A Timeline Of
World Events

5000 BC: Organized farming begins in Egypt

814 BC: The city
of Carthage is founded

776 BC: The first Olympic Games are held in Olympia, Greece

600-500 BC: The game of chess appears in
Northern India

300 BC: The Maya develop a writing system

218 BC: Hannibal crosses the Alps into Italy on elephants

c. AD 300:
The camel is used in transportation across the Sahara

500: The Ghana Empire dominates West Africa

1100: Timbuktu was founded by nomadic herders

1235: The Mali Empire is founded  by Sundiata Keita

1324: Mansa Musa begins his pilgrimage to Mecca

1347-1351: The Black Death sweeps through Europe

1375: Mansa Musa appears on the Catalan Atlas

1488: The first Portuguese explorers land in South Africa

1520: The Ottoman Empire begins expanding into parts of Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and North Africa

1610: Galileo publishes a book on his astrological findings

1611: Nur Jahan marries the Mughal emperor