Timeline of Swedish history

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This is a timeline of Swedish history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Sweden. To read about the background to these events, see History of Sweden. See also the list of Swedish monarchs and list of prime ministers of Sweden.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

## 1st century – 5th century

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Year | Date | Event

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## 6th century – 9th century

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Year | Date | Event

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530 |  | Posited date of possibly legendary Battle on the Ice of Lake Vänern
c. 551 |  | Getica of Jordanes, history of the Gothic people, written in Constantinople
750–790 |  | Trade center Birka, island on Lake Mälaren near present-day Stockholm, established
750s |  | Beginnings of Scandinavian colonisation along Varangian trade routes (Baltic states to Black Sea)
c. 793 |  | Approximate beginning of Viking Age
800 |  | Rök runestone carved
829 |  | Ansgar's first mission to introduce Christianity to Sweden
850s |  | Olof I campaigns in Courland (present day western Latvia)

## 10th century

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Year | Date | Event

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960 |  | Settlement at Birka abandoned
980 |  | City of Sigtuna founded
984 |  | Battle of Fyrisvellir near present day Uppsala; Swedish and Geat tribes unite for first time under Eric the Victorious
990 |  | City of Lund founded
995 |  | Olof Skötkonung, first Swedish king of whom there is substantial historical knowledge, succeeds to throne

## 11th century

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Year | Date | Event

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1000 |  | Gothi (pagan chieftain-priest) Þorgeirr Ljósvetningagoði endorses Christianity
1004 |  | Olof Skötkonung baptized; begins adoption of Christianity as official religion
1020  |  | The city of Lund is founded
1036 |  | Ingvar the Far-Travelled leads unsuccessful Viking attack against Persia
1085 |  | City of Helsingborg founded
1087 |  | Temple at Uppsala, the central place of worship within Ancient Norse paganism, destroyed at order of King Inge the Elder.

## 12th century

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Year | Date | Event

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1100 |  | Vreta Abbey, first Christian convent in Sweden, established
1187 |  | Estonians, Curonians or/and Karelians invade and pillage Sigtuna killing archbishop Johannes[1]
| City of Nyköping founded

## 13th century

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Year | Date | Event

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1208 |  | Battle of Lena
c. 1215 |  | Eskil Magnusson, first historically attested lawspeaker of Thing of all Swedes (held in Tiundaland, present day Uppland)
c. 1220 |  | Gutalagen law book (also containing the Gutasaga)
1240 |  | Battle of the Neva
1252 |  | City of Stockholm founded
1280 |  | Ordinance of Alsnö gives birth to the frälse, a class of tax-exempt secular nobility

## 14th century

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Year | Date | Event

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1306 | 29 September | Håtuna games: coup against King Birger by his brothers, Eric and Valdemar Magnusson
1310 |  | Peace of Helsingborg settles conflicts between Sweden, Norway and Denmark[2][3]
1317 | 11 December | Nyköping Banquet, Christmas celebration, after which King Birger imprisons his two brothers and starves them to death
1319 |  | Sweden and Norway first unite
1323 |  | Treaty of Nöteborg establishes peace between Sweden and the Novgorod Republic
1344 |  | Bridgettine Order founded by St. Bridget (Heliga Birgitta)
1350 |  | Black Death arrives in Sweden
1359 |  | Magnus IV summons first Riksdag (parliament of Sweden)[4]
1389 | 24 February | Battle of Åsle; King Albert deposed
1397 |  | Sweden, Denmark and Norway unite into the Kalmar Union (1397-1523)
1398 |  | Gotland conquered by Teutonic Knights

## 15th century

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Year | Date | Event

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1409 |  | Teutonic Order sells Gotland to the Kalmar Union
1434 |  | Start of Engelbrekt rebellion against King Erik of Pomerania
1435 |  | Assembly of Swedish nobility at Arboga, considered first Riksdag of the Estates
1436 |  | Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson assassinated
1471 |  | Battle of Brunkeberg
1477 |  | Foundation of Uppsala University
1495 |  | Russo-Swedish War (1495-1497)

## 16th century

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Year | Date | Event

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1505 |  | First Kalmar Bloodbath
1520 |  | Christina Gyllenstierna defends Stockholm but is defeated by the Danes under Christian II of Denmark; Christian is crowned king of Sweden and orders Stockholm bloodbath
1523 |  | Gustav Vasa liberates Stockholm, leading Sweden out of the Kalmar Union and initiating monarchical rule of the House of Vasa
1524 |  | Treaty of Malmö signed: The Danish king formally renounce his claim to Sweden; Sweden in return renounces claims to Scania and Blekinge
1525 |  | First Dalecarlian Rebellion occurs in parallel with attempt by Christina Gyllenstierna and Sören Norby to take Swedish throne
1526 |  | First Swedish translation of New Testament published
1529 |  | Westrogothian Rebellion
1531 |  | Third Dalecarlian Rebellion, also known as the Bell Rebellion (Klockupproret) begins; suppressed two years later
1535 |  | War with Lübeck leads to expulsion of Hanseatic traders, ending previous Hanseatic League monopoly on foreign trade
1540 |  | First full Swedish translation of Bible, the Gustav Vasa Bible, published
1542 |  | Nils Dacke starts peasant uprising in Småland, defeated the following year
1554 |  | Border skirmishes between Sweden and Russia lead to outbreak of Russo-Swedish War (1554-1557)
1555 |  | A Description of the Northern Peoples (Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus) by Olaus Magnus published
1561 |  | Estonia becomes a Swedish dominion
1567 |  | Sture Murders carried out on the orders of Eric XIV
1577 | 26 February | Eric XIV dies in imprisonment
1584 |  | City of Karlstad founded
1592 |  | Poland and Sweden enter into a short-lived personal union following crowning of Sigismund III Vasa as King of Sweden
1598  |  | Conflict between Duke Charles, later King Charles IX, and Sigismund, King of Sweden and Poland, leads to outbreak of the War against Sigismund
25 September | Battle of Stångebro
1599 |  | War against Sigismund ends, resulting in deposition of King Sigismund; Sigismund's followers targeted in second Kalmar Bloodbath and the Åbo Bloodbath

## 17th century

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Year | Date | Event

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1600 | 20 March | Linköping Bloodbath
1610 |  | Ingrian War between Russia and Sweden begins
1611 |  | Denmark declares war on Sweden, initiating Kalmar War
1613 |  | Treaty of Knäred ends Kalmar War: Sweden obligated to pay Älvsborg Ransom of one million rixdollars for return of fortress of Älvsborg
1614 |  | City of Kristianstad founded
1617 | 27 February | Treaty of Stolbovo ends Ingrian War: Russia cedes province and fortress of Kexholm, southwestern Karelia and province of Ingria to Sweden, laying foundation for Sweden's rise as a Great Power
1621 |  | City of Gothenburg founded
1628 | 10 August | Sinking of the Swedish warship Vasa
1630 |  | Sweden enters the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648)
1631  | 13 April  | Battle of Frankfurt an der Oder
7 September | Battle of Breitenfeld
1632 | 6 November | Battle of Lützen: King Gustav II Adolf killed
1638 |  | Colony of New Sweden established along the Delaware River in North America
1648 |  | Thirty Years' War ends, with Sweden among the winners; Peace of Westphalia grants Sweden the provinces of Western Pomerania, Wismar, and the bishoprics of Bremen-Verden
1650 |  | Colony of Swedish Gold Coast established on Gulf of Guinea in present-day Ghana
1654 |  | Queen Christina abdicates throne and converts to Roman Catholicism, creating major scandal
1658 | 26 February | Treaty of Roskilde: Denmark-Norway cedes provinces of Blekinge, Bornholm, Bohuslän, Scania, Trøndelag and Halland to Sweden
1663 |  | Colony of the Swedish Gold Coast seized by Denmark, and integrated into Danish Gold Coast
1666 |  | Foundation of Lund University
1668 |  | Foundation of Sweden's central bank, Sveriges Riksbank
1674 | 24 December | Sweden invades Brandenburg, triggering Swedish-Brandenburg War
1675 |  | Denmark invades Scania, triggering Scanian War
1676  | 1 June  | Battle of Öland
17 August  | Battle of Halmstad
4 December | Battle of Lund
1677  | 26 June  | Siege of Malmö
14 July | Battle of Landskrona
1678 |  | Invasion of Rügen
1679 | 23 August | Treaty of Fontainebleau signed, restoring all Danish conquests during the Scanian War to Sweden
1680 |  | City of Karlskrona founded
| Great Reduction of 1680 enacted, returning to the Swedish Crown lands that had earlier been granted to the nobility
1697 | 7 May | Castle of Tre Kronor burns down, destroying a significant portion of Sweden's national library and royal archives

## 18th century

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Year | Date | Event

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1700 | 22 February | Alliance consisting of Denmark-Norway, Saxony, Poland and Russia declares war on Sweden, initiating Great Northern War
| Battle of Narva
1702 | 8 July | Battle of Kliszów
1706 | 3 February | Battle of Fraustadt ends in slaughter of captured prisoners by victorious Swedish army
1706 | 13 October | Invasion of Poland by Sweden results in Treaty of Altranstädt forcing King Augustus the Strong to renounce claim to Polish throne and break Treaty of Narva, his alliance with Russia
1708 | 1 January | Charles XII crosses Vistula, opening attempted Swedish invasion of Russia
1709 | 27 June | Battle of Poltava: destruction of Charles XII's invading Swedish army by defending Russian forces of Peter the Great marks beginning of Sweden's decline as a great power
1710 | 28 February | Battle of Helsingborg: final failed attempt by Denmark to regain Scania
1713 | 1 February | Skirmish at Bender, battle to remove Charles XII and the remnants of his army from the Ottoman Empire
1718 | 30 November | Charles XII killed at Frederikshald
1719 |  | Treaties of Stockholm, requiring Sweden to cede parts of Swedish Pomerania to Prussia and Bremen-Verden to Hanover
1720 |  | Treaty of Frederiksborg, requiring Sweden to cede Schleswig to Denmark-Norway
1721 |  | Treaty of Nystad, requiring Sweden to cede Estonia, Livonia and Ingria to Russia
1731 |  | Foundation of Swedish East India Company
1732 |  | Carl Linnaeus departs on his Expedition to Lapland
1734 |  | Civil Code of 1734 establishes unified code of law for Sweden
1735 |  | First edition of Linnaeus' Systema Naturae
1737 |  | Swedish language Theater of Bollhuset founded
1739 | 2 June | Foundation of Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
1741 | 23 August | Battle of Villmanstrand
1742 |  | Anders Celsius proposes Celsius temperature scale
1743 |  | Fourth Dalecarlian Rebellion breaks out
1747 |  | Olof von Dalin begins publication of his Swedish history, Svea Rikes Historia
1749 |  | Storskifte Enclosure Act begins long period of major land reform in Sweden
1756 |  | Quelling of attempted coup d'état by Queen Louisa Ulrika and a few devoted nobles to reinstate absolute monarchy in Sweden
1757 |  | Sweden enters Seven Years' War (1756-1763)
1762 | 22 May | Treaty of Hamburg concludes Sweden's involvement in Seven Years' War
1766 |  | Freedom of the Press Act enacted: censorship abolished apart from limitations on vocal opposition to the king and the Church of Sweden
1768 |  | December Crisis (1768) fails to increase royal power
1772 |  | Absolute monarchy reintroduced through the Revolution of 1772
1773  |  | Discovery of oxygen by Carl Wilhelm Scheele
| Royal Swedish Opera founded
1782 |  | Sweden purchases Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy from France
1786 | 20 March | Foundation of Swedish Academy
1787 |  | First secondary education school in Sweden for girls, Societetsskolan, founded in Gothenburg
1788 |  | Sweden declares war against Russia, initiating Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)
1790 |  | Treaty of Värälä concludes Russo-Swedish War, confirming status quo ante bellum with respect to borders
1792 | 16 March | King Gustav III assassinated at a masked ball

## 19th century

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Year | Date | Event

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1807 |  | General Enclosure Act of 1807 intensifies land reform measures
1808 |  | Outbreak of Finnish War
1809 |  | Conclusion of Finnish War: Sweden cedes Finland to Russia
| Deposition of King Gustav IV Adolf in coup of 1809
1810 |  | Foundation of Karolinska Institutet
1814 |  | Sweden and Norway unite (1814-1905)
1832 |  | Completion of Göta Canal, providing route from Gothenburg (west coast) to Söderköping (east coast)
1848 |  | Series of riots, the Marsoroligheterna, in Stockholm
1855 |  | Construction begins on Sweden's first railway line
1864 |  | Daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter established
1867 |  | Telecommunications company, Ericsson, founded by Lars Magnus Ericsson
| Alfred Nobel invents dynamite
1873 |  | Sweden and Denmark form Scandinavian Monetary Union
| Swedish krona replaces Swedish riksdaler as national currency
1876 |  | Office of prime minister (statsminister) instituted
1878 |  | Island of Saint Barthélemy sold back to France
1884 |  | Daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet established
| Fredrika Bremer Association, Sweden's oldest women's rights organization, founded
1889 |  | Swedish Social Democratic Party founded
1897 |  | Arctic balloon expedition of Salomon August Andrée
1898 |  | Formation of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO)[5]

## 20th century

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Year | Date | Event

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1901 |  | First Nobel Prizes awarded
1903 |  | Foundation of Swedish Employers' Association (SAF)[5]
1904 |  | Moderate Party (Moderaterna) founded
1905 |  | Personal union between Sweden and Norway peacefully dissolved
1906 |  | Official spelling reform of Swedish language, simplifying previous forms
1909 |  | Stockholm School of Economics (Handelshögskolan i Stockholm) founded
| General strike of 1909
1910  |  | SAC Syndikalisterna established
1919 |  | AB Svensk Filmindustri established
1921 | 30 June | Capital punishment abolished for all crimes committed in peacetime
1933  | 24 February  | Swedish Association for Sexuality Education founded
1934 |  | Crisis in the Population Question (Kris i befolkningsfrågan) by Alva and Gunnar Myrdal published and plays major role in design of Sweden's welfare policy
1938 |  | Saltsjöbaden Agreement establishes rules for collective bargaining and trade relations
1943 |  | Food packaging company, Tetra Pak, founded by Ruben Rausing
1945 | 17 January | Raoul Wallenberg detained by Soviet authorities in Budapest and subsequently disappears
1947 |  | Furniture company IKEA is founded by Ingvar Kamprad
1954 | 29 October | Sweden conducts its first television broadcast
1957 |  | Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet)
1967 | 3 September | Right-hand traffic introduced
1971 |  | The Riksdag becomes unicameral
1973 |  | Norrmalmstorg bank robbery and hostage crisis
1974 | 6 April | ABBA song Waterloo becomes the group's first global hit
1976 | 30 January | Swedish authorities arrest internationally acclaimed film-maker Ingmar Bergman for alleged tax evasion and Bergman suffers nervous breakdown; charges declared unfounded and dropped 23 March
1986 | 28 February | Murder of Prime Minister and Social Democratic leader Olof Palme
1994 |  | MS Estonia sinks en route from Tallinn to Stockholm; 852 people on board lose their lives
1995 |  | Sweden joins in the European Union
1999 |  | Church of Sweden separates from state and becomes independent organization
1999  | 12 October  | Murder of Björn Söderberg by fascists in Stockholm

## 21st century

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Year | Date | Event

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2000 | 1 July | Øresund Bridge opened, creating road and railway connection between Sweden and mainland Europe
2003 |  | Voters decide not to adopt euro as the country's official currency
2009 | 1 May | Same-sex marriage legalized in Sweden
2010 |  | Military conscription paused
2018 |  | Military conscription reactivated
2024 | 7 March | Sweden joins in NATO

## See also

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* Timeline of Faroese history
* Timeline of Icelandic history

Cities in Sweden

* Timeline of Gothenburg
* Timeline of Stockholm history

## References

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1. ^ Enn Tarvel (2007). Sigtuna hukkumine. Archived 2017-10-11 at the Wayback Machine Haridus, 2007 (7–8), pp. 38–41
2. ^ ES Ol&sig=ACfU3U26Khx WrE932NT-ME5khWBSHp92w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjsvd2Uw6rgAhUGShUIHfztBL4Q6AEwCnoECAEQAQ#v=onepage&q=treaty of helsingborg 1310&f=false Lester B Orfield, The Growth of Scandinavian Law (2002), p. 140
3. ^ Sanderson Beck, Scandinavia, 1250-1400
4. ^ Elizabeth Elgán, Iren Scobbie: Historical Dictionary of Sweden (2015), p.236
5. ^ a b Schön, Lennart (2012). An economic history of modern Sweden. London: Routledge. ISBN 9780415671309.

## Further reading

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* Jacques Lacombe [in French] (1762). Abrégé chronologique de l'histoire de Suede [Short Chronological History of Sweden] (in French). Paris: Jean-Thomas Herissant. hdl:2027/nyp.33433061828004. `{{cite book}}`: `|work=` ignored (help)
* Jon Stefansson (1917). "Synchronistic Tables of Events in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway". Denmark and Sweden, with Iceland and Finland. The story of the nations. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. hdl:2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t1sf2xt2b.
* Elisabeth Elgán; Irene Scobbie (2015). "Chronology". Historical Dictionary of Sweden (3rd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4422-5071-0.

## External links

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* "Sweden Profile: Timeline", BBC News, 4 May 2012

*[c.]: circa