History
80 Million The Ukhaa Tolgod basin of Mongolia had fossils from the late Cretaceous. The site was first discovered by Roy Chapman Andrews during his 1923 Gobi Desert expedition. The 25-foot tall, 85-foot long Nurosaurus qaganesis was of this period.
75-71 Mil Fossils from Ukhaa Tolgod, Mongolia, of this period later provided the richest assemblage of vertebrates in the world.
9-8,000 BC In Neolithic times Mongolia was the home of small groups of hunters, reindeer breeders, and nomads.
400-300BC The Chinese began suffering from fierce attacks of nomadic herdsmen, the Hsiung-nu, from the north and west. They began to build parts of what came to be called the Great Wall for protection.
300-200BC During the 3rd century BC Mongolia became the center of the Hsiung-nu empire.
300-1000AD During the 4th-10th century AD, Orhon Turks were prominent in Mongolia.
745-840 The Uighur of eastern Turkestan formed an empire in the north that was ended by an invasion of the Kyrgyz peoples.
1162 Genghis Khan (d.1227) was born in the Hentiyn Nuruu mountains north of Ulan Bator [see 1167]. His given name was Temujin, "the ironsmith." He later seized control over much of the 5 million square miles that covered China, Iran, Iraq, Burma, Vietnam, most of Korea and Russia. His efforts in Vietnam were not successful. He was succeeded by his son Ogedai, who was succeeded by Guyuk. Tim Severin later authored "In Search of Genghis Khan." [see Juvaini, 1253-1260]
1189 Temiijin (27) became the acknowledged leader of the Mongols and was named Genghis Khan (King of Everything).
1206 Genghis Khan declared himself "the ruler of those who live in felt tents."
1206-1226 Genghis Khan unified the Mongols and over the next twenty years conquered northern China and all of Asia west to the Caucasus. The Mongols numbered about 2 million and his army about 130,000.
1220 Genghis Khan made Karakorum his capital.
1227 Aug 18, Genghis Khan (Chinggis), Mongol conqueror, died in his sleep at his camp, during his siege of Ningxia, the capital of the rebellious Chinese kingdom of Xi Xia. Subotai was one of Genghis Khan's ablest lieutenants, and went on to distinguish himself after the khan's death. In Khan's lifetime he and his warriors had conquered the majority of the civilized world, ruling an empire that stretched from Poland down to Iran in the west, and from Russia's Arctic shores down to Vietnam in the east. Russian archaeologist Peter Kozloff uncovered the tomb of Genghis Khan in the Gobi Desert in 1927.
1229-1241 Ugoodei, Genghis' successor, reigned over this period.
1234 Ugoodei attacked and overcame the Chin (Juchen) dynasty of China.
1237-1238 Batu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan, invaded Russia.
1238 Feb 3, The Mongols took over Vladimir, Russia.
1240 Dec 6, Mongols under Batu Khan occupied and destroyed Kiev.
1241 Apr 9, In the Battle of Liegnitz, Silesia, Mongol armies defeated the Poles and Germans. In this year the Mongols defeated the Germans and invaded Poland and Hungary. The death of their leader Ughetai (Ogedei) forced them to withdraw from Europe.
1241 A trumpeter in Krakow, Poland, was shot through the throat by an archer as he warned the city of a fast-approaching Mongol army.
1241 The Great Khan Ogedei died after completing the Mongol conquest of China and Korea. In April the Mongols routed the armies of Poles, Germans, and Hungarians, at Liegnitz and Mohi, within easy distance of Vienna. Only the death of Ogedei stopped their advance into Europe.
1242 Batu, the grandson of Genghis Khan, established his "Golden Horde" at Sarai on the Lower Volga.
1243 Jun 26, The Seljuk Turkish army in Asia Minor was wiped out by the Mongols.
1245 John of Plano Carpini was a Franciscan monk who set out on the instructions of Pope Innocent IV to gather intelligence. He was met by Mongol horseman and was brought to witness the enthronement of Guyuk Khan. He experienced a sudden hailstorm followed by a flash flood that killed 160 people.
1253-1260 Ata-Malik Juvaini (b.1226) authored “The History of the World Conqueror,” an account of the life of Genghis Khan and his successors. Juvaini, in service to the Mongol governors, drew on the recollections of his father and grandfather. In 1997 J.A. Boyle published an English translation.
1256 Kublai-khan began his reign as the sixth grand khan, ruler of the Tartars. [see 1259]
1258 Feb 10, Huegu, a Mongol leader, seized Baghdad, bringing and end to the Abbasid caliphate. Mongol invaders from Central Asia took over Baghdad and ended the Abbasid-Seljuk Empire.
1259 Aug 11, Mongke, Mongol great-khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, died.
1259-1294 The great Kublai Khan, a grandson of Genghis, reigned.
1260 Mar 1, Hulagu Khan, grandson of Genghis, conquered Damascus.
1260 Sep 3, Mamelukes under Sultan Qutuz defeated Mongols and Crusaders at Ain Jalut.
1264 Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, moved his capital from Karakorum to what later became Beijing. Karakorum was all but abandoned and eventually destroyed by Manchurian invaders over the next century.
1264 According to Marco Polo, Kublai Khan in this year sent a large body of troops to attack Japan, then known as the island of Zipangu. The two officers in charge, named Abbacatan and Vonsancin, failed to cooperate and the adventure failed. [see 1274]
1274 The first Mongol invasion of Japan. [see 1264]
1279-1368 The Yuan, or Mongol, dynasty in China (1279-1368) was established by the great Kublai Khan (reigned 1259-94), a grandson of Genghis.
1281 Aug 14, During the second Mongol attempt to conquer Japan, Kublai Khan's invading fleet disappeared in typhoon off of Japan. A Mongol army of 45,000 from Korea had joined an armada with 120,000 men from southern China landing at Hakozaki Bay. The typhoon destroyed their fleet leaving them to death or slavery.
1294 Feb 12, Kublai Khan, the conqueror of Asia, died at the age of 80.
1294 When Arghun died by probable poisoning after six years of rule, he was succeeded by his uncle, Ki-akato, who was able to seize power because the son of Arghun, Kasan, was far away. After two years Ki-akato was poisoned and his uncle, Baidu, a Christian, seized power. Kasan then assembled an army and marched against Baidu. Kasan was victorious and gained control over the Eastern Tartars.
1336-1405 Timur (aka Timur Lang or Timur Lenk or Tamerlane because of a lame leg) was a Tartar conqueror of a vast empire from southern Russia to Mongolia and southward to India, Persia, and Mesopotamia. After his death the empire fell apart. Prince Timur is a national hero of Uzbekistan.
1347 Plague broke out among the troops of the Kipchak Khan, who was besieging the Black Sea port of Kaffa. He catapulted dead bodies over the city walls. When Italian trading vessels in the harbor returned to Genoa, the carried the plague to Europe.
1347-1350 Oct, The Black Death: A Genoese trading post in the Crimea was besieged by an army of Kipchaks from Hungary and Mongols from the East. The latter brought with them a new form of plague. Infected dead bodies were catapulted into the Genoese town. One Genoese ship managed to escape and brought the disease to Messina, in Sicily. From this time forth the disease became an epidemic. It moved over the next few years to northern Italy, North Africa, France, Spain, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, the Low countries, England, Scandinavia and the Baltic. There were lesser outbreaks in many cities for the next twenty years.
1368 Tamerlane lost control of China as the Mings took over local power. [see 1369-1405]
1368-1600 For several centuries after 1368 the Mongols were confined to their original homeland in the steppes, their energies mostly absorbed by internal rivalries.
1369-1405 Timur (aka Timur Lang or Timur Lenk or Tamerlane because of a lame leg) ruled from Samarkand.
1395 The ikon of Our Lady of Vladimir was brought to Moscow and placed in the Kremlin's Assumption Cathedral for protection against the Mongol invaders under Tamerlane. A monastery, know as Stretenskii, was built on the spot where the Muscovites met the delegation from Vladimir.
1399 Dec 17, Tamerlane's Mongols destroyed the army of Mahmud Tughluk, Sultan of Delhi, at Panipat.
1401 Jul 9, Timur Lenk, Mongol monarch, destroyed Baghdad.
1402 Jul 20, Tamerlane's Mongols defeated Ottoman Turks at Angora.
1405 Feb 14, Timur, aka Tamerlane (68), crippled Mongol monarch, died at 68.
1500-1600 The stones of Karakorum were used to build the Buddhist monastery of Erdene Zu.
1500-1600 The Kalmyk people, descendants from the Golden Horde of Genghis Khan, settled in the lowlands between the Volga and Don rivers with their livestock.
1540 May 17, Afghan chief Sher Khan defeated Mongol Emperor Humayun at Kanauj.
1604-1634 Ligdan Khan (reigned 1604-34), the last great Mongol leader, ruled. He united many Mongol tribes to defend their homeland against the rising power of the Manchu.
1634 After Ligdan's death, the Mongols were subdued by the Manchu and became part of the Ch'ing (Manchu) dynasty of China.
1723 Zanabazar (b.1635), Mongolia’s greatest sculptor, died.
1850 A Mongolian national consciousness emerged in the mid-19th century.
1870's The Russian explorer, Colonel Nicholas Prjevalski, traveled through Mongolia. The wild horses of the Mongolian steppes are named after him.
1906 Feb 20, Russian troops seized large portions of Mongolia.
1912 After the fall of the Manchu dynasty, Mongol princes, supported by tsarist Russia, declared the independence of Mongolia from China.
1917 Just after the Russian Revolution, defeated anti-Communist forces under "Mad Baron" Ungern-Sternberg took Ulan Bator, then called Urga. The mad Baron undertook city-wide arson and mass executions.
1917 When the tsarist regime fell, Mongolia reverted to Chinese control.
1920 During the Russian Civil War, Mongolia was invaded by a White Russian force of 5,000 men.
1921 Mar 13, Mongolia (formerly Outer Mongolia) declared independence from China.
1921 Jul 11, Mongolia gained independence from China (National Day). The holiday of Naadam, which originated in the time of Ghenghis Khan, was later fixed to July 11-13 to the anniversary of the Revolution.
1921 Urga was renamed Ulan Bator (Red Hero) after Mongolian freedom fighters and D. Sukhbaatar sided with Russian communists and defeated the Chinese warlords. The Mad Baron, Ungern-Sternberg, was executed.
1921 Damdiny Sukhbaatar, supported by the Bolshevik administration in Moscow, organized a force that, with the help of Red Army troops, defeated the White Russians and drove off the Chinese.
1922 Roy Chapman Andrews of the American Museum of Natural History led an expedition to the Gobi desert and discovered dinosaur bones. Later expeditions there turned up bones and nests of Protoceratops, a small horned dinosaur. He led 6 expeditions to the Gobi between 1921 and 1930.
1923 Roy Chapman Andrews made his Gobi Desert expedition and discovered the Ukhaa Tolgod basin of Mongolia with fossils from the late Cretaceous, i.e. 80 Million ago.
1924 Nov 26, The Mongolian People's Republic was officially proclaimed. Close political, economic, cultural, and ideological ties with the Soviet Union continued thereafter.
1925 Mar 7, The Soviet Red Army occupied Outer Mongolia.
1925 The People's Revolutionary Party abolished clan names in an attempt to bury the feudal past.
1929-1932 The Communists forced collectivization on the herders. The nomads slaughtered millions of head of livestock rather than turn them over.
1929-1979 Tsevegmidyn Gaitav was a Mongolian poet.
1930s Joseph Stalin destroyed the Buddhist monastery of Erdene Zu as well as other Mongolian monasteries. The monks were exiled or executed.
1936 Mar 19, The USSR signed a pact of assistance with Mongolia against Japan.
1936 Nov 22, 1,200 were killed in a battle between Japanese and Mongolians in China.
1939 Aug 20, Russian offensive under Gen. Zhukov against Jap invasion in Mongolia.
1939 Aug 31, Japanese invasion army was driven out of Mongolia.
1940's Choibalsan was the Stalinist dictator of Mongolia.
1960s-1970s Mongolia's relations with China worsened as Sino-Soviet relations deteriorated.
1961 Oct 27, Outer Mongolia and Mauritania become the 102nd and 103rd members of UN.
1980s Tensions between Mongolia and China eased.
1986 Diplomatic relations were established between Mongolia and China.
1987 The book "Modern Mongolian Poetry" was published.
1990 Jul 22, Voters in Mongolia began casting ballots in their Communist-ruled nation's first multiparty election ever.
1990 Demonstrations against Russian rule began. The Mongolian Communist soon voted to dissolve itself.
1990-1991 Mongolia joined in the democratic revolutions that swept eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The country subsequently underwent major political and economic reforms.
1991 The government began to eliminate price controls and the cost of living zoomed.
1991 A group of young foreign exchange traders gambled away half the national treasury, $82 mil.
1992 A new constitution was adopted.
1992 Radical market reforms were launched and the national herd of 24 million livestock was distributed to herding households.
1993 Punsalmaagiyn Ochirbat was dumped by the governing party during presidential elections. He ran as an independent and won 57% of the vote.
1996 Jul 2, Results showed that opposition democrats won 48 of the 76 parliamentary seats. Democrats won 56 of the 76 seats in the Assembly. The Democratic Coalition consisted of 4 parties: the Mongolian National Democratic Party, the Mongolian Social Democratic Party, The Religious Democratic Party, and the Greens.
1996 Aug 14, In Mongolia officials sealed off parts of Ulan Bator to halt an outbreak of cholera.
1996 Internet service first arrived in Mongolian public.
1997 May 18, Natsagiin Bagabandi of the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP), the former Communist Party, won elections with 60% support.
1997 The film "A Mongolian Tale" by Xie Fei won best director and best artistic contribution for music at the Montreal Film Festival.
1998 Jan 1, Mongolia switched from a 46 hour to 40 hour work week.
1998 May 27, In Mongolia a Yu-12 plane crash killed all 28 on board.
1998 Jul, The government fell and the prime minister and his Cabinet continued as caretakers.
1998 Oct 2, In Mongolia Sanjaasurangiin Zorig (36), who helped oust the Communist regime in 1990, was assassinated. He was stabbed and hacked with a knife and an ax. It was seen as a move to silence pro-democracy officials.
1999 Jan 1, New legislation liberated the news media.
1999 Jan 22, The parliament repealed its law authorizing casinos.
1999 The Democratic Coalition fell apart after one of its members was murdered.
2000 Mar 13, In Mongolia the Red Cross reported that winter blizzards had killed over 1 million head of livestock and that some 300,000 people were short of food. The dead animal number was soon raised to 1.8 million, or 1 in every 15 in the nation.
2000 Jun, It was expected that the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, led by Chairman Enkhbayar, would win the elections. The former Communists embraced market economics and democracy.
2000 Jul 2, The People's Revolutionary Party won 72 seats of the 76-member legislature.
2000 Jul 26, Nambaryn Enkhhbayar was approved as prime minister by the Great Hural, Mongolia's parliament.
2001 Jan 14, In Mongolia 9 people were killed when a Russian-made MI-8 helicopter crashed. The dead included 4 members of a UN disaster assessment team.
2001 Feb 5, It was reported that severe cold and snowstorms threatened to wipe out a 5th of the nation's livestock and threatened tens of thousands of herders with starvation.
2001 May 20, The 3rd presidential elections were scheduled. Pres. Bagabandi was re-elected with 58% of the vote.
2001 Jul 13, It was reported that record droughts persisted in Afghanistan northern China, North Korea, Mongolia and Tajikistan.
2003 Jan, Heavy snowfall and low temperatures killed at least 24,000 head of livestock. It was the 4th consecutive "dzud," in which a winter disaster followed a summer drought.
2004 May 28, Andre Tolme of New Hampshire began a trip golfing across Mongolia.
2004 Jun 27, In Mongolia elections the renamed Communists lost their majority to an opposition block. The left-leaning MPRP won 36 seats while the MDC took 34.
2004 In Mongolia scientists and American sport fishermen teamed with local Buddhist monks to help stamp out habitat destruction and poaching of the Siberian salmon called taimen.
2005 March-April - Protesters in the capital demand the government's resignation and an end to poverty and official corruption.
2005 May - MPRP candidate Nambaryn Enkhbayar wins presidential election.
2005 November - President George W Bush becomes the first serving US leader to visit Mongolia.
2006 January - Coalition government headed by Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj falls after the MPRP pulls out, blaming the leadership for slow economic growth. Parliament chooses MPRP's Miyeegombo Enkhbold as the new prime minister.
2007 November - Prime Minister Miyeegombo Enkhbold resigns. He is replaced by MPRP leader Sanjagiin Bayar.
2008 July - President Enkhbayar declares a state of emergency to quell riots in the capital which left five dead and hundreds injured. Violence erupted after the opposition accused the governing party of rigging elections.
2009 May - Former Prime Minister and candidate of the opposition Democratic Party, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, wins presidential election, defeating incumbent Nambaryn Enkhbayar by a narrow margin. Governing MPRP says it accepts the result.
2009 October - Prime Minister Sanjagiin Bayar of the MPRP resigns for health reasons. Foreign Minister Sukhbaataryn Batbold succeeds him.
2010 February - Extreme cold kills so much livestock that the United Nations launches a programme to pay herders to clean and collect carcasses. This will help maintain living standards while disposing of possible sources of disease.
2010 April - PM Sukhbaataryn Batbold takes over as head of governing MPRP from former PM Sanjagiin Bayar. 2010 September - Mongolian spy chief Bat Khurts is arrested on landing in Britain, sparking a diplomatic row. A court later rules that he can be extradited to Germany on kidnapping charges.
2010 November - Controversy as Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party reverts to Communist-era name of Mongolian People's Party. Ex-President Nambaryn Enkhbayar sets up small breakaway Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party.
2011 July - Mongolia selects the US Peabody Energy, China's Shenhua and a Russian-Mongolian consortium as partners to develop the highly sought-after Tavan Tolgoi coal deposit in the Gobi desert.
Spy chief Bat Khurts loses appeal in Britain against extradition to Germany on kidnapping charges.
2011 October - Mongolia and Rio Tinto-owned Ivanhoe Mines reach agreement on stakeholding in the massive Oyu Tolgoi copper mine. Mongolia settles for a 34% share, as previously agreed, dropping demands for parity.
2011 November - Germany releases Mongolian spy chief Bat Khurts ahead of Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to Mongolia.
2012 April - Mongolia puts Tavan Tolgoi coal mine deal on hold while it decides whether to go it alone on developing the project. It had earlier agreed to work with a group of US, Chinese and Russian companies.
2012 June - Parliamentary elections. Democratic Party wins most seats and goes on to form a coalition with the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party.
2012 August - Former president Nambaryn Enkhbayar is sentenced to four years in jail for corruption.
2012 December - Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party threatens to leave governing coalition in protest at its former leader Enkhbayar's jail sentence.
2013 June - Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, from the Democratic Party, wins a second term as president.
2013 August - Mining giant Rio Tinto says it will lay off up to 1,700 workers at the massive Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia following a dispute with the government.
2014 November - Prime Minister Norov Altankhuyag is dismissed by a vote of parliament. He had been under fire for alleged corruption and economic underperformance.
2014 November: Parliament elects Chimed Saikhanbileg as prime minister in a vote boycotted by the opposition Mongolian People's Party.
2015 January: The opposition Mongolian People's Party agrees to form a coalition government with the Democratic Party and the Justice Coalition.
2015 August - Prime Minister Chimed Saikhanbileg removes the Mongolian People's Party from the coalition government by dismissing six of its ministers.
2016 June - Opposition Mongolian People's Party scores a landslide victory in the parliamentary election winning 65 out of 76 seats. Prime Minister Chimed Saikhanbileg is among the Democratic Party incumbents who fail to win re-election.