This timeline is based on a bare-bones one taken from http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/classics/Fac/ando/Classics150/September30.html. Some parts of this are verbatim from there still, but I have vastly increased it.

• Early 7th century: Coalescence of Median kingdom as a unit (Deioces was first king according to Hdt. 1.96-106). Capital at Ecbatana ("place of assembly"). Also, disintegration of the probable Phrygian overlordship of Lydia (Cimmerians coming from North are responsible). Lydians probably formed a united kingdom to resist Cimmerians. Capital at Sardis. Candaules and Gyges the usurper (Gyges ruled until ca. 652). Gyges set pattern of efforts to control Greeks of Asia Minor. Also was patron of Delphi. Great interaction between Lydians and Greeks: social, religious, and military.
• Mid-7th century: Alyattes (3rd successor to Gyges) became allied with Miletus. Periander of Corinth was mediator (he also mediated between Athens and Mytilene in dispute about Sigeum on the Troad). Era of Greek tyrants, some subservient to Lydians.
• 612: Medes and Babylonians conquer Ninevah, capital of Assyrian empire: end of an era.
  Four powers in Eastern Mediterranean: Egypt, Babylonia, Medes, Lydians.
• 594:  The archonship of Solon (note themes of "Nothing in Excess" and "Know Yourself" in stories of Solon at the court of Croesus: note also anachronism of story).
• 586: Nebuchadnezzar, King of neo-Babylonia, destroyed Jerusalem (beginning of Babylonian Captivity)
• 585: truce between Medes and Lydians (eclipse: Greek Thales of Miletus "predicted" it).
• ca. 560-546: Croesus rules over Lydia and brings many Greek cities under his sway (they pay tribute): Miletus is an exception. The first city he brings under his sway is Ephesus (cf. images of the temple of Artemis: note orientalizing influence).
• 559: Cyrus comes to throne of Persia, start of a new dynasty.
• ca. 549-546: Cyrus attacks Lydia and conquers Croesus at Sardis. Croesus was "tricked" by Delphi: "if he fought Persia, a great empire would be destroyed." Fate of Croesus is uncertain, in spite of Hdt.: probably influenced by Delphic oracle trying to clean up its image. Croesus' image too was cleaned up. He subdued many Greek cities, but his evil deeds seem to have been glossed over once the new enemy, Persia came on the scene. Alcman was reputed to be a Lydian, and Hipponax of Ephesus included many Lydian words in his poems.
• 546: with the fall of Sardis and Croesus, Greeks asked Cyrus for same terms as they had under Croesus. Cyrus refused (Miletus excepted, again). Greeks decided to resist, and they asked Sparta for help (Sparta send a ship: famous obvservation of Cyrus: "cities with a place for liars in the middle"). Independent, trading, curious, middle-class city-states vs. absolute monarchic rule. The Lydians and the Ionian and Aeolian Greeks were subdued, as well as some Dorian Greeks, Carians, and Lycians farther south in Asia Minor.
• 539: Cyrus attacks Babylon (see images of "Cylinder of Cyrus.")
• 530: Death of Cyrus in battle against the Massagetai (a Scythian tribe), who deserves the epithet "the Great" because within 30 years, he conquered the territory from the Indus river to the Aegean. He ruled by tolerance, perhaps more out of necessity than conviction? Babylonians, Assyrians, and Jews saw him as a liberator. He honored customs and religion of the conquered and did not displace them.
• 525: Cambyses, Cyrus' son, campaigns against Amasis (the partying king of Egypt). Ionian and Aeolian Greeks fought on Cambyses side, while Egypt had Greek and Carian mercenaries. Satrapy of Egypt was formed.
• 522-521:  The revolt of the Magi; the death of Cambyses (Hdt. says he cut his own leg with his sword); the accession of Darius (Hdt. 3.80-the "constitutional debate.") The Behistun inscription records Darius' version (see images with nine conquered kings).
• 521-486:  The reign of Darius in Persia. Great Organizer. Road system, couriers. Darius was an absolute monarch, sacred, not divine, but was constrained by custom and law. Persian Nobles who helped him to power enjoyed privileges. Darius tries to apply the laws of the Medes and Persians to his whole empire while at the same time preserving the conquered people's structures (pharaohs in Egypt, Babylonian Kings, but at the same time Persian satrapies). First Persian coinage. Exploration (Scylax of Caryanda went down Indus and showed up 2.5 years later in the Red Sea: Hdt. 4.44). Aramaic language became lingua franca of Eastern Mediterranean.
• 513: Darius' "Scythian Expedition": Northward (perhaps as far as the Ukraine). Ionian Greeks were left to guard his retreat (bridge over the Danube): Histiaeus the tyrant stayed true to Darius, Miltiades the Athenian urged betrayal of Darius. Darius' motive may have been subduing the Greeks and Thracians along Aegean and Black sea. After Darius retreated, Megabazus was left: he conquered the Thracians and created a new satrapy of Thrace. Persians gained control of the Chersonese, the Troad, and Thrace to the Strymon.
• 499:  The beginning of the so-called "Ionian revolt":  the rebellion of the cities of western Turkey against the authority of the Persian empire and its local representatives. (Books 5 and 6 of Hdt. is chief/only source for this revolt). The Persians had set up tyrants to rule the Greek cities they controlled at right about the time that tyranny was on its way out in mainland Greece. These tyrants could rule absolutely as long as they paid their tribute to the Persian King and provided mercenaries. Thus the situation was ripe for revolt. There was an "Ionian League" that is mentioned occasionally in Hdt (1.141, 1.170, 5.109, and 6.7): it might have been the organizational unit of the revolt.
• 499:  Aristagoras appeals to Sparta (Cleomenes) and Athens for help; Athens send aid. Athens was probably motivated by a desire to gain control of the precious Black-Sea trade routes, and also by a desire to further its image as "mother of the Ionians" (under the Peisistratid tyranny, Athens had "purified" Delos). What is more, Hippias, the exiled Pisistratid, was machinating with the Persians to try to recover tyranny in Athens.
• 498: Greeks, with Athenians, sack Sardis. Greeks were defeated at Ephesus. Athenians sailed away, Hipparchus was elected archon in Athens: pro-appeasement party had capitalized on fear of Persia. This Hipparchus was probably the target of Cleisthenes' proposal of a law on ostracism.
• 490's?: Miltiades the Athenian gains control of Chersonese, as well as Imbros and Lemnos.
• 494:  The end of the Ionian revolt. The power of Miletus is crushed for good. Samians were traitors to the Ionians (remember, Herodotus lived on Samos for a while: he seems to be biased in their favor).
• Digression: Herodotus remarks that the Athenians' sending of ships to help the Ionians was the cause of many ills for Greeks, but it seems likely that the Persians were bent on conquering Greece whether Athens had sent those ships or not. It was not foolish provocation, but rather sensible self-preservation that led Athens to send those ships. The Thracian and Scythian expeditions show the direction the Persians were taking, and the ship sent with 15 Persians to reconnoitre Greece as far as Italy was not a pleasure cruise (Hdt. 3.131-138). Herodotus depicts the Ionian revolt as the work of Aristagoras and Histiaeus, two individuals, but does not recognize that a revolt that widespread that lasted for 6 years probably was the result of a long-felt resentment of Persian rule.
• 493: Persians oust Miltiades from Chersonese. At Athens, perhaps Phrynichus' Play, Capture of Miletus at Dionysiac festival.
• 492: Persians create Democracies in Ionian City-states (Hdt. 6.42): presumably they had realized that the Greeks were widely dissatisfied with the previous method of setting up tyrants and so decided to give the Greeks a different government, while still exacting tribute and troops.
  Also in 492, Mardonius, the Persian general, reconquered Thrace, which had revolted during the Ionian revolt. Persian control extended to the borders of Thessaly.
  At Athens in 492, Miltiades was tried "for being a Tyrant in the Chersonese" (Hdt. 6.104), which is hard to interpret. Before the Demos (the people), perhaps with Themistocles presiding.
• 491:  Athens refuses to surrender to a Persian ambassador (an unlikely story, because Persia seems to have marked out Athens for punishment, but it sounds good: later, more reasonably, Alexander of Macedon will be sent by the Persians as an envoy to Athens). Persians send ambassadors far and wide in Greece to demand "earth and water."
• 490's: Aegina and Athens are rivals for lucrative sea trade: Aegina medizes: Athens calls on Cleomenes, king of Sparta. Cleomenes needs to depose his fellow king, Demaratus, first, then he extracts hostages from Aeginetans.
  Cleomenes' story is reported by Herodotus, who is hostile to him (or at least accepts the Spartans' version of his life), but Cleomenes is an interesting fellow. He did the following: 1) he created an alliance between Plataea and Athens (which set Sparta's long-time rivals Athens and Thebes in a balanced mutual hostility: a good policy for Sparta), 2) he may have tried to create greater unity in Arcadia, which Sparta opposed officially, 3) he may have been inciting the Messenian helots to revolt (a typical demagogic tactic) in order to set himself up in a tyranny of Sparta, 4) his victory over Argos in ca. 494 set Sparta in a stronger domination of the Peloponnese. He was ambitious, independent, and resourceful, but the conservative Spartan oligarchy had no liking for such as he.
• 490:  Darius, the Persian emperor, sends a force against Athens under Datis and Artaphernes (Darius' nephew); this force is defeated at Marathon, but first it subdues Naxos and many other Cycladic islands, and pillages Eretria.
  Philippides (or Pheidippides) runs the Marathon.
  Athens, with the aid of Plataea alone, under the command of Calimachus (advised by Miltiades, the real mind behind the strategy) defeats the Persians. Aeschylus' brother dies in the battle. Epitaph of Aeschylus:
  This tomb the dust of Aeschylus doth hide,
  Euphorion's son, and fruitful Gela's pride,
  How tried his valor Marathon may tell
  And long-haired Medes who knew it all too well.
  In all, Persia failed to punish Athens, but they gained valuable bases in the Aegean and destroyed Eretria.
• 480's: Athens begins to fortify the Piraeus, a natural harbor (old harbor was Phalerum, less defensible.
  Athens also fought with the Aeginetans in the 480's. That war came to a close with the formation of the Hellenic League (see below).
• 488/7: The first recorded Ostracism. Hipparchus, a Pisistratid, was ostracized. Cleisthenes is said to have introduced the law about ostracism in order to be rid of Hipparchus. Originally, ostracism seems to have been used against those with aspirations to be tyrant, but it came to be used in other rivalries (Themistocles and Aristides, for instance: Aristides as ostracized in 483/2). In the 6th prytany (an official division of the year), the decision was made as to whether to hold an election for ostracism in that year. Then in the 7th prytany, the election took place. 6,000 was the minimum required voters, the quorum, and a majority of ostraca had to be cast for one person in order for that person to be ostracized.
• 486: Egypt revolts against Persians. Darius dies. Xerxes, his son, succeeds him. Egyptian revolt, as well as Babylonian revolt, is quashed, and Egypt and Babylon's privileges reduced to just plain satrapies.
• 483/2:  The Athenians discover silver at Laurium in Attica and, at Themistocles' insistence, use that money, in part, to build a fleet. Although the immediate need for a fleet was to fight the Aeginetans, surely the Athenians knew about Xerxes' efforts to dig a canal on the Mt. Athos peninsula of Chalcidice as well as the preparations for an expedition against Greece. Rich Athenian individuals are "taxed" by being put in charge of sponsoring a trireme. Thousands of Athenians jobs created for shipyards and rowers. Timber and pitch imported from Macedonia, where Alexander (not "the Great": one of his forbears) is an Athenian proxenos.
• 482: Persian preparations for war include; bridge on river Strymon as well as Hellespont, food supply stations established along route of expedition. Greeks take few countermeasures.
• 481:  The Hellenic League is formed, which ends the hostility between Aegina and Athens and other inter-Greek hostilities. At battle of Plataea in 479, the league has 31 members. The League sent envoys far and wide, including Magna Graecia (S. Italy and Sicily), but the Phoenician threat as well as the inter-Sicilian political situation made them refuse to help the mainland Greeks. Sparta has hegemony over the league: it presides at meeting and provides the supreme land and sea commanders.
  Delphi is clearly defeatist. The oracle's answers to Athens: "run away, you will be defeated," and then "an Athenian wooden wall will be safe."
  Corcyreans agree to send a fleet, but they await the battle's outcome before arriving.
  Persians assemble in Cappadocia. Xerxes sends heralds to Greek states to demand signs of submission, "earth and water."
• 480:  Xerxes leads his invasion of Greece by land and sea.  The expedition is undoubtedly large, but the Greeks will have had an interest in eexaggerating them to inflate their victories to even greater proportions.
  Carthage, under command of Hamilcar, invades Sicily, and is spectacularly defeated at the battle of Himera.
  Many Greek states submit to Persia, many out of necessity, but some more willingly.
  The Thessalians ask for a defense of their territory. The Hellenic League decides to take a stand at Tempe, but then decides not to, and so Thessaly inevitably falls to the Persians.
  The battles of Thermopylae and Salamis take place.
  Thermopylae is the logical place to resist, but reinforcements do not arrive in time, and the resistance is futile but heroic. The reinforcements apparently did not come because of the Carnaean and Olympic festivals!
  The Persians lose many ships to storms rounding Euboea, while the Greeks are sheltered in the narrows between Euboea and Boeotia. A battle occurs at Cape Sepias, but it is indecisive. The Greeks withdraw to Salamis, presumably because they have heard that the land resistance has fallen.
  The Decree of Themistocles. We have an inscription preserved that purports to be a decree issued by the Athenians about the strategy, but it conflicts with Herodotus in various ways, and so it seems likely that it is an amalgamation of several decrees sponsored by Themistocles at different times that was copied at a later time. The original was surely burned by the Persians either in 480 or 479 when they took and sacked Athens. The decree that we have may have been the result of a campaign against King Philip of Macedon when he was threatening to conquer Greece. At that time, perhaps several old decrees were united into one, perhaps The Decree of Themistocles was revived somehow, or perhaps an imaginary decree was created.
  After Thermopylae, Xerxes continued southward, slaughtering many Phocians (the Thessalians used the Persians to pursue their feud with Phocia). Delphi is spared (great story in Herodotus), because it is friendly to Persians (Herodotus does not agree with that assessment). Athens is evacuated, and the Persians enter and sack Attica.
  At the battle of Salamis (ca. Sept. 20th, 480: at the time of the Eleusinian Mysteries) Athens is the key player on the Greek side, for without the fleet's victory, the Persians would not have turned.  The Spartan king Eurybiades is the fleet commander, but Themistocles is clearly the most influential. Themistocles has to trick the Persians into committing to battle, and threaten the rest of the Greeks that he might depart to Italy, because the Spartans and other Peloponnesians were about to withdraw the fleet to the Isthmus of Corinth, which would have abandoned Athens altogether.
  Xerxes returns to Persia at the close of the year.
  The Persian Mardonius overwinters in Thessaly.
• 479:  The remaining Persian forces fight losing battles on land at Plataea in Boeotia and by sea at Mycale in Ionia. The Spartan Pausanias and his troops are the key forces for victory. After Plataea, the Greek land forces besiege Thebes, which had Medized. After Mycale, the fleet splits up: the Spartans return home. The Athenians continue on to the Chersonese and besiege Sestus successfully and dedicate magnificent spoils at Delphi.
  Tripod and column at Delphi.