This timeline allows one to see the whole history of the universe, the Earth, and mankind in one table. Each row is defined in years ago, that is, years before the present date, with the earliest times at the top of the chart. In each table cell on the right, references to events or notable people are given, more or less in chronological order within the cell.
Each row corresponds to a change in log(time before present) of about 0.1 (using log base 10), similar to Renard numbers. The table for recent events assumes a present of 1 January 2010.
| Time interval, before the present time. a=annum (year) |
Period |
Event, Invention or Historical development |
| 13.7 Ga – 12.6 Ga |
|
Cosmology, Big Bang, Stars and galaxies, Earliest quasars
|
| 12.6 Ga – 10 Ga |
|
Omega Centauri star cluster forms
|
| 10 Ga – 8 Ga |
|
Gliese 876 and its planets form
|
| 8 Ga – 6.3 Ga |
|
Delta Eridani forms
|
| 6.3 Ga – 5 Ga |
|
Birth of Alpha Centauri
|
| 5 Ga – 4 Ga |
|
Formation of Sun, Solar System, Earth
|
| 4 Ga – 3.2 Ga |
End of Hadean eon, beginning of Archaean eon |
Late Heavy Bombardment, origin of life, stromatolites, photosynthesis
|
| 3.2 Ga – 2.5 Ga |
Archaean eon |
Stabilisation of cratons. Sterane biomarkers indicate first eukaryotes.
|
| 2.5 Ga – 2 Ga |
Paleoproterozoic era |
Oxygen Revolution. Huronian glaciation. Bolide over 10 km in size creates Vredefort crater. Two galaxies merge to form the Milky Way.[1]
|
| 2 Ga – 1.6 Ga |
Paleoproterozoic era |
10-km diameter bolide creates Sudbury Crater, Columbia supercontinent
|
| 1.6 Ga – 1.26 Ga |
Mesoproterozoic era |
Earliest known acritarchs
|
| 1.26 Ga – 1 Ga |
Mesoproterozoic era |
Coming together of Rodinia supercontinent
|
| 1 Ga – 800 Ma |
Neoproterozoic era |
Sturtian-Varangian or Cryogenian glaciation begins. Traces of sponge-like animals.[2]
|
| 800 Ma – 630 Ma |
Neoproterozoic |
Breakup of Rodinia, Sturtian-Varangian or Cryogenian glaciation, possible Snowball Earth, Volcanism on Venus practically stops
|
| 630 Ma – 500 Ma |
Ediacaran period, Cambrian period |
Pannotia supercontinent, first fossils of animals Ediacaran biota, Cambrian explosion. Fish-like Myllokunmingia, Haikouichthys, & Pikaia. First conodonts. Arthropods dominant until arrival of chambered nautili.
|
| 500 Ma – 400 Ma |
End of Cambrian. Ordovician, Silurian |
Collision of asteroids gives rise to L chondrite group of meteoroids and several craters ca. 470 Ma ago. Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. First bryozoans, starfish, sea urchins, oysters, scallops, placoderms, cartilaginous fish (such as sharks) and bony fish. First fossils of plants and fungi on land. First clear evidence of land arthropods. Andean-Saharan glaciation. Ordovician-Silurian extinction events.
|
| 400 Ma – 320 Ma |
Devonian |
First coelacanths, lungfish, amphibians, archaeopteris (tree ferns), seeds. Beginning of Karoo Ice Age. Late Devonian extinction event.
|
| 320 Ma – 250 Ma |
Carboniferous, Permian |
Karoo Ice Age. Formation of Pangaea supercontinent. First winged insects, synapsids, reptiles. Cycads, seed ferns. Therapsids such as pelycosaurs & cynodonts. Siberian Traps eruption & Permian-Triassic extinction event
|
| 250 Ma – 200 Ma |
Triassic |
Turtles, first dinosaurs, pterosaurs, crocodilia, ichthyosaurs. Gymnosperms dominant. Dicrodium flora common on land. Manicouagan Crater formed.
|
| 200 Ma – 160 Ma |
Jurassic |
Central Atlantic eruption and Triassic–Jurassic extinction event. Breakup of Pangaea. Mammals. Gymnosperms (especially conifers, Bennettitales and cycads) and ferns common. Sauropods, carnosaurs, stegosaurs. Toarcian turnover (extinction).
|
| 160 Ma – 126 Ma |
Jurassic, Early Cretaceous |
Gondwana breaks up. First known snakes. First birds (Archaeopteryx), and lizards.
Flowering plants.
|
| 126 Ma – 100 Ma |
Aptian & Albian stages of the Cretaceous |
India breaks from Antarctica. Ontong Java eruption. Earliest known monotreme fossils. Sinodelphys, earliest known marsupial. Eomaia, earliest known eutherian. Bees.
|
| 100 Ma – 80 Ma |
Late Cretaceous: Cenomanian, Turonian, Coniacian, Santonian |
Mammals diversify into many forms.[1] Cenomanian-Turonian anoxic event (oceans anoxic for half a million years).[2]
|
| 80 Ma – 63 Ma |
Campanian & Maastrichtian stages of the Cretaceous |
Dominance of angiosperm rosids. Evidence for Grasses in dinosaur dung. Madagascar breaks away from India. Bolide creates Chicxulub Crater. Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event
|
| 63 Ma – 50 Ma |
Paleocene, Eocene |
Mammals dominate. Titanoboa, largest known snake. Eritherium, first known proboscid. Lemurs. Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. First creodonts. First equid, the Eohippus or Hyracotherium. Andes mountains begin to rise.
|
| 50 Ma – 40 Ma |
Eocene |
Azolla event. India collides with Asia, giving rise to the Himalayas. First cetaceans (whales) and simians, first elephant-like animal, the Moeritherium.
|
| 40 Ma – 32 Ma |
Eocene, Oligocene |
Grasses common. 100-km Popigai crater in Siberia. 2-mile (3.2 km) diameter bolide creates 90-km Chesapeake Bay impact crater in America
|
| 32 Ma – 25 Ma |
Oligocene |
Alps begin to rise. First indricotheria, "hornless rhinoceros" about 6 metres high. Primates cross Atlantic to South America and become New World monkeys.
|
| 25 Ma – 20 Ma |
Miocene, Aquitanian age |
Puijila darwini, early pinniped. Dawn bear - ancestor of bears.
|
| 20 Ma – 16 Ma |
Miocene, Burdigalian age |
First Megatherium americanum, a giant sloth. First deinotheres, similar to an elephant but with tusks on lower jaw.
|
| 16 Ma – 12.6 Ma |
Miocene, Langhian age, Serravallian age |
Africa/Arabia collides with Eurasia, end of Tethys Sea. Nördlinger Ries impact crater. Middle Miocene disruption. Great apes split from lesser apes.
|
| 12.6 Ma – 10 Ma |
Miocene, Serravallian age, Tortonian age |
Last of the adapids. Anoiapithecus, one of first hominids, in Spain.
|
| 10 Ma – 8 Ma |
Miocene, Tortonian age |
First Gigantopithecus, an ape almost 10 feet (3.0 m) tall.
|
| 8 Ma – 6.3 Ma |
Miocene, Tortonian age, Messinian age |
"Toumaï", of species Sahelanthropus tchadensis, shows some human traits. First Thylacosmilus, sabre-toothed marsupial of South America.
|
| 6.3 Ma – 5 Ma |
Miocene, Messinian age |
Mediterranean Sea dries up (Messinian Event). 52-km Kara-Kul crater in Tajikistan. Orrorin tugenensis, possible hominin
|
| 5 Ma – 4 Ma |
Pliocene |
Ardipithecus ramidus, Australopithecus anamensis
|
| 4 Ma – 3.2 Ma |
Pliocene |
First Australopithecus afarensis. Hominid fossil footprints in Laetoli, Tanzania.
|
| 3.2 Ma – 2.5 Ma |
Pliocene |
Isthmus of Panama connects South and Central America, giving rise to the Great American Interchange. Lucy, member of the species Australopithecus afarensis. Oldowan tools used near Gona, Ethiopia
|
| 2.5 Ma – 2 Ma |
Paleolithic begins, Lower Paleolithic |
Beginning of the current ice age, known as the Quaternary glaciation. Homo habilis appears. Cut marks on human bones indicate cannibalism.
|
| 2 Ma – 1.6 Ma |
Beginning of Pleistocene |
Homo erectus appears. Homo ergaster in Africa. First signs of Acheulian culture, in Kenya. Hominins in Dmanisi, Georgia and in Nihewan basin, China. First true hand-axes. Last known terror birds.
|
| 1.6 Ma – 1.26 Ma |
|
Homo erectus found in Europe
|
| 1.26 Ma – 1 Ma |
|
|
| 1 Ma – 800 ka |
|
14-km Zhamanshin Crater formed in Kazakhstan;
|
| 800 ka – 630 ka |
Günz glaciation |
Evidence of use of fire. Brunhes-Matuyama geomagnetic reversal. Yellowstone Caldera supervolcano spreads ash over North America. Homo antecessor in Spain
|
| 630 ka – 500 ka |
Günz-Mindel interglacial |
|
| 500 ka – 400 ka |
Günz-Mindel interglacial Mindel glaciation |
Homo heidelbergensis in Germany, France, and Greece
|
| 400 ka – 320 ka |
Mindel glaciation |
Homo heidelbergensis footprints in Italy (Roccamonfina volcano). Venus of Tan-Tan (300 to 500 ka ago) and Venus of B'rekhat Ram (233 to 800 ka ago). First appearance of proto-Neanderthal traits.
|
| 320 ka – 250 ka |
Yarmouthian Stage |
900-metre Wolfe Creek crater formed in Australia. Geminga supernova may have begun the creation of the Local Bubble.
|
| 250 ka – 200 ka |
Yarmouthian Stage |
Polar bears split from brown bears. |
| 200 ka – 160 ka |
Illinoian Stage (Riß glaciation) |
First traces of Homo sapiens (Omo remains). Use of ochre, fine stone blades, and seafood at Pinacle Point, SA (164±12ka ago)[3]
|
| 160 ka – 126 ka |
Illinoian Stage (Riß glaciation) |
Estimated time of Mitochondrial Eve. Appearance of full-blown Neanderthal traits.
|
| 126 ka – 100 ka |
Beginning of Middle Paleolithic, Eemian Stage |
Temperatures generally higher than today during the Eemian interglacial. Late Eemian Aridity Pulse. Shells with holes, probably used as beads, at the Es Skhul cave on Mount Carmel
|
| 100 ka – 80 ka |
Beginning of Würm glaciation |
First evidence of metre-high Flores Man on the island of Flores (Indonesia). Human burial at Qafzeh in Israel. Shell beads in Taforalt Caves, Morocco.
|
| 80 ka – 63 ka |
Ca. 78000 – ca. 61000 BCE |
Supervolcano Toba in Indonesia erupts, covering India and Pakistan with ash and starting a 1000-year ice age. Ochre use at Blombos Cave in South Africa.
|
| 63 ka – 50 ka |
Ca. 61000 – ca. 48000 BCE |
50-metre diameter asteroid creates 1.2-km Meteor Crater in Arizona. Estimated time of Y-chromosomal Adam. Humans enter Tibetan plateau. Mousterian culture.
|
| 50 ka – 40 ka |
Ca. 48000 – ca. 38000 BCE |
Last evidence of Homo erectus, Neandertal Divje Babe flute - prehistoric music, Mining of hematite at the Lion Cave in Swaziland. Mungo Man in Australia. Human footprints in Valsequillo Basin in Mexico. Brief Laschamp Excursion magnetic reversal. Homo sapiens in Peştera cu Oase, Romania and in Tianyuan Cave, China.
|
| 40 ka – 32 ka |
Beginning of Upper Paleolithic Ca. 38000 – ca. 30000 BCE |
Needles and sewing. Shoes. Beginnings of Aurignacian culture. Paleolithic flute and Venus of Hohle Fels, First Cro Magnon people. Human presence in Japan. Lion man ivory sculpture.
|
| 32 ka – 25 ka |
Ca. 30000 – ca. 23000 BCE |
Cave painting. Venus of Dolní Věstonice (first known ceramic). End of Aurignacian culture, beginning of Gravettian. Imprint of woven cloth in clay (Czech Republic). Venus of Lespugue (ivory sculpture). First known spear thrower or atlatl.
|
| 25 ka – 20 ka |
Ca. 23000 – ca. 18000 BCE |
Venus of Brassempouy (carving of face). Lapedo child with mixture of Neanderthal and sapiens features at Lagar Velho Portugal. Neanderthals disappear. End of Gravettian culture, beginning of Solutrean. Ishango Bone tally stick displays prime number sequence. 1.9-km Tenoumer crater in Mauritania.
|
| 20 ka – 16 ka |
Ca. 18000 – ca. 14000 BCE |
Disappearance of Solutrean. Beginning of Magdalenian culture. Lascaux cave paintings.
|
| 16 ka – 12.6 ka |
Ca. 14000 – ca. 10600 BCE. End of Pleistocene, beginning of Holocene and Mesolithic age. |
Evidence of massacre at Cemetery 117. Older Dryas cold spell. Most recent glaciation gradually ends. Sea level rises 30 metres in a few hundred years (Meltwater Pulse 1A). Clovis culture in America. Beginning of Natufian culture in Levant. Younger Dryas impact event brings on the Younger Dryas cold spell. Extinction of many species of large animals. Earliest evidence of dogs.
|
| 12.6 ka – 10 ka |
Ca. 10600 – ca. 8000 BCE. Beginning of Neolithic. |
First pottery (Japan). Natufian Shaman burial.[3] Vela Supernova only 800 ly away. Island of Spartel flooded (possible site of Atlantis). Arrow-shaft straighteners used by Natufian culture in the Levant. Neolithic revolution (agriculture begins, domestication of animals). Göbekli Tepe (temple-like monuments and art). Lime. Earliest layers of Jericho. Copper pendant in Iraq. Toothpicks and birch-bark chewing gum. Sea rises about 20 m in 9th millennium BCE.
|
| 10 ka – 8 ka |
Start of Holocene. Pre-Pottery Neolithic B in Mideast, 8th millennium BCE, 7th millennium BCE |
Kennewick Man in Washington, whose skull was different from modern American Indians. Oldest cloth yet found (Çayönü). Trepanation. Mount Etna causes tsunami, possibly ending Atlit Yam settlement (Israel). Smelted lead, pottery & finger rings at Çatal Höyük. Opium
|
| 8 ka – 6.3 ka |
Ubaid period. 6th millennium BCE, 5th millennium BCE |
Wine and beer. Sea rises 15-20 m in 6th millennium BCE, flooding Doggerland and cutting off Britain. Holocene thermal maximum brings temperatures warmer than today. Sahara region not a desert. Megaliths. Domestication of the horse. Pottery revolutionized by the potter's wheel. Oldest wrought gold known, in Varna necropolis. Last mastodons.
|
| 6.3 ka – 5 ka |
Chalcolithic. 4th millennium BCE |
Continuation of Holocene thermal maximum. Silver mining. Invention of wheel. Sweet Track roadway. Large city of Hamoukar, destroyed in war, probably by Uruk in Sumer. Ötzi the Iceman. Redesertification of Sahara begins. Copper Age. Writing begins in Sumer (Cuneiform) and Elam.
|
| 5 ka – 4 ka |
3rd millennium BCE |
Wire. Cannabis (drug) in use. Gilgamesh epic, pyramids of Ancient Egypt, Indus civilization, Ur, Sargon, Stonehenge, Use of bronze, surgery.
|
| 4 ka – 3.2 ka |
2nd millennium BCE Bronze Age |
Minoan Crete. Hammurabi. Avellino eruption of Vesuvius. Last mammoths. Thera eruption. Egyptian medical papyri. Akhenaten. Rigveda.
|
| 3.2 ka – 2.5 ka |
ca. 1200 BCE – ca. 500 BCE Iron Age |
Tiwanaku. Olmec civilization. Trojan war. Beginning of Zhou Dynasty. David and Solomon. Zarathustra, Homer, Hesiod. Fall of Kingdom of Israel and Kingdom of Judah. First coins. Cyrus, Pythagoras, Kǒng Fūzǐ (Confucius)
|
| 2.5 ka – 2 ka |
ca. 500 BCE – ca. 10 AD |
Etruscan civilization, Buddha, Socrates, Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle. Helike sinks beneath the waves. Alexander, Euclid. Library of Alexandria. Ashoka. Punic Wars end with razing of Carthage. Qin Dynasty & beginning of Han Dynasty. Julius Caesar
|
| 2 ka – 1.6 ka |
ca. 10 AD – ca. 400 AD |
Roman Empire, Yeshua (Jesus), Christianity, Gnosticism, Mithraism, Manichaeism, Constantine. 365 Crete earthquake.
|
| 1.6 ka – 1.26 ka |
ca. 400 – ca. 750 |
Classic Maya civilization. Byzantine Empire, Augustine, Attila, Saint Patrick, King Arthur. Climate changes of 535-536. Plague of Justinian. Muhammad. Muslims capture Ctesiphon, largest city in world. Vikings. First half of Tang dynasty.
|
| 1.26 ka – 1 ka |
ca. 750 – ca. 1000 |
Charlemagne. Chinese invent gunpowder. Bjarni Herjólfsson sights North America. Leifr Eiriksson goes there (Vinland). Beowulf.
|
| 1000 y – 800 y |
ca. 1000 – ca. 1200 |
Song Dynasty. Ibn Sina. East-West Schism. Crusades. William the Conqueror, Genghis Khan
|
| 800 y – 630 y |
ca. 1200 – ca. 1380 |
Yuan Dynasty. Magna Carta, St. Francis, Aquinas, Marco Polo. Beginning of Hundred Years' War. Black Death.
|
| 630 y – 500 y |
ca. 1380 – ca. 1510 |
The Renaissance. Beginning of Ming Dynasty. Chaucer. Joan of Arc. Kuwae eruption. Fall of Constantinople. Gutenberg. Wars of the Roses. Columbus rediscovers the New World.
|
| 500 y – 400 y |
16th century |
Da Vinci, Michelangelo. Luther & the Reformation. Copernicus, Scientific Revolution. 1556 Shaanxi earthquake. Spanish Armada. microscope. Rise of the Mughal Empire.
|
| 400 y – 320 y |
17th century |
Shakespeare. Thirty Years' War Galileo. Descartes. Fermat. Pascal. Louis XIV. English Civil War. Fire of London.
|
| 320 y – 250 y |
1689 – 1759 |
Nine Years' War. War of the Spanish Succession. Isaac Newton, Bach, Defoe, Swift, Voltaire. Beginning of Seven Years' War. Lisbon destroyed by earthquake, tsunami, and fire.
|
| 250 y – 200 y |
1759 – 1809 |
Rousseau, American Revolution, Watt engine. Eruption of Laki. Mozart, French Revolution. First locomotive. Beethoven. Napoleon.
|
| 200 y – 160 y |
1809 – 1849 |
War of 1812. Eruption of Mount Tambora and Year Without a Summer. Battle of Waterloo. Photography, electric motor. Babbage. Telegraph.
|
| 160 y – 126 y |
1849 – 1883 |
Taiping Civil War kills at least 20 million. John Snow. Beginning of Third Pandemic. Darwin. American Civil War. Joseph Lister. Marx. Telephone. Pasteur.
|
| 126 y – 100 y |
1883 – 1909 |
Invention of automobile. Edison, Mark Twain. Krakatoa. 1887 Yellow River flood. Dreyfus. Radio. Freud, Wright Brothers. Einstein's papers on special relativity and quantization of light (photons). 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Tunguska event.
|
| 100 y – 80 y |
1909 – 1929 |
Cubism, Model T, Republic of China, RMS Titanic, General relativity, Russian Revolution, World War I. Prohibition. Russian famine of 1921. Stalin.
|
| 80 y – 63 y |
1929 – 1946 |
Crash of 1929. 1931 Yellow River flood. Great Depression. Hitler. FDR, New Deal. Gödel. Gandhi. Second Sino-Japanese War. LSD invented. World War II. Pearl Harbor. Penicillin. Atom bomb. UN. Cold War begins.
|
| 63 y – 50 y |
1946 – 1959 |
ENIAC, NATO, Mao. Structure of DNA found. McCarthyism, Elvis. Sputnik. ARPA.
|
| 50 y – 40 y |
1959 – 1969 |
Castro, ca. 20-30 million die in Great Chinese Famine, Berlin Wall, Cuban missile crisis, John F. Kennedy, American Civil Rights Movement. Beginning of Vietnam War. Indonesian killings of 1965–66. Six-Day War. 2001 (film). Vietnam War, counterculture.
|
| 40 y – 32 y |
1969 – 1977 |
Unix, Moon landing, Woodstock, Bhola cyclone kills 500,000, Yom Kippur War, Richard Nixon resigns. Banqiao Dam and 61 other dams break in China. Khmer Rouge. Tangshan earthquake. Downfall of Gang of Four.
|
| 32 y – 25 y |
1977 – 1984 |
Microcomputers. Three Mile Island, Jimmy Carter, Margaret Thatcher becomes PM, Usenet. Eruption of Mount St. Helens. Pac-man. Ronald Reagan becomes president. CNN, MTV. AIDS discovered. First IBM PC.
|
| 25 y – 20 y |
1984 – 1989 |
Discovery of ozone hole. Macintosh, Bhopal disaster, Soviet-Afghan War, Challenger Disaster, Chernobyl, first 80386, Iran-Contra scandal . BSE, Perestroika, Black Monday on Wall Street. End of Iran–Iraq War
|
| 20 y – 16 y |
1989 – 1993 |
US invades Panama, Tiananmen protests, Fall of Berlin Wall, launch of Hubble Space Telescope, end of apartheid, George H. W. Bush presidency. First Gulf War, AOL. Eruption of Mount Pinatubo. End of USSR.
|
| 16 y – 12.6 y |
1993 – 1996 |
Beginning of Clinton presidency. First Pentium. Oslo accords. Bosnian War. Rise of Internet. 1994 Los Angeles earthquake. Genocidal Rwandan massacre. Israeli-Jordanian Peace Treaty. Start of WTO. Kobe earthquake. Windows 95, Java programming language.
|
| 12.6 y – 10 y |
1996 – 1999 |
Asian financial crisis. Tony Blair becomes PM of the UK. Discovery of the acceleration of the universe. Kosovo War, 1999 Izmit, Turkey Earthquake, Putin president of Russia, Y2K scare, human genome sequenced,
|
| 10–8 y |
2000–2001 |
George W. Bush president of US, al-Aqsa Intifada, 2001 Gujarat Earthquake, September 11, 2001, U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, Columbia disaster. |
| 8–6.3 y |
2002– August 2003 |
2003 Iraq War, European heat wave of 2003, Bam Earthquake, Darfur conflict, Boxing Day Tsunami |
| 6.3–5 y |
August 2003–2004 |
Yassir Arafat dies. |
| 5–4 y |
2005 |
John Paul II dies, Gaza pullout by Israel, Great Flood of New Orleans, Kashmir earthquake. |
| 4–3.2 y |
January to October 2006 |
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, 2006 North Korean nuclear test. |
| 3.2– 2.5 y |
November 2006 to June 2007 |
Nicolas Sarkozy president of France, Battle of Gaza, World population becomes more than 50% urban. |
| 2.5– 2 y |
July to December 2007 |
Northwest Passage opens for first time in history. Cyclone Sidr |
| 2– 1.6 y |
January to May 2008 |
see January 2008, February 2008, March 2008 April 2008, May 2008. Cyclone Nargis. 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. |
| 1.6 – 1.26 y |
May to September 2008 |
June 2008, July 2008, August 2008, 2008 Russo-Georgian War. September 2008. 2008 economic crisis. |
| 1.26 – 1 y |
October to December 2008 |
see October 2008, November 2008, 2008 Mumbai attacks. December 2008 |
| 1 – 0.8 y |
1 January to 14 March 2009 |
see January 2009, 2008-2009 Israel-Gaza conflict. Barack Obama president. February 2009, March 2009 |
| 0.8 – 0.63 y |
15 March to 15 May 2009 |
see March 2009, April 2009, 2009 swine flu outbreak. May 2009 |
| 0.63 – 0.5 y |
15 May to 1 July 2009 |
see May 2009, June 2009 |
| 0.5 – 0.4 y |
2 July to 7 August 2009 |
see July 2009 |
| 0.4 – 0.32 y |
8 August to 6 September 2009 |
see August 2009 |
| 0.32 – 0.25 y |
7 September to 1 October 2009 |
see September 2009 |
| 0.25 – 0.2 y |
2 to 18 October 2009 |
see October 2009 |
| 0.2 – 0.16 y |
18 October to 3 November 2009 |
see October 2009 |
| ... |
... |
|
