-700: Homer: Iliad and Odyssey (700 B.C. or earlier)
-600: Sacadas of Argos wins musical competition at Pythian Games with Nomos Pythicos (586 B.C.)
-497: Pythagoras dies.
-458: Aeschylus, Agamemnon.
-414: Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris.
-380: Plato, Republic.
-330: Aristotle, Politics.
-320: Aristoxenos, Harmonic Elements.
-46: Julius Caesar becomes dictator.
-26: Vergil, Aeneid (26-19 B.C.)
-4: Birth of Jesus (4 B.C.)
33: Crucifixion of Jesus (ca. 33 A.D.)
54: Nero Emperor of Rome.
70: Temple at Jerusalem destroyed.
313: Constantine I issues Edict of Milan.
325: Constantine declares Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. The spread of Christianity in the western world spurred the development of European music.
330: Constantinople established as new capital of Roman Empire.
386: Responsorial psalmody introduced at Milan under Bishop Ambrose.
395: Separation of Eastern and Western Roman Empires.
400: St. Augustine (354-430) City of God (413)
500: + ERA: Ancient
500: ERA: Medieval
500: Boethius (480-524) De instituzione musica.
520: Rule of St. Benedict (of Nursia)
529: Benedictine order founded.
590: Election of Pope Gregory I (The Great, ca.540-604)
600: Muslim conquests in Asia, North Africa, and southern Europe.
600: Pope Gregory the Great codifies and collects the chant, which is used in Roman Catholic services and is named the Gregorian chant in his honor.
633: Council of Toledo recognizes Hispanic Liturgy.
715: Election of Pope Gregory II (d.731)
719: + Muslim conquests in Asia, North Africa, and southern Europe.
742: Charlemagne
754: Pepin (d. 768) crowned King of the Franks.
789: Charlemagne orders the Roman rite to be used throughout the Empire.
800: Charlemagne (742-814) crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
814: + Charlemagne
840: Aurelian of Réôme, earliest treatise on Gregorian Chant (840-850)
850: Antiphoner of Charles the Bald - earliest Greek antiphoner for the Office without notation (9th Century)
850: Western music begins to move from monophony to polyphony with the vocal parts in church music moving in parallel intervals.
870: Earliest notated MSS of Gregorian Graduale (9th Century, late)
900: Monks at St. Gall compose tropes and sequences (Notker Balbulus, ca.840-912
1000: Guido of Arezzo (ca. 955-1050), writings on music Goliards flourish.
1030: Guido of Arezzo, an Italian monk, develops a system for learning music by ear. Voice students often use the system, called solfége, to memorize their vocal exercises.
1066: Norman Conquest of England (Battle of Hastings).
1071: Hispanic Chant replaced by Gregorian in Spain.
1075: Chanson de Roland.
1095: First Crusade.
1098: Hildegard of Bingen.
1099: + First Crusade.
1147: Second Crusade.
1149: + Second Crusade.
1157: Richard the Lion Heart.
1163: Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris cornerstone laid.
1179: + Hildegard of Bingen.
1180: Troubadours appear in Germany and call themselves minnesingers, 'singers about love.'
1182: St. Francis of Assisi
1189: Third Crusade.
1189: Richard the Lion Heart becomes King of England
1192: + Third Crusade.
1199: + Richard the Lion Heart.
1209: St. Francis of Assisi establishes Franciscan Order.
1215: Magna Carta signed.
1226: + St. Francis of Assisi
1240: De mensurabili musica (Garlandia)
1265: Dante
1266: Giotto
1280: Franco of Cologne, Ars Cantus Mensurabilis.
1300: + ERA: Medieval
1300: ERA: Pre-Renaissance
1307: Dante: The Divine Comedy.
1313: Bocaccio
1321: + Dante
1322: Ars nova (Vitry)
1323: Papal Bull: Docta sanctorum
1325: Speculum musicae (Jacob of Liege)
1337: + Giotto
1338: Hundred Years' War.
1340: Chaucer (The Canturbury Tales)
1350: Codex Ivrea (Vitry)
1360: Missa Notre Dame (Machaut)
1374: Petrarch dies.
1375: + Bocaccio
1377: Guillaume de Machaut dies.
1398: Johann Gutenberg
1400: + ERA: Pre-Renaissance
1400: + Chaucer (The Canturbury Tales)
1400: Guillaume Dufay
1420: Johannes Ockeghem
1431: Joan of Arc executed.
1435: Johannes Tinctoris
1436: Nuper rosarum flores (Dufay)
1440: Josquin des Prez
1450: ERA: Renaissance
1450: Missa Se la face ay pale (Dufay)
1452: Leonardo da Vinci
1452: Lorenzo Ghiberti completes doors of Baptistry in Florence.
1453: + Hundred Years' War.
1453: Fall of Constantinople.
1454: Johann Gutenberg invents movable type.
1459: Josquin des Prez singer at Milan Cathedral.
1466: Desiderius Erasmus
1468: + Johann Gutenberg
1469: Machiavelli
1473: Nicolas Copernicus
1474: + Guillaume Dufay
1475: Michelangelo Buonarotti
1477: Liber de arte contrapuncti (Tinctoris)
1478: Baldassare Castiglione
1478: Sir Thomas More (Utopia)
1478: Lorenzo de' Medici ("il Magnifico") becomes ruler of Florence.
1527: Adrian Willaert becomes Music Director at St. Mark's, Venice.
1528: Attaignant publishes first collection of Chansons, Paris.
1529: + Baldassare Castiglione
1532: Orlando di Lasso
1535: + Sir Thomas More (Utopia)
1536: + Desiderius Erasmus
1543: + Nicolas Copernicus
1543: Nicolas Copernicus: De revolutionibus orbium coelestium.
1544: Torquato Tasso
1545: Council of Trent
1546: + Martin Luther
1547: + England: Henry VIII.
1550: Emilio de Cavalieri
1551: Giulio Caccini
1553: Giovanni Gabrieli
1554: First Book of Masses (Palestrina)
1555: Pope Marcellus Mass (Palestrina)
1558: + Charles V (Holy Roman Emperor)
1562: + Adrian Willaert
1562: In Pope Pius IV's Counter-Reformation, he restores church music to its pure vocal form by eliminating all instruments except the organ, any evidence of secularism, harmony and folk melody.
1563: + Council of Trent
1564: + Michelangelo Buonarotti
1564: William Shakespeare
1565: In Italian music, castration emerges as a way of preserving high male singing voices. St. Paul's dictum prohibited women from singing on stage and in churches.
1567: Claudio Monteverdi
1568: + Jacques Arcadelt
1571: Caravaggio
1571: Johannes Kepler
1573: Tasso's pastoral drama, Aminta first performed, Ferrara.
1576: + Hans Sachs
1580: Concerto delle Donne established, Ferrara.
1580: Dialogo della musica (Galilei)
1583: Frescobaldi
1585: Heinrich Schütz
1587: Francesca Caccini
1587: Mary Stuart (of Scotland) executed.
1588: The English Madrigal School is firmly established. The movement, led by Thomas Morley, produces some of the most delightful secular music ever heard.
1598: Jacopo Peri's Dafne, the first Italian opera, is produced in 1598.
1600: + ERA: Renaissance
1600: ERA: Baroque
1600: Emilio de Cavalieri: La rappresentazione di Anima et di Corpo
1600: Peri-Caccini-Rinuccini: Euridice, Florence
1602: + Emilio de Cavalieri
1602: Le nuove musiche (Caccini)
1602: Francesco Cavalli
1602: Book of Ayres (Campion)
1603: + England: Tudor Dynasty
1604: Shakespeare: Otello
1605: Carissimi
1605: Monteverdi: fifth book of Madrigals
1607: Monteverdi: Orfeo, Mantua
1609: Johannes Kepler: Astronomia nova
1610: + Claudio Monteverdi
1610: + Caravaggio
1611: Madrigals Book VI (Gesualdo)
1612: + Giovanni Gabrieli
1613: Monteverdi appointed Music Director, St. Mark's, Venice
1615: Book I Toccatas (Frescobaldi)
1616: + William Shakespeare
1618: + Giulio Caccini
1618: Thirty Years' War
1619: Heinrich Schütz Psalmen Davids, Dresden
1622: Jean Moliére
1623: Antonio Cesti
1625: Francesca Caccini, who most historians say is the first female composer, finishes the opera-ballet La Liberazione di Ruggiero.
1626: Louis Couperin
1629: Schütz: Symphoniae Sacrae I, Venice
1630: + Johannes Kepler
1636: Kleine geistliche Concerten (Schütz)
1637: Venice public opera
1638: Louis XIV
1638: Madrigals of War & Love (Monteverdi)
1639: Jean Racine
1639: The first comic opera, Chi Soffre Speri by Virgilio Mazzocchi and Marco Marazzoli, premieres in Rome.
1640: + Francesca Caccini
1641: Return of Ulysses (Monteverdi)
1642: + Galileo Galilei
1642: Isaac Newton
1642: Egisto (Cavalli)
1642: Monteverdi: L'incoronazione di Poppea, Venice
1643: + Frescobaldi
1644: Antonio Stradivari
1647: Luigi Rossi: Orfeo, Paris
1647: Orontea (Cesti)
1648: + Thirty Years' War
1649: Giasone (Cavalli)
1650: + René Descartes
1650: Carissimi: Jephte, Rome
1653: + Luigi Rossi
1653: Arcangelo Corelli
1658: Giuseppe Torelli
1659: Henry Pucell
1660: Alessandro Scarlatti
1661: + Louis Couperin
1666: The first signed Stradivarius violins emerge from Antonio Stradivari's workshop in Cremona, Italy.
1668: Francois Couperin
1668: Il pomo d'oro (Cesti)
1669: + Antonio Cesti
1669: Royal Academy of Music established in Paris
1672: + Heinrich Schütz
1673: + Jean Moliére
1673: Cadmus et Hermione (Lully)
1674: + Carissimi
1675: Matthew Locke composes Psyche, the first surviving English opera.
1676: + Francesco Cavalli
1677: Jean Racine: Phédre, Paris
1678: Antonio Vivaldi
1680: + Giovanni Lorenzi Bernini
1681: Arcangelo Corelli: first book of Sonatas di chiesa
1683: Gottfried Silbermann
1683: Jean-Philippe Rameau
1685: John Gay
1685: J.S. Bach
1685: George Frederick Handel
1686: Lully: Armide, Paris
1687: Isaac Newton: Principia mathematica, London
1689: Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas opens in London.
1695: + Henry Pucell
1696: Dietrich Buxtehude
1699: + Jean Racine
1703: Vivaldi becomes violin master at Venice's La Pieta orphanage.
1705: Reinhard Keiser uses French horns for the first time in opera in his production of Octavia.
1707: + Dietrich Buxtehude
1708: J.S. Bach moves to Weimar
1709: + Giuseppe Torelli
1711: Handel: Rinaldo, London
1711: L'estro armonico (Vivaldi)
1713: + Arcangelo Corelli
1714: Gottfried Silbermann begins construction of Freiburg Organ
1715: + Louis XIV
1716: Art of Playing Clavecin (F.Couperin)
1717: J.S. Bach moves to Cöthen
1717: Orgelbuechlein (Bach)
1721: Brandenburg Concertos (Bach)
1721: Griselda (A. Scarlatti)
1722: J.S. Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I.
1723: J.S. Bach moves to Leipzig
1724: Immanuel Kant
1724: Handel: Giulio Cesare
1725: + Alessandro Scarlatti
1725: Vivaldi writes The Four Seasons.
1726: Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels, London
1726: Vivaldi: The Seasons
1727: + Isaac Newton
1728: John Gay: The Beggar's Opera, London
1729: J.S. Bach: St. Matthew Passion
1729: Metastasio appointed Court Poet, Vienna
1731: Johann Adolph Hasse: Cleofide, Dresden
1732: + John Gay
1732: Franz Josef Haydn
1733: Pergolesi: La serva padrona, Naples
1733: Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie, Paris
1733: The comic opera, La Serva Padrona, from Battista Pergolesi's.
1735: Coffee Cantata (J.S Bach)
1735: Handel produces his last great operatic success, Alcina, which features dancer Marie Salle.
1737: + Antonio Stradivari
1737: Castor et Pollux (Rameau)
1738: D.Scarlatti: first collection of Harpsichord Sonatas
1741: + Antonio Vivaldi
1742: C.P.E. Bach: "Prussian" Sonatas for keyboard
1742: Handel's Messiah premieres in Dublin to an enthusiastic audience.
1742: Peasant Cantata (JS Bach)
1749: J.S. Bach: The Art of Fugue
1750: + ERA: Baroque
1750: + J.S. Bach
1750: ERA: Classic
1753: + Gottfried Silbermann
1756: W.A.Mozart
1759: + George Frederick Handel
1759: Voltaire: Candide, Paris
1762: Christoph Willibald von Gluck sets out to reform opera with his Orfeo ed Euridice.
1762: Essay on the True Art of Keyboard Inst. (CPE Bach)
1764: + Jean-Philippe Rameau
1764: Mozart visits London
1764: Opus 1 Quartets (Haydn)
1765: Joseph II becomes Holy Roman Emperor, co-rules with his mother Maria Teresa
1766: Franz Joseph Haydn becomes Vice-Kapellmeister to the Esterhazy family and Kapellmeister.
1770: Ludwig van Beethoven
1770: J.C. Bach publishes 6 Concerti for pianoforte, Op. 7
1772: Symphony no.45 'Farewell' (Haydn)
1773: + Francois Couperin
1774: Iphigenie en Aulide (Gluck)
1775: La Finta Giardiniera, Il re pastore (Mozart)
1776: Declaration of Independence
1782: Abduction from the Seraglio (Mozart)
1784: Richard Couer de Lion (Gretry)
1785: Haydn Quartets (Mozart)
1786: Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro premieres in Vienna.
1787: Mozart's Don Giovanni debuts in Prague.
1789: French Revolution
1790: + W.A.Mozart
1790: Cosi fan tutte (Mozart)
1791: Haydn: first London Symphonies
1791: Magic Flute (Mozart)
1792: Beethoven moves to Vienna
1793: Essay on Composition (Koch)
1793: Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette beheaded
1795: London Symphonies (Haydn)
1797: Schubert
1797: The Creation (Haydn)
1800: + ERA: Classic
1800: ERA: Romantic
1801: Haydn: The Seasons
1802: Beethoven: "Heiligenstadt Testament"
1803: Beethoven: Eroica Symphony
1804: + Immanuel Kant
1804: Waldstein Sonata (Beethoven)
1805: Beethoven: Fidelio
1805: Napoleon occupies Vienna
1806: Opus 59 String Quartets (Beethoven)
1807: Beethoven completes his Symphony No.5.
1808: Symphonies 5 & 6 (Beethoven)
1809: + Franz Josef Haydn
1810: Robert Schumann is born in Germany.
1812: Symphonies 7 & 8 (Beethoven)
1813: Battle of Waterloo
1815: Invention of the Metronome
1815: Schubert writes 'Der Erlkönig.
1816: Gioacchino Rossini's The Barber of Seville, based on Pierre Beaumarchais's play, debuts in Rome.
1816: Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini)
1816: Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia
1818: Beethoven's hearing has deteriorated so badly that he no longer can hear the piano.
1821: Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischutz debuts in Berlin, and he becomes the master of German opera.
1822: Unfinished Symphony (Schubert)
1823: Wanderer Fantasy (Schubert)
1824: Beethoven: Premiere of Ninth Symphony
1826: Mendelssohn writes the overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, which debuts in Stettin in 1827.
1826: Oberon (Weber)
1827: + Ludwig van Beethoven
1827: Winterreise (Schubert)
1828: + Schubert
1829: Guillaume Tell (Rossini)
1829: Piano Concerto in F minor (Chopin)
1830: Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique
1831: Norma (Bellini)
1831: Robert le Diable (Meyerbeer)
1835: I Puritani (Bellini)
1835: Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti)
1836: Meyerbeer: Les Huguenots
1837: Victoria crowned Queen of England
1839: The New York Philharmonic is established.
1843: Wagner: Der Fliegende Holländer
1847: Macbeth (Verdi)
1848: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: Communist Manifesto
1850: Lohengrin (Wagner)
1851: Verdi's Rigoletto debuts in Venice.
1852: Transcendental Etudes (Liszt)
1853: Richard Wagner publishes the librettos to Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring Cycle): Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Seigfried and Die Götterdämerung.
1853: Verdi: Il Trovatore and La Traviata
1854: Das Reingold (Wagner)
1854: Les Preludes (Liszt)
1854: Liszt conducts the first performance of his symphonic poems in Weimar.
1854: Liszt: Les Preludes and Faust Symphony
1855: Berlioz: Te Deum
1855: Les Vepres Sicillienes (Paris, Verdi)
1856: Sigmund Freud
1858: Berlioz: Les Troyens
1859: Charles Darwin: On the Origin of Species
1859: Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
1860: Gustav Mahler is born in Bohemia.
1860: Leo Tolstoy: War and Peace
1860: The slave trade introduces West African rhythms, work songs, chants and spirituals to America, which strongly influence blues and jazz.
1861: Faust Symphony (Liszt)
1867: Don Carlos (Paris, Verdi)
1868: German Requiem (Brahms)
1870: Suez Canal opens
1871: Verdi's Aďda premieres in Cairo.
1874: Goetterdaemmerung (Wagner)
1874: Symphony no.4 (Bruckner)
1874: Verdi's Requiem, his most respected work, premieres in Milan.
1875: Bizet: Carmen
1876: Johannes Brahms completes his First Symphony.
1876: Tchaikovsky completes Swan Lake. It opens in 1877 at Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre.
1876: Wagner's The Ring Cycle is performed in full at the Bayreuth Festival.
1877: Camille Saint-Saën's Samson et Dalila debuts in Weimar.
1878: Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.
1879: Albert Einstein
1880: Tchaikovsky writes the 1812 Overture, commemorating Russia's defeat of Napoleon.
1881: Pablo Picasso
1881: The Boston Symphony Orchestra is established.
1882: Parsifal (Wagner)
1882: The Berlin Philharmonic is established.
1883: The Metropolitan Opera House opens in New York.
1885: Gilbert and Sullivan finish The Mikado, which premieres in London.
1887: Verdi, Otello
1888: Strauss writes the symphonic poem, Don Juan, which brings him international fame.
1888: Symphony no.1 (Mahler)
1890: Baudelaire Songs (Debussy)
1890: Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty debuts in St. Petersburg.
1891: Carnegie Hall opens in New York.
1893: Dvorak composes his best and most popular work, From the New World.
1893: Dvorák: Symphony No. 9 (From the New World)
1893: Symphony no.6 'Pathetique' (Tchaikovsky)
1894: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (Debussy)
1896: Don Quixote (Strauss)
1896: Ragtime, a combination of West Indian rhythm and European musical form, is born.
1899: Verklaerte Nacht (Schoenberg)
1900: + ERA: Romantic
1900: ERA: Modern
1900: Dream of Gerontius (Elgar)
1900: Jean Sibelius's Finlandia premieres in Helsinki.
1901: Mahler's Fourth Symphony, his most popular, debuts in Munich.
1902: Claude Debussy introduces impressionism to music in Pelléas and Mélisande at the Opéra Comique in Paris.
1903: First airplane flight
1903: Gurrelieder (Schoenberg)
1904: Puccini: Madama Butterfly
1904: The London Symphony Orchestra is established.
1905: La Mer (Debussy)
1905: Richard Strauss: Salomé
1906: Kammersymphonie (Schoenberg)
1907: Symphony no.8 (Mahler)
1908: A major change in classical-music style comes about with the release of Arnold Schoenberg's Book of Hanging Gardens.
1908: Bela Bartók: First String Quartet
1908: Gustav Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde
1909: Elektra (Strauss)
1910: Igor Stravinsky completes The Firebird for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.
1910: Prometheus (Scriabin)
1910: The Firebird (Stravinsky)
1911: Petrushka (Stravinskky)
1911: Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier premieres in Dresden.
1912: Pierrot Lunaire (Schoenberg)
1913: Igor Stravinsky: Le Sacre de Printemps, Paris
1913: Rite of Spring (Stravinsky)
1914: First World War begins
1916: Albert Einstein: general theory of relativity
1918: Ragtime (Stravinsky)
1918: Sergei Prokofiev: Classical Symphony
1918: The Soldier's Tale (Stravinsky)
1919: After moving from its southern rural roots, jazz establishes Chicago as its capital.
1923: Pacific no.231 (Honneger)
1924: Darius Milhaud: La Création du Monde
1924: George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue premieres in New York.
1924: Maurice Ravel's Bolero opens in Paris.
1924: The Juilliard School opens in New York.
1925: Alban Berg's Wozzeck opens in Berlin.
1927: Charles Lindbergh solo transatlantic flight
1928: An American in Paris (Gershwin)
1928: Kurt Weill: The Threepenny Opera, Berlin
1928: Schoenberg: Variations for Orchestra
1932: Jazz composer Duke Ellington writes 'It Don't Mean a Thing, If It Ain't Got That Swing,'.
1932: Schoenberg: Moses und Aron
1933: Laurens Hammond introduces his Hammond organ.
1934: Paul Hindemith: Mathis der Maler
1935: Lulu (Berg)
1935: Porgy and Bess (Gershwin)
1936: Electric guitars debut.
1937: Bela Bartok's masterpiece, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, premieres in Basel.
1937: Carmina Burana (Orff)
1937: Dmitri Shostakovich: Fifth Symphony,
1937: Pablo Picasso Guernica
1937: Symphony no.5 (Shostakovich)
1939: + Sigmund Freud
1939: Second World War begins
1941: Olivier Messiaen: Quartet for the End of Time
1944: Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring
1945: Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes premieres in London.
1948: Columbia Records introduces the 33 1/3 LP ('long playing') record at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
1949: Quatre Etudes de rhythme (Messaien)
1949: Short play 45 rpm records are sold in the U.S.
1951: Boulez: Schoenberg is Dead
1955: + Albert Einstein
1957: First Orbit of Sputnik
1957: Leonard Bernstein completes West Side Story.
1960: John Coltrane forms his own quartet and becomes the voice of jazz's New Wave movement.
1960: Krysztof Penderecki: Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima
1961: Britten: War Requiem
1962: Second Vatican Council
1969: Moon Landing
1973: + Pablo Picasso
1983: With the introduction of noise-free compact discs, the vinyl record begins a steep decline.
1988: CDs outsell vinyl records for the first time.
1990: Union of East and West Germany, ("fall of the Berlin Wall")
