44 Must Know Dates for AP World History

AP World Dates to Remember!

The AP World History exam does not usually reward memorizing isolated dates for their own sake, but you do need to know approximate chronology, time periods, and the sequencing of major events so you can analyze causation, continuity, and change over time. Specific dates can strengthen your essays, but evidence points come from using accurate, relevant historical evidence in support of an argument—not from listing dates by themselves. The following are some of the most important dates to remember:

This is not an exhaustive list; focus on these as anchor dates and also know broader processes like decolonization, the Cold War, and globalization.

Study Tip: Create your own quizlet deck and study these dates! There are tons of decks already made with these dates (ex. here), but actually creating the deck is an important step in studying.

🎥 👉 Check the Fiveable calendar to see upcoming free live streams for AP World History!

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The AP World History: Modern course is officially organized into 9 units, but these dates are grouped here by broad time periods for convenience: 1200-1450 (Units 1-2), 1450-1750 (Units 3-4), 1750-1900 (Units 5-6), and 1900-present (Units 7-9).

1200-1450

⚡ Watch: AP World History - 🎥 Unit 1 and Unit 2 Review

1258 CE - Mongols sack Baghdad

1271 - 1295 CE - Marco Polo's Travels

1324 CE - Mansa Musa's pilgrimage

1325 - 1349 CE - Ibn Battuta's Travels

1347 - 1348 CE - Bubonic Plague in Europe

1405 - 1433 CE - Zheng He's voyages

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1450-1750

⚡ Watch: AP World History - 🎥 Unit 3 and Unit 4 Review

1453 CE - Ottomans seized Constantinople

1492 CE - Columbus sailed to the Americas

1502 CE - First enslaved Africans transported to the Americas

1517 CE - Martin Luther posts the 95 Theses

1521 CE - Cortés conquered the Aztecs

1533 CE - Pizarro conquered the Incas

1618 - 1648 CE - Thirty Years' War

1689 CE - Glorious Revolution

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1750-1900

⚡ Watch: AP World History - 🎥 Unit 5 and Unit 6 Review + 🎮 Trivia 

1750s CE - Industrialization begins in England

1756 - 1763 CE - Seven Years' War

1776 CE - Declaration of Independence

1789 CE - French Revolution begins

1804 CE - Haitian Independence

1839-1842 CE - First Opium War in China; 1856-1860 CE - Second Opium War in China

1848 CE - Communist Manifesto (Marx & Engels)

1857 CE - Sepoy Mutiny in India

1885 CE - Berlin Conference (Scramble for Africa)

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1900-present

⚡ Watch: AP World History - 🎥 Unit 7, Unit 8, and Unit 9 Review

1905 CE - Russo-Japanese War

1910 - 1920 CE - Mexican Revolution

1911 CE - Chinese Revolution

1914 - 1918 CE - World War I

1917 CE - Russian Revolution

1929 CE - Start of Great Depression

1931 CE - Japanese invasion of Manchuria

1939 CE - German invasion of Poland

1945 CE - End of WWII

1945 CE - United Nations founded

1947 CE - Partition of India & Pakistan

1947-1948 CE - UN partition plan, end of British rule in Palestine, creation of Israel, and first Arab-Israeli war

1949 CE - Mao Zedong comes to power in China

1949 CE - NATO formed

1950 - 1953 CE - Korean War

1954 CE - Vietnam defeats France, Dien Bien Phu

1959 CE - Cuban Revolution

1962 CE - Cuban Missile Crisis

1966 CE - Beginning of the Chinese Cultural Revolution

1978 CE - Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms begin in China

1979 CE - Iranian Revolution

1989 CE - Fall of Berlin Wall

1991 CE - Fall of USSR/First Gulf War

1994 CE - End of apartheid in South Africa / NAFTA begins

1995 CE - WTO established

2001 CE - 9/11 Terror Attacks on US

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