The first recorded citizens’ assemblies sprang up around 2500 BCE in the countryside and cities of Syria–Mesopotamia, near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Called ukkin in Sumerian and phrum in Akkadian, popular assemblies challenged the power and authority of kings. Their discovery is credited to 20th-century Danish archaeologist Thorkild Jacobsen.

In July 1776, the 13 American colonies declare independence from Great Britain and establish the United States of America. The revolutionaries are inspired by republican ideals of equality, liberty and people’s right to govern themselves. A peace treaty in 1783 ends the war with Britain and recognises the sovereignty of the United States.

The French people rise up against absolute monarchism and the feudal privileges of the aristocrats and Catholic clergy during a time of famine, unemployment and a national financial crisis. The revolution’s leaders support Enlightenment ideals of reason, liberty, equality and fraternity.

The Polish Constitution of 3 May under King Stanislaw August is Europe’s first democratic codified constitution creating a constitutional monarchy. It introduces political equality between townsfolk and nobility, and places peasants under government protection. It is influenced by the British and American experience.

The Haitian Revolution — the world’s first successful slave revolt — establishes a free republic in the French colony under the leadership of former slave, Toussaint Louverture.

Britain outlaws the slave trade in the British Empire, although it is still legal to own slaves. The complete abolition of slavery in Britain and its colonies does not occur until 1833.

The defeat of France gives Britain about a century of largely unchallenged dominance as an imperial power.

On 16 August a crowd of 60,000 assembles on St Peter’s Field in Manchester, England, to demand parliamentary representation for the city. ‘Rotten boroughs’, like Old Sarum with only 11 voters, had two Members of Parliament whereas Manchester, with 200,000 people, had none. Troops violently attempt to arrest the main speaker. Eleven people are killed and 500 injured.

The House of Commons overwhelmingly represents landed gentry until 1832, when the Reform Act expands the electorate to 700,000 and enfranchises big manufacturing cities. Urban middle-class men mostly win the vote but, until the electoral rolls grow to about 2 million in 1867, they exclude working-class men. Further reform in 1884 extends suffrage to more than 5 million, but women and 40 per cent of men are still voteless.

Between 1845 and 1852, the population of Ireland is reduced by nearly 25 per cent due to starvation, disease and mass emigration. A potato disease known as ‘blight’ decimates the potato crop on which one-third of the Irish population depend. One million die and 1 million emigrate.

Revolutions occur across Europe in ‘the Springtime of the People’. The new middle class, working class and some nobility seek freedom from the absolute rule of the monarchy and church and state power. Notions of democracy, liberalism, nationalism and socialism influence the revolutionary movements in France, Sicily, the Italian and German states, Schleswig, the Hapsburg Empire, Hungary, Switzerland, Greater Poland and Wallachia.

The civil war begins militarily when the Confederate (southern) forces attack the Federally held Fort Sumter in South Carolina in April 1861. The war is about states' rights and the preservation of the Union. The confederate states secede because they fear that the newly elected President, Abraham Lincoln, will abolish slavery. Lincoln issues an Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. The war ends in 1865 and Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution confirming Lincoln’s action. More than 600,000 soldiers are killed in the war.

European powers begin a major carve-up of Africa. Britain occupies Egypt and Sudan (1882), Italy establishes a colony in Eritrea (1882), Germany occupies south-west Africa (1884), Belgium claims possession of the Congo (1885), Germany annexes Tanganyika and Zanzibar (1885), and Britain annexes Zululand (1888) and occupies Uganda (1890).

The discovery of gold and diamonds in the Boer republics of southern Africa in the 1880s intensifies rivalry with the British. In 1899 the Boers declare war to forestall what they see as an impending conquest. Britain wins the war and all Boers become British subjects in 1902.

Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish captain in the French army, is wrongly convicted of treason and imprisoned on Devil’s Island. Emile Zola, seeing anti-Semitism behind the case, campaigns for Dreyfus' freedom with an open letter to the French Government. Dreyfus is released in September 1899 — proof that a free press and public opinion can bring about change.

The defeat of Russia by Japan is the first time a European power is defeated by an Asian one. It signals the rise of Japan as a modern industrial power.

The Australian Prime Minister’s wife Margaret Fisher leads a group of Australian and New Zealand women in a demonstration supporting a Bill to grant British women the vote.

One thousand people assemble at the University of London to counter the work of the eugenics movement, which advocated the study and practice of selective breeding of humans, with the aim of improving the species.

The Manchu Dynasty is overthrown and China becomes a republic under Sun Yat-sen.

Britain, France and Russia (the Triple Entente) fight against Germany, Turkey and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The United States enters in 1917 on the side of Britain. On 26 April 1915 Italy comes into the war on the side of the Triple Entente. Japan is also allied with the Triple Entente, securing sea lanes in the Pacific and Indian oceans against the Kaiser’s navy. World War I ends with an armistice on 11 November 1918. In 1919, Austria and Germany become republics. The Treaty of Versailles imposes reparations to be paid to the Allies, limits the German armed forces and prohibits their development, and enforces territorial losses against Germany. The Treaty also establishes new international bodies such as the League of Nations and the International Labour Organization.

The Russian Revolution in February overthrows Tsar Nicholas II and establishes a provisional government and a Soviet at Petrograd, representing workers and soldiers, where most of the action had taken place. The revolutionary government chose to remain in the war. A second revolution in October brings Lenin and the Bolsheviks (communists) to power, overturns the interim provisional government and establishes the Soviet Union. The revolutionary government withdraws from the war.

The League of Nations is the world’s first attempt to form a genuinely international cooperative organisation. Sixty-two countries are at some point members. An important objective of the League is to ensure that there would not be another world war, and to offer collective security to any member-state attacked. By the late 1930s the League becomes ineffectual.

In October, the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street suddenly collapses. By the early 1930s, the value of stock is about 80 per cent less than its 1920s level. Investment halts, as does the purchase of new stock and demand for goods. The banking system collapses, as many have invested depositors' money in the stock market. Angry depositors lose their savings while banks try to collect on loans. Economic depression sets in, affecting the world, with stagnation, high unemployment and people evicted from their homes.

In January, Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany in a coalition government and forms a cabinet. The Nazis have one-third of the seats in the Reichstag (Parliament). In February, the Reichstag is set alight and communists are wrongly blamed. Communist members of parliament and some social democrats are arrested. A general election is held. The Nazis still do not secure a majority of seats but in March secure the support of the Catholic Centre Party for the passage of an Enabling Act, which grants legislative power to Hitler’s Cabinet for four years. The Communist Party is banned and other parties dissolve themselves. The Nazi Party is the only political party permitted.

Forces of the Fascist General, Francisco Franco, are victorious in the overthrow of the Republican government in the Spanish Civil War. The war began when Army generals attempt a coup against the elected government.

On 10 January, the first UN General Assembly meets in Central Hall, London, with 51 countries represented. The Charter creating the organisation was drawn up the previous year by 50 countries meeting in San Francisco.

Winston Churchill delivers ‘Iron Curtain’ speech at Fulton, Missouri, ushering in the period of Cold War. Communist parties are in power in several east European countries and are popular in France and Italy. Russia blockades Berlin in 1948.

India, the one-time jewel in the crown of the British Empire, becomes independent on 15 August, with Jawaharlal Nehru the first Prime Minister. A republic is promulgated on 26 January 1950.

A communist-led revolution in China is victorious over the forces of the nationalist Kuomintang who flee to Taiwan. The People’s Republic of China is proclaimed by Mao Zedong on 1 October.

Towards the end of World War II, US and Soviet forces occupy the Korean peninsula, having liberated it from Japan. The two powers divide responsibility for Korea between themselves at the 38th parallel. A Soviet-supported communist regime emerges in the north and a US-backed one in the south. Both regimes seek reunification — but under their respective governments. On 25 June, the North Korean army pushes south. The United States sends in support to the south and the United Nations enlists 21 nations against the north. When the UN force enters the north, the Chinese move in with several army divisions. More than 1.5 million people die in various battles. A peace agreement is reached on 27 July 1953.

In July, Egyptian President Gamal Nasser nationalises the Suez Canal — the main carriageway for the supply of oil to England and France. In October, Israel invades Egypt and on 5-6 November, French and British troops invade Port Said and take control of the Canal. The first UN peacekeeping force is sent in to keep peace until a political resolution is reached.

Ghana, led by Kwame Nkrumah, becomes the first sub-Saharan country in colonial Africa to become independent.

Construction of the Berlin Wall commences on 13 August as an attempt by the communist government of East Germany to halt the flow of thousands of residents defecting to West Germany each week. The Wall comes down in late 1989 and Germany is reunited in 1990.

The United States' 35th President, John F Kennedy, is assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on 22 November. A Democrat, he was elected President on 20 January 1961. The world is shocked that the elected head of a democracy could be killed by a gunman.

On 29 April 1965 Prime Minister Robert Menzies announces to a nearly empty House of Representatives that Australia will increase its commitment to the growing war in Vietnam with the addition of a battalion of ground troops, in addition to the advisers already in the country. The commitment is well received by the public, although opposition begins to grow once the first national servicemen are included for Vietnam service in 1965.

Between 1965 and 1968 Australia’s military commitment in Vietnam grows to three army battalions, navy and air force contingents, and an extensive support network. By the time most Australian troops are withdrawn at the end of 1972, nearly 60,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen have served. Of those, 521 are killed (including 200 national servicemen), and over 3000 wounded. The war divides Australian society and creates some of the largest anti-war protests the country has ever seen.

In the aftermath of the war, Australian veterans deal with health and psychological problems that last for several decades, with many fighting a battle for compensation due to possible exposure to herbicides in Vietnam.

In Vietnam, approximately two million soldiers and civilians from both the North and South are killed, before the south falls to the communist north on 30 April 1975 and the conflict ends.

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is launched by Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Communist Party of China, in May 1966 to mobilise the mass of people, especially young people, against bourgeois liberal elements in the Communist Party and government. Mao regards the cultural revolution as having ended in 1969, when he sought to reign in extremists, but many historians see it as continuing into the early 1970s.

In 1968 many countries are disturbed by rebellions. The causes range from opposition to the Vietnam War and the civil rights campaign in the United States to the popular uprising against the Soviet-backed communist government in Czechoslovakia. The protesters are mainly young people and universities are often the scene of the action. Student protests and a general strike in France nearly bring down the government of Charles de Gaule in May.

A leader of the US civil rights movement against racial segregation and discrimination, Martin Luther King Jr is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on 4 April. His famous speech — ‘I have a dream’ — is delivered at a rally of more than 200,000 people in Washington, DC, in August 1963. His birthday, 15 January, has been a national holiday in the United States since 1983.

The oppressive rule of Shah Pahlavi in Iran is overthrown and an Islamic Republic proclaimed on 1 April, following a national referendum. The revolution began the previous year with widespread demonstrations. In December 1979, a new Iranian constitution based on sharia (Islamic religious law) is also approved by a great majority in a referendum. Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini becomes Supreme Leader of a theocracy in which a Council of Guardians can reject candidates for election to the Majlis (Parliament) and any legislation they deem to be un-Islamic. The Iranian revolution makes Islamic fundamentalism a force to be reckoned with worldwide, especially after the taking of hostages at the US Embassy on 4 November.

Margaret Thatcher is elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. She is the first woman to become a prime minister in Europe.

Poland’s Solidarity Movement is founded on 22 September, with Gdansk shipyard worker, Lech Walesa, its Chairman. Solidarity seeks to coordinate the various workers' protests, against such things as rising food prices, around the country. Within a year, it has 10 million members and is banned by the Polish communist government. The movement, however, cannot be stopped and in June 1989, candidates endorsed by Solidarity sweep the parliamentary elections. In December, Walesa becomes President of Poland.

Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, campaigns for glasnost (openness) and perestroika (reconstruction) in the Soviet Union. In 1988, Gorbachev becomes president of the USSR.

Students and intellectuals seeking to mourn the death of a pro-democracy Communist Party official gather in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, on 14 April. They carry a statue, the Goddess of Democracy, and sing The Internationale, the anthem (in French) of international socialism and one of the most widely recognised songs in the world. About 100,000 voices demand democratic reform. They remain in the Square for seven weeks until troops and tanks disperse them on 4 June. Hundreds, possibly thousands, are killed.

Huge demonstrations for democratic reform take place in East Germany in October. President Erich Honecker resigns and the communist government faces collapse. Check-points at the Berlin Wall are opened on 9 November and thousands gather to celebrate — and to demolish the structure. In 1987, US President Ronald Reagan had visited Berlin and called on Soviet leader Gorbachev to ‘tear down this wall’. Now, the people were doing it themselves.

Civil war breaks out in Yugoslavia after Croatia and Slovenia declare their independence. In 1992, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ceases to exist. In February, the United Nations decides to send a peacekeeping force. Conflict intensifies after Muslim Bosnians and Bosnian Croats vote for independence, and are attacked by Serbs. Ceasefire negotiations begin in Geneva in June 1994.

The Treaty on European Union (better known as the Maastricht Treaty) is signed in the Netherlands on 7 February by members of the European Community. The euro, the currency of the majority of the 27 EU member states, is introduced to world financial markets in 1999.

President FW De Klerk lifts restrictions on the African National Congress and announces amnesty for political prisoners. Nelson Mandela is freed on 11 February. The government announces in June 1991 its intention to dismantle apartheid, which had been introduced in 1949. Nelson Mandela is elected South Africa’s first black President on 26 April 1994, after the African National Congress wins the country’s first multiracial elections.

Agreement is reached in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on 10 April (Good Friday), to devolve government and establish a Northern Ireland Assembly to be elected by proportional representation. The decommissioning of paramilitary weapons is part of the deal. In 2005, the Provisional Irish Republican Army completes the decommissioning of its weapons.

In September, for the first time the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide is enforced when it is applied against Jean-Paul Akayesu, a former mayor of a small town in Rwanda. Akayesu is found guilty of nine counts of genocide and, on 2 October, is sentenced to life imprisonment.

In July, anti-globalisation demonstrators protest against the G8 summit in Genoa, Italy. It is one of the bloodiest protests in western Europe’s post-war era.

On 11 September, the World Trade Center towers in New York, known as the Twin Towers, are destroyed by terrorists in two hijacked planes. The Pentagon is also attacked by a third hijacked plane while, terrorists on a fourth, Flight 93, are overpowered by passengers before the plane crashes. Al-Qaeda claims responsibility for the terror attack and US President George W Bush declares ‘war on terror’.

On 7 October, US and British forces attack the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Taliban retreat from Kabul on 12 November in the face of an advance by the Afghan Northern Alliance. Hamid Karzai is sworn in as head of an interim government in Afghanistan. A US-led coalition invades Afghanistan to oust the Taliban on 1 March 2002. The Taliban are defeated and removed from power on 19 March. On 11 August 2003, NATO takes command of the peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan — NATO’s first major role outside Europe.

The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste is the first new sovereign state of the 21st century, becoming independent on 20 May.

Between 3 January and 12 April 2003, an estimated 36 million people around the world protest against the US-led invasion of Iraq.

On 15 October, following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime, Iraqis vote in a referendum for a new constitution, and go to their first competitive multi-party elections on 15 December.

An anonymous group, led by Australian man Julian Assange, establishes Wikileaks, a ‘whistleblower’ website devoted to publishing documents that are restricted or classified and making them available to the public. Always controversial, the site’s founders express their interest in “exposing oppressive regimes [and being] of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal unethical behaviour in their governments and corporations.“

Benazir Bhutto is assassinated in Pakistan on 27 December. She was Prime Minister in 1988-90 and 1993-96, and was the first female head of government to be democratically elected in an Islamic state. Her People’s Party wins the election in February 2008. In September 2008, her husband Asif Ali Zardari is elected President of Pakistan.

On 29 March, Zimbabweans go to the polls. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change wins a majority of seats but President Robert Mugabe refuses to concede. Police intimidate and murder Movement for Democratic Change activists. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and Mugabe agree to a government of national unity. In September, Tsvangirai becomes Prime Minister and Mugabe remains President.

The Nepalese Constituent election on 10 April is the first since 1999. The Nepal Communist Party wins 220 of the 601 seats in the new Constituent Assembly. In its first meeting on 28 May 2008, the Constituent Assembly declares Nepal a republic and formally abolishes the monarchy.

On 4 November, Barack Obama is elected President of the United States. He is the first African American to be elected president and the first black person to be elected head of government of any predominantly white nation. He is inaugurated on 20 January 2009 as the 44th President of the United States.

On 15 November, the ‘Group of 20’ world industrial powers meet in Washington, DC to discuss the international financial crisis.

Britain’s Guardian newspaper publishes leaked documents from the United States' National Security Agency (NSA) showing that it had been conducting widespread surveillance on foreign nationals, American citizens and world leaders. A total of 1.7 million documents, outlining the extent of the surveillance, are eventually published. The documents are leaked by NSA employee Edward Snowden who sought political asylum in Russia. Snowden is indicted in the United States but remains in Russia and becomes a public commentator on global security and privacy issues.

Marches and rallies are held in 162 countries to support action on climate change. The largest, the People’s Climate March, takes place in New York City with more than 300,000 marchers including United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, former US Vice President Al Gore and Hollywood celebrities. The protests are timed to precede a UN summit on climate change.

In Melbourne, 30,000 people rally in support of the New York march, one of the largest Australian protest marches in recent years.