550 BC

Events

• Colonization of Greeks ends.
• The Achaemenid Empire is established.
• The Kingdom of Colchis is established.
• Abdera is destroyed by the Thracians.
• The Temple of Artemis completed in Ephesus.
• Temple of Hera I, Paestum, Italy, is built.
• Siddhartha Gautama founded Buddhism in Northern India after achieving enlightenment after six years of practicing penance and meditation.

  Births

• Aristodemus of Cumae, tyrant of Cumae
• Hecataeus of Miletus, an early Greek historian
• Miltiades, renowned Olympic chariot-racer
• Epicharmus, Greek poet

  Deaths

• Arcesilaus II of Cyrene, the fourth Greek Cyrenaean King and a member of the Battiad dynasty. He was strangled by Learchus