15,000 years ago Bows and arrows
The principle of the bow and arrow is developed, with yew or elm for the bow and points of flint on the arrows

2500 BC First image of soldiers
The treasures found in the royal cemetery at Ur include a depiction of soldiers in copper helmets, armed with battleaxes

1800 BC Warriors cut a dash in chariots
In Mesopotamia the new weapon is a light chariot, drawn by two horses

1500 BC Composite bow
The composite bow, accurate to 200 yards, is used by warriors in Asia fighting from chariots and on horseback

1100 BC Phoenicians develop war galley
The Phoenicians develop the war galley, with a sharp battering ram in the bow

850 BC Battering ram in Assyria
The Assyrians develop the battering ram into a mobile and powerful siege engine

800 BC Steel weapons
The Assyrian army makes good use of the new technology by which iron can be hardened into steel suitable for weapons

340 BC Catapult as siege engine
The Macedonians develop the catapult as a siege engine for the armies of Philip II and Alexander the Great

299 BC Roman tortoise effective in war
The Roman siege technique is improved by the 'tortoise' which protects the attacking force

250 BC Chinese invent crossbow
The Chinese develop the crossbow, many centuries before its use in Europe

674 Byzantine ships deploy secret weapon
A Muslim fleet attacking Constantinople is deterred by the first known use of the Byzantine secret recipe for 'Greek fire'

1040 Gunpowder described
A Chinese manual on warfare includes the earliest known description of gunpowder

1139 Crossbow a weapon of mass destruction
Pope Innocent III and the second Lateran council outlaw the crossbow as a weapon causing unacceptable devastation

1200 Longbow in Wales
The longbow, a weapon of great use to English armies, is probably first developed in Wales

1298 Longbow too much for Scots
The English longbow, in one of its early appearances, proves too much for the Scots at Falkirk

1327 First evidence of artillery
The earliest surviving illustration of a cannon is drawn in this year (in a manuscript now in Oxford)

1365 Earliest hand guns
Portable guns are introduced not long after artillery, being mentioned in several European texts of the second half of the fourteenth century

1450 Matchlock the latest weapon
The matchlock, ignited from a smouldering length of rope, becomes the standard form of musket

1450 Guns on battlefield
The French bring two small cannon on to the battlefield at Formigny, where they have a significant effect in achieving the French victory

1453 Constantinople bombarded by massive gun
The Turks terrify Constantinople by lobbing vast stones at the city from a 19-ton bombard of cast iron

1610 French develop flintlock
A flintlock designed in France (possibly by Marin Le Bourgeoys) becomes the standard firing mechanism for muskets

1688 French adopt improved bayonet
Sébastien de Vauban's socket bayonet is introduced in the French army

1775 Redcoats sent to Concord
General Gage sends a detachment of British troops to seize weapons held by American Patriots at Concord

1807 Percussion cap
A Scottish clergyman, Alexander Forsyth, invents the percussion cap to help in his pursuit of wildfowl

1846 Paris gunsmith invents bullet
The self-contained metal cartridge, with a percussion cap in its base, is patented by a Paris gunsmith named Houiller

1848 Prussians adopt needle-gun
The Prussian army is the first to adopt a breech-loading rifle, the 'needle-gun' developed by gunsmith Johann Nikolaus von Dreyse

1884 Maxim demonstrates machine gun
US-born British inventor Hiram Maxim demonstrates the first prototype of his machine gun, using the recoil force to eject the spent cartridge and insert a new one

1892 Protestant-Catholic warfare in Kampala
Frederick Lugard's Maxim machine gun settles a Protestant-Catholic clash in Kampala, the capital of Buganda

1905 First U-boat
The first German submarine, or U-boat, is constructed in a programme to catch up with Britain and France in this area

1906 First of the Dreadnoughts
Britain launches HMS Dreadnought, the first of a massive new class of battleship

1906 Germany to build more battleships
In direct response to Britain's new Dreadnought, Germany increases the production of battleships

1907 Great White Fleet
President Roosevelt sends a fleet of warships on a goodwill tour of the world that also demonstrates US power

1911 Lewis machine gun
US inventor Isaac Newton Lewis patents a lighter version of the machine gun

1913 First fighter plane
The Vickers Fighting Biplane No 1 is unveiled in London at the Olympia Aero Show as the world's first purpose-built fighter plane

1915 Churchill supports the tank
Winston Churchill is a firm supporter of a new invention, the tank, encouraging its initial development while still at the Admiralty

1915  April 1 Machine gun in French fighter plane
The French aviator Roland Garros fires a machine gun through the propeller in his fighter plane, using metal plates to deflect any bullets that hit the propeller

1915 June Advantage for German fighter planes
Dutch aircraft designer Anton Fokker, working for the Germans, vastly improves the Roland Garros technique for firing machine guns through the propellers of fighter planes

1915 July Machine guns for fighter planes
German fighter planes are armed with new machine guns synchronized to fire between the revolving propeller blades

1915 July 30 Flame thrower used in action
The Germans make their first effective use of a new weapon, the flame thrower, in an attack on the British in the second batte of Ypres

1915 Rolls-Royce test aero-engine
from December - the 225-horsepower Eagle, the first of many Rolls-Royce aero-engines, is used to power British bombers

1925 Gas and germ Protocol
A Protocol signed in Geneva probibits the use in warfare of poisonous gas and bacteriological weapons

1935-1938 Germans find work in weapons
Adolf Hitler's rearmament programme begins to reduce German unemployment, and by 1938 eliminates it entirely

1936 First Spitfire
The prototype of the Spitfire, designed by Reginald Mitchell, has its first test flight

1937 Von Braun directs rocket research
Rocket engineer Wernher von Braun is appointed director of Germany's weapon research centre at Peenemünde

1939 August 2 Einstein alerts Roosevelt to nuclear dangers
German-born US physicist Albert Einstein writes to President Roosevelt, warning of the potential of an atomic bomb

1942  April Wallis designs rotating bombs
British engineer Barnes Wallis designs a bouncing and rotating bomb for use against German dams

1942 June 7 Oppenheimer directs Manhattan Project
US physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer is appointed director of the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon

1942 October 3 V-2 rocket
The German V-2 rocket is successfully tested by Wernher von Braun and his team at Peenemünde

1942 December 2 Nuclear chain reaction
Enrico Fermi and his team in Chicago achieve the first nuclear chain reaction

1944 June 13 Doodlebugs over London
The first V-1 flying bombs (or doodlebugs) appear over London, numbering more than 2000 in two weeks

1944 September 8 V-2 rocket hits London
The first V-2 rocket lands on London, killing three people in Chiswick

1944 October 25 First kamikaze attacks
Japanese pilots fly the first of World War II's suicide or kamikaze missions

1945  March 9 Napalm causes Tokyo fire storm
Napalm, used to bomb a crowded part of Tokyo, creates a firestorm in which 80,000 die

1945  April 12 New form of kamikaze
A US destroyer is sunk by a baka, a rocket-propelled version of a kamikaze attack

1945 July 16 USA has atom bomb
US scientists succeed in exploding an atom bomb at Alamogordo, a test site in the New Mexican desert

1945 August 6 Atom bomb over Hiroshima
An atom bomb is dropped on Hiroshima, destroying four square miles of the city and killing 80,000 people

1945 August 9 Atom bomb on Nagasaki
A second atom bomb is dropped from a US plane, this time over Nagasaki

1946 Bikini Atoll
The first of about 20 US tests of atomic and hydrogen bombs is carried out on Bikini Atoll, in the Pacific

1949 USSR tests atomic bomb
The first Soviet atomic bomb, called by the Americans Joe One, is successfully tested in Kazakhstan

1950 Truman gives priority to hydrogen bomb
In response to the Soviet atom bomb, President Truman announces a crash programme to develop a hydrogen bomb

1951 US achieves nuclear fusion
The first hydrogen bomb is successfully tested by the US at Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands

1953 USSR tests hydrogen bomb
The first Soviet hydrogen bomb is successfully tested at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan

1962 Missile bases in Cuba ring alarm bells
US intelligence reveals nuclear missile bases under construction in Cuba, causing an international crisis

1962 Cuban missile crisis solved
A deal between President Kennedy and Soviet premier Khrushchev defuses the Cuban missile crisis

1972 SALT 1 treaty
The SALT 1 treaty is signed by the US and USSR, limiting anti-ballistic missiles

1983 Strategic Defence Initiative
President Reagan proposes a Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) against nuclear attack

1988 Saddam uses chemical weapons
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein uses chemical weapons against the Kurds of northern Iraq

2005 IRA declares end to armed conflict
The Provisional IRA announces a formal end to armed conflict and orders units to dump all their weapons

2006 North Korea test-fires missiles
North Korea test-fires seven missiles, of varying ranges and with varying success

2006 Nuclear test by North Korea
North Korea announces that it has tested a nuclear weapon

2007 Chinese missile can destroy satellites
China carries out a successful test of a ground-based missile that can destroy satellites in orbit

2007 North Korea withdraws from nuclear brink
North Korea agrees to begin shutting down its nuclear facilities in return for an ongoing programme of fuel aid

2012 January 23
The European Union imposes an oil embargo on Iran to deter efforts to achieve a nuclear weapon

2013 September 12
Syria accepts a joint Russian and US proposal that all their chemical weapons should be identified and destroyed within a very tight deadline

2016 September 9 North Korea tests nuclear weapons
North Korea conducts its fifth and reportedly biggest nuclear test