Battle of Gaugamela
1 October 331 BC
The Battle of Gaugamela (331 BC) was the decisive clash in which Alexander the Great defeated the Persian king Darius III, breaking the power of the Achaemenid Empire.
Historical Events
The battles, revolutions, discoveries and turning points that changed the course of history, each linked to the figures who shaped them.
Unification of China
221 BC
The unification of China in 221 BC was the conquest by the state of Qin of all rival kingdoms, creating the first unified Chinese empire under Qin Shi Huang.
Battle of Cannae
2 August 216 BC
The Battle of Cannae (216 BC) was Hannibal's masterpiece, a double-envelopment in which his Carthaginian army annihilated a far larger Roman force during the Second Punic War.
Assassination of Julius Caesar
15 March 44 BC
The assassination of Julius Caesar on the Ides of March, 44 BC, was the killing of the Roman dictator by a group of senators, an act that plunged Rome into civil war and ended the Republic.
Invention of the Printing Press
c. 1440
Around 1440 Johannes Gutenberg developed a printing press using movable metal type, an innovation that made books affordable, spread literacy and ideas, and helped launch the modern age.
Columbus Reaches the Americas (1492)
12 October 1492
In 1492 Christopher Columbus, sailing west for Spain in search of Asia, made landfall in the Americas — a voyage that opened sustained contact between the Old and New Worlds.
American Revolution
1775–1783
The American Revolution (1775–1783) was the war and political upheaval in which Britain's thirteen American colonies won independence and founded the United States on Enlightenment ideals.
French Revolution
1789–1799
The French Revolution (1789–1799) overthrew the French monarchy, proclaimed liberty, equality and fraternity, and transformed Europe — ultimately paving the way for the rise of Napoleon.
Publication of On the Origin of Species
24 November 1859
In 1859 Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, setting out the theory of evolution by natural selection and transforming biology and humanity's understanding of itself.
Indian Independence
15 August 1947
In 1947 India won independence from the British Empire, the culmination of a decades-long struggle led in large part by the nonviolent campaigns of Mahatma Gandhi.