Historical events, through ordinary lives

216 wars, famines, epidemics, migrations and depressions. Each page gives the death toll and its sources, then lets you be born a few years before it in a place it hit, and see what it did to five ordinary people, from the poorest fifth to the richest.

Antiquity and the early Middle Ages (1–999)

Antonine Plague 165–180
Yellow Turban Rebellion 184–205
Wars of the Three Kingdoms 190–280
Plague of Cyprian 249–262
Fall of the Western Roman Empire 376–476
Justinian's reconquest wars 533–554
Plague of Justinian 541–549
Recurrences of the first plague pandemic 558–750
Early Muslim conquests 632–750
Indian Ocean slave trade 700–1799
An Lushan Rebellion 755–763
Abbasid prosperity (Islamic Golden Age) 786–1000
Viking raids 793–1066
Classic Maya collapse 800–950
Norse settlement of Iceland 874–930
Song dynasty commercial revolution 960–1270
Chola expansion 985–1070

The Middle Ages (1000–1499)

Polynesian settlement of Hawaii 1000–1200
The Crusades 1096–1291
Thule migration across the Arctic 1200–1300
Rise of Great Zimbabwe 1200–1450
Mongol conquest of the Jin 1211–1234
Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire 1219–1223
Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus' 1237–1242
Polynesian settlement of New Zealand 1250–1300
Mongol sack of Baghdad 1258
Mongol conquest of the Song 1268–1279
Great Famine of 1315–1317 1315–1317
Hundred Years' War 1337–1453
Black Death 1346–1353
Return of the plague 1360–1400
Conquests of Timur 1381–1405
Timur's sack of Delhi 1398–1399
Fall of Constantinople 1453
Sengoku period 1467–1590
Expulsion of the Jews from Spain 1492
Collapse of the Taíno population 1493–1530

Early modern times (1500–1799)

Atlantic slave trade (West Africa) 1501–1799
Atlantic slave trade (Kongo and Angola) 1514–1799
Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire 1519–1521
Smallpox epidemic in Mexico 1520–1521
Smallpox in the Inca Empire 1525–1527
Ethiopian–Adal war 1529–1543
Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire 1532–1572
Cocoliztli epidemic of 1545 1545–1548
Plantation slavery in Brazil 1550–1799
Cocoliztli epidemic of 1576 1576–1578
Russian conquest of Siberia 1580–1700
Moroccan invasion of the Songhai Empire 1591–1599
Imjin War 1592–1598
Tokugawa peace 1603–1780
Epidemic in coastal New England 1616–1619
Thirty Years' War 1618–1648
Dutch conquest of the Banda Islands 1621
Late Ming famines and rebellions 1627–1644
Italian plague of 1629–1631 1629–1631
Deccan famine of 1630–1632 1630–1632
Sugar slavery in the Caribbean 1640–1799
Ming–Qing transition 1644–1683
Slavery in the British North American colonies 1660–1799
Great Plague of London 1665–1666
Little Ice Age famines of the 1690s 1693–1698
1707 Hōei earthquake and Fuji eruption 1707–1708
1755 Lisbon earthquake 1755
Burmese–Siamese War and fall of Ayutthaya 1765–1767
Bengal famine of 1770 1769–1771
Spanish missions in California 1769–1799
Great Tenmei famine 1782–1788
Laki haze and the cold winter of 1783–1784 1783–1784
Laki eruption and the Haze Famine 1783–1785
Smallpox epidemic around Sydney 1789–1790

The 19th century (1800–1899)

Atlantic slave trade, final decades 1800–1866
Slavery in the United States 1800–1865
Slavery in Brazil 1800–1888
Serfdom in the Russian Empire 1800–1861
Napoleonic Wars 1803–1815
Fulani War and the Sokoto Caliphate 1804–1808
Spanish American wars of independence 1808–1826
Eruption of Mount Tambora 1815–1816
British emigration to the colonies and America 1815–1913
Year Without a Summer 1816–1817
First cholera pandemic 1817–1824
Java War 1825–1830
Cultivation System in Java 1830–1870
Abolition of slavery in the British Empire 1834–1838
Indian indenture system 1834–1917
First Opium War 1839–1842
German emigration to the Americas 1840–1893
Great Famine in Ireland 1845–1852
Chinese emigration from Guangdong and Fujian 1845–1913
Third cholera pandemic 1846–1860
Mexican–American War 1846–1848
Taiping Rebellion 1850–1864
Victorian gold rush 1851–1869
Irish emigration after the Famine 1852–1913
Crimean War 1853–1856
Third plague pandemic 1855–1930
Indian Rebellion of 1857 1857–1858
French conquest of Vietnam 1858–1887
American Civil War 1861–1865
January Uprising 1863–1864
Paraguayan War (War of the Triple Alliance) 1864–1870
Meiji Restoration 1868–1889
Polish emigration "za chlebem" 1870–1913
Persian famine of 1870–1872 1870–1872
Franco-Prussian War 1870–1871
Long Depression 1873–1879
Reforms of King Chulalongkorn 1874–1910
Northern Chinese Famine 1876–1879
Great Famine of 1876–1878 1876–1878
Anglo-Zulu War 1879
Great Italian emigration 1880–1913
Pogroms in the Russian Empire 1881–1906
Anglo-Egyptian War and British occupation 1882
Eruption of Krakatoa 1883
Third Anglo-Burmese War and annexation 1885–1887
Atrocities in the Congo Free State 1885–1908
Great Ethiopian Famine 1888–1892
African rinderpest epizootic 1888–1897
1889–1890 flu pandemic ("Russian flu") 1889–1890
Russian famine of 1891–1892 1891–1892
Panic of 1893 1893–1897
First Sino-Japanese War 1894–1895
Hamidian massacres 1894–1896
First Italo-Ethiopian War 1895–1896
Spanish–American War 1898
Sixth cholera pandemic 1899–1923
Boxer Rebellion 1899–1901
Indian famine of 1899–1900 1899–1900
Philippine–American War 1899–1902
Thousand Days' War 1899–1902
Second Boer War 1899–1902

1900 to 1945

Russo-Japanese War 1904–1905
Herero and Nama genocide 1904–1908
Maji Maji Rebellion 1905–1907
Korea under Japanese rule 1910–1945
Mexican Revolution 1910–1920
Balkan Wars 1912–1913
World War I in Europe 1914–1918
World War I in the Ottoman Empire 1914–1918
World War I for the United States, Canada and Australia 1914–1918
Armenian genocide 1915–1917
Great Migration of Black Americans 1916–1970
Russian Revolution and Civil War 1917–1922
1918 influenza pandemic 1918–1920
Turkish War of Independence and population exchange 1919–1923
Irish War of Independence and Civil War 1919–1923
Great Depression 1929–1939
Dust Bowl 1930–1939
Holodomor 1932–1933
Italian invasion and occupation of Ethiopia 1935–1941
Great Purge 1936–1938
Spanish Civil War 1936–1939
Second Sino-Japanese War 1937–1945
World War II on the Eastern Front 1939–1945
World War II in Western Europe 1939–1945
World War II for the United States, Canada and Australia 1939–1945
The Holocaust 1941–1945
World War II in Japan 1941–1945
Japanese occupation of the Philippines 1941–1945
Japanese occupation of Indonesia, Burma and Vietnam 1942–1945
Bracero program and Mexican migration to the United States 1942–2007
Bengal famine of 1943 1943–1944
Indonesian War of Independence 1945–1949

Since 1946

Chinese Civil War 1946–1949
Partition of India 1947–1948
Apartheid 1948–1994
Division of Germany 1949–1990
Korean War 1950–1953
Italian economic miracle and the move north 1950–1970
Egyptian revolution of 1952 and land reform 1952–1961
Mau Mau uprising and the Kenya Emergency 1952–1960
Algerian War and French conscription 1954–1962
Japanese postwar economic boom 1955–1973
Vietnam War 1955–1975
Great Leap Forward famine 1959–1961
Turkish labour migration to West Germany 1961–1973
Korean economic miracle 1962–1996
Vietnam War and the American draft 1964–1973
Brazilian military dictatorship 1964–1985
Colombian armed conflict 1964–2016
Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66 1965–1966
Cultural Revolution 1966–1976
Green Revolution in India 1966–1985
Nigerian Civil War (Biafra) 1967–1970
Egypt's wars with Israel (1967–1973) 1967–1973
Ujamaa villagization in Tanzania 1967–1977
1970 Bhola cyclone 1970
Bangladesh Liberation War 1971
Martial law under Marcos 1972–1986
Migration to the Gulf 1973–2025
Cambodian genocide 1975–1979
The Emergency in India 1975–1977
Dirty War in Argentina 1976–1983
Iranian Revolution 1978–1982
China's reform and opening 1978–2015
Soviet–Afghan War 1979–1989
Iran–Iraq War 1980–1988
One-child policy 1980–2015
Ethiopian famine of 1983–85 1983–1985
HIV/AIDS epidemic in southern and eastern Africa 1985–2015
Collapse of the Soviet Union 1991–1998
Rwandan genocide 1994
1997 Asian financial crisis 1997–1999
Second Congo War 1998–2003
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) 2001–2021
Iraq War 2003–2011
2004 Indian Ocean tsunami 2004
Mexican drug war 2006–2025
2008 financial crisis 2008–2010
Syrian civil war 2011–2024
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami 2011
Rohingya genocide 2016–2017
COVID-19 pandemic 2020–2022
Myanmar civil war since the 2021 coup 2021–2025
Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022–2025