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Wikipedia's contents: History and events

A depiction of the ancient Library of Alexandria.

History is the interpretation of past events, societies and civilizations. The term history comes from the Greek historia (ἱστορία), "an account of one's inquiries," and shares that etymology with the English word story as narrative. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica stated that "history in the wider sense is all that has happened, not merely all the phenomena of human life, but those of the natural world as well. It is everything that undergoes change; and as modern science has shown that there is nothing absolutely static, therefore, the whole universe, and every part of it, has its history."

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History and events: Overviews; Outlines; Lists; Portals; Glossaries; Categories; Indices

Overviews

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History by region – Ancient Egypt • Ancient Greece • Ancient Rome • History of China • History of the Middle East • History of Mesoamerica • History of India

History by continent – Africa • The Americas • Antarctica • Asia • Australia • Eurasia • Europe • North America • Oceania • South America

List of time periods – Prehistory • Protohistory • Ancient history • Modern history • Future history

The Ages of history – Stone Age • Copper Age • Bronze Age • Iron Age • Middle Ages • Age of Discovery • Renaissance • Age of Enlightenment • Industrial Age • Space Age • Information Age

History by subject

Cultural history – Money • Sport

Art (Architecture • Film • Painting) • Dance • Music • Theatre

History of philosophy – Ancient • Medieval • Modern • Contemporary

History of logic

History of science – Theories/Sociology • Historiography • Mathematics • Pseudoscience • Scientific method

History of the natural sciences – Astronomy • Biology • Chemistry • Ecology • Geography • Physics • Geology

History of the social sciences – Anthropology • Economics • Education • Geography • Linguistics • Political science • Psychology • Sociology

History of science by era – In early cultures • In Classical Antiquity • In the Middle Ages • In the Renaissance • Scientific Revolution

History of technology – Agriculture & agricultural science • Biotechnology • Chemical engineering • Communication • Computing (Computer science, Software engineering) • Electrical engineering • Invention • Materials science • Measurement • Medicine • Military technology • Transport

Outlines

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History (timelines) – records of past events and the way things were. It is also a field responsible for the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about the past.

History, by period (See also Timeline of world history)
- Prehistory – events occurring before recorded history (that is, before written records).
  - Colorado prehistory –
  - Prehistoric technology – technologies that emerged before recorded history (i.e., before the development of writing).
- Ancient history (timeline) – from ≈3350 BCE to ≈500 CE
  - Ancient West
    - Classical antiquity (timeline) – long period of cultural history in the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the Greco-Roman world.
      - Ancient Greece (timeline) – period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages (ca. 1100 BC) to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece. It was the seminal culture which provided the foundation of Western civilization.
      - Ancient Rome (timeline) – civilization that started on the Italian Peninsula and lasted from as early as the 10th century BC to the 5th century AD. Over centuries it shifted from a monarchy to a republic to an empire which dominated South-Western Europe, South-Eastern Europe/Balkans and the Mediterranean region.
      - Classical architecture – architecture of classical antiquity, that is, ancient Greek architecture and the architecture of ancient Rome. It also refers to the style or styles of architecture influenced by those.
  - Ancient East
    - Ancient China – China from about 2070 to 221 BC, spanning the Xia Dynasty, Shang Dynasty, Zhou Dynasy, the Spring and Autumn period, to the end of the Warring States period.
    - Ancient Egypt – ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, along the lower reaches of the Nile River starting about 3150 BC, in what is now the modern country of Egypt.
    - Ancient India – India as it existed from pre-historic times (c. 7000 BCE or earlier) to the start of the Middle Ages (c. 500 CE).
- Middle Ages (Medieval history) (timeline) – historical period following the Iron Age, fully underway by the 5th century and lasting to the 15th century and preceding the early Modern Era. It is the middle period in a three-period division of history: Classic, Medieval, and Modern.
- Renaissance – cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. It encompassed a flowering of literature, science, art, religion, and politics, and gradual but widespread educational reform.
- Early modern history – from 1500 to 1899
- Modern history – since 1900.
- Globalization – progression towards the development of an integrated world community, from ancient times to the present
History, by region
- History of South Asia (timeline)
- History of Western civilization
- History of existing states
  - United States history (timeline)
    - History of U.S. states
      - History of Alabama • History of Alaska • History of Arizona • History of Arkansas • History of California • History of Colorado • History of Connecticut • History of Delaware • History of Florida • History of Georgia • History of Hawaii • History of Idaho • History of Illinois • History of Indiana • History of Iowa • History of Kansas • History of Kentucky • History of Louisiana • History of Maine • History of Maryland • History of Massachusetts • History of Michigan • History of Minnesota • History of Mississippi • History of Missouri • History of Montana • History of Nebraska • History of Nevada • History of New Hampshire • History of New Jersey • History of New Mexico • History of New York • History of North Carolina • History of North Dakota • History of Ohio • History of Oklahoma • History of Oregon • History of Pennsylvania • History of Rhode Island • History of South Carolina • History of South Dakota • History of Tennessee • History of Texas • History of Utah • History of Vermont • History of Virginia • History of Washington • History of West Virginia • History of Wisconsin • History of Wyoming
- Historical states
  - Ancient Egypt – ancient civilization of eastern North Africa, along the lower reaches of the Nile River starting about 3150 BC, in what is now the modern country of Egypt.
  - Ancient Rome (timeline) – civilization that started on the Italian Peninsula and lasted from as early as the 10th century BC to the 5th century AD. Over centuries it shifted from a monarchy to a republic to an empire which dominated South-Western Europe, South-Eastern Europe/Balkans and the Mediterranean region.
    - The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire – six-volume work authored by the celebrated English historian Edward Gibbon (1737–1794).
  - Byzantine Empire (timeline) – the Eastern Roman Empire that existed throughout Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania by its inhabitants and neighbors, the empire was centered on the capital of Constantinople and was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State. Byzantium, however, was distinct from ancient Rome, in that it was Christian and predominantly Greek-speaking, being influenced by Greek, as opposed to Latin, culture.
  - Ottoman Empire (timeline) – historical Muslim empire, also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey. At its zenith in the second half of the 16th century it controlled Southeast Europe, Southwest Asia and North Africa.
  - Soviet Union – socialist state on the Eurasian continent that existed from 1922 to 1991. A union of multiple subnational Soviet republics, its government and economy were highly centralized. The Soviet Union was a one-party state, governed by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital. It was a major ally during World War II, a main participant in the Cold War, and it grew in power to become one of the world's two superpowers (the other being the United States). The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
History, by subject
- History, by field
- Historical sciences – fields dealing with history
  - Archaeology (timeline)
  - Geology (timeline)
    - Geological history
  - Biology (timeline)
  - Astronomy (timeline)
- History of terrorism
  - Terrorism in the United States
    - September 11 attacks
- Wars
  - American Civil War – civil war in the United States of America from 1861–1865 in which 11 Southern slave states tried to secede.
  - World War I (timeline) – major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. It involved all the world's great powers, which were assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (centred on the Triple Entente of Britain, France and Russia) and the Central Powers (originally centred on the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy).
  - World War II (timeline) – global military conflict from 1939 to 1945, which involved most of the world's nations forming two opposing military alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread, largest, most costly, and deadliest war in history.
  - Cold War (timeline) – period of political and military tension between the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc, accentuated by the rivalry between the two superpowers at that time: America (U.S.) and the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.).
    - Vietnam War – Cold War era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the United States and other anti-communist nations.
  - Russo-Ukrainian War — war of aggression by Russia upon Ukraine, including Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, the War in Donbas (2014-), and the Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022-).