c. 65–75 A.D. The Gospel of Mark, generally regarded by modern scholars as the earliest canonical gospel, is composed around the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
79 A.D. Mount Vesuvius erupts, burying Pompeii and Herculaneum beneath volcanic material and preserving extraordinary evidence of Roman life.
80 A.D. The Colosseum is inaugurated under Emperor Titus; construction had begun under his father Vespasian.
c. 80–90 A.D. The Gospel of Matthew is composed after the destruction of Jerusalem; many scholars place it at least a decade after 70 A.D.
c. 80–90 A.D. The Gospel of Luke is composed; many scholars date it to this period after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
c. 90–100 A.D. The Gospel of John reaches its final form, while the Book of Revelation is generally dated near the end of Emperor Domitian’s reign (81–96 A.D.).
105 A.D. Chinese court official Cai Lun is traditionally credited with reporting major improvements to papermaking; archaeological evidence shows paper existed in China before his lifetime.
130 A.D. Roman emperor Hadrian founds Antinoöpolis in Middle Egypt in memory of Antinous. It later became an important regional administrative center, but it was not Egypt’s capital.
166 A.D. Chinese records describe a group claiming to represent the Roman ruler “Andun” arriving at the court of Emperor Huan of Han. The visitors may have been merchants rather than an official embassy, and “Andun” may refer to Marcus Aurelius Antoninus or his predecessor Antoninus Pius.
217 A.D. Macrinus becomes the new Emperor of Rome.
c. 3rd–4th century A.D. Emperor Sujin appears in Japan’s later traditional chronicles as an early ruler. His historicity and dates are uncertain, so he should not be treated as a securely documented ruler in 230 A.D.
282 A.D. Carus becomes Emperor of Rome, killed by his own military troops one year later.
284 A.D. Diocletian becomes Roman emperor and begins major administrative and military reforms.
286 A.D. Diocletian elevates Maximian as co-emperor, creating separate imperial courts for the eastern and western parts of the empire while the Roman Empire remains legally one state.
293 A.D. Diocletian formalizes the Tetrarchy, with two senior emperors (Augusti) and two junior emperors (Caesares) sharing imperial rule.
303 A.D. Diocletian and his colleagues begin the Great Persecution, the Roman Empire’s last major state-sponsored persecution of Christians.
306 A.D. After the death of Constantius Chlorus at York, his troops proclaim Constantine emperor; he initially controls part of the western empire.
306 A.D. Maxentius seizes power in Rome and becomes Constantine’s principal western rival until 312.
313 A.D. Constantine and Licinius issue the Edict of Milan, granting religious toleration in the Roman Empire and restoring confiscated Christian property.
324 A.D. Constantine defeats Licinius and becomes sole ruler of the Roman Empire.
330 A.D. Constantine dedicates Constantinople as a new imperial capital of the Roman Empire.
337 A.D. Constantine dies, is baptized on deathbed.
380 A.D. The Edict of Thessalonica, issued under Emperor Theodosius I, establishes Nicene Christianity as the Roman Empire’s official imperial faith.
410 A.D. The Visigoths under Alaric I sack Rome, the city’s first capture by a foreign enemy in nearly eight centuries.
c. 5th century A.D. Patrick conducts Christian missionary work in Ireland; the traditional chronology of his life is uncertain and debated.
475 A.D. Romulus Augustulus becomes emperor in the western Roman Empire.
476 A.D. The Germanic commander Odoacer deposes Romulus Augustulus, an event conventionally used to mark the end of the Western Roman Empire; the Eastern Roman Empire continues for nearly another thousand years.
762 A.D. Baghdad is founded as the new Abbasid capital and grows into a major center of political, commercial, and intellectual life.
800 A.D. Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne emperor in Rome on Christmas Day, a major milestone in the political development of medieval western Europe.
c. 825 A.D. The mathematician al-Khwarizmi writes a treatise on calculation with Hindu numerals, helping transmit the Hindu-Arabic decimal numeral system through the Islamic world and later to Europe.
843 A.D. The Treaty of Verdun divides the Carolingian Empire among the three surviving sons of Louis the Pious.
c. 843 A.D. Kenneth MacAlpin emerges as king in Pictland; later tradition treats him as a foundational ruler of the kingdom that develops into Alba (Scotland), although the process was gradual rather than a single conquest.
c. 850 A.D. Persian scholar Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari composes Firdaws al-Hikma (Paradise of Wisdom), an influential medical encyclopedia drawing on multiple traditions.
c. 870 A.D. Norse settlement of Iceland begins. Later tradition names Ingólfur Arnarson among the earliest permanent settlers; evidence and written sources place the main settlement period in the late 9th and early 10th centuries.
1054 A.D. The East–West Schism becomes a symbolic turning point in the growing separation between the churches centered on Rome and Constantinople.
1066 A.D. William, Duke of Normandy, defeats King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings, leading to the Norman conquest of England.
1492 A.D. Christopher Columbus reaches the Caribbean on his first Atlantic voyage and encounters Indigenous peoples who had inhabited the Americas for thousands of years.
1517 A.D. Martin Luther circulates his Ninety-Five Theses, a landmark event in the Protestant Reformation.
1619 A.D. An English privateer brings the first documented group of enslaved Africans to colonial Virginia at Point Comfort. They had been seized from a Portuguese slave ship; their immediate legal status in Virginia was uncertain, while racialized hereditary slavery became more firmly codified later in the 17th century.
1620 A.D. Pilgrims from England sailing on the Mayflower ship arrive in America and found the colony of Plymouth.
1621 A.D. Philip IV becomes the next King of Spain. In America, Pilgrims celebrate the First Thanksgiving after a bountiful harvest.
1687 A.D. Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, setting out his laws of motion and universal gravitation and providing a mathematical framework for classical mechanics.
1814 A.D. The first permanent Christian mission in New Zealand is established at Rangihoua in the Bay of Islands, with the support of Ngāpuhi leader Ruatara.
1820 A.D. The Missouri Compromise admits Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, while barring slavery in most of the Louisiana Purchase north of latitude 36°30′.
1830 A.D. The Book of Mormon is published by Joseph Smith.
1832 A.D. Britain passes the Reform Act of 1832, redistributing parliamentary seats and expanding the electorate.
1835 A.D. The Texas Revolution begins as armed conflict breaks out between Texian settlers and the Mexican government.
1836 A.D. Texas declares independence from Mexico on March 2. Mexican forces capture the Alamo on March 6; on April 21, Texian forces defeat Santa Anna’s army at the Battle of San Jacinto.
1843 A.D. Nearly 1,000 emigrants travel west in the Great Migration on the Oregon Trail, helping establish the route as a major path for overland migration to Oregon Country.
1868 A.D. The Meiji Restoration establishes a new imperial government in Japan and begins a period of rapid political, economic, and social transformation.
1879 A.D. Thomas Edison and his Menlo Park team demonstrate a practical incandescent electric lamp, building on earlier light-bulb experiments and helping make electric lighting commercially viable.
1890 A.D. On December 29, U.S. Army troops kill at least 150 Lakota men, women, and children in the Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota.
1919 A.D. The 18th Amendment is ratified, setting nationwide Prohibition in motion; its ban on the manufacture, sale, transportation, import, and export of intoxicating beverages takes effect one year later in 1920.
1939 A.D. Germany invades Poland, beginning World War II in Europe. The Spanish Civil War ends.
1941 A.D. On December 7, the Imperial Japanese Navy launches a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and other U.S. military targets in Hawaii. The United States declares war on Japan the following day and enters World War II.