Summary of the History of Earth
Human life on Earth is just a blip in Earth’s history, so much has happened before humans ever existed. Here’s a list of extraordinary global events which you missed..
- 13.8 billion years ago: The big bang!
- 13.5 billion years ago : Our Milky Way galaxy is formed
- 4.6 billion years ago : Sun and Earth form from lumps of dust
- 4.5 billion years ago : Earth/Moon impact
- 4.1 billion years ago : Earth has a crust and water appears
- 3.9 billion years ago : Majority of the meteorite activity ends
- 3.4 billion years ago : DNA appears, and simple cells emerge
- 2.5 billion years ago : Moon is 30% closer than today
- 2.5 billion years ago : Oxygen appears on Earth
- 900 million years ago : There was 20 hrs in a day
- 600 million years ago : Some animals appeared
- 540 million years ago : Fish appeared
- 444 million years ago : Mass Extinction (1) 86% of species lost
- 443 million years ago : Temperatures have dropped
- 419 million years ago : Insects appeared
- 380 million years ago : CO2 rising
- 375 million years ago : Mass Extinction (2) 75% of species lost
- 370 million years ago : CO2 dropping significantly
- 360 million years ago : Wooden trees first appeared decomposes in to coal
- 320 million years ago : CO2 at lowest levels, temperatures dropped
- 315 million years ago : Reptiles appeared
- 300 million years ago : Wood eating organisms first appeared, stopping coal production
- 280 million years ago : Diatom plankton appears
- 260 million years ago : Temperatures rise
- 252 million years ago : Mass Extinction (3) 96% of species lost
- 230 million years ago : Dinosaurs appeared
- 200 million years ago : Mass Extinction (4) 80% of species lost
- 190 million years ago : Ice age started
- 178 million years ago : mammal like animals first appeared
- 170 million years ago : 23 hrs were in day
- 153 million years ago : Trees appeared
- 150 million years ago : Birds appeared
- 80 million years ago : Ants appeared
- 10-100 million years ago : Moon/Planet collision creates Saturn’s rings
- 66 million years ago : Mass Extinction (5) 76% of species lost, including Dinosaurs
Pre-History
- 2.5 million years ago : Stone age. Homo habilis age
- 1.5 million years ago : Homo erectus, living as hunter/gathers
- 780,000 years ago : Earth magnetic poles flipped
- 300,000 years ago : Steinheim skull, Fire in use
- 140,000 years ago : Ice age ending
- 74,000 BC : Toba Volcanic eruption
- 70,000 BC : Ice age starting
- 70,000 BC : World migration from Africa
- 70,000 BC : World population around 15,000
- 50,000 BC : Normal human behaviour (cognition: language, music)
- 42,000 BC : Use of clothing
- 28,000 BC : Harpoons, needles, and saws in use
- 17,000 BC : CO2 rising above 200ppm
- 15,000 BC : Ice age ending
- 10,000 BC : Living as hunters/gathers ends, farming starts
- 10,000 BC : 1 to 4 Million people on the planet
- 9000 BC : Farming began
- 8000 BC : Earliest Oil lamps
- 7000 BC : Languages are forming & people grouping in to cities
- 6000 BC : Graphical boundaries forming
- 5000 BC : Objects as money in use
- 4000 BC : 7 Million on the planet
Ancient History:
- 3700 BC : Written records start
- 3300 BC : Bronze Age begins
- 3000 BC : Invention of Maths
- 3000 BC : Stonehenge built
- 2584 BC : Great Egyptian Pyramids construction started (took 20yrs)
- 2000 BC : 27 Million people on the planet
- 1600 BC : Phonetic alphabet formed
- 1200 BC : Ion Age begins
- 700 BC : Money system starts
- 0 : 170 Million people on the planet
- 4 BC : Jesus born
- 775 AD : Unexplained gamma burst hits Earth
- 1300 AD : 310 Million people on the planet
- 1370 AD : Bible translated to English
Modern History:
- 1600 AD : Scientific & Maths Revolution
- 1712 AD : Steam engines being made
- 1750 AD : Industrialisation
- 1759 AD : Electricity is discovered
- 1800 AD : Electricity in general use
- 1804 AD : 1 Billion people on the planet
- 1840 AD : Electric motors in use
- 1859 AD : Geomagnetic storm (Carrington Event)
- 1877 AD : Telephones in use
- 1895 AD : First radio transmissions
- 1900 AD : Light bulbs in general use
- 1901 AD : Working radio built
- 1910 AD : Petrol cars in use
- 1914 – 1918 : World War 1
- 1926 AD : Working TV built
- 1927 AD : 2 Billion people on the planet
- 1929 AD : TV station appeared
- 1939 – 1945 : World War 2
- 1960 AD : 3 Billion people on the planet
- 1969 AD : First people on the Moon
- 1974 AD : 4 Billion people on the planet
- 1983 AD : Internet domain name system created
- 1987 AD : 5 Billion people on the planet
- 1993 AD : Internet goes commercial
- 1999 AD : 6 Billion people on the planet
- 2011 AD : 7 Billion people on the planet
- 2021 AD : Perseverance Rover lands on Mars
See the future:
- see Earth Future article.
