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7000 BC – Neolithic settlement established.
600 BC – Trachian and Scythian tribes inhabit the region.
279 BC – First mention of Singidunum, the first name of the city.
Founded by the Scordisci, a Celtic tribe.
91 AD – Singidunum is inhabited by the Romans. HQ of the 4th
Roman Legion Flavia Felix. Some time later, a Roman emperor
is born in Singidunum – Claudius Flavius Iovianus. The first
bridge connecting two banks of the Danube.
395 – Roman Empire splits into two and Singidunum passes to
the Eastern Roman Empire. Strategically located on the
northwestern border, it is exposed to diverse cultural influences
and is a magnet for every aspiring conqueror.
411 – The Huns conquer Singidunum.
450 – The Sarmatians conquer Singidunum.
470 – The Goths conquer Singidunum.
488 – The Gepidaes conquer Singidunum.
504 – The Goths conquer Singidunum.
510 – The Byzantine Empire gets Singidunum through
peaceful agreement.

535 – The Byzantine emperor Justinian I rebuilds the city.
584 – The Avars conquer Singidunum.
592 – Byzantium takes over the rule of the city once again.
630 – The Slavs conquer Singidunum.
827 – The Bulgarians get Singidunum.

878 – First mention of the Slavic name for the city -
Belgrade - in a letter by Pope John VIII to Bulgarian Prince Boris I Mihail, informing the latter of the dismissal of Bishop of Belgrade for debauchery.
896 – Hungary attacks Belgrade.
971 – Byzantium conquers Belgrade.
976 – Macedonian emperor Samuilo gets Belgrade.
1018 – Byzantium gets Belgrade.
1096 – Hungarian army destroys Belgrade but it stays

 more about Serbs, get
 someone to tell you the
 tales of the people who
 lent their names to
 Belgrade streets and
 places.

 The famous Strahinjića
 Bana Street was named
 after a medieval Serb
 nobleman (also known
 as Banović Strahinja)
 who features
 prominently in epic folk
 poetry (Goethe thought
 it worth while to learn
 Serbian just to be able
 to read those poems in
 the original).
 This is his tale: while
 Banović Strahinja was
 away, Vlah Aliya, a lord
 who had left the main
 body of the Turkish
 army that was gearing
 up to attack Serbia,
 stormed and burnt
 Strahinja’s castle and
 made off with his wife.
 On learning this,
 Strahinja begged his
 father-in-law Yug
 Bogdan and his
 brothers-in-law, the nine
 Yug’s sons, to help him
 rescue his wife, but they
 refused to perish at the
 hands of the Turks, as
 their sister was already
 dishonoured. Spurred by
 love, Strahinja set out
 alone across the Turkish
 lands, disguised as a
 Turk. His wife, who did
 not find her captivity all
 that odious, rather the
 contrary, recognized him
 from afar and warned
 Vlah Aliya of his
 approach. The two men
 duelled all day long,
 locked in fierce combat.
 Neither could prevail,
 and both urged
 Strahinja’s wife to decide
 the outcome. She picked
 up a shard of the sword
 and struck her husband
 on the head. She only
 grazed him though, and
 Strahinja felt a surge of
 new strength which
 made him sink his teeth
 into Aliya’s neck and
 slay him. He took his
 wife home and forgave
 her because he loved
 her and because he did
 not have anyone with
 whom to drink cold red
 wine in his lonely castle.
 He perished (together

under the Byzantine rule.
1096 Armies of Crusaders pass through Belgrade (some of them plunder it, too).
1127 – Hungarian army destroys Belgrade and uses that stone to build Zemun
Fortress.
1147 Armies of Crusaders pass through Belgrade.
1154 – Byzantine army destroys Zemun and brings back that stone over the river to
rebuild Belgrade Fortress.
1166 – Stefan Nemanja asserts himself as the Grand Prince of Serbs, creates an
independent Serbian state and founds Nemanjić dynasty. He is crowned king of Serbs
by the Pope.
1182 – Hungary conquers Belgrade.
1185 – Byzantium takes over Belgrade through diplomatic negotiations.
1189 – Friedrich Barbarosa passes through Belgrade leading the crusade.
1219 – Serbian Orthodox Church gains independence.

of Serbs and Greeks. Following his demise, the empire dissolves
and Serbian noblemen create their own states.
1389 – Battle of Kosovo. Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović rallies
Serbian nobility to stand up to Turkish expansion into Europe.
Europe celebrates the victory of Christianity because of the
death of Turkish sultan and Turkish retreat, but Serbia cannot
recover as most of its nobility, including Prince Lazar, perished
in the battle. He is succeeded by his underage son Stefan

Lazarević who becomes a Turkish vassal.
1403 – Despot Stefan Lazarević receives Belgrade from Hungary, rebuilds it and
makes it the capital of Serbia.
1427 – Hungary reclaims Belgrade following the death of Despot Stefan Lazarević.
1440 – Sultan Murad II lays siege to Belgrade with 100,000 Turkish soldiers and
200 ships. He builds fort Žrnov on mount Avala in order to control the access roads
to the city. The Turks try to enter the city through underground tunnels. The city
endures the siege following fierce struggle.
1456 – Sultan Mehmed II besieges Belgrade with 150,000 soldiers.
Turks lift the siege when their Sultan is wounded.
1459 – Turks conquer the then Serbian capital of Smederevo, and that is
the beginning of five centuries long Turkish supremacy over Serbia.
1521 – Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent captures Belgrade with 300,000 soldiers,
and deports the entire population to Istanbul.

The way to Western Europe and Vienna is free.
1688 – Habsburg army conquers Belgrade in the counter-coup
after defending Vienna. All of them meticulously plunder the city,
the Turks on their way out and the Austrians on their way in.
1690 – Turkey conquers Belgrade.
1717 – Austrian army (100,000 soldiers) under the command
of Eugene of Savoy beats the Turks (200,000 soldiers) and
conquers Belgrade. The Austrians rebuild and expand Belgrade

Fortress using the most modern system in those times and it becomes one of the
largest in Europe. The city progresses a great deal in a short period. The house in
which Eugene of Savoy stayed (in those times it was a tavern “At the White Bear”)
still stands in Zemun.
1739 – Turkey takes over Belgrade through peaceful agreement. The newly-built
fortress is taken down and the Turks start building their own from scratch.
1789 – Austrian army, under the command of Fieldmarschal Laudon conquers
Belgrade.

1791 – Turkey besieges and takes over Belgrade through
peaceful agreement.
1801 – Rebel janissaries (Turkish elite infantry, usually Christian
boys forcibly conscripted) seize Belgrade Fortress and terrorise
Serb population. This culminates in “Killing of the Princes”
(assassination of the most eminent Serbs).
1804 – Serbian uprising against Turks started by Đorđe Petrović
Karađorđe.
1807 – Led by Karađorđe, Serbs liberate Belgrade and make it
the capital of Serbia. He founds Karađorđević dynasty.
The government is in session in the city and the predecessor
of the University, "Velika škola", is open.

 with his father-in-law
 and brothers-in-law) in
 the Kosovo Battle of
 1389 fought between
 Serbian and Turkish
 armies.





 1915 - Words from
 the last order of Major
 Dragutin Gavrilović
 who commanded the
 defence from the
 Germans:

 "Heroes!
 At three o'clock sharp,
 the enemy must be
 crushed by your mighty
 charge, torn to pieces
 by your grenades and
 bayonets. The honour
 of Belgrade our capital
 must be spotless.
 Soldiers, heroes!
 The Supreme Command
 has erased our regiment
 from its records.
 Our regiment has been
 sacrificed for Belgrade
 and the Fatherland.
 Therefore you no longer
 have to worry about your
 lives, they do no exist
 anymore.
 So forward, to glory!
 For the King and the
 Fatherland!
 Long live the King!
 Long live Belgrade!"

1811 – Karađorđe is chosen for a hereditary sovereign.
1813 – Turkey captures Belgrade; uprising is crushed.
Karađorđe flees Serbia.
1815 – Miloš Obrenović leads Second Serbian Uprising.
Serbia is offered partial autonomy.
1817 – Traditional internal conflicts among the Serbs continue.
Karađorđe is murdered on his return to Serbia, on orders from
Miloš Obrenović.
1830 – Turkey grants autonomy to Serbia. Miloš Obrenović
is acknowledged as hereditary Prince. He founds Obrenović
dynasty.
1840 – First post office opened in Belgrade.
1844 – National museum founded.

1862 – Conflict on Čukur-fountain. Murder of a Serbian youth triggers a clash between
Serbian and Turkish soldiers which ends in an international treaty bringing the Turkish
control over Belgrade to an end.

1867 – Turks leave Belgrade. Turkish commander hands over
to Prince Mihailo Obrenović the keys to Belgrade Fortress.
1876 – Serbian-Turkish war. Turkish flag is taken down from
Belgrade Fortress. Serbs liberate southeastern Serbia.
1878 – Formal independence of Serbia recognized at the
Congress of Berlin.
1882 – Kingdom of Serbia proclaimed under King Milan
Obrenović.
1883 – First telephone lines are introduced.
1893 – Electrical lighting installed, and in 1894 first route
of electric tram becomes operational.
1903 – The May Coup d’Etat. Group of officers styled

“Black Hand” assassinates King Aleksandar Obrenović and
Queen Draga Mašin because their love was unacceptable to people (Draga was
a considerably older woman of common background who could not give him an heir).
The house of Obrenović becomes extinct, King Petar I Karađorđević claims
the throne (grandson to Karađorđe, finished the Military Academy in Saint-Cyr,
decorated with the Order of the Legion of Honour for his merits

in the Foreign Legion).

1912 – First Balkan War launched by Serbia, Greece and

Bulgaria against Ottoman Turkey. Turks driven out of Kosovo

 In unequal fight, the
 defenders of the city
 held up the several
 times stronger and
 better equipped enemy
 and thus allowed the
 bulk of the Serbian army
 and state institutions to
 retreat together with the
 most valuable artefacts
 and holy relics. After the
 battle, the victorious
 German Field Marshal
 August von Mackensen,
 who was in charge of
 the joint German and
 Austrian attack on
 Serbia, gave orders that
 all fallen Serbian
 soldiers be buried.
 He had a monument
 erected in their honour
 inscribed with:
 "Hier ruhen serbische
 Helden" (Here lie
 Serbian heroes).
 Of Serbian soldiers he
 said:

 "We fought against an
 army that we have only
 heard about in fairy
 tales, who fought with
 a courage without
 compare. When we
 overwhelmed Serbia,
 it ached us more than
 it did her allies."

and Metohija, the last occupied part of Serbia.
1913 – Second Balkan War waged and won by Serbia against
Bulgaria.
1914 – King Petar I transfers the authority to the heir to the
throne Aleksandar because of his poor health. Outbreak of the
First World War. Austro-Hungary shells and captures Belgrade.
After the Battle of Cer, the first allied victory in WWI, and
Kolubara, Serbian army liberates Belgrade and drives the
Austro-Hungarian army out of Serbia.
1915 – Germany and Bulgaria enter the war siding with Austro-
Hungary. German and Austro-Hungarian troops capture
Belgrade. Beginning of three-year-long occupation and plunder
of the city. Serbian army retreats under attack across Albania
towards Greece and Corfu Island.

1916 – Healed Serbian soldiers join the allied army in the Salonica Front.
1918 – With the breakthrough of the Salonica Front, Serbian army returns to Serbia.
In WWI, Serbia had 1,247,000 casualties (28% of its total population). Serbs,
Croats and Slovenes unite into one state and Belgrade becomes the capital of
Yugoslavia.
1920 – French Marshal and Honorary Duke of Serbian army Franchet d’Esperey
decorates Belgrade with the Order of the Legion of Honour.
1929 – Radio Belgrade starts broadcasting.
1934 – King Aleksandar visits Marseille in a bid to strengthen a defence union with
France against Germany and is assassinated by Croatian Ustashe.
1935 – Pančevački bridge constructed.
1939 – Grand Prix race driven around Kalemegdan-forerunner of the present Formula1
1941 – The 27th March protests erupt against joining the Axis(Germany-Italy-Japan)
Following a coup d’etat, 17-yer-old Crown Prince Petar assumes the throne. Nazi
Germany bombs Belgrade on 6th April and occupy it on 12 April. Many people are
killed, wild beasts from the Zoo which survived the bombing roam the streets of the
city. The King and the government go into exile. Some Belgrade citizens are hanged
on the lamp-posts on Terazije and 80,000 Serbs are shot down in Jajinci below
Avala. Emergence of two Serbian resistance movement: chetnicks of Draža Mihailović
and Tito’s partisans. Yugoslav territory is divided between Germany, Italy, Bulgaria,
Hungary and Independent State of Croatia.

1944 – Americans bombard Belgrade in April, at Easter, and a couple of more times
in the course of the same year (many Belgrade citizens are killed). Tito’s partisans
and the Red Army liberate the city on 20th October. New government arrests and
shoots many citizens.

1945 – Toll of war is 1,700,000 deaths, chiefly among Serbs.
Monarchy is abolished, Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia
is proclaimed, and Josip Broz Tito is officially installed in power.
In the post-war period, Belgrade grows rapidly and develops into
an important centre of political, cultural and sporting life.
The heir to the throne Aleksandar, son of King Petar II is born
in Claridge’s, the hotel in London (its suite 212 is pronounced
for Yugoslav territory). His godparents were King George and
Princess Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II).

1961 – The first Conference of Non-Aligned Countries held in
Belgrade.
1968 – Students’ protests against social inequities and
bureaucracy. Soon after, hundreds of thousands of Belgraders
at Nikola Pašić Square protest the Russian occupation of
Czechoslovakia.
1980 – Tito dies. Officials from 126 countries gather at his
funeral. Yugoslavia is now governed by “Presidency” comprised
of 8 members (6 from the republics and 2 from Serbian

provinces).
1991 – Ethnic and political divisions lead to the collapse of
Yugoslavia. Slovenia and Croatia declare independence, civil
war erupts. Crown Prince Aleksandar II visits Belgrade for the
first time in his life.
1992 – European Community recognises Croatia and Bosnia.
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is proclaimed. UN Security
Council imposes economic embargo on Yugoslavia over its

support to Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia who want to unify with federal Yugoslavia.
1993 – The highest hyperinflation in the history - a 500,000,000,000 dinar note
is printed in Belgrade.
1994 – End of hyperinflation, new dinar introduced.
1995 – In the aftermath of Croatian war, around 300,000 Serb refugees leave
Croatia for Serbia.
1996 – Massive protests against Slobodan Milošević (President of Serbia) over
electoral fraud at local elections.
1999 – Long-lasting aspirations of Kosovo Albanians to secede from Serbia escalate
in violent conflicts between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo. The NATO forces bomb
Serbia and Belgrade for three months, without endorsement of the UN Security
Council (in April the Americans and the Germans finally succeed in bombing the city
together). Thanks to the President of France the bridges in Belgrade are spared.
Slobodan Milošević is accused of crimes against humanity during the wars of
Yugoslav succession. In June, following a piece agreement, NATO troops are
stationed in Kosovo and Metohija. Around 200,000 Kosovo Serbs find refuge in
Serbia.
2000 – Slobodan Milošević is ousted amidst huge demonstrations over electoral
fraud. Relations with European countries and the US improve.
2003 – Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is replaced by State Union of Serbia and
Montenegro.Serbian Prime Minister, Zoran Đinđić, is assassinated by a criminal clan.
2004 – Before the eyes of NATO and UN forces, around 50,000 Albanians launch
orchestrated attacks on remaining Serbian villages in Kosovo and torch Serbian
houses. In less than 48 hours, Albanians desecrate and destroy 30 Serbian
churches and monasteries.
2006 - State Union of Serbia and Montenegro ceases to exist. Serbia is again an
independent state. Belgrade is named City of Future of South Europe by Financial
Times.
2007 - Negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo Albanians about the status of
Kosovo. Serbia is offering broad autonomy, Albanians desire nothing less than
independence. The international community is divided over this issue.
2008 - With support of the USA and some of the EU countries, Albanians from
Kosovo and Metohija province of Serbia declare independence from Serbia.
The international community is still divided over this issue - some countries have
recognised Kosovo independence, some are against it. Serbian leadership does not
want an armed conflict and is striving to prevent the secession of its province
through diplomatic and political means. Massive protests are staged throughout
Serbia. Around 500,000 people are gathered in Belgrade at peaceful demonstrations
and prayer against Kosovo independence, while several hundreds of youngsters
demolish and burn the emptied building of the US Embassy. 
2009 - Serbia submitted a formal application for EU membership.