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Science Engineering and Technology timeline
Currently displaying entries for the dates: -15000000000 - 0 [291 of 291 total entries]
Science Engineering and Technology timeline homeAll subjects timeline home
-15000000000
Creation of the Universe (estimated date)
-10000000000
Formation of the Milky Way
-5000000000
Formation of the Sun and planets
-438000000
50% of life extinguished by global cataclysm
-410000000
First fish began to appear
-360000000
Extinction level event eradicated 70% of life on Earth
-220000000
If a single landmass (Pangaea) existed, it is suggested that it started to break apart at this time and form the separate continents
More about: Pangaea
-208000000
Asteroid impact in what is now Quebec, Canada, created crater 70km in diameter and wiped out many species
More about: asteroid
-65000000
Impact at Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, created crater almost 200km across, caused global devastation and possible extinction of dinosaurs, along with an estimated 85% of all life
-20000000
Formation of many prominent mountain ranges, including the Andes and the Himalayas
More about: Andes
-5000000
First use of fire
-2000000
Homo habilis in Africa
-1700000
Homo erectus migrated from Africa
-168000
Supernova 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud explodes; it is visible on Earth in 1987
-120000
Neanderthals living in caves in Europe
-100000
Migration of Cro-Magnons from Africa into China and rest of Asia
-73000
Major eruption of Mount Toba is what is now Sumatra; this has an effect on the global climate
-60000
Australia inhabited
-50000
Early evidence of counting
-48000
Iron meteor crashed into the planet in Arizona, creating a crater 4,000 feet wide and 570 feet deep
More about: Arizona
-40000
Cave paintings in Europe; primitive man uses bones and other tools
More about: cave paintings
-40000
South Australian rock engravings dated to this time
-30000
Man crosses the land bridge from Siberia into Alaska and starts to populate North America
-27000
Early paintings emerge in the form of decorated stone tablets in Southern Africa
More about: stone art
-25000
Artifacts with primitive geometrical designs
-23000
Puget Sound, Washington, formed by glaciers
-20000
Mean global temperature is approximately 4 degrees C lower than in the year 2000
-16000
Near the peak of the Ice Age, the sea-level is about 400 feet (120 m) lower than it is now, with almost 32% of land covered in ice
-15000
Man begins to use tools with stone blades
-15000
South America first inhabited
-13000
Formation of the Great Lakes
-11600
Short period of global warming begins
-10000
Holocene begins. Extinction of many larger mammals, such as mammoths and sabre-tooth cats
-10000
The discovery and use of silver, gold, carbon, copper, tin, iron, mercury, sulphur and lead
-9000
First permanent dwellings begin to appear
-8000
Plant domestication, use of wheat and barley
-8000
Early astronomical constructions
-7600
Forests spread across Northern Europe
-7500
Jericho, the first walled settlement, is populated
-7480
Massive volcanic explosion at Lvinaya Past, in the Russian Kurile Islands
-6500
Terra-cotta statues produced in Middle East
-6500
Sumerians invent the wheel
-6200
Global cooling event, possibly caused by collapse of two giant glacial lakes in Hudson Bay area of Canada
-6200
Oldest known map is a town plan from Catal Hyuk, Turkey
-6000
Farming becomes more widespread in Europe and the Near East
-6000
Great Britain becomes an island as rising sea levels cut off mainland Europe
-5700
Kurile Lake, on the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula, formed after an enormous volcanic explosion; the caldera formed measures over 100 square kilometres
-5600
Black Sea basin filled with water from the Mediterranean; some researchers describe this as fulfilling the Biblical Flood scenario
-5000
Human cities appear; Eridu in Mesopotamia is regarded as the first city
-5000
Mining of flint in Western Europe, particularly Britain, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and France
More about: flint artefact
-4900
Massive volcanic explosion at Crater Lake, Oregon, US
-4800
Evidence of astronomical calendar stones on the Nabta plateau, near the Sudanese border in Egypt. Six megaliths mark the position where Sirius would have risen at the spring solstice
-4700
Sumerian calendar may have started around this time
-4500
Local gem industry was cutting lapis lazuli into cubic polyhedral stones with rounded edges, at Tell-i-Bakun, Iran
-4350
Enormous volcanic explosion at Kikai, in the Japanese islands
-4236
Egyptians institute the 365 day calendar
-4004
In 1650, James Ussher proposed that this was the year of Earth's creation
-4000
New Stone Age (Neolithic)
-4000
Mesopotamians recording astronomical observations
-4000
First use of light wooden ploughs in Mesopotamia
-4000
The first mines where humans began extracting useful minerals such as iron ore, tin, gold and copper appeared in the Middle East. Smelting techniques were developed to manufacture metal tools. Around that time the use of clay for brick-making became widespread
More about: mining
-3700
Egyptians develop bronze
-3500
Sumerians worship Moon god Nanna
-3500
Sumerians invent phonetic writing and numbering system
-3500
Sumerians make envelopes and tablets from clay
-3372
Mayan calendar begins
-3200
Egyptian Pharaoh Snefru brings 40 ships to Phoenicia
-3200
Construction of the Newgrange tomb in County Meath, Ireland; this had some astronomical alignment
-3200
Egyptians invent a black ink
-3000
Science of astronomy dates to around this time
-3000
Construction of a megalithic astronomical structure at Callanish, Isle of Lewis
-3000
Egyptians and Chinese independently developed binding materials similar to mortar and cement to aid construction
-3000
Cotton production underway in Asia
-3000
Major civilisations show widespread crop use, including Chinese (millet, soybeans, rice, wheat, barley)
-3000
Invention of candles
-3000
Early use of mirrors in Asia and the Middle East
-3000
Base 10 system of hieroglyphic numerals in use in Egypt
-3000
Evidence of soldering being used in Iraq
More about: bronze
More about: soldering
More about: fabrication
-2750
First recorded sea expedition by the Egyptians
-2700
Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh describes vast tracts of cedar forests in what is now southern Iraq
-2700
Some of the first laws protecting the remaining forests decreed in Ur
-2600
Large scale commercial timbering of cedars in Phoenicia (Lebanon) for export to Egypt and Sumeria. Similar commercial timbering in South India
-2500
In Asia, animal skins are used for scrolls
-2500
South Pacific exploration by the Polynesians
-2400
Earliest surviving written papyrus scroll dates to this time
-2350
En Hedu'anna, an Egyptian priestess, may be the first female astronomer and scientist ever recorded; she traced the history and progressions of the Moon and stars
-2300
Mesopotamians create a map of the city of Lagash on a stone tablet
-2300
Chinese astronomers start to observe the sky, and in 2296BC, a comet is observed for the first time
More about: comet
-2136
Solar eclipse recorded by Chinese
-2000
The oldest known recording of a Lunar eclipse took place at Ur, Mesopotamia
More about: Lunar eclipse
-2000
Standing stones built at Avebury
-2000
Temple of Amen-Ra at Karnak, Egypt, built so that its main axis points to the sunset at the summer solstice
-2000
Major drought kills many of the Mesopotamian civilisation
-2000
First possible tin working in Cornwall
-1860
Estimated construction of Stonehenge, Wiltshire, UK. Its astronomical significance is as yet undetermined
-1850
Moscow (Golenishev) papyrus contains details of early Egyptian mathematical problems with solutions
-1800
The Egyptian Book of the Dead is prepared
-1800
Babylonians begin to keep observational records
-1800
In the Middle East and Asia Minor the smelting of iron ore was developed for making tools and weapons
-1700
Bronze first appears in the United Kingdom
-1700
Windmills developed by Babylonians; they are used to pump water for irrigation
-1650
Explosion of the volcanic island of Thera (Santorini) reputedly wiped out the Cretan civilisation and gave rise to some of the many Atlantis legends
More about: volcano
-1650
Rhind (or Ahmes) papyrus provides a collection of early Egyptian mathematical problems with solutions
-1600
Chaldean astronomers identify and establish the zodiac
-1550
Hittites develop crude form of iron metallurgy
-1500
Aryans worship Moon god Varuna
-1500
Mesopotamians producing glazed brickwork
-1500
Silk weaving demonstrated by Chinese
-1500
'Phaistos disc', a clay tablet on which symbols had been imprinted, then baked, is the earliest example of printing
-1500
Flat 2-dimensional space established by Babylonians
-1450
Egyptians use the sundial to measure time
-1350
Tutankhamen invents device to chart star positions
-1300
Creation of canal linking the Nile delta to the Red Sea
-1300
Oceanic islands of Fiji, Tonga and Samoa are reached and settled
-1300
Turin Papyrus: the earliest surviving topographical map from Egypt
-1200
Iron smelting appeared in Armenia
-1000
Resin developed from lacquer tree by the Chinese - an early form of materials science
-1000
Phoenician alphabet is devised
-1000
Forge welded iron and bronze in Egypt
More about: iron
More about: bronze
More about: forge welding
-950
Leather is used for writing and scrolls
-800
First recorded sunspot observation, noted by Chinese in their Book of Changes
More about: sunspot
-750
Mesopotamian astronomers started to record Lunar and Solar eclipses
More about: Lunar eclipse
More about: Solar eclipse
-700
Practical uses for astronomy described in the works of Hesiod
-691
First aqueduct constructed to bring water to Nineveh; it was approximately 50 miles long
-650
Royal Library established by Ashurbanpial at Nineveh, including an estimated 20,000 cuneiform tablets
-650
Papyrus from Egypt first arrives in Greece
-624
Birth of Thales of Miletus, who is credited with the five theorems of elementary geometry
More about: geometry
-620
Some regions started to use gold coins as currency or for exchange of products
More about: gold
-610
Birth of Anaximander, a later pupil of Thales and one of the principal instigators of astronomy in ancient Greece
-600
According to legend, the first use of chemical warfare takes place, as Solon poisons the water supply of the Megaran army
-600
Static electricity effects generated by rubbing amber with fur recorded by Greek philosopher Thales
More about: static electricity
-600
Greek philosophers describe magnetic properties of lodestones (ferric ferrite)
More about: magnetism
-600
First astronomy texts written in India
-600
First known Chinese alchemist Lao Tzu proposed that matter was composed of 5 elements; water, metal, earth, wood, fire; and 2 forces, Yin and Yang
-600
Anaximenes of Miletus produces reconstruction of the world map
-600
Democritus and Leucippus determined that matter was made up of tiny, indivisible particles in constant motion
More about: theory
More about: atom
-580
Thales suggests that the world floats on water
-560
Anaximenes proposes the idea of a solid vault surrounding the Earth upon which the stars are fixed; this is one of the first models of the cosmos
-550
Pythagoras proposes a Solar System model
-540
Xenophanes describes fossil fish and shells found in deposits on a high mountains. Herodotus (490 BC) and Aristotle (384-322 BC) also noticed similar fossils
More about: fossils
-512
Cast iron produced from blast furnaces by Chinese
-500
Pythagoras suggests that the Earth is a sphere, rather than flat
-500
Greek coastal cities become landlocked after deforestation, which caused soil erosion. Siltation filled in the bays and mouths of rivers
-500
Cloaca Maxima (big sewer) is built in Rome by Etruscan dynasty of Tarquins
-500
Hanno explores the Northern coast of Africa
-490
Birth of Zeno of Elea who wrote a book of paradoxes, including Achilles and the tortoise
-480
Parmenides stated his belief that the world was spherical
-480
Angle of Earth's tilt to ecliptic is calculated by Oenopides
-480
Greeks used mirrors to reflect the sun and send signals at the Battle of Thermopylae
More about: signal
More about: optics
-470
Athenian teacher Anaxagoras suggests that the Sun, Moon and stars are composed of the same matter as Earth
-455
Theory of the Earth's rotation proposed by Philolaus
-450
Anaxagoras of Greece speculated that the Moon shines with the light of the Sun and so was able to explain the eclipses
More about: Eclipses
-450
Based on the Nile Delta formation, Herodotus states that the Earth is thousands of years old
-450
The Greek philosopher Empedocles announces that all matter is formed from four base elements - earth, air, fire and water
-450
Invention of the screw by Archytas of Tarentum
-440
Leucippus of Miletus introduces the concept of the atom, an indivisible unit of matter
-429
Birth of Plato around this time, most widely read of ancient Greek philosophers
More about: Plato
More about: Greek philosophy
More about: ancient philosophy
-428
Birth of Archytas who led the Pythagorean school at Tarentum
-423
Clouds by Aristophanes is a play in which a character uses a lens to reflect the Sun's rays
-417
Birth of Theaetetus of Athens whose work on the octahedron and the icosahedron and on rational and irrational quantities was incorporated in Euclid's Elements
-413
Lunar eclipse delays the withdrawal of a superstitious Athenian army from Sicily
More about: lunar eclipse
-408
Birth of Eudoxus who first explained retrograde motion
-400
Babylonian astronomers were able to predict the occurence of Lunar eclipses
More about: lunar eclipse
-400
Syracuse saw the development of catapults that fired arrows, using basic physics principles
-400
The five platonic solids are defined (tetrahedron, octahedron, icosahedron, cube, dodecahedron)
-400
Democritus develops the theory that matter is actually composed of tiny indivisible particles, which he terms atomos
-390
Plato suggests ether to be a fifth element
-387
Plato founds the Academy around this time, precursor of the university
More about: Plato
More about: Greek philosophy
More about: ancient philosophy
-385
Democritus suggests that the Milky Way is composed of many stars
-380
Birth of Menaechmus who demonstrated conic sections
-373
Greek city of Helike destroyed by an earthquake
-370
Discovery of Thule by Pytheas (Massilia); this may be Iceland or Norway
-360
Eudoxus develops a 27 sphere model of the Solar System
-360
Aristotle develops a 55 sphere model of the Solar System
-360
Aristotle discovers that free fall is an accelerated form of motion
-356
Alexander the Great explored and conquered India, Asia Minor and parts of Africa over a thirty year span
More about: Alexander great
-350
Chinese astronomer Shin Shen makes a star catalogue with 800 entries
More about: star catalogue
-350
Aristotle published Meteorologica
-350
Theophrastus, a pupil of Aristotle, suggests that fire is the most important of the four elements
-335
Aristotle established the Greek Lyceum as a focal point for philosophical, scientific and logical thinking
More about: Aristotle
-330
Heraclides suggests that the Earth rotates on its axis, and that neighbouring planets also move round the Sun in spherical orbits
-330
Aristotle publishes an astronomical work, De Caelo (On the Heavens)
-322
Aristote distinguished between metals and fossils (rocks and non metallic minerals)
-315
Description of recovery of mercury by distillation
More about: mercury
More about: processing
More about: distillation
-287
Birth of Archimedes, the famous Greek mathematician known for his studies of geometry and for his many inventions
More about: geometry
-280
Aristarchus estimates the radius of the Moon to be about one third that of the Earth, based on the Earth's Lunar shadow
-276
Birth of Eratosthenes, a Greek mathematician, known for his work on prime numbers and the resulting Sieve of Eratosthenes
-270
Aristarchus says that the Sun is at the centre of the Solar System; this is generally dismissed
More about: Solar system
-260
Aristarchus estimates the distance from the Earth to the Sun is approximately 19 times that to the Moon; the true figure is closer to 397
-240
Principle of hydrostatics formulated by Archimedes
-220
Apollonius develops a model of the Solar System using epicycles
-220
Eratosthenes made an accurate measurement of the circumference of the Earth. He plotted the angles between the perpendicular and the Sun's rays at two locations (Syene and Alexandria, Egypt) on the same meridian, which gave him a measure of the Earth's curvature between the two locations
-200
Astrolabes used to measure the angular distance between any two objects
-200
Romans and Greeks began to bind multiple wax tablets to form larger manuscripts; such a volume was known as a codex
-200
Aglaonice of Thessaly predicted eclipses
-196
The Rosetta stone was created, on which identical text was engraved in Egyptian demotic and hieroglyphic scripts, and Greek letters
-170
Pergamons invent parchment, on which scholars can write on both sides and also fold
-150
Hipparchus estimates the distance to the Moon as being 380,000 km (the mean distance is 384,000 km)
More about: Moon
-150
Principles of the astrolabe understood, by Hipparchus and Ptolemy; Hipparchus may have built a device, though it was not until circa 390 AD that the first true instruments were made; the device is used to show the positions of the Sun and other bright stars; it was used in astronomy and as a navigational tool
-140
Hipparchus invents trigonometry, one of the major mathematical and scientific breakthroughs of his time
More about: trigonometry
-134
Hipparchus discovers and reports the precession of the equinoxes
-134
Hipparchus measured the year with great accuracy and built the first star chart with around 800 stars and a brightness scale
-133
Chinese alchemist Li Shao-Chun attempted to make gold from cinnabar
-50
Phoenicians develop advanced glassblowing techniques
-46
Julius Caesar develops Solar calendar
