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4th millennium BC

The 4th millennium BC spanned the years 4000 BC to 3001 BC. Some of the major changes in human culture during this time included the beginning of the Bronze Age and the invention of writing, which played a major role in starting recorded history.

The city states of Sumer and the kingdom of Egypt were established and grew to prominence. Agriculture spread widely across Eurasia.

World population growth relaxed after the burst that came about from the Neolithic Revolution. World population was largely stable in this time at roughly 50 million, growing at an average of 0.027% per year.

Culture

 * Near East

 * Mesopotamia
 * 4100–3100 BC – the Uruk period, with emerging Sumerian hegemony during the Uruk Expansion and development of Proto-cuneiform writing; base-60 mathematics, astronomy and astrology, civil law, complex hydrology, the sailboat, potter's wheel and wheel; the Chalcolithic proceeds into the Early Bronze Age.
 * 3500–2340 BC – Sumer: wheeled carts, potter's wheel, White Temple ziggurat, bronze tools and weapons.
 * First to Fourth dynasty of Kish in Mesopotamia.
 * Sumerian temple of Janna at Eridu erected.
 * Temple at Al-Ubaid and tomb of Mes-Kalam-Dug built near Ur, Chaldea.
 * 3000 BC – Tin is in use in Mesopotamia soon after this time.
 * The cuneiform script proper emerges from pictographic proto-writing in the later 4th millennium. Mesopotamia's "proto-literate" period spans the 35th to 32nd centuries BC. The first documents unequivocally written in the Sumerian language date to the 31st century BC, found at Jemdet Nasr.
 * Kura-Araxes culture expands Southwards towards Sumer.
 * Possible reigns of Lugalbanda and Enmerkar prior to 3250 BC.
 * Long distanced trade with polities in modern-day afghanistan.
 * Dams, canals, stone sculptures using inclined plane and lever in Sumer.
 * Urkesh (northern Syria) founded during the fourth millennium BC possibly by the Hurrians.
 * The Courtyard is introduced to Mesopotamia.
 * Persian plateau
 * 4000 BC – Susa is a center of pottery production.
 * c. 4000 BC – Beaker from Susa (modern Shush, Iran) is made. It is now at Musée du Louvre, Paris.
 * Proto-Elamite from 3200 BC.
 * Anatolia and Caucasus
 * c. 3700 BC to 3000 BC – The Maykop culture of the Caucasus, contemporary to the Kurgan culture, is a candidate for the origin of Bronze production and thus the Bronze Age.
 * 3400–2000 BC – Kura-Araxes: earliest evidence found on the Ararat plain.
 * Egypt
 * 4000–3000 BC – Naqada culture on the Nile. First hieroglyphs appear thus far around 3500 BC as found on labels in a ruler's tomb at Abydos.
 * Predynastic pharaohs Tiu, Thesh, Hsekiu, Wazner, Ro, Serket, Narmer.
 * 3500–3400 BC – Jar with boat designs, from Hierakonpolis (today in the Brooklyn Museum) is created. Predynastic Egypt.
 * c. 3150 BC – Predynastic period ended in Ancient Egypt. Early Dynastic (Archaic) period started (according to French Egyptologist Nicolas Grimal). The period includes 1st and 2nd Dynasties.
 * c. 3100 BC – Narmer Palette.
 * Sails used in the Nile.
 * Mastabas, the predecessors of the Egyptian pyramids.
 * Harps and flutes played in Egypt.
 * Lyres and double clarinets (arghul, mijwiz) played in Egypt.
 * Earliest known numerals in Egypt.

 * Europe

 * Crete: Rise of Minoan civilization.
 * c. 4000 BC – First neolithic settlers in the island of Thera (Santorini), Greece, migrating probably from Minoan Crete.
 * Pontic–Caspian steppe
 * 3500–2300 BC – The Yamna culture ("Kurgan culture"), succeeding the Sredny Stog culture on the Pontic–Caspian steppe in the Caucasus and Central Asia. This culture is believed to have been the locus of the Proto-Indo-Europeans, and thus the Urheimat, or point of origin, of the Proto Indo-European language, according to the Kurgan hypothesis.
 * 5500–2750 BC – The Cucuteni–Trypillia culture has cities with 15,000 citizens, eastern Europe.
 * Kurgan culture of what is now Southern Russia and Ukraine; possibly the first domestication of the horse.
 * Balkans
 * c. 3500 BC – Figures of a man and a woman, from Cernavodă, Romania, are made. They are now at National Historical Museum, Bucharest.
 * c. 3138 BC Ljubljana Marshes Wheel is a wooden wheel that was found in the Ljubljana Marsh in Slovenia. Radiocarbon dating showed that it is approximately 5,150 years old, which makes it the oldest wooden wheel yet discovered.
 * c. 4000–2000 BC – People and animals, a detail of rock-shelter painting in Cogul (Roca dels Moros), Lleida, Spain, are painted. It is now at Archaeology Museum of Catalonia, Barcelona.
 * Arzachena & Ozieri cultures.
 * MaltaGgantija Temples, Xaghra, Gozo.jpg temples are the earliest of the Megalithic Temples of Malta ]]
 * 3600 BC – Construction of the Ġgantija megalithic temple complex on the Island of Gozo: the world's oldest extant unburied free-standing structures, and the world's oldest religious structures. (See Göbekli Tepe for older, buried religious structures.)
 * 3600–3200 BC – Construction of the first temple within the Mnajdra solar temple complex, containing "furniture" such as stone benches and tables, that set it apart from other European megalith constructions.
 * Great Neolithic Plague occurs from circa 5450 BC to circa 2700 BC. This ensures for the large scaled expansions of the later early bronze age.
 * 3600–3000 BC – Construction of the Ta' Ħaġrat and Kordin III temples.
 * 3250–3000 BC – Construction of three megalithic temples at Tarxien.
 * 3200–2500 BC – Construction of the Ħaġar Qim megalithic temple complex, featuring both solar and lunar alignments.
 * Northern Europe
 * 4000–2700 BC – The Funnelbeaker culture, Scandinavia, originated in southern parts of Europe and slowly advanced up through today's Uppland.
 * 3300–2900 BC – Construction of the Newgrange solar observatory/passage tomb in Ireland.Tustrup gravpladsen (Norddjurs Kommune).Jættestue.Gang.2.47886.ajb.jpg in Eastern Jutland, is an example of Funnelbeaker culture circa 3200 BC]]
 * c. 3100–2600 BC – Neolithic settlement at Skara Brae in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, is inhabited.
 * Construction in England of the Sweet Track, the world's first known engineered roadway.
 * Garth tsunami in the Northern Isles.
 * c. 3100 BC – The earliest phase of the Stonehenge monument (a circular earth bank and ditch).
 * The Céide Fields are developed, the first signs of the eventual complete deforestation of Ireland.
 * c. 3300 BC – Ötzi the Iceman dies near the present-day border between Austria and Italy, only to be discovered in 1991 buried in a glacier of the Ötztal Alps. His cause of death is believed to be homicide.

 * Central Asia
 * 3500–2500 BC – Afanasevo: Siberia, Mongolia, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan—late copper and early Bronze Age.
 * c. 4000 BC – Horses are domesticated in the western Eurasian Steppes in what is now northern Kazakhstan (see the Botai culture).
 * Bactria Margiana civilization (circa 3000 BC) alongside trade routes connection with Proto-dynastic Egypt.

 * East Asia
 * Neolithic Chinese settlements. They produced silk and pottery (chiefly the Yangshao and the Longshan cultures), wore hemp clothing, and domesticated pigs and dogs.
 * 4000–2500 BC – Vietnamese Bronze Age culture. The Đồng Đậu Culture, produced many wealthy bronze objects.
 * Indian Subcontinent
 * Mehrgarh III–VI
 * 3500 BC Metalcasting began in the Mohenjodaro area.
 * 3300 BC – Bronze Age starts in Indus Valley (Harappa).
 * Drainage and Sewage collection and disposal
 * Ochre Coloured Pottery culture

 * Americas
 * c. 3600 BC – In Colombia, first rupestrian art Chiribiquete (Caquetá).
 * c. 3000 BC – First pottery in Colombia at Puerto Hormiga (Magdalena), considered one of the first attempts of pottery of the New World. First settlement at Puerto Badel (Bolívar).
 * c. 3600 BC – Evidence of maize domestication appear in the Valley of Tehuacán.
 * Norte Chico civilization in Northern Peru starts.

 * Australia
 * c. 3000 BC – The Sydney rock engravings in present-day (Sydney, Australia).

Sub-Saharan Africa remains in the Paleolithic period, except for the earliest neolithization of the Sahel following the desiccation of the Sahara in c. 3500 BC. As the grasslands of the Sahara began drying after 3900 BC, herders spread into the Nile Valley and into eastern Africa (Eburan 5, Elmenteitan). The desiccation of the Sahara and the associated neolithisation of West Africa is also cited as a possible cause for the dispersal of the Niger-Congo linguistic phylum.
 * Sub-Saharan Africa

Environment
Based on studies by glaciologist Lonnie Thompson, professor at Ohio State University and researcher with the Byrd Polar Research Center, a number of indicators shows there was a global change in climate 5,200 years ago, probably due to a drop in solar energy output.
 * The Older Peron transgression was a period identified in 1961 happening between 6,000 and 4,600 years BP when sea levels were 3 to 5 metres higher than today.
 * Plants buried in the Quelccaya Ice Cap in the Peruvian Andes demonstrate the climate had shifted suddenly and severely to capture the plants and preserve them until now.
 * c. 3750 BC – The last North American mammoths, on Saint Paul Island, Alaska, go extinct.
 * Tree rings from Ireland and England show this was their driest period.
 * Ice core records showing the ratio of two oxygen isotopes retrieved from the ice fields atop Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro, a proxy for atmospheric temperature at the time snow fell.
 * Major changes in plant pollen uncovered from lakebed cores in South America.
 * Record lowest levels of methane retrieved from ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica.
 * End of the Neolithic Subpluvial, start of desertification of Sahara (35th century BC). North Africa shifts from a habitable region to a barren desert.
 * c. 3150 BC – a lesser Tollmann's hypothetical bolide event may have occurred.
 * 3051 BC – The oldest currently (2013) living non-clonal organism germinated in the present-day Grove of the Ancients, Inyo County, California.

Calendars and chronology

 * 4000 BC – Epoch of the Masonic calendar's Anno Lucis era.
 * 3929 BC – Creation according to John Lightfoot based on the Old Testament of the Bible, and often associated with the Ussher chronology.
 * 3761 BC – Since the Middle Ages (12th century), the Hebrew calendar has been based on rabbinic calculations of the year of creation from the Hebrew Masoretic text of the bible. This calendar is used within Jewish communities for religious and other purposes. The calendar's epoch, corresponding to the calculated date of the world's creation, is equivalent to sunset on the Julian proleptic calendar date 6 October 3761 BC.
 * 3114 BC – One version of the Mayan calendar, known as the Mesoamerican Long Count, uses the epoch of 11 or 13 August 3114 BC. The Maya Long Count calendar was first used approximately 236 BC (see Mesoamerican Long Count calendar.
 * 3102 BC – According to calculations of Aryabhata (6th century), the Hindu Kali Yuga began at midnight on 18 February 3102 BC.
 * 3102 BC – Aryabhata dates the events of the Mahabharata to around 3102 BC. Other estimates range from the late 4th to the mid-2nd millennium BC.

Centuries

 * 40th century BC
 * 39th century BC
 * 38th century BC
 * 37th century BC
 * 36th century BC
 * 35th century BC
 * 34th century BC
 * 33rd century BC
 * 32nd century BC
 * 31st century BC

title: 4th millennium BC


text:
5th millennium BC

The 5th millennium BC spanned the years [5000 BCE - 4000 BCE) (c. 7 ka to c. 6 ka), that is, inclusive of 5000 BCE but exclusive of 4000 BCE. It is impossible to precisely date events that happened around the time of this millennium and all dates mentioned here are estimates mostly based on geological and anthropological analysis.

Communities
The rapid world population growth of the previous millennium, caused by the Neolithic Revolution, is believed to have slowed and become fairly stable. It has been estimated that there were around forty million people worldwide by 5000 BC, growing to 100 million by the Middle Bronze Age c. 1600 BC.

Europe
Infamously the Stentinello culture stretches from Sicily and Calabria to the Aeolian Islands representing cultural focus on seafaring and maritime trade at this time. Sardinia has close trade relations with the Mediterranean Neolithic communities of southern France, the Iberian Peninsula, the Italian peninsula and Sicily and is a major participant of the silver trade.
 * The Cucuteni–Trypillia culture (aka Tripolye culture) began around 4800 BC. It was centred on modern Moldova and lasted in three defined phases until c. 3000 BC.
 * From about 4500 BC until c. 2500 BC, a single dialect called Proto-Indo-European (PIE) existed as the forerunner of all modern Indo-European languages, but it left no written texts and its structure is unknown.
 * Vinca culture (5700-4200 BC) continues cultural traits of the prior millennium. It had the earliest form of proto-writing, suggesting a requirement for astrological, scientific, astronomical, or economical (trade) archives. This provides the earliest known example of copper smelting in the Old World, imperial-like social stratification with communal spaces, and large scale trade networks where its distinctive figurines reach as far as Western Europe. The culture ends with abandonment and conflicts circa 4200 BC.
 * The distribution of Venus figurines from the previous agricultural revolution cements itself as mainstream art in Europe, continuing onward from the 6th millennium BC.
 * Dimini culture first arises circa 4800 BC alongside the Late Neolithic period of Greece where increasing population densities are most notable. Over 400 years, Dimini imperially expands, later absorbing Sesklo culture completely before the final invasion and destruction of Sesklo ca. 4400 BC. The Final Neolithic period arrives with the Chalcolithic period and increased cultural connection alongside trade routes to Anatolia.
 * Uralic languages and cultures continue to expand and migrate. The Lyalovo culture (ca. 5000–3650 BC) has been equated with the Proto-Uralic urheimat alongside cultural relationship with the Comb Ceramic culture.
 * Megalithic constructions continue all over Western Europe, with increasing social stratification and social complexity. See the timeline. One most notable site is the Locmariaquer megaliths, the highest being 20.60 metres (67.6 ft) tall and over 330 tons and served as a site of pilgrimage and inspiration. The complex construction of such megaliths all over Europe are representative of the power of the social elite, religious clergy, direct communication over vast distances of land, and large labour forces.
 * Long distanced Eastern trade from Danubian and Caucasus civilizations to Indo-European steppe cultures with social stratification and royal chiefs of their own. Considerable Danubian influence on Central European polities and cultures must also be considered.
 * A second wave of the culture, which used painted pottery with Asiatic influences, superseded the first phase starting around 4500 BC. This was followed by a third wave which used stroke-ornamented ware. These elements of imports and artistic licensing represent complex cultural developments. Alongside this, the infamous Varna culture thrives, beginning circa 4600 BC to 4200 BC reflecting Kingship.
 * Hamangia culture lasts until 4550 BC. Its cultural links with Anatolia suggest that it was the result of settlement by people from Anatolia, unlike the neighbouring cultures, which appear descended from earlier Neolithic settlement. Such migrations represent strong communication systems between large stretches of land, political motives and a further indication of the Black Sea trade most notable of the period via seafaring and land.
 * Mediterranean trade networks are long forged, with complex economical activities by polities, stretching from the Adriatic to Portugal and parts of North Africa see economy and Neolithic.
 * Trade via seafaring and ports between Western Hunter Gatherers in Ireland and cultures in Neolithic Western Europe (circa 4000 BC) (Ferriter's Cove).
 * Neolithic Britain circa 4100 experiences rapid mass migration and settlement into the Isles. Deforestation on a momentous scale in Neolithic Britain. (4300 BC to 3250 BC), associated with the Windmill Hill culture, increased population density, outcompeting the West Hunter Gatherer populations.
 * First major Indo European migration (circa 4000 BC). Migrates southwards via the Danube eventually reaching Anatolia. Danubian migrations occur westerwards onwards from this upheaval. Danubian civilization and culture such as the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture will survive on until the late 4th millennium or very early 3rd millennium BC.
 * Neolithic farming guilds and polities maintain a relatively fixed frontier in Northern Central Europe (modern-day Germany), allowing Scandinavian Hunter Gatherer polities to later develop into the Pitted Ware Culture (circa 3500 BC).
 * The Warren Field calendar originating from the Mesolithic continues to be experimented upon and further alongside mathematics which is developed across all of Europe by various polities continuously through the 5th millennium.
 * Alongside megalithic monuments or tomb with high social and astronomical importance to polities of the era, stone circles are erected as far as France, see the Carnac stones.

Mesopotamia
Its chronology within the 5th millennium consists of:
 * Ubaid expansion continues into the early 5th millennium, with demographic integration of Ubaid culture by Halafians alongside invasions by Ubaid polities. One example of violence is Tell Arpachiyah a key economical hub of pottery manufacture. Another is Tepe Gawra. Obsidian, cedar, advancement of the potters wheel circa 4500 BC, silver, cattle and copper trade routes for over a millennia are strengthened as a result of these expansions, between Anatolia, Iran, the Caucasus and South Iraq.

- Ubaid 1, sometimes called Eridu corresponding to the city Eridu, (5400–4700 BC), a phase limited to the extreme south of Iraq, on what was then the shores of the Persian Gulf. This phase, showing clear connection to the Samarra culture to the north. These people pioneered the growing of grains in the extreme conditions of aridity.

- Ubaid 2 occurs circa 4800–4500 BC. At that time, Hadji Muhammed style ceramics was produced. This period also saw the development of extensive canal networks near major settlements. New highly developed irrigation systems, which seems to have developed first at Choga Mami (4700–4600 BC) and rapidly spread elsewhere.

- Ubaid 3: Tell al‐Ubaid style ceramics. Traditionally, this ceramic period was dated c. 5300–4700 BC. The appearance of these ceramics received different dates depending on the particular sites, which have a wide geographical distribution portraying widespread trade systems and social stratification.

- Ubaid 4: Late Ubaid style ceramics, circa 4700 - 4200 BC. Maritime trade via the Persian Gulf peaks, connecting to Southern Iranian ports and polities. Obsidian trade is most notable with extraction and transportation to industrial style worskhops over a 170 km distance, see Hamoukar.Southern expansions continue Southwards to Oman.

Overall, the Ubaid period experiences sporadic but controlled growth of socially stratified settlements, with communal areas, segregation of classes per quarters and complex social stratification. Increased conflict between democratic councils, large scale chiefdoms, royalties, polities and imperial-like aspirations. Large scale stone masonry for public use, and organised seal estampage of international importance are associated characteristics of the era. P. Amiet sees as a 'proto-royal figure,' i.e., potentially Enki, preceding the 'priest-kings' of the 4th millennium. Of the hundreds of polities and tens of important city states here are a few notable events:

 * Eridu during the Ubaid period the site extended out to an area of about 12 hectares (about 30 acres). Twelve neolithic clay tokens, the precursor to Proto-cuneiform, were found in the Ubaid levels of the site.[7][8] The city was the major power at least in the first half of the 5th millennium. It would go on to decline in sovereignty within the 4th millennium. It is here where the first Kings of Sumer were said to have once dwelt.
 * One major polity of the Ubaid period is Tell Brak a very large polity with transregional power with city walls, and a Tell Brak expansion beyond the mound to form a lower town. By the late 5th millennium BC, Tell Brak reached the size of c. 55 hectares. The remains of a monumental building alongside other large scale projects erected with two meters thick walls and a basalt threshold reveals a social elite of extreme prowess.
 * Another major polity is Uruk (founded circa 5000 BC), experiences a rapid increase in dominance, establishing itself beyond merely a regional power circa 4500 BC with the Eanna quarter or district first constructed. Uruk in its climb for dominance would go on to construct the Anu Ziggurat circa 4000 BC. It is these centuries of careful development which gave Uruk its legendary dominance later in the 4th millennium during the Uruk Expansion.
 * Some other polities of note are firstly Tepe Gawra featuring signs of notable conflict during the prior Ubaid expansion. Weapons smithing, copper trade and notable temples built circa 4200 BC are present.
 * Ur experienced repeated flooding alongside the other city states, due to continuous floods of the Euphrates within this era. Ur would later rise to great prominence in the mid to late 3rd millennium BC.
 * Chogha Mish grew into its maximum size of 17 hectares in the Late Susiana period, and was dominant onwards from the 6th millennium. However the early half of the 5th millennium, the Chogha Mish main monumental building was destroyed and along with it its power declined. This became known as the 'Burnt Building'. This destruction of Chogha Mish also coincided with the abandonment of some other sites on the eastern part of the Susiana plain. The settlements of the subsequent period shifted more to the west, especially with the founding and rise of the city of Susa.
 * The south-western part of Iran after 4400 BC restarts urbanisation, with large scale settlements such as Susa (founded possibly as early as 4395 cal BC via Ubaid urbanisation and influence). The region around Susa in the southwest of modern Iran, is located right next to lower Mesopotamia, which exercised a powerful influence on Uruk and its neighbours from the 5th millennium. Susa I (4000 - 3700 BC) saw the beginning of monumental architecture on the site, with the construction of a 'High Terrace'. Susa alongside its allies is invaded and destroyed in c. 4200 BC. The city of Anshan is founded circa 4000 BC, and alongside Susa begins to separate itself culturally from the West, developing the lands with its newly integrated peoples into a Proto-Elamite cultural and economic revolution.

Ulterior Middle East
In modern Turkey: Strong Anatolian polities counteract the balance of power from the Ubaid polities and dwaining Samarrans who were culturally assimilated around 4800 BC. Such polities include Mersin notably having a standing army circa 4300 BC, and Hamoukar which was a major production centre in the important Obsidian trade and thus power. An intensive copper trade, connecting Europe with the East, is represented in Anatolia by sites at Hacilar, Beycesultan, Canhasan, Mersin Yumuktepe, Elazig Tepecik, Malatya Degirmentepe, Norşuntepe, and Istanbul Fikirtepe.

Prior environmental devastation in the previous two millennia may account for the lack of Neolithic sites in northern Turkey.

In the Levant: Ghassulian culture thrives, immigrating from the North into the whole of the Levant circa 4400 BC. With concentrated settlements and elites economically focused on copper metallurgy and trade, notably importing from Southern Jordan's vast and powerful urban polities and Bedouin-like cultures. The Ghassulian culture trades and correlates closely with the Amratians of Egypt and also seems to have affinities (e.g., the distinctive churns, or “bird vases”) with early Minoan culture in Crete.[3][6] Cypriot affinities are not seen, with Cyprus experiencing newcomers circa 4500 BC who arrived and introduced a new Neolithic era. This Sotira culture replaced the void of the collapse of the 6th millennium Neolithic culture in Cyprus.

Trade with Levant and external regions on an impressive scale and covering large distances starts to connect Europe with Asia on a more direct scale than before. Obsidian found in the Chalcolithic levels at Gilat, Israel have had their origins traced via elemental analysis to three sources in Southern Anatolia: Hotamis Dağ, Göllü Dağ, and as far east as Nemrut Dağ, 500 km (310 mi) east of the other two sources. This is indicative of a very large trade circle reaching as far as the Northern Fertile Crescent and Anatolia.

In the Caucasus: Settlements of the 5th millennium BC in North Caucasus attest to a material culture that was related to contemporaneous archaeological complexes in the northern and western Black Sea region like the Leyla-Tepe culture (c. 4300 - 4000BC). These polities were immense economically, and pioneered copper metallurgy and trade. Constant immigration from Ubadians and from Uruk herself did play economic factors as well.

Such cultural elements change and are replaced, suddenly during the latter first half of the 4th Millennium BC, and the quality of copper metallurgy declines somewhat, during the Kura–Araxes culture.

On the other hand, the millennia long attested Shulaveri–Shomu culture showed stronger cultural connections like similar tool kits and use of red ochre, portrays intimate and centuries-old ties with the Halafians.

In Arabia: Continuation of Ubaid economical expansion and culture(since the 6th millennium BC, circa 5500 BC) throughout Arabia, with adoption and integration but also contributions to these new political features. Ubaid pottery of periods 2 and 3 has been documented at site H3 in Kuwait and in Dosariyah in eastern Saudi Arabia which bordered the Persian Gulf, a major trade hub.

Central Asia (North and South)
Central: A millennia after the Iranian farmer cultures had first cemented with ancestry from the Caucasus and Iranian plateau hunter-gatherers and middle east, (circa 6000 BC) in Pakistan and north-west India and migrations from southwest Asia had resulted in increasing urbanisation and increasing social stratification. Such cultures include:

 * The Jeitun culture (or Djeitun) had housed settlements and had culturally united Southern Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, existing for over 2000 years already at the turn of the millennium until 4600 BC. Increasing aridity in the late Neolithic i.e., Chagylly Depe, internationally farmers increasingly grew the kinds of crops that are typically associated with irrigation in an arid environment, such as hexaploid bread wheat, which became predominant during the Chalcolithic period.
 * Increasing rapid migrations from Iran, with various waves bringing advanced metallurgy and other innovations, but it is thought that the newcomers soon blended with the Jeitun farmers. A large portion of these peoples settled in Anau, Turkmenistan founded circa 4500BC. The Anau culture, beginning just before 4000 BC contemporary with the Namazga culture, was a bridgeway between East and West, with considerable Chinese and Iranian influence in the use of its stamp seals in the great trade routes. Lapis Lazuli was imported from mining Kingdoms in Afghanistan to workshops.
 * Mehrgarh culture in modern Pakistan was the largest urban and trade centre between East, South and West Asia. It pioneered metallurgy for millennia, tanning, bead production, use of the potter's wheel, wax making, mathematics, geometry, medicine and in advancement of economic specialisations. Glazed faience beads were produced and terracotta figurines became more detailed alongside direct trade from polities as far as present-day Badakshan for lapis lazuli. Mehrgarh Periods II and III are also contemporaneous with an expansion of the settled populations of the borderlands at the western edge of South Asia, including the establishment of settlements like Rana Ghundai, Sheri Khan Tarakai, Sarai Kala, Jalilpur, and Ghaligai. The trade hub already been difficult to control due to its scale would then receive high levels of immigration from West Eurasia around 4000 BC to 3800 BC.
 * The term Ceramic Mesolithic is used of late Mesolithic cultures of Central Asia, during the 6th to 5th millennium BC (in Russian archaeology, these cultures are described as Neolithic even though farming is absent). These nomadic societies who had animal husbandry had pottery via cultural diffusion and trade of the previous millennia from Lake Baikal in Siberia and from Europe. From there spread via the Dnieper-Donets culture to the Narva culture of the Eastern Baltic. See the History of Central Asia for more detail.

Modern Dravidian (Geographically in India) peoples (not to be confused with the language) whose history predates the onset of the Bronze Age in the Indian subcontinent (around 3300 BC) inhabited the area before the arrival of other ethnic groups like the Tibeto-Burmans and Indo-Aryans from across the border.
 * Scattered nomadic groups maintained herds of sheep, goats, horses, and camels, and conducted annual migrations to find new pastures (a practice known as transhumance). The people lived in yurts (or gers) – tents made of hides and wood that could be disassembled and transported. Each group had several yurts, each accommodating about five people.
 * Ancestors to the Afanasevo culture (c. 3500–2500 BCE) inhabit the regions of modern Xinjiang. They are culturally and genetically affiliated with the Indo-European-associated cultures of the Eurasian Steppe despite predating great eastern expansions from the steppe of the 3rd millennium BC.
 * Tibetan cultures and settlements have been found mainly "in river valleys in the south and east of the country". Archaeological sites consist of those in Nyingchi County, Medog County, and Qamdo County. Archaeologists have found pottery and stone tools, including stone axes, chisels, knives, spindle-whorls, discs, and arrowheads, alongside engagement in ancestor worship and priest classes.
 * By 4000 BCE, the Tibeto-Burmese cultures had reached Nepal either directly across the Himalayas from Tibet or via Myanmar and north-east India or both. This is representative of conflicts with the Sino-Tibetan language expansions.

North:
 * The original homeland of the Indo Europeans' ancestors in the Palaeolithic, the Northern and Eastern Siberian cultures did not have any agricultural introduction or even pastoralism in Siberia during the central European Neolithic. Its cultures is characterized by characteristic stone production techniques and the presence of pottery of eastern origin via trade despite West Eurasian genetics. However, the neolithic cultures of North Asia are distinguished from the preceding Mesolithic cultures and are far more visible as a result of the introduction of pottery from Southwards. The Afanasevan population was a mix of people descended from a mother culture of Indo Europeans in central Russia, and from people who migrated back c. 3700–3300 BCE across the Eurasian Steppe from the pre-Yamnaya Repin culture of the Don-Volga region. Such migrations including early Uralic Eastern migrations into North Asia from Eurasia, which started and occurred during the mid 5th millennium.

Significant linguistic connections are made with the precursor to the Proto-Indo European languages (circa 4500 BC), via the Eurasiatic language and parts of the Dravidian language to a prior language family during the Upper Palaeolithic. Dravidian having multiple cultural origins and development over millennia can be considered just as influential on an international scale as the Indo European languages from the 5th millennium BC to the 1st millennium AD. Such influence has been explored, such examples are the Elamo-Dravidian languages, a family that would have pioneered Susa, Central Mesopotamia, trade and politics within the Ubaid era.

South:
 * Some Dravidian cultures formed from an admixture event between primarily Neolithic or Pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherers in India, and  farmers, from the Iranian Plateau, sharing deep ancestry with "Neolithic Iranian farmers" and other West Eurasians, and indigenous South Asian hunter-gatherers (also known as "Ancestral Ancient South Asians" AASI), distantly related to the Andamanese and other East Eurasians.

These Southern migrations into India contributed to parts of the Proto-Dravidian language, having multiple variants i.e., Proto-South Dravidian language based on geographical location, however the language itself is known to have largely been native to central India as well. This melting pot of cultures peaked from the 5th millennium BC into the 4th millennium BC.

 * Megaliths in South Asia are dated before 3000 BC, with recent findings dated back to 5000 BC in southern India. Cultures within central India had metallurgy, trade, payment of dues (possibly taxes or contributions to religious ceremonies) and social stratification explored within the linguistics of the era.

Indian Y-lineages are close to southern European populations and the time of divergence between the two predated Steppe migration:"These results suggest that the European-related ancestry in Indian populations might be much older and more complex than anticipated, and might originate from the first wave of agriculturists millennia before the 5th Millennium BC."

China
Chinese civilisation advanced in this millennium with the beginnings of three noted cultures from around 5000 BC. The Yangshao culture was based in the Huang He (Yellow River) basin and endured for some 2,000 years. It is believed that pigs were first domesticated there. Pottery was fired in kilns dug into the ground and then painted. Millet was cultivated. A type-site settlement for the Yangshao was established c. 4700 BC at Banpo near modern Xi'an, Shaanxi.

Also about 5000 BC, the Hemudu culture began in eastern China with cultivation of rice, and the Majiabang culture was established on the Yangtze estuary near modern Shanghai, lasting until c. 3300 BC.

Oceania
These people were in the following millennium later, largely displaced by migrations of Eastern Eurasian rice farmers since Neolithic and later migrations from Central China to Southeastern Asia after adopting farming to the rest of Southeast Asia and Oceania.
 * The powerful chiefdoms of the Proto-Papuan polities continue to practice and advance their agricultural system. In the form of ancient irrigation systems in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, are being studied by archaeologists. The New Guinea Highlands with immense population density were an early and independent center of agriculture, with evidence of irrigation going back at least 10,000 years. Sugarcane continued to be farmed on mass scale since 6000 BC.
 * Mesolitihic hunter-gatherers continue to dominate most parts of Indonesia. Notable cultures are the Toalean culture. Trade and intercourse between the separated lands of Australia and Indonesia continued across the newly formed Torres Strait, whose 150 km-wide channel remained readily navigable with the chain of Torres Strait Islands and reefs affording intermediary stopping points.
 * Melanesian peoples and tribes continue to inhabit and thrive in Melenasia. Individuals with Australo-Melanesian phenotypes existed possibly also in East Asia (in and toward the south of East Asia) at least since the Middle Paleolithic. These represent seafaring, trade routes and migration from Melenasia and South-East Asia and overall, from Western Oceania to South Asia in the 5th millennium BC.

 * Examination of mitochondrial DNA lineages shows that they have been evolving in ISEA for longer than previously believed. Ancestors of the Polynesians arrived in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea at least 6,000 to 8,000 years ago, representing an early phase of colonisation. These Polynesian polities did not adopt nor intermarry on a large with the Australo-Melanesians like the Austronesians in Island Melanesia had done so. Regardless, both show admixture, along with other Austronesian populations outside of Taiwan, indicating varying degrees of intermarriage between the incoming Neolithic Austronesian settlers and the preexisting Paleolithic Australo-Melanesian populations of Island Southeast Asia and Melanesia as early as the late 5th millennium BC. Immense population densities, and urbanised cultures in Taiwan and China made these early explorers and group explore what was beyond the frontier, Eastwards of coastal China herself.
 * The very earliest wave of Austronesian migrants, originating ultimately from Taiwan, arrived in Melanesia, circa 4000 BC. They settled mostly along the north coast of New Guinea and on the islands to its north and east. When they arrived, they came into contact with the much more ancient indigenous Papuan-speaking peoples. These earliest colonisations by Austronesian people's will pale in comparison to the later more rapid and expansive waves in the great Austronesian expansion (also called the "Out of Taiwan" model).

Australia
It is estimated that the distinctive Aboriginal rock carvings near Sydney were created sometime between 5000 BC and 3000 BC.

Sea levels had become relatively stabilized by the time of 4500 BC around the coastlines of Australia. This occurred after several thousands of years of sea level rising, due to glaciers melting after the Younger Dryas event. This knowledge was passed down in oral history among the Aboriginal tribes of Australia as they recalled the drastic sea level rises that ended up swallowing their once lower coastlines.

Around the time of the 5th Millennium BC, there was a proliferation of stone tool, plant processing and landscape modification technologies. Elaborate fish and eel traps involving channels up to three kilometres long were in use in western Victoria from about 6,500 years ago. Semi-permanent collections of wooden huts on mounds also appeared in western Victoria, associated with a more systematic exploitation of new food sources in the wetlands.

The Furneaux Group, which is a set of islands off the Northeast portion of Tasmania, had been inhabited since at least 33,000 BC, but the Aboriginal Tasmanians stopped living there permanently around the time of 4,000 BC.

Rock art in the Northern Territory of Australia, specifically from the area of Arnhem Land is said to have a portion of its depictions dating to around 4,000 BC, which show battle scenes or skirmishes between the people in the local area. The art also includes animals and other ceremonial meanings. These scenes have been dated to up to 10,000 years old and down to 6,000 years old when painted continuously over time.

Stone points for spears and distinct stone point technology have been found dating from 5–7 thousand years ago in Australia. Many of the early stone point technologies are specifically found in the Kimberley Region of the northern portion of West Australia. Spear throwers or more specifically developed and used by Australian Aboriginals, 'Woomeras' are believed to have become in widespread use around this time around Australia.

Africa
North to latitude 15° North of the Equator:
 * It is estimated that the beginning of the Pastoral Neolithic was in the later phase of the Green Sahara, in the 6th or 5th millennium BC. It was prior to the end of the African humid period (c. 3500 BC) and the desiccation of the Green Sahara. During this time, sub-Saharan Africa remained in the Palaeolithic. As the grasslands of the Sahara began drying after c. 4000 BC, herders moved into the Nile Valley and by the middle of the 3rd millennium BC into eastern Africa.
 * The earliest-known permanent settlement in Egypt, situated at the southwestern edge of the Nile Delta (near Merimde Beni Salama), dates to approximately 4750 BCE—possibly composed of as many as 16,000 residents. Merimde culture flourishes in Lower Egypt (circa 5000 BC - 4200 BC).
 * Upper Egypt experiences new phase of sedentarism from prior nomadic lifestyles (circa 5000 BC). During the fifth millennium BC, migrations from the drying Sahara brought neolithic people into the Nile Valley along with agriculture, see History of Sudan.
 * Predynastic Egyptians of the 5th millennium BC pictorially represented geometric designs, with further development of mathematics, alchemy and astronomy within the polities of Egypt, see Nabta Playa. This is simultaneous with cultural diffusions via the Sahara (African Humid Period). A second wave of intensive construction occurred around 4800 BC where stone circles were aligned with the summer solstice, near the beginning of the rainy season emphasising a virtue of fertility.

More complex structures followed during a second intensive wave onwards from 4500 BC. With alignments with Sirius, Arcturus, Alpha Centauri, and the Belt of Orion. This suggests a great academic pursuit to investigate astronomical observations, cosmology and mathematics. Fifth millennium alignments of stele to bright stars focussed on issues of major practical importance of the era being: cattle, water, death, earth, sun, stars and theology.

 * Tasian culture, Badarian culture thrive with trade routes connecting Egypt to Syria, the Sinai and Red Sea. Both share culturally distinctive "black-top ware." Badarian culture expands Southwards towards future Hierakonpolis.
 * El Omari culture and Amratian culture forms circa 4000 BC. Cultural distinctions between the two are first observed, however Aramatian influence begins to expand throughout Upper and Middle Egypt, with trade routes of cedar from Byblos to gold and obsidian imported from Nubia representing complex social stratification.
 * Diffusion of African Humid Period religions, and cultural traits Eastwards to Egypt via political, social and economical interrelated movements. Southwards migrations result in emergence of the Butana Group circa 4000 BC. Potential time of Osiris figure existing circa 4100 BC to 3900 BC within Egypt.
 * Maghreb transfers from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic stage finishing completely circa 5000 BC.
 * Early 5th millennium BC, cattle herding, animal husbandry and polities within the Sahara continue to thrive, most notably the Tenerian culture with Eurasian genotype. Eurasian migrations continue onwards in some places from the rapid migrations of the previous millennia into the Sahara, representing a time of great social and economic opportunity.
 * Proto-Berber populations migrate Northwards towards Libya resulting in increased population density and diffusion of religion, explained via the Sahara pump theory.
 * One subclade, now known as R1b1a2 (R-V88), is found only at high frequencies amongst populations native to West Africa, such as the Fulani, and is believed to reflect a prehistoric back-migration from Eurasia to Africa of peoples related to the ancestors of the Proto-Indo-Europeans and Natufians in the Palaeolithic, with migrations continuing into the Neolithic (circa 5000 BC) to the Chalcolithic of the more ancient, native proto-Berber peoples sometimes intermixed and alongside the Capsian culture deeper into the Sahara. Cultural significant elements are complex theology, red ochre, importation of ovicaprids and dentistry.

Sub-Saharan Africa:
 * In the East:Preceded by assumed earlier sites in the Eastern Sahara, tumuli with megalithic monuments developed as early as 4700 BC in the Saharan region of Niger with complex theological work and social stratification present, potentially interconnected with the theological and astronomical advancements in Egypt.
 * Dotted wavy line and wavy line pottery is traded across North and Eastern Africa by the various cultures. These pieces are some of the oldest examples of pottery, made by Eurasian descended hunter-fisher-gatherers in a tradition that lasted. 5000 years since the 9th millennium BC.
 * Although constituent groups and genetic of Nilo-Saharan predate the African neolithic by thousands of years. A unity of Eastern Sudanic occurs among socially stratified cultures in the 5th millennium BC. These cultures although experiencing trade with Afro-Asiatic stratified Cushitic agrarian cultures, experience migrations and cultural diffusion across the Sahara Westwards, North and Eastwards themselves.
 * East Between 7500 BCE and 3500 BCE, amid the Green Sahara, undomesticated central Saharan flora were farmed, stored, and cooked, and domesticated animals (e.g., Barbary sheep) were milked and managed in Libya.
 * In West Africa: the Pastoral Period spanned from the savanna region to the eastern Saharan region, and from Mauritania to the Red Sea, which exstensive trade between the regions and polities. Agriculture is introduced and advanced within West Africa by Eurasian descended populations alongside sub saharan populations.
 * West:Venus figurine importations into sub saharan Africa via Eurasian descended pastoralists with the emergence of complexly organized pastoral societies in West Africa between 4000 BCE and 1000 BCE, representative of a priest class with diffused religion from the Fertile Cresecent. Though possibly developed as early as 5000 BCE, Nsibidi may have also developed in 2000 BCE, as evidenced by depictions of the West African script on Ikom monoliths at Ikom, in Nigeria.
 * Central to West:Populations and tribes spreading the Niger–Congo languages migrate with long distanced trade routes and large chiefdoms between Eastern West Africa and their homeland of Central Africa millennia before. This expansion of these set of the Niger-Congo languages may have been associated with the expansion of Sahel agriculture in the African Neolithic period, following the desiccation of the Sahara in c. 3500 BCE and segregation of the Eurasian descended Paleolithic and Neolithic people's into West, East and North Africa, by the Sahara desert. This contemporary expansion of the Niger–Congo languages preceded the more infamous Bantu expansion of later.
 * The final period (4500 - 4000 BC) of the Round Head Period Negroid hunter-gatherers, who created the Round Head rock art, adopted the culture of cattle pastoralism from incoming cattle pastoralists.
 * South: Red finger-painted rock art created between 4000 BC, and 200 AD, to the south of Kei River and Orange River by Khoisan hunter-gatherer-herders, in Malawi and Zambia by considerably dark-skinned, occasionally bearded, bow-and-arrow-wielding Akafula hunter-gatherers who resided in Malawi until 19th century CE, and in Transvaal by the Vhangona people. Khoisan cultures continue from prior millennia to dominate Southern Africa.
 * Importantly, circa 4500 BC, the Sanaga and Nyong rivers of Southern Cameroon, the Proto-Bantu chiefdoms split off, and expanded Eastwards from Proto-Southern Bantoid chiefdoms whom in an earlier Bantu expansion began to invade and expand into the south and east, engaging the Palaeolithic tribes of the Congo. Such social stratification and rapid political emergence via expansion gives us a depiction of the cultural complexity of these cultures.
 * It was formerly thought that proto-Bantu originated somewhere in the border region between Nigeria and Cameroon. However, new research revealed that was more likely the original area of Proto-Southern Bantoid, before it spread southwards into Cameroon long before Proto-Bantu emerged.

North America

 * 4130 BC: Toggling harpoons are invented somewhere in eastern Siberia, spreading south into via trade into Japan and east into North America, where they are ancestral to the sophisticated designs of the Inuit and later European whalers.
 * 4000 BC - 2000 BC: The Dene-Yeniseian languages split into Na-Dene in North America and Yeniseian languages in Siberia. The connection is commonly thought to have been the result of a back-migration of early American Indians in Beringia back into Siberia, forming the Yeniseian peoples that were once widespread throughout Eurasia.
 * Across the Southeastern Woodlands, starting around 4000 BC, people exploited wetland resources, creating large shell middens.
 * Old Copper culture thrives in Oronto northeastern Wisconsin.
 * Native Americans in the northern Great Lakes produce copper tools, ornaments, and utensils traded throughout the Great Plains and Ohio Valley representing a high level of social stratification.
 * Emergence of the Shield Archaic tradition circa 4500 BC.
 * Around 5000 BC, Holocene glacial runoff affects the Southwest and notably the Colorado Plateau with stronger storm patterns result in significant rates of soil erosion. Precursors to the migrations of the Ancestral Puebloans lived through this climatic shift in tribes and chiefdoms in the Archaic-Early Basketmaker Era, with cultural and trade connections to the early Cochise cultures. Despite nomadic lifestyles in hunting seasons continuing early on from the 6th millennium BC these cultures also had settlements with store houses. The Cochise culture begins circa 5000 BC alongside the San Dieguito cultures.
 * Shell ornaments and copper items at Indian Knoll in Kentucky evidence an extensive trade system over several millennia across North America.
 * During this millennium astronomical and theological work continues to develop. Such examples synonymous with the yearly cycle and gift of maize production is the origins of the Green Corn Ceremony.
 * The Tehuacán culture (5000 BC-2300 BC) were likely Proto-Otomanguean speakers that inhabited the area of the Tehuacán valley during the 5th millennium BC.
 * Some estimates using the controversial method of glottochronology suggest an approximate splitting date of the Proto-Otomanguean languages at c. 4400 BC.[14] This makes the Oto-Manguean family the language family of the Americas with the deepest time depth, as well as the oldest language family with evidence of tonal contrast in the proto-language.
 * Cultures of Mesoamerica advance their cultivation of maize further with an introduction of maize (corn) into the inter-Andean valleys of Colombia in this millennia sometimes via highways. Meanwhile, Peruvian cultures continue to advance cultivation of beans and squash circa 4000 BC. Forest clearing is present especially on the Gulf Coast, with the cultures of Mesoamerica, with social stratification present, workshops, stone settlements, paved roads and an extensive obsidian trade, see Archaic period in Mesoamerica and Gheo-shih. Despite sedentary cultures present within Mexico, typically coastal, nomadic cultures also remain with seasonal occupation, but agriculture yearly and store pits for meats i.e., El Gigante, Honduras.

The Caribbean
Shell mounds in these areas are highly visible, which likely aided in their identification by scholars. Examples like Cerro de las Conchas, which dates between 5500 and 3500BC appearing to have been a sea resource collection and processing site. While it seems Cerro de las Conchas was only occupied seasonally, it seems likely that inland base camps were occupied year-round.
 * Trinidad continues from the 6th to 5th millennium onwards to hold the Ortoiroid archaeological tradition, being the first part of the Caribbean to be settled prior to 3500 BC.
 * Some of the earliest known villages appear along sea coasts, specifically the Chiapas and Caribbean coasts.It is likely that the abundant sea and lagoon resources could easily support long-term, via sea travel and year-round settlements, leading people to settle first in these areas.

South America
Lauricocha III: 4200 – 2500 BC (Andean preceramic V) begins. Chiefdoms and fish gatherer-hunter societies dominate. Lauricocha was one of the important mountain encampments at the time.
 * Significant occupation of the Colombian Caribbean coast by polities encompassing sedentary populations has been documented to have occurred by c. 4000 BC.
 * The advanced Mexican agriculturalist culture and polities expanded and developed their agricultural practices for millennia now, alongside their Southern intensive trading networks and preistlt rites of fertility brought maize, an ingredient vital for urban civilization was brought to South America. Muisca origins circa 5000 BC in Soacha Tequendama Falls, and through their interrelated expansion Northwards, intensive maize production and permanent settlements are formed distinguishing them from tribes and other polities. Potentially they carried with them major constituent groups of the proto-Chibchan language. This is where legendary hero Bochica is said to have once lived.
 * Alongside the Muisca, the Tairona, located in present-day Colombia also began to shift towards long term permanent settlements with agriculture. This shift for these two groups, gives them population advantages over other groups.
 * The Amazon rainforest with earlier sourced agricultural polities, experiences migrations and colonisation of these now more advanced agriculturalist chiefdoms with their permanent settlements. Conflicts with native tribes in more remote regions would have arose. Rather than being a pristine wilderness, has been shaped by man for at least 11,000 years through practices such as forest gardening, development of terra mulata soils for fertility, construction of highways, trade routes and large complex chiefdoms.
 * ancient sites was a major trading hub in Peru (Paredones and Huaca Prieta) In connection to the trading networks to Mexico, maize was farmed here, as early as 4700 BCE, representing networks of trade and agricultural selective breeding, spanning over millennia. Peoples living in complex sedentary structures, along the coast of northern Peru were already eating corn by that time.
 * Peruvian advances this side of the world, in domestication of llamas and alpacas since at least 6000 BC. For the transportation of goods and dung for fertiliser, increases economic growth and agricultural yield when undertaken, thus making this process vital for civilization. This is representative of economic specialisation. Settlements grow all over Peru, significant technological advancements are achieved. Evidence of architectural classes, labour force and social stratification again is noticeable in the Zaña Valley where from 4700 BC these canals drew and transported water from springs in the Andes mountains region for immense agriculture. Use of the canals ended circa 4500 BC, representing periodic social declines and conflict between polities.
 * Clothing alongside social stratification is demonstrable in Peru. 6000-year-old dyed cotton fabric was discovered at the Preceramic site of Huaca Prieta. This marks the earliest recorded use of cotton worldwide. Gossypium barbadense and was domesticated by the cultures in the region. Indigo dye was used for selective clothes, representative of higher classes and economic specialisation. Priest-like roles dedicated to astronomical study and observational seasonal change in relation to Peruvian society's reliance on agriculture were present.
 * Las Vegas culture holds large scale sedentary structures and coastal adaptation with inheritance of agricultural practices from millennia before alongside newly maize production. Experiences a sudden collapse (circa 4600 BC) resulting in a 1000-year gap within the local archaeological record. Maize production originates from Mexico, but within this millennium continues to rapidly spread all over South America further South, reflecting strong trade routes, diffusions of ideas and culture and social networks.
 * Lauricocha II: 6000 – 4200 BC (Andean preceramic IV) ends.

 * Neolithic period disappears in Argentina circa 4000 bc due to an extensive dry period which would go on to last 2000 years. This may account for racial distinctions between Patagonia whose hunter-gatherer populations remained in the South, and the rest of Argentina.

Calendars and chronology
The 5th millennium has become a start point for calendars and chronologies. The year 4750 BC is the retrospective startpoint for the Assyrian calendar, marking the traditional date for the foundation of Assur, some 2,000 years before it actually happened.

Another traditional date is 19 July 4241 BC, marking the supposed beginning of the Egyptian calendar, as calculated retrospectively by Eduard Meyer. The more likely startpoint is 19 July 2781 BC, one Sothic cycle later. It has generally been believed that the calendar was based on a heliacal (dawn) rising of Sirius but that view is now being questioned.

According to the Ussher chronology, the creation of Earth happened on 22/23 October 4004 BC. This chronology was the work of James Ussher, whose basis was the dates in the Old Testament of the Bible. He estimated that the universe was created by God at either 18:00 on the 22nd (Jewish calendar) or 09:00 on the 23rd (Ussher-Lightfoot-Chronology).

Yet another calendar starting date in the 5th millennium is Monday, 1 January 4713 BC, the beginning of the current Julian Period, first described by Joseph Justus Scaliger in the sixteenth century. This Julian Period lasts 7,980 years until the year 3268 (current era) in the next millennium. It is a useful device for date conversions between different calendars. The date of origin has the integer value of zero in the Julian Day Count: i.e., in the Julian Calendar; the equivalent date in the Gregorian Calendar is 24 November 4714 BC.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: 5th millennium BC


text:
1710

In the Swedish calendar it was a common year starting on Saturday, one day ahead of the Julian and ten days behind the Gregorian calendar.

January–March

 * January 1 – In Prussia, Cölln is merged with Alt-Berlin by Frederick I to form Berlin.
 * January 4 – Robert Balfour, 5th Lord Balfour of Burleigh, two days before he is due to be executed for murder, escapes from the Edinburgh Tolbooth by exchanging clothes with his sister.
 * February 17 – Mauritius, a Dutch colony since 1638, is abandoned by the Dutch.
 * February 28 (Swedish calendar) February 27 (Julian). March 10 (Gregorian) – Battle of Helsingborg: Fourteen thousand Danish invaders, under Jørgen Rantzau, are decisively defeated by an equally large Swedish army, under Magnus Stenbock.
 * March 1 – The Sacheverell riots start in London with an attack on an elegant Presbyterian meeting-house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, followed by riots through the West End of London.
 * March 6 – The ancient Roman Pillar of the Boatmen is found during the construction of a crypt under the nave of Notre-Dame de Paris.

April–June

 * April 5 – Pylyp Orlyk, a Cossack of Ukraine, is elected as the Hetman of the Zaporizhian Host and immediately issues the Pacts and Constitutions of Rights and Freedoms of the Zaporizhian Host.
 * April 10 – The world's first copyright legislation, Britain's Statute of Anne, becomes effective.
 * April 19 – Anne, Queen of Great Britain, meets the Four Mohawk Kings.
 * April 18 – Thomas Hancorne gives the county of Swansea's assize sermon, "The right way to honour and happiness" in which he espouses his High Church beliefs.
 * May 6 – The South Sea Company begins.
 * May 12 – Battle of Sirhind: An army of 70,000 Sikh rebels, led by Banda Singh Bahadur defeat a force of 25,000 Mughal Empire troops commanded by General Wazir Khan, who is killed in the combat. The battle takes place near Sirhind in what is now the Indian state of Punjab.
 * June 8 – The Tuscarora nation sends a petition to the Province of Pennsylvania, protesting the seizure of their lands and enslavement of their people, by citizens of the Province of Carolina.
 * June 16 – Köprülüzade Numan Pasha becomes the grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire.
 * June 24 – In the Isle of Man, Manx coins become legal tender.
 * June – Protestant Swiss and German Palatines, under the leadership of Christoph von Graffenried, travel to Bath County in the Province of Carolina. The settlers displace the native town of Chattoka and found New Bern, named for von Graffenried's hometown of Bern in Switzerland.

July–September

 * July 27 – The Battle of Almenar takes place in the Iberian theatre of the War of the Spanish Succession.
 * August 2 – British Royal Navy 90-gun ship HMS Vanguard is relaunched from Chatham; Vanguard sank in Chatham Dockyard in the Great Storm of 1703, but was raised in 1704 for rebuilding.
 * August 20 – War of the Spanish Succession – Battle of Saragossa: The Spanish-Bourbon army, commanded by the Marquis de Bay, is soundly defeated by the forces of the Habsburg monarchy, under Guido Starhemberg and their allies.
 * August 24 – Total eclipse of the sun is visible at -36.5°N, -105.1°W.
 * September 7 – In Jonathan Swift's satirical Gulliver's Travels, fictional Gulliver sets off on his fourth and final journey, a voyage to the Land of the Houyhnhnms.
 * September 26 – Great Northern War – Capitulation of Livonia: the Swedish garrison in Riga surrenders, ending Swedish rule in modern Latvia.

October–December

 * October – The start of the Mascate War (aka the War of the Peddlers) between two rival mercantile groups the Zillioto family and the Astrid family in colonial Brazil.
 * October 4 – Great Northern War – the Battle of Køge Bay between Denmark and Norway has an indecisive outcome.
 * October 5 – October 13 British forces under Francis Nicholson conduct the successful Siege of Port Royal against a French Acadian garrison and the Wabanaki Confederacy at the Acadian capital, Port Royal, marking the start of British control of what became Nova Scotia.
 * October 10 – Great Northern War – Capitulation of Estonia: the Swedish garrison in Reval (Tallinn) surrenders, ending Swedish rule in Estonia.
 * October 11 – The Battle of Rahon is fought between Sikhs and Mughal Empire.
 * October 13 – Queen Anne's War – Siege of Port Royal: The French surrender, giving the British permanent possession of Nova Scotia.
 * November 30 – The first visit to the Pacific islands of Palau is made by a Jesuit expedition led by Francisco Padilla; unfortunately, the ship is driven to Mindanao by a storm, leaving two priests stranded.
 * December 8 – War of the Spanish Succession – Battle of Brihuega: An outnumbered British force under James Stanhope is forced to surrender.
 * December 10
 * War of the Spanish Succession – Battle of Villaviciosa: The indecisive battle between retreating Austrian-Dutch forces and a Franco-Spanish army is fought out.
 * The Battle of Lohgarh takes place between Sikh forces and the Mughal army.

Date unknown

 * In Sweden, the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala is founded as the Collegium curiosorum.
 * Explorer Juan Arias Diaz becomes the first non-Incan visitor to Choquequirao, an Inca site in Peru.
 * John Smithwick begins brewing Smithwick's ale at Kilkenny, Ireland (St. Francis Abbey Brewery).
 * Alexis Littré, in his treatise Diverses observations anatomiques, is the first physician to suggest the possibility of performing a lumbar colostomy for an obstruction of the colon.
 * Jacob Christoph Le Blon, working in Amsterdam, invents a three-color printing process with red, blue, and yellow plates, a precursor of the modern CMYK printing process.

Births

January–March

 * January 3 – Richard Gridley, American Revolutionary soldier (d. 1796)
 * January 4
 * Margravine Sophie Christine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (d. 1739)
 * Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Italian composer (d. 1736)
 * January 5 – Friedrich Wilhelm Riedt, German flautist (d. 1783)
 * January 16 – Sir William Ashburnham, 4th Baronet, Church of England priest and baronet (d. 1797)
 * January 23 – Jakob Langebek, Danish historian (d. 1775)
 * January 28 – Jean-Martial Frédou, French portrait painter (d. 1795)
 * January 30
 * Septimus Robinson, British Army officer who became Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod (d. 1765)
 * Raimondo di Sangro, Italian nobleman (d. 1771)
 * February 1 – Konrad Ernst Ackermann, German actor (d. 1771)
 * February 12 – John Affleck, British Tory politician (d. 1776)
 * February 15 – King Louis XV of France, Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre 1715–1774 (d. 1774)
 * February 21 – Willem van Haren, Dutch nobleman and poet (d. 1768)
 * February 28 – Peter Delmé, wealthy English merchant and landowner (d. 1770)
 * March 3 – Johann Sigismund Mörl, German theologian (d. 1791)
 * March 4 – Aert Schouman, painter from the Dutch Republic (d. 1792)
 * March 7 – Casto Innocenzio Ansaldi, Italian professor (d. 1780)
 * March 10 – Christian Ditlev Reventlow, Danish Privy Councillor (d. 1775)
 * March 15 – George Forbes, 4th Earl of Granard, Irish soldier and politician (d. 1769)
 * March 18 – Ezekiel Worthen, New Hampshire native who participated in the American Revolutionary War (d. 1793)
 * March 19 – Otto Didrik Schack, 3rd Count of Schackenborg, Danish nobleman and enfeoffed count (d. 1741)
 * March 26 – Louis Guillouet, comte d'Orvilliers (d. 1792)
 * March 27 – Joseph Abaco, Italian violoncellist and composer (d. 1805)

April–June

 * April 2 – Samuel White, lawyer in the Province of Massachusetts Bay (d. 1769)
 * April 4
 * György Klimó, Bishop of Pécs and founder of the Klimo Library and printing press (d. 1777)
 * Edmund Lechmere, British politician (d. 1805)
 * April 10 – George Charles Dyhern, Saxon general (d. 1759)
 * April 12 – Caffarelli, Italian castrato and opera singer (d. 1783)
 * April 13 – Jonathan Carver, colonial American military officer (d. 1780)
 * April 15
 * Marie-Anne de Cupis de Camargo, French dancer (d. 1770)
 * William Cullen, Scottish physician and chemist (d. 1790)
 * April 17 – Henry Erskine, 10th Earl of Buchan, British Freemason (d. 1767)
 * April 18 – Friedrich Bogislav von Tauentzien, Prussian general during the wars of King Frederick the Great (d. 1791)
 * April 20 – Jean-Joseph Sue, French surgeon and anatomist (d. 1792)
 * April 23 – John Tempest Sr., landowner and Member of Parliament (d. 1776)
 * April 24 – Louis-Philippe Mariauchau d'Esgly, eighth bishop of the diocese of Quebec (d. 1788)
 * April 25 – James Ferguson, Scottish astronomer (d. 1776)
 * April 26 – Thomas Reid, Scottish philosopher (d. 1796)
 * April 30 – Johann Kaspar Basselet von La Rosée, Bavarian general (d. 1795)
 * May 6 – Richard Bland, American planter and statesman from Virginia (d. 1776)
 * May 8
 * Charles Hope-Weir, Scottish politician (d. 1791)
 * Peter Anton von Verschaffelt, Flemish sculptor and architect (d. 1793)
 * May 10 – François Bonamy, French botanist and physician (d. 1786)
 * May 14 – Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden (d. 1771)
 * May 16
 * Joan Gideon Loten, Governor of Zeylan, Fellow of the Royal Society (d. 1789)
 * Lorenzo Peracino, Italian painter active near Novara in northern Italy (d. 1789)
 * William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician (d. 1782)
 * May 18
 * Johann II Bernoulli, youngest of the three sons of Johann Bernoulli (d. 1790)
 * Vere Poulett, 3rd Earl Poulett (d. 1788)
 * Charles Willing, Philadelphia merchant (d. 1754)
 * May 21 – Thomas Thynne, 2nd Viscount Weymouth (d. 1751)
 * May 23 – François Gaspard Adam, French rococo sculptor (d. 1761)
 * June 6 – Andrea Scacciati, Italian painter (b. 1642)
 * June 10 – James Short, Scottish mathematician and optician (d. 1768)
 * June 14 – Peder Kofod Ancher, Danish jurist (d. 1788)
 * June 15 – Robert Oliver, priest (d. 1784)
 * June 18 – Klaas Annink, notorious Dutch serial killer in Twente, Netherlands (d. 1775)

July–September

 * July 4 – Thomas Hay, 9th Earl of Kinnoull (d. 1787)
 * July 10 – Robert O'Callaghan, politician (d. 1761)
 * July 11 – Sir John Morgan, 4th Baronet (d. 1767)
 * July 18 – John Cruger Jr., speaker of the Province of New York assembly, Mayor of New York City (d. 1791)
 * July 21 – Paul Möhring, German physician and scientist (d. 1792)
 * July 23 – Jonathan Belcher, British-American lawyer (d. 1776)
 * July 26 – John Lambton, senior officer in the British Army and MP (d. 1794)
 * July 31 – Jacob Houblon, British landowner and Tory politician (d. 1770)
 * August 6 – Frances Jones, colonist (d. 1785)
 * August 10 – Princess Luise Dorothea of Saxe-Meiningen, member of German royalty (d. 1767)
 * August 13
 * Margrave Frederick of Brandenburg-Schwedt, second son of Margrave Albert Frederick (d. 1741)
 * William Heberden, English physician (d. 1801)
 * Andrés Fernández Pacheco, 10th Duke of Escalona, Spanish aristocrat and academician (d. 1746)
 * August 14 – Corbyn Morris, English official and economic writer (d. 1779)
 * August 18 – Landon Carter, American planter from Lancaster County (d. 1778)
 * August 19 – Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of Egremont (d. 1763)
 * August 20 – Thomas Simpson, British mathematician (d. 1761)
 * August 22 – Johann August Nahl, German sculptor and plasterer (d. 1781)
 * August 27
 * Joseph Tiefenthaler, Jesuit missionary, one of the earliest European geographers to write about India (d. 1785)
 * Giuseppe Vasi, Italian engraver and architect (d. 1782)
 * August 28 – Pierre Augustin Boissier de Sauvages, French naturalist, researcher in provençal dialect and encyclopédist (d. 1795)
 * September 3 – Abraham Trembley, Genevan naturalist (d. 1784)
 * September 9 – Friedrich Rudolf von Rothenburg, lieutenant general (d. 1751)
 * September 11 – Louis Frederick of Saxe-Hildburghausen, Prince, General Field Marshal in the Bavarian army (d. 1759)
 * September 22 – Georg Matthias Bose, famous early experimenter in electrostatics (d. 1761)
 * September 24 – William Bull II, landowner (d. 1791)
 * September 25
 * Augustin Ehrensvärd, Swedish military officer (d. 1772)
 * Charles-François Racot de Grandval, French actor and playwright (d. 1784)
 * September 29
 * Johann Andreas Michael Nagel, German Hebrew scholar and Orientalist (d. 1788)
 * Pompilio Maria Pirrotti, Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member of the Piarists (d. 1766)
 * September 30 – John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, British statesman (d. 1771)

October–December

 * October 3 – Jean Robert Tronchin, Attorney General, member of the State Council of Geneva (d. 1793)
 * October 7 – François-Josué de La Corne Dubreuil, officer in the colonial regular troops of New France and (d. 1759)
 * October 11 – Christophe-Gabriel Allegrain, French sculptor who tempered a neoclassical style with Rococo charm and softness (d. 1795)
 * October 12 – Jonathan Trumbull, Governor of the Colony and the state of Connecticut (d. 1785)
 * October 13 – Alban Butler, English Roman Catholic priest and hagiographer (d. 1773)
 * October 16 – András Hadik, Austro-Hungarian general (d. 1790)
 * October 19 – Franz Karl Ludwig von Wied zu Neuwied, lieutenant general in Frederick the Great's army (d. 1765)
 * October 22 – Anne-Marie du Boccage, French writer (d. 1802)
 * October 26 – Lukrecija Bogašinović Budmani, Serb-catholic poet (d. 1784)
 * October 31 – Ole Tidemand, Norwegian theologian and priest (d. 1778)
 * November 2 – Andrea Negroni, Italian Cardinal who was Cardinal-Deacon of the titular Church of Santi Vito (d. 1789)
 * November 4 – Charles-François Tarieu de La Naudière, officer in the colonial regular troops and seigneur in Lower Canada (d. 1776)
 * November 6 – David McGregore, Presbyterian minister and member of the Colonial America Christian Clergy (d. 1777)
 * November 8 – Sarah Fielding, English author, sister of the novelist Henry Fielding (d. 1768)
 * November 10 – Adam Gottlob Moltke, Danish statesman (d. 1792)
 * November 13 – Charles Simon Favart, French playwright (d. 1792)
 * November 19
 * Johann Wilhelm Hoffmann, German historian (d. 1739)
 * Giovanni Andrea Lazzarini, Italian painter (d. 1801)
 * November 21
 * Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky, Prussian merchant with a successful trade in trinkets (d. 1775)
 * Paolo Renier, Venetian statesman (d. 1789)
 * November 22 – Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, German composer (d. 1784)
 * November 27 – Robert Lowth, English bishop and grammarian (d. 1787)
 * November 28 – Henry Hyde, Viscount Cornbury (d. 1753)
 * December 1 – Michele Marieschi, Italian painter and engraver (d. 1744)
 * December 2 – Carlo Bertinazzi, Italian actor and writer (d. 1783)
 * December 5 – Nicolò Porta, Italian painter of the late-Baroque period (d. 1784)
 * December 15 – Francesco Zahra, Maltese painter (d. 1773)
 * December 24 – Tibout Regters, portrait painter from the Northern Netherlands (d. 1768)
 * December 28 – Henrik Teofilus Scheffer, Swedish chemist (d. 1759)
 * date unknown – Ahmad bin Said al-Busaidi, first ruler of the Al Said Dynasty of Oman (d. 1783)

Deaths

 * January 4 – Sir Richard Newdigate, 2nd Baronet, English landowner (b. 1644)
 * January 6 – Thomas Fairfax, 5th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, English politician (b. 1657)
 * January 16 – Emperor Higashiyama of Japan (b. 1675)
 * January 28 – Philip Verheyen, Flemish physician (b. 1648)
 * January 21
 * John Ashburnham, 1st Baron Ashburnham, English politician (b. 1656)
 * Johann Georg Gichtel, German mystic (b. 1638)
 * January 30
 * Madeleine Boullogne, French painter (b. 1646)
 * Sebastian Valfrè, Italian Oratorian priest (b. 1629)
 * February 16 – Esprit Fléchier, French writer and Bishop of Nîmes (b. 1632)
 * February 17 – George Bull, English theologian and Bishop of St David's (b. 1634)
 * February 20 – Johan Vibe, Norwegian noble (b. 1637)
 * February 25 – Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut, French explorer (b. c. 1639)
 * March 4 – Louis III, Prince of Condé (b. 1668)
 * March 5 – John Holt, English politician (b. 1642)
 * March 14 – Michel Bégon, French ancien regime official (b. 1638)
 * March 28 – Charles Fanshawe, 4th Viscount Fanshawe, English politician (b. 1643)
 * April 7 – Sir Richard Bulkeley, 2nd Baronet of England (b. 1660)
 * April 28 – Thomas Betterton, English actor (b. c. 1635)
 * May 13 – Henry, Duke of Saxe-Römhild (b. 1650)
 * May 29
 * John Dolben, British politician (b. 1662)
 * Henri Basnage de Beauval, French historian, lexicographer (b. 1657)
 * June 1 – David Mitchell, British admiral (b. 1642)
 * June 4 – James Stuart, 1st Earl of Bute (b. 1661)
 * June 7 – Louise de La Vallière, mistress of King Louis XIV of France (b. 1644)
 * July 2 – Domenico Freschi, Italian opera composer, Catholic priest (b. 1634)
 * July 12 – Robert Treat, American colonial leader (b. 1624)
 * July 25 – Gottfried Kirch, German astronomer, first 'Astronomer Royal' in Berlin (b. 1639)
 * September 19 – Ole Rømer, Danish astronomer (b. 1644)
 * September 22 – Jacques-René de Brisay de Denonville, Marquis de Denonville (b. 1637)
 * September 24 – Charles Berkeley, 2nd Earl of Berkeley, English diplomat (b. 1649)
 * September 26 – Sir Robert Kemp, 2nd Baronet, English politician (b. 1627)
 * October 19 – Suzanne Henriette of Lorraine, French noblewoman, Duchess of Mantua and Montferrat (b. 1686)
 * November 3 – Maria de Croll, Swedish vocalist
 * November 21 – Bernardo Pasquini, Italian composer of operas (b. 1637)
 * December 15 – Albert Anton, Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (b. 1641)
 * December 18 – Petrus Codde, Dutch cleric, first Old Catholic bishop (b. 1648)
 * date unknown – Anna Maria Thelott, Swedish artist (b. 1683)

title: 1710


text:
2009

2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Johannes Kepler. It was also declared as the International Year of Natural Fibres by the United Nations General Assembly, as well as the International Year of Reconciliation and the Year of the Gorilla (UNEP and UNESCO).

January

 * January 1
 * Japan, Mexico, Turkey and Uganda assume their seats on the United Nations Security Council.
 * Asunción, the capital of Paraguay, becomes the American Capital of Culture and Vilnius and Linz become the European Capitals of Culture.
 * Slovakia adopts the euro as its national currency, replacing the Slovak koruna.
 * A Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer shoots and kills Oscar Grant, an unarmed black man, at Fruitvale station. The event becomes one of the inciting incidents for the global Black Lives Matter movement.
 * January 3 – The first ("Genesis") block of the blockchain of the cryptocurrency and decentralized payment system Bitcoin is established by the creator of the system, known as Satoshi Nakamoto.
 * January 15 – US Airways Flight 1549 ditches in the Hudson River in an accident that becomes known as the "Miracle on the Hudson", as all 155 people on board are rescued.
 * January 18 – Gaza War: Hamas announces they will accept the Israel Defense Forces offer of a ceasefire, ending the conflict.
 * January 20 – Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, becoming the first African-American to hold the office.
 * January 21
 * Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip, officially ending its three-week war with Hamas. However, intermittent air strikes by both sides continue in the following weeks.
 * Zhu Haiyang decapitates Yang Xin at Virginia Tech in the first campus murder since the Virginia Tech shooting.
 * January 26
 * The first trial at the International Criminal Court opens. Former Union of Congolese Patriots leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is accused of training child soldiers to kill, pillage and rape.
 * The Icelandic government and banking system collapse. Prime Minister Geir Haarde immediately resigns.
 * An annular solar eclipse takes place over the Indian Ocean, the 50th solar eclipse of Saros cycle 131.
 * January 28 – WikiLeaks releases 86 intercepted telephone recordings of politicians and businessmen involved in the 2008 Peru oil scandal.
 * January 31 – Tiféret Israel Synagogue attack, profanation of the oldest synagogue in Caracas, Venezuela.

February

 * February 1
 * Patriarch Kirill of Moscow is enthroned as the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church following the death of his predecessor, Alexy II in 2008.
 * Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir is appointed as the new Prime Minister of Iceland, becoming the world's first openly lesbian head of government.
 * February 7 – Bushfires in Victoria leave 173 dead in the worst natural disaster in Australia's history.
 * February 13 – At 23:31:30 UTC, the decimal representation of Unix time reached 1234567890 seconds. Celebrations were held around the world, among various technical subcultures, to celebrate the 1234567890th second.
 * February 25 – Soldiers of Bangladeshi border security force Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) mutiny and take the commanding army officers and their families hostages at the force's headquarters in Pilkhana, Dhaka. 57 army officers are killed along with 17 civilians by the mutineers.
 * February 26 – Former Serbian president Milan Milutinović is acquitted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia regarding war crimes during the Kosovo War.

March

 * March 2 – The President of Guinea-Bissau, João Bernardo Vieira, is assassinated during an armed attack on his residence in Bissau.
 * March 4 – The International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the ICC since its establishment in 2002.
 * March 7 – NASA's Kepler Mission, a space photometer that will search for extrasolar planets in the Milky Way galaxy, is launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, USA.
 * March 17 – The President of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, is overthrown in a coup d'état, following a month of unrest in Antananarivo.
 * March 23 – A McDonnell Douglas MD-11 operated by FedEx suffers a bounced landing at Narita international airport resulting in the loss of 2 lives
 * March 31 – Rachel Crandall Crocker founds the International Transgender Day of Visibility.

April

 * April 1 – Albania and Croatia join NATO.
 * April 5 – North Korea launches a rocket from its Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground, which it says is carrying the Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 satellite, prompting an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
 * April 6 – A 6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes near L'Aquila, Italy, killing 308 and injuring more than 1,500.
 * April 7 – April 2009 Moldovan parliamentary election protests: four people died and 270 were injured.
 * April 21 – UNESCO launches The World Digital Library.

May

 * May 11–24 – Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched to refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope on May 11, landing at Edwards Air Force Base May 24.
 * May 12–16 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 takes place in Moscow, Russia, and is won by Norwegian entrant Alexander Rybak with the song "Fairytale".
 * May 15
 * France–Pakistan Atomic Energy Framework bilateral energy treaty is signed.
 * The album 21st Century Breakdown is released by American rock band Green Day, which sold over 5 million copies.
 * May 17 – Videogame Minecraft is released to the public as Cave Game.
 * May 18 – Following more than 25 years of fighting, the Sri Lankan Civil War ends with the total military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
 * May 19 – RB Leipzig is formed in Leipzig by Red Bull GmbH and are admitted by the Northeastern German Football Association to the NOFV-Oberliga Süd (V).
 * May 25 – North Korea announces that it has conducted a second successful nuclear test in North Hamgyong Province. The United Nations Security Council condemns the reported test.

June

 * June 1 – Air France Flight 447, en route from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 on board.
 * June 11 – The outbreak of the H1N1 influenza strain, commonly referred to as "swine flu", is deemed a global pandemic.
 * June 12 – Analog television ends in the United States as part of the digital television transition.
 * June 13 – Mass protests erupt across Iran following a disputed presidential election in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was reelected president, the largest demonstrations in the country since the Iranian Revolution.
 * June 18 – NASA launches the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter / LCROSS probes to the Moon, the first American lunar mission since Lunar Prospector in 1998.
 * June 21 – Greenland gains self-rule.
 * June 22 – June 2009 Washington Metro train collision, 9 people were killed and 80 people were injured when a Red Line (Washington Metro) train rear ended another train between Takoma and Fort Totten stations, this resulted in the worst train crash in DC Metro's history.
 * June 25 – The death of American pop star Michael Jackson triggers an outpouring of worldwide grief. Online, reactions to the event cripple several major websites and services, as the abundance of people accessing the web addresses pushes internet traffic to unprecedented and historic levels.
 * June 28 – The Military of Honduras ousts Honduran President Manuel Zelaya in a coup d'état, condemned by OAS.
 * June 29 – Viareggio train derailment occurred when a freight train carrying liquified petroleum gas derailed at Viareggio railway station in Lucca, Italy. The accident killed 32 people and injured 26 people.
 * June 30 – Yemenia Flight 626 crashes off the coast of Moroni, Comoros, killing all but one of the 153 passengers and crew.

July

 * July 5 – Violent riots broke out in Ürümqi, Xinjiang. PRC officials said that a total of 197 people died.
 * July 7 – A public memorial service for Michael Jackson is held at Staples Center. It is watched by over 2.5 billion people worldwide.
 * July 15 – Caspian Airlines Flight 7908, en route from Tehran, Iran, to Yerevan, Armenia crashes into the Jannatabad village in Qazvin Province ; killing all 168 on board.
 * July 16 – Iceland's national parliament, the Althingi, votes to pursue joining the EU.
 * July 17 – Two bombs exploded separately at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton Hotels in Jakarta, Indonesia, killing 9 people (including 2 suicide bombers) and injuring 53.
 * July 22 – The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, lasting up to 6 minutes and 38.86 seconds (0.14 seconds shorter than 6 minutes and 39 seconds), occurs over parts of Asia and the Pacific Ocean.
 * July 26 – The Islamic extremist group Boko Haram initiates an uprising in Bauchi State, Nigeria and quickly spreads throughout the northern part of the country.

August

 * August 3 – Bolivia becomes the first South American country to declare the right of indigenous people to govern themselves.
 * August 7 – Typhoon Morakot hits Taiwan, killing 673 and stranding more than 1,000 via the worst flooding on the island in half a century.
 * August 14 – The United Kingdom imposes direct rule on the Turks and Caicos Islands after an inquiry that found evidence of government corruption.

September

 * September 21 – China becomes the first country to succeed a completed clinical trial by a company for the 2009/H1N1 vaccine in the world during the flu pandemic.
 * September 22 – WikiLeaks exposes the contents of Kaupthing Bank's internal documents prior to the Icelandic Financial Crisis. These documents showed suspicious amounts of money were loaned to bank owners, and debts being written off.
 * September 23 – Korba chimney collapse: At least 45 workers are killed when lightning strikes a chimney under construction in Korba, Chhattisgarh, India, causing it to collapse.
 * September 26 – Typhoon Ketsana, PAGASA Name: Ondoy, makes landfall in The Philippines, killing hundreds in Metro Manila and flooding in Huế, Vietnam.
 * September 28 – At least 157 demonstrators are massacred by the Guinean military at the Stade du 28 Septembre during a protest against the government that came to power in a coup d'état the previous year.
 * September 29 – A 8.1 earthquake strikes Samoa, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong), leaving at least 192 people dead.
 * September 30 – A 7.6 earthquake strikes Sumatra, Indonesia, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), leaving at least 1,115 people dead.

October

 * October 1 – Paleontologists announce the discovery of an Ardipithecus ramidus fossil skeleton, deeming it the oldest remains of a human ancestor yet found.
 * October 2
 * Ireland holds a second referendum on the EU's Lisbon Treaty. The amendment is approved by the Irish electorate,   having been rejected in the Lisbon I referendum held last year.
 * The International Olympic Committee awards Rio de Janeiro the right to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.
 * October 15 – It is revealed the company Trafigura has been using a super-injunction to stop The Guardian from reporting about the 2006 Côte d'Ivoire toxic dumping incident, which Trafigura was responsible for.
 * October 20
 * Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is inaugurated for a second term as President of Indonesia.
 * WikiLeaks leaked the membership listing of a radical political group known as the British National Party.
 * October 22 – Microsoft releases Windows 7 to all computers and laptops and they released an edition for ATMs.
 * October 23 – The 2009 Cataño oil refinery fire began after an explosion at the refinery in Bayamón, Puerto Rico.
 * October 24 – The 2009 El Ayyat railway accident occurred in Giza, Egypt, when a passenger train derailed due to stoppage of animals on the train tracks. 50 people were killed and 30 people were injured.
 * October 25 – Two suicide attacks in Baghdad, Iraq, kill 155 people and injure at least 721 people.

November

 * November 3
 * The Czech Republic becomes the final member-state of the European Union to sign the Treaty of Lisbon, thereby permitting that document's initiation into European law.
 * The Prime Minister of Belgium, Herman Van Rompuy, is designated the first permanent President of the European Council, a position he takes up on December 1, 2009.
 * November 10 – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was released.
 * November 13 – Having analyzed the data from the LCROSS lunar impact, NASA announces that it has found a "significant" quantity of water in the Moon's Cabeus crater.
 * November 23 – In the Philippines, at least 58 people are abducted and killed in the province of Maguindanao, in what the Committee to Protect Journalists called the single deadliest attack on journalists in history.
 * November 24 – The Avdhela Project, an Aromanian digital library and cultural initiative, is founded in Bucharest, Romania.

December

 * December 1 – The Treaty of Lisbon comes into force.
 * December 5 – Fire at the Lame Horse nightclub in Perm, Russia.
 * December 7–18 – The UNFCCC's 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference is held in Copenhagen, Denmark.
 * December 8 – A series of attacks in Baghdad, Iraq kill at least 127 people and injure at least 448 more.
 * December 15 – First flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
 * December 16 – Astronomers discover GJ 1214 b, the first-known exoplanet on which water could exist.
 * December 25 – A Nigerian terrorist plotted an attempted terrorist bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 en route from Amsterdam to Detroit.

Nobel Prizes

 * Chemistry – Ada Yonath, Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, and Thomas A. Steitz
 * Economics – Elinor Ostrom and Oliver E. Williamson
 * Literature – Herta Müller
 * Peace – Barack Obama
 * Physics – Charles K. Kao, Willard Boyle, and George E. Smith
 * Physiology or Medicine – Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol W. Greider, and Jack W. Szostak

New English words

 * alt-right
 * copernicium
 * subtweet

title: 2009