| 50000 BCE | Aboriginal Australians arrive on the continent | Oceania |
| 3500 BCE | The wheel is invented in Mesopotamia | Asia |
| 3200 BCE | The earliest writing emerges in Sumer | Asia |
| 3000 BCE | Stonehenge is constructed | Europe |
| 2560 BCE | The Great Pyramid of Giza is completed | Africa |
| 2500 BCE | The Indus Valley Civilization flourishes | Asia |
| 1754 BCE | Hammurabi's Code of laws is established | Asia |
| 1754 BCE | The Code of Hammurabi is inscribed | Asia |
| 1184 BCE | The traditional date for the fall of Troy | Europe |
| 1070 BCE | The Kingdom of Kush rises in Nubia | Africa |
| 814 BCE | Carthage is founded | Africa |
| 776 BCE | The first ancient Olympic Games are held | Europe |
| 753 BCE | Rome is founded | Europe |
| 753 BCE | Rome is traditionally founded | Europe |
| 750 BCE | Homer's Iliad is composed | Europe |
| 600 BCE | The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are built | Asia |
| 563 BCE | Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, is born | Asia |
| 508 BCE | Athenian democracy is established | Europe |
| 490 BCE | The Battle of Marathon | Europe |
| 480 BCE | The Battle of Thermopylae | Europe |
| 438 BCE | The Parthenon in Athens is completed | Europe |
| 399 BCE | Socrates is sentenced to death | Europe |
| 399 BCE | Socrates is executed in Athens | Europe |
| 334 BCE | Alexander the Great begins his conquest of Persia | Asia |
| 331 BCE | The Battle of Gaugamela | Asia |
| 331 BCE | Alexander the Great founds the city of Alexandria | Africa |
| 322 BCE | Chandragupta founds the Maurya Empire | Asia |
| 295 BCE | The Library of Alexandria is founded | Africa |
| 285 BCE | The Great Library of Alexandria is founded | Africa |
| 264 BCE | The First Punic War begins | Europe |
| 221 BCE | China is unified under its first emperor | Asia |
| 221 BCE | Qin Shi Huang unifies China | Asia |
| 218 BCE | Hannibal crosses the Alps | Europe |
| 206 BCE | The Han Dynasty is founded | Asia |
| 196 BCE | The Rosetta Stone is carved | Africa |
| 146 BCE | Rome destroys Carthage | Africa |
| 130 BCE | The Silk Road trade routes open | Asia |
| 73 BCE | The revolt of Spartacus | Europe |
| 51 BCE | Cleopatra becomes Queen of Egypt | Africa |
| 49 BCE | Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon | Europe |
| 44 BCE | Julius Caesar is assassinated | Europe |
| 31 BCE | The Battle of Actium | Europe |
| 27 BCE | Augustus becomes Rome's first emperor | Europe |
| 0 | The traditional birth of Jesus | Asia |
| 60 | Boudica's revolt against Rome | Europe |
| 70 | The Romans destroy the Second Temple in Jerusalem | Asia |
| 79 | Mount Vesuvius destroys Pompeii | Europe |
| 79 | Mount Vesuvius erupts, burying Pompeii and Herculaneum | Europe |
| 80 | The Roman Colosseum opens | Europe |
| 80 | The Colosseum is completed | Europe |
| 80 | The Colosseum opens with inaugural games | Europe |
| 100 | The Kingdom of Aksum rises | Africa |
| 105 | Cai Lun invents paper in China | Asia |
| 105 | Papermaking is invented in China | Asia |
| 122 | Construction of Hadrian's Wall begins | Europe |
| 200 | Buddhism spreads across Asia along the Silk Road | Asia |
| 300 | Petra is established as the Nabataean capital | Asia |
| 301 | San Marino is traditionally founded by Saint Marinus | Europe |
| 313 | The Edict of Milan legalizes Christianity | Europe |
| 313 | Constantine issues the Edict of Milan, tolerating Christianity | Europe |
| 325 | The First Council of Nicaea | Asia |
| 410 | The Visigoths sack Rome | Europe |
| 476 | The fall of the Western Roman Empire | Europe |
| 476 | The last Western Roman Emperor is deposed | Europe |
| 529 | Emperor Justinian issues his legal code | Europe |
| 537 | The Hagia Sophia is completed | Europe |
| 618 | The Tang dynasty is founded | Asia |
| 622 | Muhammad's Hijra to Medina | Asia |
| 622 | The Hijra marks the start of the Islamic calendar | Asia |
| 671 | The Srivijaya Empire rises to power | Asia |
| 732 | The Battle of Tours | Europe |
| 732 | The Battle of Tours halts the Umayyad advance into Europe | Europe |
| 750 | The Abbasid Caliphate is founded | Asia |
| 793 | Vikings raid the monastery at Lindisfarne | Europe |
| 800 | Charlemagne's empire and the Carolingian Renaissance | Europe |
| 800 | The Ghana Empire flourishes | Africa |
| 800 | Charlemagne is crowned Holy Roman Emperor | Europe |
| 802 | The Khmer Empire is founded | Asia |
| 850 | Gunpowder is invented in China | Asia |
| 874 | Iceland is first permanently settled | Europe |
| 882 | Kievan Rus' is founded | Europe |
| 900 | The Classic Maya civilization collapses | Americas |
| 960 | The Song dynasty is founded | Asia |
| 965 | Harald Bluetooth unites Denmark | Europe |
| 965 | Denmark officially converts to Christianity | Europe |
| 985 | Erik the Red establishes a settlement in Greenland | Americas |
| 988 | Grand Prince Vladimir adopts Christianity for Kievan Rus' | Europe |
| 1000 | Leif Erikson reaches North America | Americas |
| 1040 | The magnetic compass is developed in China | Asia |
| 1040 | The magnetic compass is invented in China | Asia |
| 1054 | The Great Schism splits the Christian Church | Europe |
| 1066 | The Battle of Hastings | Europe |
| 1066 | William the Conqueror is crowned King of England | Europe |
| 1086 | The Domesday Book is compiled | Europe |
| 1086 | The Domesday Book survey of England is completed | Europe |
| 1095 | Pope Urban II calls for the First Crusade | Europe |
| 1096 | The First Crusade is launched | Europe |
| 1099 | Crusaders capture Jerusalem | Asia |
| 1119 | The Knights Templar are founded | Asia |
| 1139 | Afonso Henriques declares himself King of Portugal | Europe |
| 1143 | Portugal's independence is recognized at the Treaty of Zamora | Europe |
| 1147 | Moscow is first mentioned in historical chronicles | Europe |
| 1150 | Angkor Wat is built | Asia |
| 1150 | Construction of Angkor Wat is completed | Asia |
| 1163 | Construction begins on Notre-Dame Cathedral | Europe |
| 1187 | Saladin recaptures Jerusalem | Asia |
| 1190 | Richard the Lionheart departs on the Third Crusade | Europe |
| 1190 | The Teutonic Order is founded | Europe |
| 1200 | Great Zimbabwe is built | Africa |
| 1204 | The Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople | Europe |
| 1206 | Genghis Khan founds the Mongol Empire | Asia |
| 1206 | The Delhi Sultanate is established | Asia |
| 1212 | The so-called Children's Crusade sets out | Europe |
| 1215 | Magna Carta is signed | Europe |
| 1225 | Magna Carta is reissued as permanent law | Europe |
| 1235 | Sundiata Keita founds the Mali Empire | Africa |
| 1258 | The Mongols sack Baghdad | Asia |
| 1258 | Baghdad falls to the Mongols | Asia |
| 1271 | Marco Polo sets out for Asia | Europe |
| 1271 | Kublai Khan founds the Yuan dynasty | Asia |
| 1271 | Marco Polo begins his travels to Asia | Asia |
| 1271 | Kublai Khan establishes the Yuan Dynasty in China | Asia |
| 1278 | The Paréage of Andorra establishes its co-principality | Europe |
| 1280 | The Māori settle New Zealand | Oceania |
| 1291 | The Old Swiss Confederacy is founded | Europe |
| 1295 | Marco Polo returns to Venice | Europe |
| 1297 | The Grimaldi family takes control of Monaco | Europe |
| 1299 | The Ottoman Empire is founded | Asia |
| 1309 | The Avignon Papacy begins | Europe |
| 1320 | Dante completes the Divine Comedy | Europe |
| 1324 | Mansa Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca | Africa |
| 1325 | The Aztecs found Tenochtitlan | Americas |
| 1325 | The Aztec Empire is founded at Tenochtitlan | Americas |
| 1325 | Ibn Battuta begins his travels across the Islamic world | Africa |
| 1325 | The Aztecs found the city of Tenochtitlan | Americas |
| 1331 | The Black Death first emerges in Central Asia | Asia |
| 1337 | The Hundred Years' War begins | Europe |
| 1345 | Notre-Dame Cathedral's construction is completed | Europe |
| 1346 | The Battle of Crécy | Europe |
| 1347 | The Black Death reaches Europe | Europe |
| 1349 | The Black Death reaches its peak across Europe | Europe |
| 1368 | Construction begins on the Great Wall of China (Ming dynasty) | Asia |
| 1368 | The Ming dynasty is founded | Asia |
| 1377 | Movable-type printing reaches Korea | Asia |
| 1387 | Chaucer writes The Canterbury Tales | Europe |
| 1392 | The Joseon Dynasty is founded in Korea | Asia |
| 1397 | The Medici Bank rises in Florence | Europe |
| 1400 | Timbuktu becomes a center of learning | Africa |
| 1405 | Zheng He's first great voyage begins | Asia |
| 1415 | The Battle of Agincourt | Europe |
| 1418 | Prince Henry the Navigator founds his school of navigation | Europe |
| 1419 | The Hussite Wars begin in Bohemia | Europe |
| 1420 | The Forbidden City is completed | Asia |
| 1420 | Portuguese settlers colonize Madeira | Africa |
| 1429 | Joan of Arc lifts the Siege of Orléans | Europe |
| 1431 | Joan of Arc is burned at the stake | Europe |
| 1431 | Joan of Arc is executed | Europe |
| 1438 | The Inca Empire is founded | Americas |
| 1438 | The Inca Empire begins its major expansion | Americas |
| 1440 | Gutenberg's printing press is built | Europe |
| 1450 | Machu Picchu is built | Americas |
| 1453 | The Hundred Years' War ends | Europe |
| 1453 | The Fall of Constantinople | Europe |
| 1453 | The Ottomans capture Constantinople | Europe |
| 1455 | The Wars of the Roses begin | Europe |
| 1455 | The Gutenberg Bible is printed | Europe |
| 1478 | The Spanish Inquisition is established | Europe |
| 1488 | Bartolomeu Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope | Africa |
| 1490 | Leonardo da Vinci draws the Vitruvian Man | Europe |
| 1492 | The Reconquista ends with the fall of Granada | Europe |
| 1492 | The fall of Granada completes the unification of Spain | Europe |
| 1492 | The Reconquista is completed with the fall of Granada | Europe |
| 1492 | Spain expels its Jewish population under the Alhambra Decree | Europe |
| 1492 | Spain agrees to sponsor Columbus's voyage | Europe |
| 1492 | Columbus reaches the Americas | Americas |
| 1493 | Columbus's second voyage to the Americas begins | Americas |
| 1494 | The Treaty of Tordesillas is signed | Europe |
| 1497 | John Cabot reaches Newfoundland | Americas |
| 1497 | Vasco da Gama departs on his voyage to India | Europe |
| 1498 | Vasco da Gama reaches India by sea | Asia |
| 1500 | The Songhai Empire reaches its peak | Africa |
| 1500 | The Kingdom of Benin flourishes | Africa |
| 1500 | Pedro Álvares Cabral reaches Brazil | Americas |
| 1500 | Pedro Álvares Cabral lands in Brazil, claiming it for Portugal | Americas |
| 1501 | The Safavid dynasty is founded in Persia | Asia |
| 1503 | Leonardo da Vinci begins painting the Mona Lisa | Europe |
| 1503 | Leonardo begins the Mona Lisa | Europe |
| 1504 | Michelangelo completes the David | Europe |
| 1509 | Henry VIII becomes King of England | Europe |
| 1512 | Michelangelo completes the Sistine Chapel ceiling | Europe |
| 1513 | Balboa reaches the Pacific Ocean | Americas |
| 1513 | Vasco Núñez de Balboa reaches the Pacific Ocean | Americas |
| 1517 | Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses | Europe |
| 1517 | Martin Luther posts his Ninety-Five Theses | Europe |
| 1519 | Hernán Cortés lands in Mexico | Americas |
| 1519 | Magellan's expedition sets sail to circumnavigate the globe | Europe |
| 1519 | Cortés enters Tenochtitlan | Americas |
| 1520 | Suleiman the Magnificent becomes Ottoman Sultan | Asia |
| 1521 | Luther is condemned at the Diet of Worms | Europe |
| 1521 | Ferdinand Magellan is killed in the Philippines | Asia |
| 1521 | The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire | Americas |
| 1521 | Hernán Cortés conquers the Aztec Empire | Americas |
| 1522 | Magellan's expedition completes the first circumnavigation | Europe |
| 1522 | Magellan's expedition completes its circumnavigation | Europe |
| 1526 | The Mughal Empire is founded in India | Asia |
| 1526 | Babur wins the Battle of Panipat | Asia |
| 1533 | Pizarro conquers the Inca Empire | Americas |
| 1533 | Francisco Pizarro conquers the Inca Empire | Americas |
| 1534 | The Church of England breaks with Rome | Europe |
| 1543 | Copernicus publishes his heliocentric theory | Europe |
| 1543 | Copernicus's heliocentric model is published | Europe |
| 1545 | The Council of Trent begins | Europe |
| 1545 | The silver mines of Potosí open | Americas |
| 1545 | The Council of Trent opens | Europe |
| 1555 | The Peace of Augsburg is signed | Europe |
| 1558 | Elizabeth I becomes Queen of England | Europe |
| 1572 | The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre | Europe |
| 1572 | The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre occurs in France | Europe |
| 1580 | Francis Drake completes his circumnavigation | Europe |
| 1587 | Mary, Queen of Scots is executed | Europe |
| 1588 | The Spanish Armada is defeated | Europe |
| 1588 | The Spanish Armada sets sail to invade England | Europe |
| 1590 | Toyotomi Hideyoshi unifies Japan | Asia |
| 1591 | The Songhai Empire falls at the Battle of Tondibi | Africa |
| 1595 | Shakespeare writes Romeo and Juliet | Europe |
| 1597 | The first opera is performed | Europe |
| 1598 | The Edict of Nantes | Europe |
| 1599 | Shakespeare's Globe Theatre opens | Europe |
| 1600 | The transatlantic slave trade expands | Africa |
| 1600 | The East India Company is founded | Europe |
| 1600 | The Battle of Sekigahara | Asia |
| 1600 | The English East India Company is chartered | Asia |
| 1602 | Shakespeare's Hamlet is first performed | Europe |
| 1602 | The Dutch East India Company is founded | Asia |
| 1603 | The Edo period begins in Japan | Asia |
| 1605 | Cervantes publishes Don Quixote | Europe |
| 1605 | The first regularly published newspaper appears | Europe |
| 1605 | Don Quixote is first published | Europe |
| 1605 | The Gunpowder Plot is foiled | Europe |
| 1607 | Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in America, is founded | Americas |
| 1608 | Samuel de Champlain founds Quebec City | Americas |
| 1609 | Henry Hudson explores the Hudson River | Americas |
| 1609 | Kepler publishes his laws of planetary motion | Europe |
| 1609 | Galileo builds his first telescope | Europe |
| 1609 | Henry Hudson explores the river that bears his name | Americas |
| 1610 | Galileo first observes the moons of Jupiter | Europe |
| 1610 | Galileo observes the moons of Jupiter | Europe |
| 1611 | The King James Bible is published | Europe |
| 1611 | Henry Hudson is set adrift and disappears | Americas |
| 1618 | The Thirty Years' War begins | Europe |
| 1620 | The Pilgrims found Plymouth Colony | Americas |
| 1620 | The Mayflower lands at Plymouth | Americas |
| 1620 | The Pilgrims sign the Mayflower Compact | Americas |
| 1625 | The Dutch found New Amsterdam | Americas |
| 1628 | William Harvey describes blood circulation | Europe |
| 1632 | Construction begins on the Taj Mahal | Asia |
| 1633 | Galileo is tried by the Inquisition | Europe |
| 1636 | Harvard College is founded | Americas |
| 1642 | The English Civil War begins | Europe |
| 1642 | Abel Tasman reaches New Zealand | Oceania |
| 1643 | The Taj Mahal's main structure is completed | Asia |
| 1644 | The Qing dynasty conquers China | Asia |
| 1644 | The Manchus establish the Qing dynasty | Asia |
| 1648 | Dutch independence is recognized at the Peace of Westphalia | Europe |
| 1648 | The Peace of Westphalia | Europe |
| 1649 | King Charles I is executed | Europe |
| 1649 | King Charles I of England is executed | Europe |
| 1653 | The Taj Mahal is completed | Asia |
| 1666 | Newton's apple: the law of gravitation takes shape | Europe |
| 1666 | Newton develops calculus | Europe |
| 1666 | The Great Fire of London | Europe |
| 1670 | The Hudson's Bay Company is founded | Americas |
| 1674 | Van Leeuwenhoek observes microorganisms for the first time | Europe |
| 1682 | The Palace of Versailles becomes the royal seat | Europe |
| 1684 | Leibniz independently publishes his version of calculus | Europe |
| 1687 | Newton publishes the Principia Mathematica | Europe |
| 1687 | Newton publishes the law of universal gravitation | Europe |
| 1688 | The Glorious Revolution | Europe |
| 1688 | England's Glorious Revolution takes place | Europe |
| 1692 | The Salem witch trials begin | Americas |
| 1692 | The Salem witch trials | Americas |
| 1696 | Peter the Great becomes sole ruler of Russia | Europe |
| 1701 | The Ashanti Empire is founded | Africa |
| 1703 | Peter the Great founds Saint Petersburg | Europe |
| 1703 | Peter the Great founds St. Petersburg | Europe |
| 1707 | The Act of Union creates Great Britain | Europe |
| 1713 | The Treaty of Utrecht | Europe |
| 1719 | The Principality of Liechtenstein is created | Europe |
| 1721 | Bach composes the Brandenburg Concertos | Europe |
| 1721 | Variolation against smallpox is introduced to Europe | Europe |
| 1721 | Bach completes the Brandenburg Concertos | Europe |
| 1721 | Russia is proclaimed an empire | Europe |
| 1735 | Linnaeus publishes his system of taxonomy | Europe |
| 1742 | Handel's Messiah premieres | Europe |
| 1746 | The Battle of Culloden | Europe |
| 1752 | Benjamin Franklin conducts his kite experiment | Americas |
| 1755 | The Lisbon earthquake | Europe |
| 1755 | The Great Lisbon earthquake | Europe |
| 1756 | The Seven Years' War begins | Europe |
| 1756 | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born | Europe |
| 1757 | The Battle of Plassey | Asia |
| 1759 | The Battle of Quebec | Americas |
| 1762 | Catherine the Great takes the Russian throne | Europe |
| 1764 | Mozart composes his first symphony as a child prodigy | Europe |
| 1764 | The spinning jenny is invented | Europe |
| 1765 | The Stamp Act sparks colonial protest | Americas |
| 1768 | Prithvi Narayan Shah unifies Nepal | Asia |
| 1768 | James Cook's first Pacific voyage begins | Oceania |
| 1769 | James Watt patents his improved steam engine | Europe |
| 1769 | James Watt patents the steam engine | Europe |
| 1770 | The Boston Massacre | Americas |
| 1770 | Captain Cook charts the eastern coast of Australia | Oceania |
| 1770 | Captain Cook charts the Pacific | Oceania |
| 1773 | James Cook crosses the Antarctic Circle | Oceania |
| 1773 | The Boston Tea Party | Americas |
| 1774 | Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen | Europe |
| 1776 | Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations | Europe |
| 1776 | U.S. Declaration of Independence is adopted | Americas |
| 1777 | The Battle of Saratoga | Americas |
| 1778 | Captain Cook reaches Hawaii | Oceania |
| 1778 | James Cook becomes the first European to reach Hawaii | Oceania |
| 1780 | The Túpac Amaru II rebellion in Peru | Americas |
| 1781 | The Siege of Yorktown ends the Revolution | Americas |
| 1783 | The Montgolfier brothers' first balloon flight | Europe |
| 1783 | The Treaty of Paris ends the American Revolution | Americas |
| 1783 | The first hot air balloon flight carries passengers | Europe |
| 1785 | The power loom is invented | Europe |
| 1785 | The La Pérouse expedition sets sail and later vanishes | Europe |
| 1786 | Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro premieres | Europe |
| 1787 | U.S. Constitution is signed | Americas |
| 1788 | The First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay | Oceania |
| 1788 | The First Fleet arrives in Australia | Oceania |
| 1789 | Lavoisier establishes the law of conservation of mass | Europe |
| 1789 | The mutiny on the Bounty | Oceania |
| 1789 | Storming of the Bastille | Europe |
| 1789 | The French Revolution begins | Europe |
| 1791 | The Haitian Revolution begins | Americas |
| 1791 | The U.S. Bill of Rights is ratified | Americas |
| 1791 | The US Bill of Rights is ratified | Americas |
| 1792 | The guillotine is first used in France | Europe |
| 1792 | The New York Stock Exchange is founded | Americas |
| 1793 | The Reign of Terror | Europe |
| 1793 | Louis XVI is executed | Europe |
| 1793 | The Louvre opens to the public as a museum | Europe |
| 1794 | Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin | Americas |
| 1795 | Poland is partitioned and disappears from the map | Europe |
| 1796 | Edward Jenner develops the first vaccine | Europe |
| 1796 | Edward Jenner pioneers vaccination | Europe |
| 1796 | Edward Jenner develops the smallpox vaccine | Europe |
| 1796 | Mungo Park reaches the Niger River | Africa |
| 1799 | The Rosetta Stone is discovered | Africa |
| 1799 | The Rosetta Stone is discovered in Egypt | Africa |
| 1800 | Alessandro Volta invents the battery | Europe |
| 1800 | Alessandro Volta invents the first electric battery | Europe |
| 1801 | The Act of Union with Ireland | Europe |
| 1803 | John Dalton proposes modern atomic theory | Europe |
| 1803 | The Louisiana Purchase | Americas |
| 1803 | The United States completes the Louisiana Purchase | Americas |
| 1804 | Haiti declares independence | Americas |
| 1804 | Haiti formally declares independence | Americas |
| 1804 | The Lewis and Clark Expedition begins | Americas |
| 1804 | Napoleon crowns himself Emperor of France | Europe |
| 1805 | The Battle of Trafalgar | Europe |
| 1805 | The Battle of Austerlitz | Europe |
| 1807 | Britain abolishes the slave trade | Europe |
| 1808 | Beethoven's Fifth Symphony premieres | Europe |
| 1810 | Latin American wars of independence begin | Americas |
| 1810 | Mexico declares independence | Americas |
| 1811 | Avogadro proposes his molecular hypothesis | Europe |
| 1811 | Paraguay becomes independent | Americas |
| 1811 | Venezuela declares independence | Americas |
| 1812 | The War of 1812 begins | Americas |
| 1812 | Napoleon invades Russia | Europe |
| 1812 | The Battle of Borodino | Europe |
| 1813 | Jane Austen publishes Pride and Prejudice | Europe |
| 1814 | Napoleon is exiled to Elba | Europe |
| 1815 | The Congress of Vienna redraws Europe | Europe |
| 1815 | The Congress of Vienna concludes | Europe |
| 1815 | The Battle of Waterloo | Europe |
| 1816 | Shaka founds the Zulu Kingdom | Africa |
| 1816 | Argentina declares independence | Americas |
| 1817 | The first cholera pandemic begins | Asia |
| 1818 | Mary Shelley publishes Frankenstein | Europe |
| 1818 | Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is published | Europe |
| 1819 | Stamford Raffles founds modern Singapore | Asia |
| 1819 | Bolívar founds Gran Colombia | Americas |
| 1820 | The Missouri Compromise | Americas |
| 1821 | Faraday builds the first electric motor | Europe |
| 1821 | The Greek War of Independence begins | Europe |
| 1821 | Costa Rica becomes independent | Americas |
| 1821 | El Salvador becomes independent | Americas |
| 1821 | Guatemala becomes independent | Americas |
| 1821 | Honduras becomes independent | Americas |
| 1821 | Nicaragua becomes independent | Americas |
| 1822 | Ecuador wins independence at the Battle of Pichincha | Americas |
| 1822 | Brazil declares independence | Americas |
| 1822 | Brazil becomes an empire | Americas |
| 1823 | The Monroe Doctrine is declared | Americas |
| 1823 | The Monroe Doctrine is proclaimed | Americas |
| 1824 | Beethoven's Ninth Symphony premieres | Europe |
| 1824 | Beethoven premieres his Ninth Symphony | Europe |
| 1825 | Bolivia becomes independent | Americas |
| 1825 | Uruguay declares independence | Americas |
| 1825 | The first public steam railway opens | Europe |
| 1825 | The Erie Canal opens | Americas |
| 1826 | The earliest surviving photograph is taken | Europe |
| 1826 | The first successful photograph is taken | Europe |
| 1830 | Greece wins independence from the Ottomans | Europe |
| 1830 | Greece becomes independent from the Ottoman Empire | Europe |
| 1830 | Belgium declares independence from the Netherlands | Europe |
| 1831 | Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction | Europe |
| 1831 | Faraday demonstrates electromagnetic induction | Europe |
| 1831 | Darwin sets sail on HMS Beagle | Americas |
| 1831 | Charles Darwin sets sail on the HMS Beagle | Europe |
| 1833 | Britain abolishes slavery in its empire | Europe |
| 1833 | Slavery is abolished across the British Empire | Europe |
| 1836 | The Colt revolver is patented | Americas |
| 1836 | The Battle of the Alamo | Americas |
| 1837 | Morse code is developed | Americas |
| 1837 | Queen Victoria's reign begins | Europe |
| 1838 | Charles Dickens publishes Oliver Twist | Europe |
| 1838 | The first photograph of a human being is taken | Europe |
| 1838 | Queen Victoria is crowned | Europe |
| 1839 | The First Opium War begins | Asia |
| 1839 | Luxembourg's independence is recognized | Europe |
| 1839 | The daguerreotype photographic process is announced | Europe |
| 1839 | Daguerre announces the daguerreotype photographic process | Europe |
| 1840 | The Treaty of Waitangi is signed | Oceania |
| 1840 | New Zealand becomes a British colony | Oceania |
| 1840 | The Penny Post introduces the postage stamp | Europe |
| 1842 | The First Opium War ends with the Treaty of Nanking | Asia |
| 1842 | Hong Kong is ceded to Britain after the First Opium War | Asia |
| 1844 | The Dominican Republic becomes independent | Americas |
| 1844 | Samuel Morse sends the first telegraph message | Americas |
| 1845 | The Great Irish Famine begins | Europe |
| 1845 | The Irish Potato Famine begins | Europe |
| 1845 | The Franklin Expedition disappears in the Arctic | Americas |
| 1846 | The Mexican-American War | Americas |
| 1846 | The first practical sewing machine is patented | Americas |
| 1846 | Ether anesthesia is first demonstrated | Americas |
| 1846 | Ether anesthesia is first used in surgery | Americas |
| 1847 | Liberia is founded | Africa |
| 1848 | Revolutions sweep across Europe | Europe |
| 1848 | The California Gold Rush begins | Americas |
| 1848 | The Mexican-American War ends | Americas |
| 1848 | Marx and Engels publish The Communist Manifesto | Europe |
| 1848 | The Seneca Falls women's rights convention | Americas |
| 1850 | The Taiping Rebellion begins | Asia |
| 1850 | The Underground Railroad reaches its peak activity | Americas |
| 1851 | Herman Melville publishes Moby-Dick | Americas |
| 1851 | The Great Exhibition opens in London | Europe |
| 1851 | The sewing machine is patented by Isaac Singer | Americas |
| 1851 | Moby-Dick is published | Americas |
| 1852 | The Great Irish Famine ends | Europe |
| 1852 | David Livingstone begins exploring the Zambezi River | Africa |
| 1853 | The Crimean War begins | Europe |
| 1854 | Elisha Otis demonstrates the safety elevator brake | Americas |
| 1854 | Commodore Perry forces open trade with Japan | Asia |
| 1854 | Commodore Perry opens Japan to trade | Asia |
| 1854 | Commodore Perry forces Japan to open to the West | Asia |
| 1854 | The Eureka Rebellion in Australia | Oceania |
| 1855 | David Livingstone becomes the first European to see Victoria Falls | Africa |
| 1856 | The Crimean War ends | Europe |
| 1857 | The Indian Rebellion against British rule | Asia |
| 1857 | The Indian Rebellion of 1857 | Asia |
| 1857 | The Indian Rebellion of 1857 begins | Asia |
| 1859 | Construction begins on the Suez Canal | Africa |
| 1859 | Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species | Europe |
| 1860 | The Burke and Wills expedition crosses Australia | Oceania |
| 1860 | The Pony Express begins service | Americas |
| 1861 | Pasteur establishes the germ theory of disease | Europe |
| 1861 | Italy is unified as a single kingdom | Europe |
| 1861 | Italy is unified as a kingdom | Europe |
| 1861 | The American Civil War begins | Americas |
| 1861 | The American Civil War begins at Fort Sumter | Americas |
| 1863 | The Red Cross is founded | Europe |
| 1863 | The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect | Americas |
| 1863 | The Battle of Gettysburg | Americas |
| 1863 | The Battle of Gettysburg begins | Americas |
| 1864 | Louis Pasteur develops pasteurization | Europe |
| 1865 | Maxwell publishes his equations of electromagnetism | Europe |
| 1865 | The American Civil War ends at Appomattox | Americas |
| 1865 | Abraham Lincoln is assassinated | Americas |
| 1865 | President Lincoln is assassinated | Americas |
| 1865 | Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is published | Europe |
| 1866 | Gregor Mendel publishes his laws of heredity | Europe |
| 1866 | The first practical dynamo is built | Europe |
| 1867 | Alfred Nobel patents dynamite | Europe |
| 1867 | The United States purchases Alaska from Russia | Americas |
| 1867 | Canadian Confederation is formed | Americas |
| 1868 | The Meiji Restoration modernizes Japan | Asia |
| 1868 | The Meiji Restoration transforms Japan | Asia |
| 1868 | The Meiji Restoration begins in Japan | Asia |
| 1868 | The first practical typewriter is patented | Americas |
| 1869 | War and Peace is published in full | Europe |
| 1869 | Mendeleev presents the periodic table | Europe |
| 1869 | Mendeleev publishes the periodic table | Europe |
| 1869 | The U.S. transcontinental railroad is completed | Americas |
| 1869 | The Suez Canal opens | Africa |
| 1870 | The Franco-Prussian War | Europe |
| 1870 | Standard Oil is founded | Americas |
| 1871 | Germany is unified into a single empire | Europe |
| 1871 | Germany is unified into an empire | Europe |
| 1871 | The Paris Commune | Europe |
| 1871 | The Great Chicago Fire | Americas |
| 1871 | Henry Morton Stanley finds David Livingstone | Africa |
| 1872 | Yellowstone becomes the world's first national park | Americas |
| 1873 | Blue jeans are patented | Americas |
| 1873 | Levi Strauss patents riveted denim work pants | Americas |
| 1874 | The first Impressionist exhibition opens | Europe |
| 1876 | The first practical internal combustion engine is built | Europe |
| 1876 | The telephone is patented | Americas |
| 1876 | Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone | Americas |
| 1876 | Alexander Graham Bell makes the first telephone call | Americas |
| 1876 | The Battle of the Little Bighorn | Americas |
| 1877 | Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake premieres | Europe |
| 1877 | Romania declares independence from the Ottoman Empire | Europe |
| 1877 | Thomas Edison invents the phonograph | Americas |
| 1877 | Edison invents the phonograph | Americas |
| 1878 | The first telephone exchange opens | Americas |
| 1878 | Serbia's independence is internationally recognized | Europe |
| 1878 | The QWERTY keyboard layout is patented | Americas |
| 1879 | Edison demonstrates the light bulb | Americas |
| 1879 | The Anglo-Zulu War | Africa |
| 1879 | The Battle of Isandlwana | Africa |
| 1880 | The incandescent light bulb is patented | Americas |
| 1881 | The Scramble for Africa accelerates | Africa |
| 1881 | Pablo Picasso is born | Europe |
| 1882 | Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture premieres | Europe |
| 1883 | The Brooklyn Bridge opens | Americas |
| 1883 | The eruption of Krakatoa | Asia |
| 1883 | Krakatoa erupts catastrophically | Asia |
| 1884 | The Berlin Conference partitions Africa | Africa |
| 1884 | The Berlin Conference on Africa opens | Europe |
| 1885 | The modern safety bicycle is introduced | Europe |
| 1885 | Pasteur successfully tests the rabies vaccine | Europe |
| 1886 | Karl Benz patents the first automobile | Europe |
| 1886 | Karl Benz builds the first automobile | Europe |
| 1886 | Coca-Cola is invented | Americas |
| 1886 | Coca-Cola is first sold | Americas |
| 1886 | The Statue of Liberty is dedicated | Americas |
| 1888 | Brazil abolishes slavery | Americas |
| 1888 | The first Kodak camera goes on sale | Americas |
| 1889 | Japan adopts the Meiji Constitution | Asia |
| 1889 | The Eiffel Tower opens | Europe |
| 1889 | The Eiffel Tower is completed | Europe |
| 1889 | The Johnstown Flood | Americas |
| 1889 | Van Gogh paints The Starry Night | Europe |
| 1889 | Nintendo is founded | Asia |
| 1889 | Brazil becomes a republic | Americas |
| 1890 | The Wounded Knee Massacre | Americas |
| 1891 | Sherlock Holmes debuts in The Strand | Europe |
| 1892 | Rudolf Diesel patents the diesel engine | Europe |
| 1892 | The escalator is patented | Americas |
| 1893 | The zipper is patented | Americas |
| 1893 | New Zealand grants women the vote | Oceania |
| 1893 | New Zealand becomes the first country to grant women the vote | Oceania |
| 1894 | The Dreyfus Affair erupts in France | Europe |
| 1895 | Wilhelm Röntgen discovers X-rays | Europe |
| 1895 | Röntgen discovers X-rays | Europe |
| 1895 | Röntgen produces the first medical X-ray image | Europe |
| 1895 | The Lumière brothers hold the first public film screening | Europe |
| 1896 | Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity | Europe |
| 1896 | Ethiopia defeats Italy at Adwa | Africa |
| 1896 | Becquerel discovers radioactivity | Europe |
| 1896 | Ethiopia defeats Italy at the Battle of Adwa | Africa |
| 1896 | The first modern Olympic Games open in Athens | Europe |
| 1896 | The first modern Olympics open in Athens | Europe |
| 1897 | Marconi sends the first radio signals | Europe |
| 1898 | Marie Curie's research on radioactivity is published | Europe |
| 1898 | The Spanish-American War | Americas |
| 1898 | The Spanish-American War begins | Americas |
| 1898 | The Philippines declares independence from Spain | Asia |
| 1898 | Marie Curie discovers radium | Europe |
| 1898 | Marie and Pierre Curie discover radium | Europe |
| 1899 | The Boxer Rebellion | Asia |
| 1899 | The Boxer Rebellion begins | Asia |
| 1899 | The Second Boer War begins | Africa |
| 1899 | Freud publishes The Interpretation of Dreams | Europe |
| 1900 | The Boxer Rebellion in China | Asia |
| 1900 | The Boxer Rebellion's siege of the foreign legations begins | Asia |
| 1900 | The Galveston Hurricane strikes Texas | Americas |
| 1900 | Max Planck founds quantum theory | Europe |
| 1901 | The powered vacuum cleaner is patented | Europe |
| 1901 | Australia becomes a federation | Oceania |
| 1901 | The first Nobel Prizes are awarded | Europe |
| 1901 | The first Nobel Peace Prize is awarded | Europe |
| 1901 | The first transatlantic wireless signal is sent | Europe |
| 1902 | Mount Pelée erupts, destroying Saint-Pierre | Americas |
| 1902 | Willis Carrier invents modern air conditioning | Americas |
| 1903 | Panama becomes independent from Colombia | Americas |
| 1903 | The Wright brothers achieve powered flight | Americas |
| 1904 | The Russo-Japanese War | Asia |
| 1904 | The Russo-Japanese War begins | Asia |
| 1904 | The Entente Cordiale is signed | Europe |
| 1905 | Einstein publishes the theory of special relativity | Europe |
| 1905 | Einstein publishes special relativity | Europe |
| 1905 | Bloody Sunday sparks the Russian Revolution of 1905 | Europe |
| 1905 | The 1905 Russian Revolution begins | Europe |
| 1905 | Einstein publishes his paper on the photoelectric effect | Europe |
| 1905 | Norway dissolves its union with Sweden | Europe |
| 1906 | The San Francisco earthquake | Americas |
| 1906 | The San Francisco earthquake and fire | Americas |
| 1906 | The Wright brothers patent their flying machine | Americas |
| 1907 | Bhutan is unified under its first hereditary king | Asia |
| 1908 | The Tunguska event | Asia |
| 1908 | General Motors is founded | Americas |
| 1908 | Ford's Model T goes on sale | Americas |
| 1908 | Ford launches the Model T | Americas |
| 1908 | Bulgaria declares independence from the Ottoman Empire | Europe |
| 1909 | Robert Peary claims the North Pole | Americas |
| 1909 | Robert Peary claims to reach the North Pole | Americas |
| 1909 | Louis Blériot makes the first flight across the English Channel | Europe |
| 1910 | The Mexican Revolution begins | Americas |
| 1911 | Rutherford discovers the atomic nucleus | Europe |
| 1911 | The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire | Americas |
| 1911 | IBM is founded | Americas |
| 1911 | Roald Amundsen reaches the South Pole | Europe |
| 1911 | Amundsen reaches the South Pole | Europe |
| 1911 | Mongolia declares independence from Qing China | Asia |
| 1912 | Alfred Wegener proposes continental drift | Europe |
| 1912 | The Qing dynasty falls; China becomes a republic | Asia |
| 1912 | Sun Yat-sen founds the Republic of China | Asia |
| 1912 | The Titanic departs on its maiden voyage | Europe |
| 1912 | The Titanic sinks | Europe |
| 1912 | The Titanic sinks after striking an iceberg | Europe |
| 1912 | Albania becomes independent | Europe |
| 1913 | Niels Bohr proposes his model of the atom | Europe |
| 1913 | Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring premieres, sparking a riot | Europe |
| 1913 | Ford introduces the moving assembly line | Americas |
| 1914 | Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated, sparking WWI | Europe |
| 1914 | Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated | Europe |
| 1914 | World War I begins | Europe |
| 1914 | The Panama Canal opens | Americas |
| 1914 | The Panama Canal is completed | Americas |
| 1914 | The first ship transits the completed Panama Canal | Americas |
| 1914 | The Panama Canal formally opens | Americas |
| 1915 | The Gallipoli campaign | Oceania |
| 1915 | ANZAC troops land at Gallipoli | Asia |
| 1915 | The sinking of the Lusitania | Europe |
| 1915 | Shackleton's ship Endurance is crushed by ice | Oceania |
| 1915 | Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity | Europe |
| 1915 | Einstein presents general relativity | Europe |
| 1916 | The Battle of Verdun begins | Europe |
| 1916 | The Easter Rising in Dublin | Europe |
| 1916 | The Battle of the Somme | Europe |
| 1916 | The Battle of the Somme begins | Europe |
| 1916 | Boeing is founded | Americas |
| 1916 | The Trans-Siberian Railway is completed | Asia |
| 1917 | The first modern drone is developed | Europe |
| 1917 | The first jazz recording is released | Americas |
| 1917 | The United States enters World War I | Americas |
| 1917 | The Balfour Declaration | Asia |
| 1917 | The October Revolution brings the Bolsheviks to power | Europe |
| 1917 | The October Revolution in Russia | Europe |
| 1917 | Finland becomes independent | Europe |
| 1917 | The Halifax Explosion | Americas |
| 1918 | The Spanish flu pandemic begins | Americas |
| 1918 | The Spanish flu pandemic | Europe |
| 1918 | Lithuania declares independence | Europe |
| 1918 | Estonia declares independence | Europe |
| 1918 | World War I ends with the Armistice | Europe |
| 1918 | Poland regains its independence | Europe |
| 1918 | The First Austrian Republic is proclaimed | Europe |
| 1918 | Latvia declares independence | Europe |
| 1919 | The May Fourth Movement in China | Asia |
| 1919 | Save the Children is founded | Europe |
| 1919 | Treaty of Versailles is signed | Europe |
| 1919 | The Treaty of Versailles is signed | Europe |
| 1919 | The Weimar Republic is established | Europe |
| 1919 | The Weimar Republic is founded | Europe |
| 1920 | The Spanish flu pandemic subsides | Europe |
| 1920 | The League of Nations is founded | Europe |
| 1920 | The League of Nations is established | Europe |
| 1920 | Prohibition begins in the United States | Americas |
| 1920 | U.S. women win the right to vote (19th Amendment) | Americas |
| 1920 | American women win the right to vote | Americas |
| 1920 | The 19th Amendment grants US women the right to vote | Americas |
| 1920 | The first commercial radio broadcast airs | Americas |
| 1921 | Insulin is discovered | Americas |
| 1921 | The Chinese Communist Party is founded | Asia |
| 1922 | Insulin is first used to treat diabetes | Americas |
| 1922 | Insulin is first used to treat a diabetic patient | Americas |
| 1922 | James Joyce publishes Ulysses | Europe |
| 1922 | Tutankhamun's tomb is discovered | Africa |
| 1922 | Howard Carter discovers Tutankhamun's tomb | Africa |
| 1922 | The Soviet Union is formed | Europe |
| 1923 | Hubble determines Andromeda is a separate galaxy | Americas |
| 1923 | The Walt Disney Company is founded | Americas |
| 1923 | Atatürk founds the Turkish Republic | Europe |
| 1923 | The Republic of Turkey is founded | Asia |
| 1923 | The electric traffic light is patented | Americas |
| 1924 | Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue premieres | Americas |
| 1925 | King Tut's burial mask captivates the world | Africa |
| 1925 | The Great Gatsby is published | Americas |
| 1926 | Schrödinger publishes his wave equation | Europe |
| 1926 | The first television demonstration | Europe |
| 1926 | John Logie Baird demonstrates television | Europe |
| 1926 | John Logie Baird demonstrates the first working television | Europe |
| 1927 | The Jazz Age: Lindbergh-mania sweeps America | Americas |
| 1927 | Georges Lemaître proposes the Big Bang theory | Europe |
| 1927 | Charles Lindbergh flies solo across the Atlantic | Americas |
| 1927 | Lindbergh flies solo across the Atlantic | Americas |
| 1927 | Charles Lindbergh completes the first solo transatlantic flight | Americas |
| 1927 | The first feature-length talking film premieres | Americas |
| 1927 | The first talking picture premieres | Americas |
| 1928 | Penicillin is discovered | Europe |
| 1928 | Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin | Europe |
| 1928 | Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin's antibacterial properties | Europe |
| 1928 | Mickey Mouse debuts in Steamboat Willie | Americas |
| 1929 | Edwin Hubble discovers the universe is expanding | Americas |
| 1929 | The Lateran Treaty establishes Vatican City | Europe |
| 1929 | The first Academy Awards ceremony is held | Americas |
| 1929 | The Wall Street Crash — 'Black Tuesday' | Americas |
| 1929 | The Wall Street Crash | Americas |
| 1929 | The stock market crashes on Black Tuesday | Americas |
| 1930 | The Dust Bowl begins | Americas |
| 1930 | Pluto is discovered | Americas |
| 1930 | Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto | Americas |
| 1930 | Gandhi leads the Salt March | Asia |
| 1930 | Construction begins on the Empire State Building | Americas |
| 1930 | The first FIFA World Cup is held | Americas |
| 1930 | The first FIFA World Cup begins | Americas |
| 1931 | The Empire State Building opens | Americas |
| 1932 | James Chadwick discovers the neutron | Europe |
| 1932 | The LEGO company is founded | Europe |
| 1932 | The Sydney Harbour Bridge opens | Oceania |
| 1932 | Amelia Earhart flies solo across the Atlantic | Americas |
| 1932 | Amelia Earhart completes her solo transatlantic flight | Americas |
| 1932 | The Siamese Revolution ends absolute monarchy in Thailand | Asia |
| 1932 | The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is founded | Asia |
| 1932 | Iraq becomes independent | Asia |
| 1933 | Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany | Europe |
| 1933 | Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany | Europe |
| 1933 | Roosevelt launches the New Deal | Americas |
| 1933 | Franklin D. Roosevelt launches the New Deal | Americas |
| 1934 | Mao leads the Long March | Asia |
| 1935 | Radar is first demonstrated | Europe |
| 1935 | The Dust Bowl's worst storm — 'Black Sunday' | Americas |
| 1935 | "Black Sunday" dust storm strikes the American Plains | Americas |
| 1935 | The US Social Security Act is signed into law | Americas |
| 1935 | The Nuremberg Laws are enacted | Europe |
| 1935 | Italy invades Ethiopia | Africa |
| 1936 | The Hoover Dam is completed | Americas |
| 1936 | The Spanish Civil War begins | Europe |
| 1936 | The first televised Olympics | Europe |
| 1936 | Jesse Owens stuns the Berlin Olympics | Europe |
| 1936 | Jesse Owens wins four Olympic golds | Europe |
| 1937 | Picasso paints Guernica | Europe |
| 1937 | The first artificial element is synthesized | Americas |
| 1937 | The Hindenburg airship disaster | Americas |
| 1937 | The Hindenburg disaster | Americas |
| 1937 | The Golden Gate Bridge opens | Americas |
| 1937 | Picasso completes Guernica | Europe |
| 1937 | Amelia Earhart disappears over the Pacific | Oceania |
| 1937 | Toyota is founded | Asia |
| 1937 | The Nanjing Massacre | Asia |
| 1937 | The first full-length animated feature film premieres | Americas |
| 1938 | Samsung is founded | Asia |
| 1938 | László Bíró patents the modern ballpoint pen | Europe |
| 1938 | Kristallnacht: the Night of Broken Glass | Europe |
| 1938 | Kristallnacht | Europe |
| 1939 | The Wizard of Oz premieres | Americas |
| 1939 | The first jet-powered aircraft flies | Europe |
| 1939 | World War II begins with the invasion of Poland | Europe |
| 1939 | World War II begins | Europe |
| 1939 | Germany invades Poland, starting World War II | Europe |
| 1939 | The first successful helicopter flight takes place | Americas |
| 1940 | McDonald's opens its first restaurant | Americas |
| 1940 | The evacuation of Dunkirk | Europe |
| 1940 | The Dunkirk evacuation takes place | Europe |
| 1940 | The Battle of Britain begins | Europe |
| 1940 | The Battle of Britain | Europe |
| 1941 | Penicillin is first used to treat a patient | Europe |
| 1941 | Germany launches Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union | Europe |
| 1941 | Attack on Pearl Harbor | Americas |
| 1941 | The attack on Pearl Harbor | Americas |
| 1941 | Japan attacks Pearl Harbor | Americas |
| 1942 | The Battle of the Coral Sea | Oceania |
| 1942 | The Battle of Midway | Asia |
| 1942 | The Battle of Stalingrad begins | Europe |
| 1942 | The film Casablanca is released | Americas |
| 1942 | The first nuclear chain reaction is achieved | Americas |
| 1942 | The first controlled nuclear reaction | Americas |
| 1943 | The Bengal famine begins | Asia |
| 1943 | IKEA is founded | Europe |
| 1943 | The Battle of Stalingrad ends | Europe |
| 1943 | Lebanon becomes independent | Asia |
| 1944 | D-Day: the Normandy landings | Europe |
| 1944 | Allied forces land at Normandy on D-Day | Europe |
| 1944 | Iceland becomes fully independent | Europe |
| 1944 | The Bretton Woods conference reshapes global finance | Americas |
| 1944 | The Bretton Woods Conference | Americas |
| 1944 | The Battle of the Bulge begins | Europe |
| 1945 | Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz | Europe |
| 1945 | The Yalta Conference | Europe |
| 1945 | The bombing of Dresden | Europe |
| 1945 | The Battle of Iwo Jima begins | Asia |
| 1945 | Victory in Europe (V-E) Day | Europe |
| 1945 | Victory in Europe Day | Europe |
| 1945 | The first atomic bomb is detonated in a test | Americas |
| 1945 | Atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima | Asia |
| 1945 | The atomic bombing of Hiroshima | Asia |
| 1945 | The atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima | Asia |
| 1945 | The atomic bombing of Nagasaki | Asia |
| 1945 | Indonesia declares independence | Asia |
| 1945 | Japan formally surrenders, ending World War II | Asia |
| 1945 | The microwave oven is patented | Americas |
| 1945 | The United Nations is founded | Americas |
| 1945 | UNESCO is founded | Europe |
| 1945 | The Nuremberg Trials begin | Europe |
| 1946 | The Hungarian Republic is proclaimed | Europe |
| 1946 | ENIAC, an early electronic computer, is unveiled | Americas |
| 1946 | Churchill delivers his "Iron Curtain" speech | Europe |
| 1946 | Syria becomes independent | Asia |
| 1946 | Sony is founded | Asia |
| 1946 | Jordan becomes independent | Asia |
| 1946 | The Bikini Atoll nuclear tests | Oceania |
| 1946 | The United States conducts its first nuclear test at Bikini Atoll | Oceania |
| 1946 | The first Cannes Film Festival is held | Europe |
| 1946 | UNICEF is founded | Americas |
| 1947 | The Marshall Plan is announced | Europe |
| 1947 | The Partition of India and Pakistan | Asia |
| 1947 | Pakistan is created | Asia |
| 1947 | India gains independence | Asia |
| 1947 | British India is partitioned into India and Pakistan | Asia |
| 1947 | The transistor is invented at Bell Labs | Americas |
| 1948 | Apartheid becomes law in South Africa | Africa |
| 1948 | Myanmar becomes independent | Asia |
| 1948 | Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated | Asia |
| 1948 | Sri Lanka becomes independent | Asia |
| 1948 | The Marshall Plan begins | Europe |
| 1948 | The State of Israel is declared | Asia |
| 1948 | The Berlin Airlift begins | Europe |
| 1948 | South Korea is established | Asia |
| 1948 | North Korea is established | Asia |
| 1948 | The Polaroid instant camera is introduced | Americas |
| 1948 | The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is adopted | Americas |
| 1949 | NATO is founded | Europe |
| 1949 | The North Atlantic Treaty is signed | Americas |
| 1949 | George Orwell's 1984 is published | Europe |
| 1949 | The Geneva Conventions are signed | Europe |
| 1949 | The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb | Asia |
| 1949 | The People's Republic of China is founded | Asia |
| 1949 | Mao proclaims the People's Republic of China | Asia |
| 1949 | The Chinese Civil War effectively ends | Asia |
| 1949 | Mao Zedong proclaims the People's Republic of China | Asia |
| 1950 | World Vision is founded | Americas |
| 1950 | India's constitution comes into effect | Asia |
| 1950 | The first credit card, Diners Club, is issued | Americas |
| 1950 | The Korean War begins | Asia |
| 1951 | The first color television broadcast airs | Americas |
| 1951 | Libya becomes independent | Africa |
| 1952 | The Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya | Africa |
| 1952 | Rosalind Franklin captures Photo 51 | Europe |
| 1952 | The barcode is patented | Americas |
| 1952 | The Mau Mau Uprising begins in Kenya | Africa |
| 1952 | The United States tests the first hydrogen bomb | Oceania |
| 1952 | The Great Smog blankets London | Europe |
| 1953 | The structure of DNA is revealed to the world | Europe |
| 1953 | Watson and Crick build their DNA double-helix model | Europe |
| 1953 | Watson and Crick describe DNA's double helix | Europe |
| 1953 | Watson and Crick describe DNA's structure | Europe |
| 1953 | Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summit Mount Everest | Asia |
| 1953 | Hillary and Norgay summit Mount Everest | Asia |
| 1953 | Queen Elizabeth II is crowned | Europe |
| 1953 | Laos becomes fully independent | Asia |
| 1953 | Cambodia becomes independent | Asia |
| 1954 | The McCarthy hearings grip America | Americas |
| 1954 | Roger Bannister runs the four-minute mile | Europe |
| 1954 | The Battle of Dien Bien Phu | Asia |
| 1954 | CERN is founded | Europe |
| 1954 | The Algerian War of Independence begins | Africa |
| 1954 | The first successful kidney transplant is performed | Americas |
| 1955 | Velcro is patented | Europe |
| 1955 | Jonas Salk's polio vaccine is declared safe | Americas |
| 1955 | The polio vaccine is declared safe | Americas |
| 1955 | The Warsaw Pact is formed | Europe |
| 1955 | Disneyland opens | Americas |
| 1955 | Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat | Americas |
| 1956 | Sudan becomes independent | Africa |
| 1956 | Elvis Presley releases his first hit single | Americas |
| 1956 | Elvis Presley makes his first national television appearance | Americas |
| 1956 | Morocco becomes independent | Africa |
| 1956 | Tunisia becomes independent | Africa |
| 1956 | The first Eurovision Song Contest is held | Europe |
| 1956 | The Suez Crisis | Africa |
| 1956 | The Hungarian Revolution is crushed | Europe |
| 1956 | The Hungarian Uprising is crushed | Europe |
| 1956 | The Suez Crisis ends with a ceasefire | Africa |
| 1957 | Ghana becomes the first sub-Saharan colony to gain independence | Africa |
| 1957 | Ghana becomes independent | Africa |
| 1957 | The Treaty of Rome establishes the European Economic Community | Europe |
| 1957 | The European Economic Community is founded | Europe |
| 1957 | Sputnik 1 launches — the first satellite in space | Europe |
| 1957 | Sputnik launches the Space Age | Europe |
| 1957 | Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, launches | Europe |
| 1957 | Laika becomes the first animal in orbit | Europe |
| 1958 | China's Great Leap Forward begins | Asia |
| 1958 | NASA is established | Americas |
| 1958 | The integrated circuit is invented | Americas |
| 1959 | The Cuban Revolution: Castro takes power | Americas |
| 1959 | The Cuban Revolution triumphs | Americas |
| 1959 | The Cuban Revolution succeeds | Americas |
| 1959 | Luna 2 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the Moon | Europe |
| 1960 | The 'Year of Africa' — 17 nations gain independence | Africa |
| 1960 | Cameroon becomes independent | Africa |
| 1960 | The Sharpeville massacre | Africa |
| 1960 | Brazil moves its capital to Brasília | Americas |
| 1960 | Togo becomes independent | Africa |
| 1960 | The first working laser is demonstrated | Americas |
| 1960 | The first working laser is built | Americas |
| 1960 | Madagascar becomes independent | Africa |
| 1960 | The Democratic Republic of the Congo becomes independent | Africa |
| 1960 | Somalia becomes independent | Africa |
| 1960 | The Congo Crisis | Africa |
| 1960 | Burkina Faso becomes independent | Africa |
| 1960 | Ivory Coast becomes independent | Africa |
| 1960 | The Central African Republic becomes independent | Africa |
| 1960 | The Republic of the Congo becomes independent | Africa |
| 1960 | Cyprus becomes independent | Europe |
| 1960 | Gabon becomes independent | Africa |
| 1960 | Senegal becomes independent | Africa |
| 1960 | OPEC is founded | Asia |
| 1960 | Mauritania becomes independent | Africa |
| 1961 | Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba is assassinated | Africa |
| 1961 | The Peace Corps is established | Americas |
| 1961 | Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space | Europe |
| 1961 | The Bay of Pigs invasion | Americas |
| 1961 | The Bay of Pigs invasion fails | Americas |
| 1961 | Sierra Leone becomes independent | Africa |
| 1961 | Amnesty International is founded | Europe |
| 1961 | Kuwait becomes independent | Asia |
| 1961 | Construction of the Berlin Wall begins | Europe |
| 1961 | The Berlin Wall is built | Europe |
| 1961 | Tanganyika (Tanzania) becomes independent | Africa |
| 1962 | Samoa becomes independent | Oceania |
| 1962 | Burundi becomes independent | Africa |
| 1962 | Walmart is founded | Americas |
| 1962 | Algeria wins independence from France | Africa |
| 1962 | Jamaica becomes independent | Americas |
| 1962 | Trinidad and Tobago becomes independent | Americas |
| 1962 | Rachel Carson's Silent Spring is published | Americas |
| 1962 | The Beatles release their first single | Europe |
| 1962 | Uganda becomes independent | Africa |
| 1962 | The Cuban Missile Crisis | Americas |
| 1962 | The Cuban Missile Crisis begins | Americas |
| 1962 | Cuban Missile Crisis: Kennedy addresses the nation | Americas |
| 1963 | The Organisation of African Unity is founded | Africa |
| 1963 | Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space | Europe |
| 1963 | Martin Luther King Jr. delivers "I Have a Dream" | Americas |
| 1963 | Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech | Americas |
| 1963 | Malaysia is formed | Asia |
| 1963 | President Kennedy is assassinated | Americas |
| 1963 | John F. Kennedy is assassinated | Americas |
| 1964 | Marshall McLuhan publishes Understanding Media | Americas |
| 1964 | Nike is founded | Americas |
| 1964 | The Beatles arrive in America | Europe |
| 1964 | The Beatles make their first U.S. television appearance | Americas |
| 1964 | The Beatles appear on The Ed Sullivan Show | Americas |
| 1964 | The first public video call demonstration is held | Americas |
| 1964 | Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life imprisonment | Africa |
| 1964 | The U.S. Civil Rights Act is signed into law | Americas |
| 1964 | The Civil Rights Act is signed | Americas |
| 1964 | Malawi becomes independent | Africa |
| 1964 | The Vietnam War escalates with the Gulf of Tonkin incident | Asia |
| 1964 | The Gulf of Tonkin incident escalates the Vietnam War | Asia |
| 1964 | Malta becomes independent | Europe |
| 1964 | Zambia becomes independent | Africa |
| 1965 | Chad's civil war begins | Africa |
| 1965 | The Gambia becomes independent | Africa |
| 1965 | Alexei Leonov makes the first spacewalk | Europe |
| 1965 | Mariner 4 sends back the first close-up images of Mars | Americas |
| 1965 | The Maldives becomes independent | Asia |
| 1965 | Singapore separates from Malaysia | Asia |
| 1966 | China's Cultural Revolution begins | Asia |
| 1966 | Guyana becomes independent | Americas |
| 1966 | Botswana becomes independent | Africa |
| 1966 | Lesotho becomes independent | Africa |
| 1966 | The Aberfan disaster | Europe |
| 1966 | Barbados becomes independent | Americas |
| 1967 | The Beatles release Sgt. Pepper | Europe |
| 1967 | The Six-Day War | Asia |
| 1967 | The Six-Day War begins | Asia |
| 1967 | The first cash machine (ATM) is installed | Europe |
| 1967 | The Nigerian Civil War (Biafra) begins | Africa |
| 1967 | The first human heart transplant is performed | Africa |
| 1967 | The first heart transplant | Africa |
| 1968 | The Tet Offensive begins | Asia |
| 1968 | Nauru becomes independent | Oceania |
| 1968 | Mauritius becomes independent | Africa |
| 1968 | Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated | Americas |
| 1968 | The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is signed | Americas |
| 1968 | The Prague Spring is crushed by Soviet tanks | Europe |
| 1968 | The Prague Spring is crushed | Europe |
| 1968 | Eswatini becomes independent | Africa |
| 1968 | Equatorial Guinea becomes independent | Africa |
| 1969 | The Boeing 747 makes its first flight | Americas |
| 1969 | Concorde makes its first supersonic flight | Europe |
| 1969 | The Concorde makes its first flight | Europe |
| 1969 | Apollo 11 lands on the Moon | Americas |
| 1969 | Apollo 11 lands the first humans on the Moon | Americas |
| 1969 | The Woodstock music festival | Americas |
| 1969 | The Woodstock festival | Americas |
| 1969 | The first ARPANET message is sent | Americas |
| 1969 | ARPANET sends its first message | Americas |
| 1970 | The Nigerian Civil War ends | Africa |
| 1970 | The Beatles officially break up | Europe |
| 1970 | The Apollo 13 mission survives crisis | Americas |
| 1970 | The Apollo 13 crisis in space | Americas |
| 1970 | The Apollo 13 oxygen tank explodes | Americas |
| 1970 | The Kent State shootings | Americas |
| 1970 | Tonga becomes fully independent | Oceania |
| 1970 | Brazil wins its third World Cup | Americas |
| 1970 | The Aswan High Dam is completed | Africa |
| 1970 | Fiji gains independence | Oceania |
| 1971 | The first email is sent | Americas |
| 1971 | The Bangladesh Liberation War begins | Asia |
| 1971 | Starbucks opens its first store | Americas |
| 1971 | Bahrain becomes independent | Asia |
| 1971 | Qatar becomes independent | Asia |
| 1971 | The United Arab Emirates is formed | Asia |
| 1971 | Bangladesh wins independence | Asia |
| 1971 | Doctors Without Borders is founded | Europe |
| 1972 | Pioneer 10 launches toward Jupiter | Americas |
| 1972 | The Godfather is released | Americas |
| 1972 | The Watergate break-in occurs | Americas |
| 1972 | The Munich Olympics massacre | Europe |
| 1972 | Pong, one of the first video games, is released | Americas |
| 1973 | The US Supreme Court decides Roe v. Wade | Americas |
| 1973 | The first handheld mobile phone call is made | Americas |
| 1973 | The Bahamas becomes independent | Americas |
| 1973 | The Chilean coup overthrows Allende | Americas |
| 1973 | A military coup overthrows Chile's government | Americas |
| 1973 | Guinea-Bissau declares independence | Africa |
| 1973 | The Yom Kippur War begins | Asia |
| 1973 | OPEC imposes an oil embargo | Asia |
| 1973 | The Sydney Opera House opens | Oceania |
| 1974 | Stephen Hawking predicts black hole radiation | Europe |
| 1974 | Grenada becomes independent | Americas |
| 1974 | Portugal's Carnation Revolution ends dictatorship | Europe |
| 1974 | India conducts its first nuclear test | Asia |
| 1974 | President Nixon resigns over Watergate | Americas |
| 1974 | The Watergate scandal forces Nixon to resign | Americas |
| 1974 | The 'Rumble in the Jungle' boxing match | Africa |
| 1975 | The Altair 8800, an early personal computer, is released | Americas |
| 1975 | Microsoft is founded | Americas |
| 1975 | The Khmer Rouge takes power in Cambodia | Asia |
| 1975 | Fall of Saigon ends the Vietnam War | Asia |
| 1975 | Saigon falls, ending the Vietnam War | Asia |
| 1975 | Jaws launches the summer blockbuster era | Americas |
| 1975 | Jaws launches the blockbuster era | Americas |
| 1975 | Mozambique becomes independent | Africa |
| 1975 | Cape Verde becomes independent | Africa |
| 1975 | Comoros becomes independent | Africa |
| 1975 | São Tomé and Príncipe becomes independent | Africa |
| 1975 | The Helsinki Accords are signed | Europe |
| 1975 | The Banqiao Dam fails | Asia |
| 1975 | Papua New Guinea becomes independent | Oceania |
| 1975 | Queen releases Bohemian Rhapsody | Europe |
| 1975 | Angola becomes independent | Africa |
| 1975 | Francisco Franco dies, ending his dictatorship in Spain | Europe |
| 1975 | Suriname becomes independent | Americas |
| 1976 | The first known Ebola outbreak occurs | Africa |
| 1976 | Argentina's military junta seizes power | Americas |
| 1976 | Apple Computer is founded | Americas |
| 1976 | Apple Inc. is founded | Americas |
| 1976 | The Soweto Uprising | Africa |
| 1976 | Seychelles becomes independent | Africa |
| 1976 | The Tangshan earthquake | Asia |
| 1977 | Star Wars premieres | Americas |
| 1977 | Djibouti becomes independent | Africa |
| 1977 | The Voyager probes launch | Americas |
| 1977 | Voyager 1 launches | Americas |
| 1977 | Anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko dies in police custody | Africa |
| 1978 | The Solomon Islands become independent | Oceania |
| 1978 | The first test-tube baby is born | Europe |
| 1978 | The first baby conceived by IVF is born | Europe |
| 1978 | The Camp David Accords | Asia |
| 1978 | The Camp David Accords are signed | Asia |
| 1978 | Dominica becomes independent | Americas |
| 1978 | Deng Xiaoping launches China's economic reforms | Asia |
| 1979 | The Iranian Revolution | Asia |
| 1979 | The Iranian Revolution overthrows the Shah | Asia |
| 1979 | Saint Lucia becomes independent | Americas |
| 1979 | The Sony Walkman is released | Asia |
| 1979 | Kiribati becomes independent | Oceania |
| 1979 | The Nicaraguan Revolution overthrows Somoza | Americas |
| 1979 | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines becomes independent | Americas |
| 1979 | The Iran hostage crisis begins | Asia |
| 1979 | The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan | Asia |
| 1980 | Post-it Notes go on sale nationally | Americas |
| 1980 | Médecins du Monde is founded | Europe |
| 1980 | The 'Miracle on Ice' hockey upset | Americas |
| 1980 | Zimbabwe gains independence | Africa |
| 1980 | Smallpox is declared eradicated worldwide | Europe |
| 1980 | Smallpox is declared eradicated | Europe |
| 1980 | Mount St. Helens erupts | Americas |
| 1980 | The arcade game Pac-Man is released | Asia |
| 1980 | CNN launches 24-hour news | Americas |
| 1980 | Vanuatu becomes independent | Oceania |
| 1980 | Solidarity is founded in Poland | Europe |
| 1980 | The Solidarity movement is founded in Poland | Europe |
| 1980 | The Iran-Iraq War begins | Asia |
| 1980 | John Lennon is assassinated | Americas |
| 1981 | President Reagan is shot | Americas |
| 1981 | The first AIDS cases are reported | Americas |
| 1981 | AIDS is first clinically identified | Americas |
| 1981 | MTV launches | Americas |
| 1981 | The IBM personal computer is released | Americas |
| 1981 | Belize becomes independent | Americas |
| 1981 | Antigua and Barbuda becomes independent | Americas |
| 1982 | The Falklands War begins | Americas |
| 1982 | The Falklands War | Americas |
| 1982 | Canada patriates its constitution | Americas |
| 1982 | E.T. is released | Americas |
| 1982 | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is released | Americas |
| 1982 | The Falklands War ends | Americas |
| 1982 | The compact disc is launched commercially | Asia |
| 1982 | Michael Jackson releases Thriller | Americas |
| 1983 | The first 3D printer is built | Americas |
| 1983 | The Internet's TCP/IP protocol is adopted | Americas |
| 1983 | The domain name system (DNS) is introduced | Americas |
| 1983 | Michael Jackson debuts the moonwalk | Americas |
| 1983 | Michael Jackson debuts the moonwalk on television | Americas |
| 1983 | Saint Kitts and Nevis becomes independent | Americas |
| 1984 | Brunei becomes fully independent | Asia |
| 1984 | Apple introduces the Macintosh | Americas |
| 1984 | The Bhopal gas disaster | Asia |
| 1985 | The Antarctic ozone hole is discovered | Europe |
| 1985 | The Schengen Agreement is signed | Europe |
| 1985 | The Live Aid benefit concerts | Europe |
| 1985 | Live Aid raises funds for Ethiopian famine | Africa |
| 1985 | The Live Aid benefit concert is held | Europe |
| 1985 | The wreck of the Titanic is discovered | Americas |
| 1986 | The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster | Americas |
| 1986 | The Challenger shuttle explodes | Americas |
| 1986 | The Mir space station's core module launches | Europe |
| 1986 | The Chernobyl nuclear disaster | Europe |
| 1986 | The city of Pripyat is evacuated after Chernobyl | Europe |
| 1986 | Maradona's 'Hand of God' goal | Americas |
| 1986 | The Marshall Islands becomes independent | Oceania |
| 1986 | The Federated States of Micronesia becomes independent | Oceania |
| 1988 | Major wildfires sweep through Yellowstone | Americas |
| 1988 | Chileans vote to end Pinochet's rule | Americas |
| 1988 | Construction begins on the Channel Tunnel | Europe |
| 1989 | The Exxon Valdez oil spill | Americas |
| 1989 | The Nintendo Game Boy is released | Asia |
| 1989 | The Tiananmen Square protests | Asia |
| 1989 | The "Tank Man" photo is taken during the Tiananmen Square protests | Asia |
| 1989 | The Berlin Wall falls | Europe |
| 1989 | The Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia | Europe |
| 1989 | Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution begins | Europe |
| 1989 | Romania's Ceaușescu regime is overthrown | Europe |
| 1990 | Nelson Mandela is released from prison | Africa |
| 1990 | Nelson Mandela is freed | Africa |
| 1990 | Namibia becomes independent | Africa |
| 1990 | The Hubble Space Telescope is launched | Americas |
| 1990 | The Hubble Space Telescope launches | Americas |
| 1990 | North and South Yemen unify | Asia |
| 1990 | The first approved gene therapy trial takes place | Americas |
| 1990 | The Human Genome Project is launched | Americas |
| 1990 | Germany is reunified | Europe |
| 1990 | East and West Germany reunify | Europe |
| 1991 | The Gulf War begins | Asia |
| 1991 | The Gulf War ends with a ceasefire | Asia |
| 1991 | Georgia declares independence | Asia |
| 1991 | Croatia declares independence | Europe |
| 1991 | Slovenia declares independence | Europe |
| 1991 | Yugoslavia begins to break apart | Europe |
| 1991 | The World Wide Web becomes publicly available | Europe |
| 1991 | Tim Berners-Lee creates the World Wide Web | Europe |
| 1991 | The World Wide Web is made publicly available | Europe |
| 1991 | Belarus declares independence | Europe |
| 1991 | Moldova declares independence | Europe |
| 1991 | Azerbaijan declares independence | Asia |
| 1991 | Kyrgyzstan becomes independent | Asia |
| 1991 | Uzbekistan becomes independent | Asia |
| 1991 | North Macedonia becomes independent | Europe |
| 1991 | Tajikistan becomes independent | Asia |
| 1991 | Armenia becomes independent | Asia |
| 1991 | Nirvana releases Nevermind | Americas |
| 1991 | Turkmenistan becomes independent | Asia |
| 1991 | Kazakhstan becomes independent | Asia |
| 1991 | The Soviet Union is dissolved | Europe |
| 1991 | The Soviet Union collapses | Europe |
| 1991 | The Soviet Union is formally dissolved | Europe |
| 1992 | The Maastricht Treaty creates the EU | Europe |
| 1992 | The Maastricht Treaty is signed | Europe |
| 1992 | Bosnia and Herzegovina declares independence | Europe |
| 1992 | The Bosnian War begins | Europe |
| 1992 | The first text message is sent | Europe |
| 1993 | The GPS satellite system becomes operational | Americas |
| 1993 | The MP3 audio format is standardized | Europe |
| 1993 | Czechia is established as a separate state | Europe |
| 1993 | The European Single Market comes into effect | Europe |
| 1993 | Czechoslovakia splits into two countries | Europe |
| 1993 | Eritrea becomes independent | Africa |
| 1993 | Jurassic Park is released | Americas |
| 1993 | The Oslo Accords are signed | Asia |
| 1993 | The European Union is formally established | Europe |
| 1993 | Astronauts repair the Hubble telescope | Americas |
| 1994 | NAFTA takes effect | Americas |
| 1994 | The Rwandan genocide begins | Africa |
| 1994 | The Rwandan genocide | Africa |
| 1994 | South Africa holds its first multiracial election | Africa |
| 1994 | The Channel Tunnel opens | Europe |
| 1994 | Nelson Mandela becomes South Africa's first Black president | Africa |
| 1994 | Amazon is founded | Americas |
| 1994 | The Rwandan genocide ends | Africa |
| 1994 | IBM releases Simon, the first smartphone | Americas |
| 1994 | Palau becomes independent | Oceania |
| 1994 | The original PlayStation is released in Japan | Asia |
| 1994 | Construction on the Three Gorges Dam begins | Asia |
| 1995 | The World Trade Organization is established | Europe |
| 1995 | The Great Hanshin (Kobe) earthquake | Asia |
| 1995 | The Srebrenica massacre occurs | Europe |
| 1995 | The first exoplanet around a sun-like star is discovered | Europe |
| 1995 | Toy Story, the first fully computer-animated feature film, is released | Americas |
| 1995 | The Bosnian War ends with the Dayton Agreement | Europe |
| 1996 | Dolly the sheep — the first cloned mammal — is born | Europe |
| 1996 | Dolly the sheep is cloned | Europe |
| 1996 | Dolly the sheep, the first cloned mammal, is born | Europe |
| 1996 | The DVD format is launched | Asia |
| 1996 | South Africa adopts its post-apartheid constitution | Africa |
| 1997 | Deep Blue defeats world chess champion Garry Kasparov | Americas |
| 1997 | The first Harry Potter book is published | Europe |
| 1997 | Hong Kong is handed back to China | Asia |
| 1997 | Hong Kong returns to Chinese rule | Asia |
| 1997 | Hong Kong is handed over to China | Asia |
| 1997 | Mars Pathfinder lands on Mars | Americas |
| 1997 | The Sojourner rover lands on Mars | Americas |
| 1997 | Netflix is founded | Americas |
| 1997 | The international treaty banning landmines is signed | Europe |
| 1997 | The Kyoto Protocol is signed | Asia |
| 1997 | Titanic becomes a box-office record | Americas |
| 1997 | The film Titanic is released | Americas |
| 1998 | Human embryonic stem cells are first isolated | Americas |
| 1998 | The Kosovo War begins | Europe |
| 1998 | The Good Friday Agreement is signed | Europe |
| 1998 | India conducts nuclear tests | Asia |
| 1998 | Google is founded | Americas |
| 1998 | Construction of the ISS begins | Europe |
| 1998 | The first ISS module is launched | Asia |
| 1999 | The euro currency is introduced | Europe |
| 1999 | Napster launches, disrupting the music industry | Americas |
| 1999 | The Kosovo War ends | Europe |
| 1999 | Alibaba is founded | Asia |
| 1999 | Macau is handed over to China | Asia |
| 2000 | The world braces for Y2K | Europe |
| 2000 | A draft of the human genome is completed | Americas |
| 2001 | Wikipedia is launched | Americas |
| 2001 | September 11 attacks | Americas |
| 2001 | Terrorist attacks strike New York and Washington | Americas |
| 2001 | The United States invades Afghanistan | Asia |
| 2001 | China joins the World Trade Organization | Asia |
| 2002 | The euro enters circulation | Europe |
| 2002 | Timor-Leste's independence is restored | Asia |
| 2002 | The SARS outbreak begins | Asia |
| 2002 | The SARS outbreak is first reported | Asia |
| 2003 | The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster | Americas |
| 2003 | The Iraq War begins | Asia |
| 2003 | The Human Genome Project's sequence is declared complete | Americas |
| 2003 | The Human Genome Project is completed | Americas |
| 2003 | Tesla, Inc. is founded | Americas |
| 2004 | The Spirit and Opportunity rovers land on Mars | Americas |
| 2004 | Facebook is launched | Americas |
| 2004 | Facebook is founded | Americas |
| 2004 | The Madrid train bombings | Europe |
| 2004 | The Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami | Asia |
| 2004 | The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami | Asia |
| 2005 | YouTube is founded | Americas |
| 2005 | The London 7/7 bombings | Europe |
| 2005 | Hurricane Katrina devastates New Orleans | Americas |
| 2005 | Hurricane Katrina makes landfall | Americas |
| 2006 | Twitter is launched | Americas |
| 2006 | Montenegro becomes independent | Europe |
| 2006 | North Korea conducts its first nuclear test | Asia |
| 2007 | The first iPhone is released | Americas |
| 2008 | Airbnb is founded | Americas |
| 2008 | Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday concert | Africa |
| 2008 | The Russo-Georgian War begins | Asia |
| 2008 | The Large Hadron Collider switches on | Europe |
| 2008 | The global financial crisis | Americas |
| 2008 | Lehman Brothers collapses | Americas |
| 2008 | Spotify is launched | Europe |
| 2008 | The Bitcoin whitepaper is published | Americas |
| 2008 | Barack Obama is elected U.S. president | Americas |
| 2009 | Barack Obama is inaugurated as U.S. president | Americas |
| 2009 | Barack Obama is inaugurated as the first Black US president | Americas |
| 2009 | Uber is founded | Americas |
| 2009 | The H1N1 swine flu pandemic is declared | Americas |
| 2009 | Usain Bolt sets the 100m world record | Americas |
| 2009 | The film Avatar is released | Americas |
| 2010 | The Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, opens | Asia |
| 2010 | The 2010 Haiti earthquake | Americas |
| 2010 | The first iPad is released | Americas |
| 2010 | The Deepwater Horizon oil spill begins | Americas |
| 2010 | Instagram is launched | Americas |
| 2010 | The Arab Spring begins in Tunisia | Africa |
| 2011 | Mass protests begin in Egypt during the Arab Spring | Africa |
| 2011 | The Fukushima nuclear disaster | Asia |
| 2011 | The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami | Asia |
| 2011 | The Syrian Civil War begins | Asia |
| 2011 | Osama bin Laden is killed | Asia |
| 2011 | South Sudan becomes independent | Africa |
| 2012 | CRISPR gene editing is developed | Americas |
| 2012 | CRISPR gene editing transforms biology | Americas |
| 2012 | Discovery of the Higgs boson is announced | Europe |
| 2012 | The Higgs boson discovery is announced | Europe |
| 2012 | The Curiosity rover lands on Mars | Americas |
| 2014 | Russia annexes Crimea | Europe |
| 2014 | An Ebola outbreak is declared in West Africa | Africa |
| 2015 | New Horizons flies by Pluto | Americas |
| 2015 | Gravitational waves are first detected | Americas |
| 2015 | The November Paris attacks | Europe |
| 2015 | The Paris Climate Agreement is adopted | Europe |
| 2015 | The Paris Agreement on climate change is adopted | Europe |
| 2015 | SpaceX lands a reusable orbital rocket for the first time | Americas |
| 2015 | SpaceX lands the first orbital-class reusable rocket | Americas |
| 2016 | Gravitational waves are detected | Americas |
| 2016 | The U.K. votes to leave the European Union | Europe |
| 2016 | The United Kingdom votes for Brexit | Europe |
| 2016 | The UK votes to leave the European Union | Europe |
| 2016 | Colombia signs a peace deal with FARC rebels | Americas |
| 2017 | The Cassini mission ends at Saturn | Americas |
| 2019 | China lands a rover on the far side of the Moon | Asia |
| 2019 | The first image of a black hole is released | Europe |
| 2019 | The Notre-Dame cathedral fire | Europe |
| 2019 | Mass protests begin in Hong Kong | Asia |
| 2020 | The United Kingdom formally leaves the European Union | Europe |
| 2020 | WHO declares COVID-19 a global pandemic | Europe |
| 2020 | COVID-19 is declared a global pandemic | Asia |
| 2021 | NASA's Perseverance rover lands on Mars | Americas |
| 2021 | The James Webb Space Telescope launches | Americas |
| 2022 | Russia invades Ukraine | Europe |
| 2022 | Russia launches a full-scale invasion of Ukraine | Europe |
| 2022 | The James Webb Space Telescope's first images are released | Americas |
| 2022 | Queen Elizabeth II dies | Europe |
| 2022 | ChatGPT is released to the public | Americas |
| 2023 | India lands a spacecraft near the Moon's south pole | Asia |