I guess that's the Western view - Dark Ages and all. But things were quite different at that time in parts of the world other than Northern Europe. And I'm not so sure being 20th or 21st century-born qualifies anyone as automatically morally, intellectually, or spiritually superior to those from earlier centuries. (I mentioned Meliorism and Chronological Snobbery in earlier posts.)

But I think I know what you mean.

dandelion:

Some of the things that happened in the 14th century:

• The Aztec found the city of Tenochtitlan
• Ming Dynasty begins
• Things begin that lead to the eventuality of 3 simultaneous Popes.
• The start of the Renaissance in Italy
• The abacus is first used in China (probably an Apple version)
• Geoffrey Chaucer is born
• Technique of knitting is created.
• etc etc.

ALSO:
Take, for instance, 1355 AD. In that year it was the following year in different parts of the world:

Chinese had it at 4051
Armenians had it at 804
Islamic said it was 756
Hebrews, 5115
Iranian, 733.
etc.
t
c
.

In Russia, the 14th century was the Golden Age of Novgorod iconography (q.v.), and saw the establishment of 180 monasteries.