1071: Byzantine army is destroyed by Turks
1071 - 1085: Mercenary Seljuk Turks conquer Syria and Palestine. The City of Jerusalem is taken from the more civilised Saracen caliphs.
1085 - 1095: 3000 Christian Pilgrims were massacred in Jerusalem and the Christian churches were destroyed or used as stables
1095: Emperor Alexius I sent an embassy to Pope Urban II regarding the atrocities in Jerusalem and the growing threat of the Turks to Constantinople and the whole of Europe
1095:Pope Urban II called a great council of the Church at Placentia, in Italy, to consider the appeal - decisions were deferred until later in the year
1095 November 27: Pope Urban II called a great council of clergy and nobles to meet at Clermont in France called the Council of Clermont. He called for a crusade against the Infidels
1095 - Spring 1096:Peter the Hermit took up the cry "God wills it!" and ordinary people join in the 'People's Crusade' - most were unarmed
Summer 1096: Armed forces gathered at Constantinople to embark on the First Crusade
August 1096: Emperor Alexius I shipped the Peoples Crusade over the Bosphorus
October 1096: The Peoples Crusade were annihilated by the Turks in Anatolia
May – June 1097: Siege of Nicacea
July 1097: Battle of Dorylaeum
Oct 1097 - June 1098: The Siege of Antioch
1098 June 1: Stephen of Blois and numerous French crusaders flee the siege of Antioch with news of the arrival of Emir Kerboga of Mosul
1098 June 3: Bohemond I, elder son of Robert Guiscard, led the capture of Antioch
1098 June 5: Emir Kerboga of Mosul and his army of 75,000 lays siege to the crusaders led by Bohemond
1099 Feb 14 - June: The siege of Arqah, near Tripoli
1098 June 28: The Battle of Orontes. The First Crusade wins a victory forcing Emir Kerboga to lift the siege of Antioch
1099 June 13: Raymond of Toulouse leads the crusaders from Antioch and to Jerusalem
1099 July 15: The soldiers of the First Crusade successfully scale the walls of Jerusalem and take the Holy city