For 2 billion years life on this planet was no more complex than single celled bacteria. Around 540 million years ago the fossil record starts to show many different multicelled creatures. Geologists call the rapid expansion in the diversity of life during this period the Cambrian Explosion
Plants start to colonise land.
Animals start to colonise land.
A supervolcano, which many believe is the largest volcano in the history of the planet, erupts at Toba, Sumatra (Indonesia)
Oldest known counting artefact, a notched baboon bone, discovered in Swaziland
Gravettian culture established in Central and Eastern Europe expands east and west reaching into Britain
The Ice Age ends. Glaciers retreat. Water levels rise by 40m mainly due to the melting of the North American ice sheet.
Period of intense cold. Glaciers in Britain re-form
Melting glaciers raise the sea levels, flooding the lower lying coastal parts of continental Europe. Some outlying lands become islands, the largest of these islands is now called Great Britain.
Flint is rare in this region, but during the Ice Age glaciers moving along the Irish Sea deposited flint on the beaches around Aberystwyth. Evidence has been found of a Mesolithic(8000-400BC) settlement just south of the harbour. Flint was fashioned into tools and weapons and is believed to have been traded with inland tribes in this area.
Copper smelted for the 1st time (in Iran)
Britain's earliest attempts at farming and forest clearing.
Sea levels continue to rise - now 8m below the current levels
Earth circle built at Stonehenge
Cotton woven for the 1st time - Indus Valley, India
Silk produced in China
Earliest known game found at the city of Ur - Mesopotamia (Iraq). This is a recognisable precursor to backgammon.
Zoser Pyramid is the worlds 1st large man-made stone structure (Egypt)
Egypt combined when the kingdom of Upper Egypt defeated Lower Egypt
Horse 1st domesticated by nomads in Ukraine
Nei Ching: Worlds oldest known medical text (Huang Ti in China)
Pyramids built at Giza (Egypt)
Iron Age starts in Middle East, it will take 1000 years for the knowledge of how to attain a temperature of 1500°C required for smelting iron to spread around Africa and Eurasia.
written for Ur-Nammu, ruler of Sumeria between 2112BC and 2095BC, and now know as the Ur-Nammu codex, is the earliest known sets if written laws. Iraq
Large stones transported from Wales by the Beaker People to form the stone circles of Stonehenge.
Copper is mined at Plynlimon (Mountain 15km east of Aber and the wettest place in Britain where it rains 2 out of 3 days)
Mathematics practised in Sumeria (southern Mesopotamia [southeastern Iraq])
Medicine practised in Sumeria (southern Mesopotamia [southeastern Iraq])
Volcanic eruption of the Greek Aegean island of Santorini produces very cold winter
Tutankhamun is buried at Thebes Egypt
First Celts appear (in the upper Danube)
Stone circle at Stonehenge completed
After a period where the wages and promises due the builders and artisans at the Thebes' necropolis (Egypt) are forgotten, the workers go on strike. This is the world 1st ever recorded strike. When this proves ineffective they begin to loot the tombs.
David becomes king of Israel
Solomon becomes king of Israel
Homer inscribes the Iliad and Odyessy - collections of myths, folk tales and history from the previous couple of hundred years! (Greece)
1st recorded Olympic Games (Greece)
Rome Founded Italy
Astronomy started in Babylon - able to predict eclipses (Iraq)
Coinage invented in Lydia Turkey
World's 1st university formed at Takshashila Pakistan
Buddha born in what is now Nepal
Pythagoras (Greece)
Confucius the Chinese philosopher is born
Persian Empire absorbs Egypt
Rome becomes a Republic (Italy)
Buddhist university formed at Nalanda India
Socrates (Greece)
Parthenon (in Athens) completed (Greece)
Plato (Greece)
Celts overrun Rome (Italy)
Aristotle (Greece)
Amongst work on many subjects, Theophrastus, produces, Historia Plantarum and De Causis Plantarum which would remain the most important books on botany for 1500 years. (Greece)
'Celts' enter Britain.
Note that work on stonehenge started 1700 years before the Celts arrived in Britain.
Genetic and archaeological evidence indicates that the Celts didn't arrive in huge numbers and overrun the island, but rather that
the local population adopted many of the new technical advances and cultural fashions that a small number of people from the mainland brought with them.
Aristotle returns to Athens to open a lyceum containing a museum of natural history and a library (Greece)
Large amounts of wheat is grown in south-east England and threshed in large barns
Euclid's 13 volume compendium on geometry Elements remained the most important work on mathematics for over 2000 years. (Greece)
Egypt conquered by Alexander the Great
Archimedes born in Syracuse (Italy)
Built in 323BC, the library and museum at Alexandria are, by this time, being used by the scholars of many nations
1st major 'Great Wall's of China' of which little now remains cf the wall that was started in 1368 Building the Great Wall of China.
The 8000km trading route called the 'Silk Road' extends out of China as far west as Iran
Evidence has been found of an Iron age Hill Fort on Pendinas (Hill on the southern edge of Aberystwyth) the ramparts of which can easily be seen today. From it's size it is believed to have supported a population of about 100. The fort is believed to have been built by invaders from the sea.
Julius Caesar leads expedition into Britain
Julius Caesar leads invasion of Britain
The Julian calendar with an average year length of 365¼ days is introduced into the Roman world
Probable date of the birth of Jesus
In the current western calendar the year 1BC is followed by the year 1 AD - there is no year zero