Timeline

• 5399BC, Cyrus the Great issues a declaration of religious freedom.
• 311AD, The Roman Emperor Galerius issues a general edict of toleration in his own name and in those of Licinius and Constantine.
• 3133AD, The Edict of Milan issued by the Emperors Constantine I Licinius proclaiming religious toleration in the Roman Empire.
• 1554, Castellio writes the pamphlet "De haereticis, an sint persequendi" (Whether heretics should be persecuted), the first modern appeal for toleration..
• 1571 January 11 - religious toleration was granted to Austrian nobles;
• 1573 January 28 - Warsaw Confederation granting religious toleration;
• 1598 April 13 - King Henry IV of France issued the Edict of Nantes, allowing religious toleration of the Huguenots;
• 1609 July 6 - Bohemia was granted religious toleration;
• 1657 April 20 - New Amsterdam granted religious toleration to Jews;
• 1829 April 13 - British Parliament granted Catholic Emancipation in the spirit of religious toleration;
• 1900 Robert G. Ingersoll publishes his plea for religious liberty.[1]
• 1948 December 10 The United Nations General Assembly issues the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 18 declares that everyone has the right to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, and to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
• 1965 December 7 The Roman Catholic Church Vatican II Council issues the decree Dignitatis Humanae (Religious Freedom) that states that all people must have the right to religious freedom.
• 1986 October 7 The first World Day of Prayer for Peace is held in Assisi when representatives of one hundred and twenty different religions came together for prayer to their God or Gods.
• 1988 April 29 - in the spirit of Glasnost, Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev promised increased religious toleration