History, chronicle, annals mean a written record of events important in the life or career of a race, a nation, an institution, or a region.
A history is more than a mere recital of what has occurred; in the modern conception, at least, it requires order and purpose in narration, but not necessarily a strictly chronological order nor a common definitely defined purpose. Usually, also, it is thought of as an interpretation of events especially in their causal relationships. It may exhibit fullness and completeness or, on the other hand, selection of details, especially when a single aspect is considered or a thesis is to be proved.
A chronicle is a recital of events in chronological order without interpretation.
Annals is not always clearly distinguishable from chronicle except in its emphasis upon the progress or succession of events from year to year. The term need not imply a discursive treatment or a continued narrative, for some of the ancient annals are merely records of important events in each year of the time covered. However, in the selection of titles for modern historical works these distinctions are not always observed, for chronicle and annals are sometimes chosen as less formal or pretentious than history or because chronicle stresses narrative quality and annals the selection of noteworthy events. In their extended senses only history and annals are closely comparable. Both of these words designate more or less shifting abstractions.
History usually signifies the known past, or the sum total of events that are remembered because recorded by historians or evidenced by documents, monuments, and remains.
Annals most often signifies the sum total of events, with their dates, that have become fixed in the mind because of the momentousness, often tragic momentousness, of those events.
Chronicle, on the other hand, is often applied to something concrete (as a person or thing) that records, relates, or manifests events as they happen.