Below, you’ll find my personal take on semi-automatic handgun history. The timeline gives an overview of pistols worth mentioning, because they were technically innovative, because of their service and war history, popularity or cult status, or simply because they were the first of a well-known brand.

This is a work in progress, if you discover mistakes or believe that I really missed out on something, please drop me a line.

For a full-page view, click this link!

The information comes from different sources. I restricted myself to mentioning why the pistols are remarkable, wikipedia links are provided for those interested in detail.