* the article was created in 2013
The end of the Universe
Between 1 and 100 Trillion Years (1 - 100T): star formation ceases across the universe.
The last stars exhaust the remainder of their fuel (110 - 120T)
Matter now consists only of Black Holes (10^1076 Years)
The universe reaches its final energy state - "Heat Death". This means energy levels in the universe are so low that nothing can happen anymore, anywhere. (10^10120 Years)
Note: these arrows on the timeline represent incredibly big amount of time, so the scale is distorted here
8 Billion years from now
Our galaxy collides with Andromeda galaxy (4 Billion years from now)
The sun is going to reach a luminosity level that will evaporate all the water on the Earth (1 Billion years from now)
Sun expands to 250 times its size turning into the Red Giant and envelops the Earth (7.6-7.8 Billion years from now)
Big Bang = 13.8Ga
4.6Ga
The "Late Heavy Bombardment" - basically, the Earth got hazed by asteroids for 300 million years.
The Earth (blue timeline) forms from excess debris circling around the Sun (4.54Ga)
According to the Giant Impact Hypothesis, the Moon formed when a small planet smashed into the Earth. The debris from the Earth's crust eventually coalesced into what is now the Moon.
The Sun (yellow timeline) forms from a giant cloud of floating gas (4.6Ga)
3.6Ga (Ga means "giga-annum" - billion years ago)
Last time every current being on Earth today shared a common ancestor (3.5Ga)
The first life, simple cells - called prokaryotes (3.6Ga)
Photosynthesis begins; oxygen first enters the atmosphere as a waste product of the process (3.4Ga)
First multi-cellural life (1Ga)
First complex cells with a nucleus - called eukaryotes. Scientists believe this may have been a miraculous evolutionary freak event - a Great Filter candidate (2Ga)
600Ma
First Land Plants (475Ma)
The Supercontinent Pangaea forms (300Ma) and eventually breaks apart (200Ma). Quoted as saying, "I had a good run."
The reign of dinosaurs (231Ma - 66Ma)
200Ma
The asteroid that caused mass extinction (66Ma)
Cats evolve, are immediately standoffish (34Ma)
6Ma (Ma means "mega-annum" - million years ago)
Hominini tribe splits. One side would lead to the Pan genus (which turned into the modern chimpanzee). The other side led to the Homo genus, which eventually became humans. This is the last time chimps and humans had a living common ancestor.
Origin of the Homo genus.
Stone Age (4Ma - 3,5k BC)
200k BC
Oldest Homo Sapience fossil (195k BC)
Humans realize it's embarrassing to be naked and start wearing clothes (170k BC)
Humans control fire (125k BC) (some argue this happened as early as 800k BC)
Last Ice Age glacial period (110k - 10k BC)
60k BC
Humans migrate out of Africa for the first time
Humans widely considered to have complex language by this point (50k BC)
Last Ice Age glacial period ends (13k - 10k BC)
Oldest known cave paintings (40k BC)
Neanderthals call it a day (40k BC)
First humans migrate over the Bering land bridge into the Americas (the debate over when this first happened ranges from 40k to 15k BC)
Cro-Magnon colonization of Europe (43k - 45k BC)
Humans first cultivate wheat (9k BC)
3,500 BC
Earliest evidence of writing; Oldest vheeled vehicle found.
Great Pyramid of Giza (2500 BC)
Buddha lived around this time (exact date disputed)
Ancient Egyptian Civilization (3150 - 30 BC)
Bronze Age
(3200 - 1200 BC)
The lives of:
Socrates (~470 - 399 BC)
Plato (~428 - 348 BC)
Aristotle (384 - 322 BC)
Alexander the Great (356 - 323 BC)
The lives of:
Julius Caesar (100 - 44 BC)
Cleopatra (69 - 31 BC)
Jesus Christ (7-2 BC - 30-33 AD)
Roman Empire
(27 BC - 470 AD)
Year 1
Early Middle Ages (400 - 1000 AD)
High Middle Ages (1000 - 1300)
Late Middle Ages (1300 - 1500)
The Black Plague (1346 - 1353)
The life of Ginghis Khan (1162 - 1227)
The lives of:
Da Vinci (1452 - 1519)
Raphael (1483 - 1520)
Michelangelo (1475 - 1564)
1492
Columbus makes his first voyage to the New World, landing in the Bahamas
Jamestown marks the first British settlement (1609) and The Mayflower arrives in Plymouth (1620)
The lives of:
Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
Galileo (1564 - 1642)
Isaac Newton (1643 - 1727)
Shakespeare
French and Indian War (1754 - 1763)
American Revolution (1775 - 1783)
The lives of:
Bach (1685 - 1750)
Mozart (1756 - 1791)
Beethoven (1770 - 1827)
Mozart
1776
Death of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (they died the same day, July 4, 1826 - America's 50th anniversary)
George Washington presidency (1789 - 1797)
French Revolution (1789 - 1799)
American Civil War (1861 - 1865)
1865
First Telephone Call (1876)
Basketball invented by James Naismith (1891)
First Commercial Flight (1914)
US women gain right to vote (1920)
1923
Lindbergh crosses the Atlantic (1927)
Black Tuesday sets off the Great Depression (1929)
World War II
(1939 - 1945)
TVs begin to become widely used in homes (late 40s)
Baby boomers born (1946 - 1964)
US Civil Rights Movement (1955 - 1968)
Challenger Explosion
(1986)
Mobile phones become a thing
OJ Simpson trial
(Jan - Oct 1995)
1983
The 21st Century actually starts on 1/1/2001. All centuries start on the year 1 because there was no Year 0 in the First Century.
The first iPhone hits stores, launching the smartphone era.
(June 2007)
Iraq War (US troop presense)
(Mar 2003 - Dec 2011)
Government overthrow in Tunisia marks the beginning of the Arab Spring.
(Dec 2010)
Osama Bin Laden killed.
(May 2011)