The Millennium in Brief- historical perspective
(source: Economist and some websites)

This is a nice timeline of the main sociological events of the Millennium.  Doesn't give in-depth detail, but allows you to put all the events into a chronological perspective. Some interesting facts...worth a read:

• 930:  Iceland establishes the Althingi, the oldest still-functioning
  parliament in the world
• 1000:  Leifur Eiríksson discovers America (probably Newfoundland)
• 1024:  China issued the first ever paper money.  A Swedish bank was the next to follow in 1661.
• 1099:  The first Crusade captured Jerusalem from the Muslims
• 1100:  First university founded in Bologna
• 1206:  The great Mongol (Gengis Khan) armies spread across central Asia, into Eastern Europe, the Middle East and by 1279 ruled all of China.
• Dante born 1265, Petrarch (*) born 1304, Da Vinci born 1452, Machiavelli born 1469, Michelangelo born 1475, and with them the birth of the Renaissance.
• 1340: First financial crash caused by King Edward III's default on the Italian Banks
• 1347-49:  Black Death (aka "The Plague") killed millions in Asia and North Africa and 1 in 3 Europeans
• 1452-55: Gutenberg publishes his bible, the first western book printed by
  movable type
• 1492 Columbus discovers America (the Caribbean)
• 1499 Vasco de Gama discovers India
• 1517 Matrin Luther nails his ninety-five theses to the Wittenberg church
  door, starting the reformation
• 1519:  Spanish conquered the Aztec capital in Mexico.
• 1522: Spain establishes its Holy Office of the Inquisition
• 1524:  The Turk's created the muslim Mughal empire in India, spurring the growth of Islam in India, previously dominated by Hindu.
• 1551:  China prohibits its citizens from all trade or travel by sea
• 1553:  First Equity Shares were issued by the Muscovy Company.  (The first limited liability company was created in New York 1811)
• Mid 16th to 19th Century: Total of 12 million Africans were enslaved by Euro and Arab slavers.
• 1600:  East India Company was set-up and with it came the birth of world trade.
• 1633: Galileo Galilei condemned by the Roman Church for heresy (for
  stating that the Earth revolves around the sun)... and he is almost
  forgiven nearly 400 years later
• 1639- 1853:  Japan cut itself off from the rest of the world
• 1682:  Peter the Great ruled Russia (Stalin in 1924)
• 1687:  Newton published his "Principia", setting out the laws of motion. (Darwin his "Origin of Species" in 1859 and Einstein's Theory of Relativity" came in 1905.)
• 1769:  Richard Arkwrights spinning machine revolutionised the world's biggest industry- textiles.  With it came the birth of Industrialisation.
• 1765:  James Watt's steam engine gave power to the machines, ships and railways that powered the surge of  Industrialisation.  (Britain was world economic leader at this stage...but not for long.)
• 1776:  The United States declared itself independent
• 1789:  French Revolution- "the rights of man"
• 1804:  Napoleon Bonaparte, ruler of France, became emperor of his newly acquired empire.
• 1848:  Karl Marx's "Communist Manifesto" was born. (What a sad day)
• 1865:  End of the Civil War- this involved 11 states that wanted independence.
• 1871:  Alexander Bell invented the telephone (made in USA)
• 1879:  Thomas Edison invented electric lighting (made in USA)
• 1903:  Orville and Wilbur Wright took to the air (made in USA)
• 1908:  Henry Ford launched his Model T and with it the birth of mass production (made in USA)
• 1917:  Marxists seized power in Russia (Another sad day)
• 1946:  The first general purpose computer (made in USA)
• 1947:  The first transistor was developed (made in USA)
• 1949:  Mao Zedong turned China into a Communist State.
• 1914-1945:  World War's I and II.
• 1945- 1989:  The Cold War
• 1969:  American spacemen landed on the moon

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