2nd millennium

From left, clockwise: In 1492, Christopher Columbus; The American Revolution; The French Revolution; The Atomic Bomb from World War II; An alternate source of light, the Light Bulb; For the first time, a human being sets foot on the moon in 1969 during the Apollo 11 moon mission; Aeroplanes become the most-used way of transport though the skies; Napoleon Bonaparte, in the early 19th century, affects France and Europe on subjects of expansionism and modernization; Alexander Graham Bell's telephone; In 1348, the Black Death kills over 100 million people worldwide, and over half of Europe, in two years. (Background: An excerpt from the Gutenberg Bible, the first printed-by-press book, in the 1450s)

Millennia:	1st millennium 2nd millennium 3rd millennium
Centuries:	11th century 12th century 13th century 14th century 15th century 16th century 17th century 18th century 19th century 20th century

The second millennium is a period of time that, according to official sources, such as the United States Naval Observatory, began on January 1, 1001, and ended on December 31, 2000, of the Gregorian calendar.^[1] It encompassed the High Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Early Modern Age, the age of colonialism, industrialization, the rise of nation states, and the 20th century with the impact of science, widespread education, and universal health care and vaccinations in many nations. The centuries of expanding large-scale warfare with high-tech weaponry (of the World Wars and nuclear bombs) were offset by growing peace movements from the United Nations, the Peace Corps, religious campaigns warning against violence, plus doctors and health workers crossing borders to treat injuries and disease and the return of the Olympics as contest without combat.

Scientists prevailed in explaining intellectual freedom; humans took their first steps on the Moon during the 20th century; and new technology was developed by governments, industry, and academia across the world, with education shared by many international conferences and journals. The development of movable type, radio, television, and the Internet spread information worldwide, within minutes, in audio, video, and print-image format to educate, entertain, and alert billions of people by the end of the 20th century.

The 15th century saw the beginning of the second migration of humans from Europe, Africa and Asia to The Americas, beginning the ever-accelerating process of globalization. The interwoven international trade led to the formation of multi-national corporations, with home offices in multiple countries. International business ventures reduced the impact of nationalism in popular thought.

The world population doubled over the first seven centuries of the millennium, (from 310 million in AD 1000 to 600 million in AD 1700), and later increased tenfold over its last three centuries, exceeding to 6 billion in AD 2000.

Calendar

The 2nd millennium was a period of time that commenced on January 1, 1001, and ended on December 31, 2000. This is the second period of one thousand years Anno Domini.^[1]

The Julian calendar was used in Europe at the beginning of the millennium, and all countries that once used the Julian calendar had adopted the Gregorian calendar by the end of it. So the end date is always calculated according to the Gregorian calendar, but the beginning date is usually according to the Julian calendar (or occasionally the Proleptic Gregorian calendar).

Stephen Jay Gould argued that it is not possible to decide if the millennium ended December 31, 1999, or December 31, 2000.^[2] The Associated Press reported that the third millennium began January 1, 2001, but also reported that celebrations in the US were generally more subdued at the beginning of 2001, compared to the beginning of 2000.^[3]

The second millennium is perhaps more popularly thought of as beginning and ending a year earlier, thus starting at the beginning of 1000 and finishing at the end of 1999. Many public celebrations for the end of the millennium were held on December 31, 1999 – January 1, 2000^[4]—with few on the actual date a year later.

Civilizations

The civilizations in this section are organized according to the UN geoscheme.

**Civilizations of the 2nd millennium AD**
Africa	The Americas	Asia	Europe	Oceania
Fatimid Empire Mamluk Sultanate Almoravid dynasty Almohad dynasty Ayyubids Saadi dynasty Mali Empire Songhai Empire Sokoto Caliphate Funj sultanate of Sinnar Ashanti Empire Kingdom of Dahomey Ottoman Empire Oyo Empire. Benin Empire Kongo Empire Merina Kingdom Buganda Empire Kingdom of Rwanda Kingdom of Burundi Empire of Kitara Mutapa Empire Maravi Empire Luba Empire Lunda Empire Zulu Empire Kingdom of Nri Kingdom of Bonny Opobo Onitsha Kalabari Kingdom Jukun	Aztec Empire Inca Empire Iroquois Confederacy United States of America Canada Empire of Brazil Mexican Empire	Afsharid dynasty Chola Dynasty Empire of Japan Tondo Dynasty Goryeo Hoysala Empire Jin Dynasty Joseon Dynasty Khmer Empire Liao Dynasty Ming Dynasty Mongol Empire Mughal Empire Ottoman Empire Pagan Kingdom Qing Dynasty Safavids Seljuks Song Dynasty Vijayanagara Empire Western Xia Yuan Dynasty Zand dynasty First Philippine Republic Pakistan Republic of India Bangladesh Philippines	Byzantine Empire (330–1453) Kingdom of England Holy Roman Empire Kingdom of France Kingdom of Bosnia (1154-1463) French colonial empire (1605–1960) Dutch Empire (1543–1975) Kingdom of Hungary (1000–1526) Crown of Aragon Crown of Castile Ottoman Empire (1299–1922) Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) Kievan Rus (880-1150) Kingdom of Serbia (1217-1346) Serbian Empire (1346-1371) Kingdom of Poland Spanish Empire (1402–1975) Portuguese Empire (1415–2000) Habsburg Empire (1526–1867) Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867-1918) British Empire (1583–1997) German Empire (1871-1918) Third Reich (1933-1945) Russian Empire (1721-1917) Soviet Union (1922-1991)	Tuʻi Tonga Empire (c.950-1865)

Events

The events in this section are organized according to the UN geoscheme.

Events of the 2nd millennium AD
	Africa	The Americas	Asia	Europe	Oceania
11th century	1043 Eze Nri Ìfikuánim becomes first king of Nri Kingdom 1054 Almoravid dynasty established^[5] 1060 Kingdom of Kanem converts to Islam^[5]	1000 Cahokia (present-day Illinois, USA) becomes regional chiefdom of Mississippian culture	1005 Treaty of Shanyuan signed 1008 The Tale of Genji completed^[6] 1044 Gunpowder recipe published^[6]	1054 The East–West Schism divides the Christian church 1088 The foundation of the first University^[6] 1095 First Crusade^[6]
12th century	1143 Almohad dynasty take control from the Almoravids^[5] 1171 Salah-ad-Din deposes Fatimid ruler of Egypt and establishes the Ayyubid dynasty^[5] 1173 Ayyubids capture Qasr Ibrim in Nubia^[5]	1100 Toltecs establish capital at Tula^[7] 1124 Arnaldur appointed first bishop of Greenland^[7] 1175 Destruction of Toltec civilization^[7]	1117 The magnetic compass is used at sea^[6] 1120 Meng Yuanlao describes four-star dining in Kaifeng^[6] 1150 Construction of Angkor Wat^[6] 1192 Defeat of Prithviraj Chauhan in second Battle of Tarain	1169 Averoes translates Aristotle^[6]
	Africa	The Americas	Asia	Europe	Oceania
13th century	1200 Kingdom of Mwenemutapa established in Zimbabwe^[5] 1203 Sumaguru Kante of Sosso conquers kingdom of Ghana ^[5] 1250 Mamluk soldiers take Egypt from the Ayyubids ^[5]	1200 Chichén Itzá abandoned^[7] 1200 Kingdom of Cuzco founded ^[7] 1200 Expansion of Chimú state of Chimor ^[7]	1206 Genghis Khan Builds an Empire^[6]	1215 Magna Carta^[6] 1260 Dedication of the Cathedral at Chartres^[6]	1200 Tahitians colonize Hawaii ^[7]
14th century	1324 Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca^[6] 1365 Crusade led by king of Cyprus sacks Alexandria^[5] 1375 Kingdom of Songhai breaks away from Mali ^[5]	1315 Founding of Tenochtitlan^[6] 1350 Norsemen abandon Greenland^[7] 1350 War between Inca and Chimú^[7]	1350 Coffee was first brewed^[6] 1368 Zhu Yuanzhang ousts the Mongols from power^[8]	1348 Black Plague^[6] 1350 Emergence of fashion^[6] 1382 Wycliffe's Bible	1300 Polynesian immigration to New Zealand^[9] 1300 Hawaiians develop class structure^[10] 1300 Huge stone statues erected on Easter Island^[10]
	Africa	The Americas	Asia	Europe	Oceania
15th century	1400 capital of Sayfawa Dynasty moved to Borno 1400 Funj settled Alodia 1496 Spain conquers Melilla, Morocco^[5]	1470 Incas conquer Chimú empire ^[7] 1428 Aztecs conquer Atzcapotzalco, ally with Texcoco and Tlacopan, become the dominant state in Mexico^[7] 1492 Voyages of Christopher Columbus^[6]	1407 Work begins on Forbidden City, Beijing^[8] 1431 Ayutthaya conquers Angkor ^[8]	1413 The invention of linear perspective^[6] 1453 Ottoman conquest of Constantinople^[6] 1455 Gutenberg Bible printed^[6]	1400 Tongans build ceremonial centre at Muʻa^[10]
16th century	1546 Songhai Empire takes Niani 1509 African slaves arrive in the Americas^[6] 1517 Ottomans capture Egypt^[11] 1535 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V conquers Tunis^[11]	1535 Europeans discover tobacco^[6] 1537 Europeans discover potatoes^[6] 1545 The discovery of silver in the Andes mountains^[6]	1555 Rise of the Mughal Empire in South Asia;	1517 The Ninety-Five Theses published^[6] 1543 Publication of On the Structure of the Human Body^[6] 1596 Invention of the toilet^[6]	1550 Maoris of New Zealand build fortified enclosures^[12]
	Africa	The Americas	Asia	Europe	Oceania
17th century	1600 Kingdom of Rwanda founded 1600 Dahomey Kingdom founded 1644 Start of the Char Bouba^[11]	1607 Virginia colony founded^[13] 1624 Manhattan island purchased from Native Americans^[13] 1697 Last Mayan resistance defeated ^[13]	1610 Tea spreads to the world^[6] 1637 Japanese prohibition against European contact^[14]	1603 First performance of Hamlet^[6] 1610 Galileo publishes his observations of Jupiter^[6] 1666 Discovery of gravitation^[6]	1600 Tu'i Konokupolu dynasty take power in Tonga^[12] 1642 Abel Tasman sights New Zealand^[15]
18th century	1700 Maravi Empire tears apart 1754 Usman dan Fodio is born 1799 Discovery of the Rosetta Stone^[6]	1742 Native American revolt against Spanish in Peru^[6] 1776 United States Declaration of Independence published^[6]	1751 Chinese occupy Tibet^[14] 1760 Rise of the British Rule in India	1722 Bach composed the Well-Tempered Clavier^[6] 1769 Invention of the steam engine^[6] 1796 The first vaccination^[6]	1795 Formation of the Kingdom of Hawaii
	Africa	The Americas	Asia	Europe	Oceania
19th century	1869 The Suez Canal opens^[6] 1879 Battle of Isandlwana 1896 Battle of Adwa	1821 Bolívar liberates Venezuela^[6] 1876 Menlo Park opens^[6] 1876 First telephone transmission^[6]	1868 End of Japanese seclusion^[6]	1830 First steam railway^[6] 1859 Origin of Species^[6] 1882 Germ theory proven^[6]	1840 Treaty of Waitangi signed^[16] 1845 New Zealand land wars^[17] 1845 Formation of the Kingdom of Tonga by Taufaʻahau
20th century	1956 Suez Crisis^[18] 1967 Six-Day War^[18] 1994 End of apartheid^[18]	1903 First controlled, powered airplane flight^[6] 1908 Ford builds the Model T^[6] 1928 First television broadcast^[6]	1917 The Russian Revolution^[6] 1934 Mao's long march^[6] 1945 Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki^[6] 1947 Partition of India 1971 Formation of Bangladesh 1992 Destruction of the Babri Mosque by Hindus	1901 First transatlantic radio transmission^[6] 1914 Beginning of World War I 1918 End of World War I 1928 Discovery of penicillin^[6] 1933 Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany^[6] 1939 Beginning of World War II 1945 End of World War II	1915 Australians and New Zealanders serve in the Gallipoli Campaign 1985 Nuclear Free Zone established in New Zealand^[19]

Significant people

The people in this section are organized according to the UN geoscheme.

Significant people of the 2nd millennium AD
	Africa	The Americas	Asia	Europe	Oceania
11th century	Humai ibn Salamna Eze Nri Ìfikuánim Yahya ibn Ibrahim	Eight Deer Jaguar Claw	Shen Kuo Omar Khayyám Su Sung	William the Conqueror Basil II Samuel William IX of Aquitaine
12th century	Abd al-Mu'min Saladin Dunama I	Manco Cápac	Minamoto no Yoritomo Bhaskara II Genghis Khan	Dante Alighieri Richard I of England Henry II of England Hildegard of Bingen
13th century	Sundiata Keita Dunama Dabbalemi Mansa Uli			Leonardo Fibonacci Marco Polo Pope John XXII William Wallace Thomas Aquinas	Roy Mata^[10]
14th century	Kato Kintu Ibn Khaldun Muhammad Ture	Acamapichtli	Yongle Emperor Madhava Timur	Filippo Brunelleschi Jan Hus Geoffrey Chaucer Guillaume de Machaut
15th century	Ilunga Tshibinda Sonni Ali Zara Yaqob	Moctezuma I	Hongxi Emperor Guru Nanak Dev	Leonardo da Vinci Luca Pacioli Lorenzo de' Medici Mehmed II Giovanni Domenico Cassini Nicolaus Copernicus Henry VII of England Niccolò Machiavelli Joan of Arc
	Africa	The Americas	Asia	Europe	Oceania
16th century	Idris Aloma Orompoto Ahmad al-Mansur	Atahualpa	Xu Guangqi Shah Jahan	Galileo Galilei Christopher Columbus William Shakespeare Suleiman I Michelangelo Martin Luther Elizabeth I of England
17th century	Wegbaja Osei Tutu Okomfo Anokye	Powhatan Pocahontas Squanto Roger Williams John Winthrop Anne Hutchinson	Matsuo Basho	Sir Isaac Newton Francesco Redi Peter the Great Thomas Hobbes Louis XIV of France James I of England and James VI of Scotland Charles I of England and Scotland
18th century	Usman Dan Fodio Opoku Ware I Dossou Agadja	Benjamin Franklin Thomas Jefferson George Washington Samuel Adams Paul Revere John Adams John Hancock Phillis Wheatley Abagail Adams Deborah Sampson	Qianlong Emperor Raja Ram Mohan Roy Siraj ud-Daulah	Napoleon Antonio Vivaldi Louis XVI of France Catherine the Great Mozart Johann Sebastian Bach Antonio Vivaldi Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Sake Dean Mahomed James Watt Voltaire Adam Smith William Herschel	Kamehameha I
19th century	Moshoeshoe I Shaka Menelik II	Thomas Edison Simón Bolívar Abraham Lincoln Francisco de Paula Santander George Washington Carver Grover Cleveland	Empress Dowager Cixi Mangal Pandey Swami Vivekananda Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar	Alessandro Volta Charles Darwin Giuseppe Garibaldi Giuseppe Mazzini Alessandro Manzoni Marie Curie Nikola Tesla Michael Faraday Alfred Nobel Alexander Graham Bell Vincent van Gogh Beethoven Frédéric Chopin Victoria I Bismarck Karl Marx	Te Kooti
20th century	Hassan al-Banna Sayyid Qutb Gamal Abdel Nasser Mo Ibrahim Nelson Mandela Desmond Tutu	Franklin D. Roosevelt John F. Kennedy Martin Luther King, Jr. Neil Armstrong Muhammad Ali Ronald Reagan	Mahatma Gandhi Muhammad Iqbal Mao Zedong Chiang Kai-shek Muhammad Ali Jinnah Abul A'la Maududi Azizul Haque Delwar Hossain Sayeedi Fazlur Rahman Khan Rabindranath Tagore Hirohito	Albert Einstein Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Joseph Stalin Vladimir Lenin Enrico Fermi Winston Churchill Werner Heisenberg Max Planck Max Born Paul Dirac Federico Fellini Luciano Pavarotti Pablo Picasso The Beatles	Donald Bradman Howard Florey Banjo Paterson

See also

Lists of people by nationality
Category:People by century
Category:People by nationality and period
Gottlieb, Agnes Hooper; Henry Gottlieb; Barbar Bowers; Brent Bowers (1998). 1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking the Men and Women Who Shaped the Millennium. Kodansha International. ISBN 1-56836-253-6.

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

Inventions, discoveries and introductions
Communication and Technology	Math and Science	Manufacturing	Transportation and Space exploration	Warfare
Printing press^[20]^[21] Telegraph^[20] Photography^[20] Telephone^[20] Animation^[20] Television^[20] Computer^[20] Transistor^[20] Satellite Internet^[20]^[21] Electrostatic generator	Calculus^[20] Vaccination^[21]^[22] Atomic theory^[22] Anesthesia^[21]^[22] Natural selection^[22] Genetics^[21]^[22] Special relativity^[22] Penicillin^[21]^[22] DNA^[22] Quantum mechanics^[22]	Canned food^[20] Plastic^[22] Assembly line^[20] Sliced bread^[20] Frozen food^[20] Nuclear reactor^[20] Food processor^[20]	Bicycle Steam engine Steam turbine Internal combustion engine Steam locomotive Human flight Moon landing Space shuttle Space station GPS navigation	Longbow Rockets Aircraft carrier Nuclear weapon Submarine Tanks Firearms

Centuries and decades

11th century	1000s^{[note 1]}	1010s	1020s	1030s	1040s	1050s	1060s	1070s	1080s	1090s
12th century	1100s	1110s	1120s	1130s	1140s	1150s	1160s	1170s	1180s	1190s
13th century	1200s	1210s	1220s	1230s	1240s	1250s	1260s	1270s	1280s	1290s
14th century	1300s	1310s	1320s	1330s	1340s	1350s	1360s	1370s	1380s	1390s
15th century	1400s	1410s	1420s	1430s	1440s	1450s	1460s	1470s	1480s	1490s
16th century	1500s	1510s	1520s	1530s	1540s	1550s	1560s	1570s	1580s	1590s
17th century	1600s	1610s	1620s	1630s	1640s	1650s	1660s	1670s	1680s	1690s
18th century	1700s	1710s	1720s	1730s	1740s	1750s	1760s	1770s	1780s	1790s
19th century	1800s	1810s	1820s	1830s	1840s	1850s	1860s	1870s	1880s	1890s
20th century	1900s	1910s	1920s	1930s	1940s	1950s	1960s	1970s	1980s	1990s

Notes

↑ 9 of the 10 years of the decade are in this millennium

References

↑ 1.0 1.1 United States Naval Observatory, "The 21st Century and the 3rd Millennium:When Did They Begin?" (Washington, DC, June 14, 2011).
↑ Stephen Jay Gould, Questioning the Millennium: A Rationalist's Guide to a Precisely Arbitrary Countdown (New York: Harmony Books, 1999), ch 2.
↑ Associated Press, "Y2K It Wasn't, but It Was a Party", Los Angeles Times, January 1, 2001.
↑ "Millennium FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions". When does the Millennium start?. Greenwich2000.ltd.uk. 2008-08-12. Archived from the original on 12 January 2009. Retrieved 2009-01-29.
↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9 5.10 "Africa AD 600–1500". World Timelines. The British Museum. 2005. Retrieved 2008-11-17.
↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 6.9 6.10 6.11 6.12 6.13 6.14 6.15 6.16 6.17 6.18 6.19 6.20 6.21 6.22 6.23 6.24 6.25 6.26 6.27 6.28 6.29 6.30 6.31 6.32 6.33 6.34 6.35 6.36 6.37 6.38 6.39 6.40 6.41 6.42 6.43 6.44 6.45 6.46 6.47 6.48 6.49 6.50 6.51 6.52 6.53 Toast, Scott (2002-02-19). "Top 100 Events of the Millennium". adapted from LIFE Magazine. Scott Toast. Retrieved 2008-11-14.
↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 7.9 7.10 "Americas AD 1000–1492". World Timelines. The British Museum. 2005. Retrieved 2008-11-16.
↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "Asia AD 1200–1500". World Timelines. The British Museum. 2005. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
↑ Whitmore, Robbie. "Timeline of events in New Zealand history". New Zealand in History. Retrieved 2008-11-16.
↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 "Oceania AD 1000–1520". World Timelines. The British Museum. 2005. Archived from the original on 21 November 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-16.
↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "Africa AD 1500–1850". World Timelines. The British Museum. 2005. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
↑ 12.0 12.1 "Oceania AD 1520–1770". World Timelines. The British Museum. 2005. Archived from the original on 21 November 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-16.
↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 "Americas 1492–1800". World Timelines. The British Museum. 2005. Retrieved 2008-11-16.
↑ 14.0 14.1 "Asia AD 1500–1800". World Timelines. The British Museum. 2005. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
↑ "European discovery of New Zealand". Encyclopedia of New Zealand
↑ Michael King (2003). The Penguin History of New Zealand. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-301867-1.
↑ Belich, James (1986). The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Conflict. Oxford University Press. ISBN 1-86940-002-X.
↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 "Africa AD 1950–2000". World Timelines. The British Museum. 2005. Retrieved 2008-11-23.
↑ "New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act". Retrieved 25 November 2008.
↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 20.7 20.8 20.9 20.10 20.11 20.12 20.13 20.14 20.15 "Greatest Inventions of All Time". i-dinnout.com. 2002-01-30. Archived from the original on 1 November 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-12.
↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 21.4 21.5 Keeley, Larry (2007-02-16). "The Greatest Innovations of All Time". BusinessWeek. The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Archived from the original on 7 December 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-12.
↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4 22.5 22.6 22.7 22.8 22.9 "The Big 100: the Science Channels 100 Greatest Discoveries". Discovery Communications, LLC. 2008. Archived from the original on 31 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-12.

Millennia

CE / AD	1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th and beyond

BCE / BC	200th and prior 200th to 11th 10th 9th 8th 7th 6th 5th 4th 3rd 2nd 1st