Must Know Dates for the AP World History Exam

From 8000 B.C.E to 2003. Best dates to know to get through the MCQ of the APWH Exam.

Foundations

Up to 600 C.E

3000 B.C.E.

River Valley Civilizations begin

221 B.C.E.

Qin unified China

32 C.E.

Beginnings of Christianity

220 C.E.

end of Han Dynasty

550 C.E

Gupta Empire ends

476

Fall of Rome

Periodization 1

600-1450

622

Founding of Islam

732

Battle of Tours

1095-1291

The Crusades

1258

Mongols sack (conquer) Baghdad

1271-1295

Marco Polo's travels

1324

Mansa Musa's pilgrimage

1347-1351

Bubonic plague in Europe

Periodization 2

1450 - 1750

1488

Dias rounded Cape of Good Hope

1492

Columbus / Reconquista of Spain

1521

Cortez conquered the Aztecs

1533

Pizarro toppled the Inca

1571

Battle of Lepanto, (naval def. of Ottomans)

1588

defeat of the Spanish Armada by the British

1607

Jamestown settled

1683

unsuccessful Ottoman siege of Vienna

1689

Glorious Revolution / English Bill of Rights

Periodization 3

1750 - 1900

Mid 1700s (1750)

Industrial Revolution begins in Britain

1756 - 1763

7 Years War / French and Indian War

1776

American Revolution

1789

French Revolution begins

1804

Haitian independence

1815

Congress of Vienna/ def. of Napoleon

1810 - 1823

Independence in Latin America

1839

1st Opium War in China

1848

European revolutions / Comm. Manifesto

1853

Commodore Perry opens Japan

1857

Indian Rebellion (Sepoy Mutiny)

1868

Meiji Restoration of Japan

1871

Italian unification

1871

German unification

1885

Berlin Conference - division of Africa

1898

Spanish-American War- U.S. gets territory

1899

Boer War - British in control of South Africa

1905

Russo-Japanese war

1910-1920

Mexican Revolution

1914

WWI begins

1917

Russian Revolution

1919

Treaty of Versailles - end of WWI

1929

Stock market crash

1935

Italian invasion of Ethiopia

1939

German blitzkrieg in Poland

1941

Pearl Harbor, entry of US into WWII

1945

End of WWII

1947

Independence & partition of India

1948

Birth of Israel

1949

Chinese Communist Revolution

1950 - 1953

Korean War

1956

Egyptian President Nasser nationalized Suez Canal

1959

Cuban Revolution - Fidel Castro

1962

Cuban missile crisis

1967

6-Day War in Middle East

1967

Chinese Cultural Revolution

1979

Iranian Revolution

1989

Tiananmen Square massacre China

1991

fall of USSR / 1st Gulf war

1994

Rwanda genocide; Mandela in S. Africa

2001

9/11 Attacks

2003

U.S. invasion of Iraq

8000 B.C.E.

Neolithic Revolution

1054

Great Schism (Catholic vs Orthodox)

1215

Magna Carta is signed in England

1325-1349

travels of Ibn Battuta

1405-1433

Zheng He's voyages

1453

Ottomans capture Constantinople

1502

1st Slaves to Americas from Africa

1517

Martin Luther / 95 theses

1600

Battle of Sekigahara - Tokugawa unifies Japan

1618-1648

30 years war in Europe

1823

Monroe Doctrine

1861

End of Russian serfdom

1863

Emancipation Proclamation in US

1911

Chinese Revolution (Qing overthrown)

Periodization 4

1900 to the present

1931

Japanese invasion of Manchuria

1989

fall of Berlin Wall