1096 — Participants in the First Crusade massacre Jews in several Central European cities, beginning centuries of pogroms linked to the Crusades.

1124 — Records of a Jewish gate in Kiev attest to the presence of a Jewish community there.

1144 — Jews in Norwich, England, are accused of murdering a Christian child in what is believed to be the first ritual murder charge. This blood libel, as well as others in England that follow in the 12th century, incites anti-Jewish violence.

1195 — Moses ben Maimon, also known as Maimonides and Rambam, completes "The Guide of the Perplexed," considered the most important work of medieval Jewish thought.

1239 — Pope Gregory IX orders the kings of France, England, Spain and Portugal to confiscate Hebrew books. Following this edict, the Talmud is condemned and burned in France and Rome.

1290 — King Edward I banishes all Jews from England. It is the first of numerous expulsions of European Jews during the Middle Ages.

1488 — The first complete edition of the Hebrew Bible is printed in Soncino, Italy.

1492 — The Jews of Spain are expelled as part of the Spanish Inquisition. The majority flee to Portugal, and eventually to North Africa and Turkey.

1516 — Jews in Venice are relegated to a ghetto, the most extreme segregation to which Jews had been submitted. Over time, Jews in many lands are similarly segregated.

1526 — The Prague Haggadah, which contains the oldest known printed Yiddish poem, is published.

1543 — German religious reformer Martin Luther writes "About the Jews and Their Lies," considered the first modern anti-Semitic tract.

1565 — The Shulchan Aruch, Joseph Caro's authoritative code of Jewish law, is first printed in Venice.

1569 — The kabbalist Isaac Luria settles in Safed, Israel. Luria's ideas give rise to a new form of Jewish mysticism.

1648 — Ukrainian peasants led by Bogdan Chelmniecki revolt against their Polish landlords and Jewish agents. About 100,000 Jews die in the uprising.

1654 — Jacob Barsimon, regarded as the first Jew to settle in what will become the United States, arrives in New Amsterdam.

1666 — The false messiah Shabbetai Zevi converts to Islam after being faced with the possibility of death if he remains a Jew.

1740 — The Ba'al Shem Tov, the founder of Chassidism, takes up residence in what is now part of Ukraine.

1791 — France emancipates its Jews, beginning the period known as the Enlightenment.

1794 — The Russian Empire establishes the Pale of Settlement, where Jews are required to live.

1880-1925 — Masses of Jews emigrate from Eastern Europe to the United States. More than 2.5 million make their way to the New World.

1881 — The word "pogrom" enters the English language, as Russian mobs begin a series of violent attacks against Jews and their property.

1894 — Sholem Aleichem begins writing the first episode of the life of Tevye the Dairyman.

1897 — The First Zionist Congress, held in Basel, Switzerland, heralds the growth of modern Zionism.

1939-1945 — The Nazis kill 6 million Jews.

1948 — The state of Israel is established.