Timeline of Christianity

The following timeline of Christianity summarizes some of the most important events in Christianity since its founding about 2,000 years ago. (Events in light grey are non-religious events included for historical context.)

c. 4 BC Birth of Jesus
c. 26 AD John the Baptist begins ministry
c. 27 AD Jesus begins ministry
c. 30 AD Crucifixion of Jesus
c. 35 Conversion of Paul
c. 44 Martyrdom of James
c. 46-48 Paul's first missionary journey
c. 49 Council of Jerusalem
c. 50-52 Paul's second missionary journey
c. 51-52 First and Second Thessalonians written
c. 53-57 Paul's third missionary journey
c. 57 Letter to the Romans written
c. 59-62 Paul imprisoned in Rome
c. 60 Andrew martyred by crucifixion in Achaia (Greece).
c. 66-67 Second Timothy written
c. 68 Martyrdom of Paul
70 Fall of Jerusalem
c. 90-95 John exiled on island of Patmos
c. 95 Book of Revelation written
c. 96 Clement of Rome's Letter to the Corinthians written
c. 120 Didache written
202 Christians persecuted under Septimus Severus
211 Christians tolerated under Emperor Antoninus Caracalla
222 Christians favored Emperor Alexander Severus
230 Origen's On First Principles
235 Christians persecuted under Emperor Maximin the Thracian
238 Christians tolerated under Emperor Gordian III
244 Christians favored under Emperor Philip the Arabian
251 Cyprian's Unity of the Catholic Church
254 Death of Origen
303 Diocletian orders burning of Christian books and churches
312 Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity
313 Edict of Milan establishes official toleration of Christianity
325 Council of Nicea
336 Death of Constantine
354 Birth of Augustine
367 Athanasius lists all 27 books of NT
379 Basil the Great dies
380 Christianity made official religion of Roman Empire
381 Council of Constantinople
386 Augustine converts to Christianity
389 Gregory of Nazianzus dies
395 Gregory of Nyssa dies
c. 400 Jerome's Vulgate (translation of the Greek Bible into Latin)
407 John Chrysostom dies
411 Council of Carthage condemns Donatists
417 Pope Innocent I condemns Pelagianism
420 Death of Jerome
430 Death of Augustine
431 Council of Ephesus
451 Council of Chalcedon
787 Second Council of Nicea
950 Olga of Russia converts to Christianity
1054 Great Schism between East and West
1093 Anselm becomes Archbishop of Canterbury
1095 Council of Clermont: Pope Urban II proclaims First Crusade
1098 Crusaders take Antioch from Turks
1099 Crusaders recapture Jerusalem from Turks
1122 Concordat of Worms
1141 Peter Abelard condemned
1144 Fall of Edessa (crusader state)
1187 Fall of Jerusalem to Turks
1215 Fourth Lateran Council
1309 "Babylonian Captivity" (until 1377)
1337 Hundred Years' War (until 1453)
1378 Great Western Schism (until 1423)
1409 Council of Pisa
1413-14 Lollard rebellion
1415 Council of Constance. Martyrdom of Jan Hus.
1420 Crusade against Hussites
1431 Joan of Arc martyred
1431-49 Council of Basel
1438-45 Council of Ferrara-Florence
1453 Fall of Constantinople to Turks
1478 Spanish Inquisition founded by Ferdinand and Isabella
1483 Birth of Martin Luther
1492 Expulsion of Jews from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella
1505 Luther becomes a monk
1517 Luther posts 95 Theses
1521 Luther excommunicated
1530 Augsburg Confession
1534 Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy
1536 Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion
1541 Colloquy of Regensburg
1555 Peace of Augsburg
1559 Elizabeth I's Act of Uniformity
1590 Michelangelo completes the dome of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome
1609 Baptist Church founded by John Smyth
1611 King James (Authorized) Version of the Bible produced
1729 Beginnings of Methodism, led by John Wesley
1738 John Wesley feels his "heart strangely warmed" during a reading of Luther's preface to Romans on Aldersgate Street in London
1775 American Wars of Independence begin
1783 America wins independence from Britain
1793 Louis XVI executed
1797 Second Awakening begins
1798 Pope Pius VI is prisoner of France
1799 Schleiermacher writes Speeches
1801 Cane Ridge Revival
1804 Napoleon becomes emperor
1807 Hegel writes Phenomenology of the Spirit
1808 French occupy Rome
1810 Mexico wins independence
1812-14 British-American War
1814 Reorganization of the Jesuits
1816 American Bible Society established
1822 Schleiermacher writes Christian Faith
1826 American Society for the Promotion of Temperance founded
1830 Joseph Smith produces Book of Mormon
1834 Spanish Inquisition officially abolished
1838 Abolition of slavery in the British Caribbean
1841 David Livingstone to Africa
1845 Methodists and Baptists split over the issue of slavery
1846 Pope Pius IX (until 1878)
1854 Dogma of Immaculate Conception of Mary
1859 Darwin publishes Origin of the Species
1861-65 American Civil War
1861 Presbyterians divide over the issue of slavery
1869 First Vatican Council
1870 Dogma of Papal Infallibility
1872 Moody begins preaching
1875 Mary Baker Eddy writes Science and Health
1882 Neitzsche declares "God is dead"
1895 Five Fundamentals
1900 Freud's Interpretation of Dreams
1906 Azusa Street revival
1908 Henry Ford introduces the Model T
1910 World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh
1914 Assemblies of God founded
1914-18 World War I
1917 Russian Revolution
1919 Prohibition passed into law
1925 Scopes "Monkey" trial
1932 Barth's Church Dogmatics
1939 Hitler invades Poland and sparks WWI
1945 Nag Hammadi Library discovered in Egypt;
US drops atomic bombs on Japan
1947 India wins independence from U.K.
1948 World Council of Churches founded
1950 Papal encyclical Humani generis
1956 First issue of Christianity Today
1960 Birth control pill approved by FDA
1961 First human in space
Papal encyclical Mater et Magistra
1962-65 Second Vatican Council
1963 MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech
1968 Papal encyclical Humanae vitae
1969 First man on the moon
1971 Intel introduces the microprocessor
1973 Roe vs. Wade
1987-88 Televangelist scandals
1989 First woman ordained in an apostolic-succession church (the Protestant Episcopal church). Fall of the Berlin Wall.
1997 Birth of the internet