2nd millennium

(1st millennium – 2nd millennium – 3rd millennium – other millennia)

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Events

• The Black Death
• Mongol Empires in Asia
• The Renaissance in Europe
• The Protestant Reformation
• The agricultural and industrial revolutions
• The rise of nationalism and the nation state
• European discovery of the Americas and Australia and their colonization
• European colonization and decolonization in Africa and Asia
• Population explosion
• World-spanning wars (Seven Years' War, French Revolutionary Wars, Napoleonic Wars, World War I, World War II)
• Capitalism and Communism

Significant persons

• Genghis Khan, (c. 1155/1162/1167 – 1227), Mongolian conqueror
• Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274), Italian theologian
• Dante Alighieri (1265 – 1321), Italian poet
• Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1398 – 1468), Inventor of movable type
• Christopher Columbus (1451 – 1506), Spanish explorer
• Nicholas Copernicus (1473 – 1543), Polish astronomer and mathematician
• Martin Luther (1483 – 1546), German religious reformer
• Miguel de Cervantes (1547 – 1616), Spanish playwright and novelist
• Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642), Italian scientist
• William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616), British playwright and poet
• René Descartes (1596 – 1650), French philosopher and mathematician
• Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727), British scientist
• Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790), American founding father and scientist
• George Washington (1732 – 1799), first American president
• Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826), American founding father and president
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791), Austrian Composer
• Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 – 1821), French conqueror and emperor
• Sir Michael Faraday (1791 – 1867), British scientist and inventor
• Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865), American president
• Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882), British natural scientist
• Otto von Bismarck (1815 – 1898), German chancellor
• Karl Marx (1818 – 1883), German political philosopher
• Queen Victoria (1819 – 1901), Queen of the United Kingdom
• Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900), German philosopher
• Thomas Edison (1847 – 1931), Inventor
• Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939), Austrian psychoanalyst
• Nikola Tesla (1856 – 1943), Inventor
• Henry Ford (1863 – 1947), Industrialist
• Vladimir Lenin (1870 – 1924), Soviet leader
• Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965), British prime minister
• Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955), German physicist
• Joseph Stalin (1879 – 1953), Soviet leader
• Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 - 1945), American president
• Adolf Hitler (1889 – 1945), German dictator
• Mao Zedong (1893 – 1976), Chinese revolutionary
• Walt Disney (1901 – 1966), American film producer and animator
• John Paul II (1920 – 2005), Pope of the Roman Catholic Church
• Elvis Presley (1935 – 1977), American Rock and Roll singer
• Muhammad Ali (1942 – ), American heaveyweight boxer
• Bill Gates (1955 – ), American computer engineer

Inventions, Discoveries, Introductions

• The Printing press
• Gunpowder
• The Steam engine
• The discovery of the scientific method
• Theory of evolution
• The discovery of genetics and DNA
• Calculus
• Human Flight
• Nuclear Power
• The transistor and electronics
• Space travel and mankind's first flight to the moon
• The internal combustion engine
• Capitalism and socialism
• The computer and the Internet
• Universal suffrage

Centuries and Decades

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