What happened in the 2nd century

AD 101–200

31 events　World 8, Europe 11, Asia 10, Middle East 1, Africa 1

Highlights of the 2nd century

AD 105AsiaCai Lun of China invents paper in its modern form.
AD 114WorldA war with Parthia results in Armenia and Mesopotamia being temporarily annexed into the Roman Empire.
AD 115EuropeKitos War, adjunct to the Jewish–Roman wars.
AD 125AsiaZhang Heng of China invents the world's first water-powered armillary sphere.
AD 140WorldHuvishka, Kushan ruler.
EuropeAD 96 – 180: Five Good Emperors of Rome: Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius.

AD 114A war with Parthia results in Armenia and Mesopotamia being temporarily annexed into the Roman Empire.
AD 127The Kushan ruler Kanishka ruled present-day Pakistan and northern India.
AD 140Huvishka, Kushan ruler.
Ptolemy compiles a catalogue of all stars visible to the naked eye. He also compiles three of the most influential books in western history:
the astrological treatise Tetrabiblos.
the Geographia.
AD 161Roman–Parthian War of 161–166.
AD 166Marcomannic Wars.

AD 115Kitos War, adjunct to the Jewish–Roman wars.
AD 122Hadrian's Wall is built across what is now Northern England.
AD 132Bar Kokhba's revolt against Rome.
AD 142The Antonine Wall is built across what is now central Scotland.
AD 144Marcion, rejected by Church of Rome, founds Marcionism.
AD 96 – 180: Five Good Emperors of Rome: Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius.
Herakleitos makes The Unswept Floor, mosaic variant of a 2nd-century BC painting by Sosos of Pergamon. It is now kept at the Musei Vaticani in Rome.
AD 165The Antonine Plague in Rome.
AD 180Reign of Commodus, Roman emperor.
AD 193Year of the Five Emperors of Rome: Pertinax, Didius Julianus, Pescennius Niger, Clodius Albinus and Septimius Severus.
AD 193Reign of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus.

AD 105Cai Lun of China invents paper in its modern form.
AD 125Zhang Heng of China invents the world's first water-powered armillary sphere.
AD 132Zhang Heng of China invents first seismometer to detect the cardinal direction of earthquakes.
Hindu number system: It was developed in the Indian subcontinent between the 1st and 6th centuries AD.
Carding devices: The earliest evidence for using bow-instruments for carding comes from India.
AD 166Disasters of the Partisan Prohibitions.
AD 184The Liang Province Rebellion in northwest China.
AD 184The Yellow Turban Rebellion of the Han dynasty in China.
AD 189The end of the Han dynasty.
AD 190Warlords across China launch a campaign against Dong Zhuo.

the Almagest, which becomes the basis for western and Middle Eastern astronomy until the time of Nicolaus Copernicus and Johannes Kepler.