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From left, clockwise: In 1492, Christopher Columbus opens the route to the New World for Spain, the beginning of the Modern Age; The American Revolution of 1776, founds one of the most powerful countries in the world, the United States; The French Revolution shows the world the large scale destruction of social classes; The Atomic Bomb from World War II, the deadliest war in history, changes the world with the notion of human extinction by nuclear holocaust; An alternate source of light, the Light Bulb, is invented and used massively toward the end of the millennium; For the first time, a human being sets foot on the the moon in 1969 during the Apollo 11 moon mission; Aeroplanes become the most-used way of transport though the skies; Napoleon Bonaparte, in the early 1800s, effects France and Europe on subjects of expansionism and modernization; Alexander Graham Bell's telephone changes the way the world communicates, local and distant; In 1348, the Black Death kills over 100 million people worldwide, and over half of Europe, in two years. (Background: An excerpt from the Gutenberg Bible, the first printed-by-press book, in the 1450s)

The world population doubled over the first seven centuries of the millennium, (from 310 million in AD 1000 to 600 million in AD 1700), and later increased tenfold over its last three centuries, exceeding to 6 billion in AD 2000.

Calendar

The 2nd millennium was a period of time that commenced on January 1, 1001, and ended on December 31, 2000. This is the second period of one thousand years Anno Domini.

The Julian calendar was used in Europe at the beginning of the millennium, and all countries that once used the Julian calendar had adopted the Gregorian calendar by the end of it. So the end date is always calculated according to the Gregorian calendar, but the beginning date is usually according to the Julian calendar (or occasionally the Proleptic Gregorian calendar).

This millennium is perhaps more popularly (albeit incorrectly) thought of as beginning and ending a year earlier, thus starting at the beginning of 1000 and finishing at the end of 1999. Many public celebrations for the end of the millennium were held on December 31, 1999–January 1, 2000¹—with few on the actual date a year later. The inaccuracy stems from the assumption that there is a year zero, however this is not the case for this calendar.

Millennia:	1st millennium · 2nd millennium · 3rd millennium
Centuries:	11th century · 12th century · 13th century · 14th century · 15th century · 16th century · 17th century · 18th century · 19th century · 20th century

	Africa	America	Asia	Europe	Oceania
11th Century	1054 Almoravid dynasty established² 1060 Kingdom of Kanem converts to Islam² 1075 Almoravids conquered Ghana ²	1000 Cahokia (present-day Illinois, USA) becomes regional chiefdom of Mississippian culture	1008 The Tale of Genji completed³ 1005 Treaty of Shanyuan signed 1044 Gunpowder recipe published³	1054 The East-West Schism divides the Christian church 1088 The first university was founded³ 1095 First Crusade³
12th Century	1143 Almohad dynasty take control from the Almoravids² 1171 Salah-ad-Din deposes Fatimid ruler of Egypt and establishes the Ayyubid dynasty² 1173 Ayyubids capture Qasr Ibrim in Nubia²	1100 Toltecs establish capital at Tula⁴ 1124 Arnaldur appointed first bishop of Greenland⁴ 1175 Destruction of Toltec civilization⁴	1117 The magnetic compass is used at sea³ 1120 Meng Yuanlao describes four-star dining in Kaifeng³ 1150 Construction of Angkor Wat³	1169 Averoes translates Aristotle³
	Africa	America	Asia	Europe	Oceania
13th Century	1200 Kingdom of Mwenemutapa established in Zimbabwe² 1203 Sumaguru Kante of Sosso conquers kingdom of Ghana ² 1250 Mamluk soldiers take Egypt from the Ayyubids ²	1200 Chichén Itzá abandoned⁴ 1200 Kingdom of Cuzco founded ⁴ 1200 Expansion of Chimú state of Chimor ⁴	1211 Genghis Khan Builds an Empire³	1215 Magna Carta³ 1260 Dedication of the Cathedral at Chartres³	1200 Tahitians colonize Hawaii ⁴
14th Century	1324 Musa's pilgramage to Mecca³ 1365 Crusade led by king of Cyprus sacks Alexandria² 1375 Kingdom of Songhai breaks away from Mali ²	1315 Founding of Tenochtitlan³ 1350 Norsemen abandon Greenland⁴ 1350 War between Inca and Chimú⁴	1350 Coffee was first brewed³ 1368 Zhu Yuanzhang ousts the Mongols from power⁵	1348 Black Plague³ 1350 Emergence of fashion³ 1382 Wyclif's Bible	1300 Polynesian immigration to New Zealand⁶ 1300 Hawaiians develop class structure⁷ 1300 Huge stone statues erected on Easter Island⁷
	Africa	America	Asia	Europe	Oceania
15th Century	1483 Diogo Cão made contact with the kingdom of Kongo² 1496 Spain conquers Melilla, Morocco² 1497 Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama reaches Cape of Good Hope²	1470 Incas conquer Chimú empire ⁴ 1428 Aztecs conquer Atzcapotzalco, ally with Texcoco and Tlacopan, become the dominant state in Mexico⁴ 1492 Voyages of Christopher Columbus³	1407 Work begins on Forbidden City, Beijing⁵ 1431 Ayutthaya conquers Angkor ⁵ 1453 Ottoman conquest of Constantinople³	1413 The invention of linear perspective³ 1455 Gutenberg Bible printed³	1400 Tongans build ceremonial centre at Mu'a⁷
16th Century	1509 African slaves arrive in the Americas³ 1517 Ottomans capture Egypt⁸ 1535 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V conquers Tunis⁸	1535 Europeans discover tobacco³ 1537 Europeans discover potatoes³ 1545 The discovery of silver in the Andes mountains³		1517 The Ninety-Five Theses published³ 1543 Publication of On the Structure of the Human Body³ 1596 Invention of the toilet³	1550 Maoris of New Zealand build fortified enclosures⁹
	Africa	America	Asia	Europe	Oceania
17th Century	1626 France establishes colony of Madagascar⁸ 1644 Start of the Char Bouba⁸	1607 Virginia colony founded¹⁰ 1624 Manhattan island purchased from Native Americans¹⁰ 1697 Last Mayan resistance defeated ¹⁰	1610 Tea spreads to the world³ 1637 Japanese prohibition against European contact¹¹	1603 First performance of Hamlet³ 1610 Galileo publishes his observations of Jupiter³ 1666 Discovery of gravitation³	1600 Tu'i Konokupolu dynasty take power in Tonga⁹ 1642 Abel Tasman sights New Zealand^{citation needed}
18th Century	1787 Britain establishes colony at Freetown for liberated slaves⁸ 1799 Discovery of the Rosetta Stone³	1742 Native American revolt against Spanish in Peru³ 1776 United States Declaration of Independence published³	1751 Chinese occupy Tibet¹¹	1722 Bach composed the Well-Tempered Clavier³ 1769 Invention of the steam engine³ 1796 The first vaccination³
	Africa	America	Asia	Europe	Oceania
19th Century	1801 USA blockades Tripoli⁸ 1869 The Suez Canal opens³ 1884 Berlin Conference ¹²	1821 Bolivar liberates Venezuela³ 1876 Menlo Park opens³ 1876 First telephone transmission³	1868 End of Japanese seclusion³	1830 First steam railway³ 1859 Origin of Species³ 1882 Germ theory proven³	1840 Treaty of Waitangi signed¹³ 1845 New Zealand land wars¹⁴
20th Century	1956 Suez Crisis¹⁵ 1956 Six-Day War¹⁵ 1996 End of apartheid¹⁵	1903 First controlled, powered airplane flight ³ 1908 Ford builds the Model T³ 1928 First television broadcast³	1917 The Russian Revolution³ 1934 Mao's long march³ 1945 Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki³	1901 First transatlantic radio transmission³ 1928 Discovery of penicillin³ 1933 Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor³	1915 Australians and New Zealanders serve in the Gallipoli Campaign 1985 Nuclear Free Zone established in New Zealand¹⁶

	Africa	America	Asia	Europe	Oceania
11th Century			Shen Kuo Omar Khayyám	William the Conqueror¹⁷ Basil II
12th Century		Sapa Inca	Minamoto no Yoritomo Bhaskara II Genghis Khan¹⁷	Richard I of England
13th Century				Marco Polo	Roy Mata⁷
14th Century	Ibn Khaldun	Acamapichtli	Yongle Emperor Madhava Timur	Johannes Gutenberg¹⁷ Jan Hus
15th Century	Sonni Ali Zara Yaqob	Moctezuma I	Hongxi Emperor Guru Nanak Dev Suleiman	Nicolaus Copernicus¹⁷ Leonardo DaVinci
	Africa	America	Asia	Europe	Oceania
16th Century		Squanto	Xu Guangqi Shah Jahan	William Shakespeare¹⁷ Ferdinand Magellan Christopher Columbus	Atahualpa
17th Century		Powhatan, Pocahontas	Matsuo Basho	Sir Isaac Newton¹⁷ Peter the Great¹⁷
18th Century	Shaka	Benjamin Franklin Thomas Jefferson George Washington	Qianlong Emperor	Napoleon I of France¹⁷ Catherine the Great Adam Smith	Kamehameha I
19th Century		Thomas Edison¹⁷ Simon Bolivar¹⁷ Abraham Lincoln	Empress Dowager Cixi Mangal Pandey	Charles Darwin¹⁷ Nikola Tesla Karl Marx Ludwig van Beethoven	Te Kooti
20th Century	Nelson Mandela Paul Rusesabagina	Martin Luther King, Jr. Franklin D. Roosevelt George Gershwin	Mao Zedong¹⁷ Mahatma Gandhi Gamal Abdel Nasser	Albert Einstein¹⁷ Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Igor Stravinsky Joseph Stalin Adolf Hitler	Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

11th century	1000s	1010s	1020s	1030s	1040s	1050s	1060s	1070s	1080s	1090s
12th century	1100s	1110s	1120s	1130s	1140s	1150s	1160s	1170s	1180s	1190s
13th century	1200s	1210s	1220s	1230s	1240s	1250s	1260s	1270s	1280s	1290s
14th century	1300s	1310s	1320s	1330s	1340s	1350s	1360s	1370s	1380s	1390s
15th century	1400s	1410s	1420s	1430s	1440s	1450s	1460s	1470s	1480s	1490s
16th century	1500s	1510s	1520s	1530s	1540s	1550s	1560s	1570s	1580s	1590s
17th century	1600s	1610s	1620s	1630s	1640s	1650s	1660s	1670s	1680s	1690s
18th century	1700s	1710s	1720s	1730s	1740s	1750s	1760s	1770s	1780s	1790s
19th century	1800s	1810s	1820s	1830s	1840s	1850s	1860s	1870s	1880s	1890s
20th century	1900s	1910s	1920s	1930s	1940s	1950s	1960s	1970s	1980s	1990s

Contents

Calendar

Civilizations

Events

Significant people

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

Centuries and decades

References