1839 | Asia - Afghanistan
| First Anglo-Afghan War |
1845 | Asia - India
| Anglo Sikh War |
1846 | North 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. |
1848 | Asia - India
| Anglo Sikh War |
1848 | Europe
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. |
1848 | Global
| Communist Manifesto published |
1854 | Asia
Roger Fenton, 1855, Valley of the Shadow of Death, Salt print, J. Paul Getty Museum, LL/7333 | Crimean War |
1856 | Asia - China
Felice Beato, 1860, Sir James Hope Grant, Albumen print, National Galleries of Scotland, LL/6823 | Second Chinese Opium War |
1857 | Asia - 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 |
1858 | North America - Mexico
| Civil War starts in Mexico and Benito Juárez (1806-1872) is elected president. |
1859 | Europe
| 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. |
1861 | North 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. |
1861 | North America - Mexico
| French forces are defeated in Mexico at the Battle of Peubla. |
1861 | Africa - West Africa
| British establish a colony at Lagos in west Africa |
1861 | North America - USA
| American Civil War |
1861 | Europe - Italy
| Proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy brought about by the Risorgimento. |
1864 | Europe - Denmark
| Prussian and Austrian forces attack Denmark. |
1865 | South 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. |
1865 | North 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. |
1866 | Europe
| The Austro-Prussian War leads to Austria breaking away from the German states and the establishment of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867. |
1867 | North America - Mexico
| Emperor Maximillan I is executed by firing squad in Mexico. This event was immortalized in the paintings of Édouard Manet (1832-1883). |
1867 | Europe
| Austro-Hungarian Empire established |
1869 | Middle 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. |
1870 | Europe
| Franco-Prussian War |
1871 | Europe - 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 |
1871 | Europe
| German Empire established |
1877 | Asia - India
| Queen Victoria is crowned Empress of India. |
1878 | Africa - Northern Africa
| France obtains control of Tunisia at the Congress of Berlin. |
1878 | Africa - 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. |
1879 | Africa - Southern Africa
| British forces under Lord Chelmsford crush the Zulu kingdom. |
1884 | Africa
| At the Berlin Conference Africa is partitioned between the European powers |
1885 | Africa - Central Africa
| A Belgian Catholic missionary Group The White Fathers promote Christianity in the Congo. |
1885 | Africa - Sudan
| The British forces at Khartoum in the Sudan under General Charles Gordon are attacked and he is slain. |
1892 | Europe - 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. |
1894 | Asia - 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. |
1896 | Africa
| Ethiopian army defeats Italian forces at the Battle of Adwa. |
1897 | Africa - West Africa
| British Punitive Expedition against Benin City in West Africa |
1898 | North America - Cuba
| Spanish American War |
1899 | South America - Columbia
| War of a Thousand Days pulls Colombia apart. |
1899 | Africa - 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 |
1904 | Asia
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 |
1906 | Europe - 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. |
1914 | Global
| First World War |
1914 | North America - Panama
| Panama Canal completed |
1915 | Europe - Turkey
| Armenian massacres |
1916 | Europe - Great Britain
| The Easter Rising in Dublin fails to free Ireland from British rule. |
1917 | North America - USA
| The US enters the First World War on the Allied side. |
1917 | Europe - Russia
| Russian Revolution |
1917 | Middle East
| Balfour Declaration gives support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine |
1918 | Europe
| Armistice is signed ending the First World War. |
1918 | Europe - 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. |
1919 | Europe
| Treaty of Versailles is signed and settles, for a time, the issues raised by the First World War. |
1923 | North America - Mexico
| Mexican revolutionary "Pancho" Villa (1878-1923) is assassinated |
1928 | Europe - Great Britain
| The Equal Franchise Act in Great Britain grants voting rights to women and men over twenty-one. |
1929 | North America - USA
| The Great Depression in the US |
1929 | North America - USA
| Stock Market Crash (USA) |
1933 | Europe - Germany
| Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany |
1935 | Africa
| Second Italo-Abyssinian War |
1936 | Europe - Spain
| Spanish Civil War |
1936 | Europe - Russia
| Purges ordered by Stalin in Russia |
1937 | Asia - 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. |
1938 | Europe
| Germany annexes Austria |
1939 | Global
| Second World War |
1941 | North 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 |
1943 | Europe - Poland
| Uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto |
1944 | Europe - 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) |
1945 | Global
| The United Nations Charter is ratified. |
1945 | Asia - 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. |
1946 | Europe - Greece
| Greek Civil War |
1947 | Asia - 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. |
1948 | North America - USA
| The Marshall Plan is passed by the U.S. Congress to rebuild a war devastated Europe. |
1948 | Middle East
| State of Israel formed |
1949 | Asia - China
| Communist People's Republic established (China) |
1950 | Asia - Korea
| Korean War |
1951 | North America - USA
| The nuclear spies Julius (1918-1953) and Ethel (1915-1953) Rosenberg are executed. |
1953 | North America - Cuba
| The Cuban Revolution |
1954 | Asia - French Indochina
| French forces are defeated at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and this marks the end of French Indochina |
1956 | Middle East
| The Suez Crisis |
1960 | Africa - 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. |
1961 | North America - Cuba
| The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba by American backed forces ends in catastrophe. |
1961 | Asia - Vietnam
| Vietnam War |
1962 | Africa - Algeria
| Algeria gains independence from France |
1963 | North America - USA
| President Kennedy assassinated |
1967 | Middle East
| Six Day War between Israel and the forces of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq. |
1968 | Europe - Czechoslovakia
| Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia |
1968 | North America - USA
| Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated. |
1970 | North America - USA
| Shootings of students by the National Guard at an antiwar demonstration at Kent State University in Ohio. |
1973 | Middle East
| Yom Kippur War between the armies of Syria and Egypt against those of Israel |
1974 | North America - USA
| The Watergate Affair - President Nixon resigns |
1979 | Asia - Afghanistan
| Afghanistan Wars |
1980 | Middle East
| Iran-Iraq War |
1982 | South America
| Falklands War |
1986 | North America - USA
| The Iran-Contra Affair becomes public |
1987 | Middle East
| First Intifada (Israel and the Occupied territories) |
1987 | Europe - Russia
| Chernobyl nuclear disaster (Soviet Union) |
1989 | Europe - Germany
| Fall of the Berlin Wall (Germany) |
1991 | Africa - Northern Africa
| Algerian Civil War |
1991 | Europe
| Balkan Wars |
1991 | Middle East
| First Gulf War |
1994 | North America - Mexico
| The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) fights for the rights of indigenous peoples in the Chiapas region of Mexico. |
1995 | Europe
| Massacre of Muslims at Srebrenica in the Balkans by Bosnian Serbs |
1995 | Asia
| Chechen War |
1998 | North America - USA
| American politics are thrown into upheaval by the Clinton White House sex scandal. |
2000 | Middle East
| Second Intifada (Israel and the Occupied territories) |
2001 | North 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. |
2003 | Middle 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 |
2004 | Asia
| Southeast Asian tsunami |
2005 | North America - USA
| Hurricane Katrina hits the Gulf Coast of the USA flooding New Orleans |