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1839Asia - Afghanistan
 
First Anglo-Afghan War 
1845Asia - India
 
Anglo Sikh War 
1846North America
 

 
Unidentified photographer, 1846 (ca), Exeter, N.H. [Exeter, New Hampshire, volunteers leaving for the Mexican War], [Mexican-American War], Daguerreotype, 1/4 plate, Amon Carter Museum, LL/38724
Mexican War - it ends with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848). The surviving daguerreotypes are among the earliest taken of a war. 
1848Asia - India
 
Anglo Sikh War 
1848Europe
 

 
Charles-François Thibault, 1848, 26 June, The Barricade in rue Saint-Maur-Popincourt after the attack by General Lamoricière's troops, Daguerreotype, Source requested, LL/6255
Known as the Year of Revolutions in Europe with the Chartist uprising in London and the establishment of the Second Republic in France with bloody riots. 
1848Global
 
Communist Manifesto published 
1854Asia
 

 
Roger Fenton, 1855, Valley of the Shadow of Death, Salt print, J. Paul Getty Museum, LL/7333
Crimean War 
1856Asia - China
 

 
Felice Beato, 1860, Sir James Hope Grant, Albumen print, National Galleries of Scotland, LL/6823
Second Chinese Opium War 
1857Asia - India
 

 
Felice Beato, 1858 (ca), The Residency, Taken in Front, and Showing the Room in Which Sir Henry Lawrence was Killed, Lucknow., Albumen silver print, Brown University Library, Special Collections, LL/6833
The Indian Mutiny 
1858North America - Mexico
 
Civil War starts in Mexico and Benito Juárez (1806-1872) is elected president. 
1859Europe
 
The Austro-Sardinian War is fought between the French under Napoleon III and the Kingdom of Sardinia under Victor Emmanuel II on the one side and the Austro-Hungarian Empire on the other. The campaigns and battles (Montebello 20 May, Palestro 30 May, Magenta 4 June and Solferino 21 June) are photographed by Luigi Sacchi and Béraldy amongst others. 
1861North America - USA
 

 
Osborn & Durbec, 1861, April, Sumter after the bombardment, Stereo, DeGolyer Library, South Methodist University - SMU, LL/50099
Fort Sumter in Charleston is fired on by Confederate guns commencing the hostilities of the American Civil War (1861-1865). The fort surrenders after 33 hours of shelling and miraculously nobody on either side was killed or seriously injured. 
1861North America - Mexico
 
French forces are defeated in Mexico at the Battle of Peubla. 
1861Africa - West Africa
 
British establish a colony at Lagos in west Africa 
1861North America - USA
 
American Civil War 
1861Europe - Italy
 
Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy brought about by the Risorgimento
1864Europe - Denmark
 
Prussian and Austrian forces attack Denmark. 
1865South America
 

 
Esteban Garcia, n.d., [War of the Triple Alliance], Biblioteca Nacional, Uruguay, LL/6432
War of the Triple Alliance in South America - with Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay against Paraguay. 
1865North America - USA
 

 
Brady's National Photographic Portrait Galleries (New York & Washington DC), 1865, Funeral car of the late beloved President Lincoln (Manuscript title on verso) [Detail], Carte de visite, Jeffrey Kraus Antique Photographics, LL/10965
President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated in the Ford Theater in Washington by John Wilkes Booth. 
1866Europe
 
The Austro-Prussian War leads to Austria breaking away from the German states and the establishment of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867. 
1867North America - Mexico
 
Emperor Maximillan I is executed by firing squad in Mexico. This event was immortalized in the paintings of Édouard Manet (1832-1883). 
1867Europe
 
Austro-Hungarian Empire established 
1869Middle East - Egypt
 

 
Adolphe Braun, 1869, Groupe de voyageurs européens visitant les monuments égyptiens au moment de l'inauguration du canal de Suez, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département des Estampes et de la Photographie, LL/7845
The Suez Canal opens for traffic. 
1870Europe
 
Franco-Prussian War 
1871Europe - France
 

 
Unidentified photographer, 1871, 16 May, Destruction of the Colonne Vendôme, May 16, 1871., Albumen print, Northwestern University Library, McCormick Library of Special Collections, LL/6560
Paris Commune 
1871Europe
 
German Empire established 
1877Asia - India
 
Queen Victoria is crowned Empress of India. 
1878Africa - Northern Africa
 
France obtains control of Tunisia at the Congress of Berlin. 
1878Africa - Central Africa
 

 
Neurdein Frères, n.d., Leopold II, King of the Belgians, Carte de visite, Private collection of T. Max Hochstetler, LL/22019
King Leopold II of Belgium funds the exploration of the Congo river basin by Henry Morton Stanley. 
1879Africa - Southern Africa
 
British forces under Lord Chelmsford crush the Zulu kingdom. 
1884Africa
 
At the Berlin Conference Africa is partitioned between the European powers 
1885Africa - Central Africa
 
A Belgian Catholic missionary Group The White Fathers promote Christianity in the Congo. 
1885Africa - Sudan
 
The British forces at Khartoum in the Sudan under General Charles Gordon are attacked and he is slain. 
1892Europe - France
 

 
Aaron Gerschel, n.d., Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935), Cabinet card, Paul Frecker, LL/12049
The Dreyfus Affair in France highlights anti-Semitism and the innocent Alfred Dreyfus is finally exonerated in 1906. 
1894Asia - China
 

 
John A. Vaughan Studio, 1894, Sino-Japanese War, Albumen print, Old Japan, LL/9219
The First Sino-Japanese War - Japan defeats China and obtains control over Korea, Taiwan and the Penghu islands. 
1896Africa
 
Ethiopian army defeats Italian forces at the Battle of Adwa. 
1897Africa - West Africa
 
British Punitive Expedition against Benin City in West Africa 
1898North America - Cuba
 
Spanish American War 
1899South America - Columbia
 
War of a Thousand Days pulls Colombia apart. 
1899Africa - Southern Africa
 

 
Elliott & Fry, n.d., Baden Powell, hero of the Boer War and founder of the Boy Scout movement, Cabinet card, Stereographica - Antique Photographica, LL/11060
Boer War 
1904Asia
 

 
Kilburn Brothers, n.d., 16511 the Siberian Sharp-shooters taking up their position at Liao Yang, Manchuria (Detail), Stereocard, Jefferson Stereoptics, LL/11883
Russo-Japanese War 
1906Europe - Spain
 

 
Unidentified photographer / artist, n.d., After the explosion to [sic] Madrid, Stereocard, Paul Frecker, LL/12001
Attempted assassination of Alfonso XIII (1886-1941) and Princess Victoria-Eugenie of Battenburg in Madrid with a bomb on their wedding day. 
1914Global
 
First World War 
1914North America - Panama
 
Panama Canal completed 
1915Europe - Turkey
 
Armenian massacres 
1916Europe - Great Britain
 
The Easter Rising in Dublin fails to free Ireland from British rule. 
1917North America - USA
 
The US enters the First World War on the Allied side. 
1917Europe - Russia
 
Russian Revolution 
1917Middle East
 
Balfour Declaration gives support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine 
1918Europe
 
Armistice is signed ending the First World War. 
1918Europe - Germany
 
Following the First World War the German Empire collapses and the Weimar Republic is born. This initiates a period of political, social and artistic upheaval that stimulates new ideas in design, typography, art and photography. 
1919Europe
 
Treaty of Versailles is signed and settles, for a time, the issues raised by the First World War. 
1923North America - Mexico
 
Mexican revolutionary "Pancho" Villa (1878-1923) is assassinated 
1928Europe - Great Britain
 
The Equal Franchise Act in Great Britain grants voting rights to women and men over twenty-one. 
1929North America - USA
 
The Great Depression in the US 
1929North America - USA
 
Stock Market Crash (USA) 
1933Europe - Germany
 
Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany 
1935Africa
 
Second Italo-Abyssinian War 
1936Europe - Spain
 
Spanish Civil War 
1936Europe - Russia
 
Purges ordered by Stalin in Russia 
1937Asia - China
 
The Rape of Nanjing is carried out with hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and troops massacred by the Japanese forces. In December 1937 Japanese bombers sink the gunboat U.S.S. Panay near Nanking as they bomb the city. 
1938Europe
 
Germany annexes Austria 
1939Global
 
Second World War 
1941North America - USA
 

 
Unidentified photographer / artist, 1941, 7 December, USS Shaw (DD-373) exploding during the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor, National Archives and Records Administration, LL/6598
Pearl Harbor 
1943Europe - Poland
 
Uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto 
1944Europe - France
 

 
Robert Capa, 1944, 6 June, D-Day, Omaha Beach, June 6, 1944, Gelatin silver print, Peter Fetterman Gallery, LL/441
Allied invasion of Normandy (D-Day) 
1945Global
 
The United Nations Charter is ratified. 
1945Asia - Japan
 

 
New York Times Staff Photographer, 1945, Gen. McArthur Signing the Surrender Document on Board the USS Missouri, Tokyo, Gelatin silver print, Fahey / Klein Gallery, LL/4881
General McArthur accepted the surrender of the Empire of Japan on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. 
1946Europe - Greece
 
Greek Civil War 
1947Asia - India / Pakistan
 
India gains its independence from Britain and Pakistan is created. The ethnic and religious divisions within the new countries result in mass migrations and terrible bloodshed. 
1948North America - USA
 
The Marshall Plan is passed by the U.S. Congress to rebuild a war devastated Europe. 
1948Middle East
 
State of Israel formed 
1949Asia - China
 
Communist People's Republic established (China) 
1950Asia - Korea
 
Korean War 
1951North America - USA
 
The nuclear spies Julius (1918-1953) and Ethel (1915-1953) Rosenberg are executed. 
1953North America - Cuba
 
The Cuban Revolution 
1954Asia - French Indochina
 
French forces are defeated at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and this marks the end of French Indochina 
1956Middle East
 
The Suez Crisis 
1960Africa - South Africa
 

 
Unidentified photographer - Keystone / Staff, 1960, 22 March, Aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre, Photograph, Creative Commons - Wikipedia, LL/52711
At least 180 black Africans are injured and 69 killed when South African police open fire on demonstrators protesting the pass laws in Sharpeville. 
1961North America - Cuba
 
The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba by American backed forces ends in catastrophe. 
1961Asia - Vietnam
 
Vietnam War 
1962Africa - Algeria
 
Algeria gains independence from France 
1963North America - USA
 
President Kennedy assassinated 
1967Middle East
 
Six Day War between Israel and the forces of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq. 
1968Europe - Czechoslovakia
 
Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia 
1968North America - USA
 
Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated. 
1970North America - USA
 
Shootings of students by the National Guard at an antiwar demonstration at Kent State University in Ohio. 
1973Middle East
 
Yom Kippur War between the armies of Syria and Egypt against those of Israel 
1974North America - USA
 
The Watergate Affair - President Nixon resigns 
1979Asia - Afghanistan
 
Afghanistan Wars 
1980Middle East
 
Iran-Iraq War 
1982South America
 
Falklands War 
1986North America - USA
 
The Iran-Contra Affair becomes public 
1987Middle East
 
First Intifada (Israel and the Occupied territories) 
1987Europe - Russia
 
Chernobyl nuclear disaster (Soviet Union) 
1989Europe - Germany
 
Fall of the Berlin Wall (Germany) 
1991Africa - Northern Africa
 
Algerian Civil War 
1991Europe
 
Balkan Wars 
1991Middle East
 
First Gulf War 
1994North America - Mexico
 
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) fights for the rights of indigenous peoples in the Chiapas region of Mexico. 
1995Europe
 
Massacre of Muslims at Srebrenica in the Balkans by Bosnian Serbs 
1995Asia
 
Chechen War 
1998North America - USA
 
American politics are thrown into upheaval by the Clinton White House sex scandal. 
2000Middle East
 
Second Intifada (Israel and the Occupied territories) 
2001North America - USA
 

 
Chief Photographer‘s Mate Eric J. Tilford, 2001, 17 September, Ground Zero, New York City, N.Y., Color, U.S. Navy, LL/2077
Attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. 
2003Middle East
 

 
Unidentified photographer / artist, n.d., Dover Airforce Base - Returning American casualities from the Second Gulf War, Digital photograph, U.S. Army, LL/2244
Second Gulf War 
2004Asia
 
Southeast Asian tsunami 
2005North America - USA
 
Hurricane Katrina hits the Gulf Coast of the USA flooding New Orleans 

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