FROM THE BIG BANG TO THE WORLD WIDE WEB™
The Origins of Everything
List of the Top 100 Events
Time Scale One: “From Nothing to Everything”
(10+ billion years to 1 billion years ago)
1 The Big Bang: 13.7 billion years ago
2 The first stars: 13.5 billion years ago
3 The creation of the heavier elements: 13.4 billion years ago
4 The first galaxies: 13 billion years ago
5 The birth of the solar system & the earth: 4.6 billion years ago
6 The first rocks, oceans & atmosphere: 4.5 billion years ago
7 The origins of life: 3.8 billion years ago
8 The addition of oxygen to the atmosphere and oceans: 3 billion years ago
9 The first ice ages: 2.2 billion years ago
10 The rise of animals: 1 billion years ago
Time Scale Two: “All Creatures Great and Small”
(1 billion years to 100 million years ago)
11 The first definite multicellular animals: 600 million yrs ago
12 The Cambrian explosion: 543 million years ago
13 Finding the ancestor of the first vertebrates (and ourselves): 530 million years ago
14 The spread of the vertebrates (fish): 525 million years ago
15 Early amphibians: 360 million years ago
16 The first reptiles: 315 million years ago
17 The Permian extinction: 250 million years ago
18 Early mammals & dinosaurs: 220-200 million years ago
19 The earliest birds: 145 million years ago
20 The first flowering plants: 125 million years ago
Time Scale Three:“Dinosaur Extinction & Rise of Mammals”
(100 million years ago to 10 million years ago)
21 The later dinosaurs: 95 to 65 million years ago
22 The dinosaur extinction: 65 million years ago
23 The mammalian radiation: 60 million years ago
24 The formation of the Himalayas: 55 million years ago
25 The radiation of the primates: 55 million years ago
26 The origin of Australia & its animals: 40 million years ago
27 The rise of monkeys: 35 million years ago
28 The spread of grasslands and grazing animals: 25 million years ago
29 The rise of apes: 23 million years ago
30 The earliest gorilla-like forms: 10 million years ago
Time Scale Four: “Hominins: Upstanding Apes”
(10 million years to 1 million years ago)
31 The last shared ancestor of apes and humans: 7 million years ago?
32 The earliest bipedal hominins: 6 to 4 million years ago
33 The earlier australopithecines: 4.0-2.5 million years ago
34 The beginning of climatic cooling: 3 to 2 million years ago
35 The later australopithecines and their extinction: 2.6 to 1 million years ago
36 The earliest stone tools (Oldowan): 2.6 million years ago
37 The emergence of the genus Homo and brain expansion: 1.9 – 1.5 million years ago
38 The emergence of Homo erectus: 1.8 million years ago
39 The earliest Eurasians: 1.8 million years ago
40 The invention of the handaxe (Acheulean): 1.76 million years ago
Time Scale Five: “Becoming Human”
(1 million years to 100,000 years ago)
41 Homo heidelbergensis and probably language: 500,000 to 250,000 years ago
42 Later refined handaxes: 500,000 to 250,000 years ago
43 Ritual behavior: 400,000 years ago
44 The first spears: 400,000 years ago
45 Prepared core technologies:300,000 years ago
46 The controlled use of fire: 300,000 years ago
47 Neandertals & nearly modern humans: 250,000 years ago
48 The Middle Palaeolithic: 250,000 years ago
49 Intensive exploitation of seafoods: 165,000 years ago
50 The emergence of Homo sapiens: 160,000 years ago
Time Scale Six: “The Creative Explosion”
(100,000 to 10,000 years ago)
51 The earliest compound tools & points: 100,000 years ago
52 The first burials: 90,000 years ago
53 The first personal decoration: 80,000 years ago
54 The first architecture: 42,000 years ago
55 Upper Palaeolithic blade technologies: 40,000 years ago
56 Peopling of Australia & the Americas: 40,000 -12,000 years ago
57 The first representational art & music: 32,000 years ago
58 The first needles and sewing: 25,000 years ago
59 The first pottery: 16,000 years ago
60 The first bow and arrow: 11,000 years ago
Time Scale Seven: “From Farm to City”
(10,000 to 1,000 years ago)
61 The first boats: 10,000 years ago
62 The Neolithic Revolution: 10,000 years ago
63 The origins of metallurgy: 8,000 years ago
64 Ships and horse-riding: 6,000 to 5,000 years ago
65 Cities & complex societies: 5,500 years ago
66 The origins of writing: 5,500 years ago (3500 BC)
67 Wheeled vehicles: 5,000 years ago (3000 BC)
68 The advent of the Iron Age: 3,500 years ago (1500 BC)
69 The first democracy: 2,560 years ago (550 BC)
70 Large-scale Urban planning: 2,210 years ago (200 BC)
Time Scale Eight: “Ages of Enlightenment”
(1000 years to 100 years ago)
71 The rise of firearms: beginning 1300 AD
72 The Renaissance in the Western World: beginning 1400 AD
73 Age of exploration & exploitation: Beginning 1400 AD
74 The printing press and movable type: beginning 1455 AD
75 The Scientific Revolution: beginning 1543 AD
76 The Industrial Revolution: beginning 1760 AD
77 Powered modern transport: beginning 1802 AD
78 Photography & cinematography: beginning 1826 AD
79 Long-distance communication: 1830 AD
80 Electric light & power: 1879 AD
Time Scale Nine: “Modern Times”
(100 years to 10 years ago)
81 Relativity and quantum theory: late 1800s, early 1900’s
82 Rockets, satellites, lunar landings: beginning 1926 AD
83 Television: beginning 1935 AD
84 Computers, transistors, silicon chips: beginning 1937 AD
85 Jet aircraft: beginning 1937 AD
86 Penicillin and other medical advances: beginning 1941 AD
87 Dawn of the atomic age: beginning 1938 AD
88 DNA structure & genetic engineering: beginning 1953 AD
89 Advanced telecommunications: beginning 1973 AD
90 The World Wide Web: beginning 1989 AD
Time Scale Ten: “The Age of Connections”
(The last 10 years)
91 Widespread use of GPS & satellite imaging
92 Overpopulation and climate change
93 Alternative energy forms
94 Human genome project
95 Recent advances in astronomy
96 Stem cell & related research
97 Widespread use of search engines
98 The rise of nanotechnology
99 Instantaneous communication & world-wide connections
100 The idea of Sustainability
