A time-line of the ItaliansWorld News | Politics | History | Editor(Copyright © 1999 Piero Scaruffi) |
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See the timeline of the Roman Empire See the timeline of the Barbars See the timeline of the Holy Roman Empire See the timeline of Christianity 568: Alboin's Lombards invade northern Italy 687: the republic of Venezia is founded by refugees fleeing the Lombars and who appoint a common leader, the "Doge" 739: Pope Gregory III asks Charles Martel for help against the Lombards in Italy 750: Venezia establishes trade relations with Constantinople and Egypt 751: the Lombards under king Aistulf conquer Ravenna from the Byzantines 756: Pepin III defeats the Lombards and conquers Ravenna but leaves the conquered territories to the Pope, thereby founding the Papal State and establishing a temporal power for the Pope 800: Venezia's main trade is the slave trade (mainly Slavs) 812: a peace treaty between Charlemagne and the Eastern Roman Empire surrenders Venezia to the Eastern empire but grants Venezia the right to trade with the Holy Roman Empire 814: the Palazzo Ducale is begun in Venezia 827: an Arab tribe, the Saracens, invades Sicily 840: the Frankish king Louis dies and civil war erupts among his three sons who have inherited most of France and northern Italy (Lothar, the new emperor), Aquitaine (Pepin), eastern Bavaria (Louis II), western Bavaria (Charles II le Chauve) 843: at the Treaty of Verdun the Holy Roman Empire is divided among Charles II le Chauve (western France), Lothar (Netherlands, eastern France and northern Italy, renamed Lotharingia/Lorraine) and Louis/Ludwig II (western Germany) 843: Genoa proclaims its independence from the Frankish empire 846: Muslims raid Rome 855: Lothar dies and his kingdom is split between his sons (Lotharingia to Lothar II and Burgundy to Charles) while Louis II becomes emperor and inherits northern Italy 875: Louis II dies and Charles II le Chauve invades Italy and becomes emperor 878: the Arabs capture Sicily and make Palermo their capital 888: Charles III is deposed by the nobles and the Frankish Empire is divided between East (Germany and northern Italy), ruled by Arnulf, and West (France), ruled by Odo Capet 888: north Italy declares its independence under Berengar I 889: Venezia becomes independent 922: Magyars raid Italy 951: Otto I invades northern Italy and declares himself king of Italy, thus uniting the crowns of Germany and Italy 962: Otto I invades Italy and is crowned emperor by the Pope in Rome 991: Venezia signs a commercial treaty with the Arabs 1000: Venezia (under Pietro Orseolo II) invades Dalmatia 1000: 7 million people live in France, 7 million in Iberia, 5 million in Italy, 4 million in Germany, 2 million in Britain 1002: Venezia defeats the Arabs and expands in the Adriatic Sea 1049: the Norman warlord Robert Guiscard conquers Puglia from Byzantium 1052: Firenze under countess Matilda concentrates government in the hands of the great guilds 1072: the Normans conquer Sicily, Calabria and Napoli, and establish a kingdom over southern Italy 1085: Heinrich IV invades Italy and drives Pope Gregory VII out of Rome, and the Pope dies in exile 1088: Irnerius founds a school of law at Bologna, the first university in Europe 1091: the Normans defeat the Arabs and extend the Kingdom of Sicily over most of Italy 1094: San Marco cathedral of Venezia 1130: Norman duke Ruggero II is proclaimed king of Sicily 1138: Firenze declares itself an independent commune 1162: Friedrich I "Barbarossa" raids Rome and Milan 1173: work begins at the Tower of Pisa 1176: the Italian communes defeat Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa of Germany at the battle of Legnano 1179: works begins at the Naviglio Grande of Milan, which will be completed in 1257 1182: the cathedral of Monreale is inaugurated 1183: the peace of Constance grants northern Italy autonomy within the empire 1194: the German emperor Heinrich VI conquers southern Italy and Sicily from the Normans 1204: the Crusaders, led by the Doge of Venezia, sack Constantinople and set up a Latin kingdom, while Venezia acquires territories in the Mediterranean and Black Seas 1211: Venezia occupies Crete 1254: Friedrich II's illegitimate son Manfred seizes southern Italy 1264: Charles of Anjou, brother of Louis IX, defeats Manfred and is crowned king of Sicily, thus ending German rule, causing the decline of the German empire and asserting French primacy over Europe 1252: Firenze coins its own currency 1255: Venezia and Genoa go to war 1264: Charles of Anjou is crowned king of Sicily, thus ending German rule 1266: the Polo brothers travel from Venezia to China 1272: the cathedral of Pisa is inaugurated 1277: a Visconti first rules Milan 1277: Genoa opens a direct sea link with the Flanders 1281: Alessandro della Spina and Salvino degli Armati invent spectacles in Firenze 1284: Salvino D'Armate invents the eye glasses 1284: Venezia introduces the gold coin "ducato' 1297: Arnolfo di Cambio designs the cathedral of Firenze 1298: the fleet of Venezia is destroyed by Genova 1298: while in a Genovese jail, Marco Polo writes the story of his travels in Asia 1312: the archbishop Otto Visconti establishes the Visconti family at the head of the city of Milan 1327: German emperor Ludwig IV invades Italy and appoints pope John XXII 1335: Milan erects the world's first public clock 1345: Ponte Vecchio is built in Firenze 1350: the Tower of Pisa is inaugurated 1378: Genova loses its independence to Milano 1386: work at the Duomo is begun in Milan 1395: Gian Galeazzo Visconti is appointed duke by the emperor and expands the state of Milan in central Italy 1406: Firenze annexes Pisa 1413: the Rialto Bridge in built in Venezia 1416: Amadeus VIII obtains the duchy of Savoy from emperor Sigismund TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 1434: banker Cosimo de' Medici seizes power in Firenze 1442: Napoli and Sicily are assigned to Alfonso V of Aragon 1447: the warlord Francesco Sforza seizes power in Milan from the Visconti family 1454: Venezia has expanded on the mainland, annexing Padova, Vicenza, Verona, etc 1455: Alfonso Borgia becomes Pope Calixtus III 1469: Lorenzo Medici succeeds to his father Cosimo 1477: German king Maximilian I inherits parts of Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland 1479: Venezia loses most of her territories along the Aegean Sea to the Ottomans 1492: the Italian explorer Cristoforo Columbo lands in America on behalf of Spain, thinking he has reached Asia 1492: Lorenzo Medici dies 1494: Charles VIII of France invades Firenze, Rome, Napoli, but a league of Milan, Venezia, emperor Maximilian, pope Alexander VI and Fernando II of Aragon, led by Francesco Gonzaga, forces him to retreat 1494: Firenze overthrows the Medici family and Savonarola seizes the power in the newly formed republic (beginning of the "wars of Italy") 1497: the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci sails to America on behalf of Spain 1497: Leonardo da Vinci paints "The Last Supper" 1498: Savonarola is burned at the stake in Firenze 1499: French king Louis XII invades Italy and captures Milan 1500: Pisa builds ditches around walls to make it harder for enemies to attack 1500: Youstol Dispage dies 1501: the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci sails to Brazil on behalf of Portugal and realizes that he is exploring a new continent 1502: Napoli and Sicity are assigned to Ferdinando of Aragon 1512: the Medici family is restored in power in Firenze 1513: Niccolo` Machiavelli publishes "Il Principe", a treaty on politics 1513: Giovanni de' Medici is elected pope Leo X 1516: Italy is divided into two spheres of influence, French in the north and Spanish in the south ("Peace of Noyon") 1524: the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano sails up the coast of north America and discovers New York 1525: Karl V/Carlos I takes Milan from the French 1526: king Francis I of France is defeated by the German army at the battle of Pavia and has to surrender Milan (now a duchy) to Karl V, who is emperor and king of Spain and thus rules over most of Italy (end of the "wars of Italy") 1527: Karl V's army of Protestant mercenaries and Catholic regulars raid, loot and burn Rome 1528: Andrea Doria seizes power in Genova and switches alliance from France to Spain 1529: the peace of Cambrai assigns Burgundy to France and Italy to Karl V/Carlos I 1530: the Medici family is overthrown and Firenze becomes an archduchy of the German empire (only Venice and Rome remain independent states) 1535: Milano's occupation by Spain begins 1556: Karl V abdicates to retire to a Spanish monastery and the empire is divided between his son Felipe II (Spain, southern Italy and the Low Countries) and his brother Ferdinand I (Germany), who assumes the title of emperor 1571: in the battle of Lepanto an army formed by the Pope, Spain, Venezia and Genova destroys the Ottoman navy, thus halting Ottoman expansion in the Mediterranean 1582: the gregorian calendar is adopted in Spain, Italy and Portugal 1582: Gasparo Scaruffi proposes a European currency 1600: Jacopo Peri's "Euridice" is the first opera 1603: Accademia dei Lincei in Roma 1610: the Italian scientist Galileo uses a telescope to explore the Moon, the Milky Way and Jupiter 1630: the plague spreads in Italy 1632: Galileo publishes his "Dialogue" in which he defends Copernicus 1637: the Teatro Tron opens in Venezia, the first opera house in the world 1644: the Italian physicist Evangelista Torricelli invents the barometer 1669: Venezia loses Crete 1693: Arcangelo Corelli composes the first concerto 1706: Austria captures Milano from Spain 1709: Bartolomeo Cristofori invents the piano 1713: Britain and France sign a peace treaty ("Treaty of Utrecht") that hands Spanish territories (Milan, southern Italy) to Austria and Sicily to the Savoy duke Vittorio Amedeo II of Piedmont 1713: Austria annexes most of Lombardy (including Milan) while Savoy gets the rest 1718: Spain invades southern Italy 1720: and the Quadruple Alliance (Britain, France, Austria and Savoy) defeats Spain 1720: the Savoy duke trades Sicily for Sardinia with Austria 1734: Carlos, son of Spain's king Felipe V, a Bourbon, conquers Napoli and Sicily from Austria and founds the independent Kingdom of the Two Sicilies 1736: the last Medici dies, and Tuscany is inherited by Austria's Franz I Hasburg 1778: Milan inaugurates its opera theater, the Scala 1796: Napoleon conquers northern Italy, end of Milano's occupation by Austria 1797: Napoleon conquers Venezia and trades it with Austria for Lombardy 1800: Napoleon annexes Piedmont, Tuscany and the Papal state to France 1800: the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta invents the battery 1815: Austria regains Tuscany, Lombardy and Venezia, while Piedmont and the Papal state regain their independence 1849: Antonio Meucci invents the telephone 1859: Napoleon III of France and Vittorio Emanuele II defeat Austria and Piedmont annexes Lombardy, Tuscany and most of the States of the Church 1861: Garibaldi invades southern Italy, defeats the Bourbons and delivers it to Piedmont's king Vittorio Emanuele II, who becomes king of Italy with capital in Torino, ruling over the entire peninsula except for the Papal state of Rome and for the Austrian territory around Venezia 1862: the first mass killing by the Mafia is carried out in Sicily 1866: Italy defeats Austria and annexes Venezia 1870: Italy conquers Rome from the Pope and declares Rome its capital, while the Pope retreats to the Vatican 1882: Germany and Italy sign a treaty of alliance 1885: an international conference at Berlin awards Congo to the king of Belgium, Mozambique and Angola to Portugal, Namibia and Tanzania to Germany, Somalia to Italy, most of western Africa to France, and Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana to Britain 1896: Ethiopia defeats the invading Italian army at Adua 1896: Marconi files a patent for wireless cable 1899: Fiat builds the first Italian car 1900: King Umberto I is assassinated by an anarchist 1901: Guglielmo Marconi conducts the first transatlantic radio transmission 1909: Filippo Tommaso Marinetti publishes the manifesto of Futurism 1911: Italy invades Libya and the Dodecanese islands from the Ottoman Empire 1911: the first bomb ever dropped from an airplane is dropped by Italy over Libya 1914: World War I breaks out in the Balkans, pitting Britain, France, Italy, Russia, Serbia, USA and Japan against Austria, Germany and Turkey 1918: World War I ends with the defeat of Germany (which has to cede several regions to France and Poland, and all the African colonies) and Austria (which has to cede regions to Italy) 1922: Mussolini, leader of the Fascist party, seizes power in Italy 1928: Umberto Nobile's dirigible flies over the North Pole 1929: Mussolini signs a Concordat with the Pope that creates the independent state of the Vatican 1930: most immigrants to the USA are Italians 1930: Britain, Japan, France, Italy and the USA sign the London Naval Treaty, an agreement to reduce naval warfare 1935: Italy invades Ethiopia 1939: Mussolini and Hitler sign the "pact of steel" 1939: Italy invades Albania 1940: Italy enters World War II on the side of Hitler 1940: Italy, Germany and Japan sign the pact of the "axis" 1943: Britain and USA invade Sicily and Italy surrenders 1945: Mussolini is captured by Italian partisans and executed 1946: the first motoscooter, Piaggio's Vespa, debuts in Italy 1946: Enzo Ferrari founds a company to build Grand Prix cars 1948: the Christian Democrats win the first elections in Italy 1949: Fausto Coppi is the first cyclist to win both the Tour and the Giro in the same year 1951: Juan Manuel Fangio, driving an Alfa Romeo, wins his first Formula One championship 1952: Ferrari wins its first Formula One championship 1954: neo-fascist Pino Rauti founds "Ordine Nuovo" 1957: Italy, Germany, France and others found the European Community 1960: the football program "Tutto il Calcio Minuto per Minuto" debuts on national radio 1963: Lamborghini is founded 1965: the Duomo of Milan is completed after six centuries of work 1965: Piergiorgio Perotto at Olivetti invents the first desktop computer ("Programma 101") 1968: Student riots in France escalate into a national uprising, soon followed by similar protests in Germany and Italy 1969: a bomb by fascist terrorists (Franco Freda's "Ordine Nuovo") kills 17 people in Milano, while three more bombs blow up in Roma and Milano, but the investigators accuse anarchist Pietro Valpreda of the crime 1969: Adriano Sofri and others found the left-wing group of "Lotta Continua", Antonio Negri and others found "Potere Operaio" 1971: Lamborghini introduces the "Countach" 1972: the Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades) carry out their first kidnapping and their first bank robbery 1974: fascist terrorists blow up a train killing 12 people 1976: entrepreneur Silvio Berlusconi launches a private tv station TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 1978: the Red Brigades terrorize Italy 1980: an Italian passenger airplane is downed in mysterious circumstances in the Gulf of Ustica 1980: fascist terrorists kills 85 people at the Bologna train station 1980: Silvio Berlusconi founds Italy's first private national network, Canale 5 1984: Ferrari introduces the "Testarossa" 1988: a member of the Japanese Red Army (Yu Kikumura) is arrested with explosives on the New Jersey Turnpike 1992: the Mafia kills top figures of the Italian government in Sicily 1992: Italian magistrates begin arresting politicians for "Tangentopoli" (Bribesville), corruption scandals multiply and "Mani Pulite" ("clean hands") investigations spread throughout the political system 1993: the head of the Mafia, Salvatore Riina, is captured in Italy and the Mafia declines 1993: investigations by magistrates reveal widespread corruption in the Christian Democratic party and cause the collapse of the political order 1994: Italy's richest man, Silvio Berlusconi, who is under investigation for bribes, wins the elections 1999: a common currency, the euro, is introduced in some European countries (one euro is worth $1.1591) 2003: a heatwave kills 15,000 people in France, at least 6,000 in Spain, 7,000 in Germany, 2,000 in Britain and 20,000 in Italy 2004: Parmalat, which accounts for almost 1% of Italy's GDP, collapses due to mismanagement TM, ®, Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. 2005: after more than ten trials, nobody is convicted of the 1969 terrorist attacks 2005: Italy enters a recession 2005: Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is acquitted of past frauds, thanks to laws that he himself introduced after he became prime minister 2006: An Italian minister is forced to resign after provoking Muslims riots 2006: Silvio Berlusconi loses national elections to Romano Prodi 2006: Bernardo Provenzano, head of the mafia, is arrested in Sicily after a man hunt lasted 43 years 2006: Italy wins its fourth world cup 2007: Spain's per-capita income passes Italy's 2008: Berlusconi wins elections and becomes prime minister again |
| (Copyright © 1999 Piero Scaruffi) |