Dates before the 6th century BC are often approximate or traditional. For an overview see the history of Greece.
Prehistory and Bronze Age
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| c. 7000 BC | First Neolithic villages, such as Sesklo and Dimini in Thessaly |
| c. 3200-2000 BC | Cycladic civilisation |
| c. 1950 BC | First Minoan palaces built on Crete |
| c. 1600 BC | Shaft graves at Mycenae, start of Mycenaean civilisation |
| 17th-16th c. BC | Eruption of Santorini |
| c. 1450 BC | Minoan palaces destroyed; Mycenaeans at Knossos |
| c. 1250-1180 BC | Possible period of the Trojan War |
| c. 1200-1100 BC | Collapse of the Mycenaean palaces |
Archaic age
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 776 BC | First Olympiad according to tradition |
| c. 750 BC | Use of the alphabet; composition of Homer's poems |
| 734-733 BC | Founding of Naxos and Syracuse in Sicily |
| c. 706 BC | Sparta founds Taranto |
| 594 BC | Solon's reforms in Athens |
| 546-510 BC | Tyranny of Peisistratus and his sons in Athens |
| 508-507 BC | Cleisthenes' reforms: Athenian democracy is born |
| 499-494 BC | Ionian Greek cities revolt against Persia |
Classical age
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 490 BC | Battle of Marathon |
| 480 BC | Thermopylae and Salamis |
| 479 BC | Battle of Plataea, end of the Persian invasion |
| 478-477 BC | Delian League formed under Athens |
| 461-429 BC | Age of Pericles |
| 447-432 BC | The Parthenon is built |
| 431-404 BC | Peloponnesian War |
| 415-413 BC | Disastrous Athenian expedition to Sicily, championed by Alcibiades |
| 399 BC | Trial and death of Socrates |
| 387 BC | Plato founds the Academy |
| 371 BC | Thebes defeats Sparta at Leuctra |
| 338 BC | Battle of Chaeronea: Philip II of Macedon dominates Greece |
| 336-323 BC | Reign of Alexander the Great |
Hellenistic and Roman ages
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 331 BC | Founding of Alexandria in Egypt |
| 323 BC | Alexander dies in Babylon; start of the Hellenistic age |
| 212 BC | Death of Archimedes at Syracuse |
| 146 BC | The Romans destroy Corinth |
| 86 BC | Sulla sacks Athens |
| 31 BC | Battle of Actium |
| AD 49-52 | St Paul travels in Greece |
| AD 393 | Last recorded ancient Olympic Games |
Byzantium, Venice, Ottomans
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 330 | Constantine inaugurates Constantinople |
| 529 | Justinian closes the philosophical schools of Athens |
| 1054 | Schism between Eastern and Western Churches |
| 1204 | Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople; Venice takes Crete and many islands |
| 1453 | The Turks conquer Constantinople |
| 1460 | Fall of the Despotate of the Morea, in the Peloponnese |
| 1571 | Battle of Lepanto; the Ottomans take Cyprus |
| 1669 | End of the siege of Candia: Crete becomes Ottoman |
| 1687 | During a Venetian siege a cannonball blows up the Parthenon |
| 1797 | End of the Venetian Republic; the Ionian Islands pass to France |
Modern Greece
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 25 March 1821 | Start of the War of Independence |
| 1827 | Battle of Navarino |
| 1830 | London Protocol: Greek independence |
| 1832-1833 | Otto of Bavaria becomes king; capital Nafplio, then Athens (1834) |
| 1864 | Britain cedes the Ionian Islands |
| 1881 | Thessaly and Arta annexed |
| 1896 | First modern Olympics in Athens |
| 1912-1913 | Balkan Wars: Macedonia, Epirus, Crete and Aegean islands annexed |
| 1919-1922 | Greco-Turkish War and Asia Minor catastrophe |
| 1923 | Treaty of Lausanne and population exchange |
| 28 October 1940 | The "No" to Italy's ultimatum |
| 1941-1944 | German, Italian and Bulgarian occupation |
| 1946-1949 | Civil war |
| 1947 | The Dodecanese, Italian since 1912, passes to Greece |
| 1967-1974 | Colonels' dictatorship |
| 1974 | Return of democracy; referendum abolishes the monarchy |
| 1981 | Joins the European Community |
| 2002 | Euro notes and coins introduced |
| 2004 | Athens Olympics; Greece wins the European football championship |
| 2010-2018 | Debt crisis and three bailout programmes |
| 2015 | Referendum and third bailout |
| 2019 | Kyriakos Mitsotakis becomes prime minister |
| 2023 | Tempi rail crash; New Democracy re-elected |
| 2024 | Same-sex marriage law |
| 2025 | Konstantinos Tasoulas becomes President |