Fall of Rome

0476

Ordoacer enters and conquers the City of Rome. Generally considered to be the end of the Western Roman Empire.

THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS, multiple authors

0750

Arabian tales of wonder and imagination, composed beginning sometime in the 8th century.

First of the Viking Raids

8th June 0793

The beginning of a long era of domination.

DIAMOND SUTRA, Author Unknown

11th May 0868

Containing teachings of the Buddha, the Chinese edition of Diamond Sutra is, according to the British Library, "the earliest complete survival of a...

Sung Dynasty of China Founded

0960

The Sung Dynasty ushers in an era of progressive arts, philosophy, and literature.

"Beowulf," author unknown

c. 1000

The epic poem that is the oldest known in the English language. Heroic deeds and monsters galore!

THE TALE OF GENJI, Murasaki Shikibu

1021

The original classic of ancient Japan.

"The Song of Roland," author unknown

c. 1040

Written probably between 1040 and 1115, "The Song of Roland" remains the oldest surviving major work of French literature.

Battle of Hastings

14th October 1066

William the Conqueror leads the Normans to victory over the English, and the introduction of French vocabulary shifts Old English to Middle English.

RELIGIOUS INQUISITIONS

1184

The first of the Medieval Inquisitions into heresy begins with the Episcopal Inquisition, which would last until the 1230s.

THE SONG OF THE NIBELUNGS, author unknown

c. 1200

An epic poem in Middle High German, relating the deeds of the dragon-slayer Siegfried.

The Magna Carta

15th June 1215

Churchmen and barons convene to curb the abuses of power of King John, and create the document that will become one of the foundations of democratic...

Founding of the Aztec capital

1325

The Aztecs found their capital, Tenochtitlan, on the site of what would later become Mexico City.

PIERS PLOWMAN, William Langland (?)

c. 1370 - 1390

Allegorical prose poem attributed to William Langland.

SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT, The "Pearl Poet"

Late 14th-century

An alliterative verse poem of chivalry, SIR GAWAIN dates to the late 14th-century.

THE CANTERBURY TALES, Geoffrey Chaucer

1389

The high point of Middle English literature.

MALATESTIANA LIBRARY, Cesena, Italy

1477

The Malatestiana Library, the first true public lending library in Europe, and possibly in the entire world, is founded, and open to any member of the...

LE MORTE D'ARTHUR, Sir Thomas Malory

1485

The ancient tales of King Arthur collected and retold by Malory.

Columbus Reaches the New World

12th October 1492

Although 14,000 years too late to have "discovered" the New World, Columbus opened it to European conquest, reshaping the world.

UTOPIA, Thomas More

1516

More imagines an island nation in which he can experiment with society and politics, much like Plato did with Atlantis. More than the first book of...

Magellan completes circumavigation of the planet

6th September 1522

Amazingly, he managed to not fall off the flat earth.

GARGANTUA AND PANTAGRUEL, Francois Rabelais

1532

French philosopher and writer Rabelais pens the most famous of his works, a satire about the giant Gargantua and his son.

Spain defeats the Incan Empire

1533

Francisco Pizarro's conquistadors overwhelm the unprepared Incas in Peru.

CORONATION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH 1

1558

Elizabeth 1, last of England's House of Tudor, begins an influential reign lasting to her death March 24, 1603.

THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS, Christopher Marlowe

1588

FAUSTUS sets a new standard for English language drama.

DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA

1588

An English fleet under Lord Howard of Effingham, Sir Francis Drake, and Sir John Hawkins crushes the planned invasion by Spain.

THE FAERIE QUEENE, Edmund Spenser

1590

Knights Errant confront dragons and wizards and fairies and witches in an epic poem of allegory on the great virtues.

RICHARD III, William Shakespeare

1593

KIng Richard III schemes and murders his way to power.

ROMEO AND JULIET, William Shakespeare

1595?

The timeless tragedy of star-crossed lovers...

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, William Shakespeare

1596

Fairy magic!

HENRY V, William Shakespeare

c. 1599

Against all odds in the battlefields of France...

HAMLET, William Shakespeare

1602

A complex tale of murder, revenge, and paralyzing self-doubt.

DON QUIXOTE, Miguel de Cervantes

1605

An aging gentleman of Spain decides that the time has come for a return to the heroics and chivalry of old.

MACBETH, William Shakespeare

1606

Ambition and murder amid the trappings of horror and the supernatural.

THE TEMPEST, William Shakespeare

1611

Shipwreck, magic, mad man, and monster...

FIRST FOLIO, William Shakespeare

1623

The first collected publication of Shakespeare's plays, seven years after his death.

Death of John Donne

31st March 1631

Although forgotten for a couple of centuries, metaphysical poet John Donne became a dominant figure among English writers for a good thirty years...

IN SOMNIUM ASTRONOMICUM (AN ASTRONOMER'S DREAM), Johannes Kepler

1634

In perhaps the world's first science fiction story, Kepler describes the geography of the moon, incorporating the latest science of his time.

Louis XIV becomes King of France

1643

At the age of five, Louis XIV, "the Sun King," assumes the crown, and becomes absolute ruler at age 24. He creates the opulence of Versailles, and...

COMICAL HISTORY OF THE STATES AND EMPIRES OF THE MOON, Cyrano de Bergerac

1657

Cyrano tells the story of his fantastical trip to the moon.

THE ENGLISH ROGUE, Richard Head

1665

Stop snickering at the author's name and appreciate his contributions to literature. THE ENGLISH ROGUE became a hit in England and was among the first...

PARADISE LOST, John Milton

August 1667

Milton's retelling of Adam and Eve and civil war, in the tradition of the heroic epic poem.

Peter the Great

1689

Peter I seizes power in Russia.

"A Night-Piece on Death," Thomas Parnell

1714

The first of what would become known as the work of the "Graveyard Poets."

ROBINSON CRUSOE, Daniel Defoe

25th April 1719

The classic tale of shipwreck and survival. Considered by most to be the first true English novel.

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, Jonathan Swift

28th October 1726

Swift's satirical masterpiece of fantasy.

1st AMERICAN LENDING LIBRARY

1731

Benjamin Franklin and friends came together to found the Library Company of Philadelphia, the first of its kind in America. Members paid a...

"Der Vampir," Heinrich August Ossenfelder

1748

The legends of vampirism, which haunted Europe for centuries, begin to enter the literary world in the form of poetry. A frenzy of exhumations of...

DEE GOONG AN (CELEBRATED CASES OF JUDGE DEE), author unknown, Chinese

18th-century, year unknown

Three murder mysteries based on the real-life 7th-century magistrate, Di Renjie. Translated into English by Robert van Gulik in 1949.

"Micromegas," Voltaire

1752

Aliens come to Earth! A satire by the greatest of satirists, and an overlooked, seminal precursor of modern science fiction.

CANDIDE, Voltaire

1759

Candide, Pangloss, and Cunigonde set out on a grand adventure, and slip from one calamity to another.

THE CASTLE OF OTRANTO, Horace Walpole

1764

The first Gothic novel.

"Common Sense," Thomas Paine

10th January 1776

The incendiary pamphlet which made the American and French Revolutions possible, and having a profound impact on both Enlightenment philosophy and a...

THE OLD ENGLISH BARON, Clara Reeve

1778

RIGHTS OF MAN, Thomas Paine

March 1791

Paine launches a fiery defense of the French Revolution.

TRAVELS, William Bartram

1791

An account of the great naturalist's journey through America's southeast.

A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN, Mary Wollstonecraft

1792

The great feminist book of the 18th century, arguing pursuasively for the education of women.

THE MYSTERIES OF UDOLPHO, Ann Radcliffe

8th May 1794

CALEB WILLIAMS, William Godwin

1794

The revealing of the dark secrets of his master leads to a young man's devastating persecution.

"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," Samuel Taylor Coleridge

1798

"Water, water everywhere..."

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, Jane Austen

28th Jan 1813

Austen's masterpiece of manors and manners.

MOUNT TAMBORA EXPLOSION

10th April 1815

A catastrophe in Indonesia, Tambora is believed to be the most powerful volcanic explosion of the last 1,500 years. Atmospheric dust encircled the...

Battle of Waterloo

18th June 1815

Napoleon and The Republic of France are dealt a crushing defeat.

"Darkness," Lord Byron

July 1816

A poem transforms the gloom of "the year without a summer" into a vision of apocalypse.

"Ozymandius," Percy Bysshe Shelley

11th January 1818

A traveler in an "antique land..."

FRANKENSTEIN, Mary Shelley

11th March 1818

Victor Frankenstein embarks on the path of Human 2.0. The first true science fiction novel.

"The Vampyre," John Polidori

1819

A toothy subgenre is born.

MADEMOISELLE DE SCUDERI, E.T.A. Hoffman

1819

Wickedness and foul play are afoot in Louis XIV's Paris.

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," Washington Irving

1820

Ichabod Crane encounters the Headless Horseman.

THE SPY: a Tale of the Neutral Ground, James Fenimore Cooper

1821

A Romance of the American Revolution and a precursor to the modern thriller.

THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, James Fenimore Cooper

February 1826

The frontier blazes in a war for control between England and France, and Huron and Mohican.

THE LAST MAN, Mary Shelley

1826

A pioneering forerunner of the post-apocalyptic tale.

"The Hollow of the Three Hills," Nathaniel Hawthorne

1830

A beautiful woman desperately seeks a vision of the family she abandoned, and places herself at the mercy of an evil being to gain it.

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE-DAME, Victor Hugo

1831

The tragic tale of Quasimodo, the misshapen and mistreated bell ringer, and Esmeralda, the beautiful gypsy girl.

"MS. Found in a Bottle," Edgar Allan Poe

19th October 1833

Poe's first published work of prose fiction.

THE PICKWICK PAPERS, Charles Dickens

March 1836

The members of the Pickwick Club gather to recount their journeys across England.

PENNY DREADFULS

1836

Cheap, readable literature for the masses appears in the 1830s.

THE NARRATIVE OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM OF NANTUCKET, Edgar Allan Poe

April 1838

Poe's only novel, an adventure to the extreme ends of the Earth.

TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST, Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

1840

Dana's memoir of hard times aboard a merchant ship.

"The Murders in the Rue Morgue," Poe

April 1841

Considered to be the first true mystery and detective story in the Western canon.

"The Masque of the Red Death," Poe

May 1842

At the height of a scorching, death-dealing plague, the elite have escaped to the security of country estates. Or so they think.

"The Tell-Tale Heart," Poe

January 1843

A psychological horror story of unanswerable questions. Is the narrator delusional? Or are the events real?

THE THREE MUSKETEERS, Alexandre Dumas

March 1844

The quintessential swashbuckler.

"The Raven," Poe

January 1845

Poe's best-known poem, a haunting vision of a grieving widower and the creature that mocks and torments him.

JANE EYRE, Charlotte Brontë

16th October 1847

Young Jane Eyre fearlessly abides by her principles, and at last finds love and happiness, only to see them torn from her.

THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES, Nathaniel Hawthorne

April 1851

Hawthorne explores the unsavory history of Salem and its echoes that haunt future generations.

MOBY-DICK, Herman Melville

18th October 1851

An obsessed sea captain pursues his nemesis, the white whale, across oceans to exact his revenge. The classic novel of American Romanticism.

WALDEN: OR, LIFE IN THE WOODS, Henry David Thoreau

9th August 1854

The great Transcendentalist work of living simply and with purpose.

PHANTASTES: A FAIRIE ROMANCE FOR MEN AND WOMEN, George MacDonald

1858

Young Anodos finds himself swept from his world and into the land of the fairies.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES, Charles Dickens

April 1859

The rich and poor of London and Paris set in motion intrigue in a time of revolution.

THE WOMAN IN WHITE, Wilkie Collins

26th November 1859

BEADLE'S DIME NOVELS

9th June 1860

The first dime novel, MALAESKA, THE INDIAN WIFE OF THE WHITE HUNTER, by Ann S. Stephens, is published, and the American answer to England's penny...

THE TRAIL OF THE SERPENT, Mary Elizabeth Braddon

1860

Young Richard Marwood returns to the family home, only to find himself charged with the murder of his wealthy uncle, and incarcerated in an insane...

LES MISÉRABLES, Victor Hugo

1862

Jean Valjean overcomes a hard, unjust life to pursue goodness, only to see the grim realities of the 19th century threaten to bring it all down. The...

LADY AUDLEY'S SECRET, Mary Elizabeth Braddon

1862

The beautiful young wife of a British nobleman leads a charmed life...but mysterious, foul doings seem to follow her.

FIVE WEEKS IN A BALLOON, Jules Verne

1863

Three adventurers set out to explore the African wilderness by means of--wait for it--a balloon.

FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON, Jules Verne

1865

Verne envisions space travel, a staple for science fiction to come.

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND, Lewis Carroll

26th November 1865

The breakthrough work of modern fantasy.

THE DEAD LETTER, Seeley Regester

1866

Not only the first American crime novel, but also the first by a woman. "Seeley Regester" was one of several pen names of the prolific Metta Victoria...

THE MOONSTONE, Wilkie Collins

1868

The theft of a priceless, sacred gem throws a wealthy English family into turmoil. Perhaps the first true detective novel.

TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, Jules Verne

March 1869

Captain Nemo plies the seas of Earth, wreaking havoc upon warships of all nations.

THE INNOCENTS ABROAD, Mark Twain

1869

Twain's account of the first true modern tourism cruise and its ports of call in Europe and the Mideast.

CARMILLA, by Sheridan Le Fanu

1871

Predating DRACULA by a couple of decades, CARMILLA introduces many of the images and themes of the vampire story.

EREWHON, Samuel Butler

1872

A satire on the ideals of Utopian society.

THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, Jules Verne

1874

A daring escape in a balloon from the American Civil War to the Pacific, to an island where strange things are afoot.

TREASURE ISLAND, by Robert Louis Stevenson

1st October 1881

Young Jim Hawkins is swept from seaside England to the far reaches, in search of a treasure hoard. The classic of pirate adventure.

ALERIEL, or A VOYAGE TO OTHER WORLDS, Wladislaw Somerville Lach-Szyrma

1883

An adventurer visits the inhabited worlds of the solar system in an early science fiction novel.

THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN, Mark Twain

10th December 1884

Huck runs away from the stilted, confining "city" life with his aunt, rafts the great Mississippi with another runaway, the escaped slave Jim.

KING SOLOMON'S MINES, H. Rider Haggard

1885

Allan Quatermain leads intrepid English adventurers into unexplored reaches of Africa in search of--you guessed it--King Solomon's mines. Considered...

THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, Robert Louis Stevenson

5th January 1886

The tale of an educated, refined man with a somewhat darker side.

A STUDY IN SCARLET, Arthur Conan Doyle

1887

Sherlock Holmes makes his debut.

"The Chronic Argonauts," H.G. Wells

1888

The first story of an invention of time travel.

A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT, Mark Twain

December 1889

A 19th century engineer time travels to Arthurian England.

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," Ambrose Bierce

July 1890

The macabre short story of Civil War justice.

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, Oscar Wilde

July 1890

Wilde's literary foray into the macabre.

THE PRISONER OF ZENDA, Anthony Hope

1894

An Englishman traveling the Continent becomes embroiled in dangerous intrigues for possession of the throne of Ruritania.

THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, Stephen Crane

December 1894

Crane's unflinching look at a single battle of the Civil War.

THE TIME MACHINE, H.G. Wells

January 1895

Wells's first novel, and a groundbreaking new direction for science fiction.

THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU, H.G. Wells

1896

Wells introduces bio-engineering and asks the question: "Are we not men?"

THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, H.G. Wells

April 1897

Mysterious flashes in the night sky herald the arrival of an advanced species from Mars, and humankind quickly faces extermination or enslavement.

DRACULA, Bram Stoker

26th May 1897

The vampire novel that set the standard.

THE INVISIBLE MAN, H.G. Wells

1897