Constitutional referendum creating a vice-presidency (26 September 2016)

1,000,000 BCE – 901 BCE

Prehistory & Bronze Age

Azykh Cave holds pre-Acheulean layers at least 700,000 years old, and Gobustan caves record Mesolithic life between about 12,000 and 8,000 BCE. Neolithic Shulaveri-Shomu farmers and the Kura-Araxes culture of roughly 3400-2000 BCE preceded written records in the region.

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c. 700,000 BCE or earlier Earliest humans occupy Azykh Cave Azykh Cave, a complex of six caves near the village of Azykh in the Khojavend District, preserves some of the earliest evidence of human presence in the Caucasus.
c. 10,000 BCE (engravings span many millennia) Rock art of Gobustan On a rocky plateau about 70 kilometres south-west of Baku, generations of hunter-gatherers and later herders engraved images into boulders and cave walls.
c. 4350–4000 BCE (some sources 3800–3200 BCE) Leyla-Tepe culture on the Karabakh plain The Leyla-Tepe culture is named after a settlement near Quzanlı in Aghdam District on the Karabakh plain.
c. 13th–7th centuries BCE Khojaly–Gadabay culture of the Late Bronze Age From about the 13th century BCE the Khojaly–Gadabay culture, also called the Ganja–Karabakh culture, flourished in Karabakh and neighbouring uplands of western Azerbaijan and lasted into the seventh century BCE. It takes its name from burial grounds at Khojaly and Gadabay, with the Ganja area as a third core region.
c. 1000 BCE (used c. 9th–4th centuries BCE) Zoroastrianism takes shape in the Iranian world Zoroastrianism, the religion of the prophet Zoroaster and the god Ahura Mazda, took shape somewhere in the Iranian world and became the faith associated with the Median magi and later with Persian kings.

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900 BCE – 551 BCE

Manna, Media & Scythians

Mannaea south of Lake Urmia is first named in 828 BCE, and Scythians held eastern Transcaucasia as the land of Ishkuza from about 700 BCE. Medes under Cyaxares and Nabopolassar destroyed Assyria between 616 and 609 BCE and absorbed Mannaea.

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c. 860 BCE Urartu emerges as a unified kingdom Around 860 BCE a ruler named Arame united the Nairi states of the Armenian Highland into a kingdom that Assyrian sources called Urartu.
spring or early summer 714 BCE Cimmerians defeat Urartu in Uišini In spring or early summer 714 BCE the Cimmerians attacked Urartu's province of Uišini by way of Mannaea.
672 BCE Scythian king Bartatua becomes an Assyrian vassal By 672 BCE the Scythian king Bartatua had asked to marry Esarhaddon's eldest daughter, Šērūʾa-ēṭirat, binding the Scythian kingdom in West Asia to Assyria as a vassal.
c. 620 BCE (after 625 BCE) Median reform of the army After ending Scythian rule, the Median king Cyaxares reorganised his military into a standing, state-equipped army modelled on Assyrian and Urartian forces.
28 May 585 BCE (disputed) Battle of the Eclipse ends the Median–Lydian war According to Herodotus, a six-year war between Lydia and the Medes ended when day turned to night during a battle, probably the solar eclipse of 28 May 585 BCE. Alyattes of Lydia and Cyaxares of Media agreed peace, sealed by the marriage of Alyattes' daughter Aryenis to Cyaxares' son Astyages.

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550 BCE – 67 BCE

Achaemenid & Hellenistic (Atropatene)

Cyrus took Ecbatana in 550 BCE and the Achaemenids held the Southern Caucasus until Alexander in 330 BCE. Atropates then founded Atropatene in the Azerbaijan region of Iran, while Armenia ruled parts of present Azerbaijan from 190 BCE.

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c. 550 BCE Fall of the Median Empire to Cyrus Around 550 BCE the Median king Astyages lost his throne to Cyrus, ruler of the Persian kingdom of Anshan, who took the Median capital Ecbatana (modern Hamadan).
June–July 330 BCE Darius III's last stand in Media After losing at Gaugamela, Darius III retreated to Ecbatana, hoping to raise a third army.
312 BCE Seleucus I founds the Seleucid state In 312 BCE Seleucus I established himself in Babylon after the wars among Alexander's successors, a year from which the Seleucid Empire later counted its foundation.
c. 163–160 BCE Timarchus rebels in Media After Antiochus IV died on campaign in 164 BCE, Timarchus, the Seleucid satrap of Media, became in effect an independent ruler and, around 163–160 BCE, took the royal title.
6 October 69 BCE Battle of Tigranocerta On 6 October 69 BCE the Roman general Lucullus, leading a force estimated at between 11,000 and 40,000 men, defeated the much larger army of Tigranes the Great at Tigranocerta.

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66 BCE – 251

Caucasian Albania & Rome

Pompey's forces reached Caucasian Albania's border in 65 BCE, where Strabo counted 26 tribes between the Greater Caucasus and the Kura, about 23,000 square kilometres. Atropatene fell to the Sasanians in 226, and Albania followed as a vassal kingdom in 252-253.

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66–65 BCE Pompey marches into the Caucasus In 66 BCE, having forced Tigranes II of Armenia to accept Roman terms, Pompey marched north against the Caucasian peoples still backing Mithridates VI. He turned against the kingdoms of Iberia and Albania, bringing a Roman army into the Kura and Alazani valleys.
30 BCE Artavasdes of Atropatene captured by Artaxias II In 30 BCE Artaxias II of Armenia defeated Artavasdes I of Media Atropatene and captured him.
c. 72 CE Alans raid Media and Armenia through the Caspian Gates According to the first-century writer Josephus, Alans from near the Sea of Azov passed through the Caspian passage, the Iron Gates, which the king of Hyrcania allowed them to use.
140 CE Roman–Albanian alliance under Antoninus Pius According to Wikipedia's article on Caucasian Albania, the Alan invasions of the reign of Hadrian (117–138 CE) pushed the Albanians into an alliance with Rome, which was reinforced in 140 CE under the emperor Antoninus Pius.
c. 226 CE Atropatene submits to the Sasanians After Ardashir I defeated and killed the last Parthian king at Hormozdgan, Atropatene submitted to him with little resistance, about 226 CE according to Wikipedia.

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252 – 641

Sasanian Albania

Albania kept its monarchy under a Sasanian marzban, grew to about 45,000 square kilometres after the Armenian partition of 387, and moved its capital to Partav. Christianity spread from the late fourth century, and Sasanian fortifications at Derbent guarded the Caspian pass.

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252–253 CE Sasanian Annexation of Caucasian Albania In 252–253 the Sasanian Empire annexed Caucasian Albania, the country along the lower Kura and Araxes rivers that covers much of northern and central present-day Azerbaijan and part of southern Dagestan.
c. early 5th century CE Creation of the Caucasian Albanian Alphabet In the early fifth century a distinct alphabet of 52 letters was devised for the Albanian language.
c. 460s CE Foundation of Perozapat, Later Partaw (Barda) In the years after Albania's revolt, a new city was founded on the plain of the Kura–Araxes lowlands.
551 CE (or 552) Albanian Catholicos Moves to Partaw In 551, according to Wikipedia's article on the Church of Caucasian Albania, the seat of the Albanian catholicos was fixed at Partaw (Barda).
637 CE Javanshir Becomes Prince of Albania In 637 Javanshir succeeded his father Varaz-Grigor as prince of Caucasian Albania, according to Wikipedia's article on him, and ruled until 669.

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642 – 861

Arab Caliphate & Anti-Arab Revolts

Arabic sources place the conquest of Albania in 645/646, and by about 705 the province of Arminiya joined Armenia, Georgia and Arran under an Arab governor later seated at Barda. Albania was largely Islamised by the mid-ninth century.

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642–643 CE Arab Vanguard Reaches Derbent In 642, according to Wikipedia's article on the Arab–Khazar wars, the Arabs first attacked Derbent, which fell to them, with Abd al-Rahman ibn Rabi'a commanding the vanguard.
c. 705 CE Formation of the Province of Arminiya Around 705 the Umayyad caliphate formed the province of Arminiya, which grouped Armenia, Caucasian Albania and Iberia under one governor, called the ostikan, with its capital at Dvin.
750 CE Abbasids Overthrow the Umayyads The Abbasid revolution began in Khurasan on 9 June 747 and ended the Umayyad caliphate in 750.
821–823 CE End of the Mihranid Dynasty The Mihranid prince Varaz-Tiridates II, who ruled in 821–822, was assassinated by Nerseh Pilippean in 822 or 823, according to Wikipedia's article on the Mihranids.
861 CE Haytham ibn Khalid Takes the Title of Shirvanshah In 861, according to Wikipedia's article on the Shirvanshahs, Haytham ibn Khalid adopted the title Shirvanshah.

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862 – 1067

Shirvanshahs & Independent Dynasties

Haytham ibn Khalid took the title Shirvanshah in 861, and the Sajids ruled Azerbaijan from 889 or 890 to 929. The Shaddadids held Dvin from 951 and Ganja from 971, while Seljuk overlordship over Shirvan began under Alp Arslan in 1063.

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889–890 Sajids take Azerbaijan In 889 or 890 the Abbasid commander Muhammad ibn Abi'l-Saj was entrusted with Azerbaijan and soon governed it as a virtually independent emir.
943–944 Rus' sack Barda In 943 a Rus' force sailed up the Kura River, defeated the army of the Sallarid commander Marzuban at the gates and occupied Barda, then the capital of Arran.
1027–1034 Shirvanshahs adopt Persian royal names From 1027 the Shirvanshah Manuchihr I began to shift his dynasty from Arabic to Persian names and to claim Sasanian ancestry.
c. 1050–1088 Qatran Tabrizi at the Azerbaijani courts The poet Qatran Tabrizi, born near Tabriz in the early eleventh century, served the Rawadid emirs Wahsudan and Mamlan II and later the Shaddadid rulers of Ganja.
1064–1068 Alp Arslan campaigns in the Caucasus In 1064 the Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan campaigned through Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia, and after a siege of about twenty-five days his army took the Armenian capital of Ani.

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1068 – 1380

Seljuks, Eldiguzids & Mongols

The Eldiguzid atabegs ruled from Nakhchivan, Hamadan and Tabriz from 1136 until Jalal ad-Din took Tabriz in 1225. The Ilkhanate then governed Azerbaijan from 1256 and reached about 3,750,000 square kilometres in 1310, before the Jalayirids succeeded it.

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11th–12th century Walled City of Baku takes shape Between the eleventh and twelfth centuries Baku acquired the stone walls and towers that still enclose its Old City, the Icheri Sheher.
1188 Nizami completes Layla and Majnun In 1188 Nizami Ganjavi completed Layla and Majnun, the third part of his Khamsa, or Five Treasures.
1231–1239 Chormaqan's Mongol conquest of Azerbaijan After Ögedei appointed him viceroy of the Near East in the winter of 1230, the Mongol general Chormaqan led an army that overran the Khwarazmian remnant and then campaigned from the steppes of Azerbaijan around Tabriz in the mid-1230s.
1301–1334 Safi al-Din renames the Sufi order Safaviyya In 1301 Safi al-Din Ardabili succeeded his father-in-law, Zahed Gilani, as head of the Zahediyeh order and renamed it the Safaviyya.
1378 Aq Qoyunlu state dated to 1378 The Aq Qoyunlu, or White Sheep Turkomans, were a Sunni, culturally Persianate Turkoman tribal confederation.

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1381 – 1500

Timurids, Qara Qoyunlu & Aq Qoyunlu

Timur took Tabriz in 1386, and Qara Yusuf beat the Timurids at Nakhchivan in 1406 to found a Turkoman state in Azerbaijan. Uzun Hasan's Aq Qoyunlu replaced it by 1468, while Shirvan stayed a vassal until Ismail defeated Farrukh Yasar in December 1500.

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1386 Timur takes Tabriz In 1386 the Central Asian conqueror Timur reached Tabriz, the greatest city of Azerbaijan, and took it with very little resistance.
1411 Construction of the Palace of the Shirvanshahs begins Building of the Palace of the Shirvanshahs in Baku began in 1411.
19 April 1438 Jahan Shah crowned ruler of Qara Qoyunlu Jahan Shah was crowned on 19 April 1438 as a Timurid vassal with the title Muzaffar al-Din, having won the throne in 1436 by defeating his brother with Timurid support.
30 October or 11 November 1467 Battle of Chapakchur At Chapakchur in 1467, Uzun Hasan of the Aq Qoyunlu surprised the army of Jahan Shah and killed the Qara Qoyunlu ruler as he fled.
December 1500 Safavid conquest of Shirvan In December 1500 the young Safavid leader Ismail crossed the Kura River into Shirvan with about 7,000 Qizilbash fighters.

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1501 – 1735

Safavids & Ottoman Wars

Ismail I took Tabriz in 1501, and Shirvan became a Safavid province in 1538. The Ottomans held Shirvan, Karabakh and Ganja from 1578 to 1606 or 1607, until Abbas I and the 1612 treaty restored the 1555 borders.

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1501 (July or August) Battle of Sharur At Sharur, near Nakhchivan, in 1501 the Safavid army of about 7,000 Qizilbash routed the Aq Qoyunlu forces of Alvand.
29 May 1555 Peace of Amasya On 29 May 1555 the Safavid shah and the Ottoman sultan signed the Peace of Amasya, ending the war of 1532–55.
20 November 1612 Treaty of Nasuh Pasha The Treaty of Nasuh Pasha was signed on 20 November 1612 between the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Iran after the decisive Safavid victory in the war that began in 1603.
1722–1728 Davit Bek's rising in Syunik After the Safavid collapse in 1722, the Armenian commander Davit Bek led forces in Syunik and Kapan (Zangezur), at first against Iranian forces and then against the advancing Ottomans.
10 March 1735 Battle of Yeghevard (Baghavard) On 19 June 1735 a Persian army won a decisive victory over the Ottomans at Yeghevard, also called Baghavard, near the Arpachay River.

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1736 – 1812

Afsharids & Khanates

Nader Shah was crowned on the Moghan plain on 8 March 1736 and died on 20 June 1747, after which Karabakh, Ganja, Shaki, Quba, Baku, Shirvan, Nakhchivan and Talysh khanates arose. Russia stormed Ganja on 3 January 1804 and took Baku in 1806.

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January – 8 March 1736 Mughan Assembly Crowns Nader Shah In January 1736 a great qoroltai, an assembly in the steppe tradition, met on the Mughan plain in what is now southern Azerbaijan.
1747 Nader Shah Assassinated; Khanates Emerge On 20 June 1747, at his camp near Quchan in north-eastern Iran, Nader Shah was killed when conspirators among his own guards attacked his tent.
8 July – 9 August 1795 Agha Mohammad Khan Besieges Shusha In May 1795 Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar led an army, reported at about 60,000 men, into the Caucasus to restore Iranian authority north of the Aras River.
3 January 1804 Russian Storming of Ganja After a bombardment, Russian forces under General Pavel Tsitsianov stormed the fortress of Ganja on 3 January 1804; one account places the assault a day earlier.
31 October – 1 November 1812 Battle of Aslanduz On the night of 31 October to 1 November 1812, Russian troops under Major General Pyotr Kotlyarevsky made a surprise attack on the Iranian camp at Aslanduz on the north bank of the Aras River.

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1813 – 1917

Russian Empire

The Treaty of Gulistan in 1813 and Turkmenchay in 1828 gave Russia the khanates and set the Aras border. The 1897 census counted 826,716 in Baku Governorate and 878,415 in Elisabethpol Governorate, and Baku grew from 111,904 people in 1897 to 214,672 in 1913.

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1 January 1813 Storming of Lankaran On 1 January 1813 Russian troops under Pyotr Kotlyarevsky, numbering about 2,000, stormed the citadel of Lankaran, the main stronghold of the Talysh Khanate on the Caspian coast in southern Azerbaijan.
1851 Songs of Mirza Shaffy Reach Germany In 1851 the German orientalist Friedrich von Bodenstedt published Die Lieder des Mirza Schaffy, verses based on his studies in Tiflis with the Ganja-born teacher Mirza Shafi Vazeh.
1882 Villa Petrolea Built In 1882 Branobel built Villa Petrolea at the eastern end of Baku's industrial Black City neighbourhood, near the village of Keshla.
24 July 1907 Baku–Batumi Kerosene Pipeline Opens The kerosene pipeline from Baku to Batumi was officially opened on 24 July 1907 in Tiflis.
9 March 1917 Transcaucasian Commissariat Formed On 15 November 1917 the Transcaucasian Commissariat was formed in Tiflis as the first government of the South Caucasus after the October Revolution.

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1918 – 1990

Adr & Soviet Azerbaijan

The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, declared on 28 May 1918, lasted until the Red Army entered on 27-28 April 1920. The Soviet republic created the Nagorno-Karabakh oblast in 1923 and Nakhchivan ASSR in 1924, and reached 7,021,178 people at the 1989 census.

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22–25 January 1918 (9–12 January Old Style) Shamkhor Incident At Shamkir on the Baku–Tiflis railway, Azerbaijani Musavatist units and a Tatar cavalry regiment halted trains carrying Russian soldiers home from the Caucasus front between 22 and 25 January 1918.
22–26 March 1920 Soviet Invasion of Azerbaijan On 27 April 1920 the Red Army's 11th Army, freed by its victories in the North Caucasus, crossed into Azerbaijan, while Bolsheviks rose in Baku.
1936 Azerbaijan Becomes a Full Union Republic On 5 December 1936 the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic was dissolved under the new Soviet constitution, and the Azerbaijan SSR was re-established as a full Union republic.
1952 Premiere of the Ballet Seven Beauties In 1952 Gara Garayev's ballet 'Seven Beauties' was staged at the Azerbaijani Theater of Opera and Ballet in Baku, with choreography by P. A. Gusev.
12–19 January 1990 Ayaz Mutalibov Becomes Party Leader On 24 January 1990, four days after Soviet troops entered Baku, Ayaz Mutalibov was appointed First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party while he was in Moscow.

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1991 – 2002

Independence & Karabakh War

Azerbaijan declared independence on 18 October 1991, and the war over Nagorno-Karabakh ended in a ceasefire on 12 May 1994. Armenian forces held the enclave and surrounding districts, and displaced Azerbaijanis are counted at about 724,000 in one source and 603,251 as registered IDPs in 2009.

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8 September 1991 First direct presidential election On 8 September 1991 voters in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic went to the polls for the first direct presidential election in the republic's history.
25–26 February 1992 Fall of Shusha to Armenian forces On the evening of 8 May 1992 Karabakh Armenian forces attacked Shusha, the historic mountain town overlooking Stepanakert, and by the next day Azerbaijani forces had withdrawn.
27 March – 3 April 1993 Fall of Aghdam Armenian forces captured the city of Aghdam on 23 July 1993 after a battle that had begun on 12 June, and a ceasefire was announced two days later.
13–17 March 1995 Baku Metro fire At about 6:00 p.m. on 28 October 1995 a train on the Baku Metro caught fire between Ulduz and Nariman Narimanov stations during Saturday evening rush hour.
25 November 2000 Walled City of Baku inscribed by UNESCO In December 2000 the World Heritage Committee inscribed the Walled City of Baku, with the Shirvanshah's Palace and Maiden Tower, on the World Heritage List.

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2003 – present

Aliyev Dynasty & Modern Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan regained the surrounding districts and a third of Nagorno-Karabakh in the 44-day war of 2020, and the rest after the offensive of 19-20 September 2023. A peace text was initialled on 8 August 2025, while 10,271,638 people were counted on 1 June 2026.

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15 October 2003 Presidential election of October 2003 Presidential elections were held on 15 October 2003.
10 May 2012 Ramil Safarov transfer and pardon On 31 August 2012 Hungary transferred Ramil Safarov, an Azerbaijani army officer, to Azerbaijan under the Strasbourg Convention.
27 September – 10 November 2020 Second Nagorno-Karabakh War Azerbaijan launched an offensive on 27 September 2020 against Armenian forces and the self-declared Republic of Artsakh, and the war lasted 44 days.
19–20 September 2023 Detentions at Abzas Media and later sentences On 20 November 2023 police detained Ulvi Hasanli, director of the independent news outlet Abzas Media, near his home, and searched his home and office.
17 February 2026 Drone strike on Nakhchivan and rupture with Iran On 5 March 2026 drones entered Azerbaijan and struck the Nakhchivan exclave, injuring civilians; accounts differ on the number, from two to four.

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Prehistory & Bronze Age

Manna, Media & Scythians

Achaemenid & Hellenistic (Atropatene)

Caucasian Albania & Rome

Sasanian Albania

Arab Caliphate & Anti-Arab Revolts

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Seljuks, Eldiguzids & Mongols

Timurids, Qara Qoyunlu & Aq Qoyunlu

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