Íslands þúsund ár

[volcanisms]

Basic, rough outline of Iceland's history. Will edit and elaborate more when I am feeling considerably less lazy.


874 Age of Settlement begins; Norway finds babby Iceland.

930 The Alþing is established

1117 Laws are actually written down instead of having people trying to remember them and scream them at one another.

1130 Ari the Learned writes Íslendingabók (The Book of Icelanders), the first writing on national history.

1230 The Age of Sturlungs begins

1241 Snorri Stulurson is murdered.

1244 "Sea battle" in Húnaflói - essentially two clans out in boats throwing rocks at each other. THIS IS CONSIDERED A CIVIL WAR.

1262 Iceland swears fealty to the Norwegian King and becomes a dependency of Norway. Age of Sturlungs ends.

1300 Hekla erupts and fucks everything up.

1380 Kalmar Union is formed. Iceland lives with Denmark for the next 5 1/2 centuries (and Norway was around until 1814).

1402 Iceland catches the Bubonic Plague.

1490 England starts to bully Iceland, but Denmark steps in and threatens to kick England's ass.

1579 English pirates attack Iceland for the hell of it.

1602 Trade Monopoly established. AKA "The period in which Iceland is not allowed to have friends."

1627 Turkish abductions. Except it was more like "North African Pirates Abductions" but whatever.

1707 Iceland catches smallpox.

1757 Major famine kills off almost 10,000 people - about a fourth of Iceland's population at the time.

1783 Laki Incident.

1787 Trade Monopoly ended.

1800 Alþing is dissolved.

1809 Jørgen Jørgensen declares Iceland independent, then gets arrested. Iceland continues to be a Danish territory.

1843 Alþing is established again.

1848 Iceland demands autonomy, but doesn't get it.

1904 Home rule granted.

1918 Iceland is established as a sovereign state.

1940 England invades Iceland.

1941 England hands over the responsibility of Iceland's defense to America.

1944 Iceland declares independence from Denmark.

1949 Becomes a founding member of NATO

1958 First Cod War with England

1963 The island of Surtsey is formed by an undersea volcano

1966 Iceland gets TV!!

1972 Another Cod War with England. Iceland is kind of an dick about it.

1974 Ring Road is completed.

1975 Yet another Cod War with England. Or maybe this was the one where Iceland was kinda dickish. Uhhh.

1980 Vigdís Finnbogadóttir is elected president.

1989 Beer ban is lifted, and Icelanders are so fucking happy about it they create a holiday.

2008 Collapse of Iceland's national banks, causing a huge economic meltdown.

2010 Eyjafjallajökull erupts, which spews out a massive ash cloud that disrupts air traffic for about a week and causes Europe to flip its collective shit.