Ottoman-Habsburg Wars

• August 29, 1526
  Turkish forces of Suleiman the Magnificent defeat the Hungarian forces and kill Hungarian King Louis II at the Battle of Mohács, which leads to the partition of Hungary for several centuries, which becomes the first clash between house of Habsburg and Ottoman Empire
• October 15, 1529
  Ottoman armies under Suleiman end their unsuccessful siege of Vienna and head back to Belgrade, which marks the peak of Ottoman Empire with the Turks settled in Buda on the left bank of the Danube
• May 19, 1565
  The Turkish army of 40,000 men under Suleyman the Magnificent begin 5-month siege of the Knights of Malta, led by Grand Master Jean de la Valette with 2,500 troops at their garrison Fort Saint Elmo
• September 8, 1565
  The Hospitallers defeat the Ottoman Empire at the Siege of Malta halting the westward advance of Islam in the Mediterranean
• October 7, 1571
  Spanish, Venetian and Papal ships of the Holy League under command of Spain's Don Juan de Austria destroys an Ottoman fleet in the naval Battle of Lepanto, the last great clash of galleys
• March 7, 1573
  Venice and Turkey sign treaty whereby Venice surrenders Cyprus and pays Turkey a large indemnity
• July 29, 1593
  The Long War between the Habsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Turks starts since Sinan Pasha's campaign for the Principalities of Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia
• May 1, 1648
  The Ottomans begin the Siege of Candia in order to capture Crete from the Venetians
• April 18, 1663
  Osman declares war on Austria beginning Austro-Turkish War
• August 1, 1664
  The Turkish army is defeated by French and German troops in Battle of St. Gotthard, Hungary, which becomes the key episode of the Austro–Turkish War of 1663–64
• September 26, 1669
  The island of Crete, being 465 years as a colony of Venice, fell to the Ottoman Turks after Siege of Candia, the longest siege in history
• September 12, 1683
  A combined Austrian and Polish army defeat the Ottoman Turks in Battle of Vienna and lift the siege on Vienna in Austria which becomes the turning point in the Ottoman–Habsburg wars and finishes the Ottoman Empire's hegemony in south-eastern Europe
• August 12, 1687
  At the Battle of Mohács, Hungary, the forces of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, commanded by Charles of Lorraine defeated the Turks
• September 11, 1697
  Prince Eugene of Savoy leads the Austrians to victory over the Ottoman Turks at Zenta, Serbia, which becomes one of the most decisive defeats in Ottoman history
• January 26, 1699
  The Treaty of Karlowitz ends Great Turkish War marking the end of Ottoman control in much of Central Europe and establishing the Habsburg Monarchy as the dominant power in central and southeast Europe
• August 22, 1717
  The Austrian army under Eugene of Savoy force the Turkish army out of Belgrade, ending the Turkish revival in the Balkans
• August 4, 1791
  The chief item in the Peace of Sistova agreement between the Austrian Empire and Ottoman Empire returns of Belgrade, taken in 1789 by the Holy Roman emperor Joseph II, to Turkey

20 Best Castles Ever

• 1078
  William the Conqueror begins the construction of the Tower of London on the north bank of the River Thames to fortify key position, making foundation of one of the most famous castles in the World
• 1144
  The Knights Hospitallers begin expanding a fortress 140 kilometers northwest of Damascus known as Krak des Chevaliers
• 1150
  Edinburgh Castle, one of the most important strongholds in the Kingdom of Scotland, is built upon the plug of an extinct volcano by the king David I
• 1157
  Eltz Castle, one of three castles in Rhineland-Palatinate which have never been destroyed, is built on a 70-metre rock spur in Koblenz, Germany, by the Eltz family
• 1190
  The King of Castile Alfonso VIII starts rebuilding of a Muslim wooden fort on a rocky crag in Segovia into a stone castle and makes it a royal residence
• 1200 ± 10
  King John's Castle is built on King's Island in Limerick, Ireland by order King John of England
• 1202
  The Predjama Castle is built at the mouth of a huge cave at Postojna, Slovenia
• 1213
  Kilkenny Castle is built by the Anglo-Normans in Ireland to control a fording-point of the River Nore
• 1250
  Cité de Carcassonne, an ancient Roman citadel on a hill on the right bank of the River Aude, France, is reinforced and extended by French government, becoming a strong frontier between France and the Crown of Aragon
• 1289
  Conwy Castle, a medieval fortification in Conwy, Wales, is built as part of the extensive program of castle-building initiated by Edward I after his conquest of Wales
• 1385
  Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, a former knight of Edward III, builds, with the permission of Richard II, a castle known as Bodiam Castle in East Sussex, in order to defend the area against French invasion during the Hundred Years' War
• 1406
  Malbork Castle, the largest castle in the world by surface area, is completed by the Teutonic Knights in Marienburg, the administrative center of the Order in Prussia
• 1452
  Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II begins construction of a new fortress called Rumeli Hisar on the Constantinople side of the Bosporus in order to control the sea traffic on the Bosphorus strait
• 1520
  The fortified monastery on Mont Saint-Michel, an island commune in Normandy, is completed, becoming one of the most recognizable landmarks in France
• 1547
  Château de Chambord, the largest château in the Loire Valley and one of the most famous ones in France is built at the behest of the king of France Francis I
• 1586
  George Khevenhüller, a Carinthian nobleman, who purchased Hochosterwitz Castle on a high rock in Duchy of Carinthia, modern-day Austria, fortifies it to defend the region against Turkish invasions
• 1609
  Himeji Castle, a hilltop Japanese castle located in Himeji, Japan is completely rebuilt into a large castle complex by Japanese daimyo Ikeda Terumasa
• 1857
  Schwerin Palace, a palatial castle in Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, is built by architect Georg Adolph Demmler
• 1867
  Construction on the third Hohenzollern Castle, the seat of the House of Hohenzollern, is completed by Hohenzollern scion Frederick William IV of Prussia atop Berg Hohenzollern, a 234-metre bluff
• 1882
  Neuschwanstein Castle, a Romanesque Revival palace in southwest Bavaria, Germany, is completed by Ludwig II of Bavaria

20 Most Important Events in Earth's History

• 4.560 Billion Years Ago
  The planet Earth forms from the protoplanetary disk of dust grains and rocks attracting by the force of gravity at the outer edge of the habitable zone in the accretion disc revolving around the young Sun
• 4.533 Billion Years Ago
  Planet Earth and the hypothesized protoplanet Theia collide sending large number of moonlets into orbit around the Earth which eventually coalesce to form the Moon
• 3.6 Billion Years Ago
  Prokaryotes, the first simple cells without nucleus and mitochondria, that use carbon dioxide as a carbon source and oxidize inorganic materials to extract energy, appear, probably in deep-sea thermal vents or atmosphere
• 2.9 Billion Years Ago
  Photosynthesizing cyanobacteria, which use water and carbon dioxide as a reducing agent and produce oxygen as waste product, evolve, creating the oxygen-rich atmosphere
• 2.1 Billion Years Ago
  Eukaryotes, complex cells which contain nucleus enclosed within membranes, derive from prokaryotes via fusion of some cells and free-living bacteria, which become mitochondria and start providing energy to the cell by converting sugars
• 1.2 Billion Years Ago
  First simple multicellular organisms, mostly consisting of cell colonies of limited complexity, evolve independently in some groups of single cells, which allows organisms to exceed the size limits
• 580 Million Years Ago
  The accumulation of atmospheric oxygen allows the formation of an ozone layer, which blocks ultraviolet radiation, permitting the colonisation of the land
• 540 Million Years Ago
  The Cambrian explosion, the relatively rapid, lasting 70 million years, appearance of most major animal phyla accompanied by major diversification of organisms, begins
• 435 Millions Years Ago
  The first primitive plants move onto land and rapidly diversify, having evolved from green algae living along the edges of lakes
• 365 Million Years Ago
  First amphibians, four-limbed backboned tetrapods, evolve from the lobe-finned fishes, gradually gaining adaptations, such as lungs and nares, which will help them occupy land and give rise to reptiles and mammals
• 320 Million Years Ago
  The first reptiles evolve from advanced reptiliomorph labyrinthodonts, a newt-like amphibians that gain scaly skin and begin laying eggs with hard shells outside the water
• 220 Millions Years Ago
  Adelobasileus, the first known mammal, which resembles modern rats and has sweat glands, including those that are specialized to produce milk to nourish their young, evolves from reptiles called cynodonts
• 200 Million Years Ago
  Pangaea, the large supercontinent, begins to rift into two continents: Laurasia, which contains North America and Eurasia, and other supercontinent - Gondwana, containing Africa, South America, India, Antarctica, and Australia
• 199,6 Million Years Ago
  Triassic-Jurassic extinction event wipes out twenty percent of all marine families and all large non-dinosaurian archosaurs other than crocodilians on land, leaving the dinosaurs the dominant land animals
• 155 Million Years Ago
  Archaeopteryx, one of the first birds and transitional fossil between feathered dinosaurs and modern birds, appears following evolution of some other early birds, such as Anchiornis and Aurornis
• 130 Million Years Ago
  The first flowering plants, whose boast structures attract insects and other animals to spread pollen, which causes a major burst of animal evolution through co-evolution, appear
• 65.5 Million Years Ago
  An asteroid 10 kilometers in diameter falls on the coast of Yucatán in Mexico and causes the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event with eradicating about half of all animal species, including the dinosaurs but excluding their descendants, the birds
• 65 Million Years Ago
  Purgatorius, a rat-sized placental mammal with mass about 40 grams, becomes the earliest example of a primate or a proto-primate, giving rise to monkeys, apes and humans
• 2.5 Million Years Ago
  Homo habilis, the earliest known species of the genus Homo, evolves from Hominidae in East Africa, beginning usage of primitive stone tools for hunting and work
• 200 Thousand Years Ago
  Anatomically modern human, who has more gracile frames, reduced brow ridges and vertical forehead, evolve from archaic Homo sapiens in East Africa