).·Iraq believed to resume missile program (June 30). Bashar al-Assad succeeds late father, Hafez al-Assad, as Syrian president (July 10).·Concorde crash kills 113 near Paris (July 25).·Olympic Games open in Australia (Sept. 15).·Danish voters reject euro (Sept. 26).·Abortion pill, RU-486, wins U.S. approval (Sept. 28).·Palestinians and Israelis clash, spurred by visit of right-wing Israeli leader Ariel Sharon to a joint Jewish/Muslim holy site; “Al Aksa intifada” continues unabated (Sept. 30 et seq.).·Global warming talks collapse at Hague conference (Nov. 25).·Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak resigns (Dec. 9).·Supreme Court seals Bush victory by 5–4; rules there can be no further recounting (Dec. 12).2001·Congo president Laurent Kabila assassinated by bodyguard (Jan. 16).·George W. Bush is sworn in as 43rd president (Jan. 20).·Earthquake kills thousands in India (Jan. 26 et seq.).·U.S. submarine Greeneville sinks Japanese fishing boat, killing 9 (Feb. 9).·Bush abandons global-warming treaty (Kyoto Protocol), angering European leaders (March 30).·U.S. millionaire Dennis Tito becomes first space tourist, visiting the International Space Station aboard a Russian booster (April 28).·After a Palestinian suicide bomber kills 5 and wounds more than 100 in a Netanya shopping mall, Israeli warplanes retaliate by bombing West Bank and Gaza strip (May 18).·Mohammad Khatami, Iran's moderate president, is reelected in a landslide (June 9).·Without U.S., 178 nations reach agreement on climate accord, which rescues, though dilutes, 1997 Kyoto Protocol (July 23).·Terrorists attack United States. Hijackers ram jetliners into twin towers of New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A fourth hijacked plane crashes 80 mi outside of Pittsburgh. Toll of dead is more than 3,000. Within days, Islamic militant Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda terrorist network are identified as the parties behind the attacks (Sept. 11).·In response to Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, U.S. and British forces launch bombing campaign against Taliban government and al-Qaeda terrorist camps in Afghanistan. Plane crash kills 260 in Queens, N.Y. (Nov. 12).·Enron Corp., one of world's largest energy companies, files for bankruptcy (Dec. 2).·Taliban regime in Afghanistan collapses after two months of bombing by American warplanes and fighting by Northern Alliance ground troops (Dec. 9).·Hamid Karzai, new interim Afghan leader, is sworn in (Dec. 22).2002·The euro currency debuts in 12 European countries (Jan. 2).·Queen Elizabeth II of England marks 50 years as monarch (Feb 6).·Tamil Tigers and Sri Lankan government sign a cease-fire agreement (Feb. 22).·Hundreds in India die in Hindu-Muslim clashes (March 2).·U.S. and Afghan troops launch Operation Anaconda against remaining al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan (March 2).·Saudi peace proposal—offering Israel normal relations with all Arab nations in return for withdrawal from occupied territories—approved at Arab League summit (March 28).·Israeli prime minister Sharon calls for exile of Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat (April 2).·U.S. and Russia reach landmark arms agreement to cut both countries' nuclear arsenals by up to two-thirds over the next ten years (May 13).·East Timor becomes a new nation (May 20).·Pennsylvania miners rescued after spending 77 hours in a dark, flooded mine shaft (July 28).·Terrorist bomb in Bali kills hundreds (Oct. 12).·North Korea admits to developing nuclear arms in defiance of treaty (Oct. 16).·Chechen rebels take 763 hostages in Moscow theater; Russian authorities release a gas into theater, killing 116 hostages and freeing remaining survivors (Oct. 23–26).·Snipers prey upon DC suburbs, killing ten and wounding others (Oct. 2–24).·EPA relaxes Clean Air Act (Nov. 22).2003·North Korea withdraws from treaty on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons (Jan. 10).·Ariel Sharon elected Israeli prime minister (Jan. 29).·Space shuttle Columbia explodes, killing all seven astronauts (Feb. 1).·Massive peace demonstrations take place around the world, protesting potential invasion of Iraq (Feb. 15).·UN Security Council members France, Germany, and Russia insist that “the military option should only be a last resort” concerning Iraq (Feb. 24).·Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic assassinated (March 12).·Hu Jintao succeeds Chinese president Jiang Zemin (March 15).·The United States and Britain launch war against Iraq (March 19).·Baghdad falls to U.S. troops (April 9).·European Union expands by ten nations (April 16).·First Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, sworn in (April 29).·The United States declares official end to combat operations in Iraq (May 1).·Terrorists strike in Saudi Arabia, killing 34 at Western compound; al-Qaeda suspected (May 12).·Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi again placed under house arrest by military regime (May 30).·International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) discovers Iran's concealed nuclear activities and calls for intensified inspections (June 18).·Saddam Hussein's sons killed in firefight (July 22).·Terrorist bombing at Indonesian hotel kills ten (Aug. 6).·Suicide bombing destroys UN headquarters in Baghdad, killing 24. Palestinian suicide bombing in Jerusalem kills 20 Israelis, including 6 children (Aug. 19).·UN votes in favor of a resolution ordering Israel to end construction of security barrier dividing Israeli and Palestinian areas (Oct. 24).·New Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurei takes office (Nov. 12).·Suicide bombers attack two synagogues in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 25 (Nov. 15).·Another terrorist attack in Istanbul kills 26; al-Qaeda suspected in both (Nov. 20).·Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze resigns after weeks of protests (Nov. 23).·Paul Martin succeeds Jean Chretien as Canadian prime minister (Dec. 12).·Saddam Hussein is captured by American troops (Dec. 13).2004·Bush proposes ambitious space program that includes flights to the Moon, Mars, and beyond (Jan. 14).·A.Q. Khan, founder of Pakistan's nuclear program, admits he sold nuclear-weapons designs to other countries, including North Korea, Iran, and Libya (Feb. 4).·Spain is rocked by terrorist attacks, killing more than 200. Al-Qaeda takes responsibility (March 11).·North Atlantic Treaty Organization formally admits seven new countries: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia (March 29).·Israeli prime minister Sharon announces a plan to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza Strip (April 12).·Gay marriages begin in Massachusetts, the first state in the country to legalize such unions (May 17).·Summer Olympics take place in Athens, Greece (Aug. 13–29).·Chechen terrorists take about 1,200 schoolchildren and others hostage in Beslan, Russia; 340 people die when militants detonate explosives (Sept. 1–3).·UN Atomic Energy Agency tells Iran to stop enriching uranium; a nascent nuclear weapons program suspected (Sept. 18).·380 tons of explosives reported missing in Iraq (Oct. 25).·Bush reelected president (Nov. 2).·Yasir Arafat dies in Paris (Nov. 11).·Ukraine presidential election declared fraudulent (Nov. 21).·Hamid Karzai inaugurated as Afghanistan's first popularly elected president (Dec. 7).·Enormous tsunami devastates Asia; at least 225,000 killed (Dec. 26).2005·Worldwide aid pours in to help the 11 Asian countries devastated by the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami (Jan.).·Mahmoud Abbas wins the presidency of the Palestinian Authority in a landslide (Jan. 9).·George W. Bush is officially sworn in for his second term as president (Jan. 20).·Saudis (men only) are allowed to vote for the first time in municipal elections (Feb. 10).·Pope John Paul II dies (April 2).·Benedict XVI becomes the next pope (April 24).·Former Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a hard-line conservative, wins Iran's presidential election with 62% of the vote.·NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft hits comet Tempel 1 in an effort to research primordial remnants of our solar system (July 4).·London hit by Islamic terrorist bombings, killing 52 and wounding about 700. It is Britain's worst attack since World War II (July 7).·Hurricane Katrina wreaks catastrophic damage on the Gulf Coast; more than 1,000 die and millions are left homeless. (Aug. 25–30).·A 7.6 earthquake centered in the Pakistani-controlled part of the Kashmir region kills more than 80,000 and leaves an estimated 4 million homeless (Oct. 2).2006After a year of silence, Osama bin Laden says al-Qaeda is planning to attack the United States. (Jan. 19).The Olympic winter games open in Turin, Italy (Feb. 10).Saddam Hussein is charged with genocide by an Iraqi court for a campaign against Iraq's Kurdish population in 1988 (Apr. 4).Nepal's King Gyanendra reinstates Parliament after more than two weeks of demonstrations involving over 100,000 people. It meets for the first time in four years (Apr. 28).The International Atomic Energy Agency confirms that Iran has enriched uranium (Apr. 28).Warren Buffett announces that he will donate 85% of his $44 billion fortune to five philanthropic organizations, with about $31 billion going to the Gates Foundation (June 24).India test-launches a missile with a range of 1,800 miles (July 9).More than 200 people die and hundreds more are wounded when a series of bombs exploded on commuter trains in Mumbai, India during the evening rush hour (July 11).The International Astronomical Union classifies Pluto as a dwarf planet (Aug. 24).International outrage and condemnation follow the test of a nuclear missile in the mountains of North Korea (Oct. 9).Pakistan military fires missiles at an Islamic school on the Afghanistan border, killing about 80 people who government officials say were militants. Officials also claim the school harbored members of al-Qaeda (Oct. 30).An Iraqi court convicts Saddam Hussein of crimes against humanity and sentences him to death by hanging (Nov. 5).South African parliament votes to legalize same-sex marriage (Nov. 14).Four days after an appeals court upholds his death sentence, Saddam Hussein is hanged in Baghdad (Dec. 30).2007Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs announces the iPhone.(Jan 9)President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea walks across the Military Demarcation Line into North Korea on his way to the second Inter-Korean Summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (Oct 2).One of the largest and deadliest fires in US history rages in Southern California fanned by the Santa Ana winds destroying 400,000 acres and 2,000 homes.The New Wembley Stadium in England Is completed.NASA Launches Phoenix Mars LanderNew Horizons Visits JupiterThe Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf clings to power by suspending the Constitution and imposing martial lawCyclone Sidr with winds reaching 160 MPH strikes coastal areas of Bangladesh claiming the lives of between 4,000 and 5,000An earthquake measuring 8.0 strikes the central coastal area of Peru leaving 500 deadGordon Brown becomes the new British Prime MinisterThe terrorist attack on Glasgow Airport by terrorists working as doctors in the British Health ServiceAl-Qaeda terrorists explode massive bombs in Algiers including at the United Nations building killing 502008Cyprus and Malta adopt the Euro joining 13 other European countries using the single currency.The Tata Group introduces the Nano at the New Delhi car show its ultra-cheap car in India costing 100,000 rupees the equivalent of $2,500Internet access is disrupted in large parts of the Middle East and India which suffered up to 60% disruption due to breaks in submarine cable systems in the Mediterranean.UK experiences largest earthquake ( 5.2 ) in 25 yearsSuicide Bomber Kills 40 during a gathering of tribal elders and local officials in north-west PakistanGovernments around the world face the continuing problems of increased oil prices causing inflation and unemployment increasing. Oil hits an all-time high of $147 a barrelShuttle Endeavour goes for a 16-day mission to the International Space Station.A tropical cyclone devastates parts of the Irrawaddy region of Burma / Myanmar leaving over 50,000 dead.An Earthquake measuring 7.8 strikes near Chengdu, Sichuan's provincial capital leaving an estimated 60,000 dead and up to 5 million homeless.Sony’s Blu-ray HD format now has about 70 percent of the new high-definition market and is expected to win over the rival format, HD DVD.Microsoft attempts to buy Yahoo for $44.6bn2009Hubble Telescope RepairOngoing financial crisis and recession which began in late 2007 continue with many calling it the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s causing house prices to decline, and unemployment to increase.The World Health Organization declares H1N1 influenza strain, commonly referred to as "swine flu", as a global pandemicPirates Attempt Hijack of MV Maersk Cargo Ship 280 miles southeast of Eyl, Somalia, Hijack Fails but they take Captain Richard Phillips as a hostageBarack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th President of the United StatesMichael Jackson dies in strange circumstances and brings a worldwide outpouring of griefThe deadliest bushfires in Australian history ( Black Saturday bushfires ) in the Australian state of Victoria leave 173 people dead and more than 2000 homes destroyed.Slovakia adopted the Euro joining 15 other European countries using the single currency6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes near L'Aquila, Italy, killing nearly 300.Gunmen, near the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, Pakistan fire on a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team.The country of Paraguay is left with no power for a few hours and 60 million in Brazil also suffer power outage for up to 6 hours.Albania and Croatia join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).North Korea launches the Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 satellite, Later in the year announces it had conducted a second successful nuclear test in the province of North Hamgyong.A 7.6-magnitude earthquake strikes 28 miles west-northwest of Padang, Sumatra killing over 1,000 in IndonesiaNASA launches the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter/LCROSS probes to the Moon to search for water ice near the Moon's south pole. In November NASA announces they found 'significant' amounts of water on the moon.The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, lasting up to 6 minutes and 38.8 seconds, occurs over parts of Asia and the Pacific Ocean2010The Winter Olympics are held in Vancouver.China launches its second moon probe, Chang'e 2.Burj Khalifa OpensSpaceX successfully launched Dragon capsule and it returns from low-Earth orbit.Floods in Pakistan caused by higher than normal monsoon rains cause flooding on a scale unseen before with 20% of the country flooded, this leaves millions homeless, starving and causes major disruption to the country.The 2010 FIFA World Cup takes place in South Africa, Spain wins the World CupSuicide bombers carry out bomb attacks on trains at the central Lubyanka station and the Park Kultury station on the Moscow Metro leaving 40 dead and 60 injured.A magnitude 7 earthquake hits Haiti and devastates the countryEarthquake measuring 8.8 magnitudes occurred off the coast of central Chile ( the 6th largest recorded earthquake in history ) the resulting Tsunami combined the earthquake resulted in the death of over 500 plus immense damage.Justin Bieber who was discovered through a video placed on YouTube in 2008 continues to dominate the charts around the world attracting millions of fans showing the power of social networking.Apple releases the new iPhone 4 but problems with antenna design cause consumer problems2011On March 11th an underwater earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 hits off the coast of Japan, causing a tsunami that hit the Iwate prefecture with waves over 130 feet high. Estimated figures related to the earthquake include nearly 16,000 deaths, over 6,000 injuries, and almost 3,000 people missing. About 4.4 million households went without power and about 1.5 million went without water. Hundreds of thousands of buildings were damaged and destroyed.On May 2nd, it was announced by US President Obama that Osama Bin Laden had been found and killed by US Navy Seals in Abbottabad, Pakistan. This marked the end of the search for the man who was thought to be responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11th of 2001.NASA launches the Juno spacecraft during August of 2011. Juno’s mission was to conduct a long, scientific study of JupiterRussia officially became a part of the World Trade Organization after taking part in a ceremony in Switzerland.Apple releases the iPhone 4S on October 14th, only nine days after the death of co-founder Steve Jobs.Google releases Android Version 4.0, nicknamed Ice Cream Sandwich on October 19th.India makes the Aakash tablet computer that would sell for only $35.00.2012The Mars Science Laboratory or "Curiosity Rover" successfully lands on Mars.The Summer Olympics are held in London, England from July 27th to August 12th. The top three medal-winning countries during the games were the United States, China, and Great Britain. US Swimmer Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian of all time after bringing his medal count to twenty-two at these games.Austrian Felix Baumgartner becomes the first person to break the sound barrier without mechanical assistance when he jumps over New Mexico on October 14thThe film "Marvel's The Avengers" is released and becomes one of the highest-grossing films.US President Barack Obama is re-elected for his second term after running against Republican opponent Mitt Romney.The end of the Mayan calendar, or the end of the world as some believed, is observed with little to no consequence.China launched its latest space mission that would include the country's first woman astronaut. Liu Yang, a 33-year-old military pilot, was a part of the crew aboard the Shenzhou-9 capsule that would spend a week at the Tiangong space lab to test systems and conduct experiments.Earth observes the Transit of Venus, a rare astronomical event.Windows releases the Windows 8 operating system meant for tablets and touch screensFacebook goes public and its initial stock offering was at thirty-eight dollars per share2013The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also known as the Mangalyaan satellite launched in November. The mission was launched by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)President Obama is inaugurated for his second term on January 21st.A powerful meteor explodes near Chelyabinsk in Russia and injures nearly 1,500 people while causing damage to several thousand buildings on February 15th.Two bombs are exploded at the Boston Marathon on April 15, killing 3 and injuring 264 people.North Korea continues missile and nuclear tests despite international pressureA garment factory in Bangladesh collapses, killing 1,127 people and injuring another 2,500 people, workers had been ordered to report there despite warnings of building safety from the previous day.An elected government completed a full term for the first time in the country's history.Sony releases the Playstation 4 gaming system while Microsoft releases the Xbox One.Twitter goes public on September 12th and shares were initially sold for $26.00,Apple releases two new iPhones, the 5C and 5S2014Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Disappears.Scotland Votes to Remain Part of the United Kingdom.Narendra Modi Wins in India.Ebola Strikes West Africa.ISIS Declares an Islamic CaliphateFacebook buys WhatsAppLaunch of the communication satellite GSAT-14 aboard the GSLV Mk. II D5 marks the first successful flight of an Indian cryogenic rocket engine.The Pakistani Taliban carry out a mass shooting at an army school in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing at least 145 people, mostly schoolchildren.2015Queen Elizabeth II becomes Great Britain's longest-reigning monarch at 63 years and seven months, beating the previous record set by her great-great-grandmother, Queen VictoriaUS scientists from the University of California find evidence life on earth may have begun 4.1 billion years ago, 300 million earlier than previously thoughtCOP21 climate change summit in Paris reaches a deal between 195 countries to limit the rise in the global average temperature to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levelsOver 2,000 people are killed in north-east Nigeria after Boko Haram militants raze the town of Baga72 people are killed & 169 hospitalized after a mass poisoning of beer with crocodile bile at a funeral in MozambiqueAB de Villiers makes the fastest century in ODI cricket history from 31 balls against the West IndiesSergio Mattarella is elected President of ItalyAustralia defeats South Korea in football to win the 2015 AFC Asian CupIvory Coast wins the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations football championshipNASA's Dawn space probe enters orbit around the dwarf planet CeresCricket World Cup, Melbourne (MCG): Australia defeats fellow host New Zealand by 7 wickets to win their 5th title; Player of Series: Mitchel StarcScientists announce the discovery of the oldest & most distant galaxy known to man, EGS-zs8-1Heatwave in India centered in Telengana and Andhra Pradesh states is reported to have killed 1800 people in a week2016The highest ever recorded individual cricket score, 1,009 not out, is made by Pranav Dhanawade.The World Health Organization announces an outbreak of the Zika virusNorth Korea launches a reconnaissance satellite named Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4 into space, condemned as a long-range ballistic missile testThe ESA and Roscosmos launch the joint ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter on a mission to MarsEgyptAir Flight 804 crashes into the Mediterranean Sea en route from Paris to Cairo, killing all 66 people on board.France hosts the UEFA Euro 2016 football tournament, which is won by Portugal.The United Kingdom votes in a referendum to leave the European Union.NASA's Juno spacecraft enters orbit around Jupiter and begins a 20-month survey of the planetThe augmented reality mobile game Pokémon Go is released, breaking numerous records in terms of sales and revenue.The 2016 Summer Olympics are held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the first time in a South American nationThe government of North Korea conducts its fifth and reportedly biggest nuclear test.Donald Trump is elected the 45th President of the United States as a Republican after running a campaign widely characterized as populistLaMia Flight 2933 crashes into a mountain near Medellín, Colombia, killing 71 of the 77 people on board, including members of the Brazilian Chapecoense football squad.20172017 Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the Reina nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 39 people and injuring 79 othersMorocco rejoins the African Union.North Korea prompts international condemnation by test-firing a ballistic missile across the Sea of JapanAn Islamic terror attack outside the Palace of Westminster in London, England, kills five people and injures more than fifty othersSpaceX conducts the world's first flight of an orbital class rocket.WannaCry ransomware attack: Computers around the world are hit by a large-scale ransomware cyberattack, which goes on to affect at least 150 countries.An Islamic terrorist bombing attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, kills 22 people and injures more than 500 othersA fire at Grenfell Tower in London, England, kills 72 people and injures more than 70 othersNorth Korea conducts its sixth and most powerful nuclear testCassini–Huygens ends its 13-year mission by plunging into Saturn, becoming the first spacecraft to enter the planet's atmosphereA massive blast caused by a truck bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia kills at least 512 people and injures 316 others.A magnitude 7.3 earthquake strikes the border region between Iraq and Iran leaving at least 530 dead and over 70,000 homelessA Leonardo da Vinci painting, Salvator Mundi, sells for US$450 million at Christie's in New York, a new record price for any work of art.A mosque attack in Sinai, Egypt kills 305 worshippers and leaves hundreds more wounded2018SpaceX successfully conducts the maiden flight of its most powerful rocket to date, the Falcon Heavy, from LC39A at John F. Kennedy Space Center in FloridaThe 2018 Winter Olympics are held in Pyeongchang, South KoreaFlight BS211 crashes and bursts into flames at Tribhuvan International Airport, Nepal, killing 51 of the 71 people aboard. The 20 surviving passengers were seriously injured from the impact and the fireIn the Russian presidential election, Vladimir Putin is elected for a fourth term.The 2018 Commonwealth Games are held in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.Cinemas open in Saudi Arabia for the first time since 1983 with the American film Black Panther chosen as the first to be screenedNASA's unmanned space probe InSight is launched.FIFA awards hosting rights for the 2026 World Cup to a joint bid from Canada, Mexico, and the United States.The 2018 FIFA World Cup is held in Russia and is won by France.Saudi Arabia allows women to drive.Apple Inc. becomes the world's first public company to achieve a market capitalization of $1 trillionHeavy rainfall causes severe floods in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the worst flood to hit the state in a century.The Supreme Court of India decriminalizes homosexualityNASA's InSight probe successfully lands on the surface of Mars2019Prajyot Kumbharjuvekar wrote one of the longest answers ever on Quora.If you are still reading this, Take a BREAKWhat Happened in 2013 inc. Pop Culture, Prices and Events2007 World HistoryTen Most Significant World Events in 2014Historical Events in 2015

When not a simple slur on the Middle Ages as a whole, some still use the term “Dark Age” for the period between the end of Late Antiquity and the revival of learning, trade and population in Western and Northern Europe by circa 1000 C.E., following the anarchy, ubiquitous piracy and pagan & muslim invasions of the ‘Dark Ages.’ (The term “Early Middle Ages” is preferred by most scholars.)Accordingly, we could pick a starting point for the period as August 636 of the Christian Era (the Western calendar, C.E. or “Anno Domini”/A.D.) when the Muslim Caliphate decisively defeated Byzantium and drove the “Eastern Romans” from Syria (and soon after, Egypt) and ending, perhaps, in the year 955, when Holy Roman Emperor Otto I “The Saxon” defeated the Magyar (pagan Hungarian) horde at the Battle of Lechfeld. These are arbitrary dates, but help establish some parameters.These two battles bookmark two very important transformations: at the Yarmouk, the surviving Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire was decisively defeated, losing Syria, Palestine (with Jerusalem) and Egypt in a few short years, and near-permanently to a new and vigorous Islamic empire and its rapidly developing civilization. Less than 20 years later, the Islamic Caliphate built a Mediterranean fleet to launch attacks deep into the Byzantine Empire, reaching its capital, Constantinople, by 672. By the early 700s C.E., rising Muslim sea power had ravaged seaborne trade between East & West, and precipitated the breakdown of the once-strong political and religious links between Rome & Western Europe on one hand, and the Byzantine Empire in Greece and Anatolia (today’s Turkey, then the heartland of Orthodox Christianity) on the other. Eastern & Western Christianity then drifted apart, a cultural division within Europe that lasts until our own time and that still runs deep (as any student of Russian history can confirm).As the Mediterranean Sea passed from Christian to Muslim control in the late 600s and early 700s, it became a highway for Islamic fleets and, particularly, pirates, who then pillaged and raided for slaves. This raiding devastated most of the few large cities that had managed to survive the initial Western Roman collapse in the 400s (though Amalfi and Naples in Southern Italy survived, and Venice began its slow rise, so trade did not cease entirely). Rome itself was eventually raided and sacked by Muslim pirates; Christian traders were all but driven from the seas, and coastal areas devastated. First Spain, then — very gradually — all Sicily and parts of Sardinia were completely overrun and became bases for further raiding deep into Italy and France.Literacy and learning crumbled along with these ravaged cities, though already much diminished following the late Roman collapse. The Latin-speaking priests and bishops during the “Barbarian Kingdoms” that had followed Rome in the West kept up scholarly traditions and wrote some fairly detailed historical chronicles, giving us a written record of events that at least episodically covers the period from 476 to the early 600s C.E. The next few centuries are called “Dark” because in the regions that became Italy, Spain, France, England and Germany later, there are large gaps in the histories or “chronicles” telling us what happened.We should remember that the lack of surviving documents means there is much we simply don’t know, and that much of the standard view of the period may be quite inaccurate, as the lack of surviving records is not conclusive. But early scholars labelled the period “Dark” for this reason, when they didn’t apply it to the entire period before the Renaissance. Medieval historians have spent more than two centuries dismantling and disproving many of these assumptions. But even so, at least in terms of literacy, scholarship and urban economies in the lands formerly part of the Western Roman Empire, the early Middle Ages were an era mostly of crisis and decline.The Carolingian Franks did lead a short-lived but vigorous period of Western European revival and resistance, first defeating Islamic invaders from Spain in 737, then uniting most of Western and Central Europe (except Muslim Spain) under Charles I “The Great” or Charlemagne. This revival of Western Christendom political power had its parallel in culture: The Carolingian Renaissance.Charlemagne tried to revive Classical, pre-Christian culture in the Latin language under his patronage. He did succeed in restoring understanding of Classical Latin and and a flourishing monastic book culture, with the production of manuscripts and expansion of schooling. His political attempt to unite the former Western Roman, now Christian lands, to “restore” the Western Empire and end the period of disunity and decline reached its peak with the crowning of Charlemagne by Pope Leo III in 800 C.E as Western “Roman Emperor.”But instead of a new and invincible Western Christian Rome, Leo and Charlemagne had created the Holy Roman Empire — a far weaker and more unstable fixture of European History for the next thousand years that soon shrank to just Germany, northern Italy and the Netherlands. This premature Western Christian revival then crumbled swiftly as new enemies of the Catholic West emerged in Scandinavia (the Vikings) and in Central Europe (the nomadic and warlike Magyars, ancestors of today’s Hungarians).Soon after Charlemagne’s death Viking raids accelerated and became ubiquitous. A renegade Byzantine governor brought an Islamic army to Sicily, beginning an Arab conquest of the island that further severed the connections between Eastern and Western Christian societies, even taking part of southern Italy for 40 years, blocking travel and trade. In the mid-9th century the swift-moving Magyar horsemen (ancestors of the Hungarians) arrived, just as the Carolingian Empire disintegrated into a chaotic free-for-all, a usurpation of power by local officials, who became the ancestors of the feudal aristocracy of Europe (more or less by theft). The late Carolingian Kings’ power all but evaporated; literacy retreated to those monasteries that managed not to be plundered and destroyed by Viking, Muslim and Magyar invaders, who targeted them as rich sources of gems and gold (Carolingian culture prized richly ornamented bibles and liturgical vessels, lavishing wealth on churches and monasteries, and thereby ironically making them irresistible targets for the pagan raiders).This period of civil war, disintegration and constant invasion perhaps truly deserves to be considered the actual, relatively short Dark Age” for Western Europe.Even the Papacy itself fell into a profound and corrupt decadence, the Catholic Church losing its coherent central administration and local Roman nobles turning the office of Pope into a plaything of depraved and distinctly un-holy leaders. By the late 800s no institution in Europe seemed to survive uncorrupted, no leadership except that of the Kings of Wessex fighting the Danes in England seemed capable of defeating any non-Christian enemies at all, and even the last remnant of Eastern Orthodox Christianity seemed to be in a slow death spiral, as Byzantium struggled to survive its own pagan scourge, the Bulgarian Empire that dominated the Balkans and ravaged its remaining European provinces, repeatedly besieging Constantinople, its capital.Since most of the accounts of this period are by clerics — priests, bishops and monks like the Venerable Bede in England — this sense of relentless decline in culture, for Renaissance & Enlightenment scholars, and a besieged Christianity for others, particularly Catholic historians, dominated the first attempts to write coherent histories of the period during Early Modern times (c. 1600 - 1800) by figures such as Edward Gibbon. What also made the “Dark Ages” dark was the consistent theme in chroniclers of these times that the Christian world was in crisis and might not survive the ravages of its enemies, both external and internal — since local leaders fought each other for land and power consistently, mostly refusing to unite under Holy Roman Emperor or local Kings (of France, of Wessex, then all England, of re-emerging I was Christian Spain in its far north) to defeat pagans and Muslims.To some chroniclers and religious leaders, it seemed that the “End Times” were perhaps their own and that Christ would return to judge all and end history at any moment (just in the nick of time before Christianity itself was finally defeated and utterly destroyed). “Dark” in this sense, for clerics and later critics alike, meant a declining civilization, constantly attacked, encircled and disunited.Of course a historian from an Islamic country (or from distant China, or Mesoamerica) can argue almost irrefutably that there is nothing universal or even relevant about this idea of “Dark Ages” outside of Europe (and this definition would exclude Spain, largely).The period from 650 to 900 C.E was the true Golden Age of Islamic Civilization. As Christian Late Antique urban centers crumbled, enormous and wealthy Islamic cities grew explosively in Cordoba, Granada, Cairo, Baghdad and Kairouan (in today’s Tunisia). Learning, philosophy and mathematics thrived in the boomtown cities of Islam, continuing to develop and prosper. Trade was lucrative and extensive. Architecture and visual arts flourished, along with poetry and scholarship.In China, the same period is often considered one of or perhaps the best in pre-modern Chinese history, and certainly as both largely peaceful and extraordinarily prosperous. Japan emerged, unified under its Emperors and developed into its refined, peaceful and artistically advanced “Heian Period.”So the “Dark Ages” were really only dark from a Western European perspective. And this also is narrowly focused on elite literate culture —the period c. 850–950 was the last stage in nearly unstoppable breakdown of city-based society, law and culture of the seemingly-universal Pax Romana that had reached its pinnacle in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian.Cities and long-distance trade foster learning and cultural production; life for the overwhelming rural majority, much less the slaves who produced so much of the wealth that underpinned the urbane city life of Antiquity so treasured by Gibbon and early Modern historians and Renaissance scholars, simply didn’t figure in their looking backwards. That very important advances in agriculture (the field rotation system, better plows) improved technologies (the stirrup and harnessing that allowed knights to fight on horseback) and other developments during these so-called “Dark” centuries were also of great importance eluded their attention. The legacy of the Renaissance — that the loss of secular, non-theological modes of thinking during the Middle Ages was itself a “Fall” of civilization regardless of how good or bad life for ordinary people was — is still deeply-rooted in how we view everything in Western-derived and focused (that is, descended from Greco-Roman ideas, fundamentally) history.Christianity had taken over Roman culture and the Empire by the early 300s, only to have its unified, Mediterranean-based world crumble in stages, and almost to nothing by circa 850 C.E. Greek-derived philosophy and culture (and knowledge of the Greek language itself) came close to disappearing in Western Europe; the correct history of Rome itself was lost, to the point that Papal bureaucrats could use the absurd and forged “Donation of Constantine” to claim that the first Christian Emperor, Constantine, had bequeathed all political power in the West to the Popes, making any and all local leaders subordinate to the Church. (The tradition of historical inquiry had decayed—religious understanding and theology shaped all literate culture).In the Byzantine, Greek-speaking Christian Empire many Roman elements persisted, central government remained strong, and the Byzantine “Dark Age” really only lasted from c. 650 to 800, during which time learning and literacy appear to have been more resilient. Byzantium revived strongly starting in the late 800s and even challenged Muslim dominance of the seas, entering the 900s as reviving, urban and literate civilization that was anything but “dark.”In the West it took the reassertion of the Western “Holy Roman Empire” in Germany by the Saxon or “Ottonian” Dynasty founded by Otto I, and Otto’s defeat of the Magyars in 955 and their subsequent conversion to Christianity following that defeat; and the more gradual settling and conversion of pagan Vikings to Catholic Normans (in Northern France) and the establishment of Christian kingdoms in Norway, Sweden and Denmark to bring a measure of stability. The new feudal society began to settle down; while central government was relatively weak and remote, law again began to regulate disputes more than brute armed force. The peasant population began to grow again, towns revived, trade and money began to flow. After 1000 C.E. it became clear that Christianity, far from being on the brink of destruction, was thriving along with the new Christian kingdoms, and in fact was expanding.The High Middle Ages arrived as the Christian ‘Dark Age’ ended. Christian Europe began a counter-attack on the Islamic world in Spain, Sicily and even in the Holy Land (with the Crusades). This counter-offensive eventually made new “Dark Ages” for both Islam and Orthodox Christianity, devastating ones. We should only use the term sparingly and very carefully, for a “Dark Age” is relative, not objective, concept privileging one group or culture to an extreme extent. The term itself can obscure more than it reveals. The “Middle Ages” or Medieval period is a less compromised, more flexible construct. We should understand the “Dark Age” as simply a Western European subchapter of far more varied, longer Medieval period that intervenes between Ancient History and the more globally interconnected Modern Era of European expansion and imperialism post-Colombus and Da Gama.

Lets go in detailThe Religion of ISLAM"This day have I perfected your religion for you and completed My favour unto you, and have chosen for you as your religion Islam." (Quran, Surah V:3)INTRODUCTIONIslam is a religion based upon the surrender to God who is One. The very name of the religion, ALISLAM in Arabic, means at once submission and peace, for it is in submitting to God's Will that human beings gain peace in their lives in this world and in the hereafter. The message of Islam concerns God, who in Arabic is called Allah, and it addresses itself to humanity's most profound nature. It concerns men and women as they were created by God--not as fallen beings. Islam therefore considers itself to be not an innovation but a reassertion of the universal truth of all revelation which is God's Oneness.This truth was asserted by the prophets of old and especially by Abraham, the father of monotheism. Islam reveres all of these prophets including not only Abraham, who is the father of the Arabs as well as of the Jews, but also Moses and Christ. The Prophet and Messenger of God, Muhammad--may peace and blessings be upon him, his family and his companions--, was the last of this long lime of prophets and Islam is the last religion until the Day of Judgement. It is the final expression of the Abrahamic tradition. One should in fact properly speak of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition. One should in fact properly speak of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition, for Islam shares with the other Abrahamic religions their sacred history, the basic ethical teachings contained in the Ten Commandments and above all, belief in the One God. And it renews and repeats the true beliefs of Jews and Christians whose scriptures are mentioned as divinely revealed books in Islam's own sacred book, the Quran.THE QURANFor Muslims, or followers of Islam, the Quran is the actual Word of God revealed through the archangel Gabriel to the Prophet of Islam during the twenty-three-years period of his prophetic mission. It was revealed in the Arabic language as a sonoral revelation which the Prophet repeated to his companions. Arabic became therefore the language of Islam even for non-Arab Muslims. Under the direction of the Prophet, the verses and chapters were organized in the order known to Muslims to this day. There is only one text of Quran accepted by all schools of Islamic thought and there are no variants.The Quran is the central sacred reality of Islam. The sound of the Quran is the first and last sound that a Muslim hears in this life. As the direct Word of God and the embodiment of God's Will, the Quran is considered as the guide par excellence for the life of Muslims. It is the source of all Islamic doctrines and ethics. Both the intellectual aspects of Islam and Islamic Law have their source in the Quran. Perhaps there is no book revered by any human collectivity as much as the Quran is revered by Muslims. Essentially a religion of the book, Islam sees all authentic religions as being associated with a scripture. That is why Muslims call Christians and Jews the "people of the book".Throughout all its chapters and verses, the Quran emphasizes the significance of knowledge and encourages Muslims to learn and to acquire knowledge not only of God's laws and religious injunctions, in a language rich in its varied terminology, to the importance of seeing, contemplating, and reasoning about the world of creation and its diverse phenomena. It places the gaining of knowledge as the highest religious activity, one that is most pleasing in God's eyes. That is why wherever the message of the Quran was accepted and understood, the quest for knowledge flourished.THE PROPHET OF ISLAMThe Prophet of Islam is loved and revered by Muslims precisely because he was chosen by God to reveal His Word to mankind. The Prophet Muhammad is not considered to be divine but a human being. However, he is seen as the most perfect of human beings, shining like a jewel among stones. He was born in 570 A. D. in one of the most powerful tribes in the Arabia of that time, for it had guardianship over the Ka'bah in Makkah. An orphan brought up by his grandfather and later by his uncle, the young Muhammad displayed exceptional virtue as a trustworthy individual whom members of various tribes would invite to act as arbitrator in their disputes.At that time the Arabs followed a form of idolatry, each tribe keeping its own idols at the Ka'bah, the cubical structure built originally by Abraham to celebrate the glory of the One God. But the monotheistic message of Abraham had long become forgotten among the general population of the Arabian peninsula. The young Muhammad, however was a believer in the One God all of his life and never participated in the idolatrous practices of his tribe.When forty years old, during one of the retreats which he made habitually in a cave on top of a mountain outside Makkah, Muhammad first saw the archangel Gabriel who revealed God's Word to him, the Quran, and announced the Muhammad is the messenger of God. For the next thirteen years he preached the Word of God to the Makkans, inviting them to abandon idolatry and accept the religion of Oneness. A few accepted his call but most Makkans, especially those of his own tribe, opposed him violently, seeing in the new religion a grave danger to their economic as well as social domination based upon their control of the Ka'bah. But the Prophet continued to call the people to Islam and gradually a larger number of men and women began to accept the faith and submit themselves to its teachings. As a result, persecution of Muslims increased until the Prophet was forced to send some of his companions to Abyssina where they were protected by the Christian King.The Makkan period was also one of intense spiritual experience for the Prophet and the noble companions who formed the nucleus of the new religious community which was soon to spread worldwide. It was during this period that God ordered the direction of prayers to be changed from Jerusalem to Makkah. To this day Jerusalem remains along with Makkah and Madinah one of the holiest cities of Islam.In 622 A. D. the Prophet was ordered by God to migrate to Yathrib, a city north of Makkah. He followed the Divine Command and left with his followers for that city which henceforth was known as "The City of the Prophet" (Madinat al-nabi) or simply Madinah. This event was so momentous that the Islamic calendar begins with this migration (hijrah).In Madinah, the Prophet established the first Islamic society which has served as the model for all later Islamic societies. Several battles took place against the invading Makkans which the Muslims won against great odds. Soon more tribes began to join Islam and within a few years most of Arabia had embraced the religion of Islam.After many trials and eventually successive victories, the Prophet returned triumphantly to Makkah where the people embraced Islam at last. He forgave all his former enemies and marched to the Ka'bah, where he ordered his companion and cousin 'Ali to join him in destroying all the idols. The Prophet reconstituted the rite of pilgrimage as founded by Abraham. The Prophet then returned to Madinah and made another pilgrimage to Makkah. It was upon returning from this last pilgrim that he delivered his farewell address. Soon he fell ill and after three day s died in 632 A. D. in Madinah where he was buried in the chamber of his house next to the first mosque of Islam.The Practices and traditions (Sunnah) of the Prophet which includes his sayings (Hadith) became the guide for Muslims in the understanding of the Quran and the practice of their religion. The Quran itself asserts that God has chosen in the Prophet an example for Muslims to follow. Besides this emulation of the Prophet in all aspects of life and thought, his sayings were assembled by various scholars. Finally they were codified in books of Hadith where the authentic were separated from the spurious. The Sunnah has always remained, after the Quran, the second source of everything Islamic.WHAT IS THE ISLAMIC RELIGION?According to a famous saying of the Prophet Islam consists of five pillars which are as follows: affirmation of the faith (shahadah), that is, witnessing that La ilaha illa 'Llah (There is no divinity but Allah) and Muhammadun rasul Allah (Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah); the five daily prayers (al-salat) which Muslims perform facing Makkah; fasting (al-sawm) from dawn to sunset during the month of Ramadan; making the pilgrimage to Makkah (al-hajj) at least once in a lifetime if one's financial and physical conditions permit it; and paying a 2 1/2% tax (al-zakat) on one's capital which is used for the needs of the community. Muslims are also commanded to exhort others to perform good acts and to abstain from evil. Ethics lies at the heart of Islamic teachings and all men and women are expected to act ethically towards each other at all times. As the Prophet has said, "None of you is a believer until you love for your brother what you love for yourself."As for faith according to Islam (al-iman), it means having faith in God, His books, His messengers, the Day of Judgment and God's determination of human destiny. It is important to understand that the definition of al-iman refers to books and prophets in the plural thus pointing directly to the universality of revelation and respect for other religions emphasized so much in the Quran. There is also the important concept, al-ihsan or virtue, which means to worship God as if one sees him, knowing that even if one does not see Him, He sees us. It means to remember God at all times and marks the highest level of being a Muslim.ISLAMIC LAW (al-Shari'ah)Islam possesses a religious law called al-Shari'ah in Arabic which governs the life of Muslims and which Muslims consider to be the embodiment of the Will of god. The Shari'ah is contained in principle in the Quran as elaborated and complemented by the Sunnah. On the basis of these principles the schools of this day were developed early in Islamic history. This Law, while being rooted in the sources of the Islamic revelation, is a living body of law which caters to the needs of Islamic society.Islamic laws are essentially preventative and are not based on harsh punishment except as a last measure. The faith of the Muslim causes him to have respect for the rights of others and Islamic Law is such that it prevents transgression from taking place in most instances. That is why what people consider to be harsh punishments are so rarely in need of being applied.THE SPREAD OF ISLAMFrom the oasis cities of Makkah and Madinah in the Arabian desert, the message of Islam went forth with electrifying speed. Within half a century of the Prophet's death, Islam had spread to three continents. Islam is not, as some imagine in the West, a religion of the sword nor did it spread primarily by means of war. It was only within Arabia, where a crude form of idolatry was rampant, that Islam was propagated by warring against those tribes which did not accept the message of God--whereas Christians and Jews were not forced to convert. Outside of Arabia also the vast lands conquered by the Arab armies in a short period became Muslim not by force of the sword but by the appeal of the new religion. It was faith in One God and emphasis upon His Mercy that brought vast numbers of people into the fold of Islam. The new religion did not coerce people to convert. Many continued to remain Jews and Christians and to this day important communities of the followers of these faiths are found in Muslim lands.Moreover, the spread of Islam was not limited to its miraculous early expansion outside of Arabia. During later centuries the Turks embraced Islam peacefully as did a large number of the people of the Indian subcontinent and the Malay-speaking world. In Africa also, Islam has spread during the past two centuries even under the mighty power of European colonial rulers. Today Islam continues to grow not only in Africa but also in Europe and America where Muslims now comprise a notable minority.ISLAM A WORLD CIVILIZATION"Thus We have appointed you a middle nation, that you may be witnesses upon mankind." (Quran, surah 11:43)GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF ISLAMIC CIVILIZATIONIslam was destined to become a world religion and to create a civilization which stretched from one end of the globe to the other. Already during the early Muslim caliphates, first the Arabs, then the Persians and later the Turks set about to create classical Islamic civilization. Later, in the 13th century, both Africa and India became great centers of Islamic civilization and soon thereafter Muslim kingdoms were established in the Malay-Indonesian world while Chinese Muslims flourished throughout china.Islam is a religion for all people from whatever race or background they might be. That is why Islamic civilization is based on a unity which stands completely against any racial or ethnic discrimination. Such major racial and ethnic groups as the Arabs, Persians, Turks, Africans, Indians, Chinese and Malays in addition to numerous smaller units embraced Islam and contributed to the building of Islamic civilization. Moreover, Islam was not opposed to learning from the earlier civilizations and incorporating their science, learning, and culture into its own world view, as long as they did not oppose the principles of Islam. Each ethnic and racial group which embraced Islam made its contribution to the one Islamic civilization to which everyone belonged. The sense of brotherhood and sisterhood was so much emphasized that it overcame all local attachments to a particular tribe, race, or language-all of which became subservient to the universal brotherhood and sisterhood of Islam.The global civilization thus created by Islam permitted people of diverse ethnic backgrounds to work together in cultivation various arts and sciences. Although the civilization was profoundly Islamic, even non-Muslim "people of the book" participated in the intellectual activity whose fruits belonged to everyone. The scientific climate was reminiscent of the present situation in America where scientists and men and women of learning from all over the world are active in the advancement of knowledge which belongs to everyone.The global civilization created by Islam also succeeded in activating the mind and thought of the people who entered its fold. As a result of Islam, the nomadic Arabs became torch-bearers of science and learning. The Persians who had created a great civilization before the rise of Islam nevertheless produced much more science and learning in the Islamic period than before. The same can be said of the Turks and other peoples who embraced Islam. The religion of Islam was itself responsible not only for the creation of a world civilization in which people of many different ethnic backgrounds participated, but it played a central role in developing intellectual and cultural life on a scale not seen before. For some eight hundred years Arabic remained the major intellectual and scientific language of the world. During the centuries following the rise of Islam, Muslim dynasties ruling in various parts of the Islamic world bore witness to the flowering of Islamic culture and thought. In fact this tradition of intellectual activity was eclipsed only at the beginning of modern times as a result of the weakening of faith among Muslims combined with external domination. And today this activity has begun anew in many parts of the Islamic world now that the Muslims have regained their political independence.A BRIEF HISTORY OF ISLAM: THE RIGHTLY GUIDED CALIPHSUpon the death of the Prophet, Abu Bakr, the friend of the Prophet and the first adult male to embrace Islam, became caliph. Abu Bakrruled for two years to be succede by 'Umar who was caliph for a decade and during whose rule Islam spread extensively east and west conquering the Persian empire, Syria and Egypt. It was 'Umar who marched on foot at the end of the Muslim army into Jerusalem and ordered the protection of public treasury and a sophisticated financial administration. He established may of the basic practices of Islamic government.'Umar was succeeded by 'Uthman who ruled for some twelve years during which time the Islamic expansion continued. He is also known as the caliph who had the difinitive text of the Nolble Quran copied and sent to the four comers of the Islamic world. He was in turn succeeded by 'Ali who is known to this day for his eloquent sermons and letters, and also for his bravery. With his death the rule of the "rightly guided" caliphs, who hold a special place of respect in the hearts of Muslims came to an end.THE CALIPHATESThe Umayad calighe established in 661 was to last for about a century. During this time Damascus became the Capital of an Islamic world which stretched from the western borders of China to southern France. Not only did the Islamic conquests continue during this period through North Africa to Spain and France in the West and to Sind, Central Asia and Transoxiana in the East, but the basic social and legal institutions of the newly founded Islamic world were established.The Abbasids, who succeeded the Umayyads, shifted the capital to Baghdad which soon developed into an incomparable center of learning and culture as well as the administrative and political hear of a vast world.They ruled for over 500 years but gradually their power waned and they remained only symbolic rulers bestowing legitimacy upon various sultans and princes who wielded actual military power. The Abbasid caliphate was finally abolished when Hulagu, the Mongol ruler, captured Baghdad in 1258, destroying much of the city including its incomparable libraries.While the Abbasids ruled in Baghdad, a number of powerful dynasties such as the Fatimids, Ayyubids and Mamluks held power in Egypt, Syria and Palestine. The most important event in this area as far as the relation between Islam and the Western world was concerned was the series of Crusades declared by the Pope and espoused by various European kings. The purpose, although political, was outwardly to recapture the Holy Land and especially Jerusalem for Christianity. Although there was at the beginning some success and local European rule was set up in parts of Syria and Palestine, Muslims finally prevailed and in 1187 Saladin, the great Muslim leader, recaptured Jerusalem and defeated the Crusaders.NORTH AFRICA AND SPAINWhen the Abbasids captured Damascus, one of the Umayyad princes escaped and made the long journey from there to Spain to found Umayyad rule there, thus beginning the golden age of Islam in Spain. Cordoba was established as the capital and soon became Europe's greatest city not only in population but from the point of view of its cultural and intellectual life. The Umayyads ruled over two centuries until they weakened and were replaced by local rulers.Meanwhile in North Africa, various local dynasties held sway until two powerful Berber dynasties succeeded in uniting much of North Africa and also Spain in the 12th and 13th centuries. After them this area was ruled once again by local dynasties such as the Sharifids of Morocco who still rule in that country. As for Spain itself, Muslim dynasty was defeated in Granada in 1492 thus bringing nearly eight hundred years of Muslim rule in Spain to an end.ISLAMIC HISTORY AFTER THE MONGOL INVASIONThe Mongols devastated the eastern lands of Islam and ruled from the Sinai Desert to India for a century. But they soon converted to Islam and became known as the II-Khanids. They were in turn succeeded by Timur and his descendants who made Samarqand their capital and ruled from 1369 to 1500. The sudden rise of Timur delayed the formation and expansion of the Ottoman empire but soon the Ottomans became the dominant power in the Islamic world.From humble origins the Turks rose to dominate over the whole of Anatolia and even parts of Europe. In 1453 Mehmet the Conqueror captured Constantiople and put an end to the Byzantine empire. The Ottomans conquered much of eastern Europe and nearly the whole of the Arab world, only Morocco and Mauritania in the West and Yemen, Hadramaut and parts of the Arabian peninsula remaining beyond their control. They reached their zenith of power with Suleyman the Magnificent whose armies reached Hungary and Austria. From the 17th century onward with the rise of Western European powers and later Russia, the power of the Ottomans began to wane. But they nevertheless remained a force to be reckoned with until the First World War when they were defeated by Western nations. Soon thereafter Kamal Ataturk gained power in Turkey and abolished the six centuries of rule of the Ottomans in 1924.While the Ottomans were concerned mostly with the western front of their empire, to the east in Persia a new dynasty called the Safavids came to power in 1502. The Safavids established a powerful state of their own which flourished for over two centuries and became known for the flowering of the arts. Their capital Isfahan, became one of the most beautiful cities with its blue tiled mosques and exquisite houses. The Afghan invasion of 1736 put an end to Safavid rule and prepared the independence of Afghanistan which occurred formally in the 19th century. Persia itself fell into turmoil until Nader Shah, the last Oriental conqueror, reunited the country and even conquered India. But the rule of the dynasty established by him was short-lived. The Zand dynasty soon took over to be overthrown by the Qajars in 1779 who made Tehran their capital and ruled until 1921 when they were in turn replaced by the Pahlavis.As for India, Islam entered into the land east of the Indus River peacefully. Gradually Muslims gained political power beginning in the early 13th century. But this period which marked the expansion of both Islam and Islamic culture came to an end with the conquest of much of India in 1526 by Babur, one of the Timurid princes. He established the powerful Mogul empire which produced such famous rulers as Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan and which lasted, despite the gradual rise of British power in India, until 1857 when it was officially abolished.Farther east in the Malay world, Islam began to spread in the 12th century in northern Sumatra and soon Muslim kingdoms were established in Java, Sumatra and mainland Malaysia. Despite the colonization of the Malay world, Islam spread in that area covering present day Indonesia. Malaysia, the southern Philippines and southern Thailand, and is still continuing in islands farther east.As far as Africa is concerned, Islam entered into East Africa at the very beginning of the Islamic period but remained confined to the coast for some time, only the Sudan and Somaliland becoming gradually both Arabized and Islamized. West Africa felt the presence of Islam through North African traders who traveled with their camel caravans south of the Sahara. By the 14th century there were already Muslim sultanates in such areas as Mali, and Timbuctu in West Africa and Harar in East Africa had become seats of Islamic learning.Gradually Islam penetrated both inland and southward. There also appeared major charismatic figures who inspired intense resistance against European domination. The process of the Islamization of Africa did not cease during the colonial period and continues even today with the result that most Africans are now Muslims carrying on a tradition which has had practically as long a history in certain areas of sub-Saharan Africa as Islam itself.ISLAM AND KNOWLEDGE"HE HAS TAUGHT YOU THAT WHICH [HERETOFORE] YOU KNEW NOT" (QURAN, SURAH II: 239)THE ATTITUDE OF THE QURAN AND THE PROPHET TOWARD KNOWLEDGEIslam is a religion based upon knowledge for it is ultimately knowledge of the Oneness of God combined with faith and total commitment to Him that saves man. The text of the Quran is replete with verses inviting man to use his intellect, to ponder, to think and to know, for the goal of human life is to discover the Truth which is none other than worshipping God in His Oneness. The Hadith literature is also full of references to the importance of knowledge. Such sayings of the Prophet as "Seek knowledge even in China", "Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave", and Verily the men of knowledge are the inheritors of the prophets", have echoed throughout the history of Islam and incited Muslims to seek knowledge wherever it might be found. During most of its history, Islamic civilization has been witness to a veritable celebration of knowledge. That is why every traditional Islamic city possessed public and private libraries and some cities like Cordoba and Baghdad boasted of libraries with over 400,000 books. Such cities also had bookstores, some of which sold a large number of titles. That is also why the scholar has always been held in the highest esteem in Islamic society.THE INTEGRATION OF THE PRE-ISLAMIC SCIENCESAs Islam spread northward into Syria, Egypt, and the Persian empire, it came face to face with the sciences of antiquity whose heritage had been preserved in centers which now became a part of the Islamic world. Alexandria had been a major center of sciences and learning for centuries. The Greek learning cultivated in Alexandria was opposed by the Byzantines who had burned its library long before the advent of Islam. The tradition of Alexandrian learning did not die, however. It was transferred to Antioch and from there farther east to such cities as Edessa by eastern Christians who stood in sharp opposition to Byzantium and wished to have their own independent centers of learning. Moreover, the Persian king, Shapur I, had established Jundishapur in Persia as a second great center of learning matching Antioch. He even invited Indian physicians and mathematicians to teach in this major seat of learning, in addition to the Christian scholars who taught in Syriac as well as the Persians whose medium of instruction was Pahlavi.Once Muslims established the new Islamic order during the Umayyad period, they turned their attention to these centers of learning which had been preserved and sought to acquaint themselves with the knowledge taught and cultivated in them. They therefore set about with a concerted effort of translate the philosophical and scientific works which were available to them from not only Greek and Syriac (which was the language of eastern Christian scholars) but also from Pahlavi, the scholarly language of pro-Islamic Persia, and even from Sanskrit. Many of the accomplished translators were Christian Arabs such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq, who was also an outstanding physician, and others Persians such as Ibn Muqaffa', who played a major role in the creation of the new Arabic prose style conductive to the expression of philosophical and scientific writing. The great movement of translation lasted from the beginning of the 8th to the end of the 9th century, reaching its peak with the establishment of the House of Wisdom (Bayt al-hikmah) by the caliph al-Ma'mun at the beginning of the 9th century.The result of this extensive effort of the Islamic community to confront the challenge of the presence of the various philosophies and sciences of antiquity and to understand and digest them in its own terms and according to its own world view was the translation of a vast corpus of writings into Arabic. Most of the important philosophical and scientific works of Aristotle and his school, much of Plato and the Pythagorean school, and the major works of Greek astronomy, mathematics and medicine such as the Almagest of Ptolemy, The Elements of Euclid, and the works of Hippocrates and Galen, were all rendered into Arabic. Furthermore, important works of astronomy, mathematics and medicine were translated from Pahlavi and Sanskrit. As a result, Arabic became the most important scientific language of the world for many centuries and the depository of much of the wisdom and the sciences of antiquity.The Muslims did not translate the scientific and philosophical works of other civilizations out of fear of political or economic domination but because the structure of Islam itself is based upon the primacy of knowledge. Nor did they consider these forms of knowing as "un-Islamic" as long as they confirmed the doctrine of God's Oneness which Islam considers to have been at the heart of every authentic revelation from God. Once these sciences and philosophies confirmed the principle of Oneness, the Muslims considered them as their own. They made them part of their world view and began to cultivate the Islamic sciences based on what they had translated, analyzed, criticized, and assimilated, rejecting what was not in conformity with the Islamic perspective.THE MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES AND PHYSICSThe Muslim mind has always been attracted to the mathematical sciences in accordance with the "abstract" character of the doctrine of Oneness which lies at the heart of Islam. The mathematical sciences have traditionally included astronomy, mathematics itself and much of what is called physics today. In astronomy the Muslims integrated the astronomical traditions of the Indians, Persians, the ancient Near East and especially the Greeks into a synthesis which began to chart a new chapter in the history of astronomy from the 8th century onward. The Almagest of Ptolemy, whose very name in English reveals the Arabic origin of its Latin translation, was thoroughly studied and its planetary theory criticized by several astronomers of both the eastern and western lands of Islam leading to the major critique of the theory by Nasir al-Din al-Tusi and his students, especially Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi, in the 13th century.The Muslims also observed the heavens carefully and discovered many new stars. The book on stars of 'Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi was in fact translated into Spanish by Alfonso X el Sabio and had a deep influence upon stellar toponymy in European languages. Many star names in English such as Aldabran still recall their Arabic origin. The Muslims carried out many fresh observations which were contained in astronomical tables called Zij. One of the acutest of these observers was al-Battani whose work was followed by numerous others. The Zij of al-Ma'mun observed in Baghdad, the Hakimite Zij of Cairo, the Toledan Tables of al-Zarqali and his associated, the II-Khanid Zij of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi observed in Maraghah, and the Zij of Ulugh-Beg from Samarqand are among the most famous Islamic astronomical tables. They wielded a great deal of influence upon Western astronomy up to the time of Tycho Brahe. The Muslims were in fact the first to create an astronomical observatory as a scientific institution, this being the observatory of Maraghah in Persia established by al-Tusi. This was indirectly the model for the later European observatories. Many astronomical instruments were developed by Muslims to carry out observation, the most famous being the astrolabe. There existed even mechanical astrolabes perfected by Ibn Samh which must be considered as the ancestor of the mechanical clock.Astronomical observations also had practical applications including not only finding the direction of Makkah for prayers, but also devising almanacs (the word itself being of Arabic origin). The Muslims also applied their astronomical knowledge to questions of time-keeping and the calendar. The most exact solar calendar existing to this day is the Jalali calendar devised under the direction of 'Umar Khayyam in the 12th century and still in use in Persia and Afghanistan.As for mathematics proper, like astronomy, it received its direct impetus from the Quran not only because of the mathematical structure related to the text of the Sacred Book, but also because the laws of inheritance delineated in the Quran require rather complicated mathematical solutions. Here again Muslims began by integrating Greek and Indian mathematics. The first great Muslim mathematician, al-Khwarazmi, who lived in the 9th century, wrote a treatise on arithmetic whose Latin translation brought what is known as Arabic numerals to the West. To this day guarismo, derived from his name, means figure or digit in Spanish while algorithm is still used in English. Al-Khwarzmi is also the author of the first book on algebra. This science was developed by Muslims on the basis of earlier Greek and Indian works of a rudimentary nature. The very name algebra comes from the first part of the name of the book of al-Khwarazmi, entitled Kitab al-jabr wa'l-muqabalah. Abu Kamil al-Shuja' discussed algebraic equations with five unknowns. The science was further developed by such figures as al-Karaji until it reached its peak with Khayyam who classified by kind and class algebraic equations up to the third degree.The Muslims also excelled in geometry as reflected in their art. The brothers Banu Musa who lived in the 9th century may be said to be the first outstanding Muslim geometers while their contemporary Thabit ibn Qurrah used the method of exhaustion, giving a glimpse of what was to become integral calculus. Many Muslim mathematicians such as Khayyam and al-Tusi also dealt with the fifth postulate of Euclid and the problems which follow if one tries to prove this postulate within the confines of Eucledian geometry.Another branch of mathematics developed by Muslims is trigonometry which was established as a distinct branch of mathematics by al-Biruni. The Muslim mathematicians, especially al-Battani, Abu'l-Wafa', Ibn Yunus and Ibn al-Haytham, also developed spherical astronomy and applied it to the solution of astronomy and applied it to the solution of astronomical problems.The love for the study of magic squares and amicable numbers led Muslims to develop the theory of numbers. Al-Khujandi discovered a particular case of Fermat's theorem that "the sum of two cubes cannot be another cube", while al-Karaji analyzed arithmetic and geometric progressions such as: 13+23+33+...+n3=(1+2+3+...+n)2. Al-Biruni also dealt with progressions while Ghiyath al-Din Jamshid al-Kashani brought the study of number theory among Muslims to its peak.In the field of physics the Muslims made contributions in especially three domains. The first was the measurement of specific weights of objects and the study of the balance following upon the work of Archimedes. In this domain the writings of al-Biruni and al-Khazini stand out. Secondly they criticized the Aristotelian theory of projectile motion and tried to quantify this type of motion. The critique of Ibn Sina, Abu'l-Barakat al-Baghdadi, Ibn Bajjah and others led to the development of the idea of impetus and momentum and played an important role in the criticism of Aristotelian physics in the West up to the early writings of Galileo. Thirdly there is the field of optics in which the Islamic sciences produced in Ibn al-Haytham (the Latin Alhzen) who lived in the 11th century, the greatest student of optics between Ptolemy and Witelo. Ibn al-Haytham's main work on optics, the Kitab al-manazir, was also well known in the West as Thesaurus opticus. Ibn al-Haytham solved many optical problems, one of which is named after him, studied the property of lenses, discovered the Camera Obscura, explained correctly the process of vision, studied the structure of the eye, and explained for the first time why the sun and the moon appear larger on the horizon. His interest in optics was carried out two centuries later by Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi and Kamal al-Din al-Farisi. It was Qutb al-Din who gave the first correct explanation of the formation of the rainbow.It is important to recall that in physics as in many other fields of science the Muslims observed, measured and carried out experiments. They must be credited with having developed what came to be known later as the experimental method.THE MEDICAL SCIENCESThe Hadiths of the Prophet contain many instructions concerning health including dietary habits; these sayings became the foundation of what came to be known later as "Prophetic medicine" (al-tibb al-nabawi). Because of the great attention paid in Islam to the need to take care of the body and to hygiene, early in Islamic history Muslims began to cultivate the field of medicine turning once again to all the knowledge that was available to them from Greek, Persians and Indian sources. At first the great physicians among Muslims were mostly Christian but by the 9th century Islamic medicine, properly speaking, was born with the appearance of the major compendium, The Paradise of Wisdom (Firdaws al-hikmah) by 'Ali ibn Rabban al-Tabari, who synthesized the Hippocratic and Galemic traditions of medicine with those of India and Persia. His student, Muhammad ibn Zakariyya' al-Razi (the Latin Rhazes), was one of the greatest of physicians who emphasized clinical medicine and observation. He was a master of prognosis and psychosomatic medicine and also of anatomy. He was the first to identify and treat smallpox, to use alcohol as an antiseptic and make medical use of mercury as a purgative. His Kitab al-hawi (Continens) is the longest work ever written in Islamic medicine and he was recognized as a medical authority in the West up to the 18th century.The greatest of all Muslim physicians, however, was Ibn Sina who was called "the prince of physicians" in the West. He synthesized Islamic medicine in his major masterpiece, al-Qanun fi'ltibb (The Canon of Medicine), which is the most famous of all medical books in history. It was the final authority in medical books in history. It was the final authority in medical matters in Europe for nearly six centuries and is still taught wherever Islamic medicine has survived to this day in such land as Pakistan and India. Ibn Sina discovered many drugs and identified and treated several ailments such as meningitis but his greatest contribution was in the philosophy of medicine. He created a system of medicine within which medical practice could be carried out and in which physical and psychological factors, drugs and diet are combined.After Ibn Sina, Islamic medicine divided into several branches. In the Arab world Egypt remained a major center for the study of medicine, especially ophthalmology which reached its peak at the court of al-Hakim. Cairo possessed excellent hospitals which also drew physicians from other lands including Ibn Butlan, author of the famous Calendar of Health, and Ibn Nafis who discovered the lesser or pulmonary circulation of the blood long before Michael Servetus, who is usually credited with the discovery.As for the western lands of Islam including Spain, this area was likewise witness to the appearance of outstanding physicians such as Sa'd al-Katib of Cordoba who composed a treatise on gynecology, and the greatest Muslim figure in surgery, the 12th century Abu'l-Qasim al-Zahrawi (the Latin Albucasis) whose medical masterpiece Kitab al-tasrif was well known in the West as Concessio. One must also mention the Ibn Zuhr family which produced several outstanding physicians and Abu Marwan 'Abd al-Malik who was the Maghrib's most outstanding clinical physician. The well known Spanish philosophers, Ibn Tufayl and Ibn Rushd, were also outstanding physicians.Islamic medicine continued in Persia and the other eastern lands of the Islamic world under the influence of Ibn Sina with the appearance of major Persian medical compendia such as the Treasury of Sharaf al-Din al-Jurjani and the commentaries upon the Canon by Fakhr al-Din al-Razi and Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi. Even after the Mongol invasion, medical studies continued as can be seen in the work of Rashid al-Din Fadlallah, and for the first time there appeared translations of Chinese medicine and interest in acupuncture among Muslims. The Islamic medical tradition was revived in Safavid period when several diseases such as the first time and much attention was paid to pharmacology. Many Persian doctors such as 'Ayn al-Mulk of Shiraz also traveled to India at this time to usher in golden age of Islamic medicine in the subcontinent and to plant the seed of the Islamic medical tradition which continues to flourish to this day in the soil of that land.The Ottoman world was also an arena of great medical activity derived from the heritage of Ibn Sina. The Ottoman Turks were especially known for the creation of major hospitals and medical centers. These included not only units for the care of the physically ill, but also wards for patients with psychological ailments. The Ottomans were also the first to receive the influence of modern European medicine in both medicine and pharmacology.In mentioning Islamic hospitals it is necessary to mention that all major Islamic cities had hospitals; some like those of Baghdad were teaching hospitals while some like the Nasiri hospital of Cairo had thousands of beds for patients with almost any type of illness. Hygiene in these hospitals was greatly emphasized and al-Razi had even written a treatise on hygiene in hospitals. Some hospitals also specialized in particular diseases including psychological ones. Cairo even had a hospital which specialized in patients having insomnia.Islamic medical authorities were also always concerned with the significance of pharmacology and many important works such as the Canon have whole books devoted to the subject. The Muslims became heir not only to the pharmacological knowledge of the Greeks as contained in the works of Dioscorides, but also the vast herbal pharmacopias of the Persians and Indians. They also studied the medical effects of many drugs, especially herbs, themselves. The greatest contributions in this field came from Maghribi scientists such as Ibn JulJul, Ibn al-Salt and the most original of Muslim pharmacologists, the 12th century scientist, al-Ghafiqi, whose Book of Simple Drugs provides the best descriptions of the medical properties of plants known to Muslims. Islamic medicine combined the use of drugs for medical purposes with dietary considerations and a whole lifestyle derived from the teachings of Islam to create a synthesis which has not died out to this day despite the introduction of modern medicine into most of the Islamic world.NATURAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHYThe vast expanse of the Islamic world enabled the Muslims to develop natural history based not only on the Mediterranean world, as was the case of the Greek natural historians, but also on most of the Eurasian and even African land masses. knowledge of minerals, plants and animals was assembled from areas as far away as the Malay world and synthesized for the first time by Ibn Sina in his Kitab al-Shifa' (The Book of Healing). Such major natural and human history. Al-Biruni likewise in his study of India turned to the natural history and even geology of the region, describing correctly the sedimentary nature of the Ganges basin. He also wrote the most outstanding Muslim work on mineralogy.As for botany, the most important treatises were composed in the 12th century in Spain with the appearance of the work of al-Ghafiqi. This is also the period when the best known Arabic work on agriculture, The Kitab al-falahah, was written. The Muslims also showed much interest in zoology especially in horses as witnessed by the classical text of al-Jawaliqi, and in falcons and other hunting birds. The works of al-Jahiz and al-Damiri are especially famous in the field of zoology and deal with the literary, moral and even theological dimensions of the study of animals as well as the purely zoological aspects of the subject. This is also true of a whole class of writings on the "wonders of creation" of which the book of Abu Yahya al-Qazwini, the Aja'ib al-makhluqat (The Wonders of Creation) is perhaps the most famous.Likewise in geography, Muslims were able to extend their horizons far beyond the world of Ptolemy. As a result of travel over land and by sea and the facile exchange of ideas made possible by the unified structure of the Islamic world and the hajj which enables pilgrims from all over the Islamic world to gather and exchange ideas in addition to visiting the House of God, a vast amount of knowledge of areas from the Pacific to the Atlantic was assembled. The Muslim geography of practically the whole globe minus the Americas, dividing the earth into the traditional seven climes each of which they studied carefully from both a geographical and climactic point of view. They also began to draw maps some of which reveal with remarkable accuracy many features such as the origin of the Nile, not discovered in the West until much later. The foremost among Muslim geographers was Abu 'Abdallah al-drisi, who worked at the court of Roger II in Sicily and who dedicated his famous book, Kitab al-rujari (The Book of Roger) to him. His maps are among the great achievements of Islamic Science. It was in fact with the help of Muslim geographers and navigators that Magellan crossed the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean. Even Columbus made use of their knowledge in his discovery of America.CHEMISTRYThe very name alchemy as well as its derivative chemistry come from the Arabic al-Kimiya'. The Muslims mastered Alexandrian and very early in their history, produced their greatest alchemist, Jabir ibn Hayyan (the Latin Geber) who lived in the 8th century. Putting the cosmological and symbolic aspects of alchemy aside, one can assert that this art led to much experimentation with various materials and in the hands of Muhammad Ibn Zakariyya' al-Razi was converted into the science of chemistry. To this day certain chemical instruments such as the alembic (al-'ambiq) still bear their original Arabic names and the mercury-sulphur theory of Islamic alchemy remains as the foundation of the acid-base theory of chemistry. Al-Razi's division of materials into animal, vegetable and mineral is still prevalent and a vast body of knowledge of materials accumulated by Islamic alchemists and chemists has survived over the centuries in both East and West. For example the use of dyes in objects of Islamic art ranging from carpets to miniatures or the making of glass have much to do with this branch of learning which the West learned completely from Islamic sources since alchemy was not studied and practiced in the West before the translation of Arabic texts into Latin in the 11th century.TECHNOLOGYIslam inherited the millennial experience in various forms of technology from the peoples who entered the fold of Islam and the nations which became part of Dar al-islam. A wide range of technological knowledge, from the building of water wheels by the Romans to the underground water system by the Persians, became part and parcel of the technology of the newly founded order.Muslims also imported certain kinds of technology from the Far East such as paper which they brought from China and whose technology they later transmitted to the West. They also developed many forms of technology on the basis of earlier existing knowledge such as the metallurgical art making the famous Damascene swords, and art which goes back to the making of steel several thousand years before on the Iranian Plateau. Likewise Muslims developed new architectural techniques of vaulting, methods of ventilation, preparations of dyes, techniques of weaving, technologies related to irrigation and numerous other forms of technology, some of which survive to this day.In general Islamic civilization emphasized the harmony between man and nature as seen in traditional design of Islamic cities. Maximum use was made of natural elements and forces, and men built in harmony with, not in opposition to nature. Some of the Muslim technological feats such as dams which have survived for over a millennium, domes which can withstand earthquakes, and steel which reveals incredible metallurgical know-how, attest to the exceptional attainment of Muslims in many fields of technology. In fact it was a vastly superior technology that first impressed the Crusaders in their unsuccessful attempt to capture the Holly Land and much of this technology was brought back by the Crusaders to the rest of Europe.ARCHITECTUREOne of the major achievements of Islamic civilization is architecture which combines technology and art. The great masterpieces of Islamic architecture from the Cordoba Mosque and the Dome of Rock in Jerusalem to the Taj Mahal in India display this perfect wedding between the artistic principles of Islam and remarkable technological know-how. Much of the outstanding medieval architecture of the West is in fact indebted to the techniques of Islamic architecture. When one views the Notre Dame in Paris or some other Gothic cathedral, one is reminded of the building techniques which traveled from Muslim Cordoba northward. Gothic arches as well as interior courtyards' of so many medieval and Renaissance European structures remind the viewer of the Islamic architectural examples from which they originally drew. In fact the great medieval European architecture can also be directly experienced in the Moorish style found not only in Spain and Latin America, but in the southwestern United States as well.THE INFLUENCE OF ISLAMIC SCIENCE AND LEARNING UPON THE WESTThe oldest university in the world which is still functioning is the eleven hundred-year-old Islamic University of Fez, Morocco, known as the Qarawiyyin. This old tradition of Islamic learning influenced the West greatly through Spain. In this land where Muslims, Christians and Jews lived for the most part peacefully for may centuries, translations began to be made in the 11th century mostly in Toledo of Islamic works into Latin often through the intermediary of Jewish scholars most of whom knew Arabic and often wrote in Arabic. As a result of these translations, Islamic thought and through it much of Greek thought became known to the West and Western schools of learning began to flourish. Even the Islamic educational system was emulated in Europe and to this day the term chair in a university reflects the Arabic Kursi (literally seat) upon which a teacher would sit to teach his students in the Madrasah (school of higher learning). As European civilization grew and reached the high Middle Ages, there was hardly a field of learning or a form of art, whether it was literature or architecture, where there was not some influence of Islam present. Islamic learning became in this way part and parcel of Western civilization even if with the advent of the Renaissance, the West not only turned against its own medieval past put also sought to forget the long relation it had with the Islamic world, one which was based on intellectual respect despite religious opposition.ISLAM IN THE MODERN WORLD"Most surely man is in loss, except those who believe and do good, and enjoin on each other truth, and enjoin of each other patience" (Qurna, Surah CIII:2-3).THE AFTERMATH OF THE COLONIAL PERIODAt the height of European colonial expansion in the 19th century, most of the Islamic world was under colonial rule with the exception of a few regions such as the heart of the Ottoman empire, Persia, Afghanistan, Yemen and certain parts of Arabia. Bus even these areas were under foreign influence or, in the case of the Ottomans, under constant threat. After the First World War with the breakup of the Ottoman empire, a number of Arab states such as Iraq became independent, others like Jordan were created as a new entity and yet others like Palestine, Syria and Lebanon were either mandated or turned into French colonies. As for Arabia, it was at this time that Saudi Arabia became finally consolidated. As for other parts of the Islamic world, Egypt which had been ruled by the descendants of Muhammad Ali since the 19th century became more independent as a result of the fall of the Ottomans, Turkey was turned into a secular republic by Ataturk, and the Pahlavi dynasty began a new chapter in Persia where its name reverted to its eastern traditional form of Iran. But most of the rest of the Islamic world remained under colonial rule.It was only after the Second World War and the dismemberment of the British, French, Dutch and Spanish empires that the rest of the Islamic world gained its independence. In the Arab world, Syria and Lebanon became independent at the end of the war as did Libya and shaykdoms around the Gulf and the Arabian Sea by the 1960's. The North African countries of Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria had to fight a difficult and, in the case of Algeria, long and protracted war to gain their freedom which did not come until a decade later for Tunisia and Morocco and two decades later for Algeria. Only Palestine did not become independent but was partitioned in 1948 with the establishment of the state of Israel.In India Muslims participated in the freedom movement against British rule along with Hindus and when independence finally came in 1947, they were able to create their own homeland, Pakistan, which came into being for the sake of Islam and became the most populated Muslim state although many Muslims remained in India. In 1971, however, the two parts of the state broke up, East Pakistan becoming Bangladesh. Farther east still, the Indonesians finally gained their independence from the Dutch and the Malays theirs from Britain. At first Singapore was part of Malaysia but it separated in 1963 to become an independent state. Small colonies still persisted in the area and continued to seek their independence, the kingdom of Brunei becoming independent as recently as 1984.In Africa also major countries with large or majority Muslim populations such as Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania began to gain their independence in the 1950's and 1960's with the result that by the end of the decade of the 60's most parts of the Islamic world were formed into independent national states. There were, however, exceptions. The Muslim states in the Soviet Union failed to gain their autonomy or independence. The same holds true for Sinkiang (called Eastern Turkestan by Muslim geographers) while in Eritrea and the southern Philippines Muslim independence movements still continue.While the world of Islam has entered into the modern world in the form of national states, continuos attempts are made to create closer cooperation within the Islamic world as a whole and to bring about greater unity. This is seen not only in the meetings of the Muslim heads of state and the establishment of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Countries) with its own secretariat, but also in the creation of institutions dealing with the whole of the Islamic world. Among the most important of these is the Muslim World League (Rabitat al-Alam Al-Islami) with its headquarters in Makkah, Saudi Arabia has in fact played a pivotal role in the creation and maintenance of such organizations.THE REVIVAL AND REASSERTATION OF ISLAMMuslims did not wish to gain only political independence, They also wished to assert their own religious and cultural identity. From the 18th century onward Muslim reformers appeared upon the scene who sought to reassert the teachings of Islam and to reform society on the basis of Islamic teachings. One of the first among this group was Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, who hailed from the Arabian peninsula and died there in 1792. This reformer was supported by Muhammad ibn al-Sa'ud, the founder to the first Saudi State. With this support Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab was able to spread his teachings not only in Arabia but even beyond its borders to other Islamic lands where his reforms continue to wield influence to this day.In the 19th century Islamic assertion"took several different forms ranging from the Mahdi movement of the Sudan and the Sanusiyyah in North Africa which fought wars against European colonizers, to educational movements such as that of Aligarh in India aiming to reeducate Muslims. In Egypt which, because of al-Azhar University, remains to this day central to Islamic learning, a number of reformers appear, each addressing some aspect of Islamic thought. Some were concerned more with law, others economics, and yet others the challenges posed by Western civilization with its powerful science and technology. These included Jamal al-Din al-Afghani who hailed originally from Persia but settled in Cairo and who was the great champion of Pan-Islamism, that is the movement to unite the Islamic world politically as sell as religiously. His student, Muhammad 'Abduh, who became the rector of al-Azhar, was also very influential in Islamic theology and thought. Also of considerable influence was his Syrian student, Rashid Rida, who held a position closer to that of 'Abd al-Wahhab and stood for the strict application of the Shari'ah.Among the most famous of these thinkers is Muhammad Iqbal, the outstanding poet and philosopher who is considered as the father of Pakistan.Moreover, as Western influence began to penetrate more deeply into the fiber of Islamic society, organizations gradually grew up whose goal was to reform society in practice along Islamic lines and prevent its secularization. These included the Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan al-Muslimin) founded in Egypt and with branches in many Muslim contries, and the Jama'at-I Islami of Pakistan founded by the influential Mawlana Mawdudi. These organizations have been usually peaceful and have sought to reestablish an Islamic order through eduction. During the last two decades, however, as a result of the frustration of many Muslims in the face of pressures coming from a seculatized outside world, some have sought to reject the negative aspects of Western thought and culture and to return to an Islamic society based completely on the application of the Shari'ah.Today in every Muslim country there are strong movements to preserve and propagate Islamic teachings. In countries such as Saudi Arabia Islamic Law is already being applied and in fact is the reason for the prosperity, development and stability of the country. In other countries where Islamic Law is not being applied, however, most of the effort of Islamic movements is spent in making possible the full application of the Shari'ah so that the nation can enjoy prosperity along with the fulfillment of the faith of its people. In any case the widespread desire for Muslims to have the religious law of Islam applied and to reassert their religious values and their own identity must not be equated with exceptional violent eruptions which do exist but which are usually treated sensationally and taken out proportion by the mass media in the West.EDUCATION AND SCIENCE IN THE ISLAMIC WORLDIn seeking to live successfully in the modern world, in independence and according to Islamic principles, Muslim countries have been emphasizing a great deal the significance of the role of education and the importance of mastering Western science and technology. Already in the 19th century, certain Muslim countries such as Egypt, Ottoman Turkey and Persia established institutions of higher learning where the modern sciences and especially medicine were taught. During this century educational institutions at all levels have poliferated throughout the Islamic world. Nearly every science ranging from mathematics to biology as well as various fields of modern technology are taught in these institutions and some notable scientists have been produced by the Islamic world, men and women who have often combined education in these institutions with training in the West.In various part of the Islamic world there is, however, a sense that educational institutions must be expanded and also have their standards improved to the level of the best institutions in the world in various fields of learning especially science and technology. At the same time there is an awareness that the educational system must be based totally on Islamic principles and the influence of alien cultural and ethical values and norms, to the extent that they are negative, be diminished. To remedy this problem a number of international Islamic educational conferences have been held, the first one in Makkah in 19tt, and the foremost thinkers of the Islamic world have been brought together to study and ponder over the question of the relation between Islam and modern science. This is an ongoing process which is at the center of attention in many part of the Islamic world and which indicates the significance of educational questions in the Islamic world today.THE CASE OF SAUDI ARABIABecause of the presence of the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah in its midst, Saudi Arabia is the heartland and center of the Islamic world and its development is of great significance for the Islamic world as a whole. It is, therefore, necessary to deal with it separately albeit briefly. Already in the 18th century, the Sa'ud family in Najd in alliance with 'Adba al-Wahhab and their followers became a political power to be reckoned with. In the early 19th century the newly established Saudi power created by Muhammad ibn Sa'ud united much of Arabia and even influenced other parts of the Muslim world. The Ottomans, wary of the rise of this new and independent power, asked Muhammad Ali, the ruler of Egypt, to crush the new movement. After several campaigns, Muhammad Ali succeeded and the first Saudi state ended. A second Saudi state was established briefly in 19th century. Finally toward the end of the century 'Abd al-Aziz ibn Sa'ud, an exceptionally gifted military leader and statesman, succeeded against considerable odds to overcome external and internal opposition, especially of the Rashid family, to recapture Riyadh with a small number of men in 1902 and from there to extend his power over the rest of Najd and finally the Hijaz and Asir. By 1926 he had gained control of Makkah, Jeddah and Madinah and was recognized as the king of the vast area which henceforth became known as Saudi Arabia. The Saudi family rules to this day in that land, considering itself first and foremost as Khadim al-Haramayn, that is, servant of the two holy cities of Makkah and Madinah.With oil discovered in the late 30's in Saudi Arabia, the country became transformed rapidly from a predominantly Bedouin society to a country with major urban centers, ports, a vast network of highways, and the most modern communications systems. From the 1950's to the 1970's more financial rescuers were used in the building of Saudi Arabia than in any other country during a comparable period. The result was a vast transformation of the land and the life of its inhabitants, while at the same time Islamic Law has continued to be strictly observed and Islam continues to be the guiding principle of society.Besides the adaptation of modern technology and the creation of major industries which include not only the oil industry but petrochemicals and electronics, Saudi Arabia has concentrated upon the training of its human resources and educational development. Major universities have been established starting in the 1960's and today the country boasts of not only such religious universities as the Umm al-qura in Makkah, the Islamic University of Madinah, and Imam Muhammad ibn Sa'ud Islamic University in Riyadh, but also the King Sa'ud University in Riyadh with 35,000 students, the King 'Abdal-'Aziz University in Jeddah, and the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals of Dharan, all of which provide excellent programs in the sciences and technology. Saudi Arabia also has an extensive program of sending students to America and Europe, mostly in technical fields. Some of these students have also participated in scientific and technological research in the West. The first Muslim astronaut was in fact from Saudi Arabia. This pioneer, Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz, flew in the shuttle Discovery in 1985 and launched the first Arab satellite. Important Islamic research institutions have also been established in Saudi Arabia to encourage scientific and scholarly activity. These include the King Faisal Islamic Foundation which provides major annual awards in the medical and scientific fields and the King Abd al-Aziz Scientific City which sponsors a wide range of original scientific research.The Saudis have also spent much of their oil wealth in welfare and health projects both within Saudi Arabia and throughout the Islamic world. Their concern for Islamic matters is shown not only in the building of numerous mosques and the support of Islamic programs throughout the world, but most of all in their care for the pilgrims who come annually to perform the rites of hajj from all over the world. Thanks to modern methods of transportation, the number of pilgrims has increased from a few tens of thousands fifty or sixty years ago to some two million today. To care for the greatest annual assembly on earth is a stupendous task which the Saudis have carried out successfully over the years. They have built a special airport in Jeddah for the pilgrims, the building being one of the masterpieces of contemporary architecture, and have expanded greatly the areas of the sanctuary (human) of both Makkah and Madianh. The treatment of the problems of the hajj represent perhaps the best example of the Saudis' attempt to apply the possibilities of modern technology to specifically Islamic needs. It symbolizes the intention of Saudi Arabia to make use of modern science and technology white reaming a profoundly Islamic society.CONCLUSIONThe Islamic world remains today a vast land stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with an important presence in Europe and America, animated by the teachings of Islam and seeking to assert its own identity. Despite the presence of nationalism and various secular ideologies in their midst, Muslims various secular ideologies in their midst, Muslims wish to live in the modern world but without simply imitating blindly the ways followed by the West. The Islamic world wishes to live at peace with the West as well as the East but at the same time not to be dominated by them. It wishes to devote its resources and energies to building a better lift for its people on the basis of the teachings of Islam and not to squander its resources in either internal or external conflicts. It seeds finally to create better understanding with the West and to be better understanding each other better that they can serve their own people more successfully and also contribute to a better life for the whole of humanity.A Global civilization