448 pages : illustrations, facsimiles, maps, portraits ; 29 cm
Other Title:
When, where, why and how it happened Reader's digest when, where, why & how it happened Reader's digest
Notes:
At head of title: Reader's digest "History's most dramatic events ... and how they changed the world" -- cover Printed in the United States of America, 1995 Includes index
Contents:
Events that changed the world. Before history began. The birth of history. From knot and notch to the alphabet. Israelites return to Canaan. From wilderness to promised land. The sack of Troy. A kingdom for a wooden horse. From a trade war to the Greek world's 'dark age' Ramesses III defeats the sea peoples. Raiders and settlers of the Mediterranean. The birth of Hinduism. Rama, hero and God of Hinduism. Invaders who brought India the caste system. The fall of golden Babylon. The birth of Buddhism. A faith without a God. Paths to perfection, and a reverence for life. The Battle of Salamis. A victory that inspired a golden age in Greece. Alexander the Great's conquests. Alexander's legacy, a 300-year Greek empire. Chinese build the Great Wall. The legacy of China's first emperor. The assassination of Julius Caesar. Wonders of the ancient world. The crucifixion. Jesus Christ dies on the cross. The conversion of Constantine. Christianity's triumph over rival faiths. The sack of Rome. The birth of Islam. Muhammad proclaims the faith. Charlemagne unites Christian Europe. A revival of learning in the Christian empire of the Franks. The battle of Hastings. The mailed fist that enforced Norman rule. Crusaders launch a 'holy war' The first crusade. Two centuries of strife between Christians and Muslims. Genghis Khan unites Mongols. King John seals Magna Carta. The black death ravages Europe. Joan of Arc at the stake. The arts of the renaissance. The fall of Constantinople. Columbus sails to the new world. Martin Luther challenges the church. Europe divided by the reformation. Cortes in Mexico. India falls to the tiger. Tsar's deadly reign of terror. Ivan the Terrible crowned. St. Bartholomew's day massacre. The Spanish armada. All the world's a stage. Galileo's telescope. The defenestration of Prague. Mayflower sails to America. The execution of Charles I. Louis XIV becomes absolute monarch. The siege of Vienna. The building of St. Petersburg. The Black Hole of Calcutta. The Battle of Leuthen. The industrial revolution. The fall of Quebec. Captain Cook's first voyage. America declares independence. The fall of the Bastille. The Lewis and Clark expedition. The rise and fall of an emperor. The Battle of Boyaca. The first photograph. The first electric dynamo. Battle of Blood River. Zulu dead stain 'Blood River' A world on the move. The first anaesthetics. New weapons in the war on pain and germs. The communist manifesto. The great exhibition. Black ships open Japan to the west. Indian mutineers batter Lucknow. Darwin's theory of evolution. Garibaldi's redshirts unite Italy. The unification of Italy. The Emancipation Proclamation. The Civil War. The Paris Commune. David Livingstone found. Massacre at the Little Bighorn. Wars that crushed the prairie tribes. Ellis Island opened. Arts for a new century. The Boxer Rebellion. The first transatlantic radio signal. The Wright brothers take off. Conquest of the skies by balloon, glider and aircraft. Russia's 'bloody Sunday' The Model-T Ford. The suffragettes. Assassination at Sarajevo. The Easter rising. Rebels raise the flag in Dublin. The Battle of the Somme. The Russian Revolution. Bolsheviks seize power in Russia. Cinema's golden years. The discovery of penicillin. The Wall Street crash. Radio enters its golden years. Hitler soars to power. Mao's army makes the long march. The bombing of Guernica. The Battle of Britain. Japan strikes at Pearl Harbor. The Battle of Stalingrad. The atomic bomb. Mushroom cloud over Hiroshima. Wonders of the modern world. The assassination of Gandhi. Israel: a state born into war. The Berlin airlift. DNA structure revealed. The secret of the double helix. Heredity explained by DNA's code. Birth of the TV industry. The early days of television. The wind of change in Africa. President Kennedy assassinated. The Beatles in America. Man on the moon. 'One giant leap for mankind' The collapse of communism. Berliners smash down the wall. Highlights in history. The population story in five continents
