855 - The brothers Cyril and Methodius created the first Slavonic alphabet, precursor to all Cyrillic alphabets.
886 - Saints Kliment and Naum, students of Cyril and Methodi, came to Macedonia, spreading Christianity in the Slavonic language and founding the Ohrid (
) Literary School.
969 - Four brothers, David, Moses, Aaron, and Samuil (Samuel), rebelled against Bulgarian authority and established the medieval Macedonian state, which became the Macedonian Empire in 997. Tsar Samuil killed his brothers and ruled from Ohrid ( ).
1014 - Battle of Mount Belasica, near Strumica ( ). The Byzantines conquered the army of Tsar Samuil. Basil II captured 14,000 of Samuil's soldiers and they were all blinded, except for every hundredth one, who had one eye left, so as to lead his fellow men to Samuil who had escaped to Prilep ( ). At the site of his blinded soldiers, Samuil suffered a heart attack, and died two days later on October 6, 1014. The Macedonian Empire came under Byzantine rule, by 1018.
1040-’42 - Petar Deljan led an rebellion against Byzantine authority.
1072-’73 - Gjorgji Vojteh led an insurrection from Macedonia.
1371 - The Ottoman Turks penetrated the Balkans at the Battle of Marica, and Macedonia fell under Turkish occupation in 1395. The Turks were mostly Muslim and put harsh restrictions, often involving torture or death, upon the mostly Orthodox people.
1564-’65 - The Mariovo-Prilep ( ) Rebellion was the first recorded rebellion led by Macedonian peasants.
1689 - The Macedonian people rebelled against the Turks in the Kriva Palanka and Kumanovo ( ) regions during the Karpoš /KAR-posh/ Uprising.
1767 - The Greek Patriarchate of Constantinople pushed for the abolition of the Archbishopric of Ohrid by an irade of the Sultan.
1822 - The Macedonians in the Aegean part of Macedonia led the Negus Uprising.
1876 - The Razlovci Uprising, in eastern Macedonia, foreshadowed a national liberation struggle.
1878-’79 - During the Macedonian Kresna Uprising, a constitution known as The Rules of the Macedonian Uprising Committee was adopted.
1878 - The Treaty of Berlin redrew the Balkan political boundaries. Serbia, Montenegro and Romania became independent, and
the principality of Bulgaria was created. Slovenia and Croatia stayed under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian empire, which also took control of Bosnia, and Macedonia remained under Turkish rule. • •
1894 - The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (VMRO) was established in Thessaloniki, and the famous revolutionary Goce Delčev joined it.
