Saint Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great; it remained the Russian capital until 1918.

George Frideric Handel's first opera, Almira, premiered in Hamburg, Germany.

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts.

Kingdom of Great Britain was formed.

Water Music was composed by G.F. Handel.

J.S. Bach presented his Brandenburg Concertos to Christian Ludwig, a military commander at Brandenburg-Schwedt.

A. Vivaldi composed The Four Seasons.

Johann Sebastian Bach finished his St Matthew Passion.

Isaac Newton's Principia was translated from Latin into English.

George Washington was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia.

Joseph Haydn was born.

Capt. Vitus Bering discovered Alaska.

Johann Sebastian Bach died.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born.

Beginning of British Empire in India.

Domenico Scarlatti died.

George Frideric Handel died.

Mozart toured Europe as six-year-old prodigy.

C.W. Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice premiered in Vienna.

A French trading company establishes a trading post on the Mississippi River, to be known as St. Louis.

Jean-Philippe Rameau died.

The French explorer Louis Bougainville "discovers" Tahiti and claims it for King Louis XV of France, though it had already been sighted by Europeans.

Napoleon Bonaparte was born.

English explorer James Cook sights the East Coast of Australia. He lands at Botany Bay and claims the land for England.

Ludwig Van Beethoven was born.

Joseph Priestley and Daniel Rutherford independently discovered nitrogen.

The American Revolution began with battle of Lexington and Concord.

France Signs Treaty of Alliance with U.S., recognizing its independence.

Immanuel Kant published the first edition of the "Critique of Pure Reason".

Sir William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus.

The Constitution of the United States was created.

Mozart's Don Giovanni premiered in Prague.

French Revolution began with the storming of the Bastille.

George Washington elected president of the US with all 69 votes of the Electoral College.

Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

U.S. Bill of Rights ratified.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died.

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette executed. Reign of Terror began in France.

L.V. Beethoven published his first piano sonatas Opus 2, dedicated to J. Haydn.

Franz Schubert was born.

U.S. Navy Department established.

Rosetta Stone discovered in Egypt.

George Washington died in Mt Vernon, Virginia.

U.S. negotiates Louisiana Purchase from France for $15 million.

L.V. Beethoven finishes his "Eroica" Symphony Opus 55.

Napoleon is crowned Emperor of France.

Official end to the Holy Roman Empire.

Britain declares the Slave Trade illegal, in a first attempt to end slavery across the British Empire.

L.V. Beethoven publishes the famous 5th Symphony Opus 67.

Felix Mendelssohn was born.

Joseph Haydn died.

L.V. Beethoven completes his 5th Piano Concerto Opus 73, the "Emperor".

Frédéric Chopin was born.

Robert Schumann was born.

Franz Liszt was born.

Napoleon's Grand Army invades Russia in June. Forced to retreat in the winter, most of Napoleon's 600,000 men are lost.

Charles Dickens, author of "A Christmas Carol", was born.

United States Congress declares war on England.

The Battle of Waterloo marks the end of the Napoleonic wars.

The Congress of Vienna redraws the European map, following the Napoleonic Wars.

Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) by Gioachino Rossini, premieres in Rome.

Independence of Argentina.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is published anonymously. Shelley was just 20 years old.

The famous Christmas Carol "Silent Night" is written by Josef Mohr.

Karl Marx was born.

Simón Bolívar liberates New Granada (now Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador) as Spain loses hold on South American countries.

Mexico gains independence from Spain with the Treaty of Córdoba.

Napoleon Bonaparte dies in exile on the island of Saint Helena.

Prince Pedro declared Brazil independent from Portugal and was crowned as Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil.

U.S. Monroe Doctrine warns European nations not to interfere in Western Hemisphere.

Mexico becomes a republic, three years after declaring independence from Spain.

Beethoven's finishes his 9th Symphony Opus 125.

First passenger-carrying railroad in England is constructed.

Nicéphore Niépce takes the world's first photograph.

Ludwig Van Beethoven died.

Franz Schubert died.

Slavery abolished in British Empire.

Johannes Brahms was born.

The Republic of Texas declares independence from the Republic of Mexico.

R. Schumann completes his famous Kinderszenen Opus 15.

First Opium War starts between Britain and China, over the importation of drugs into China.

Pyotr Tchaikovsky was born.

Lower and Upper Canada united.

Edvard Grieg was born.

Texas is annexed into the United States of America.

Edgar Allan Poe publishes The Raven and Other Poems.

California and New Mexico annexed by U.S.

Felix Mendelssohn died.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels write the Communist Manifesto.

Frédéric Chopin died.

Herman Melville writes Moby-Dick.

Crimean War begins as Turkey declares war on Russia.

Robert Schumann died.

First public performance of F. Liszt's Piano Sonata in B Minor by H.V. Bülow.

Abraham Lincoln makes strong antislavery speech: “This Government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.”

First trans-Atlantic telegraph cable completed by Cyrus W. Field.

Charles Darwin writes "The Origin of Species".

Richard Wagner concludes his famous opera Tristan und Isolde.

U.S. Civil War begins.

Claude Debussy was born.

Gen. Lee surrenders and the Civil War is over. Lincoln fatally shot at Ford's Theater by John Booth.

Lewis Carroll writes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

U.S. buys Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000.

Mendeleev creates the periodic table of elements.

Germany is unified and the German Empire is proclaimed with Prussian King as Kaiser Wilhelm I.

Alexander Scriabin was born.

Sergey Rachmaninoff was born.

R. Wagner concludes his opera Götterdämmerung, finishing "The Ring Cycle".

Arnold Schoenberg was born.

First performance of P. Tchaikovsky's famous ballet Swan Lake Opus 20.

Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.

Phonograph is invented by Thomas Edison.

Thomas Edison invents practical electric light.

Béla Bartók was born.

The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City is completed.

The original Metropolitan Opera House, at Broadway in New York City, opens with a performance of C. Gounod's opera Faust.

World's first steel-frame skyscraper built in Chicago.

Franz Liszt died.

Eiffel Tower is built for the event to celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution.

The Carnegie Hall is built in New York City by Andrew Carnegie.

A. Dvořák moves to the US to become the director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City.

New Zealand becomes first country in the world to grant women the vote.

Pyotr Tchaikovsky died.

Auguste and Louis Lumière premiere motion pictures at a café in Paris.

G. Mahler's Symphony No. 2 (the "Resurrection") premieres in Berlin, Germany.

First modern Olympic games held in Athens, Greece.

Johannes Brahms died.

Famous American writer Ernest Hemingway was born.

Tosca by G. Puccini premieres in Rome.

Pelléas et Mélisande, C. Debussy's most famous opera, premieres in Paris.

First controlled plane flight by the Wright Brothers.

New York City subway opens.

Albert Einstein publishes his theory of Special Relativity.

Dmitri Shostakovich was born.

Edvard Grieg died.

North Pole is reached by American explorers Robert E. Peary and Matthew Henson.

Chinese Republic proclaimed after a revolution overthrows Manchu dynasty.

Titanic sinks on its first voyage.

New Mexico and Arizona admitted as states of the U.S.

Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring premieres in Paris.

World War I begins with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand.

Alexander Scriabin died.

U.S. buys Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million.

Russian Revolution begins.

First American combat troops in France as the U.S. declares war on Germany.

Claude Debussy died.

The World War I ends with the Treaty of Versailles.

Women in the United States conquer the right to vote.

G. Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue premieres in New York.

Death of Lenin and Stalin wins the power struggle to rules as Soviet dictator.

Big record labels begin using electric microphones for recording.

Adolf Hitler publishes his autobiographical manifesto "Mein Kampf".

John T. Scopes convicted and fined for teaching evolution in a public school in Tennessee, U.S.

First film combining music and speech ("The Jazz Singer") premieres.

Edwin Hubble proposes theory of expanding universe.

The Great Depression starts in the U.S.

“The Star Spangled Banner” officially becomes the U.S. national anthem.

Hitler is appointed German chancellor.

Spanish civil war begins.

The World War II begins with German invasion of Poland.

Gone with the Wind premieres.

Sergey Rachmaninoff died.

Béla Bartók died.

The sound barrier is broken for the first time.

Arnold Schoenberg died.

Elvis Presley's first album entitled "Elvis Presley Rock n' Roll" is released in the UK.

First live television transmission from space from the Apollo 7 mission.

"Please Please Me", the first Beatles studio album, is released in the UK.

The current Metropolitan Opera House is built.

Dmitri Shostakovich died.

Ronald Reagan elected president of the United States.

John Lennon of the Beatles murdered in New York City.

Reagan nominates Judge Sandra Day O'Connor, 51, of Arizona, as first woman on U.S. Supreme Court.

AIDS is first identified.

Major nuclear accident at Soviet Union's Chernobyl power station alarms world.

Voyager 2 spacecraft speeds by Neptune after making startling discoveries about the planet and its moons.

After 28 years, Berlin Wall is open to West.

The hugely successful Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling debuted in 1997. The series would go on to become the best-selling series in world history.

Terrorists attack the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in NYC.

On the Transmigration of Souls, John Adams' homage to the victims of the 9/11 attacks premieres in NYC.

Licht ("Light"), Karlheinz Stockhausen's cycle of seven operas, started in 1977 and was completed in 2003 with the opera Sonntag aus Licht.

Third largest ever recorded earthquake devastates the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia.

The existence of the Higgs Boson was confirmed at the Large Hadron Collider in Cern, Switzerland.

Bob Dylan receives the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Pierre Boulez, one of the dominant figures of the post-war classical music world, dies on January 5th.

Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking dies on March 14th.