Turning Points

Real places where something happened that changed what came after. Each card has a timeline and sources.

Cards

• Death of Alexander the Great · 323 BCE · Babylon, Iraq
• Assassination of Julius Caesar · 44 BCE · Area Sacra, Rome
• Death of Cleopatra · 30 BCE · Alexandria, Egypt
• Murder of Thomas Becket · 1170 · Canterbury Cathedral
• Sicilian Vespers · 1282 · Palermo, Sicily
• Execution of William Wallace · 1305 · Smithfield, London
• Trial and execution of Joan of Arc · 1431 · Rouen, France
• Death of Ferdinand Magellan · 1521 · Mactan, Philippines
• Sack of Rome · 1527 · Rome, Italy
• Execution of Anne Boleyn · 1536 · Tower of London
• St. Bartholomew's Day massacre · 1572 · Paris, France
• Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots · 1587 · Fotheringhay Castle, England
• The Gunpowder Plot · 1605 · Houses of Parliament, London
• Execution of Guy Fawkes · 1606 · Old Palace Yard, Westminster
• Assassination of Henry IV of France · 1610 · Rue de la Ferronnerie, Paris
• The Kalinga War and Ashoka's Turn to Peace · c. 261 BCE · Dhauli hills, near Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India (presumed battle site)
• Mansa Musa's Pilgrimage Reaches Cairo · 1324 CE · Cairo, Egypt (representative pin at the Cairo Citadel)
• The Golden Law Ends Slavery in Brazil · 1888 CE · Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• First Expedition Reaches the South Pole · 1911 CE · Geographic South Pole, Antarctica
• Australia's 1967 Referendum · 1967 CE · Old Parliament House, Canberra, Australia (representative pin; the vote was nationwide)
• Cyrus the Great Takes Babylon · 539 BCE · Babylon, near Hillah, Iraq (site of the ancient city)
• Cai Lun Presents Paper to the Emperor · 105 CE · Luoyang, Henan, China (imperial court)
• The Founding of Tenochtitlan · c. 1325 · Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City, Mexico (Templo Mayor area)
• John Snow and the Broad Street Pump · 1854 · Broadwick Street (once Broad Street), Soho, London, UK
• The Great Law of Peace Unites the Haudenosaunee · Date debated (1142 attributed) · Near present-day Victor, New York, USA (as described by History.com)
• Narmer and the Unification of Egypt · c. 3000 BCE · Hierakonpolis (Nekhen), Upper Egypt, where the Narmer Palette was found
• New Zealand Women Win the Vote · 1893 · Parliament, Wellington, New Zealand (presumed place of the debates)
• Gandhi's Salt March · 1930 · Dandi, Gujarat, India
• Yuri Gagarin, First Human in Space · 12 April 1961 · Gagarin's Start launch pad, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
• Hōkūleʻa Sails to Tahiti · 1976 · Honolua Bay, Maui, Hawaii, USA (departure point)
• The World's Last Natural Case of Smallpox · 1977 · Merca, Somalia
• King Sejong Gives Korea Its Own Alphabet · 1446 · Seoul, Korea (presumed place; the sources do not name a site)
• The Book That Gave Us Algebra · c. 820 CE · Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate (today's Iraq; the House of Wisdom's exact site is not known)
• Caral, One of the First Cities in the Americas · c. 3000-1800 BCE · Supe Valley, Peru
• Mount Tambora Erupts · 1815 · Mount Tambora, Sumbawa Island, Indonesia
• Nunavut Becomes Canada's Newest Territory · 1999 · Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada (the capital)
• Copernicus Puts the Sun at the Center · 1543 · Frombork (Frauenburg), Poland (where he wrote the book)
• Japan's First Bullet Train · 1964 · Tokyo Station, Tokyo, Japan (the line's Tokyo end)
• Ghana Wins Its Independence · 1957 · Accra, Ghana (city-level point; the independence site was the old British Polo Grounds)
• The Discovery of Insulin · 1922 · University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada