HEPINGER AP EURO ALL DATES

1453

Constantinople is sacked by Muslim forces

1488

Bartholemew Diaz rounds the Cape of Good Hope

1492

Columbus encounters the Americas ("God, Glory and Gold")

1517

Martin Luther's posting of the 95 Theses

1520

Diet of Worms declares Martin Luther an outlaw

1524-1525

The Peasants' Revolt takes place in Germany

1534

Act of Supremacy passed in England - Henry VIII becomes head of the Anglican Church

1545

Council of Trent begins - The Counter Reformation

1555

Peace of Augsburg ("cuius regio, eius religio" - whose region, his religion)

1585-1589

War of the Three Henries in France

1588

Spanish Armada destroyed by the English and "The Protestant Wind"

1603

Elizabeth I Dies - Tudor Dynasty Ends and the Stuart Dynasty Begins

1618-1648

The Thirty Years' War (Treaty of Westphalia ends the war)

1642-1646

English Civil War (Roundheads vs. the Cavaliers)

1649

Charles I is executed - Oliver Cromwell begins his rule

1660

Stuart Restoration in England through Charles II

1688-1689

Glorious Revolution in England - William and Mary of Orange replace James II and sign the English Bill of Rights

1643-1715

Era of Louis XIV - The Sun King (l'etat c'est moi)

1689-1725

Reign of Peter the Great in Russia

1756-1763

The Seven Years War

1789-1799

Era of the French Revolution

1799

Napoleon comes to power

1805-1815

Napoleonic Wars are waged

1814-1815

The Congress of Vienna meets

1819

Peterloo Massacre in England

1830

Belgian Independence

1832

Reform Bill in England Passed (fix issues w/ rotten bouroughs and parliament, standardize voting)

1848

Revolutions break out across Western Europe (France, Austria, Italy and Germany)

1861

Serfs "emancipated" in Russia under Alexander II

1870-1871

Germany and Italy unification

1884-1885

Berlin Conference is held ("Scramble for Africa")

1894

Tsar Nicholas II comes to power in Russia - the last of the Romanovs

1905

Sunday Bloody Revolution in Russia - "The Dress Rehearsal"

1914

Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated - WWI starts

1917

March and November (Bolshevik) Revolutions in Russia

1918

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk is signed (Russia withdraws from war)

1918

WWI ends

1919

Treaty of Versailles is signed

1918-1921

Russian Civil War (Reds vs. Whites)

1922

Mussolini comes to power in Italy and establishes the 1st Fascist government

1922

Russia officially becomes known as the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) - The Soviet Union

1923

Adolf Hitler leads the Beer Hall Putsch in Germany

1924

Lenin dies

1928

Stalin is firmly entrenched as the leader of the Soviet Union - begins the first of several 5 year plans

1929

Stock Market Crash in the US - The Great Depression begins

1933

Hitler comes to power in Germany

1938

Munich Conference ("Peace in our time" - Neville Chamberlain)

1939

World War II starts with Germany's invasion of Poland

1945

World War Il ends (V-E Day then V-J Day)

1945

First session of the United Nations is held

1945-1989

Cold War (U.S. vs. S.U.)

post wwii

Decolonization- European colonies become independent

1946

Winston Churchill gives the "Iron Curtain" speech

1948-1949

"Operation Vittles" - the Berlin Airlift

1949

USSR successfully tests first atomic bomb

1951

European Coal and Steel Community formed (ECSC)(sounds like the Zollverein)

1953

Stalin dies and is succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev - "destalinization" begins

1954

French forces defeated in French-Indochina at Dien Bien Phu

1956

Hungarian revolt against the Soviet Union - it is crushed by the Soviets

1957

Rome Treaty is signed - The European Economic Community (EEC) is created (AKA-Common Market)

1957

Sputnik is launched by the Soviet Union - the first space satellite

1958

The fifth Republic is born in France and Charles de Gaulle becomes President

1961

Berlin Wall built - dividing East and West Berlin

1961

Soviet Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man in space

1962

Cuban Missile Crisis - 90 miles off the coast of Florida

1963

Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique is published

1964

Leonid Brezhnev becomes leader of the Soviet Union

1966

Under President Charles de Gaulle, France withdraws from the common NATO military command

1968

"Prague Spring" occurs in Czechoslovakia - it is crushed by the Soviets

1968

Student revolt in France (Paris)

1978

Pole Karol Wojtyla elected Pope - Pope John Paul II - 1st non-Italian in 455 years

1979

Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of England ("The Iron Lady")

1979

The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan (eventually becomes their own "little Vietnam")

1980

1st independent labor union in the Soviet Bloc formed - Solidarity - led by Lech Walesa of Poland

1980

Ronald Reagan elected President of the US (calls the Soviet Union an "evil empire")

1985

Gorbachev becomes Soviet leader (implements policies of perestroika and glasnost)

1986

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident in the Soviet Union (specifically - the Ukraine)

1989

Berlin Wall comes down

1989

The "Velvet Revolution" occurs in Czechoslovakia - Vaclav Havel becomes President

1989

The Soviet Union withdraws its forces from Afghanistan

1989

Romanian leader Nicolai Ceausescu is overthrown and killed

1990

Lech Walesa becomes President of Poland

1990

East Germany and West Germany reunify into one Germany

1990

The first McDonalds opens in Russia

1991

Attempted coup attempt in the Soviet Union - The Soviet Union begins to disintegrate

1991

Boris Yeltsin becomes President of Russia - former 15 republics of the Soviet Union form the Commonwealth of Independent States (C.I.S.)

1991

Yugoslavia begins to break apart

1992

Maastricht Treaty creates European Union

1997

Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister of England - 1st Labor Party leader in 18 years

1999

Eurodollar becomes the single currency of the European Union (EU)