1572 Sea beggars in Brill
Sea beggars seize the town of Brill and raise the flag of William of Orange (also known as William the Silent)

1573 William of Orange goes Calvinist
William of Orange declares himself a Calvinist and assumes the leadership of the united provinces of the Netherlands

1573 Dutch breach their dikes
The city of Alkmaar is saved when the Dutch breach their own dikes, threatening the Spanish troops with death by drowning

1585 England supports Dutch rebels
England's queen Elizabeth sends 6000 troops to support the Dutch rebels against Spain

1588 Dutch republic goes Orange
The House of Orange becomes the leading family of the new Dutch republic

1621 Dutch promote transatlantic colonization
The Dutch West India Company is chartered to trade and found colonies anywhere along the entire American coast

1652 English and Dutch clash at sea
A clash at sea between English and Dutch fleets begins the first of three Anglo-Dutch wars

1667 Dutch admiral attacks far up the Thames
Michiel de Ruyter sails up the Thames to destroy much of the English fleet at its base in the Medway

1688 Dutch prince offered British throne
English grandees invite William III of Orange and his wife Mary, daughter of James II, to claim the British throne

1746 French take Austrian Netherlands
The French commander Maurice de Saxe succeeds in occupying the entire Austrian Netherlands

1792 French in Austrian Netherlands
After their success at Valmy, French republican armies overrun much of the Austrian Netherlands

1806 Napoleon puts brother on Dutch throne
Napoleon announces that Holland is to be a kingdom, with his 28-year-old brother Louis Bonaparte on the throne

1813 Orange prince for Netherlands
The head of the house of Orange becomes, for the first time, the sovereign prince of the Netherlands

1815 Battle of Waterloo
The English and Prussian generals Wellington and Blücher defeat Napoleon in a closely fought battle at Waterloo

1876 Brussels conference on Africa
Leopold II hosts a conference in Brussels on the subject of opening up the African continent

1908 Belgium annexes Congo Free State
International outrage at Congo atrocities forces Belgium to annexe King Leopold's private colony

1914 August 2 Germany invades Luxembourg
German troops move into Luxembourg and demand passage through neutral Belgium

1914 August 4 German troops invade Belgium
German troops invade Belgium, violating her guaranteed neutrality

1914 August 20 Germans capture Brussels
A Germany army reaches and enters the Belgian capital, Brussels

1914 August 23 British escape from Mons
The British Expeditionary Force fights a rearguard action to escape encirclement by the Germans at Mons

1914 Germans and French in race to sea
from September - the German and French armies, attempting to outflank each other, engage in a race to the sea

1914 First battle of Ypres
from October - there are heavy casualties on both sides, and a small advantage to the Allies, in the fighting round Ypres during the 'race to the sea'

1914 Double-deckers for British soldiers
British troops are driven to the western front in London Transport double-deckers

1914 Armies dig in for long spell
from November - with the battle lines stablized to the coast, the German and Allied armies settle in for years of gruesome trench warfare

1915  April 22 Second battle of Ypres
The Germans attempt an advance on the western front, launching the second battle of Ypres

1915  April 22-3 Germans use gas at Ypres
The Germans gain ground at Ypres after the first significant use of chlorine gas

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 October 12 Edith Cavell executed
The English nurse Edith Cavell is court-martialled and executed by German forces in Belgium

1916  February 21 Battle of Verdun
A German thrust against the French begins the year-long battle of Verdun

1916 June 24 Battle of the Somme
An Allied advance in the valley of the Somme launches a four-month battle with very heavy casualties

1916 September 15 First use of tanks
Eleven British tanks go into pioneering but ineffective action at the battle of the Somme

1916 September 17 Red Baron begins his tally
Baron von Richthofen, the 'Red Baron', shoots down the first of many Allied aircraft

1917 Wilfred Owen invalided home
Wounded at the front on the Somme, the poet Wilfred Owen is invalided home to Britain

1917 July 31 Third battle of Ypres
Haig sends British troops over the top in the third battle of Ypres

1917 November 20 Tanks impress at Cambrai
Suitable ground is selected by the British at the battle of Cambrai for the first serious deployment of their new tanks

1918 Wilfred Owen killed
Wilfred Owen, having returned to the front, is killed by machine-gun fire a week before the end of the war

1918  April 21 Red Baron killed in action
The German air ace Baron von Richthofen is finally shot down, after himself destroying 80 Allied planes

1918  May US troops on western front
US troops are by now fighting in large numbers on the western front

1940  May 10 German invasion of Benelux countries
German tanks cross the borders into neutral Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium

1940  May 12 Germans reach Dutch coast
Only two days after crossing the Netherlands border, a German division reaches the coast near Rotterdam

1940  May 12 Dutch government moves to Britain
Queen Wilhelmina and the Dutch government escape just in time to Britain

1940  May 14 Dutch surrender to Germans
The caretaker government of the Netherlands surrenders to the German invaders

1940  May 27 Belgium surrenders
The Belgians surrender to the German armies encircling them north and south

1944 August 4 Anne Frank is found
The hiding place in Amsterdam of Anne Frank and her family is discovered by the Gestapo

1944 September 3 Brussels liberated
British forces liberate Brussels and on the next day reach Antwerp

1944 September 25 Disaster for Allies at Arnhem
7500 British troops, trapped on the far side of the Rhine at Arnhem, are captured by the Germans