| Ancient China |
| Date |
Ruling entity |
Emperor |
Events |
Other people/events |
| 2500 BC |
Sanhuangwudi |
|
This period is part of the Chinese mythology |
|
| -2205 |
|
|
| Xia Dynasty |
|
|
|
| -1806 |
|
|
|
| -1523 |
Shang Dynasty |
|
First records of Chinese characters |
|
| -1027 |
|
|
|
| -1122 |
Zhou Dynasty |
|
|
|
| -771 |
|
End of Western Zhou |
|
| -770 |
|
Beginning of Eastern Zhou |
|
| -722 |
|
Spring and Autumn Period |
|
| -551 |
|
Confucius |
| -481 |
|
| -479 |
|
|
| -403 |
|
Warring States Period |
|
| -260 |
|
Battle of Changping |
| -256 |
|
|
| -255 |
Qin Dynasty |
|
|
| -246 |
Qin Shi Huang Di |
|
| -221 |
Start of construction of the Great Wall |
| -210 |
Burial of the Terracotta Army |
|
| -207 |
|
|
|
| -202 |
Han Dynasty
(Western Han) |
Han Gao Zu |
|
|
| -195 |
|
|
| 9 |
|
|
|
| Xin Dynasty |
Wang Mang |
|
|
| 24 |
|
|
| 25 |
Han Dynasty
(Eastern Han) |
|
|
|
| 105 |
|
|
Cai Lun, inventor of paper |
| 106 |
Han Shangdi |
|
|
| 184 |
|
Yellow Turban Rebellion |
|
| 200 |
|
Battle of Guandu |
|
| 208 |
|
Battle of Red Cliff |
|
| 220 |
|
|
|
Three Kingdoms
(Wei, Shu, Wu) |
|
|
|
| 222 |
Sun Quan |
Battle of Yi Ling |
|
| 234 |
Battle of Wuzhang Plain |
|
| 250 |
Introduction of Buddhism in China |
|
| 252 |
|
|
| 265 |
|
|
|
| Jin Dynasty |
|
|
|
| 291 |
|
War of the Eight Princes |
|
| 306 |
|
|
| 383 |
|
Battle of Feishui |
|
| 420 |
|
|
|
| Southern and Northern Dynasties |
|
|
|
| 475 |
|
Bodhidharma arrives in China |
|
| 589 |
|
|
|
| 581 |
Sui Dynasty |
|
|
|
| 618 |
|
|
|
| Tang Dynasty |
|
|
|
| 627 |
Li Shi Min |
|
|
| 635 |
First Christian missionaries arrive in China: Nestorian
monks from Asia Minor and Persia, building Daqin Pagoda. |
|
| 649 |
|
|
| 684 |
Wu Ze Tian |
|
|
| 705 |
|
|
| 756 |
|
An Lushan Rebellion |
|
| 763 |
|
|
| 845 |
|
Mass persecution of Buddhism |
|
| 907 |
|
|
|
Five Dynasties
and Ten Kingdoms |
|
|
|
| 960 |
|
|
|
| Song Dynasty |
|
|
|
| 1214 |
|
Battle of Beijing |
|
| 1254 |
|
|
Marco Polo |
| 1260 |
Kublai Khan |
|
| 1271 |
Yuan Dynasty |
|
| 1273 |
Battle of Xiangyang |
| 1279 |
Battle of Yamen |
| 1289 |
Franciscan friars begin mission
work in China |
| 1294 |
|
| 1323 |
|
|
| 1368 |
|
|
|
| Ming Dynasty |
Hongwu |
|
|
| 1371 |
|
Zheng He |
| 1398 |
|
| 1399 |
Jianwen |
|
| 1402 |
|
| 1403 |
Yongle |
|
| 1406 |
Construction of the Forbidden City begins |
| 1424 |
|
| 1435 |
|
|
| 1449 |
|
Battle of Tumu Fortress |
|
| 1516 |
|
First Portuguese settlement in Macau |
|
| 1556 |
|
Earthquake in Shaanxi and Gansu. 850,000 casualties |
|
| 1582 |
|
Jesuits begin mission work in China |
|
| 1616 |
|
Nurhaci founds the Qing Dynasty in Manchuria |
|
| 1619 |
|
Battle of Sarhu |
|
| 1627 |
|
First Manchu expedition to Korea |
|
| 1637 |
|
Second Manchu expedition to Korea |
|
| 1644 |
|
|
|
| Qing Dynasty |
Shunzhi |
|
|
| 1661 |
|
|
| 1662 |
Kangxi |
|
|
| 1680 |
First Portuguese governor in Macau |
|
| 1711 |
The British East India Company establishes a trading post in Guangzhou |
|
| 1722 |
|
|
| 1723 |
Yongzheng |
|
|
| 1735 |
|
|
| Qianlong |
|
|
| 1793 |
Lord Macartney, first British envoy to Beijing |
|
| 1796 |
|
|
| Jiaqing |
|
|
| 1814 |
First recorded Chinese convert to Christianism |
|
| 1820 |
|
|
| 1821 |
Daoguang |
|
|
| 1839 |
First Opium War |
|
| 1842 |
Treaty of Nanjing |
| 1850 |
|
|
| 1851 |
Xianfeng |
Taiping Rebellion |
|
| 1854 |
|
| 1856 |
Second Opium War |
|
| 1858 |
Treaties of Tianjin |
| 1860 |
Beijing Convention |
| 1861 |
|
|
| 1862 |
Tongzhi |
|
|
| 1874 |
|
|
| 1875 |
Guangxu |
|
|
| 1876 |
Chefoo Convention |
|
| 1884 |
Franco-Chinese War |
|
| 1885 |
Battle of Foochow |
| 1894 |
First Sino-Japanese War |
Battle of Yalu River |
| 1895 |
Treaty of Shimonoseki |
| 1898 |
Hundred Days' Reform |
Coup by Empress Dowager Cixi |
| 1900 |
Boxer Rebellion |
|
| 1908 |
|
|
| Pu-yi |
|
|
| 1911 |
Wuchang Uprising |
|
| Republic of China |
| Date |
Ruling entity |
President |
Events |
Other people/events |
| 1912 |
Republic of China |
Sun Yat Sen |
|
|
| 1913 |
|
|
| Yuan Shikai |
|
|
| 1915 |
|
|
| 1919 |
|
May Fourth Movement |
|
| 1921 |
|
Foundation Communist Party of China |
|
| 1926 |
|
Northern Expedition |
|
| 1927 |
|
Kuomintang-Communist split |
| |
Nanchang Uprising |
| 1928 |
|
|
| 1931 |
|
Chinese Soviet Republic |
Mukden Incident |
| 1932 |
Lin Sen |
Japan declares Manchukuo in Manchuria, independent from China |
| 1934 |
|
| |
Long March |
| 1935 |
|
| 1936 |
Xian incident |
Japan establishes the Mengjiang |
| 1937 |
Second Sino-Japanese War |
Marco Polo Bridge Incident |
| Battle of Nanjing |
| 1938 |
Battle of Tai er zhuang |
| 1940 |
Battle of Hundred Regiments |
| 1943 |
|
|
| Chiang Kai-Shek |
|
| 1945 |
The nationalist government is one of the founding members of the UN |
| 1949 |
|
|
| Mainland China |
| Date |
Ruling entity |
Chairman/President |
Events |
Other people/events |
| 1949 |
People's Republic of China |
Mao Zedong |
Founding of the People's Republic of China |
|
| 1950 |
Battle of Chosin Reservoir |
Korean War |
| 1951 |
Occupation of Tibet |
| 1953 |
|
| 1956 |
Hundred Flowers campaign |
|
| 1957 |
|
| 1958 |
Great Leap Forward |
|
| 1959 |
Three Years of Natural Disasters |
| 1960 |
| Sino-Soviet split |
| 1961 |
|
| 1962 |
Sino-Indian War |
|
| 1964 |
State Council decrees it is acceptable to abbreviate most characters listed in the Plan for Character Simplification |
The PRC detonates its first atomic bomb |
| 1966 |
Cultural Revolution |
The Little Red Book |
| 1969 |
Opening of the first subway line in Beijing: 17 stations |
| 1970 |
First satellite launch, using Long March rocket |
|
| 1971 |
The PRC replaces the ROC as a permanent member of the UN Security Council |
|
| 1972 |
Richard Nixon visits China. Shanghai Communiqué |
|
| 1974 |
Discovery of the Terracotta Army |
|
| 1976 |
Tiananmen incident |
Death of Zhou Enlai |
| Hua Guofeng of Deng Xiaoping Period |
|
|
| 1977 |
Beijing Spring |
|
| 1978 |
Start of Chinese economic reforms |
Democracy Wall Movement |
| 1979 |
One child policy |
| USA and PRC establish full diplomatic relations |
Visit of Deng Xiaoping to Washington, D.C |
| Border-war with Vietnam |
|
| 1980 |
First Special Economic Zones |
Trial of the Gang of Four |
| 1981 |
|
|
| Hu Yaobang of Deng Xiaoping Period |
|
|
| 1984 |
Margaret Thatcher in China, signs Sino-British Joint Declaration,
to handover of Hong Kong to the PRC in 1997 |
|
| 1987 |
|
|
| Zhao Ziyang of Deng Xiaoping Period |
|
|
| 1989 |
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 |
|
| Jiang Zemin of Deng Xiaoping Period |
|
| 1991 |
First McDonald's restaurant in Beijing |
|
| 1996 |
Large PRC military maneuvers in Taiwan Strait |
|
| 1997 |
Hong Kong handover, becomes a Special administrative region |
Death of Deng Xiaoping |
| 1999 |
Macau handover |
|
| 2000 |
The PRC passes Japan as the country with which the USA has the largest
trade deficit |
|
| 2001 |
Accession to World Trade Organization |
Beijing elected to hold the 2008 Summer Olympics |
| 2002 |
16th Party Congress |
|
| 2003 |
Hu Jintao |
SARS outbreak |
Shenzhou 5, PRC's first manned space mission |
| ROC in Taiwan |
| Date |
Ruling entity |
President |
Events |
Other people/events |
| 1945 |
Republic of China
(Continued) |
Chiang Kai-Shek |
|
|
| 1947 |
February 28 Incident |
|
| 1949 |
Kuomintang retreats to Taiwan |
|
| 1971 |
The PRC replaces the ROC as a permanent member of the UN Security Council |
|
| 1975 |
|
|
| Yen Chia-jin |
|
|
| 1978 |
|
|
| Chiang Ching-Kuo |
|
|
| 1979 |
Taiwan Relations Act passed by the United States Congress |
|
| 1988 |
|
|
| Lee Teng-hui |
|
|
| 1996 |
Large PRC military maneuvers in Taiwan Strait |
ROC Presidential Election 1996 |
| 2000 |
ROC Presidential Election 2000 |
|
| Chen Shui-bian |
|
|
| 2001 |
Accession to World Trade Organization |
|
| 2003 |
SARS outbreak |
|