weapons - events

c. 12000 BC	North America	Leaf-shaped projectile points are made in the southwest of North America. They are known as Clovis points.
c. 7000 BC	North Africa	The bow and arrow are developed in North Africa, probably to facilitate hunting in dense woodland.
c. 1675 BC	Egypt	The horse-drawn war chariot is introduced into Egypt by the Hyksos, a Semitic nomad people. It becomes the great new fighting weapon and status symbol for the military aristocracy of the Middle East. War chariots are also used by the Mycenaeans, but not the Minoans.
305 BC	Macedon	Macedonian king Demetrius I introduces catapults onto ships; they fire heavy darts and stones – the first missile weapons – and result in the building of forecastles and sterncastles – temporary wooden turrets – to provide elevated platforms from which to fire.
c. 245 BC	Greece	The Greek engineer Ctesibius builds the first gun. It consists of a bronze tube sealed at one end and contains a piston. When the piston is pulled back the air in the tube is compressed. Pulling the stop catch releases the air violently forcing out projectiles such as arrows.
851	France	The crossbow is first used in France. Although it takes longer to load than traditional bows, the bolts it fires travel much further and faster.
1331	Italy	Italian defenders of the besieged town of Civitate, Italy, repel German forces using firearms – their first deployment in European warfare.
1339	world	The earliest antipersonnel gun known is made. The ribauldequin is constructed from a row of separate smallbore firearms on a rack, each loaded separately, but fired off simultaneously.
1350	Europe	Cannon of cast bronze are in use by this date across Europe.
1400	Africa	Chieftain of the Kano kingdom Kanajeji Sarki arms his troops with chain mail and war horses, leading them to a string of victories and dominance over West Africa.
1430	Europe	New metallurgical techniques for making plate iron and steel lead to innovations in military equipment. Metal plate armour becomes standard for European knights , and ‘Mad Marjorie’, a huge 5-m/16-ft cast-iron cannon, is constructed.
1520	Germany, Holy Roman Empire	Nuremberg gunsmith August Kotter develops rifling for the barrels of firearms, cutting a spiral groove inside the barrel in order to spin the shot as it leaves the gun.
1630	France	French gunsmith Marin le Bougeoys perfects the flintlock, combining the striker and pan in one piece.
1776	America	American engineer David Bushnell builds a hand-powered wooden-hulled submarine named the Turtle. It is used in an unsuccessful attempt to attach an explosive device to a British ship, HMS Eagle.
1805	UK	British artillery officer William Congreve invents the Congreve rocket. Consisting of a rocket 103 cm/40.5 in long, and a stabilizing stick 4.9 m/16 ft long, it has a range of 1.8 km/1.1 mi, and is used during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. It is immortalized in the song ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’.
1807	UK	Scottish clergyman Alexander Forsyth invents the percussion ignition for guns; he uses an explosive chemical charge which detonates when struck by a hammer. It allows operation in wet weather and leads to the development of breech loaders.
1811	USA	US inventor John Hall patents a breech-loading rifle.
1835	USA	US manufacturer Samuel Colt patents a six-shot revolver with a rotating cartridge cylinder. Each time the trigger is pulled a new bullet moves in front of the barrel. Its effective range is 23 m/75 ft.
1849	France	French army officer Claude-Etienne Minié invents the Minié ball, a cylindrical bullet which increases the range of rifles from 200m/650 ft to 1,000 m/3,300 ft, and which is subsequently used by all European armies and in the American Civil War.
November 1862	USA	US inventor Richard Gatling patents a ten-barrel, crank-operated machine gun; it can fire 320 rounds per minute.
January 1915	Germany, France	Germany uses chlorine gas against the Russians. It is the first use of chemical warfare, but it has little effect. On 22 April, however, they use it at the Battle of Ypres to rout French and Canadian troops.
September 1915	United Kingdom	The armoured car division of the British Royal Naval Air Service introduce ‘Little Willie’, the first purpose-built tank. A second model, ‘Big Willie’, is introduced shortly afterwards.
6 December 1941	USA	The ‘Manhattan Project’ starts in Chicago, Illinois, and Los Angeles, California, before being concentrated at Los Alamos in 1943 under the direction of US physicist Julius Robert Oppenheimer. Its aim is to develop an atomic bomb.
1 November 1952	Pacific, USA	The USA explodes the first thermonuclear fusion device, or hydrogen bomb, at Eniwetok island in the Marshall Islands, although this is not revealed until February 1954.
13 February 1960	France	France explodes an atomic bomb over the Sahara Desert, thus becoming the fourth atomic power.
c. 1980	USA	The USA begins to manufacture cruise missiles with a speed of about 885 kph/550 mph, and an extremely accurate navigational system (Tercom) that uses contour maps stored in its computerized memory; they fly low to the ground to escape detection by radar.
12 December 1982	UK	More than 20,000 women encircle the Greenham Common air base in England in protest against the proposed siting of US cruise missiles there.
23 March 1983	USA	The US president Ronald Reagan proposes a ‘Star Wars’ defence system for the USA, using satellites to detect and destroy incoming missiles.
13 May 1998	India	India conducts three nuclear tests escalating the nuclear arms race in south Asia.
28 May 1998	Pakistan	Pakistan explodes five nuclear devices. Afterwards, president Rafiq Tarar suspends the country's constitution and declares a state of emergency. US president Clinton announces wide-ranging economic sanctions.
1 March 1999	Switzerland	An international treaty banning the use of antipersonnel land mines, signed by 133 countries, comes into effect, marked by a ceremony at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
11 April 1999	India, Pakistan	Indian military forces conduct a test launch of a ballistic missile that is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Three days later Pakistan conducts two similar launches, renewing international concerns over the possibility of a nuclear arms race in south Asia.
25 May 1999	USA	An all-party report from the US Congress claims that Chinese spies have infiltrated US weapons intelligence, stealing data on every major US nuclear warhead in recent years.
6 May 2000	UK	The IRA offers to open its hidden arms dumps to inspection as part of a peace agreement to restore self-rule to Northern Ireland. The arsenals would be opened for inspection by Cyril Ramaphosa, the former secretary general of the African National Congress (ANC), and Martti Ahtisaari, the former president of Finland.
26 November 2003	Iran	The United Nations (UN) International Atomic Energy Agency adopts unanimously a resolution condemning Iran for its 18-year cover-up of an illicit nuclear development programme. Despite Iran's recent assurances of co-operation and transparency, future breaches of its non-proliferation obligations could trigger referral to the UN Security Council and the imposition of sanctions.
19 December 2003	Libya	Libya's leader, Moamer al-Khaddhafi, confirms that his regime has sought to develop weapons of mass destruction but, following negotiations with the USA and UK, plans to dismantle all covert programmes and open the country's sites to international inspection.
9–31 October 2006	North Korea	North Korea carries out its first nuclear weapon test, threatening regional security and attracting worldwide condemnation. The United Nations Security Council votes to impose sanctions, which North Korea calls an act of war. At the end of the month, however, the country announces that it will rejoin multilateral talks (also involving the USA, China, Russia, South Korea and Japan) on ending its nuclear development programme.
13 February 2007	North Korea	Following fresh multilateral talks involving the USA, China, Russia, South Korea and Japan, the North Korean government, which carried out its first nuclear weapon test in October 2006, agrees to shut down its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon and readmit international inspectors in return for fuel aid.