A.D. 33

Jesus crucified

c. 34

St. Stephen, a follower of Jesus, is stoned to death for his faith, becoming the first Christian martyr

c. 60

The term “Christian” comes into common use

c. 60–155

St. Polycarp

64

Emperor Nero blames Christians for the Great Fire of Rome; persecutions follow. Sts. Peter and Paul are martyred in that city at that time

1st century

Mary, Mother of Jesus

1st century

St. Andrew

1st century

St. Barnabas

1st century

St. Joseph

1st century

St. Joseph of Arimethea

1st century

St. John the Baptist

1st century

St. John the Evangelist

1st century

St. Jude

1st century

St. Luke

1st century

St. Mark

1st century

St. Mary Magdalene

1st century

St. Matthew

1st century

St. Paul

1st century

St. Peter

c. 177–312

Persecution of Christians continues in Rome under three emperors; growth of the cult of martyrs

c. 200–258

St. Cyprian

Died 203

Sts. Perpetua and Felicitas

Died c. 269

St. Valentine

Died c. 288

St. Sebastian

Died c. 303

St. Dorothy

Died c. 303

St. Lucy

Died c. 304

St. Agnes

311

Emperor Constantine converts to Christianity and signs an edict of religious tolerance throughout the Roman Empire

324

Constantine moves to the city of Byzantium and renames it Constantinople, making it the seat of the New Roman Empire

328–387

St. Monica

c. 340–420

St. Jerome

340–397

St. Ambrose

347–404

St. Paula

Died c. 350

St. Nicholas of Myra

354–430

St. Augustine of Hippo

381

Christianity becomes the legal and official religion of Rome when Emperor Theodosius I publishes a decree establishing the orthodoxy of Christian faith

389–461

St. Patrick

c. 390–459

St. Simeon Stylites

395

The Roman Empire divides into Eastern and Western

400

Entire world population estimated at just over 250 million

450–525

St. Brigid

476

The last western Roman emperor falls; Eastern Roman Empire will survive until 1453; during the Middle Ages the rift between the Roman church, headed by the pope, and Eastern Christianity, based in Constantinople and headed by the patriarch of Constantinople, widens

487–577

St. Brendan of Clonfert

540–604

St. Gregory I (the Great)

560–636

St. Isidore of Seville

Died c. 604

St. Augustine of Canterbury

c. 610

Mohammed starts a new religion, Islam, in Arabia

c. 618

St. Kevin of Glendalough

800

Charlemagne is crowned Holy Roman Emperor

1000–1001

Norse explorer Leif Ericson, sailing from Greenland, reaches North America

1054

After centuries of drifting apart, the Eastern Orthodox churches finally break from the Roman church over the issue of papal authority

1066

William of Norman defeats the Saxons and becomes king of England

1085

William the Conqueror orders a census in England that creates what has become known as the Domesday Book

1095

Papacy, under Urban II, launches the Crusades to reclaim holy sites from the Muslims

1098–1179

Hildegard of Bingen

1118–1170

St. Thomas à Becket

1150

University of Paris is founded

1167

Oxford University is founded

1181–1226

St. Francis of Assisi

c. 1185

Kyoto, Japan, is the world's largest city, with a population of 500,000

1194–1253

St. Clare of Assisi

1195–1231

St. Anthony of Padua

1206

Beginning of Genghis Khan's largest land empire in history, reaching from Mongolia west to eastern Europe

c. 1206–1280

St. Albert the Great (Albertus Magnus)

1207–1231

St. Elizabeth of Hungary

1209

Cambridge University is founded

1211

Construction of Rheims Cathedral, on the site of crowning of French kings, begins

1225–1274

St. Thomas Aquinas

1295

Marco Polo returns to Venice after twenty-five years in Asia and begins his memoirs

1309

Pope Clement V, a Frenchman, moves the papal seat from Rome to Avignon, France

1334–1351

Black Death (bubonic) plague kills one-third to one-half of Europe's population

1337–1453

Hundred Years' War (actually a few more) between English and French kings for the control of France

1347–1380

St. Catherine of Siena

1377

Papacy returns to Rome

1387

Geoffrey Chaucer writes The Canterbury Tales

1412–1431

St. Joan of Arc

1414–1476

The Medicis of Florence are bankers to the popes

c. 1438

The Incan Empire begins in Peru

c. 1440

Disintegration of the Mayan Empire

1446–1450

Johann Gutenberg invents moveable type for printing (it had been in use in the Far East, but Europeans didn't know that)

1453

After Turks conquer Constantinople, Byzantine Empire crumbles; new center of the Eastern Orthodox Church is Moscow

1469–1535

St. John Fisher

1475–1564

Michelangelo, architect of St. Peter's Basilica

1478–1535

St. Thomas More

1483

Spain's Inquisition under Tomás de Torquemada sees 2,000 “heretics” executed

1491–1556

St. Ignatius of Loyola

1492

Columbus sails from Spain to the New World

1499

Trade in African slaves begins in Lisbon, as Portugal explores the west coast of Africa

1500

World population is now about 400 million

1504–1572

St. Pius V

1506–1552

St. Francis Xavier

1510–1572

St. Francis Borgia

1515–1582

St. Teresa of Ávila

1517

Martin Luther nails his 95 Theses to a church door in Wittenberg, Germany, initiating the Protestant Reformation, which divides Western Christianity into the Roman Catholic Church and Protestantism

1519

Aztec Empire is at its height; the Spaniards arrive

1519–1522

Ferdinand Magellan circumnavigates the globe

1521–1597

St. Peter Canisius

1533–1554

King Henry VIII denies the pope's authority so he can marry Anne Boleyn; the next year he has Parliament declare him the head of the Church of England, marking the beginning of Anglican church

1541

Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto becomes the first European to see the Mississippi River

1542–1591

St. John of the Cross

1555

The French physician and astrologer Nostradamus begins his prophecies of what the future holds

1564–1616

William Shakespeare, English playwright

1567–1622

St. Francis de Sales

1580–1660

St. Vincent de Paul

1582

Pope Gregory XIII introduces the Gregorian calendar, which no longer considers April 1 as New Year's Day; those who do not note this are known as “April fools”

1591–1660

St. Louise de Marillac

1599–1658

Oliver Cromwell, English Revolutionary soldier

c. 1600

Adherents to the philosophy of John Calvin, French-born Swiss Protestant thinker, break away from the English Puritans to form the Reformists

1605

Cervantes's Don Quixote, the first modern novel, is published

1607–1646

St. Isaac Jogues

1607

First permanent English colony on mainland America established at Jamestown, Virginia, by John Smith

1608

First permanent French colony in North America established in Quebec

1611

The King James version of the Bible is published in England

1613

Galileo Galilei says the earth revolves around the sun rather than being the fixed center of the universe; in 1633, the Inquisition finds Galileo, a Catholic, guilty of disobeying the church by publishing his thesis and calls for him to publicly recant; he does not and is sentenced to life imprisonment

1620

Pilgrims land at Plymouth, Massachusetts, to pursue religion freely

1636

Harvard College is founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts

1644–1718

William Penn, English Quaker, founds Pennsylvania as a colony of religious freedom

1682

Edmund Halley first notes the comet that will later bear his name, predicts its future appearances

1696–1787

St. Alphonsus Liguori

1700

Population of largest American city, Boston, is around 7,000; Native American population in all of what is now United States is 1 million

1723

First commercial valentines appear

1729

John Wesley, an English clergyman, begins a reform movement within the Church of England that leads to Methodism

1758–1843

Noah Webster, author of An American Dictionary of the English Language

1760

Industrial Revolution begins in England

1769–1852

St. Rose Philippine Duchesne

1770

James Cook claims Australia for Great Britain

1773

Boston Tea Party

1774–1821

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

1775

Start of American Revolution

1776

Declaration of Independence is drafted

1781

Immanuel Kant writes Critique of Pure Reason, in which he establishes his theory of rational experience

1789

French Revolution begins

1801–1890

John Henry Newman

1804

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out to explore the new Louisiana Purchase and the land to the west, all the way to the Pacific

1811–1860

St. John Nepomucene Neumann

1815

Battle of Waterloo sees Napoleon defeated

1825

First regular train service begins in Great Britain

1837

Queen Victoria begins a lengthy reign in Great Britain that will last until

1901 1844–1879

St. Bernadette of Lourdes

1846

Famine hits Ireland as a result of potato crop failure and other factors; there are 1 million deaths

1848

Gold discovered in California; population of San Francisco soars from 1,000 to more than 25,000 in two years

1850–1917

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini

1858–1866

Laying of transatlantic cable

1861

U.S. Civil War begins

1864–1869

Leo Tolstoy writes War and Peace

1865

President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated

1867

Japan ends 675-year-old Shogun rule

1869–1948

Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi

1873–1897

St. Thérèse of Lisieux

1876

Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone

1879

Thomas Alva Edison invents the electric light

1890–1902

St. Maria Goretti

1893

New Zealand becomes the first country to give women the vote

1894–1941

St. Maximilian Kolbe

1896

First modern Olympic games are held in Athens, Greece

1899–1900

World population at around l.5 billion

1999

World population hits 6 billion with great fanfare; 2 billion people call themselves Christians, and Christianity is the world's largest religion