# All of history

> Source: https://ollybritton.com/notes/random/history/ · Updated: 2026-04-15

Reading some of [The Harvard Classics](https://ollybritton.com/notes/collections/the-harvard-classics/) has made me realise how little I know about history, and when things happened in relation to other things. I'll try and keep this updated as I learn more.
 
- 570 BC
	- Birth of Pythagoras
- 469 BC
	- Birth of Socrates
- 427 BC
	- Birth of Plato
- 384 BC
	- Birth of Aristotle
- 300 BC
	- Theorised birth of Euclid
- 100 BC
	- Birth of Julius Caesar
- 6 BC
	- Theorised birth of Jesus
- 43 AD
	- Roman conquest of Britain
- 50AD
	- Birth of Epictetus, [The Golden Sayings, Epictetus](https://ollybritton.com/notes/books/the-golden-sayings/)
- 121 AD
	- Birth of Marcus Aurelius, [Meditations, Aurelius](https://ollybritton.com/notes/books/meditations/)
- 323 AD
	- Christianity becomes the official religion of religion of Roman Empire 
- 354 AD
	- Birth of St. Augustine, [The Confessions, Augustine](https://ollybritton.com/notes/books/the-confessions/)
- 500 AD
	- Start of the Middle Ages
- 700 AD
	- Earliest suggested date of Beowulf
- 1066 AD
	- Battle of Hastings, William the Conquerer becomes the first Norman king of England
- 1170 AD
	- Birth of Fibonacci
- 1348 AD
	- Black death in England
- 1436 AD
	- Invention of Gutenberg press
- 1500 AD
	- End of the middle ages
- 1533 AD
	- Beginning of Reformation
- 1553 AD
	- Bloody Mary starts burning people at the stake
- 1561 AD
	- Birth of Francis Bacon, [Essays, Bacon](https://ollybritton.com/notes/books/essays-civil-and-moral/)
- 1564 AD
	- Birth of William Shakespeare
- 1575 AD
	- Birth of Queen Elizabeth
- 1588 AD
	- Spanish Armada, Spain tries to invade England to overthrow Queen Elizabeth
- 1600 AD
	- Start of the Enlightenment
- 1605 AD
	- Birth of Thomas Browne
- 1608 AD
	- Birth of John Milton
- 1611 AD
	- Introduction of King James Bible
- 1644 AD
	- Birth of William Penn, [Fruits of Solitude, Penn](https://ollybritton.com/notes/books/some-fruits-of-solitude/)
	- Publication of [Areopagitica, Milton](https://ollybritton.com/notes/books/areopagitica/)
- 1658 AD
	- Milton begins writing [Paradise Lost, Milton](https://ollybritton.com/notes/books/paradise-lost/)
- 1666 AD
	- Great Fire of London
- 1694 AD
	- Foundation of Bank of England
- 1706 AD 
	 - Birth of Benjamin Franklin, [The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin](https://ollybritton.com/notes/books/the-autobiography-of-benjamin-franklin/)
- 1720 AD
	- Birth of John Woolman, [The Journal of John Woolman](https://ollybritton.com/notes/books/the-journal-of-john-woolman/)
- 1757 AD
	- Birth of William Blake, [London](https://ollybritton.com/notes/poems/london/)
- 1760 AD
	- Start of Industrial Revolution
- 1770 AD
	- Start of Romanticism movement
- 1775 AD
	 - American revolution
 - 1789 AD
	 - French revolution
- 1797 AD
	- Birth of Mary Shelley
- 1800 AD
	- End of the Enlightenment
- 1802 AD
	- Birth of Alexandre Dumas (author of [The Count of Monte Cristo](https://ollybritton.com/notes/books/the-count-of-monte-cristo/))
- 1833 AD
	 - Abolition of slavery in the UK
- 1853 AD
	- First landing on Antarctica
- 1865 AD
	 - Abolition of slavery in United States
- 1877 AD
	- Birth of G. H. Hardy
- 1859 AD
	- Birth of Arthur Conan Doyle
- 1868 AD
	- William Gladstone becomes prime minister
- 1878 AD
	- First electric streetlight
- 1883 AD
	- Birth of Franz Kafka
- 1899 AD
	- Birth of Jorge Borges
- 1903 AD
	- Birth of John Steinbeck 
- 1913 AD
	- Birth of Paul Erdős, [The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, Hoffman](https://ollybritton.com/notes/books/the-man-who-loved-only-numbers/)
	- Birth of Albert Camus
- 1914 AD
	 - World War I starts
 - 1916 AD
	 - Birth of Roald Dahl
- 1918 AD
	 - World War I ends
- 1927 AD
	- Birth of Gabriel García Márquez
- 1939 AD
	 - World War II starts
- 1945 AD
	 - World War II ends
 - 1979 AD
	 - Margaret Thatcher becomes prime minister
 - 1997 AD
	 - Tony Blair becomes prime minister

---
Olly Britton — https://ollybritton.com. Machine-readable index: https://ollybritton.com/llms.txt