About 12,000 B.C., Sweden began to emerge from the last Ice Age. As the ice sheet that had covered northeastern Europe gradually receded, Sweden became habitable.

Important dates in Sweden
c. 6000 B.C. The first settlers came to Sweden.
c. A.D. 800's to 1000's Swedish Vikings attacked other countries, traded, and colonized.
829 Christianity was introduced into Sweden.
1397 Sweden, Denmark, and Norway were united in the Union of Kalmar.
1523 Gustavus Vasa was elected king, and Sweden became independent.
c. 1540 Lutheranism became Sweden's official religion.
1630-1632 Gustavus Adolphus won victories for Sweden in the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648).
1709 Swedish power declined after the Battle of Poltava.
1809 Sweden lost Finland to Russia. A new constitution was adopted.
1814 Sweden gained Norway from Denmark.
1867 Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist, patented dynamite.
1867-1886 Many Swedes immigrated to the United States due to harsh economic conditions in Sweden.
1905 Norway dissolved its union with Sweden.
1914-1918 Sweden was neutral in World War I.
1939-1945 Sweden remained neutral in World War II.
1960 Sweden helped form the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).
1975 Sweden adopted a new constitution that greatly reduced the power of the king.
1986 Prime Minister Olof Palme was killed by an assassin.
1995 Sweden left EFTA and joined the European Union (EU).
2000 Sweden separated church and state, ending the status of Lutheranism as the country's official religion.