| Date | Event(s) |
| 1450 | Invention of printing press (Gutenberg) => Renaissance |
| 1492 | Age of Discovery, Columbus lands in Americas, Inquisition |
| 1517 | Luther's 95 Theses => Protestant Reformation, Schmalkadic Wars |
| 1555 | Peace of Augsburg - German princes choose either Catholic or Lutheran |
| 1588 | Spanish Armada - Spain attacked England, England won under Phillip II |
| 1600s | Age of Absolutism |
| 1618-48 | 30 Years' War - Catholics vs. Protestants, France won, included all but Britain |
| 1648 | Treaty of Westphalia - Ended 30 and 80 Years' Wars, Catholics Lutherans and now Calvinists all equal |
| 1633 | Scientific Revolution - Galileo and heliocentric, Kepler and eliptical orbts, Bacon and scientific method |
| 1688-89 | Glorious Revolution - Deposed of James II, English Bill of Rights limited the monarchy |
| 1700 | War of Spanish Succession begins with death of Charles II and appointment of grandson Philip V |
| 1701-13 | War of Spanish Succession over Spanish throne resulting in a shift in balance of power, Reign of Frederick I of Prussia |
| 1740-48 | War of Austrian Succession - Prussia (Frederick II) gained Silesia |
| 1754/6-1763 | French and Indian Wars, Seven Years' War |
| 1750-1850 | Industrial Revolution |
| 1789 | Fall of the Bastile => French Revolution |
| 1815 | Battle of Waterloo => Fall of Napolean Bonaparte |
| 1848 | European Revolutions - all except Britain, Poland, Netherlands, and Serbia |
| 1871 | Unification of Italy and Germany |
| 1900s | 2nd Industrial Revolution - Chemicals, automobile, plane |
| 1914 | Assassination of Ferdinand => Start of WWI |
| 1917 | Russian Revolution => End of Tsar Nicholas II |
| 1918 | German surrender, Versailles |
| 1929 | Crash of stock market => Great Depression |
| 1939 | Hitler attacks Poland => Start of WWII, Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact |
| 1945 | End of WWII, Cold War Begins, Yalta |
| 1968 | Student upheaval, Vietnam War climax, Prague Spring (Dubcek), President Nixon |
| 1989-91 | Fall of Berlin Wall and Communism |
