Western Cultural History Timeline

+500­300 B.C
580 B.C ­ Pythagoras born
470 B.C ­ Socrates born 427 B.C ­ Plato born 347 B.C ­ Plato dies 384 B.C ­ Aristotle born 399 B.C ­ Socrates dies 322 B.C ­ Aristotle dies

100BC. 198 B.C ­ Polybius born
151 B.C ­ Ptolemy inactive
146 B.C ­ Greece came under Roman rule
121 B.C ­ Ptolemy first active
117 ­ Polybius dies
120 B.C ­ Plutarch died
106 B.C ­ Cicero born
100 B.C ­ Caesar ruled Rome.

70­60 B.C

70 B.C ­ Roman poet Virgil born, Rabbi Hillel born 67 B.C ­ Persian form of Zoroastrianism reaches Rome
63 B.C ­ Octavian born

20­12 B.C 19 B.C ­ Virgil dies
12 B.C ­ Augustus became head of state

1­50 AD
1 A.D ­ Christ born
10 A.D ­ Rabbi Hillel dies
14 A.D ­ Octavian dies

70­350 A.D 70 A.D ­ Rabbi Gamaliel dies
160 A.D ­ Tertullian born
200 A.D ­ Cyprian born

240 A.D ­ Tertullian dies
258 A.D ­ Cyprian dies
284 A.D ­ Diocletian born
286 A.D ­ Roman military commander Maurice killed
305 A.D ­ Diocletian dies
313 A.D ­ Christianity becomes a legal religion
339 A.D ­ Ambrose of Milan born
347 A.D ­ Jerome born
354 A.D ­ Augustine born

360 ­ 430 A.D
374 A.D ­ Ambrose’s becomes Bishop of Milan
381 A.D ­ Christianity becomes the official state religion of the Empire
395 A.D ­ Roman Empire divided into Eastern and Western portions
397 A.D ­ Ambrose of Milan dies
419 A.D ­ Jerome dies
430 A.D ­ Augustine dies

450 ­ 550 A.D
480 A.D ­ Benedict born
500 ­ Beginning of the Middle Ages
527 A.D ­ Justinian’s rule began
537 A.D ­ Hagia Sophia consecrated in Constantinople
547 A.D ­ Benedict dies

 560 ­ 750 A.D
565 A.D ­ Justinian’s rule ends
590 A.D ­ Pope Gregory I becomes Pope
604 A.D ­ Pope Gregory dies
735 A.D ­ Alcuin born
742 A.D ­ Charlemagne born

760 ­ 810 A.D
768 A.D ­ Charlemagne becomes King of the Franks
804 A.D ­ Alcuin dies
805 A.D ­ Palatine Chapel consecrated at Aachen

1000 ­ 1200
1066 ­ Norman invasion of England
1079 ­ Winchester Cathedral built
1080 ­ Chapel of St. John in the White Tower of the Tower of London built
1093 ­ Building of Durham Cathedral begins
1100 ­
Troubadours in France, heavy plow becomes popular/
1110 ­ Pope at height of papal power
1115 ­ John of Salisbury born
1140 ­ Abbot Suger supervises the building of the abbey of Saint­Denis
1150 ­ Period of ars antiqua music, period of early Gothic design
1175 ­ Robert Grosseteste born

1180 ­ John of Salisbury dies
1182 ­ Saint Francis born
1194 ­ Cathedral of Chartres is started

1200s
1225 ­ Aquinas born
1232 ­ Arnolfo born
1226 ­ Saint Francis dies
1240 ­ Cimabue born
1250 ­ Start of the late Gothic designs
1253 ­ Robert Grosseteste dies
1263 ­ Pope Urban IV forbids the study of Aristotle
1265 ­ Author Dante born
1267 ­ Giotto born
1278 ­ Santa Maria Novella church began
1274 ­ Aquinas dies
1290 ­ Andrea Pisano born, Ambrogio Lorenzetti born

1300s
1300 ­ End of pope’s high papal power, Guillaume de Machaut born, Dante begins to write
The Divine Comedy

1302 ­ Arnolfo dies, Cimabue dies, Dante exiled because of his political activities
1304 ­ Giotto’s first great work published in Padua, Petrarch born
1313 ­ Author Boccaccio born
1320 ­ John Wycliffe born
1321 ­ Dante dies
1325 ­ Musician Francesco Landini born
1330 ­ Panels of the bronze South Door built
1331 ­ Chancellor Salutati born
1337 ­ Giotto dies while designing the bell tower Campanile in Florence
1338 ­
Allegory of Good and Bad Government painted by Ambrogio Lorenzetti.
1348 ­ Andrea Pisano dies, Ambrogio Lorenzetti dies
1365 ­ Fresco by Andrea da Firenze placed in the Spanish Chapel in St. Maria Novella
1369 ­ John Huss born
1370 ­ Chancellor Bruni born
1374 ­ Petrarch dies
1375 ­ Boccaccio dies
1377 ­ Guillaume de Machaut dies, Andrea da Firenze dies, Architect Brunelleschi born
1378 ­ Lorenzo Ghiberti born, Campin born
1383 ­ Masolino (Masaccio’s master) born
1384 ­ John Wycliffe dies
1386 ­ Donatello born
1390 ­ Jan van Eyck born

1397 ­ Francesco Landini dies

1400s
1400 ­ End of Middle Ages, Musician Guillaume Dufay born
1401 ­ Masaccio (the father of the Renaissance) born
1403 ­ Lorenzo Ghiberti begins the North Door
1406 ­ Chancellor Salutati dies
1409 ­ Lorenzo Valla born
1414 ­ Council of Constance begins
1415 ­ Van Eyck begins to paint landscapes
1416 ­ Piero della Francesca born, Fouquet born
1418 ­ End of the Council of Constance
1420 ­ Flemish painter Campin paints the first real portraits
1421 ­ Brunelleschi builds San Lorenzo in Florence, works on the Foundling Hospital
1424 ­ North Door finished
1425 ­ Ghiberti works on the “Golden Gate of Paradise”
1428 ­ Masaccio dies
1432 ­ Van Eyck paints
Adoration of the Lamb
1433 ­ Marsilio Ficino born
1434 ­ San Lorenzo completed, Brunelleschi build dome for the Cathedral in Florence,
Medicis family dominates Florence

1436 ­ Van Eyck paints
Madonna with Chancellor Rolin
1439 ­ Eastern Orthodox Church allows communication with Greek Scholars
1441 ­ Jan van Eyck dies
1444 ­ Chancellor Bruni dies, Campin dies, Sandro Botticelli born
1445 ­ The building of Santo Spirito begins in Florence
1446 ­ Architect Brunelleschi dies
1447 ­ Masolino dies
1449 ­ Lorenzo the Magnificent born
1450 ­ Josquin des Prez born,
The Red Virgin painted by Fouquet
1452 ­ “Golden Gate of Paradise” finished, Leonardo da Vinci born
1453 ­ Fall of Constantinople brings Greek Scholars to Florence
1455 ­ Lorenzo Ghiberti dies
1457 ­ Filippino Lippi born, Lorenzo Valla dies
1466 ­ Donatello dies, Ottaviano Petrucci (the first printer of music) born, Erasmus of
Rotterdam born
1469 ­ Niccolò Machiavelli born
1473 ­ Lucas Cranach born
1474 ­ Guillaume Dufay dies
1475 ­ Michelangelo born, Copernicus born
1480 ­ Fouquet dies
1482 ­ Santo Spirito completed
1483 ­ Raphael born, Piero della Francesca dies

1492 ­ Lorenzo the Magnificent dies
1494 ­ Medicis family overthrown, King Francis I of France born
1499 ­ Marsilio Ficino dies

1500s
1500 ­ Cellini born, Humanistic Thoughts are fully developed
1501 ­ Ottaviano Petrucci prints music with movable type
1504 ­ Filippino Lippi dies, Michelangelo sculpted
David
1509 ­ Calvin born
1510 ­ Raphael paints
The School of Athens
, Sandro Botticelli dies, composer Louis
Bourgeois born
1511 ­ Architect, author, and painter Vasari born
1514 ­
Saint Jerome in His Study engraved and printed by Albrecht Drüer, Vesalius born 1516 ­ Erasmus Rotterdam edits the New Testament in the original Greek
1517 ­ Martin Luther nails the Ninety­five Theses on the door of a Church in Wittenberg
1519 ­ Leonardo da Vinci dies, Michelangelo sculpts statues for the Academy in
Florence, Luther’s disputation with Dr. Eck, Theodore Beza born
1520 ­ Raphael dies
1521 ­ Josquin des Prez dies
1523 ­ Zwingli leads Zurich to its break with Rome
1524 ­ Joann Walther publishes the
Wittenberg Gesangbuch hymnbook 1527 ­ Niccolò Machiavelli dies

1534 ­ Henry VIII of England breaks with Rome
1536 ­ Calvin addresses his
Institutes of the Christian Religion to Francis I, Erasmus of
Rotterdam dies
1539 ­ Ottaviano Petrucci dies
1543 ­ Copernicus dies,
On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres by Copernicus published 1544 ­ First edition of Archimedes’ complete works published in Basel
1547 ­ King Francis I of France dies
1550 ­ Vasari writes
The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects
1553 ­ Lucas Cranach dies
1562 ­ The Geneva Psalter hymnbook written
1564 ­ Michelangelo dies, Shakespeare born, Hymnwriter Hans Leo Hassler born,
Vesalius dies, Galileo born
1570 ­ Louis Bourgeois dies
1571 ­ Cellini dies, Hymnwriter Michael Praetorius born, Johannes Kepler born
1574 ­ Vasari dies

1600s
1600 ­ Francis Bacon born, Baroque era, Samuel Rutherford born
1605 ­ Theodore Beza dies
1606 ­ Rembrandt born
1609 ­ Galileo begins to use the telescope
1620 ­ Francis Bacon writes
Novum Organum Scientiarum

1630 ­ Johannes Kepler dies
1632 ­ John Locke born
1633 ­ Rembrandt paints
Raising of the Cross for Prince Frederick Henry of Orange
1642 ­
Night Watch painted by Rembrandt, Galileo dies
1644 ­ Rutherford’s
Lex Rex: Law is King published
1645 ­ Westminster Confession
1658 ­
Kitchen Maid painted by Vermeer
1661 ­ Samuel Rutherford dies
1667 ­
Paradise Lost written by Milton
1669 ­ Rembrandt dies
1678 ­
Pilgrim's Progress written by John Bunyan
1685 ­ Johann Sebastian Bach born, Handel born
1688 ­ England’s “Bloodless Revolution”
1690 ­ Locke’s
Essay Concerning Human Understanding written
1694 ­ French philosopher Voltaire born

1700s
1704 ­ John Locke dies
1719 ­
Robinson Crusoe written by Daniel Defoe
1723 ­ John Witherspoon born
1726 ­
Gulliver's Travels written by Jonathan Swift, Voltaire exiled to England
1733 ­ Voltaire writes
Letters Concerning the English Nation
1741 ­ Handel’s
Messiah composed 1743 ­ Thomas Jefferson born
1750 ­ Johann Sebastian Bach dies
1755 ­ Lisbon Earthquake
1759 ­ Handel dies
1765 ­ Beginning of American Revolution
1769 ­ Napoleon Bonaparte born
1770 ­
Peale Family by Charles Willson Peale
1774 ­
Declaration of Independence signed in the United States
1778 ­ Voltaire dies
1783 ­ End of American Revolution
1789 ­ Beginning of French Revolution,
Declaration of the Rights of Man issued
1794 ­ John Witherspoon dies
1791 ­ National Constituent Assembly drafted a constitution
1792 ­ France changes their calendar, marks 1792 as “year one”, beginning of a massacre 1794 ­ Revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre executed
1799 ­ End of French Revolution, Napoleon governs France

1800s
1806 ­ Swiss painter Charles Gleyre born
1812 ­ Charles Dickens born
1813 ­
Pride and Prejudice written by Jane Austen, Philosopher Kierkegaard born
1818 ­
Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley, Karl Marx born

1821 ­ Napoleon Bonaparte dies
1826 ­ Thomas Jefferson dies
1836 ­
Oxbow painted by Thomas Cole
1842 ­
American Notes written by Charles Dickens
1847 ­
Jane Eyre written by Charlotte Brontë
1848 ­ Karl Marx publishes
Manifesto of the Communist Party
1850 ­
The Sower painted by Jean­François Millet
1851 ­ Paul Roberts born
1857 ­ Dred­Scott Decision
1859 ­
Tale of Two Cities written by Charles Dickens
1861 ­ Civil War, Alfred North Whitehead born
1863 ­ Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln
1865 ­
Alice in Wonderland written by Lewis Carroll
1870 ­ Charles Dickens dies, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin born
1871 ­ Paris Commune defeated
1872 ­
Snap the Whip painted by Winslow Homer,
Impression Sunrise painted by Monet
1873 ­ Sergei Rachmaninoff born
1874 ­ Charles Gleyre dies
1875 ­ Giovanni Gentile born
1879 ­ Albert Einstein born, Joseph Stalin born, Leon Trotsky born
1881 ­ Aleksandr Kerensky born

1882 ­ Igor Stravinsky born
1883 ­ Benito Mussolini born
1889 ­ Adolf Hitler born
1891 ­ Sergei Prokofiev born

1900s
1904 ­ J. Robert Oppenheimer born
1905 ­ The mural
Justice Lifts the Nations is created by Paul Roberts
1906 ­ Dmitri Shostakovich born
1917 ­ “February Revolution”, Stalin, Trotsky, and Lenin build a regime of repression
1918 ­ First Bolshevik meeting, Lenin writes
The Lessons of the Paris Commune
1920 ­ Fellini born
1923 ­ Paul Roberts dies
1924 ­ Lenin dies
1925 ­ Prince Georgi Lvov dies
1940 ­ Leon Trotsky dies
1943 ­ Sergei Rachmaninoff dies
1944 ­ Giovanni Gentile dies
1945 ­
Animal Farm by George Orwell, Mussolini and Hitler die
1947 ­ Alfred North Whitehead dies, Oppenheimer becomes director of the Institute for
Advanced Study at Princeton
1953 ­ Sergei Prokofiev dies, Stalin dies, Russian tanks in East Germany
1956 ­ Russian tanks in Hungary

1961 ­ Berlin Wall built
1962 ­ Bernd Moeller writes
Imperial Cities and the Reformation
1967 ­ J. Robert Oppenheimer dies
1968 ­ Russian tanks in Czechoslovakia
1970 ­ Aleksandr Kerensky dies
1971 ­ Igor Stravinsky dies
1973 ­ Michael Gough writes
The Origins of Christian Art
1975 ­ Solzhenitsyn writes
Communism: A Legacy of Terror