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| Golden Horn, Istanbul |
1288: Osman, the first of thirty-six Turkish sultans.
1453: Ottomans under Sultan Mehmet II conquer Constantinople.
1517: Ottomans capture Egypt and Syria.
1520 -1566: Reign of the Ottoman sultan Suleiman I, "The Magnificent."
1529: First Ottoman siege of Vienna.
1531: Second Ottoman siege of Vienna.
1535: Ottomans capture Baghdad, Tripolitania, Tunisia, and Algiers.
1546: Ottomans capture Basra (southern Iraq).
1588: Death of Ottoman architect Sinan.
1593 -1606: Ottoman wars against the Hapsburgs.
1616: Blue Mosque, Istanbul is completed.
1623: Clashes with the Safavids in Iraq.
1660: "Great Fire" of Istanbul .
1683: Final Ottoman siege of Vienna. (See also 1529 and 1531)
1688: Ottomans driven from Belgrade.
1750: Most of Iraq under the control of Georgian Mamluks.
1768 - 1774: Russo-Ottoman War (Ottoman period of self-assessment and reform begins).
1773: Tribe of Ibn Saud captures Riyadh.
1783: Russia occupies the Crimea.
1789 - 1807: Reign of Ottoman sultan, Selim III and his al-nizam al-jedeed ("the new order").
1798: Napoleon invades Egypt. Beginning of the "modern period" in Middle East history.
1801: Joint British and Ottoman campaign drives French out of Egypt.
1805: Era of Muhammad Ali begins in Egypt .
1808: The great reforming Ottoman sultan, Mahmud II comes to power.
1811: Muhammad Ali defeats Wahhabis.
1821 - 1829: Greek war of independence from the Turks.
1826: Reforms of Mahmud II. Janissaries massacred.
1829: Greeks gain independence from the Ottomans. Ottomans abandon theology of jihad.
1831: Further reforms of Mahmud II.
1838: Muhammad Ali overextends himself.
1839: Tanzimat "("reorganization") period.
1840: Muhammad Ali defeated by the British.
1841: Muhammad Ali's peace treaty with the British and the Ottomans.
1867: Ottoman land and tax reform measure.
1876: "Young Ottomans" draft a constitution.
1878: Ottoman sultan Abdulhamid II dissolves parliament and abolishes the constitution.
1906: Young Turk revolutionary cells.
1908: Young Turk constitutional revolution.
1910: Albania rises up against Ottoman rule.
1912: Ottomans cede Libya to the Italians.
1913: Balkan Wars (1912-1913).
1914: Ottomans enter World War I on the side of Germany.
1917: Ottomans surrender Palestine to the British.
1920: Ataturk drives the Greeks out of Turkey. Also in 19:20: Treaty of Sevres.
1923: Mustafa Kemal ("Ataturk") becomes Turkey's first president.
1923, July 24: Treaty of Lausanne brings formal recognition to the new Republic of Turkey.
1924: Ataturk abolishes the Caliphate.
1930: Ataturk makes Istanbul the legal name for Constantinople.
1932: Turkish women gain the right to vote.
1971: Turkish army again intervenes in the country's political life.
1974: Turkey occupies northern Cyprus.
1983: The Refah ("Welfare") Party is founded.
1984: Kurdish separatists launch a campaign to take over parts of southeast Turkey.
1993: Tansu Ciller becomes the first female Prime Minister in Turkey.
1996: Turkish_Israeli defense pact. (In trouble in 2004)
1996: Necmettin Erbakan becomes the first Islamist prime minister in Turkey's history.
1997: Army intervenes and forces the Erbakan government out.
1999: Kurdish leader, Abdullah Ocalan, is sentenced to death.
2002, November: Islamist party "Justice and Development" wins elections.
2003: Istanbul synagogue bombings.
2003: Reforms limiting power of military to intervene in politics.
2004: Islamist Prime Minister Erdogan withdraws bill to criminalize adultery.
2004: Islamist Metin Kaplan deported from Germany.
2004: European Union agrees to move Turkey into entry talks. Problems in 2005.
2005, October: Prosecution of novelist Orhan Pamuk sparks debate over free speech.
2006, May 17: Turkish judges shot over ban on wearing the veil in public buildings.
2006, August: Wave of bombings in Turkey perpetrated by Kurdish separatists.
2006, October: Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk wins Nobel Prize for literature.
2007, January 19: Murder of Armenian editor Hrant Dink in Istanbul and "Turkishness" law.
2007, spring: Moderate Islamist power on the rise.
2008, January: Proposed amendments to constitution to permit head scarves.
2008, June: Constitutional Court bans head scarves.
2008, July 27: Bombings in Istanbul.
2008, July 30: Constitutional Court votes to allow AKP to continue rule.
Turkey section of Islamic Middle East Blog
Additional Resource: NMH School Senior Seminar in Turkey, Fall, 2008
See also:
Sabrina Tavernise, "A Rumble is Heard in Ataturk's Grave," New York Times, May 20, 2007 (via NMH Virtual Desktop and ProQuest)