Made by Denis Shiryaev, shir-man.com
Earth History Timeline

Understanding Earth's Vast History in a Manageable Timeline

Earth's history spans approximately 4.6 billion years, encompassing the formation of the planet, the emergence of life, and significant evolutionary milestones. To better grasp the immense timescales involved, we've condensed this vast history into a 46-year timeline. Each year in this scaled timeline represents roughly 100 million years, allowing us to visualize and appreciate the major events that have shaped our world.

Below is a table listing various historical and prehistorical events, scaled to fit within this 46-year framework. This visualization highlights the relative brevity of human existence compared to the planet's extensive history.

Event Scaled Duration
🌍 Formation of Earth46 years
🦠 First forms of life37 years
🌱 First land plants7 years
🧬 First multicellular organisms6 years
🦕 First mammals2 years, 18 days, 6 hours
☄️ Extinction of dinosaurs237 days, 6 hours
🔥 First human control of fire3 days, 15 hours, 36 minutes
👤 Appearance of Homo sapiens1 days, 2 hours, 16 minutes, 47 seconds
🔨 First human tools8 hours, 45 minutes, 36 seconds
👣 Migration out of Africa6 hours, 7 minutes, 55 seconds
🧊 Last Ice Age (Glacial Maximum)1 hours, 45 minutes, 7 seconds
🎨 Cave paintings at Lascaux, France1 hours, 29 minutes, 21 seconds
🌾 Invention of agriculture52 minutes, 33 seconds
🏛️ Foundation of the first cities31 minutes, 32 seconds
⚙️ Invention of the wheel28 minutes, 54 seconds
✍️ Development of writing27 minutes, 51 seconds
🔺 Construction of the Egyptian pyramids24 minutes, 2 seconds
🏃 First Olympic Games14 minutes, 43 seconds
✝️ Birth of Jesus Christ10 minutes, 38 seconds
🏛️ Fall of the Western Roman Empire8 minutes, 8 seconds
⚔️ Rise of Kievan Rus5 minutes, 59 seconds
⚓ Amsterdam founded3 minutes, 56 seconds
🎨 Mona Lisa painted2 minutes, 44 seconds
📚 Publication of Newton's "Principia"1 minutes, 45 seconds
🏭 Start of the Industrial Revolution1 minutes, 23 seconds
🦅 USA founded1 minutes, 18 seconds
⚜️ French Revolution1 minutes, 13 seconds
💫 Publication of Einstein's Theory of Relativity37 seconds
✈️ Start of World War II26 seconds
🧠 Early research on neural networks (Perceptron)20 seconds
🚀 First human spaceflight19 seconds
👨‍🚀 First human on the Moon17 seconds
📱 First commercially available mobile phone12 seconds
🕳️ First image of a black hole published1 seconds
🦠 End of COVID-19 Emergency Phase< 1 second

Time Scale Calculator

Calculate how an event from the past would scale in our 46-year timeline.