Destruction / Loss of Information Timeline Outline

The Earliest Bibliographical Classification System
(Circa 53 BCE – 23 CE)

The Transition from the Roll to the Codex Resulted in Both Survival and Destruction of Information
(Circa 200 CE – 400 CE)

Early Christians May Have Destroyed What Remained of the Alexandrian Library Because of its Pagan Contents
(391 CE)

The Church Assumes Role of Educator and Civil Service for the Tribal Kingdoms
(Circa 450 CE – 650)

The Imperial Library of Constantinople is Damaged by Fire
(475 CE)

The Deterioration of Libraries, Publishing and Educational Institutions in Italy by the Sixth Century
(534)

The Dark Ages for Study of the Classics on the European Continent
(Circa 550 – 750)

Perhaps the First Library in Japan
(Circa 550 – 645)

The First State Libraries in Japan
(702)

Declined to About 35,000 Volumes
(Circa 790)

The Codex Spirensis, of which Only a Single Leaf of the Original Survives
(Circa 860 – 920)

The Earliest Universal Bibliography
(988 – 990)

Destruction of the 200,000 Volume Palace Library at Cairo
(1068)

Norman Crusaders Take Manuscripts as Spoils of War
(1175)

Private Libraries in the Muslim World, Destroyed or Plundered by Crusaders
(Circa 1200)

Pope Gregory IX Orders the Seizure and Burning of Jewish Books
(June 9 – June 20, 1239)

Louis IX Orders the Burning of 12,000 Manuscripts of the Talmud
(June 1242)

The Vatican Archives Follow the Movements of the Pope
(1245 – 1783)

Survival of the Works of Archimedes was Dependent upon Three Manuscripts, Only One of Which Survived to the Present
(1269 – 1544)

The First Printed Herbal with Illustrations and Probably the First Series of Illustrations on a Scientific Subject
(Circa 1481 – 1482)

"A Horse, A Horse, My Kingdom for a Horse."
(August 1485)

The Sack of Rome Marks the End of the High Renaissance
(May 6, 1527 – February 1528)

First Printed Edition of the Qur'an in Arabic, of Which One Copy Survived
(August 9, 1537 – August 9, 1538)

The Earliest Surviving Books Printed in India from Movable Type
(July 2, 1561 – April 10, 1563)

Destruction of the Maya Codices
(July 12, 1562)

Perhaps the Most Important Private Collection of Manuscripts Ever Collected in England
(1588 – 1631)

The Beginning of the Collection of Medical Statistics
(1592 – 1593)

Introduction of Book Burning by the Hangman
(1634)

Establishment of the First Printing Press in North America: No Copies of the First Two Imprints Exist
(1639)

Sixty Printed Books and Three Newsbooks Ordered to be Burned
(1640 – 1660)

The Great Fire of London
(September 2 – September 5, 1666)

De bibliothecae incendio
(1670)

The First Printed Book Specifically for the Amusement of Children: No Copies of the First Edition Survive
(June 18, 1744)

Invention of the Rubber Eraser
(April 15, 1770)

Probably the Most Ambitious Editorial Enterprise before the Wikipedia
(1773 – 1782)

Proposal for a National Bibliography of France
(1793 – 1794)

The Library of Congress is Destroyed During the War of 1812
(August 25, 1814)

Fire Destroys Two-Thirds of the Library of Congress
(December 24, 1851)

Production of Mummy Paper in Nineteenth Century America
(1855)

The First Clear Photographic Aerial View of a City
(October 13, 1860)

The Sulfite Pulping Process for Manufacturing Paper
(1866)

One of the Most Dramatic Problems in the Preservation of Media
(1889)

The Beginnings of Modern Spaceflight Theory
(May 1903 – 1914)

A New Version of Babbage's Analytical Engine, Lost
(1908)

Destruction of the University Library at Leuven
(August 25, 1914)

Burning 100,000,000 Books and Killing 6,000,000 People
(1933 – 1945)

Purging Germany of Jewish Culture
(April 6 – April 8, 1933)

Burning 25,000 Volumes of "un-German" Books
(May 10, 1933)

Kristallnacht
(November 9, 1938)

Liste des schädlichen und unerwünschten Schrifttums
(December 31, 1938)

The Nazis Destroy the National Library of Serbia
(April 6, 1941)

Zuse's Z3: The First Turing-Complete Electromechanical Computer
(May 12, 1941)

Computer Prototype Damaged and Lost
(November 11, 1943)

Repeated Dispersal and Eventual Burning of the Greatest Library in Poland
(October 1944)

Bombing of Dresden Destroys Books and Manuscripts
(February – March 1945)

"Nineteen Eighty-Four"
(1949)

"Fahrenheit 451"
(1953 – 2011)

The Digital Domesday Project--Doomed to Early Digital Obsolescence
(1984 – 1986)

Slow Fires
(1987)

Probably the Worst Library Fire in History
(February 14, 1988)

DNS is Corrupted Through Human Error
(July 1997)

Over 500,000 Egyptian Papyri Survive
(2002)

Looting of the National Museum of Iraq
(April 6 – April 12, 2003)

The EPA Begins to Close its Scientific Libraries
(November 20, 2006)

Demanding that the U.S. EPA Desist from Destroying its Libraries
(November 30, 2006)

The World's Oldest Oil Paintings Restored After Taliban Dynamite
(February 19, 2008)

The Largest Municipal Archive in Germany Collapses During Underground Construction
(March 3, 2009)

'Material Degradomics" or, The Sniff Test
(September 17, 2009)

An App the Promotes the Value of Impermanence
(2011 – 2013)

Burning of the Library of l'Institut de l'Egypte
(December 17, 2011)

Sheikh Sultan Dr. Al-Qasimi Pledges to Restore the Library of l'Institut de l'Egypte
(December 20, 2011)

The Anatomy of an Internet Attack by "Anonymous"
(2012)

Part of Library of the Ahmed Baba Institute in Timbuktu is Burned
(January 28 – January 30, 2013)

How the "The Brazen Bibliophiles of Tumbuktu" Saved Manuscripts from Terrorists
(April 25, 2013)