Timeline

Every article placed in time, earliest first, one era at a time. Use the continent pages to follow one region, or the era pages to see what was happening everywhere at once.

Prehistory before 3500 BC

1. 3,660,000 BC · AfricaThree walkers, then five, then two kinds: the Laetoli footprints
2. 2,500,000 BC · AfricaTaung Child: the skull Dart named in Nature on February 7, 1925
3. 1,600,000 BC · AfricaKNM-WT 15000: the Nariokotome boy, 1.6 million years old, found 1984

All 48 prehistory articles in order →

Ancient world 3500 BC – 800 BC

1. 3500 BC · Central AsiaA gold necklace, a lead ingot: Sarazm on the Zeravshan, 1976 or 1979
2. 3300 BC · West AsiaUruk, the early city whose first writing was bookkeeping
3. 3000 BC · East AsiaTen dams and a levee before the walls: Liangzhu, 5,100 years ago

All 54 ancient world articles in order →

Classical world 800 BC – AD 500

1. 1000 BC · Oceania'Small scattered fragments do not a dwarf make': Palau, 2008
2. 539 BC · West AsiaA cylinder from Babylon, 1879: a building text called a rights charter
3. 500 BC · Oceania1,800 years in Tonga and Samoa: the long pause before East Polynesia

All 58 classical world articles in order →

Medieval world 500 – 1500

1. AD 350 · AfricaWhich African kingdom minted gold coins and raised 23-meter stelae?
2. AD 537 · EuropeProcopius's Buildings, Hagia Sophia and the dome that fell in 558
3. AD 600 · Central AsiaWho actually carried goods along the Silk Road?

All 60 medieval world articles in order →

Early modern world 1500 – 1800

1. 1498 · South AsiaTwelve pieces of striped cloth: da Gama's gift to the Zamorin, 1498
2. 1504 · Central AsiaBabur's memoir: from losing Samarkand to taking Delhi, 1497–1526
3. 1510 · Central AsiaMerv, December 2, 1510: Shah Ismail's feint against Shaybani Khan

All 54 early modern world articles in order →

Modern era 1800 – 1914

1. 1799 · South AsiaTipu's Tiger: the growling organ taken at Seringapatam in 1799
2. 1804 · The Americas"In view of the opening of the Ocian": Lewis and Clark, 1804 to 1806
3. 1804 · The AmericasHow did Haiti win freedom in 1804, then pay France for it until 1888?

All 51 modern era articles in order →

Twentieth century 1914 – 2000

1. 1914 · The AmericasWhy did France fail at Panama, and who paid for the canal of 1914?
2. 1914 · EuropeWilliam Eve's diary and the war diaries disagree on 1914 football
3. 1915 · OceaniaWhy does the 1915 Gallipoli defeat define Australia and New Zealand?

All 50 twentieth century articles in order →