ca.2575-2465 BCE: Limestone statue of Memi and Sabu. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

ca.1479-1425 BCE: Painting of a funeral ritual in a garden. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

12th-9th century BCE: Ceramic mother and child figure. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

12th century BCE: Food serving vessel from the Shang dynasty period. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

753 BCE: The traditional date for the founding of Rome, probably as an Etruscan trading post on the Tiber. Getty image ID: 186365768 (Royalty free/Getty Images).

664-380 BCE: Figure of a baboon from ancient Egypt. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

6th century BCE : Terracotta wheeled horse. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

525 BCE: King Cambyses of Persia (pictured) conquered Egypt. His soldiers had held cats aloft, and the Egyptians ceased all defense tactics for fear of hurting them. Getty image ID: 2661771. Original Artwork: Painted by Paul Lemair. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

ca.480 BCE: After the Persian Wars, there were changes in women's dress: the chiton was abandoned in favor of the revived peplos (pictured) in the Ancient Greek world. Getty image ID: 543542626 (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images).

ca.450 BCE: Terracotta drinking cup from ancient Greece. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

Late 5th century BCE: Bronze statuette of a Greek youth. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

ca.400 BCE-100 CE: Sacred animal mummy containing dog bones. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

ca.300 BCE: Ptolemy I and Ptolemy II (pictured) founded the Museum of Alexandria in Egypt, which included an institute for exotic animals.King of Egypt, Philadelphus Ptolemy II. Getty image ID: 2629452 (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

1st century BCE: Plaque with an erotic scene. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

71 BCE: Following the slave revolt led by Thracian gladiator Spartacus, 6,000 captives were crucified along the Via Appia (pictured) from Capua to Rome and left to rot. Getty image ID: 693290471 (Royalty free/Getty Images).

1st century CE: Glass perfume bottle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1-10 CE: Rome gained a police force in the form of urban cohorts to handle persistent violence; the soldiers also had a reputation for handing out beatings. Getty image ID: 185325333 (Royalty free/Getty Images).

1st or 2nd century CE: Marble statue of Hermes. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1st-3rd century CE: Incense burner with a dragon spout. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

410 CE: Alaric (pictured), barbarian leader of the Visigoths, and his army sacked Rome. Getty image ID: 50690445 (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images).

496 CE: Clovis I, the first Christian king of the Franks (pictured), was crowned, initiating the Merovingian era. Getty image ID: 463960447 (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images).

6th-10th century CE: Four-cornered hat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

7th-9th century CE: Peruvian patterned tunic. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

793 CE: The Vikings' raid on the monastery at Lindisfarne (pictured) in northern England marked the beginning of the Viking age, which saw raids and settlement across Europe. Getty image ID: 93034048 (Royalty free/Getty Images).

9th century CE: Figure of a tirthanhara in a meditation posture. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

988 CE: Hugh Capet (pictured) ascended to the French throne. The Capetian dynasty would last until the death of the last of Philip the Fair's sons in 1328. Getty image ID: 641450824 (Photo by: Christophel Fine Art/UIG via Getty Images).

11th century: Gold necklace from the Seljuq Empire period. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1070-1079: The Bayeux Tapestry, a 230-foot long embroidery, recounted the Norman invasion of the Kingdom of England by William the Conqueror in 1066. It is the largest surviving medieval textile. Getty image ID: 96171509 (Photo by Walter Rawlings/robertharding/Getty Images).

ca.1080-1150: Byzantine temple pendant and stick. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1096: Pope Urban II preached about the First Crusade to the Holy Land, which initiated some three centuries of conquest and conflict. This depiction of the leaders of the First Crusade is from the 19th century. Getty image ID: 78981052 (Photo by Bob Thomas/Popperfoto/Getty Images).

12th-14th century: Bat-nosed figure pendant. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1159: The Hansa, or Hanseatic League, has its origins in the rebuilding of Lübeck (pictured here ca.1880). It dominated the northern European shipping trade until the 18th century. Getty image ID: 118122987 (Photo by Unidentified Author/Alinari Archives, Florence/Alinari via Getty Images).

13th century: Glass bird-shaped pendant. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1251: Venice (pictured here in 1338) forced all ships transporting food in the Adriatic to unload in the city before being able to re-export their goods. Getty image ID: 173314632 (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images).

1294: Philip IV of France promulgated sumptuary laws which limited his subjects to one dish and single side dish at ordinary meals. Getty image ID: 92744766 (Photo by Alan_Lagadu/Getty Images).

14th century: Game box. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1330-1339: Men’s clothing began to change when the long, draped garments of the previous two centuries were replaced by short, tightly fitted, and tailored garments. Getty image ID: 142455055 (Photo by DEA / G. DAGLI ORTI/Getty Images).

1348-1350: The Black Death or Plague killed millions across Europe, leading to profound cultural, social, and economic changes in late medieval societies. Artist: Anonymous. Getty image ID: 599954069 (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images).

1370-1390: Muhammad V built the iconic Court of Lions at Alhambra in Granada, southern Iberia. Pictured here is the Court of Lions after its restoration in 2012.The Courtyard of the Lions, Alhambra, Granada, Spa. Getty image ID: 520206397 (Photo by Jesus Ochando/Getty Images).

1417: The Dutch city of Deventer prescribed what could go into Deventer koek, a kind of gingerbread. Anyone who deviated was fined 666 guilders. Getty image ID: 142450178 (Photo by DEA / M. SEEMULLER/Getty Images)

1431: Joan of Arc was executed as a witch by the English after leading the French to military victories during the Hundred Years War. She is pictured here in a miniature from The Vigils of Charles VII manuscript published in 1493. Getty image ID: 165529658 (Photo by De Agostini Picture Library/Getty Images).

1453: After centuries of conflict, Constantinople—the second Rome—fell to the Ottoman Turks. Getty image ID: 142082280 (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images).

1486: Heinrich Kramer published his Malleus Maleficarum [The Hammer of Witches], fueling nearly two centuries of persecution. Getty image ID: 466302429 (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images).

1492: Muhammad XII of Granada surrendered control of the Muslim-ruled Kingdom of Granada to the Catholic sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabella. T.he couple is depicted on the altar of the Granada Cathedral, dated 1632. Getty image ID: 89168892 (Photo by DEA / G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images.

16th century: Sense of Smell (copy). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

ca.1509: Naked man climbing a river bank. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1514: Artist Hans Baldung Grien's Three Witches was one of many of his works exploring feminine body types, postures, and symbolic sexual accoutrements. German artist 1480 - 1545. Getty image ID: 587837834 (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images).

mid-1520s: Venus and Cupid. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1524-1526: The German Peasants' War saw revolt spread across the Holy Roman Empire in response to Luther's theology. Getty image ID: 155139503 (Photo by ZU_09 / Getty Images).

1527: Troops of Emperor Charles V (pictured) sacked Rome during conflict between the Papacy, France, and the Empire. Getty image ID: 188002022 (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images).

mid-16th century: Planting Chrysanthemums. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1563: The Council of Trent held its last sessions. Its canons and decrees in response to Protestant critique of the Church shaped Catholicism for four centuries. Getty image ID: 158648764 (Photo by DEA / G. DAGLI ORTI/Getty Images).

1572: During the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre in Paris, the stripping of Protestants was an act of dehumanization intended to remove the victims’ basic humanity. Detail. Getty image ID: 122339910 (Photo By DEA / G. DAGLI ORTI/De Agostini/Getty Images).

1575: Robert Laneham described the visit of Queen Elizabeth I to Kenilworth, England, in July in a long letter to a friend: she hunted on four occasions. Pictured here is a 1960s drawing of how the Kenilworth Castle might have appeared in 1575. Getty image ID: 639160872 (Photo by English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images).

ca.1590-1610: Food cup from the Momoyama period. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

ca.1610: Head of an Old Woman. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

ca.1616-1617: Merrymakers at Shrovetide. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1639: The Ursuline nun Marie de l’Incarnation (pictured) arrived in New France to convert and educate the Iroquois, whom she called “savages” and “dear brethren.” Getty image ID: 522784947 (Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images).

ca.1640: Design of the Wilton Garden. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1640-1650: Tile panel picturing a garden gathering. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1647: Four boys, a young satyr, and a leopard. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1649: At the Castle of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in France, when the coffers of Anne of Austria, queen of France (pictured), were unpacked by lackeys, the fragrance was so strong that the men were overcome. Getty image ID: 646988644 (Photo by: Christophel Fine Art/UIG via Getty Images).

Late 17th century: Painting of a lady in Elizabethan costume. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1666: The Great Fire of London destroyed much of England's largest city. Samuel Pepys noted that rebuilding did little to fix the problem of population density. Getty image ID: 542028461 (Photo by English School/Getty Images).

1693: An earthquake devastated Sicilian towns and the cities of Ragusa, Noto (pictured), and Modica. They were rebuilt on grand baroque plans with open vistas. Getty image ID: 629543701 (Photo by: Tommaso Di Girolamo/AGF/UIG via Getty Images).

1700: Playwright William Congreve's The Way of the World was first performed in the theater in Lincoln's Inn Fields (pictured) in London. It explored the behavioral codes of courting couples. Getty image ID: 463957393 (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images).

1704: Antoine Gallant (pictured) translated the stories of the Thousand and One Nights (also called The Arabian Nights' Entertainment), cementing the Orient as a realm of fantasy and entertainment in the popular imagination. Engraving by J. Cazon. Getty image ID: 147518914 (Photo by Kean Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images).

1715: Louis XIV died. The funeral (pictured) was held days later at the Basilica of Saint-Denis in Paris. Jean Bérain, stage designer to the royal court, decorated the church with mortality skeletons holding hourglasses. Getty image ID: 535800071 (Photo by: Photo12/UIG via Getty Images).

1718: In America, New Orleans was founded as a colony based on sugarcane plantations and rice, crops that featured in regional dishes such as gumbo (pictured) and jambalaya. Getty image ID: 106915404 (Photo by Tom Kelley/Getty Images).

ca.1728: Mademoiselle Lia de Beaumont. Wellcome Collection, London, https://wellcomecollection.org/.

1729: Voltaire (pictured) visited England and was hosted by a Quaker merchant. He was impressed and bemused by the merchant's rational piety, which contrasted with Quaker customs. Getty image ID: 165528056 (Photo by De Agostini Picture Library/Getty Images).

1730: Food warmer. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1731: The Gentleman's Magazine reported the seemingly accidental poisoning of Messrs. Whitehorn and Dokes by a dessert mistakenly made with yellow arsenic, not ginger. Getty image ID: 173452714 (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images).

1748: Three children of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. Wellcome Collection, London, https://wellcomecollection.org/.

1748: Lancelot “Capability” Brown's designs for the gardens and lands at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England, were laid out around the Glyme Lake and John Vanbrugh's Grand Bridge. Getty image ID: 647848342 (Photograph by David Goddard/Getty Images).

ca.1750-1799: Unlined summer kimono with a poem. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1751: Artist William Hogarth's series The Four Stages of Cruelty depicted an official dissection, with the label "The Reward of Cruelty." Getty image ID: 590637647 (Photo by GSinclair Archive/UIG via Getty Images).

1754-1757: The Chinese Tea House (pictured in 2007) at Potsdam, Germany, explored the contemporary fascination with tea and the Far East. Getty image ID: 76176528 (Photo by MICHAEL URBAN/AFP/Getty Images).

1756: The Seven Years War began. It exemplified the global repercussions of European politics and the essential role of naval resources. Getty image ID: 150618480 (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images).

1763: Drawing of Kew Gardens. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1767-1771: Silver set of cutlery. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1767: The Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) was expelled from Spanish colonies. The Jesuits had founded villages for natives across South America, seeking to transform native peoples. Getty image ID: 629463803 (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images).

1770-1772: Serious famine and subsequent spells of bad weather and harvest failure spurred the diffusion of the potato plant in central and northern Europe. Getty image ID: 640237721 (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images).

1773: The Boston Tea Party was the first act of rebellion against duties imposed by the British Parliament on American colonies. It was a harbinger of the American Revolution. Getty image ID: 51086250 (Photo by MPI/Getty Images).

1775-1789: Court coat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1776: Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations described colonies as "children," calling into question the value of empire. Getty image ID: 3230001 (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

1781: Immanuel Kant (pictured) penned his Critique of Pure Reason, in which he argued that the senses do not produce meaning. Getty image ID: 463914465 (Photo by Oxford Science Archive/Print Collector/Getty Images).

1787-1788: Portrait of Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuñiga. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1789: The French Revolution, a watershed moment in European history, ended the reign of Louis XVI and saw the founding of the First French Republic. Getty image ID: 563866721 (Photo by Fototeca Gilardi/Getty Images).

ca.1790: Mother and Child. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1792: Francis Collingwood, of the Crown and Anchor (pictured here in 1842) in the Strand, London, coauthored The Universal Cook, covering meat, gravy, vegetable, dessert, and liquor preparation. Getty image ID: 464476151 (Photo by Guildhall Library & Art Gallery/Heritage Images/Getty Images).

1792: A Viennese address book explained that the city's innkeepers catered for guests separately, allowing choice over dining times, quantity, and quality—similar to modern restaurants. Getty image ID: 513679029 (Photo by: PHAS/UIG via Getty Images).

ca.1800: Pewter food bottle. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1802: The Count of Lippe and his entourage consumed roast veal, pastries, cherry compote, beef soup, beans with bacon, and salad while at the Roman Emperor inn at Wesel, Westphalia. Getty image ID: 464421323 (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images).

1807: The slave trade, which had been a fundamental aspect of Atlantic life, was abolished in the British Empire. Getty image ID: 517721256 (Photo by Bettmann / Contributor/Getty Images).

1802: The first botanic garden in the United States, the Elgin Botanic Garden, was founded in New York by David Hosack (pictured). Getty image ID: 113632195 (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images).

1810: J. W. von Goethe’s book, Theory of Colours, argued that color is not a mathematical absolute, but a matter of experience. Getty image ID: 188003264 (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images).

ca.1813: Mouina, chief warrior of the Tayehs. Wellcome Collection, London, https://wellcomecollection.org/.

1820: Botanic gardens. Wellcome Collection, London, https://wellcomecollection.org/.

1825: The first black actor, Ira Aldridge, appeared on the English stage as a "man of color" in Oroonoko at the Royal Coburg Theatre, London. Getty image ID: 639612623 (Photo by Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images).

1833: Slavery was abolished in the British Empire. Getty image ID: 89769160 (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

1834: The German Customs Union (Zollverein) was established, uniting seventeen German states and representing a combined consumer market of 23 million inhabitants in a common free-trade area. Getty image ID: 56462768 (Photo by Imagno/Getty Images).

1838: Ketubbah. Wellcome Collection, London, https://wellcomecollection.org/.

1844: The Young Men’s Christian Association was established in London by British philanthropist Sir George Williams (pictured), with the YWCA following in 1866. They offered sociability and sports to working-class men and women. Getty image ID: 553921345 (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

1845: Lady Hester Stanhope. Wellcome Collection, London, https://wellcomecollection.org/.

1846-1848: Elizabeth Barrett Browning (pictured) published powerful antislavery poems, at the request of abolitionist friends, in the American journal The Liberty Bell. Getty image ID: 515356444 (Photo by Bettmann / Contributor/Getty Images).

ca.1850: Children's shoes. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

ca.1850: Garden bench. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1853: Charles Loring Brace founded the New York's Children's Aid Society, which began sending orphans for resettlement in the American West: 100,000 by 1929. Pictured here is Children's Aid Society's central office in New York City circa 1895. Getty image ID: 3238357 (Photo by Jacob A. Riis/Museum of the City of New York/Getty Images).

1855: The Crimean War ended. Oddly enough it significantly increased the outlets for French sardine manufacturers. Getty image ID: 542905851 (Photo by Frederika Hoffmann/ullstein bild via Getty Images).

1857: Hunting Dogs with Dead Hare. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1857: Ariadne. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1859: Charles Darwin, an Anglican priest, published his seminal work On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, describing the process of evolution. Getty image ID: 515360580 (Photo by Bettmann / Contributor/Getty Images).

1860-1869: Frederick Law Olmsted's first major commission, Central Park in New York City, on which he collaborated with Calvert Vaux, set the standard for park design. Getty image ID: 120566384 (Photo by Historic Map Works LLC/Getty Images).

ca.1860-1880: Toy square piano. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1867: The Parc des Buttes Chaumont showcased the Paris World’s Fair’s theme of art and industry, transforming a dangerous, stinking area into a healthy green oasis. Pictured here is a plan of the park by Pierre Barillet Deschamps. Getty image ID: 89856714 (Photo by Apic/Getty Images).

1869: The Suez Canal opened, providing easy access to the East from the Mediterranean, and radically altering shipping routes and the movement of goods. Getty image ID: 50693570 (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images).

ca.1870: Female nude with mask. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

ca.1872: Afternoon reception dress. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1873: As global food trade expanded, The Food Journal remarked that the world was "ransacked for delicacies," and the kitchens of the world were now open to rarities from India to the Poles. Getty image ID: 463910177 (Photo by Oxford Science Archive/Print Collector/Getty Images).

1880-1889: American Lee Merriweather opted to walk or cycle from Gibraltar (pictured here in 1885) to the Bosphorus to document the everyday life of peasants, workers, and retailers. Getty image ID: 167362765 (Photo by Imagno/Getty Images).

ca.1880-1937: Mother and baby sculpture. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1883: The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was established in England, and the following year incorporated as the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Getty image ID: 110402134 (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

1887: Friedrich Engels's book Condition of the Working-Class in England appeared in English. It recounted the chronic lung disease which debilitated and killed the poor. Getty image ID:  590539554 (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images).

1890: Jacob Riis's book How the Other Half Lives recounted the hunger, disease, vice, crime, and despair of life for families living in New York city tenements. Getty image ID: 615290228 (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images).

1892: Henry Salt argued for the rights of "lower animals," based nominally on the apparatus of natural rights inherited from John Locke, and other Enlightenment figures. Getty image ID: 542394379 (Photo by Waldemar Titzenthaler/ullstein bild via Getty Images).

1894: Lundborg's Perfumes poster. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1894: Queen Victoria's mourning dress. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

ca.1894-1896: The Sofa. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1897: The publication of James Frazer's book The Golden Bough spread nostalgia for mythologies of archaic civilizations and totemic religious cultures. Getty image ID: 514978392 (Photo by Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images).

1899: Two Tahitian Women. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1903: Theodore Roosevelt (pictured) supported Panamanian revolution against Columbia just as the US took over construction of the Panama Canal. Getty image ID: 3281432 (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images).

1904: Ceremonial Navajo dress. Wellcome Collection, London, https://wellcomecollection.org/.

1906: Finland was the first European country to extend suffrage to women. Getty image ID: 515357246 (Photo by Bettmann/ Contributor/Getty Images).

1911: Fancy dress costume. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org.

1911: The Indian capital moved from Calcutta to New Delhi (pictured), with the British Empire occupying the seat of the last Mughal Emperor to rule over all of India. Getty image ID: 513681529 (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty images).

1914: World War I began, pitting Germany against much of the rest of Europe. The conflict would change the face of European society. Getty image ID: 154419800 (Photo by Horace Nicholls/ IWM via Getty Images).

1919: The influenza pandemic killed millions after spreading rapidly, aided by modern transportation and migration. Getty image ID: 108882899 (Photo by PhotoQuest/Getty Images).

1921: Rue Asselin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. www.metmuseum.org. 

1925: Gunnar Kassen and Balto led a sled-dog team into Nome, Alaska, carrying a serum to halt the outbreak of a diphtheria epidemic. Getty image ID: 514699710 (Photo by Bettmann/ Contributor/Getty Images).

1929: Onset of the Great Depression around the world. In the United States it encouraged the belief that child labor should be regulated to open jobs for adults. Getty image ID: 535794889 (Photo by: Photo12/UIG via Getty Images).

1936: The Research Institute for Eugenics and Population Biology was established, and commenced documenting Germany’s Sinti and Roma peoples with anthropometric measurements, blood samples, and genealogical tables. Getty image ID: 105211758 (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images).

1937: Initially intended for the Paris World's Fair, Picasso's painting Guernica employed human and animal bodies to recount the bombing of Guernica and confront massacres and war. Getty image ID: 104405118 (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images).

1938: The categorization, isolation, and eventual incarceration of thousands of “antisocial” elements in German society led to mass arrests and deportation to concentration camps in June. Getty image ID: 79657560 (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images).

1941-1942: Tanya Savicheva's diary illustrated the reality of living in Leningrad during the siege by the Nazi army, noting the deaths of friends and family members. Getty image ID: 170972058 (Photo by: Sovfoto/UIG via Getty Images).

1945: The young Dutch diarist Anne Frank died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. Getty image ID: 541061469 (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild/Getty Images).

1946: In England, the National Health Service Act launched the NHS and introduced the concept of community care, which caused disputes between politicians, doctors, nurses, and social workers. Getty image ID: JE5603-001 (Photo by Kurt Hutton/Getty Images).

1954: US Supreme Court ruling in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ended legal school segregation but did not bring equality to public school education. Getty image ID: 88533848 (Photo by Carl Iwasaki/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images).

ca.1955-1969: NHS issue spectacles. Wellcome Collection, London, https://wellcomecollection.org/.

1957: The Treaty of Rome contained the first declaration of a Europe-wide agricultural program in Article 39. Getty image ID: 2665750 (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images).

1958: The Great Leap Forward began in mainland communist China. It ended private ownership of land, created people's communes, and led to millions of deaths due to famine. Getty image ID: 90010141 (Photo by Buyenlarge/Getty Images).

1963: Less than ten years after its expansion, McDonald's served its billionth hamburger. Getty image ID: 72403934 (Photo by Henry Groskinsky/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images).

1969: Gay customers, tired of police harassment, rioted at New York's Stonewall Inn bar. It was a watershed for the gay rights movement. Getty image ID: 97321331 (Photo by NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images).

1970: Richard Haag designed Seattle's Gas Works Park (pictured here in 2013), transforming an old industrial site into a 22-acre urban leisure site that incorporated industrial relics. Getty image ID: 451795353 (Hattanas Kumchai/Contributor/Getty Images).

1973: The movie Soylent Green was built around fascination with futuristic imaginings of food—in this case its replacement with a pill made from human corpses. Getty image ID: 138696664 (Photo by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Getty Images).

1976: Mao Zedong died, closing a chaotic period in Chinese history. The outside world quickly learned of the widespread hunger in China during the preceding decade. Getty image ID: 463952793 (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images).

1983: HIV was identified as the cause of a deadly immune system syndrome appearing across the globe in the early 1980s. Getty image ID: 502267519 (Photo by Boris Spremo/Toronto Star via Getty Images).

1984-1985: Sudan's failure to acknowledge a drought-related famine led to the tragic death of nearly a quarter of a million people. Getty image ID: 515301506 (Photo by Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images).

1989: In Munich, Germany, the English Garden (pictured here in 2012) celebrated its 200-year anniversary with 3 million visitors in a two-week period, who enjoyed spending time in the 914-acre public park. Getty image ID: 154507205 (Photo by Arcaid/UIG via Getty Images).

1993: The US military authorized gays and lesbians to serve in the army, but only if they submitted to the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy. Getty image ID: 157603570 (Photo by CatLane/Getty Images).

1997: The paradigmatic scene in the film Titanic saw the character Jack invited to dine in first class, where he encountered formal dress and new foods such as caviar. Getty image ID: 162722503 (Photo by 20th Century-Fox/Getty Images).

1998: Bio-engineered obese mouse. Wellcome Collection, London, https://wellcomecollection.org/.

2001: Germany legalized same-sex unions as part of the growing acceptance across the Western world. Getty image ID: 1606088 (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images).

2003: The US Supreme Court declared the remaining sodomy laws unconstitutional 212 years after France had abolished them. Getty image ID: 2132588 (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images).

2005: In the UK, chef Jamie Oliver's School Dinners TV program chronicled his attempts to change food preparation and consumption at a school in Greenwich, London. Getty image ID: 77457471 (Photo by Tim Whitby/WireImage).

2011: Andreja Pejic modeled women's fashion for designer Jean Paul Gaultier and menswear for Marc Jacobs on the same day at Paris Fashion Week 2011. Getty image ID: 119602903 (Antonio de Moraes Barros Filho/Contributor/Getty Images).

2013: Clay eye. Wellcome Collection, London, https://wellcomecollection.org/.