HISTORY TIMELINE - La bande de temps

Human settlement in the Near East confined to the Levant (the easternmost Mediterranean shoreline) and to the Zagros Mountains of Iran and Iraq and their western foothills.

First farmers, agriculture. Domestication of wheat, pea, olive, and sheep, in southwest Asia.

Previously connected landmasses become separated by rising sea level.

Food production, domestic animals, and polished (Neolithic) stone tools in China, the first in East Asia

Domestication of the pig, Greece.

Beginnings of trade.

Food production begins in western and central Europe and Indus valley with the arrival of Southwest Asian crops and animals

Great Flood. (Mediterranean Sea)

Pastoralism (cattle, sheep, goats) in the Sahara | Potters' wheels in Mesopotamia.

Food production in Egypt (likely from Southwest Asia's Fertile Crescent)

The Egyptian calendar, regulated by sun and moon: 360 days, 12 months of 30 days each

First gold jewelry, in Varna, Bulgaria.

First iron object, Egypt

First pyramids, made of earth, constructed in Peru.

First invention of writing - Sumerians of Mesopotamia develop cuneiform writing.

Development of hieroglyphics in Egypt. Embalming of the dead developed in Egypt.

Egyptian Empire arises; first Dynasty of Egypt; grapes first crushed and fermented to produce wine.

Food production arises in tropical West Africa region.

Pyramid of Djoser near Cairo

Minoan culture on island of Crete in Aegean Sea

Imhotep, the first great physician and architect in history, contructs the first (stepped) stone pyramid at Saqqara, Egypt under ruler Zoser; the first great monumental building built by man.

First paved road, Egypt.

Khufu (Cheops-4th Dynasty) completes first Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt.

Egyptians discover use of papyrus Egyptian ships import gold from Africa

Serious drought in Middle East and throughout the world

Babylonians build first underwater tunnel under the Euphrates River using bricks and "cut and cover" method

Final stage of construction at Stonehenge

Decimal system in Crete China's first written accounts, during the Xin Dynasty

Chinese Empire arises; first Chinese dynasty Bronze Age fades into the Iron Age

Babylonian Empire arises

Alphabetic writing emerges as simpler way of recording information than Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Anamolous printed clay tablet, the Phaistos Disk, Crete.

Catastrophic eruption of volcanic island Thera, in northern Mediterranean.

Triumph of Egyptian Empire over 'known world'; 18th Dynasty in Egypt; Capitals Thebes & Akhetaten

Mayan Empire arises in Central.

First known outbreak of smallpox when Hittite warriors catch disease from Egyptian prisoners.

Invention of writing in China.

The Fall of Troy.

The beginning of the Iron (or Dark) Age in Greece.

The United Kingdom is divided into Israel and Judah.

Fall of Israel results in the dispersion (diaspora) of the "Ten Tribes of Israel" into Assyria and Persia-Media.

City of Babylon destroyed by the Assyrians under Sennacherib.

Olympic Games instituted in Greece with the Stadion, a 192 meter (600 ft) footrace

Indisputably independent invention of writing, by people in modern Mexico (Mexican Amerindians).

Construction on Isle of Samos of oldest known tunnel still in use, originally for water, now used by pedestrians between Greece and Turkey

China develops the first cast-iron production in the world.

Beginning of the classical period in architecture.

The plague at Athens.

On the advice of an Alexandrian astronomer, Julius Caesar decides to correct the problem of the non-integer number of days in the year by adding a day to the calendar every fourth year. It had always been difficult for humans to devise a calendar that works precisely because the solar year is not exactly 365 days long and the lunar month is not exactly 29 days. This made up for the 365.25 days of the regular year.

Senate gives Octavian the title of (Caesar) Augustus

Birth of Jesus of Nazareth (?), in Bethlehem, Judaea province under Roman rule.

City of Rome boasts a population of one million.

Jesus of Nazareth crucified by Roman Empire under Pontius Pilate at the urging of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish leadership.

Fall of Jerusalem, Herod's temple destroyed by Roman army Jewish Diaspora: Jews scattered throughout the Roman empire

Galen (129-189), Marcus Aurelius' personal physician, accumulates all known medical knowledge of his time in a treatise

Ptolemy draws 26 maps of various countries

Porphyrus (233-304) writes book, where he structures each of the ten categories. This leads to "Porphyrus' tree", which predates much later classifications of biological organisms.

Diophantus of Alexandria (200-284) writes the first book on what is now conceived as algebra.

The first form of a compass may have been used in China for orientation purposes

Rome adopts Christianity as official religion

First celebration of December 25 as Christmas

Zu Chongzi, (China 429-500) following a tradition of Chinese mathematicians without much local recognition, calculates pi with several digits: pi = 3.141592203

Moldboards plow, horse, crop rotation, shapes feudal societies.

Mayan city of Xichen Itza founded in central Yucatan, Mexico

First authenticated record of decimal reckoning in India, concept and use of the numeral "Zero" comes into use.

Book printing in China

Prime of the first surgical developments in India with bladder, peristalsis, and plastic operations

Arabic numerals of Indian origin known in Baghdad

Chinese recipe for gunpowder

Constantine the African (c1020-1087) brings Greek medicine to Western World

First Crusade organized to gain control of the Holy Land from the Muslims

Chichen Itza, the great Mayan City in Mexico is abandoned

Ghengis Khan conquers Persia

Aztec Empire arises in Central America.

Starvation in China leads to outbreak of Bubonic Plague which spreads westward

Bubonic "Black" Plague, transmitted by fleas from rats, breaks out in Constantinople and spreads into Europe.

Fall of Kahn Dynasty in China; Ming Dynasty begins in China - Mongol rule ends

Printing press in western Europe: Gutenberg prints Psalter with moveable type in Germany.

European settlers arrive on American mainland, at the Isthmus of Panama

European explorers encounter Austronesians - Portuguese arrive in the Moluccas and truncate Indonesia's separate train of developments

Protestant Reformation begins when monk Martin Luther begins protests against Catholic Church.

Spaniard Ferdinand Magellan sailed from Spain around S. America's Cape Horn into Pacific.

England Breaks With Church in Rome - After the Church of Rome canceled his annulment to Catherine, and had Henry VIII excommunicated for marrying Anne Boylen, Henry breaks with Rome.

Nikolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) defies church doctrine by publishing his theory of a sun centered universe in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, On the revolutions of heavenly bodies (1543) -- diagram of Copernicus's solar system

Principles of Algebra developed by mathematician Francios Viete of France

Lippershey invents telescope; Galileo Galilei makes astronomical observations.

Pope Clement VIII approves the drinking of coffee, previously considered a heathen's drink

Taj Mahal completed after 22 years of construction, at a cost of $700 million in today's money

First English language newspaper is published in London

Coffee introduced into North America, where it becomes popular after the Boston Tea Party, when the drinking of tea became unfashionable.

First newspaper in the United States is published in Boston

Ben Franklin suggests lightning rod

Industrial revolution begins in western Europe.

Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone

Edison patents the electric lightbulb

Humans begin to generate potentially unstable climate.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations

Civil Rights movement

First humans in space; Soviet Empire reaches low earth orbit.

IBM introduces its first personal computer

Soviet Empire collapses

Internet electronically connects the globe.

Bush, President of the American Empire, declares "War On Terror"

Discovery of Rapid Climate Change: Only within the past decade have researchers warmed to the possibility of abrupt shifts in Earth's climate. Sometimes, it takes a while to see what one is not prepared to look for.

Chinese Empire sends man to low earth orbit

PRESENT

Prehistory

End of Last Ice Age

Ancient

The Bronze Age in Greece: the Minoans and Mycenaeans

Brutal climate change in North Africa

Hammurabi founds and rules (1792-1750)

The Persian War.

Period of Spartan dominance.

Greek Empire arises. Conquests of Alexander of Macedonia (Alexander the Great

Roman Empire arises and conquers the 'known world', except for China.

Claudius emperor; expels the Jews from Rome

Postclassical

Modern

The "Hundred Years War" (1337-1453) between England and France comes to an end

Golden Age of Invention. Development of the locomotive, car, radio, television, atomics, rocketry, genetics, the computer, and telecommunication.

Golden Age of Nature Conservation, in US; US President Theodore Roosevelt creates US Forest Service, establishes natural parks.

Global-scale wars.

Cold War between the American and Soviet Empires.