Mexico

State · 1868–2026 CE · at its largest around 1868 CE

The federal republic of Mexico, restored under Benito Juárez after the fall of Maximilian and later dominated by the long rule of Porfirio Díaz.

On its lands while it lasted

Benito Juárez (1806 CE – 1872 CE): Zapotec lawyer from Oaxaca who became President of Mexico, led liberal reforms and resisted the French intervention.
Emiliano Zapata (1879 CE – 1919 CE): Peasant leader from Morelos who fought for land reform in the Mexican Revolution under the slogan "Land and Liberty"; assassinated in 1919.
Diego Rivera (1886 CE – 1957 CE): Mexican painter and leading figure of the Mexican muralist movement, whose large public frescoes depict Mexican history and workers.
Lázaro Cárdenas (1895 CE – 1970 CE): President of Mexico (1934–1940) who carried out large-scale land reform and nationalized the oil industry in 1938.
Birth of jazz (c. 1900 CE): Jazz emerged in the African American communities of New Orleans around the turn of the 20th century, rooted in blues and ragtime.
Louis Armstrong (1901 CE – 1971 CE): New Orleans trumpeter and singer, one of the most influential figures in jazz.
Frida Kahlo (1907 CE – 1954 CE): Mexican painter known for her self-portraits and works inspired by Mexican popular culture; her Blue House in Coyoacán is a museum.
Mexican Revolution (1910–1920 CE): Decade of revolution and civil war that toppled Porfirio Díaz and reshaped Mexico politically and socially.
Neil Armstrong (1930 CE – 2012 CE): American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who, as commander of Apollo 11, became the first person to walk on the Moon on 20 July 1969.
Kahlo, The Two Fridas (1939 CE): Painted as her marriage to Diego Rivera broke up, Frida Kahlo’s double self-portrait shows her in European and in Mexican dress, holding hands, their hearts joined by a single vein.
Birth of Parícutin volcano (1943–1952 CE): A new volcano emerged from a cornfield in Michoacán in 1943 and erupted until 1952, burying two villages.
1954 Guatemalan coup (1954 CE): A CIA-backed coup overthrew the elected president Jacobo Árbenz after his land reform, leading to decades of military rule.
Belmopan (1970 CE): Capital of Belize (1983–today).
International Space Station (1998 CE): Modular space station in low Earth orbit, assembled from 1998 by the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada and continuously inhabited since November 2000.
Hurricane Katrina (2005 CE): Hurricane that caused levee failures and catastrophic flooding in New Orleans, killing over 1,300 people.