Highlights of WORLD HISTORY.

This article provides a chronology of ancient middle eastern history. The section on World History is divided into five parts. Each part is a major region of the world: the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Major events from ancient times to the present are described under the headings for each region. 4000-3000 B.C.: The world's first cities are built by the Sumerian peoples in Mesopotamia, now southern Iraq. Egyptians develop a kind of writing called hieroglyphics. Sumerians develop a kind of writing called cuneiform.