Date List

1450

Height of the Italian Renaissance

Invention of the printing press

1517

Martin Luther posts the 95 Theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg

1555

Peace of Augsburg

Holy Roman Emperor Charles V allows princes in the German states to choose between Catholicism and Lutheranism. “Whose realm, His Religion”

1588

Spanish Armada invasion

Phillip II of Spain sends his armada against Elizabeth I of England. English defeated the Spanish.

1603

Death of Elizabeth I - Change from Tudor to Stuart Monarchy

1648

Peace of Westphalia - Ends the Thirty Years War

1688

Glorious Revolution - Bloodless transition of power from James II to his daughter Mary II and her husband William of Orange. Shows supremacy of Parliament

1715

Death of Louis XIV

1759

Voltaire wrote his work called “Candide.”

1789

Start of the French Revolution

1815

The Congress of Vienna

1848

Year of Revolutions - Karl Marx writes The Communist Manifesto

1870-1871

Italian and German Unification

1884-1885

The Berlin Conference

1914-1918

WWI

1939-1945

WW2

1968

Prague Springs - Student Uprisings

1989

Fall of the Berlin Wall

1991

Collapse of the Soviet Union