Timeline of Chinese history
This is a timeline of Chinese history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in China and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see History of China. [|See also] the list of Chinese monarchs, Chinese emperors family tree, dynasties in Chinese history and years in China.
Dates prior to 841 BC, the beginning of the Gonghe Regency, are provisional and subject to dispute.
Prehistory / Millennia: [|3rd] BC2nd BC–1st BC1st–2nd3rdSee alsoFurther readingExternal links
Prehistoric China
Centuries: 30th BC29th BC28th BC27th BC26th BC25th BC24th BC23rd BC22nd BC21st BC
2852 BC: The beginning of the period of the Three August Ones and Five Emperors in China.
Antiquity
| Year | Date | Event |
| 2570 BC | Silk was produced by the Liangzhu culture. | |
| 2500 BC | Battle of Banquan: The forces of Shennong were repelled by a force of tribes allied under the Yellow Emperor. | |
| 2500 BC | Battle of Zhuolu: A combined army of Chinese tribes under the Yellow Emperor defeated a Hmong invasion at Zhuolo. | |
| 2366 BC | Zhi became king of China. | |
| 2361 BC | settlers first contact with Văn Lang. |
22nd century BC
21st century BC
Centuries: [|20th] BC19th BC18th BC17th BC16th BC15th BC14th BC13th BC12th BC11th BC10th BC9th BC8th BC7th BC6th BC5th BC4th BC3rd BC2nd BC1st BC
20th century BC
[|19th] century BC
[|18th] century BC
[|17th] century BC
[|16th] century BC
| Year | Date | Event |
| 1600 BC | Battle of Mingtiao: the Shang clan overthrow the corrupt and last emperor of the Xia dynasty |
[|15th] century BC
[|14th] century BC
[|13th] century BC
[|12th] century BC
[|11th] century BC
[|10th] century BC
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[|8th] century BC
[|7th] century BC
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[|5th] century BC
[|4th] century BC
3rd century BC
[|2nd] century BC
[|1st] century BC
Centuries: 1st2nd3rd4th5th6th7th8th9th10th11th12th13th14th15th16th17th18th19th20th
1st century
2nd century
3rd century
4th century
5th century
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7th century
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14th century
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20th century
| After 10 December 1949, the history of the Republic of China continues at Timeline of Taiwanese history. |
| 1950 | 5 March | Landing Operation on Hainan Island: Chinese forces landed on ROC-controlled Hainan. |
| 1950 | 25 June | Korean War: The North Korean army launched a 135,000-man surprise assault across the 38th parallel into South Korea. |
| 1950 | 25 November | Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River: The Chinese 38th Group Army broke the UN line between the 7th Infantry Division and 8th Infantry Division in the valley of the Chongchon River. |
| 1950 | Mass executions of political prisoners took place in the Canidrome. | |
| 1951 | 23 May | Representatives of the Dalai Lama of Tibet the 14th Dalai Lama and of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China signed the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, which guaranteed Tibetan autonomy within China and called for the integration of the Tibetan Army into the PLA. |
| 1952 | January | The five-anti campaign, which encouraged accusations against the bourgeoisie of crimes such as bribery and tax evasion, was founded. see Three-anti and Five-anti Campaigns |
| 1953 | The first of the five-year plans of China, which called for construction of heavy industry, began to be carried out. | |
| 1956 | An outbreak of the Influenza A virus subtype H2N2 occurred in China. | |
| 1957 | 27 February | Mao published a speech entitled "On the Correct Handling of the Contradictions Among the People," marking the founding of the Hundred Flowers Campaign which encouraged criticism of the government and the Communist Party. |
| 1957 | July | Mao instigated the Anti-Rightist Movement during which hundreds of thousands of alleged rightists, including many who had criticized the government during the Hundred Flowers Campaign, were purged from the CPC or sentenced to labor or death. |
| 1958 | Great Leap Forward: The CPC led campaigns to massively overhaul the Chinese economy and society with such innovations as collective farming and the use of backyard furnaces. | |
| 1958 | Mao launched the Four Pests Campaign, which encouraged the eradication of rats, flies, mosquitos and sparrows. | |
| 1959 | 10 March | 1959 Tibetan uprising: A rebellion broke out in the Tibetan regional capital Lhasa after rumors the government was planning to arrest the 14th Dalai Lama at the local PLA headquarters. |
| 1959 | Great Chinese Famine: A famine began which would claim as many as forty million lives over three years. | |
| 1960 | 16 April | Sino-Soviet split: A CPC newspaper accused the Soviet leadership of "revisionism." |
| 1962 | 20 October | Sino-Indian War: The PLA attacked Indian forces across the Line of Actual Control. |
| 1964 | 5 January | Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung was first published. |
| 1964 | 16 October | 596: The Chinese government detonated its first nuclear weapon at Lop Nur. |
| 1964 | The second of two volumes of Simplified Chinese characters ordered by the State Council of the People's Republic of China was published. | |
| 1966 | 19 August | Cultural Revolution: The CPC launched a campaign to destroy the Four Olds. |
| 1966 | The Three-Self Patriotic Movement, the sole government-sanctioned Protestant church, was abolished. | |
| 1968 | Deng Pufang was thrown from a third-story window at Peking University by Red Guards, crippling him. | |
| 1968 | 22 December | The People's Daily published an editorial entitled "We too have two hands, let us not laze about in the city," invigorating the Down to the Countryside Movement under which the sent-down youth, many former Red Guards, were relocated from the cities to the country. |
| 1969 | 2 March | Sino-Soviet border conflict: PLA forces attacked the Soviet Border Troops of the Soviet Union on Zhenbao Island, killing 59. |
| 1969 | 1 October | The Beijing Subway opened in Beijing. |
| 1970 | 24 April | China launched Dong Fang Hong I, its first satellite. |
| 1971 | July | United States secretary of state Henry Kissinger visited Beijing. |
| 1971 | 13 September | Cultural Revolution: Lin Biao dies in mysterious air crash after failed coup. |
| 1971 | 25 October | China and the United Nations: The People's Republic of China is admitted to the United Nations, replacing the Republic of China. |
| 1972 | 28 February | 1972 Nixon visit to China: The United States and China issued the Shanghai Communiqué pledging to normalize relations during the visit of the former's president Richard Nixon. |
| 1974 | 19 January | Battle of the Paracel Islands: Some fifty South Vietnamese soldiers were killed in a Chinese conquest of the Paracel Islands. |
| 1976 | 8 January | The premier Zhou Enlai died. |
| 1976 | 5 April | Tiananmen Incident: Some four thousand people were arrested during a protest against the removal of wreaths, flowers and poems laid at the Monument to the People's Heroes in Zhou's memory. |
| 1976 | 27 July | 1976 Tangshan earthquake: An earthquake with its epicenter near Tangshan killed roughly a quarter of a million people. |
| 1976 | 9 September | Mao died. |
| 1976 | 6 October | The Gang of Four, a political faction including Mao's wife Jiang Qing, was arrested on the orders of the premier Hua Guofeng. |
| 1976 | 7 October | Hua became Chairman of the Communist Party of China. |
| 1977 | Beijing Spring: A brief period of political liberalization began. | |
| 1978 | 11 October | The poet Huang Xiang pasted pro-democracy, anti-Mao poems on the Democracy Wall in Beijing. |
| 1978 | December | The Communist official Deng Xiaoping became paramount leader of China. |
| 1978 | December | Chinese economic reform: Economic liberalization measures including the replacement of collective farming with the household-responsibility system began to be instituted. |
| 1978 | December | Deng Xiaoping first advocated for the Four Modernizations, of agriculture, industry, national defense and science and technology. |
| 1979 | 1 January | China and the United States issued the Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations, under which the latter recognized the PRC as the legitimate government of China and terminated its participation in the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty with Taiwan. |
| 1979 | 6 March | Sino-Vietnamese War: China declared that the punitive objective of its invasion of Vietnam had been achieved and began to retreat. |
| 1979 | 30 March | Deng Xiaoping declared in a speech the Four Cardinal Principles not subject to debate within China. |
| 1980 | The first of the Special Economic Zones of China, characterized by low regulation and the encouragement of foreign investment, were established. | |
| 1980 | 28 June | Sino-Vietnamese conflicts 1979–90: Chinese forces began shelling the Vietnamese Cao Bằng Province. |
| 1980 | 18 September | The one-child policy, under which Chinese couples are heavily fined for additional children after their first, with some exceptions, came into force, and then phased out in 2015. |
| 1984 | 19 December | The Sino-British Joint Declaration, under which China and the United Kingdom agreed to the transfer of Hong Kong to China and the preservation there of democracy and capitalism under the one country, two systems model, was signed during the visit of the British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. |
| 1988 | 14 March | Johnson South Reef Skirmish: The PLA took control of the Johnson South Reef after a short naval battle in which some seventy Vietnamese soldiers were killed. |
| 1989 | 15 April | Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: A crowd gathered at the Monument to the People's Heroes. |
| 1989 | 4 June | Tiananmen Square protests of 1989: Anywhere from 1 to 5 thousand people brutally murdered in the Tiananmen Square Massacre. |
| 1989 | 24 June | Jiang Zemin became General Secretary of the Communist Party of China. |
| 1990 | Shanghai Stock Exchange re-opened on November 26 and began operation on December 19. | |
| 1991 | The first McDonald's restaurant in mainland China opened in Beijing. | |
| 1992 | Deng Xiaoping traveled south to reassert the economy policy. | |
| 1993 | 27 April | Wang–Koo summit took place in Singapore: the first public meeting between figures of non-governmental organization since 1949. |
| 1994 | 8 December | 1994 Karamay fire: A fire at a theater in Karamay killed some three hundred people. |
| 1997 | 19 February | Deng Xiaoping died. |
| 1997 | 1 July | Hong Kong handover ceremony: A ceremony marked the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong to China from the United Kingdom under the terms of the Sino-British Joint Declaration. |
| 1997 | The term Great Firewall was coined to describe the tools of Internet censorship in China. | |
| 1998 | June | 1998 China floods: China experienced massive flooding including floods of the Yangtze River, the Nen River, the Songhua River and the Pearl River. Chinese People's Liberation Army earned people's respects because of their heroic behaving against the floods. |
| 1999 | 7 May | United States bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade: United States bombers under the command of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization accidentally bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. |
| 1999 | 22 July | The Chinese government declared the religious organization Falun Gong illegal. |
| 1999 | 20 December | Transfer of sovereignty over Macau: Sovereignty over Macau was transferred from Portugal to China. |
| 2000 | China passed Japan as the country with which the United States has the largest trade deficit. |