The Millennium:
A Space and Astronomy Timeline
Century: 10th | 11th | 12th | 13th | 14th | 15th | 16th | 17th | 18th | 19th | Early 20th | Late 20th | 21st


The First Millennium (0001 - 1000AD)
    5th - 9th Centuries (401 - 900)

      Dark Ages: The period from the fall of Rome in 476 to the crowning of Charlemagne as the first Holy Roman Emperor in 800 is recalled as the "Dark Ages" because of a shortage of written records. Despite barbarians and plague, the Dark Ages saw vigorous intellectual development.

      During Europe's Dark Ages, civilizations in Arabia, China and India achieved major advances in science, technology, medicine, mathematics and astronomy. The Hindu-Arabic method of numeration appeared. China invented paper, gunpowder and the compass. Arabs wrote accurately about astronomy and diseases.

      Middle Ages: We call the longer span of 5th to 15th century "Middle Ages."
    6th Century (501 - 600)

      500s: The Hindu-Arabic method of numeration, which uses a place-value system with 10 as its base, appears in the 6th century.
    9th Century (801 - 900)

      800s: One of the greatest medieval Muslim astronomers is al-Battani, also known as Albategnius, c.858-929. He transmits Greek planetary theory to medieval Europe. His tables of planetary motion, based on the standard geocentric world system, depend in part on his own observations made at al-Raqqa on the Euphrates. He advanced the study of spherical trigonometry and produced a table of cotangents for use in astronomical computations.
    10th Century (901 - 1000)

      900s: Chinese alchemists mix saltpeter (potassium nitrate), sulfur and charcoal (carbon) to make explosive gunpowder for fireworks and signals. Three centuries later it would be used in a primitive cannon to propel stones from bamboo tubes.


Timeline Century: 10th | 11th | 12th | 13th | 14th | 15th | 16th | 17th | 18th | 19th | Early 20th | Late 20th | 21st

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