Timeline

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

1. 3300 BC · West AsiaWhat Was the World's First City? The Story of Uruk
2. 2560 BC · AfricaHow Did the Great Pyramid's Four Sides Point True North Without a Compass?
3. 2560 BC · AfricaWere the Pyramids Really Built by Slaves?
4. 2560 BC · AfricaWho Really Built the Pyramids, and How?
5. 2500 BC · South AsiaWhere Did Every House Have a Flush Toilet 4,500 Years Ago?
6. 2500 BC · South AsiaWhy Does the Indus Civilization Show No Sign of a King?
7. 2300 BC · West AsiaWho Was the First Author in History? Enheduanna
8. 2300 BC · West AsiaWhy Wasn't 'Sargon,' the King Who Built the First Empire, His Real Name?
9. 2279 BC · West AsiaHow Was the World's First Empire Born? Sargon of Akkad
10. 2250 BC · West AsiaWhich King of the First Empire Declared Himself a Living God?
11. 2100 BC · West AsiaWhat Did a King Who Had Everything Walk to the End of the World to Find?
12. 2100 BC · West AsiaWhat Is Humanity's Oldest Story?
13. 1800 BC · West AsiaWas a Great-Flood Story Carved in Clay Before the Bible?
14. 1323 BC · AfricaWhy Did Only the Least Important Boy-King's Tomb Survive?
15. 1323 BC · AfricaWhy Did an Ancient Egyptian Boy King's Tomb Hold Over 130 Walking Sticks?
16. 494 BC · EuropeHow Did Rome's Common People Win Their Rights — by Walking Out of the City?
17. 487 BC · EuropeWhy Did Athens Choose Its Leaders by Lottery, Not Election?
18. 487 BC · EuropeWhy Did Athens Vote to Exile Its Most Powerful Men — on Broken Pottery?
19. 458 BC · EuropeCould Anyone Give Absolute Power Back? The Story of Cincinnatus
20. 336 BC · EuropeHow Did a 20-Year-Old Conquer the World?
21. 331 BC · EuropeCan Half an Army Beat Hundreds of Thousands?
22. 323 BC · EuropeThe Empire Split — So Why Did They Speak Greek All the Way to India?
23. 280 BC · AfricaWhich Dynasty's Harbor Held One of the Seven Wonders of the World?
24. 237 BC · AfricaWhy Did Nine-Year-Old Hannibal Swear an Oath Against Rome?
25. 227 BC · East AsiaA Dagger Sprang From the Map — How Did the King of Qin, the Future First Emperor of China, Survive?
26. 221 BC · East AsiaHow Did One Boy Become China's First Emperor?
27. 218 BC · AfricaWhy Did One Man Lead War Elephants Over the Alps?
28. 216 BC · AfricaWhat Single Day's Battle Is Still Taught in Military Academies?
29. 200 BC · East AsiaHow Did the Mighty Han Empire Begin? It Paid Silk Tribute to Nomads
30. 196 BC · AfricaHow Did a Royal Decree Revive a Dead Script 1,500 Years Later?
31. 138 BC · East AsiaWhy Did This Han Envoy Take 13 Years to Come Home?
32. 99 BC · East AsiaDeath or Castration: Why Did Sima Qian Choose Disgrace to Finish the Shiji?
33. 36 BC · The AmericasWho Really Wrote Zero First? The Maya and the Shell-Zero
34. 30 BC · AfricaWas Cleopatra Really a Seductress Who Charmed Rome?
35. 30 BC · AfricaWas Egypt's Last Pharaoh Really Egyptian?
36. AD 79 · EuropeHow Do You Read a 2,000-Year-Old Book Too Fragile to Open?
37. AD 79 · EuropeWhy Was This Bread Trapped in the Oven for 2,000 Years? Pompeii
38. AD 900 · The AmericasHow Did the Maya Nail Venus's Cycle to Within 0.01 Days — Without a Telescope?
39. 1206 · East AsiaHow Did the Nomads of the Steppe Swallow the World?
40. 1206 · East AsiaWhat Pulled the Trigger on History's Largest Empire — the Mongol Empire?
41. 1279 · East AsiaWhich Empire Was the Largest in History — Was It Really Rome?
42. 1872 · West AsiaHow a Clay Tablet Shook Victorian Britain
43. 1922 · AfricaWhat Did Howard Carter See by Candlelight in Tutankhamun's Tomb?