1066 - William, Duke of Normandy, invades England and wins the Battle of Hastings
1189 - 1192 - Crusaders capture Constantinople
1337 - 1443 - Hundred Years' War
1494 - 1559 - Italian Wars- France and Austria fight over Italian lands
1515 - François I crowned French King
1547 - 1559 - Reign of Henry II
1572 - Massacre of Protestants in Paris on St. Bartholomew's Eve. 200,000 Huguenots fled France
1589 - 1593 - Henri IV becomes 1st French Catholic Bourbon King
1608 - Founding of Quebec
1617 - Louis XIII crowned at the age of 17
1624 - Cardinal Richelieu becomes French principal minister
1643 - 1715 - Louis XIV becomes king with Mazarin as French Prime Minister
1715 - Louis XV accedes the throne on 5 May 1789 King Louis XVI called a meeting of the Estates-General at Versailles to obtain support for new taxes - this prompted the seeds of the French Revolution as the nobles and church were not subjected to taxes
June 1789 The French commoners declared themselves a National Assembly giving themselves the power to write a new French constitution
14 July 1789 The Bastille was stormed by the people of Paris
1792 King Louis and Queen Marie-Antoinette were executed and a republic was set up in France
1793 Napoleon Bonaparte was named a general during the war with Prussia and Austria
1799 - 1814 Napoleon seized control of France and began building a French empire
1815 Napoleon defeated at Waterloo and was exiled
1815 The Bourbons were returned to the French throne
1824 Charles X became king
July 1830 Charles X was overthrown during the July Revolution of 1830
1848 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, a nephew of Napoleon, was elected to a four-year term as French president
1851 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte seized power
1852 Louis Napoleon Bonaparte declared himself Emperor Napoleon III
1870 France declared war on Prussia and Emperor Napoleon III is overthrown
1914-1918 World War I - Germany invades France
3 September 1939 France and the United Kingdom declare war on Germany starting World War II
14 June 1940 German troops enter Paris
25 August 1944 Allied troops regain Paris and Charles De Gaulle becomes head of a provisional government
August 1945 The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
1956 Morocco and Tunisia granted their independence
3 July 1962 Algeria became independent.