discs fill with colour as time passes towards the present (further explanation below ⇓); timeline summary ⇒; synopsis
⇒
|
I. COSMOLOGICAL ANTECEDENTS
⇓ ⇒
13,800,000,000
Big Bang singularity, creation of all particles of matter and counterpart antimatter, and the laws of physics governing their interactions; expansion and cooling of space → formation of the observable Universe, its
galaxies, solar systems, stars, planets, moons, asteroids and comets
13,550,000,000
ignition of hydrogen stars, bathing the Universe in first light of cosmic dawn → earliest galaxies of stars forming 400 million years after the Big Bang; helium in stars fusing into carbon, leading to
stellar nucleosynthesis of all elements
13,000,000,000
aggregation of stars into the Milky Way galaxy: now a warped disc of 100 billion stars, one of 2 trillion galaxies in the observable Universe
12,200,000,000
earliest water: an interstellar vapour, and repository for oxygen
4,570,000,000
formation of the Sun and Solar System within the Milky Way, orbiting a supermassive black hole, Sagittarius
A*, at its Galactic
Centre every 220 million years
4,510,000,000
formation of the Moon from a giant impact with proto-Earth
4,500,000,000
formation of planet Earth with 510 million km² of surface area, orbiting the Sun on a yearly cycle, rotating eastward on a daily cycle around a tilted axis that perpetuates opposing polar seasons
4,400,000,000
formation of Earth’s oceans and moist atmosphere, protected from solar wind and cosmic rays by Earth’s magnetosphere generated by its
iron core
4,400,000,000
earliest subduction of Earth’s crust → continental plate tectonics by 3 billion years ago, unique to Earth in the Solar System
4,300,000,000
basaltic rock glass catalyses formation of RNA (Hadean Eon): long-strand molecules carrying information across self-replicating generations and synthesising peptides → pre-biotic RNA world
II. HUMAN ANCESTRY AND EVOLUTION
1. Evolution of life on Earth ⇑ ⇓ ⇒
4,000,000,000
earliest life on Earth: single-celled prokaryotic Archaea (Hadean Eon, 3.7-4.2 billion years ago), with inherited genes composed of stable DNA instructing the translation of RNA in ribosomes into proteins that perform cell functions → planet Earth harbouring
the only life in the Universe?
3,500,000,000
photosynthesising bacteria amongst the Archaea (Archean Eon), converting sunlight into chemical energy to fuel cellular activity
3,400,000,000
earliest atmospheric oxygen, present at low levels (Archean Eon)
3,200,000,000
emergence of Earth’s first continents from the ocean (Archean Eon, 3.2 to 3.3 billion years ago), supporting microbial mats in Earth’s first land ecosystem
2,330,000,000
the Great Oxygenation Event: 1-10 million years of rapidly accumulating atmospheric oxygen (Proterozoic Eon), a product of photosynthesis and energy source for complex life
2,100,000,000
early multicellular life, with cell-to-cell signalling and coordinated responses (Proterozoic Eon) → 37 trillion mutually-dependent cells in an adult human body
1,700,000,000
earliest Eukaryotes amongst the Prokaryotes, arising from the merger of an archaeon with a bacterium: sexual reproduction with meiosis and recombination of genetic material from two parents (Proterozoic Eon)
890,000,000
earliest Metazoa – animals – amongst the Eukaryotes: sponges (Proterozoic Eon), prior to Snowball Earth episodes of worldwide glaciation
700,000,000
Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event: 100 million years of rising photosynthesis with lengthening days as Earth’s rotational speed slows, improving conditions for complex life
635,000,000
earliest stem Cnidaria amongst the animals (early Ediacaran Period), ancestor of jellyfish and hydra: nervous system and sleep/wake cycle → without sleep we die
550,000,000
earliest bilaterian animals, with left-right symmetry (Ediacaran Period): burrowing Ikaria with mouth and gut for scavenging, segmented Yilingia with paired legs and musculature for roaming
540,000,000
explosion in animal diversification over 20 million years (earliest Cambrian Period); emergence of modern body plans, resolving to phyla over 40 million years
535,000,000
earliest chordates amongst the bilaterians (Early Cambrian Period): notochord and pharyngeal gill slits
520,000,000
earliest acute visual perception: compound and stalked eyes of stem arthropods (Cambrian Period) → vision catalysing animal diversification
500,000,000
first colonisation of land by plants: algae of the Middle Cambrian Period, probably facilitated by fungi → continental greening that creates soils and meanders rivers
480,000,000
radiation of vertebrates amongst the chordates (Ordovician Period): aquatic with a mineralised skeleton, armour and scales
445,000,000
mass extinction in two pulses across 1 million years, eliminating more than three-quarters of all species (Late Ordovician Period), linked to volcanic activity
420,000,000
earliest jawed vertebrates amongst the fishes (Late Silurian Period) → diversification of feeding niches; capacity for yawning, omnipresent across disparate modern lineages
407,000,000
earliest acoustic communication, by aquatic vertebrates (Early Devonian Period): sound production and hearing for signalling, displaying and surveillance
407,000,000
earliest woody stems of vascular plants (Early Devonian Period) → evolution driven by hydraulic constraints, pre-adapting plants for taller morphologies
394,000,000
earliest tetrapods amongst the vertebrates (Devonian Period): limbs replacing paired fins; still fully aquatic
385,000,000
earliest forests (Devonian Period, New York State, North America) → three-dimensional terrestrial habitat; rising atmospheric O₂ and diminishing CO₂
375,000,000
mass extinction in a series of pulses across 20 million years, eliminating more than two-thirds of all species (Late Devonian Period), linked to climatic cooling
350,000,000
earliest land vertebrates (Early Carboniferous Period): semi-aquatic amphibian tetrapods
340,000,000
earliest fully terrestrial tetrapod vertebrates, laying amniote eggs (Carboniferous Period)
251,900,000
Earth’s largest mass extinction, eliminating nine tenths of all species during 61 thousand years (Permian-Triassic transition), caused by hot and acidifying volcanic CO₂ emissions from the Siberian Traps
233,000,000
dawn of the modern world: major biological turnover linked to volcanism (Late Triassic Period) → rapid diversifications and originations of conifers, insects, dinosaurs, reptiles and stem mammals
201,300,000
mass extinction event, eliminating more than two-thirds of all species (Triassic-Jurassic transition), linked with volcanic CO₂ equivalent to projections for
CE 21ˢᵗ century anthropogenic emissions
200,000,000
earliest warm-blooded stem mammals (Late Triassic): faster metabolism sustaining endothermy in a cooler climate
178,000,000
earliest true mammals amongst the terrestrial vertebrates (Jurassic Period): fur and endothermy; natural lifespan of 3,200 somatic mutations → humans averaging 47 annually
135,000,000
major radiations of flowering plants and their insect pollinators in the Early Cretaceous Period: an “abominable mystery” (Charles Darwin, 1879)
101,500,000
aerobic bacteria embed into oxic sediment of the South Pacific Gyre, reviving after 101.5 million years to grow into microbial communities
90,000,000
earliest mammal louse (Cretaceous Period) → body-, pubic- and head-lice, bedbugs, screwworms and botflies, fleas, ticks, scabies and chiggers amongst the ectoparasites of modern humans, with 300 worm and 70 protozoan endoparasites
66,000,000
abrupt mass extinction of non-avian dinosaurs, with three-quarters of all species, following the springtime impact of a 9-km wide asteroid at Chicxulub, Mexico (Cretaceous-Paleogene transition) → rapid
diversification of flowering plants and mammals
55,000,000
earliest primates amongst the mammals (Eocene Epoch): brachiation
44,000,000
divergence of Old World from New World primates (Eocene Epoch): colour vision, opposable thumbs, sociality; capacity to grieve, as in other mammals, and to recognise
deceptions; extended sexuality → extreme in humans
25,200,000
earliest hominoids (apes) amongst the Old World primates (Tanzania, Oligocene Epoch): tailless, enlarged brain; dawn of speech in contrasting vowel sounds – no language without vowels
16,800,000
earliest hominids (great apes) amongst the hominoid gibbons in Asia: larger body size and sexual dimorphism; nest-making, play, empathy, long-distance communication by drumming; capacity for self-medication, as in
other animals
13,000,000
hominids Pierolapithecus catalaunicus in Spain, and Nyanzapithecus alesi in Kenya, possible ancestors of hominins and modern apes respectively, the former with upright posture
7,000,000
earliest hominins Sahelanthropus, then Orrorin and Ardipithecus, amongst the hominids in Africa: reduced canines, arboreal habit, bipedal capability
4,200,000
replacement of the earliest hominins by Australopithecus spp. in Africa: fully upright, bipedal and free-striding gait
3,300,000
earliest knapped stone artefacts (Kenya): Lomekwian tools → hominin technological behaviour
2. Human evolution
⇑ ⇓ ⇒
2,800,000
earliest human, Homo sp., amongst the hominins (Ledi-Geraru, Ethiopia): rounded chin as Australopithecus afarensis, but smaller and slimmer molars as the later Homo habilis
2,700,000
rise of co-existing hominin genus Paranthropus (East Africa)
2,600,000
incorporation of meat and marrow into generalist diets of hominins (Africa)
2,600,000
earliest stone tools produced by humans (Gona, Ethiopia): Oldowan tools, chopping through flesh, bone, bark
2,588,000
start of the current geological period of Quaternary glaciation, possibly initiated by a supernova blast 150-300 light-years away, luminous as the full Moon
2,400,000
Homo habilis in Africa, using stone tools for cleaving meat from bone
2,120,000
earliest evidence of human ancestors outside of Africa: tool-using hominins in Shangchen, southern China
2,000,000
early Homo erectus, direct ancestor of modern humans, coexisting with Australopithecus – soon extinct, and Paranthropus (South Africa): delayed maturity, enlarged brain and smaller teeth
1,800,000
migrations of Homo erectus from Africa to Eurasia (Georgia; to Lantian in northern China by 1.63 million years ago; to Java by 1.5
million years ago); ecological success underwritten by postmenopausal care of young?
1,700,000
earliest stone hand axes (Tanzania): Acheulean tools, standardised for butchering, cutting, stripping, hammering, drilling → population mobility
1,500,000
earliest control of fire, by Homo erectus (Koobi Fora, Kenya) → uniquely human capability widespread by 400,000 years ago, extending the day by firelight, improving nutritive intake with cooked food
1,500,000
male-male alliances in Homo erectus social groups (Ileret, Kenya): cooperative networks, perhaps including unrelated individuals
1,400,000
earliest organic tools: a hand axe made from hippopotamus bone (Ethiopia) → conscious symbolism?
1,400,000
replacement of Homo habilis by Homo erectus in Africa
1,000,000
extinction of Paranthropus (South Africa), our last remaining sibling genus
900,000
Homo antecessor in western Europe (Atapuerca, Spain), closely related to the last common ancestor of Neanderthals, Denisovans and modern humans
900,000
flint scrapers associated with Homo antecessor (Atapuerca, Spain), suitable for preparing animal hides → clothing?
800,000
earliest cannibalism, in Homo antecessor (Gran Dolina, Spain), practised throughout human history; social motivation?
700,000
diminutive Homo floresiensis on the Indonesian island of Flores, probable descendent of Homo erectus
700,000
rise of Homo heidelbergensis in Africa and Europe, possible ancestor of Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis; cooking meat and starchy plants
500,000
earliest abstract markings: a zigzag engraving on shell by Homo erectus (Indonesia) → uniquely human capacity for abstraction
500,000
earliest use of stone-tipped spears, by Homo heidelbergensis (South Africa) for hunting large game
450,000
rise of Neanderthals Homo neanderthalensis across Europe: similar brain size but fewer neurones compared to modern humans
430,000
Denisovans diverge from Neanderthals (southern Siberia) → Tibetan Plateau and Laos by 160,000 years ago; subsequent interbreeding, possibly also with
Homo erectus
400,000
multiple hominin dispersals across Arabia (Nefud Desert), during windows of desert greening at four-, three-, two- and one-hundred thousand years ago
400,000
earliest evidence of food storage for later consumption: bone marrow (Qesem Cave, Israel) → food economy, incentivised by anticipation of future need
320,000
long-distance transport of obsidian for fine blades and points, and ochre for pigments (Kenya) → technological transition to Middle Stone Age during intensifying climate swings
315,000
earliest representatives of our species, Homo sapiens (Jebel Irhoud, Morocco): facial and dental structure similar to modern humans, yet still archaic elongation of the braincase
300,000
wooden spears and lances used by Homo heidelbergensis for hunting large herbivores (Schöningen, Germany)
250,000
replacement of Homo heidelbergensis by Homo neanderthalensis in Europe, and by Homo sapiens in Africa over the subsequent 100,000 years
210,000
Homo sapiens enter Eurasia (Greece): first of multiple dispersals out of Africa by humans with early modern traits, including globular braincase and descended larynx facilitating spoken
language
200,000
earliest adhesive: birch tar used by Neanderthals for hafting stone tools (Campitello, Italy) → pyrotechnology
III. CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
3. Hunter-gatherer nomads ⇑ ⇓ ⇒
176,000
earliest built constructions: underground edifices made from broken stalagmites by Neanderthals (Bruniquel Cave, France) → material culture
171,000
earliest record of fire technology, by Neanderthals: boxwood digging sticks with shafts worked smooth by controlled burning (Poggetti Vecchi, Italy)
170,000
widespread use of clothing, setting humans apart from all other animals, evidenced in the divergence of clothing lice from head lice (Africa)
160,000
coastal shellfish harvested by Homo sapiens in southern Africa, and by Neanderthals in the Mediterranean → fatty acids boosting cognitive development
142,000
earliest symbolic ornaments: marine-shell beads made by humans in Morocco, spreading to the Levant; painted beads by Neanderthals in Spain by 115,000 years ago
126,000
Homo with mix of archaic-human and Neanderthal traits (Nesher Ramla, Israel): stone-tool industry, cooking meat; cultural exchange with humans?
125,000
prelude to Earth’s Last Glacial Period: global average temperatures never again as high until
CE 2021, during intensifying anthropogenic warming
120,000
burial of dead, by anatomically modern humans in Qafzeh Cave, Israel, and by Neanderthals in Tabun Cave, Israel: mortuary rituals, mourning the dead
110,000
last appearance of Homo erectus (Ngandong, Java), 1.89 million years after its first appearance → the longest enduring species of human
105,000
hording of non-utilitarian objects by Homo sapiens: crystals and ostrich eggshell fragments (Kalahari, southern Africa)
100,000
interbreeding of Homo sapiens with Homo neanderthalensis (Siberia) → accumulation of modern traits through gene flow
100,000
toolkit for mixing and storing pigments: ochre, charcoal, bone, hammerstones, grindstones and abalone-shell containers (Blombos Cave, South Africa) → complex human cognition
100,000
earliest human etchings on rock: cross-hash decorations or symbols (Blombos Cave, South Africa) → conceptual imagination
90,000
manufacture of bone harpoons, for hunting catfish (Semliki river, DR Congo)
90,000
fisher-hunter-gatherer Neanderthals eating mussels, crab, eels, sea bream and shark, dolphins and seals, hoofed game and waterfowl; pine-nut economy (Figueira Brava, Portugal)
78,000
earliest symbolic human burial, a 3-year old Homo sapiens (Panga ya Saidi Cave, Kenya): funerary practices by our ancestors
77,000
construction of bedding from sedges, topped with aromatic leaves containing insecticidal and larvicidal chemicals (Sibudu rock shelter, South Africa)
75,000
earliest jewellery fashions: shifts in styles of threaded shell beads (Blombos Cave, South Africa)
73,000
earliest drawing by humans: criss-crossed lines on a grindstone drawn with red-ochre crayon (Blombos Cave, South Africa)
71,000
earliest heat-treatment of bladelets, for atlatl darts or arrows (South Africa): communication of complex technology → emergence of the modern mind
65,000
rapid colonisation of Australia by humans during 5,000 years (ancient Sahul): maritime exploration; transecting the continent along superhighways
64,800
earliest symbolic cave paintings by Neanderthals (La Pasiega Cave, Spain)?
60,000
earliest notation, with notched-bone tally marks by Neanderthals (Les Pradelles, France) → uniquely human number culture and record keeping
60,000
symbolic burial of dead by Neanderthals (La Chapelle-aux-Saints, France): funerary practices
60,000
range expansion of modern humans out of Africa into Eurasia, beginning 60,000 years ago and enduring 10,000 years
54,000
modern humans, Homo sapiens, settling briefly in western Europe (Grotte Mandrin, France)? – preceded by and preceding Neanderthal settlements
51,000
a giant deer’s phalanx bone becomes a Neanderthal artist’s canvas, prepared by scraping and boiling before etching (Harz Mountains, Germany)
50,000
earliest use of cord: three-plied bark fibres (Abri du Maras, France) → clothing, mats, baskets, nets, rope, snares, fishing lines, watercraft
50,000
earliest eyed needle, made from bone by Denisovans (Denisova Cave, Siberia), suitable for tailoring garments
50,000
Neanderthal fire-lighting technology (France): striking flint axes with mineral pyrite → wood the predominant fuel for cooking and heating until the
CE 19ᵗʰ century
50,000
Eurasian Homo sapiens co-existing with Homo floresiensis (soon extinct) and Homo luzonensis, interbreeding with Neanderthals and Denisovans
48,000
self-medication by Neanderthals, with pain-killing salicylic acid in poplar leaves, and antibiotic-producing Penicillium mould (El Sidrón, Spain)
46,000
anatomically modern humans, Homo sapiens, established in Europe (Bacho Kiro, Bulgaria), mating with Neanderthals, spreading eastwards.
45,500
earliest representational art, a red-ochre composition of Sulawesi warty pigs (Leang Tedongnge, Sulawesi): narrative stories
45,000
extinction of giant flightless mihirung thunder birds, hastened by human exploitation of their eggs (Australia)
44,000
earliest figurative painting (Sulawesi Island, Indonesia), of therianthropes hunting anoa and pigs: mythological stories
42,000
earliest musical instruments: bone and ivory flutes (Swabian Jura, Germany) → stirring the emotions with harmony, melody, rhythm, timbre; no human society without music
42,000
earliest record of fish-hooks, manufactured from broken shell (East Timor): deep-sea fishing for pelagic tuna and parrotfish, sharks and marine turtles
41,500
most recent reversal of Earth’s magnetic poles, lasting 500 years, decreasing stratospheric ozone, driving global climate shifts and extinction events
40,000
anatomically modern humans replace Neanderthals, our last remaining sibling species
40,000
earliest habitual use of solid footwear (Sunghir, Russia), opening permafrost regions to occupancy → hay socks by 5,000 years ago
40,000
full development of language, facilitating efficient social bonding through gossip → now over 7,000 living languages, over 2,000 vanishing
40,000
earliest figurative sculpture: an ivory figurine of a therianthrope with lion’s head and human torso (Hohlenstein, Germany)
40,000
earliest image of human form: a hand stencil (Maros karsts, Sulawesi)
37,000
earliest artistic representation of human form: engravings of vulvas (Abri Castanet, France): fertility symbol?
35,000
earliest animation in cave art (Grotte Chauvet-Pont d’Arc, France): breaking down animal movement, prefiguring cinema
35,000
earliest fully human sculpture and female imagery: a mammoth-ivory ‘Venus’ figurine (Hohle Fels, Germany): fertility totem?
35,000
a giant virus freezes into Siberian permafrost, melting back to virulent activity 35,000 years later
32,600
food-plant processing, of dried wild oats with grindstones (Grotta Paglicci, Italy; soon appearing across Europe, Australia) → flour for storage and cooking
32,000
fruits of the campion Silene stenophylla freeze in Siberian tundra, regenerating from cryobiosis 32,000 years later into fertile plants
32,000
possible first human incursions into the Americas (Mexico), certainly within the next 11,000 years (New Mexico), migrating along the coast from Siberia?
31,000
earliest surgical amputation, of a child’s lower leg (Borneo); subsequent survival for 6 to 9 years, then burial
30,000
earliest woven fabrics, made from dyed fibres of wild flax (Georgia) → baskets, textile clothing
29,500
earliest stone statuette: ochre-tinted oolitic limestone Venus of Willendorf (Austria)
29,000
earliest fishing-net sinkers (South Korea) → modern industrial fishing currently in 55% of ocean area, covering 4× agricultural area
25,000
a coronavirus epidemic sweeps through East Asia, driving genetic adaptations still present in modern humans
24,000
use of poison arrows, with wooden ricin applicator (Lebombo mountains, South Africa)
24,000
a bdelloid rotifer freezes into ice in the Alayeza river (Russian Arctic), reviving 24,000 years later to full vigour
23,000
fisher-hunter-gatherer brush huts (Sea of Galilee, Israel): sealed floor, hearth, berry and seed stockpiles, grindstones, sleeping area with grass bedding
23,000
first domestication: dogs from grey wolves Canis lupus (Siberia or Japan), for companionship, hunting technology, and pulling sledges → 700 million dogs by
CE 21ˢᵗ century
20,000
earliest pottery vessels (Xianrendong Cave, China): cooking food in pots during the Last Glacial Maximum
20,000
beginning of sea-level rise from deglaciation in a warming global climate; stabilising at today’s 120-m higher levels by c. 10,000 years ago
19,000
replacement of early modern humans across Eurasia by the ancestors of today’s populations
15,000
introgression of last remaining Denisovans into the modern human genome? Anatomically modern humans henceforth the only hominin
15,000
colonisation and occupation of North America by humans, from northeastern Siberia over the Bering land bridge, bringing their dogs
15,000
colonisation of South America (Huaca Prieta, Coastal Peru); humans henceforth occupying every continental landmass on Earth, except Antarctica
15,000
semi-permanent forager settlements of Natufians (Levant), evidenced by presence of house mice
15,000
earliest record of a string instrument: the musical bow (cave painting at Trois Frères, France) → music initiated outside the body
15,000
earliest thaumatrope (Laugerie-Basse, France): an optical toy, creating movement by juxtaposition of images
14,400
evidence of baking bread: unleavened flatbread from wild einkorn and club-rush tubers (Shubayqa, Jordan); caries from consumption of starchy foods
14,000
earliest lime plaster, used as an adhesive for hafting (Kebaran, Levant) → mortar by 3,000 years ago
13,400
earliest evidence of inter-communal violence on a large scale, with projectile impacts and blunt-force trauma (Jebel Sahaba, northern Sudan): warfare and conflict driving human misery
12,800
climate shift contributing to megafaunal extinctions and human cultural changes (Younger Dryas): triggered by a comet airburst over North America and Europe?
12,300
earliest evidence of humans using tobacco (West Desert, North America)
12,000
extinction of megafauna including woolly mammoths from continental Eurasia and North America, caused by human hunting and climate change
11,700
start of the Holocene Epoch within the Quaternary Period, characterised by warm and stable climate until the late
CE 20ᵗʰ century
11,700
in the Mojave desert a seed germinates and grows into a deadly creosote bush, which segments to sprout new stems, sprouting and segmenting for 11,700 years
11,600
earliest monumental ritual art (Shigir, Siberia): 5-m tall larchwood plank carved with human forms and signs → complex ideas expressed by hunter-gatherers
4. Agricultural farming and settlements
⇑ ⇓ ⇒
BCE 9500
cultivation of wild barley and oats around village settlements (Fertile Crescent) → dawn of farming on the Anatolian peninsula; storable grains sustaining population growth
9500
earliest monumental temple (Göbekli Tepe, Anatolia): carved stone stelae up to 4-m tall serving ritualistic purposes; associated skull cult; ceremonial porridge and beer
9500
earliest use of brick architecture: sun-dried mudbricks (Anatolia and the Levant, spreading to Mesopotamia) → fired bricks by 3000
BCE (China)
9000
earliest continuous settlements (southern Levant), including Jericho: stone and mudbrick architecture developing into a walled city of up to 3,000 people → modern cities of 30 million people
9000
earliest artistic representation of human sexual intercourse: 10-cm phallic sculpture of sensual and tender intimacy (Ain Sakhri, Levant)
8400
domestication of goats and sheep (Fertile Crescent and Turkey) → milk, meat, wool, hide and capital from 1.2 billion sheep and 1.1 billion goats by
CE 2019, rising trend
8100
global population of humans passes 5 million; annual energy use per person averages 1,700 kWh, 2.4× the resting metabolism
8000
continental ice-sheets withdraw from Europe and North America
8000
domestication of cattle, from aurochs (Near East and Indus Valley) → haulage, milk, meat, hide and capital from 1.5 billion head of cattle by
CE 2019, rising trend
8000
domestication of cats, from Near Eastern wildcats Felis silvestris lybica (Middle East) → 400 million domestic cats by
CE 20ᵗʰ century, a substantial threat to wildlife
8000
domestication of wheat (Mesopotamia): hybrid vigour efficiently converting solar energy into food energy → 772 million tonnes per year by
CE 2017, using 218 million ha of land:
peak production?
8000
domestication of the bottle gourd Lagenaria siceraria, indigenous to Africa, in the Americas from Asian stock: global diffusion for containers, musical instruments, fishing floats
8000
earliest record of artistic expression through dance, as rite of passage (engravings in Addaura II Cave, Sicily): rhythms that elevate the spirit → collective desire for cosmic order
7500
domestication of chickens from red junglefowl (Southeast Asia) → meat and eggs from 25.9 billion chickens by
CE 2019 and rising, 5× the biomass of all wild birds
7200
earliest large-scale representations of complete human forms: lime plaster statues 1-m tall (Ain Ghazal, Jordan)
7000
big-game hunting practised by females and males (Wilamaya Patjxa, Andean highlands) → strong male bias across recent hunter-gatherer societies
7000
domestication of the potato (Andes, southern Peru) → 370 million tonnes per year by
CE 2019, using 17 million ha of land; a food-security crop worldwide, not a globally traded commodity
7000
domestication of pigs (Anatolia and China) → meat, hide, bristles, medical research and capital from 1.0 billion pigs by
CE 2015: peak production?
7000
rise of Transeurasian languages, with the spread of millet farming from the Liao River Valley (north-eastern China) → 80 languages now spoken from Istanbul to Tokyo
6500
earliest mining of metal: heating, hammering and grinding copper into projectile points (Great Lakes, North America)
6500
earliest cattle dairying (north-western Anatolia), for milk and its products of cheese and ghee: protein and fat obtained without killing the capital asset
6500
beginning of a wave of migrations from the Middle East northwest through Anatolia, spreading farming practices into Europe
6000
domestication of rice (Asia) → 763 million tonnes per year by
CE 2018, using 166 million ha of land, with potential to boost yield by more than a third through genetic modification
6000
foraging for honey (Mesolithic painting in the Araña Caves, Spain) → 90 million beehives by
CE 2019
5900
earliest grape wine and viniculture (South Caucasus) → wine as a social lubricant, medicine and commodity throughout western civilisation
5900
start of the Copper Age (Fertile Crescent), spread of copper smelting for weapons and tools
5800
cultivation of cotton Gossypium barbadense (north Peru); G. arboreum cultivated in Pakistan by 5500
BCE → clothing, fishing nets, sheets, towels, rugs, wadding
5600
cultivation of poppies for opium (western Mediterranean), widespread by 4500
BCE, domestication by 3100
BCE → psychoactive, medicinal and alimentary uses
5500
flooding of the Black Sea from the Mediterranean Sea: perhaps the great flood of the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the biblical flood of Noah’s Ark
5500
earliest salt production, by evaporation of brine (Provadia-Solnitsata, Bulgaria): preserving food, enhancing flavour → high consumption in Western diet, with no evolutionary precedent
5480
extraordinarily large influx of cosmic rays from an abnormal Sun, possibly caused by solar proton events → potential for DNA damage on a global scale
5200
earliest use of bitumen, for waterproofing reed-bundle boats (As-Sabiyah, Kuwait) → 65 billion tons of asphalt in roads and pavements by
CE 2020
5200
earliest seaborne trading networks (Aegean for obsidian, Persian Gulf for Ubaid pottery), with mast and sail technology: the earliest harnessing of natural forces to replace human labour
5100
ritual landscape of large-scale mustatil monuments (northern Saudi Arabia): entranceways to courtyards, chambers, orthostats; associated cattle cult
5050
earliest burials by ritualistic mummification (Chinchorro, Atacama), some involving disassembly of the body
5000
rise of languages with subject-verb-object syntax – as in English – from the root syntax of subject-object-verb (proto-Indo-European), and expansion westward; other combinations arise later
5000
cultivation of sugarcane (Indo-China); spreading to Africa and the Americas, slave labour providing sugar to Europe and North America from the
CE 16ᵗʰ century → most productive biofuel
5000
domestication of bananas from Musa acuminata and subsequent hybridisations (Papua New Guinea) → 1 trillion bananas produced annually by 2020; rising trend, subject to disease risks
5000
domestication of tobacco (Andean Highlands, South America), spreading to North America by 1520
BCE → smoking kills 100 million people worldwide in
CE 20ᵗʰ century, the worst preventable
killer
5000
domestication of donkeys (East Africa), spreading rapidly throughout Eurasia → first land-based transport: pack animals for transporting materials and water, transforming society
4800
earliest artistic representation of introspection: Thinker and Sitting Woman figurines (Hamangia culture, Cernavodă, Romania) → capacity for soul-searching and contemplation
4200
domestication of maize (Mexico) → 1.15 billion tonnes per year by
CE 2019 using 197 million ha; with wheat and rice accounting for 43% of all human calorie supply, using 4% of global land area
4000
domestication of chili pepper Capsicum (Tehuacán Valley, Mexico), spreading rapidly into South America; brought to Europe by Columbus
CE 1492 → now used daily by a quarter of the global
population
4000
earliest use of indigo blue, from Indigofera species, for dyeing cotton fabric (Huaca Prieta, Peru); use in Egypt by 2400
BCE, China by 1000
BCE
4000
earliest board games (Egypt), moving pieces on a track according to outcomes determined by a throw stick → computers outperform humans in all board games by
CE 2016
3600
earliest engineering of water delivery and storage, for people, animals and irrigation (Jawa, Jordan) → landscape engineering of dams, levees, ditches in China by 3100
BCE
3500
earliest ploughs for tilling soil (Italy): harnessing domestic animals for work; landscape engineering for crops
3500
rising human fertility, enabled by earlier weaning of babies fed with milk of domestic ruminants (southern Britain)
3500
domestication of horses (Central Asian steppes), revolutionising mobility, economy, warfare → transport, haulage, cavalry, meat and capital; 59 million horses by
CE 2019
3400
earliest wheeled wagons (Germany, Slovenia, Near East) → breakthrough in haulage and locomotion: mechanical advantage equalling ratio of wheel to axle radii, moderated by friction; nanoscale wheel and axle by
CE 2007
3300
start of the Bronze Age (Near East), bronze replacing copper for weapons, tools, nails, utensils; mixing of Eurasian peoples → rapid westward spread of farming, conversion of forest to
dairy pasture
3300
cultivation of cocoa trees for chocolate (upper Amazon) → domestication in Mesoamerica by 1600
BCE, sacrificing productivity for stimulant and disease-resistance genes
3300
earliest numeral systems: pictograms of economic units (Uruk, Mesopotamia) → cuneiform sexagesimals in Mesopotamia by c. 3200
BCE, and hieroglyph decimals in Egypt by
3100
BCE
3200
full writing (cuneiform in Mesopotamia, hieroglyphics in Egypt) using the rebus principle → bookkeeping, instruction, commemoration, scripture, prayer, historical records
3150
organic medicinal remedies from herbal wines (Egypt)
3100
earliest evidence of the plague (Latvia), possibly driving 3ʳᵈ millenium
BCE migrations across Europe and Asia; infectious diseases dominate Holocene causes of death, shaping the
course of history
3100
association of love-making with war-mongering (Inanna, Sumerian goddess of love and war, Uruk): human capacity to unite passion with lust, loyalty with brutality, conquests with casualties
3100
development of governance systems with the rise of Uruk, city of 30,000 residents (Sumer civilisation, Mesopotamia), and cities of the Indus Valley → class divisions; living off the labour of others
3050
earliest standard weights for balance scales, and cubit length (Mesopotamia and Egypt): objective frames of reference for valuing commodities → integration of markets across Western Eurasia within 2 millennia
3000
emergence of herpes HSV-1 virus causing cold sores (Europe), passed from parent to child; later spread more rapidly by romantic kissing, originating on the Indian subcontinent c. 1500
BCE
3000
cultivation of oil palm (west and central Africa) → 411 million tonnes of oil-palm fruit per year by
CE 2019 using 28 million ha, largely converted tropical forest
3000
global agricultural land use per person peaks at 2.72 ha → 0.66 ha by
CE 2016 with improvements in yield
3000
synthesis of glass (Phoenicia) for beads → ingots, vessels by 1500
BCE;
CE 1ˢᵗ century mirrors and window glass;
7ᵗʰ century stained-glass windows; 13ᵗʰ century eyeglasses; late-20ᵗʰ century float-glass skyscrapers
3000
earliest metal swords, for combat and prestige (Arslantepe, Turkey) → essential battle weapons through nearly 5 millennia to
CE 1918 and the end of World War I
3000
earliest use of a Solar calendar year of 365 days, anchored by spring and autumn equinoxes (Egypt and old Sumer)
2800
global population of humans passes 50 million; annual energy use per person averages 2,100 kWh, 3× the resting metabolism
2720
in the North American White Mountains a seedling grows into a bristlecone pine tree, which sustains production of viable seeds over a lifespan extending beyond 4,700 years
2650
earliest use of a lunar calendar year of 12 months, and each hour as one-twelfth part of the day or night (Shulgi, King of Ur, Mesopotamia)
2650
magnetic compass, used to orient chariots (Emperor Hoang-Ti, China, recorded in the Zizhi Tongjian
CE 1084, Thoung Kian Kang Mou edition) → navigation at sea by
CE 300, Tsin dynasty,
China
2650
earliest regulation of wildlife exploitation: every fisher and hunter taxed one-tenth of their take (pharaoh Djoser, Egypt, recorded in the Famine Stela)
2650
earliest massive stone monuments: step pyramid tomb of pharaoh Djoser in Saqqara, Egypt; contemporaneous pyramidal architecture in Caral-Supe, Peru; megalith at Stonehenge, Britain
2550
earliest dictionary: cuneiform tablets translating between Sumerian and Eblaic (Ebla, Syria)
2550
earliest writing on papyrus: Diary of Merer, documenting construction of the Great Pyramid (Wadi al-Jarf, Egypt) → parchment by 200
BCE, Greece; paper from pulp by 100
BCE, China
2550
architectural precision: the Great Pyramid of Giza (Egypt), taller than any other building in the world for 3,800 years
2500
earliest locks (Egypt): door bolts → emergence of private ownership and privacy; lock and key by 1500
BCE for unguarded secrecy
2500
earliest animal husbandry to produce a hybrid: the kunga, foal of a female domestic donkey and male wild ass (Umm el-Marra, Syria), used for diplomacy, ceremony, warfare
2350
earliest government reforms, addressing taxes and corruption (Uru-KA-gina, King of Lagash and Girsu, Mesopotamia) → modern corruption suppressed by long exposure to democracy
2340
first emperor of a state: Sargon the Great, Akkadian Empire (expanding across Mesopotamia, Levant, Anatolia) → beginnings of artistic emphasis on the person of the ruler as an individual
2300
earliest records of marriage (late 3ʳᵈ millennium
BCE, Akkadian clay tablets): an economic arrangement for child rearing → a loving relationship particularly in Western nations;
now declining globally
2200
decline of Bronze-Age civilisations in Egypt, Greece and Mesopotamia, and terminal decline of Indus Valley civilisation, caused by centuries of drought beginning c. 2200
BCE
2100
earliest code of law, applying general principles to particular cases (Code of Ur-Nammu, Sumerian King of Ur, Mesopotamia)
2030
earliest recorded poetry (Nippur, Iraq): a Sumerian love poem of passionate ardour, expressing an emotional truth about the human spirit
2000
extinction of last remnant population of woolly mammoths, on Wrangle Island, Arctic Sea
2000
earliest use of coal as fuel (Inner Mongolia and Shanxi, China), for smelting copper, cooking, heating → peak global coal production of 8.2 billion tonnes/year in
CE 2013?
2000
earliest abacus, replacing tables of multiplication, reciprocals, powers (Old Babylonians, Mesopotamia c. 2000-1600
BCE) → nanoscale abacus storing numerical information in individual molecules by
CE 1996
1900
earliest map of a territory: 3-dimensional topography covering 30 km of the Odet river valley, sculpted to scale on a schist rock slab (Saint-Bélec, France)
1900
establishment of a 7-day week (Assyria and Babylonia)
1850
earliest alphabetic script (Proto-Sinaitic, Sinai and Egypt) → economy of signs
1850
earliest architectural arch, a Canaanite gate (Ashkelon, Israel) → breakthrough in construction of gateways, vaults, doors, windows, bridges: converting tensile stress into compressive stress
1825
earliest record of contraception: Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus (Lehun, Egypt) → distinction of sexual intercourse from reproduction
5. Empires and conquests
⇑ ⇓ ⇒
BCE 1800
beginnings of complex societies: Babylonian civilisation in Mesopotamia, 1800
BCE; Olmec civilisation in Mesoamerica, 1800
BCE; Shang dynasty in China, 1600
BCE; New Kingdom in Egypt, 1600
BCE
1800
earliest extraction and working of iron (Anatolia) → alloying with carbon to make steel in Cyprus by 1100
BCE
1800
earliest prose fiction: Epic of Gilgamesh (in cuneiform on clay tablets, Ur, Mesopotamia), a heroic story of the
tragicomedy of life, love won and lost, and inevitable death
1750
earliest principles of property insurance, against faulty construction that results in loss or damage (Code of Hammurabi, Babylon): proportionate compensation
1750
earliest cultivation of the tea plant Camellia sinensis (China, early 2ⁿᵈ millennium
BCE) → now the most frequently consumed beverage worldwide, with many health benefits
1650
harvesting of latex from the Castilla elastica tree to make rubber for balls and figurines (Mexico): the first plastic polymer → unsurpassed sliding friction and durable elasticity
1650
earliest team sport: rubber-ball game played in an architectural ballcourt (Paso de la Amada, Mexico) → social compacts; decapitation rituals by
CE 500
1650
earliest porcelaneous high-fired ceramics (Piaoshan kiln, China): fragile when whole, indestructible as broken shards → true porcelain by early
CE, China
1650
earliest stencils of archetypes, for hyperbolae, ellipses and spirals, used in the Gathering of Crocus wall painting (Thera, Aegean Sea): knowledge of the foundations of geometry
1630
earliest planetary observations, of the motions of Venus (reign of Ammisaduqa, king of Babylon)
1550
reckoning with fractions and geometry (Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, Egypt)
1520
first accurate timepiece: an outflow water-clock (Amenemhet, court of Amenhotep I, Egypt) measuring night-time; shadow clocks and sundials regulating daytime worker shifts
1500
earliest depiction of joyful and uninhibited celebration by ordinary people (Minoan Harvester Vase, Agia Triada, Crete); happiness sought and found in meeting a need
1400
earliest colonisation of Remote Oceania (Mariana archipelago) → migrations to all Pacific archipelagos over the next 3 millennia; women settling, men dispersing
1330
early depictions of mutual affection: Nefertiti holding the hand of her husband pharaoh Akhenaten, and gentleness: Ankhesenamun anointing her husband pharaoh Tutankhamun (Egypt); meaning in life found in engagement with others
1300
earliest notated music: Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal (in cuneiform, Ugarit, Syria); the singing voice carrying further than the spoken voice, conveying feeling
1200
sea-going trade in silver and dyes by Phoenicians, connecting the Levant with western Europe across the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean
1050
start of the Iron Age (Aegean; Britain by 800
BCE), iron replacing bronze for tools and weapons
1000
use of hydraulic plaster, mixing lime with silicates (Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel) → concrete in Ancient Rome by
CE 70, the dominant building material of modern times
1000
earliest depiction of the cosmos: a bronze disc inlaid with gold symbols of the Sun, Moon, and stars including the Pleiades cluster (Nebra, Germany)
950
first Jewish temple (King Solomon, Jerusalem) → rise of Judaism for a chosen people
900
earliest centre of higher learning (Taxila University, India) → Plato’s Academy in Greece by 387
BCE; Taixue University in China by
CE 3; Al-Karaouine University in Morocco by
CE 859; European medieval universities
900
accurate prediction of lunar eclipses (Berlin Gold Hat, Germany)
900
standardization of value: adoption of cowrie shells as money (Middle Western Zhou period, China) → cowrie monetary systems in Asia and West Africa during 3 millennia
820
earliest professional army (Lacedaemonians of Sparta, Greece, described by Xenophon, 388
BCE), sustained by a social contract: duties rewarded with citizenship
776
first Olympic games (Olympia, Peloponnesus, 776
BCE): a 4-yearly truce bringing together athletes to compete for the symbolic reward of an olive wreath → revival in 1896
700
first book of European literature: The Iliad (Homer, Greece), an epic poem on the pathos of loss and suffering caused by war
700
Archimedes’ Screw, used to irrigate Sennacherib’s elevated garden (river Tigris, Mesopotamia), described by Archimedes 4 centuries later
650
earliest collection of scholarly texts, on 32,000 cuneiform tablets: the Library of Ashurbanipal (Nineveh, Iraq)
630
earliest use of coinage (Ionia or Lydia, Anatolia): many denominations of stamped electrum, a gold-silver alloy → government-controlled economy of transaction costs
600
first circumnavigation of the African continent (Phoenicians from Arwād, reported by Herodotus in The Histories 430
BCE)
550
earliest cartography: a map of the known world, by Anaximander (Greece, c. 550
BCE, reported in Strabo’s Geographica 7
BCE)
550
first Persian Empire (Cyrus the Great, Persia), connecting the Mediterranean to the Indus Valley → code of just rule that respects others’ faiths
550
training in surgery and anatomy, described in the Susruta Samhita (northern India, 6ᵗʰ century
BCE)
550
professional policing, investigating criminal cases, addressing injustices (the paqūdu of Babylonia c. 550
BCE)
500
height of Greek civilisation (Greece, 6ᵗʰ to 4ᵗʰ centuries
BCE) → foundations of Western philosophy, ethics,
poetry, drama; first democracy 508
BCE
500
construction of a navigable canal from the Nile to the Red Sea (Darius I of Persia) → Suez Canal by 1869, the shortest maritime route between Europe and Asia
500
earliest use of cannabis as a psychoactive substance (Jirzankal Cemetery, China) → modern narco-trafficking spread by counter-drug interdiction
450
earliest cast iron artefacts (Jiangsu, China) → common era uses in manufacture of utensils, pipes, wheels, axle bearings, crankshafts, casings and liners, cannons, bridges, buildings
450
invention of a 360° zodiac (Babylonia) → longitudes of planets
450
collection of the sayings of Confucius (551-479
BCE, China) into the Analects, founding Confucianism, with a role for every person in society, and universal education
450
collection of the Torah and other scriptures into the Hebrew Bible → Christian Old Testament 500 years later, including the divine authority of the Ten Commandments
400
Siddhārtha Gautama (Buddha, c. 480-400
BCE, Ancient India) lays the foundations of Buddhism, with joy as a calling towards the path of nirvana; rebirth in hell for misconduct
400
earliest in-patient hospitals (King Paṇḍukābhaya, Sri Lanka) → professional care for the sick
400
Hippocratic Oath (ascribed to Hippocrates, c. 400 BCE), swearing to uphold medical standards → modern versions still a rite of passage and moral compass for clinicians
375
idea that justice and virtue are inherent qualities of inner harmony (Plato’s Republic, Greece): limits to the liability of external forces for conduct → moral conscience of Christianity
364
first sighting of another moon: Jupiter’s Ganymede, discovered with the naked eye (Gan De, China) → rediscovery by Galileo Galilei in
CE 1610, using a 20× telescope
350
concept of time-velocity space (Babylonia): displacement of Jupiter calculated as the area under a graph of its velocity over time, foreshadowing integral calculus
350
development of formal systems of reasoning, by logical deduction from axioms and postulates (Aristotle, Greece) → scientific disciplines
350
understanding of the emotions as dimensions of feeling that affect judgement (Aristotle, Greece): anger, love, fear,
shame, kindness, pity, envy,
emulation
350
political theory of social welfare (Aristotle, Greece): a state tax on assets of affluent citizens for distribution amongst the poor
320
compilation of the Tao Te Ching (China) on peace and war, founding Taoism in ritual cultivation of life’s inherent natural and spiritual forces, benefitting all
300
mass persuasion, using silver coins stamped with the head of previous legendary ruler Alexander the Great (Lampsacus, Turkey): appropriating history to glorify the present
300
earliest economic exploitation of chicken outside East Asia (Southern Levant); now the world’s most ubiquitous species of livestock, a principle source of protein
300
postulation of Euclidean geometry of flat surfaces (Euclid of Alexandria, Greece) → first printed edition of Euclid’s Elements,
CE 1482
280
first hypothesis that Earth revolves around the Sun (Aristarchus of Samos, Greece, reported in Archimedes’ The Sand Reckoner, c. 260
BCE)
250
first estimation of π within known limits (Archimedes, Greece), describing circles, discs, spheres, cones, orbits, loops, spirals, waves, using methods that anticipate
CE 17ᵗʰ century calculus
250
earliest accurate estimates of the circumference, diameter and tilt of a spherical Earth (Eratosthenes, Greece, c. 250
BCE, reported by Pliny
CE 77)
250
earliest watermills (Egypt; Anatolia by 50
BCE, reported in Strabo’s Geographica 7
BCE), milling grain, processing ore; the first machines to harness a
natural force for mechanical work
250
construction of the Great Wall, stretching 1,900 km (Emperor Qin Shi Huang, China) → 21,196 km by the Ming dynasty to
CE 1644
200
fusion of Indian cultures and traditions into Hinduism, with worship posthumously rewarded by favourable rebirth; torment in hell for sinners → currently the third most populous religion, after Christianity and Islam
200
widespread adoption of seed drills (Han dynasty, northern China); reinvention by Jethro Tull in
CE 1701, Britain → production efficiency heralding the dawn of modern agriculture
130
earliest attempt to map the night sky (Hipparchus’ Star Catalogue c. 130
BCE, Rhodes), accurate to within 1° → astronomy as predictive science
100
first analogue computer: Antikythera Mechanism of bronze gears, mechanising solar and lunar epicycles and eclipses, and motions of the planets in the known cosmos (Antikythera, Greece); unsurpassed for
1,400 years
100
earliest positional system of decimal fractions, for algorithmic calculations with positive and negative numbers using counting rods (China)
100
establishment of the Silk Roads, for overland trade between East Asia and southern Europe → China’s
CE 2013 Belt and Road Initiative, opening routes to trade and investment in 70 economies
BCE 50
rise of the Roman Empire (Europe), enduring c. 600 years → infrastructure of roads, using designs that still
prevail, and aqueducts; self-strengthening concrete, lead-pipe plumbing and
sanitation; leap years
CE 50
death of Jesus of Nazareth and transcribing of his life in the New Testament → rise of Christianity, with salvation for the righteous and heaven as reward; sinners
fear hell
77
earliest encyclopaedia (Pliny the Elder, Italy, Naturalis Historia books 1-5, 6-10, 11-17, 18-23,
24-31, 32-37
CE 77)
100
maritime trade routes between Africa, India, China, for spices, medicines, fabrics; connecting to Ancient Rome through Alexandria
100
use of paper for writing and painting begins to supplant bamboo and silk in China (Emperor He, Eastern Han dynasty, c. 100)
132
invention of the seismoscope (Zhang Heng, China, 132), detecting earthquakes 600 km away; the first device to enhance the reach of sensory perception since the orb-weaving spider first outsourced hearing to its web
150
development of the astrolabe from celestial globes, locating Sun and stars in relation to the equator (Ptolemy, Alexandria, c. 150) → determination of latitude
150
earliest industrial complex: watermills of Barbegal (France, 2ⁿᵈ century), producing 25 tons/day of hardtack for local harbours
290
firing of natural gas in southwest China, to boil brine for salt (Bowu zhi c. 290), and to pipe into homes for lighting (Huayang Guo Zhi c.
340) → 3.9 trillion m³/year of global gas extraction by 2018 and rising
290
use of mineral oil in central China, to lubricate axles and to seal water tanks (Bowu zhi c. 290, reported in Shui Jing Zhu c.
500)
→ 5.0 billion tonnes/year of global oil extraction by 2018: peak production?
300
beginning of central Europe’s 300-year Migration Period: cultural and socioeconomic turmoil coinciding with climatic variability; Mongolian Avar warriors overwhelming the eastern Roman Empire
357
earliest explicit use of zero, in the Maya Classic Period (Uaxactun, Guatemala, 357)
400
spread of urbanisation, with cities of over 100,000 people in Roman, Chinese and Mesoamerican empires (Teotihuacan, Mexico, covering 18 km² c. 400) →
specialisation of trades and occupations
430
human desire for personal relations with god, communicated to the masses as a king’s privilege (India): Hindu ruler Kumaragupta I depicted on coins feeding a sacred peacock
517
observation that free-falling bodies accelerate independently of their weights (John Philoponus, Alexandria, On Aristotle’s Physics 517) → proved in 1687 for gravitational pull on bodies in a void; confirmed in space by 2022
532
invention of anno Domini, or
AD (Dionysius Exiguus, Romania, 532); called anno aerae nostrae vulgaris by Johannes Kepler in 1615, now Common Era, or
CE → no calendar year zero
536
crop failures across the northern hemisphere caused by volcanic eruptions in Iceland; then bubonic plague (536-547) → century of economic stagnation
550
earliest block printing on paper (China, c. 550) → widespread use of printed books in 11ᵗʰ century Song dynasty China
620
discovery of Antarctica by Polynesian Māoris (Hui Te Rangiora on the vessel Te Ivi o Atea, from New Zealand, early 7ᵗʰ century) → numerous visits over subsequent centuries
628
introduction of rules governing the use of zero in number systems (Brahmagupta, India, Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta 628)
650
death of the prophet Muhammad (Mecca, Saudi Arabia, 632) and transcribing of his revelations in the Qur'an → rise of Islam, with prayer guiding righteous deeds and paradise as reward;
hell for disbelievers
700
Islamic Golden Age, from 8ᵗʰ to 14ᵗʰ centuries: flourishing art, design, architecture, and
scientific innovation
700
over 700 European cities exceed 1,000 inhabitants in
CE 700, of which only Constantinople exceeds 100,000 → 22 such cities by 1800, thereafter rising exponentially to 665 by 2000
754
establishment of the Papal States (Pope Stephen II, central Italy, 754) → global reach of the Catholic Church headed by a pope; 900 years of European art and architecture subjugated to Christianity
841
earliest use of statistical inference (Abū Yūsuf Ya'qūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī, Iraq, Risalah fi Istikhraj al-Mu'amma 841), for cryptography → analysis of distributed variables
874
Norse colonisation of Iceland, 874, from Norway in the Viking Age; deforestation and sheep grazing erode soils, driving down the island’s vegetation irretrievably to a half, and forests to 4%, of original extent
900
earliest windmills (Khorasan, Iran-Afghanistan, c. 900, recorded by Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad Iṣṭakhrī)
985
Norse colonisation of Greenland by Viking Erik Thorvaldsson, 985; Newfoundland by his son Leif, at least by 1021: human migrations henceforth encircling the globe → a century of harvesting North American stockfish and eiderdown
1000
sexagesimal subdivision of the hour into 60 minutes, and the minute into 60 seconds (Abu Rayhan Al-Biruni, Iran, c. 1000)
1021
invention of the camera obscura (Ibn al-Haytham, Iraq, Kitab al-Manazir [Book of Optics] 1011-1021), projecting images through a pinhole: birth of evidence-based
science, in experimental studies of light and vision
1044
formula for gunpowder, used for fire arrows, incendiary projectiles, smoke bombs (Northern Song dynasty, China, Wujing Zongyao 1044) → cannons by 1128, guns by c. 1270, rockets by
1272
1055
first hospice (Jerusalem, c. 1055) → professional palliative care for the dying
1060
beginning of 300 years of warring Crusades in the name of the Latin Church, against Islamic rule in the biblical Land of Israel and Palestine
1120
first government-issued paper money (Song dynasty, China) → a trusted IOU bundling Aristotle’s functions of money, as medium
of exchange, mode of payment, unit of account, store of value
1150
eastward migrating Asian Polynesians meet westward migrating South Americans (southern Pacific Marquesas Islands, c. 1150) → admixture on Easter Island by 1380, construction of monumental stone statues
1206
rise of the Mongol Empire connecting the Pacific to the Mediterranean, founded by Genghis Khan; recounted by Marco Polo c. 1300 → 35 million male-line descendants of Genghis Khan across modern Asia
1215
first declaration of human rights: Magna Carta (King John of England, 15/6/1215) → the first and now oldest national constitution; Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, 1948
1283
first mechanical clock with an escapement mechanism (Dunstable Priory, Britain, 1283), regulating clock speed
1286
discovery of the art of making eyeglasses (anon., Italy, 1286), “one of the best and most necessary arts that the world has” – Friar Giordano da Rivalto, 23/2/1305 → 2.5 billion people needing yet not having glasses in
2016
1337
accretion of personal wealth from gold by Mansa Musa I (c. 1280-1337), Emperor of Mali and richest person in history: peak of inequality amongst individuals → gold still a safe haven in
money markets
1346
bubonic plague caused by the Black Death bacillus Yersinia pestis kills a third of the human population across much of Europe, 1346-53; originating in Kyrgyzstan or the Himalayas, transmitted by rats and their fleas
1350
earliest cultivation of Coffea arabica for coffee (Yemen, using Ethiopian seeds, 14ᵗʰ century) → 100 million coffee farmers supplying 2 billion cups per day; extinction threats to most wild coffee species
1397
earliest banking (Medici Bank, Italy, 1397) → modern function as intermediary between savers and borrowers; inherent vulnerable to liquidity shocks, with bank runs driving economic downturns
1400
birth of the European Renaissance (Italy), rise of individuality, imagination, innovation, capitalism
1418
accurate geometrical perspective in painting (Filippo Brunelleschi, Italy, c. 1418; codified by Leon Battista Alberti, Italy, De Pictura 1436)
1438
Inca expansion, becoming the world’s largest empire by 1500, ruling 12 million people over 5,000 km of Andes; altiplano labour economy powered by llamas for transport
1440
first mechanical printing press with movable type (Johannes Gutenberg, Germany, 1440) → mass production, dissemination and survival of journals, pamphlets and books, of theology,
criticism, history, science, narrative fiction
1492
European mariners reach the Americas (Christopher Columbus from Spain, 1492) → colonial settlements; 16ᵗʰ century Columbian Exchange of cultural infrastructure between New and Old Worlds, and
Great Dying of 56 million indigenous peoples of the Americas
1498
European mariners reach India (Vasco da Gama from Portugal, 1498), connecting the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean → colonial empires in Africa and Asia; Indian Ocean trade; global multiculturalism
1500
foundations of Western art laid by Leonardo da Vinci (Italy, 1452-1519) and Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (Italy, 1475-1564), in humanist sculpture, drawing,
portraiture and frescos
1510
technical drawing of anatomical features, mechanisms and engineering designs (Leonardo da Vinci, Italy, c. 1510)
1516
concept of utopia, imagined as an island society in the New World that implausibly meets all human desires (Thomas More, Britain, Utopia 1516) → political ideal theory
1517
Reformation, splitting the universal Christian world into sects (Martin Luther, Germany, 1517)
1522
first circumnavigation of the globe (Ferdinand Magellan from Spain to Philippines, Juan Sebastián Elcano return to Spain, 1519-22) → globalisation of sea trade
1526
beginning of the Atlantic slave trade by Europeans (1526) → 12 million slaves exported from Africa to the Americas up to 1900
1542
global population of humans passes 500 million; annual energy use per person averages 9,800 kWh, 14× the resting metabolism
6. Scientific Revolution
⇑ ⇓ ⇒
CE 1543
theory of Earth and the planets revolving around the Sun (Nicolaus Copernicus, Poland, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium 1543) → pursuit of supporting evidence
1582
introduction of the Gregorian calendar (Pope Gregory XIII, Italy, 1582) → de facto international standard for civil calendars
1582
first entrepreneurial newspaper publishers (Ming Dynasty Beijing, China, 1582) → independent reporting that witnesses torment, investigates oppression,
safeguards freedom of expression
1605
first modern novel (Miguel de Cervantes, Spain, Don Quixote 1605 and 1615): an unreliable narrator describes the mercifully
funny consequences of free will colliding with fate
1608
invention of the refracting telescope (Hans Lipperhey, Netherlands, 1608), enhancing the reach of visual perception by 3×
1609
inversion of the refracting telescope to create a compound microscope (Galileo Galilei, Italy, described in Il Saggiatore 1623) → cryo-electron microscopy imaging atoms in molecules by 2020
1610
observations of the orbits of Jupiter’s moons (Galileo Galilei, Italy, Sidereus Nuncius 1610), falsifying church doctrine of Earth as the only centre of movement in the Universe → authority of evidence-based science
1612
concept of a universal clock, calibrated on orbital periods of Jupiter’s moons (Galileo Galilei, Italy, 1612) → accurate estimation of longitude for navigation, given a stable observation platform
1619
distances of planets from the Sun measured relative to Earth’s distance of 1 astronomical unit (Johannes Kepler, Germany, Harmonices Mundi 1619)
1621
first medical treatise on mental welfare (Robert Burton, Britain, The Anatomy of Melancholy 1621), the author confiding in his reader → association with nature, physical health and exercise, social stability and
inclusion
1628
first graph of distributed observations (Michael Florent van Langren, Netherlands, 1628); line graphs and bar charts by 1786 → data visualisation that saves lives
1632
basic principle of relativity: the laws of nature apply equally to any frame of reference in constant linear motion, regardless of its speed (Galileo Galilei, Italy, Dialogo 1632)
1637
idea that truth is the product of autonomous reason (René Descartes, France, Discours de la Méthode 1637; Méditations 1641) → emancipation from revelational truth and religious doctrine; distinction of mind from matter
1642
earliest functioning mechanical calculator, for addition and subtraction: the Pascaline (Blaise Pascal, France, 1642)
1650
relatedness of married couples averages about fourth cousin in 1650 for Europe and North America → decreasing only from 1870 onwards with cousin marriage prohibitions
1656
first pendulum clock (Christiaan Huygens, Netherlands, 25/12/1656), developing on ideas by Galileo Galilei → unsurpassed accuracy on land for 275 years
1665
identification of organismal cells (Robert Hooke, Britain, Micrographia 1665), the smallest unit of structure and function for all life forms
1665
notion of gravitation as a universal force, occasioned to Isaac Newton by the fall of an apple (Britain, as recounted to William Stukeley in 1726) → four fundamental interactions: gravitational, electromagnetic, strong and weak nuclear forces
1665
concept and measure of Gross Domestic Product: GDP, the annual value of a country’s output (William Petty, Britain, 1665) → a globally favoured index of prosperity from 1953, conflating growth in productivity
with drawdown of capital
1669
artistic rendering of unconditional forgiveness, in Rembrandt’s Return of the Prodigal Son (Netherlands, 1669) → limits to the conditionality of transactions
1676
discovery of single-celled organisms (Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Netherlands, 1676) → science of microbiology
1676
first determination of the speed of light (Ole Rømer, Denmark, 1676): 299,792 km per second; 9.46 trillion km per year → light-year measure of distance
1687
formulation of laws of motion and universal gravitation, applicable to all the phenomena of the cosmos (Isaac Newton, Britain, Principia 1687): foundation of classical mechanics → European Age of Enlightenment
1690
extinction of the dodo (Mauritius, c. 1690) → symbol of stupidity: the pigeon that couldn’t fly; later symbolic of human wreckage across three-quarters of Earth’s land and two-thirds of oceans
1700
rapid colonisation of Americas, India and Australia by Europeans from the early 1700s → dominion of India by the British East India Company from 1760s; British rule 1858-1947
1700
modest improvements in global GDP per capita since
CE 1 henceforth begin accelerating in western Europe and North America → acceleration in Latin America and Asia from 1950, Africa from 2000
1735
cataloguing of organisms by genera and species (Carl Linnaeus, Sweden, Systema Naturae 1735-1768) → modern classification of 2 million from an estimated 8 million eukaryote species, possibly
1 trillion microbes
1759
first accurate sea clock: H4 (John Harrison, Britain, 1759), a pocket watch with high-frequency balance wheel, solving the problem of longitude for
marine navigation
1761
first observed transit of Venus across the Sun (6/6/1761) → 1 astronomical unit of distance from Earth to Sun equal to 149,597,870.691 km
1769
invention of the first cost-effective steam engine (James Watt, Britain, 1769) → powered machinery, Industrial Revolution
1770
invention of the spinning jenny (James Hargreaves, Britain, 1770), mechanising the spinning of cotton → cloth weaving factories by 1771
1773
establishment of the law of conservation of mass (Antoine Lavoisier, France, 1773): the amount of matter cannot change
1774
vaccination with an attenuated pathogen: cowpox to treat smallpox (Benjamin Jesty, Britain, 1774; Edward Jenner, Britain, 1798) → artificial attenuation by 1881; vaccination programmes save more lives than any other medical
intervention in history
1776
declaration of independence of the United States of America from colonial rule, and of the unalienable rights of all humanity to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (4/7/1776) → economic superstate of the USA
1776
idea that pursuit of self-interest leads to the common good (Adam Smith, Britain, The Wealth of Nations 1776) → free markets, producing unequal opportunity unless government regulates trade
1778
first national nature reserve (Bogd Khan Uul, Mongolia, 1778) → global protected areas cover 15% of land and 11% of ocean by 2018
7. Industrial Revolution
⇑ ⇓ ⇒
CE 1780
mass production of spun textiles, mechanised by water power; coal-fired and steam-powered production of iron and steel (beginning Britain, c. 1780) → economies of scale, rising polarisation of rich and poor nations, dominance of fossil fuels
1781
inherent limits to the powers of reason (Immanuel Kant, Germany, Critique of Pure Reason 1781): knowledge springs from understanding the objects of experience; pure reason is properly directed only to
moral imperatives
1783
invention of aviation: first piloted free flight by humans, in a hot-air balloon constructed by Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier (France, 21/11/1783)
1784
first postulation of black holes (John Michell, Britain, 1784), later predicted by general relativity as singularities in spacetime, their gravitational fields pulling
in all matter, and all electromagnetic radiation including light
1789
spread of Republicanism (French Revolution, 1789-1799) → radical socio-political transformation in western Europe; building of nation states; metric system of weights and measures by 1792
1792
indictment of double standards in the treatment of women by men (Mary Wollstonecraft, Britain, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman 1792) → slow progress towards gender equality
1798
calculation of Earth’s density, using a torsion balance (Henry Cavendish, Britain, 1798) → Newton’s gravitational constant G determining the gravitational force between two masses
1798
observation that population growth capacity always outpaces improvements in resources (Thomas Malthus, Britain, 1798) → the struggle for existence facing all organisms; the challenge to human wellbeing, until the advent of oil-based economies
1799
first electrochemical battery (Alessandro Volta, Italy, 1799), sandwiching electrolyte-soaked pasteboard between two dissimilar metals to create a steady voltage → mobile energy storage
1807
concept of the mutual dependence of physical, climatological and organic phenomena (Alexander von Humboldt, Prussia, 1807) → science of biogeography
1808
discovery of atoms, uniquely defining each chemical element of ordinary matter (John Dalton, UK, 1808) → atomic masses of Earth’s 94 elements; hydrogen accounting for nine tenths of all atoms in the Universe
1817
invention of the bicycle (Karl von Drais, Germany, 1817); pedals by 1853, chain by 1886, derailleur by
1895 → the most efficient human-powered land vehicle
1821
first demonstration of an electromagnetic rotary device (Michael Faraday, UK, 1821) → dynamos to generate electricity; electric motors to convert electricity into mechanical energy
1822
first prediction of Earth’s greenhouse effect (Joseph Fourier, France, 1822; tested empirically by Eunice Foote, USA, 1856, John Tyndall, Ireland,
1859) → CO₂ emissions from fossil fuels cause global climate warming
1825
first public railway for steam locomotives (George Stephenson, UK, 1825), outpacing carriage horses, previously the fastest land transport during 5,300 years of human history
1826
publication of String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor Op. 131 by Ludwig van Beethoven (Germany, 1826): “hear only the direct revelation from another world” – Richard Wagner, 1870
1827
first permanent photograph taken by a camera (Nicéphore Niépce, France, 1827) → first image of a person, 1838: Louis Daguerre
seizing the light, arresting its flight on silvered plate, preserving a moment in history
1834
invention of the Analytical Engine (Charles Babbage, UK, 1834), an unbuilt functional computer → first computer programs by Babbage and Ada Lovelace; programmable computers by 1940s
1838
first scheduled trans-Atlantic steamer: coal-fired Great Western (Isambard Kingdom Brunel, UK, 1838) → globalisation of economies
1848
scale of absolute temperature (Lord Kelvin, UK, 1848) → fundamental limit to degree of coldness at 0 Kelvin = − 273.15°C; quantum gases forced lower get hotter
1850
principles of conservation of energy and gain of entropy (Rudolf Clausius, Germany, and Lord Kelvin, UK, 1850) → laws of thermodynamics: heat flows from a warmer to a colder body – unless reversed by inertia
1850
industrial processing of flour and sugar; fattening of cattle in feedlots (Europe and USA, beginning c. 1850) → biggest dietary shift since the beginning of agriculture
1856
first practical compression refrigerator (James Harrison, Australia, 1856), for storing perishable foods → globalisation of trade in fresh and frozen meat, seafood, fruit and vegetables
1859
invention of the lead-acid cell (Gaston Planté, France, 1859), the first rechargeable battery → practical electric vehicles by the 1880s
1859
theory of evolution by natural selection (Charles Darwin, UK, On the Origin of Species 1859), a law unique to biological systems → heritable adaptations of individuals to their environment, speciation of populations through time, the diversity of life
1859
first training manual for care of the sick regardless of their means (Florence Nightingale, UK, Notes on Nursing 1859) → professional nursing, health benefits of fresh air and personal cleanliness
1860
factory production of internal-combustion engines (Jean Lenoir, Belgium, 1860; user manual 1864) → electricity generators, vehicular transport
1860
development of Western modern art, during 100 years from c. 1860, depicting impressions of light and movement, expressive colours and forms,
solitary and collective struggles, decisive moments and formative experience
1865
theory that electricity, magnetism and light are all manifestations of electromagnetic radiation (James Maxwell, UK, 1865) → foundations of quantum physics
1866
discovery of the unitary character of heritable traits, and the independent assortment of their alternative forms (Gregor Mendel, Austria, 1866) → the gene as unit of heredity, contained in chromosomes – but not for
Borgs
1867
theory that capitalism exploits labour, with the objectionable consequence of empowering the rich by disadvantaging the poor (Carl Marx, Germany, Das Kapital 1867, 1885, 1894) →
Marxism, socialism, Stalinism
1874
discovery of unequal infinities: the infinite continuum of all real numbers exceeds in size any infinite set of natural numbers (Georg Cantor, Germany, 1874) → three sizes of infinity?
1876
invention of the telephone (Alexander Bell, USA, 1876), permitting conversation between distant voices → telecommunications
1877
invention of the phonograph (Thomas Edison, USA, 1877): first practical sound recording → gramophone, mass production of records (1890s), popularisation of individual
artists
1879
invention of the electric light bulb (Thomas Edison, USA, 1879), providing cheap and safe illumination → organic light-emitting diodes by the 21ˢᵗ century
1880
invention of the photophone (Alexander Bell and Sumner Tainter, USA, 1880), transmitting sound on a beam of light → fibre-optic data transmission by 1966
1880
adult literacy reaches 20% of the global population by 1880 → 85% by 2010
1882
first commercially viable power stations, coal-fired (London and New York, 1882) → electrical grid; fossil fuels providing 63% of global electricity generation by 2019
1882
first hydroelectric power station (Jacob Schoellkopf, USA, 1882) → megadams replumbing the world’s major rivers from the 1950s; 16% of global (and 98% of Norway’s) electricity generation by 2019
1884
first rooftop photovoltaic solar array (Charles Fritts, USA, 1884) → rising to 3% of global electricity generation by 2019
1884
beginning of the Scramble for Africa by European powers (1884), occupying nine tenths by 1914 → ethnic partitioning through official colonial rule through to c. 1960
1886
first car with gasoline-powered internal combustion engine (Karl Benz, Germany, 1886) → 97 million motor vehicles produced globally per year by 2017: peak production?
1887
speed of light is invariant to source and observer motion (Albert Michelson and Edward Morley, USA, 1887) → upper limit to speed of matter and information, except for celestial objects separated by expanding space
1887
first wind-powered turbine for production of electricity (James Blyth, UK, 1887) → rising to 5% of global electricity generation by 2019
1890
centralised sewerage treatment plants (UK, USA, Australia, 1890s), preventing spread of diseases → urine diversion and recycling as fertiliser by 2022
1893
first self-governing democracy to grant women the vote (New Zealand, 1893) → rising women’s employment, diminishing yet ever-present gender inequality and
bias
1895
first wireless transmission of telegraph signals by radio waves (Guglielmo Marconi, Italy, 1895), global radio communication by 1901 → radio broadcasts by 1920s; radar by 1930s
1895
first commercial screening of motion-picture films (Auguste and Louis Lumière, France, 1895) → birth of cinema, entrancing audiences with captured events and experience
1895
discovery of X-rays and production of X-ray images (Wilhelm Röntgen, Germany, 1895) → radiography
1896
discovery of natural radioactivity (Henri Becquerel, France, 1896) → radioisotopic labelling and dating, medical treatment of tumours
1897
first detection of an elementary – fundamental, subatomic and indivisible – particle: the electron (Joseph Thomson, UK, 1897)
1899
Planck units: natural units for length, time, mass and temperature (Max Planck, Germany, 1899) → fundamental limit to the degree of heat = 1.42 × 10³² K
1900
theory of the unconscious mind and emotions motivating and guiding human behaviour (Sigmund Freud, Austria, The Interpretation of Dreams 1900) → limits to the rationality of behaviour; foundation of psychoanalysis
1900
Planck’s law: every physical body emits electromagnetic radiation (Max Planck, Germany, 1900) → quantum mechanics, explaining the subatomic workings of the Universe
1900
theory of energy quanta (Max Planck, Germany, 1900, Albert Einstein, Switzerland, 1905), including the photon, a massless elementary particle and quantum of electromagnetic radiation
1900
two-thirds of the global population living in extreme poverty by 1900, declining amid rising geopolitical inequality until 1950 → one-third by 1995, down to one-tenth by 2017
1900
global average life expectancy equals 32 years by 1900 → doubling over the next 75 years, exposing diseases of ageing
1903
first powered, controlled flight by a heavier-than-air aircraft (Orville and Wilbur Wright, USA, 17/12/1903) → 4.4 billion airline passengers per year by 2019: peak volume?
1904
first quantification of dark matter (Lord Kelvin, UK, 1904), with gravitational influence yet no electromagnetic or strong interactions: 85% of matter in the Universe, concentrated amongst clustered galaxies
1905
theory of special relativity (Albert Einstein, Switzerland, 1905): energy-mass equivalence; length-contraction of moving objects and time-dilation of moving clocks relative to an observer → nuclear physics
1905
earliest chainsaw for cutting wood (Samuel Bens, USA, 1905), portable by 1918 → 2 billion m³ of wood processed globally by 2018, for construction,
packaging, paper, pulp, fuel
1907
earliest organoids (Henry Wilson, USA, 1907): organ-like structures growing in a Petri dish → integration of human brain organoids with mouse brains by 2018; in vitro human neurons master Pong by
2022
1907
first organic polymer made from synthetic components: Bakelite plastic (Leo Baekeland, USA, 1907) → large-scale production of plastics from 1950, dominated by polythene
1908
industrial-scale synthesis of ammonia from ambient nitrogen (BASF, Germany, 1908) using the Haber-Bosch process → chemical fertilisers release crops from
nitrogen limitation, fuelling the human population explosion
1908
unification of 3D space and 1D unidirectional time into absolute spacetime (Hermann Minkowski, Germany, 1908): deceleration through time accompanies acceleration through space, and vice versa
1909
first people to set foot on Earth’s poles (North Pole: Robert Peary and Matthew Henson, USA, 1909; South Pole: Roald Amundsen, Norway, 1911)
1911
discovery of the nuclear centre of atoms (Ernest Rutherford, UK, 1911); fission of the nitrogen nucleus to isolate subatomic protons by 1919
1912
idea of inwardness of feeling, in other ages directed at divinities, belonging to suffering, pain, love, joy (Rainer Maria Rilke, Germany, Duino Elegies 1912): inner commitment as life’s purpose
1913
introduction of factory assembly lines for mass production of cars (Ford Model T, USA, 1913), dedicating one worker to each step → dehumanising labour; affordable cars for labourers
1914
World War I (1914-18): 32 nations participate, 20 million killed; declared “the war to end war”
1914
opening of the Panama Canal (15/8/1914), shortening the route for shipping cargo between Atlantic and Pacific oceans
1915
mass deployment of X-ray units (Marie Curie, France, 1915) for treatment of over 1 million wounded soldiers
1915
theory of general relativity (Albert Einstein, Germany, 1915): equivalent effects of gravity and acceleration; gravity as a distortion of spacetime by massive objects → unresolved incompatibility with quantum mechanics
1917
Russian Revolution (Russia, 1917) → first communist state: USSR, 1922-1991
1917
a urinal made by a plumber becomes a sculpture made by the force of an imagination (Marcel Duchamp, France, Fountain 1917): reorientation of art away from craft, onto interpretation
1918
Spanish flu pandemic (1918-20): H1N1 influenza virus infects a third of the global population and kills 50-100 million, mostly in the 2ⁿᵈ wave; early interventions reduce mortality; long-range effects for survivors
1918
first modern refugee crisis (1918-1922): collapsing Russian and Ottoman Empires displacing 1-2 million Russians and hundreds of thousands of Armenians → Nansen Passports for stateless citizens
1919
demonstration of nervous mechanisms in plants, paralleling those in animals (Jagadish Chandra Bose, Bengal, 1919)
1919
observations of starlight deflection during a Solar eclipse, confirming the gravitational lensing prediction of general relativity (Arthur Eddington, UK, 1919)
1919
first commercial radio broadcasts (PCGG, Netherlands, 1919); global uptake during 1920s → dissemination of time signals, news, propaganda, education, entertainment; storytelling for the complicit listener
1921
discovery of insulin (Frederick Banting and Charles Best, Canada, 1921) → treatment of diabetes, now afflicting 1 in 10 of the global population, particularly in high-income and urban areas
1922
invention of leaded petrol (General Motors, USA, 1922), improving engine performance, causing epidemics of heart disease, stroke, cancer, and developmental delays in children → global elimination by
2021
1922
prediction of an expanding Universe (Alexander Friedmann, Russia, 1922) → dark energy accelerating the expansion of a flat or possibly
closed, cyclic or hologram Universe, perhaps one in a multiverse
1923
concept of every quantum entity having dual nature, as both wave and particle (Louis de Broglie, France, 1923, Niels Bohr, Denmark, 1928) → no independent physical reality of atomic phenomena
1924
first aerial circumnavigation of the world (US Army Air Service, 1924) → globalisation of human mobility
1926
first working television system (John Logie Baird, UK, 1926) → nationwide television broadcasting by 1929, bringing rulers to their subjects, entertainers to viewers, inspiring awe
1926
Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery (League of Nations, 1926) → commitment by 99 of 195 countries since 2008; still 168 million
child labourers and 21 million forced labourers
1927
a car outpaces a racehorse (La Chapelle, France, 1927) → dominion of the automobile for land transport and haulage
1927
principle that every particle has a constant product of its variances in position and momentum (Werner Heisenberg, Germany, 1927) → no precisely determinable Universe
1928
prediction of positron particles, the antimatter counterpart of electrons (Paul Dirac, UK, 1928) → abundant antimatter at the birth of the Universe; cosmic rays, positron emission tomography
1928
identification of plasma, the fourth fundamental state of matter after solids, liquids and gases (Irving Langmuir, USA, 1928)
1928
first experimental isolation of an antibiotic: penicillin (Alexander Fleming, UK, 1928) → healthcare revolution; overuse of antibiotics driving resistance in bacteria, causing 1.2 million deaths in
2019
1929
Great Depression, symbolised by the Wall Street Crash of 29/10/1929 and the North American Dust Bowl of the 1930s → 22% drop in worldwide GDP
1930
postulation of neutrinos (Wolfgang Pauli, Austria, 1930), the smallest elementary particle and one of the most abundant in the Universe, rarely interacting with other matter
1930
idea that all roads to the mind start from the soul, and none leads back again (The Man Without Qualities, Robert Musil, Austria, 1930): the human soul as mediator of experience, spirit firing the imagination
1931
proof that no set of consistent axioms can suffice to derive all mathematical truths, to leave none undecidable (Kurt Gödel, Germany, 1931) → incomplete reality
1932
discovery of neutrons (James Chadwick, UK, 1932), with protons constituting the nuclei of atoms → nuclear fission of uranium by 1938; nuclear chain reactions; atomic bombs and nuclear energy
1933
theory that government spending can stabilise the market economy (John Maynard Keynes, UK, 1933, 1936) → borrowing to boost consumption, at the expense of investment to sustain capital assets
1934
first radio detection and ranging: radar (Navel Research Laboratory, USA, 1934), concurrently developed in UK, Germany and other countries, targeting aircraft, ships, submarines and weather
1935
concept of the ecosystem (Arthur Tansley, UK, 1935), a complex association of organisms with their environment → value of nature to humans from provisioning, regulating, cultural and supporting ecosystem services
1938
invention of nylon (Wallace Carothers, DuPont, USA, 1938), the first synthetic textile fibre → filaments, films, bristles, cords, washers, sacking, fabrics, hosiery and clothing, spacesuits, parachutes, fishing nets and longlines
1939
first turbojet powered aircraft (Heinkel He 178, Germany, 1939) → jet planes
1939
World War II (1939-45): 184 nations participate, 60 million killed, including genocide of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust 1941-45 – the greatest
crime of the 20ᵗʰ century
1941
development of frequency-hopping radio communication (Hedy Markey [Hedy Lamarr] and George Antheil, USA, 1941) → Bluetooth and Wi-Fi by 1990s
1941
first binary-logic digital programmable computer: Z3 (Konrad Zuse, Germany, 1941)
1942
discovery of insecticidal action of DDT (Paul Müller, Switzerland, 1942), the most successful chemical ever synthesised to control malaria → toxicity in food chains exposed in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring 1962;
worldwide ban 2004
1944
first electronic digital programmable computer: Colossus (Tommy Flowers, UK, 1944) → code-breaking that hastened the end of World War II
1945
atomic bombs dropped by the US on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Japan, 6, 9/8/1945), the blasts and subsequent cancers killing over 250,000 people, mostly civilians; to date the only nuclear weapons used in combat
1945
establishment of the United Nations (UN, 1945), with a mission to maintain international peace, security and cooperation, amongst societies with customs and tolerances adapted to distal ecological and historical contexts
8. Technological Revolution
⇑ ⇓ ⇒
CE 1945
first proposed electronic calculator (Alan Turing, UK, 1945) → modern stored-program computers
1947
first supersonic flight, in a rocket-powered aircraft (Chuck Yeager in Bell X-1, USA, 14/10/1947) → space exploration
1948
invention of the transistor (Bell Labs, USA, 1948) → transistor radios by 1950s; integrated circuits by 1959; microprocessors by
1970; consumer electronics
1948
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN, 10/12/1948): all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights
1949
invention of the barcode (Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver, USA, 1949) → automation of product tracking
1950
proof that smoking causes lung cancer (Richard Doll and Austin Bradford Hill, UK, 1950): tipping point to ultimate elimination of smoking sometime over 70 years later, delayed by lobbying
1950
start of the Anthropocene Epoch, humans using 22×10²¹ joules of energy over the next 70 years, 1.5× more than all energy use during the previous 11,700 years: accelerating combustion of fossil fuels, their greenhouse gases trapping a further 10× more solar energy in the oceans
1950
global GDP per capita having tripled over 130 years to 1950, tripling again over the next 50 years; North Americans and western Europeans earning over 3× the global average wage: the Great Acceleration in technology, interdependence, and dominance over
planetary cycles
1950
beginning of a rapid acceleration in global crop yields through innovations in seed varieties, agrochemicals, irrigation, mechanisation → Green Revolution of the 1950s and 1960s, global cereal yield tripling over 60 years from 1960,
provisioning feedlots of up to 100,000 cattle
1951
genocide becomes a crime under international law (UN, 1951); genocide events over the next 50 years kill more than 12 million civilians
1951
over 500 above-ground tests of nuclear weapons through to 1980 release 6 tonnes of plutonium and other radionuclides, detectable globally in sediments, soils and organismal tissues for 100,000 years into the future
1952
half the world adult population has at least basic education by 1952 → three-quarters by 1990
1953
molecular structure of DNA (Rosalind Franklin, James Watson and Francis Crick, UK,1953) → access to the genetic code of relatedness, form
and function for all living organisms, through evolutionary time as far back as 700,000 years, and in the environment
1953
ascent to the highest point on Earth: Mount Everest at 8,848 m (Tenzing Norgay, Nepal, and Edmund Hillary, New Zealand, 29/5/1953)
1954
first nuclear power plant (Obninsk, USSR, 1954) → advent of clean energy: 10% of global electricity generation in 2019; radioactive waste; nuclear catastrophes, including Chernobyl, Ukraine,
26/4/1986
1955
first accurate atomic clock (Louis Essen and Jack Parry, UK, 1955), the first quantum technology: time as atomic oscillations → atomic standard of time interval; Coordinated Universal Time: UTC, starting
1/1/1960
1956
first shipment of freight in standardized intermodal containers (Malcom McLean, USA, 1956) → globalisation of commerce
1956
emergence of pop art (Richard Hamilton, UK, 1956; Andy Warhol, USA, 1962), its impersonal style anticipating a commodified and media-saturated world of
illusory promise, desire and consumerism
1957
first orbiting space satellite (Sputnik 1, USSR, 4/10/1957) → intelligence gathering by 1960; Global Positioning System: GPS, and Earth observation, by 1973; global
telecommunications and infrastructure interdependency
1957
first living being to depart Earth for outer space: stray mongrel dog Laika in Sputnik II (USSR, 3/11/1957), deceased in passage
1959
the Great Chinese Famine 1959-1961, the worst famine in history: Chairman Mao’s ‘Great Leap Forward’ policy colliding with drought to cause 15-45 million deaths
1959
Antarctic Treaty (1/12/1959), designating use of the continent of Antarctica solely for peaceful purposes and scientific investigation, and prohibiting nuclear activity → need for Māori insight
1960
descent to the deepest point in the oceans: Mariana Trench at 10,911 m (Jacques Piccard, Switzerland, and Don Walsh, USA, in the bathyscaphe Trieste, 23/1/1960), the last frontier of Earth exploration
1960
first female head of a democratic government: Sirimavo Bandaranaike, serving three terms as prime minister of Ceylon then Sri Lanka between 1960 and 2000
1960
first laser beam (Theodore Maiman, USA, 1960) → LiDAR mapping; cutting, welding, printing, precision surgery; reading/writing data; trapping atoms; 21ˢᵗ century interferometry
1960
first government-approval of oral contraceptives for use by the public (US FDA, 1960) → women taking control over their fertility, liberating them to develop professional careers
1960
formation of The Beatles rock band (UK, 1960) → globalisation of musical influence in the 1960s
1961
first astronaut in outer space (Yuri Gagarin in Vostok 1, USSR, 12/4/1961), completing one Earth orbit during a 108-minute flight → the Space Age
1964
origin of mass explained by interactions with Higgs quantum field (Peter Higgs, UK, and others, 1964) → Standard Model of particle physics
1965
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (UN, 1965) → commitments from 182 countries since 2019; race still defining exposure to
violence
1967
postulation of imperfect symmetry between matter and antimatter (Andrei Sakharov, USSR, 1967) → surplus of matter over antimatter since the early Universe
1967
Outer Space Treaty (UN, 1967), the basis of international space law → freedom for all to explore space, and prohibition of weapons of mass destruction in Earth orbit
1968
peak growth rate of 2.07% in the world human population (1968), averaging 3.7 offspring per female → growth rate halved by 2020, with populations ageing globally and
crashing in the richest countries
1969
first astronaut on the Moon (Neil Armstrong, USA, 20/7/1969), delivered by a 160-million horsepower Saturn V rocket; the Apollo 11 Command Module returning to Earth 4 days later
1969
first host-to-host computer connection (ARPANET, USA, 29/10/1969): “lo” sent across 500 km → flourishing Internet by the 1980s; first quantum network by 2017
1970
proof of the birth of the Universe in a spacetime singularity (Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose, UK, 1970)
1970
first optical disc encoding binary data (James Russell, USA, 1970) → digitisation of data storage, sound recording and playback
1970
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (UN, 1970) → commitment by 191 states, not the nuclear states of India, Pakistan, Israel, North Korea; a nuclear detonation affects everyone
1970
first probe to land on another planet and transmit data: surface temperature of Venus (Venera 7, USSR, 15/12/1970); images by 1975 → images from the surface of Mars by 1976
1972
recognition by governments worldwide that fossil-fuel combustion threatens Earth’s atmosphere (UN Conference on the Human Environment 1972), understood by the growing environmental movement as a crisis rooted in Western worldviews of nature as
commodity
1972
atomic clocks flown east around the world lose time to clocks flown west, confirming the time-dilation predicted by special relativity (Joseph Hafele and Richard Keating, USA, 1972)
1972
creation of first recombinant DNA, from a polyomavirus and a bacteriophage (Paul Berg, USA, 1972) → first transgenic mammal by 1974: a mouse; cloned synthetic genes for human insulin by 1979
1973
concept of natural capital: the stock of natural resources (Ernst Schumacher, UK, Small is Beautiful 1973) → an asset that underpins human, social, manufactured and financial capitals, its qualities of mobility, silence and
invisibility defying economic measurement, exposing it to unregulated human activities
1973
global average life expectancy exceeds 60 years by 1973 → 70 years by 2008 and rising for all countries; strengthening link to
affluence, which drives down natural capital
1975
fraction of world adult population overweight or obese (BMI > 25 kg/m²) rises above 20% by 1975 → 39% by 2016, rising fastest in the young
1975
first personal computer: Altair 8800 (John Blankenbaker, USA, 1975), word processing software by 1976, spreadsheets by 1979 → digital media beginning to replace paper and celluloid by the end of the
20ᵗʰ century
1975
first global commitment to cross-border environmental protection: Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES, 1975) → illegal trade still threatening wildlife and human health
1977
indigenous Green Belt Movement (Wangari Maathai, Kenya, 1977), combatting poverty with environmental conservation → UN Billion Trees Campaign by 2006; One Trillion Trees Initiative by 2020
1978
first human born on the Antarctic mainland (Esperanza Base, Argentina, 7/1/1978) → continuous human settlement of every continent on Earth
1978
first human born from in vitro fertilisation (IVF, UK, 1978) → ethical issues of selecting amongst genome-sequenced embryos
1979
completion of the Standard Model (1979), combining quantum mechanics with special relativity to explain how elementary particles determine the composition of all matter and all its governing forces except
gravitation
1980
global eradication of smallpox (WHO, 1980), after it kills 300 million people and one-third of those infected during the 20ᵗʰ century, the only infectious disease of humans to have been eradicated by vaccination
1981
first diagnosis of AIDS (USA, 1981) → identification of causal HIV by Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier, France, 1983; global epidemic killing 36 million by 2021; continuing health risk
1982
international moratorium on commercial whaling (IWC, agreed 1982, enforced 1986): power of people, unified by non-governmental organisations, to drive worldwide change
1982
adoption of the World Charter for Nature (UN, 1982, only USA voting against) recognising nature’s intrinsic value, establishing the imperative of keeping human activities within Earth’s limits
1983
activation of standardized Internet Protocol (USA, 1983) → proliferation of email, file transfer, Internet forums, information sharing
1983
genetic engineering enters mainstream agriculture, then medicine, with patents for genetically modified crop plants (International Plant Research Institute, 1983), and transgenic animals (Harvard College, USA, OncoMouse
1988)
1984
first untethered spacewalk (Bruce McCandless, Challenger Space Shuttle 41-B, USA, 7/2/1984)
1985
discovery of a human-induced hole in the stratospheric ozone layer (1985) → increase in UV-B radiation at Earth’s surface, changing climate, causing DNA damage to phytoplankton and plants; potential
forest sterility and skin cancers
1985
first aircraft to fly on another planet: VeGa balloons in the cloud system of Venus (USSR + 8 European countries, 1985) → Earth’s evil twin, yet potential for life in the clouds?
1985
discovery of the enzyme telomerase controlling cellular ageing (Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider, USA, 1985) → eternal lifespan of cancer cells
1986
beginnings of continuous colonisation of space, in low Earth orbit (Mir Space Station, USSR, 20/2/1986) → International Space Station from 2/11/2000
1986
global population of humans passes 5 billion; annual energy use per person averages 18,300 kWh, 26× the resting metabolism
1987
global agreement to ban hydrochlorofluorocarbons and other ozone depleting substances (Montreal Protocol, 1987), the only UN protocol to be ratified by every country on Earth → punctuated recovery of stratospheric ozone, slowing Earth’s warming
1987
sustainable development enters economics, as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Brundtland Report 1987) → ecosystems as capital assets, economies as systems
embedded within nature
1988
first assessment that global climate warming has begun (James Hansen, Senate testimony to US Congress, 23/6/1988) → creation of the IPCC, 1988; human imperative to stabilise climate change
1989
invention of the World Wide Web information system (Tim Berners-Lee, UK, 1989) → birth of the Information Age
1990
spacecraft Voyager 1 photographs the sunlit Earth from a distance of 6 billion km (NASA, 14/2/1990): this Pale Blue Dot, our place in the cosmos
1990
launch of the Hubble Space Telescope (NASA with ESA, 1990) → observing the birth of stars, growth of galaxies, prevalence of black holes, atmospheres of exoplanets
1992
first detection of exoplanets, orbiting a neutron star 2,300 light-years from Earth (Arecibo Observatory and NRAO, USA, 1992) → possibility of extra-terrestrial life on
temperate and moist planets, perhaps feeding off radiolytic H₂; beings for whom we are aliens
1992
the Rio Earth Summit, Brazil, hosts the largest gathering of world leaders as of 1992, for intergovernmental collaboration on the environment, climate change, desertification
1992
global commitment by nation states to conservation of biodiversity, and sustainable use and equitable sharing of its benefits (UN Convention on Biological Diversity: CBD, 1992) → ratified by every country except the USA
1992
first Internet server for streaming media (StarWorks, 1992) → rise of live and on-demand video and audio streaming during the 2000s; personalisation of entertainment and nostalgia
1993
tuning of enzyme functions by directed evolution (Frances Arnold, USA, 1993) → environmentally friendly production of pharmaceuticals and renewable fuels
1994
launch of online marketplace Amazon.com (Jeff Bezos, USA, 1994) → world’s largest cloud-computing platform
1995
observation of Bose-Einstein condensate (NIST, USA, 1995), a fifth state of matter with properties unlike solids, liquids, gases, plasmas → quantum mechanical description of gravity?
1995
peak of global marine fishery catch, at 130 million tonnes during 1995 → thereafter diminishing returns for a still expanding global fishery; need for an equitable ocean commons
1996
first cloned mammal (Dolly the sheep, Roslin Institute, UK, 1996) → cloning of human stem cells from embryos by 2013 in pursuit of novel therapies; moral, ethical, and social dilemmas
1996
first practical solar-powered aircraft (Icaré 2, Germany, 1996) → race for clean-energy applications; gradually emerging political vision for weaning off fossil fuels
1997
first robotic rover lands on Mars and measures surface composition (NASA’s Sojourner, 4/7/1997) → Mars Express spacecraft finds liquid water in 2018, conducive to life and to human colonisation
1997
adoption of the Kyoto Protocol by 192 countries (UNFCC, 1997), binding 37 industrialised and industrialising countries plus the EU to targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions → still rising by 2021
1998
creation of Google search technology, as a student project (Larry Page and Sergey Brin, USA, 1998) → free to use, efficient knowledge-search engine; profit from mining personal data; pay-per-click business model
2000
ongoing and accelerating rise in global mean sea level exceeds 3 mm/year by 2000, regulated by thermal expansion, ice-mass loss and large-scale dams → no scenario that stops sea-level rise this century
2000
first legal recognition of same-sex marriage (The Netherlands, 2000) → legal in 32 countries by 2022
2001
calory deficit afflicts 13% of the global population in the year 2001 → 9% by 2019; climate change exacerbating undernourishment and obesity
2001
launch of Wikipedia (Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, USA, 15/1/2001), collating knowledge as a common good → world’s largest work of general reference, open to editing by registered users
2001
first draft sequence of the human genome: c. 25,000 genes in 3 billion base pairs (Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, USA, + 23 institutes, 2001), completed 2003 → Human Cell Atlas; gene therapy
2001
first space tourist (Dennis Tito, USA, with the Russian space programme to the International Space Station, 2001) → race to commercialise space travel by 2021
2001
terrorist attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon (USA, 11/9/2001) → accelerating globalisation of jihadi networks instigated in the 1980s, and counter-terrorism strategies
2003
a heatwave across Europe causes 70,000 additional deaths in summer 2003, then with a return time of thousands of years → 100 years by 2015; rising frequency of record-shattering climate extremes, including
marine heatwaves
2003
globally agreed enforcement of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CBD, 2003), governing translocation of living genetically modified organisms that threaten biodiversity
2004
launch of online social networking service Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg, USA, 2004) → 2 billion users by 2017; rise in conspiracy theories with reorientation of online exchanges from information to
values
2006
launch of microblogging service Twitter (Jack Dorsey, USA, 2006) → 500 million tweets per day by 2013; one-to-many echo chambers; rise of free-to-use platforms monetising
personal data through advertising
2007
human urban population exceeds half the global population for the first time in history →
urban wealth sustained by international trade that drives
rural impoverishment; strengthening relation of fertility to poverty
2007
worldwide adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN, 2007) to be free and equal to all other peoples, supported by 182 nation states
2007
Great Recession (2007-9), free-fall of developed economies synchronised by global integration of markets
2008
first smartphone apps (iPhone App Store, 10/7/2008) → establishment of social media; 100 billion app downloads by 2015, 100 billion per year by 2020; no stewardship of global
collective behaviour
2008
first national constitution to recognise rights of nature (Ecuador, 2008); first statutory law granting rights to nature, Bolivia 2010 → departure from nature as property
2008
first country to adopt circular-economy legislation (China, 2008): reduce, reuse, recycle → national roadmaps by 2016; need for global initiatives
2009
launch of first cryptocurrency: Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer medium of exchange by blockchain (Satoshi Nakamoto, 2009) → expanding carbon footprint from computationally intensive mining of digital coins
2009
humanity is overstepping three planetary boundaries to a safe operating space: climate change, biodiversity loss, nitrogen cycle → risk of
abrupt ecological disruption, biosphere tipping points, and hothouse Earth; need for planetary stewardship
2009
nations that grew rich on fossil fuels commit climate finance to poorer nations (UN FCCC, 2009), worth one-tenth of annual oil and gas industry royalties by 2020 → inadequate, and still a shortfall by
2021
2010
creation of first self-replicating synthetic bacterial cell (J. Craig Venter Institute, USA, 2010) → xenobots for intravenous drug delivery by 2020, self-replicating by 2021; dangers of robots with unlimited
autonomy
2010
global agreement to implement 20 biodiversity targets by 2020 (CBD, 2010), to address causes of biodiversity loss, reduce pressures on biodiversity, safeguard ecosystems and their services → failure completely on 14, partially on 6
2011
international resolution against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (UN, 2011) → homosexuality legal in 133 of 195 countries by 2019, rising trend; recognition of a sex spectrum
2011
number of liberal and elected democracies in the world peaks at 101 in 2011, encompassing 55% of the global population
2011
two-thirds of the global population in 2011 have access to safe drinking water, a necessary condition for wellbeing; rising to almost three-quarters by 2020
2012
observation of Higgs boson: a fundamental force-carrier particle (CERN Large Hadron Collider, 4/7/2012) → validation of the Standard Model of particle physics
2012
more than half the world’s population tunes in to television coverage of the London Summer Olympics (2012)
2012
invention of CRISPR-Cas9 technology (Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, USA, 2012) → accurate, fast and cheap editing of genes and gene mutations in any organism, including – unethically – viable
human embryos
2012
first human-made object escapes our Solar System and enters interstellar space, 18 billion km from the Sun (Voyager 1, 25/8/2012)
2013
atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ exceed 400 ppm for the first time in at least 3 million years, an accelerating rise (NOAA, Hawaii, 5/2013) → race for technologies to capture and use CO₂
2014
globally agreed enforcement of the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (CBD, 2014), a legal framework for informed consent and benefit-sharing
2015
invention of the optical lattice clock (Hidetoshi Katori, Japan, 2015) → accuracy of 1 second in 15 billion years; ticking detectably faster with each centimetre of altitude, as predicted by general relativity
2015
a fishing boat sinks off the Mediterranean coast of Libya with the loss of 1,050 lives (18/4/2015), amongst 65 million people forcibly displaced worldwide in 2015
2015
tipping point in industry-wide momentum towards electric vehicles during mid-2010s, when still comprising 2% of market share, spread by investor confidence under strengthening regulation of fossil fuels
2015
three trillion trees on Earth (2015, cf. 6.6 trillion at the start of human civilisation), 15 billion culled annually → forest covering a quarter of global land area, declining in extent and
diversity, driven down by commodity production, wildfires, urbanisation
IV. PLANETARY STEWARDSHIP
9. Sustainability Revolution ⇑ ⇓ ⇒
CE 2015
UN General Assembly of 194 countries adopts 17 Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, to end poverty and other deprivations by improving health and education, reducing inequalities, addressing climate change and halting biodiversity loss (25/9/2015)
2015
UN Paris Agreement on Climate Change adopted by 196 nation states, resolving to keep global average temperature to well below 2°C in excess of pre-industrial levels, and striving to limit the increase to 1.5°C (12/12/2015) → slower losses of sea ice, permafrost, and biodiversity; by
2022, no credible pathway to 1.5°C
2015
human land use, rising exponentially up to 1960, still rising in 2015 for livestock grazing (27% of global land area), crops (7%), buildings, towns and cities (1%); industrial fishing in 55% of ocean area by 2015
2016
detection of gravitational waves (LIGO and Virgo interferometers, 11/2/2016): ripples in spacetime generated by accelerating bodies, predicted by the theory of general relativity
2016
coldest ground surface temperature on Earth: − 110.9°C (central-eastern Antarctica, 2016); once temperate rainforests, now dry and salty antarctic soils uninhabitable even to microbes
2016
destruction of more than 6 million ha (60,000 km²) of tropical primary forest during 2016, an unprecedented peak in a rising trend → quick profit from drawing down natural capital, a down payment on future economic
failure
2016
global land and ocean surface temperature for 2016 reaches 0.99°C above the 1951-1980 mean, Earth’s warmest year on record to date → roadmap for decarbonisation, implicating lifestyle choices
2017
first national legislation for a mid-century target of net-zero emissions (Sweden, 2017) → Suriname and Bhutan CO₂-negative by 2019; net-zero pledges by governments
and companies cover 90% of the global economy by 2021, with big emitters yet to peak
2017
accumulation since 1957 of 23,000 space objects bigger than an apple, travelling at up to 28,000 km/hr in Earth orbit → debris risk to satellites and space stations, a problem for government space agencies of their own making
2017
accumulation of plastic waste since 1950 exceeds 5 billion tonnes in landfills and the natural environment by 2017, more than 10× global human biomass → pervasive microplastics across the globe; paucity of options for mitigating harm
2018
sixfold increase in annual ice loss from Antarctica and Greenland over 25 years to 2018 → sea-levels to rise 40-80 cm by 2100 under scenarios of low-high greenhouse gas emissions,
displacing 190-630 million people
2018
slowing Atlantic circulation over the last 60 years, consistent with rising CO₂, enhancing global surface warming
2018
humans and our livestock achieve respectively 9× and 14× the biomass of all wild mammals by 2018→ imperative of shifting towards plant-based diets, co-benefitting forests, climate change and
health
2018
hottest ground surface temperature on Earth: 80.8°C (Lut Desert, Iran, 2018; Sonoran Desert, Mexico, 2019), too hostile for plant life
2018
human activities have modified three-quarters of ice-free land and almost nine-tenths of the ocean by 2018; Earth’s remaining wildernesses become increasingly vital buffers against climate change
2018
first commercial taxi service of fully self-driving cars (Google-Waymo, USA, 5/12/2018) → reducing traffic accidents, raising social dilemmas
2018
half the global population using the Internet by 2018 → escape from state-controlled media; expansion of denial, fake news, falsehoods,
lies and misinformation
2019
first image of a black hole (Event Horizon Telescope, 10/4/2019), 55 million light-years from Earth, 6.5 billion times the mass of the Sun, with spiralling magnetic fields, expelling jets of matter
2019
first global assessment of biodiversity finds 1 million of Earth’s 8 million species threatened by accelerating extinction rates (IPBES, 2019): Earth’s sixth mass extinction imperils humanity’s life support systems, calling for transformative change in human activities
2019
Britain generates more electricity from zero-carbon sources than from fossil fuels for the first time since the Industrial Revolution (UK National Grid, 6/2019); fossil fuels still provide 84% of global primary energy
2019
energy use per person during 2019 exceeds the resting metabolism by 30× globally, and by 114× for citizens of the USA (cf. 15× for an elite athlete running a marathon)
2019
acidification of almost all open-ocean surface by absorption of anthropogenic CO₂, losing 0.02 pH units per decade since 1990, with current harm and projected threats to shell-forming species
2019
first global climate strike (20/9/2019), led by school children and joined by millions of people with justified concerns → world scientists warn of a climate emergency
2019
first demonstration of quantum supremacy over conventional computers (Google AI Quantum, USA, 2019) → double-exponential growth rate in computing power
2019
first case of COVID-19 (Wuhan wildlife market, China, 1/12/2019), caused by coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 → pandemic triggering unprecedented
lockdown of nations and societies worldwide, shrinking the global economy, deepening inequalities; largest
vaccination programme in history begins 8/12/2020 after 5.7 million excess deaths
2019
inauguration of US Space Force (20/12/2019), formalising competition for military dominance in space; UK follows in 2021 → surveillance extending to stewardship and warfare capabilities
2019
rising frequency of weather-related disasters multiplies global economic losses 7.8× from the 1970s to the 2010s, disproportionately impoverishing the poor; early-warning systems reduce deaths by two-thirds
2020
One Trillion Trees Initiative (World Economic Forum, 2020), planting trees in support of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2020-2030 → nature-based climate solutions
2020
launch of first commercial space taxi (SpaceX, 30/5/2020), taking NASA astronauts to the International Space Station
2020
highest recorded air temperature on Earth: 54.4°C in Death Valley (California, USA, 16/8/2020); emergence of intolerable heat, particularly for urban populations, exacerbated by air conditioning,
mitigated by greenery
2020
leaders of 93 countries and the EU pledge to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 (Leaders Pledge for Nature, 2020): commitment to nature positive government, business and civil society
2020
protein structures accurately predicted by an artificial intelligence network: AlphaFold (DeepMind, USA, 2020) → accelerated understanding of protein functions; rapid advances in drug design
2020
human-made materials surpass Earth’s total living biomass, predominantly as concrete infrastructure, doubling in mass every 20 years since 1900 → our material contribution to the Anthropocene Epoch
2020
global land and ocean surface temperature for 2020 exceeds 1°C above the 1951-1980 mean for the first time, 1.2°C above the pre-industrial 1850-1900 baseline, with 2011-2020 the 4ᵗʰ decade in succession to claim warmest average temperature
2020
ambient temperature in the Arctic exceeds the 1981-2010 average by 2.1°C in 2020, warming 4× faster than the rest of the world; permafrost thawing self-amplifies to the point of no return; Arctic
zombie fires release 4× the CO₂ emissions of global volcanic activity
2021
first powered, controlled flight on another planet: Ingenuity Helicopter drone on Mars (NASA, 19/4/2021), hovering 3 m above the Jezero Crater
2021
spacecraft Parker Solar Probe touches the Sun’s corona (NASA, 28/4/2021): sampling its outer atmosphere
2021
worldwide acceleration of glacier melt, now at twice the speed of 20 years ago → explaining one-fifth of the rate and acceleration in sea-level rise during the 21ˢᵗ century
2021
tropical forests in south-eastern Amazonia switch from CO₂ sink to source by 2021, linked to intensifying dry seasons, deforestation and rising frequency of fires
2021
Earth’s hottest month on record (NOAA, July 2021): rising frequency of climate anomalies → need for actions to trigger positive tipping towards global sustainability through self-reinforcing shifts in behaviour
2021
human activities have unequivocally warmed atmosphere, ocean and land, intensifying heatwaves, droughts and floods; global warming will exceed 2°C without immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions (IPCC, 2021): a reality check for policy makers
2021
pledge to end deforestation by 2030, signed by 141 countries, covering 90% of Earth’s forests (UN COP 26 Climate Conference, 2/11/2021) → uneven progress; need for enforcement mechanisms
2021
commitment by 103 countries to curb emissions of methane (Global Methane Pledge, 2/11/2021): a potent greenhouse gas approaching triple preindustrial levels; emissions
catalysed by global warming?
2021
global agreement to nearly halve CO₂ emissions by 2030 relative to 2010, and to achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century (UN COP 26 Glasgow Climate Pact, 13/11/2021) → need for policies to match the
science
2021
the world ocean reaches its hottest ever recorded in 2021, for the third year and seventh decade in a row, contributing to coral bleaching and sea-level rise; fuelling marine heatwaves, cyclones and hurricanes
2021
clean power accounts for more than one-third of global electricity supply in 2021, with wind and solar sources alone contributing one-tenth
2021
launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (NASA, ESA, CSA, 2021) → exploring the early Universe, star births and deaths and
galactic evolution, analysing exoplanet atmospheres for signs of life
2022
global cost-of-living crisis initiated by demand exceeding supply for resources, intensified by Russia invading Ukraine (24/2/2022), threatening worldwide food and energy security
2022
human and natural populations are reaching limits to climate adaptation, from poles to equator (IPCC, 2022): diminishing opportunities to secure a liveable future for all by strengthening nature
2022
time has almost run out for averting global climate catastrophe (IPCC, 2022): mitigation still cheaper than adaptation, by switching immediately and comprehensively to carbon-free energy and extracting atmospheric carbon
2022
the number of people forcibly displaced reaches 100 million worldwide (UNHCR, 2022), of which c. 40 million refugees, asylum-seekers and stateless persons are displaced by conflict and violence
2022
one-fifth of the global population depends directly on one or more of fifty thousand wild species for food or livelihood (IPBES, 2022): sustainable use must confront the globally accelerating loss of biodiversity
2022
fifty ways to value nature, in diverse opportunities for living from, with, in, and as nature (IPBES, 2022); a narrow focus of policy-makers on value to economic growth drives down biodiversity
2022
unprecedented successive years with declining global value of Human Development Index (UN-DP, 2022): climate change and Covid-19 impacting education, income, life expectancy
2022
record-breaking heatwaves, heralding extreme droughts in China and western Europe, and flooding in Pakistan that displaces 33 million people
2022
tumbling costs of green energy reach parity with fossil fuels by 2022 → economic motivation for shifting faster to renewable energy, with net-zero CO₂ emissions feasible within 10-20 years
2022
a spacecraft alters the course of an asteroid (NASA, 2022), demonstrating potential to save Earth from an asteroid hit
How many electrons are in the 3rd orbit?
The third shell can hold 32 electrons. Within the shells, electrons are further grouped into subshells of four different types, identified as s, p, d, and f in order of increasing energy.
How many electrons are in the 4th Shell?
- Each energy level can accommodate only a certain number of electrons. Thus, the number of electrons in the fourth energy level is 32 electrons.
What is the number of electrons in an orbit?
The maximum number of electrons in an orbit of an atom is determined by 2n2 (n = Orbit Number). According to Bohr's model of an atom, the maximum number of electrons in an orbit/shell is given by 2n2. Here 'n' is orbit number/ shell number/ energy level; which is 1 for K shell, 2 for L shell and so on.
How many electrons are in the 5th Shell?
The fifth shell has the s, p, d, f, and g subshells ⟹ 2 + 6 + 10 + 14 + 18 = 50 electrons.