Timeline

• 7000 BC Neolithic fishing settlements in Kadıköy, Pendik and Yarımburgaz
• 750 BC Greeks sailed through the Bosphorus.
• 667 BC Byzantium was founded.
• 676 BC Greek colony of Chalcedon founded in Kadıköy today.
• 64 BC Pompeius captured Byzantium and it became a province in the Roman Empire.
• 324 Constantine became emperor of the Roman Empire.
• 326 Constantine founded Constantinople and incorporated Byzantium into a new city.
• 330 Constantine made it the new capital of the Roman Empire.
• 395 Emperor Theodosius I died. The Empire was divided into an eastern and western half. The eastern half was centered in Constantinople.
• 408 During the reign of Emperor Theododius II the construction began on the new city walls.
• 476 The fall of the western half of the Roman Empire.
• 532 Nika riots in Constantinople. Up to 30.000 people were killed in the Hippodrome.
• 537 Construction of Hagia Sophia, ordered by Emperor Justinian, was completed.
• 745 – 7 Bubonic plague wipes out one third of the city.
• 976 – 1025 Reign of Byzantine Emperor Basil II under whose reign the Empire reached its greatest height.
• 1071 Selcuk army conquered Anatolia.
• 1096 The First Crusade reached Constantinople, helped recapture lands lost to the Selcuks.
• 1202 An army gathered in Venice for the Fourth Crusade.
• 1204 The Fourth Crusade conquered Constantinople.
• 1261 Michael VIII Palaeologus recovered Constantinople from the Latin Empire and transformed the Empire of Nicaea into restored Byzantine Empire.
• 1301 Osman I founded the Ottoman Empire.
• 1321 This year marked the start of a devastating 33-year Byzantine civil war.
• 1348 The Galata Tower was built to watch over the Pera district.
• 1394 – 1442 Ottomans besieged Constantinople four times.
• 1453 Mehmet II conquered Constantinople and declared it the capital of the Ottoman Empire.
• 1455 The construction of the Grand Bazaar started.
• 1478 The Topkapı palace was completed.
• 1492 Spain’s exiled Jewish population was invited by Beyazıt II to settle in İstanbul.
• 1517 Selim the Grim captured Cairo and appointed himself Caliph of all Islam.
• 1520 – 1566 Reign of Suleyman the Magnificent. Ottoman Empire reached its zenith.
• 1556 Inauguration of the Süleymaniye mosque by Mimar Sinan, Sinan the Architect. Beginning of “the rule of women”
• 1616 After eight years of construction, the Blue Mosque was finished.
• 1622 Janissaries murdered Osman II, Genc Osman, Osman the Young.
• 1699 The loss of Hungary in the Treaty of Karlowitz marked the beginning the Ottoman Empire withdrawal from Europe.
• 1651 – 1783 Janissaries revolted 11 more times.
• 1778 Plague wipes out one third of the city.
• 1807 Big part of the city destroyed during the Janissary revolt vs Mahmut II.
• 1826 Janissaries destroyed by Mahmut II.
• 1845 The first wooden Galata bridge spaned the Golden Horn.
• 1853 Dolmabahce Palace is completed.
• 1854 The first Istanbul stock exchange opened.
• 1854 – 1856 Crimean War and revolts against Ottoman rule in the Balkans.
• 1856 Abdülmecit I left Tokapı Palace and moved to the new Dolmabahce Palace.
• 1875 The Tünel-metro, the third metro worldwide was inaugurated in Galata.
• 1877 First Ottoman Parliament.
• 1878 Russians siezed Balkans. Abdülhamit closed parliament and ruled by decree.
• 1885 The Orient Express pulls into Istanbul.
• 1899 Young Turks groups formed in military.
• 1908 First elections. CUP emerges victorious.
• 1912 First Balkan War.
• 1913 Second Balkan War.
• 1914 Ottomans entered WWI on German side.
• 1915 Allied forces landed in Gallipoli but had to retreat.
• 1919 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk declared independent Turkey.
• 1919 – 1922 British and French troops occupied İstanbul.
• 1920 Turkish Parliament was formed in Ankara.
• 1922 Turkish Independance war. After two years of fighting, Turks forced Greece out of Izmir. The Sultanate was abolished.
• 1923 Allied occupation of Istanbul ended. Ankara declared capital of new republic.
• 1928 Istanbul became the official name.
• 1935 – 1941 Turkey provided a safe haven for Jews fleeing the German Reich.
• 1936 Hagia Sofia became a museum. Restoration started.
• 1938 Atatürk died at 09:05 on November 10th in the Dolmabahçe Palace.
• 1950 The first democratically elected Turkish government.
• 1960 Prime Minister Adnan Menderes deposed in coup, hanged following year.
• 1971 Instability in the government and extremism prompted a second army coup.
• 1973 First suspension bridge over the Bosphorus was built.
• 1980 Warring between left and right groups prompted military coup. Over a 100.000 arrested.
• 1983 Growth of shanty towns on outskirts of Istanbul moves in from rural areas.
• 1999 The population of Istanbul quarupled in 20 years time from 2.7 million in 1980 to 11.8 million. On August 17, an earthquake devastated parts of Istanbul and North-west Turkey. Over 17,000 people died.
• 2002 Turkish national football team endend third in the Fifa World Cup. AKP under the leadership Recep Tayyip Erdogan received 34% of the votes in the 2002 general elections.
• 2003 Turkey wins the Eurovision Song Contest with “Every way that I can” by Sertab Erener.
• 2005 Introduction of the New Turkish Lira (YTL) 6 zero’s on the bank notes are dropped.
• 2007 Abdullah Gül elected president of Turkey.