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This page was initially drafted on 31 July 1998 as a selection of the best links from the Robot Wisdom Weblog archives. A few layers of refinement have been added since then, with the aim of gradually constructing a concise introduction to net.literacy on each of these topics. So stay tuned!
Primary timeline-sources: The Unauthorized Version by Robin Lane Fox, Life in the Ancient Near East by Daniel Snell, and Connections by James Burke. (The timeline was created for my own reference while reading these books, and makes no effort towards generality... yet.)
HyperHistory Online: http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/civil_n2/civ_timetable.html
The Guardian is looking at the last millennium, at a rate of two years per day: http://www.guardian.co.uk/millennium/archive.html
Newsgroup listings are selected from the much longer (and more frivolous) Robot Wisdom Newsgroup Finder. Instead of the clumsy "news" URL, I've changed them to access current DejaNews postings in each group. If you have suggestions, mail me.
general history newsgroups: soc.history, alt.history.what-if, alt.war, bit.listserv.history, soc.history.moderated
history-related newsgroups: bit.listserv.museum-l, rec.food.historic, rec.games.miniatures.historical, soc.history.living, rec.arts.books.hist-fiction, rec.collecting.postal-history
Excellent overview of Big-Bang theory and controversy
Short timeline of universe over a googol of years http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1999/07/15/text/p17s2.html
PreCambrian earth frozen solid?
Life originated in tiny natural testtubes? http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_239000/239787.stm
12,000,000,000 Before Present: Big bang? 4,560,000,000 BP: purple salt in meteorites 4,450,000,000 BP: catastrophic impact creates moon? 3,900,000,000 BP: asteroid storm resurfaces Earth? 3,200,000,000 BP: lunar month just 20 days? 2,600,000,000 BP: mats of photosynthetic bacteria colonise land 2,500,000,000 BP: cyanobacteria begin producing oxygen [more] 1,700,000,000 BP: continents converge into Rhodinia 1,600,000,000 BP: Animals, plants, and fungi diverge 760,000,000 BP: Rhodinia splits, starting the Pacific 700,000,000 BP: Earth freezes over? Neoproterozoic era 543,000,000 BP: Cambrian period begins 510,000,000 BP: first plant spores 340,000,000 BP: First land vertebrate 310,000,000 BP: birds and mammals diverge 290,000,000 BP: featherless biped 280,000,000 BP: X and Y chromosomes differentiate 226,000,000 BP: Milky Way's rotation time 200,000,000 BP: Pangaea splits, creating Atlantic Ocean 200,000,000 BP: mass extinction kills half of all species 150,000,000 BP: oldest known flower resembles magnolia; mile-wide asteroid hits Arctic 150,000,000 BP: X and Y chromosomes differentiate further 145,000,000 BP: oldest complete mammal skeleton
Dinosaurs and continents w/timeline of breakup
100,000,000 BP: X and Y chromosomes differentiate further 84,000,000 BP: Earth tilts by 20 degrees? 50,000,000 BP: whales diverge from land mammals 45,000,000 BP: giant magma plume creates Africa? 40,000,000 BP: X and Y chromosomes differentiate further 16,000,000 BP: human line diverges from orangutan ?,000,000 BP: human line diverges from gorilla (1.9% dna) 7,000,000 BP: human line diverges from chimp (1.7% dna) [later?] 4,500,000 BP: 'Lucy' walks upright; Mediterranean Sea flood 3,300,000 BP: Australopithecus skeleton 3,300,000 BP: meteorite off Argentina causes many extinctions 3,000,000 BP: collision of N and S America initiates Ice Age? 2,340,000 BP: sophisticated stone tools (homo habilis) 1,800,000 BP: first toothpicks 1,700,000 BP: African migration into Europe?
A great page of hominid news: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/recent.html
Were humans navigating the Pacific a million years ago?!!
prehistory newsgroups: talk.origins, sci.bio.evolution, sci.archaeology, sci.anthropology.paleo, sci.bio.paleontology, sci.archaeology.mesoamerican, alt.archaeology
400,000 BP: hunting horses with spears in Germany? 200,000 BP: genetic "Eve" 140,000 BP: diaspora from Africa; dogs domesticated? 130,000 BP: humans first acquire chins!?? 80,000 BP: intentional burial? 71,000 BP: volcanic winter accelerates human evolution? 60,000 BP: diaspora reaches China via SE Asia; dog and wolf distinct 44,000 BP: Mediterranean population spurt 40,000 BP: stone figurines, ostrich-eggshell beads 30,000 BP: so-called fertility figurines 27,000 BP: first weaving 18,000 BP: glacial maximum, sea level 120 meters below present 13,000 BP: humans reach western hemisphere 12,000 BP: ice age ends, temperatures rise, rainfall decreases 12,000 BP: sea levels rising 1m per century 11000 Before Current Era: wheat and rye cultivated in Syria 9000 BC: pigs domesticated in Turkey 8000 BC: goats domesticated in Iraq 6200 BC: a century of cooler temps due to glacial melt? 6000 BC: hunting nomads descend from high grasslands worldwide 5550 BC: Black Sea suffers catastrophic salt flood from Mediterranean 5500 BC: farming villages in Mesopotamia; potters' wheels 5000 BC: Euphrates irrigation; Nile settlers harness the cycle of floods
4000 BC: plowing with oxen, irrigation by Nile earthworks; deforestation? 4000 BC: sheep favored for wool 3500 BC: Uruk's cities reach 10k population; cylinder seals; the wheel 3440 BC: Desertification of Sahara begins 3400 BC: first writing in Egypt 3300 BC: numerical notation tablets; Iceman mummified in Alps 3000 BC: sea level reaches present level, temps 2 degrees warmer than current
Online hieroglyphics translator
3000 BC: bureaucracy, surplus, warehousing, taxes, accounting, gold mines 2800 BC: Gilgamesh; Pyramid of Djoser near Cairo 2700 BC: Ur graves show fine arts, distant trade for gold, gems, spices 2500 BC: walled cities in Egypt and Mesopotamia suggest insecurity 2480 BC: Great Pyramind at Giza begun? 2430 BC: earliest record of slaves being sold in Mesopotamia 2300 BC: Sargon unites Mesopotamia around capital Akkad 2200 BC: serious drought in Middle East 2050 BC: Seahenge built 2000 BC: Uruk reaches 60k pop 2000-1600 BC: brutal climate change in North Africa c1800 BC: Sumerian King List compiled; first Chinese dynasty 1628 BC: Thera explodes 1362 BC: end of Akhnaton's 17-year reign (conventional dating) 1208 BC: oldest known mention of Israel c1200 BC: migrations caused by drying climate? (deforestation???) c950: David, Solomon-- not monotheistic; Israel split north/south 800 BC: no bible texts yet; ritual sacrifice of 1stborn (morlech?) c750 BC: J's Eden, Eve, and Adam; Hosea anticipates(?) ten commandments c730 BC: Hesiod's myths of creation c722 BC: Assyrians destroy northern kingdom (still not monotheistic?) 700 BC: touchstone makes uniform coinage possible, starting in Lydia 622 BC: Hilkiah sends 'book of the law' (Deuteronomy?) to Josiah
Review of biblical archeological evidence
587 BC: Fall of Temple, Exile c560 BC: compilation of historical narrative, Deuteronomy to 2 Kings c550 BC: parts of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers; 10 commandments fixed 550 BC: increasing trade makes King Croesus of Lydia "as rich as..." 539 BC: Cyrus of Persia restores Temple c520 BC: Leviticus? dietary strictures confer special identity 445 BC: Nehemiah's mission rebuilds Jerusalem's walls c400 BC: various traditions combined into Genesis 398 BC: Ezra delivers law of Moses (Pentateuch?) c350 BC: Book of Job; Jonah?
The Perseus Project (about Ancient Greece) looks like the most ambitious academic hypertext project going. Here's an article/ overview, in academic-ese
332 BC: Alexander conquers Persia 331 BC: Alexander founds Alexandria with central library c300 BC: oldest known copies of Homeric poems c250 BC: first synagogues; Pentateuch translated into Greek c250 BC: Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes c200 BC: Ben Sira writes Ecclesiasticus; 1st mention of Eve's sin 167 BC: Maccabees resist persecutions of Antiochus c160 BC: first mention of resurrection, eternal life c10 BC: birth of Jesus? 4 BC: death of Herod 6: Quirinius, Rome taxes Judaea for 1st time 27/33: arrest of John the Baptist 36: March 30 (Passover) crucifixion of Jesus c50: Gospel of Thomas; Sayings Gospel Q; first letters of Paul 66-70: war against Rome c70: Signs Gospel; Gospel of Mark; Didache handbook for believers c75: Josephus writes history c80: Gospel of Matthew c90: Gospels of Mark, John c100: canonical Mark
Lingua Franca itself has a great overview of the Jesus Seminar
Dominic Crossan of the Jesus Seminar on a fine (if somewhat wimpy) Frontline
A review of John Dominic Crossan's new historical-Jesus book: [Messy URL]
Where else can you find the Bible boiled down to 2000 words?
The news in Latin
classical-era newsgroups: bit.listserv.hellas, alt.mythology, sci.classics, alt.mythology.mythic-animals
early religions newsgroups: alt.pagan, alt.native, alt.religion.wicca, talk.religion.buddhism, alt.fan.jesus-christ, alt.religion.shamanism, alt.culture.egyptian, alt.religion.zoroastrianism, soc.religion.gnosis, alt.religion.asatru, alt.philosophy.taoism, soc.religion.hindu, humanities.language.sanskrit
150: Ptolemy synthesizes astronomy knowledge in "Mathematike Syntaxis" c250: huge water-powered Roman grainmill complex in Barbegal, near Arles c300?: Constantinople breaks away from Rome, taxes drive spiral 313: Rome becomes Christian 325: Council of Nicea; oldest known bibles c350: first celebration of Dec 25 as Christmas c500: Alexandria library burned 500++: mouldboard plow, horse, crop rotat. shapes feudal societies 535: catastrophic volcano eruption? 540: catastrophic impact of comet? c700: plagues halve European population 740: Khazars convert to Judaism
Revisionism re the origins of Islam: http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/99jan/koran.htm
My St Patrick's autobiography page
Early English documents: http://britannia.com/history/docs/
A sort of Velikovskian argument about King Arthur
The archeology of Beowulf
Arab period 751: Arabs learn Chinese paper-making techniques in Samarkand 765: Arabs discover surviving Greek texts near Baghdad 765: Arabs with Bukhtu Yishu found hospital in Baghdad 890: monks of St Gall add a cam and trip-hammer to their waterwheel 985: Gerbert (later Pope) learns astronomy, astrolabe from Arabs 1009: oldest complete Hebrew scripture-- Leningrad ms. 1044: Chinese recipe for gunpowder; little ice age begins 1066: stirrup enables William to conquer the Saxons at Hastings 1098: Cistercian order synthesizes self-sufficient efficiency c1100: horizontal loom imported from Arabs; Salerno first university 1105: Christians capture Toledo and its library 1114: Champagne Fairs begin, providing regular trading centers 1130: Raimund re-introduces Aristotle via Avicenna 1185: first brick chimney in England, smaller rooms, privacy, washing c1187: Gerard translates Ptolemy's "Almagest" 1250: Alfonso founds Toledo school to translate Arabic to Latin 1250: Baltic traders improve ship designs 1280: spinning wheel imported from E; water-powered paper mill in Italy c1285: verge-and-foliot system permits mechanical clockworks c1300: armored knights recognized as nobility; 1st cannon smash castles 1347: black plague arrives, halves population in 100 years 1348: water-powered bellows for blast-furnace in Liege 1364: first guns in Italy c1395: knitting 1415: longbow allows Henry V to defeat French at Agincourt
Quirky timeline of last 1000 years of technology (SFGate)
medieval newsgroups: soc.history.medieval, soc.religion.islam, soc.genealogy.medieval, alt.islam.sufism, rec.org.sca, rec.music.early, rec.heraldry, alt.fairs.renaissance, alt.heraldry.sca, alt.legend.king-arthur
Renaissance c1450: recovery after plague leads to conspicuous luxury, fashion c1450: spring-driven clocks using sprung metal 1453: Turks take Constantinople, cut off trade routes with east 1457: Gutenburg prints Psalter with moveable type 1476: Swiss pike phalanx defeats Charles of Burgundy's knights 1482: Europe has 110+ printers, Aldus of Venice creates pocket classics c1490: arquebus with matchlock in Germany, defeats pikemen in Italy 1503 1521: musket allows faster reloading 1536: Henry VIII's Dissolution of monasteries 1537: Fontana's gunner's quadrant for aiming cannon c1550++: England's economic boom, windows and brass deplete forests 1556: Agricola's "De Re Metallica" synthesizes knowledge of metals 1571: Digges' theodolite for surveying and aiming 1579: Saxton's atlas of England 1595: Dutch introduce efficient 'fluyt' design for merchant ships
Chris Crawford's short biography of Erasmus is quite enjoyable
One of Galileo's notebooks in a hugely detailed facsimile
1600: Wm Gilbert's "De Magnete" synthesizes, predicts vacuum in space 1600++: tobacco and coffee consumption skyrockets 1608: Lippershey invents telescope; Galileo makes astron. observs 1615: James I requires glass to be made only with coal 1644: Toricelli's barometer explains puzzle re pumping out mines 1672: Guericke's "Experimenta Nova Magdeburg." vacuum pump, static elec. 1683: 'bill of credit' encourages investment, leads to Bank of England 1688: Lloyd's coffeeshop will become Lloyd's insurance 1690: ring bayonet obsolesces pikeman 1705: Newcomen's steam-engine with condenser 1706: Hauksbee explores static glow in partial vacuum 1708: Darby casts iron in sand 1725: Bouchon's automates silk loom 1740: Huntsman makes crucible steel, enabling accurate watches 1745: Leyden jar stores charge 1745: paper cartridge allows English victory at Fontenoy 1750: Ben Franklin suggests lightning rod
A nicely done historical argument against corporations
The philosophy of sex in the 17th century
Danny Yee offers a typically concise summary of "The Ovary of Eve" about the 18th C philosophies of preformation
Brand new Lingua Franca offers a long, fascinating look at pro-pirate revisionism
Joseph Banks' 1769 voyages in the South Seas
1500-1800 newsgroups: rec.music.classical, rec.antiques, alt.illuminati, rec.music.opera, alt.prophecies.nostradamus, soc.history.science, soc.religion.sikhism, humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare, alt.music.j-s-bach
Age of invention c1768: Priestly's brewery experiments lead to soda water, eudiometer 1769: James Watt's steam engine separates condenser from cylinder 1774: Jesse Ramsden innovates fast, accurate machining for sextants 1775: Wilkinson bores cylinders in cannon with guide-bar 1776: Volta discovers methane 1783: Montgolfiers' balloon trip 1786: Galvani makes frogleg twitch with electricity 1797: Venturi's experiments with fluid dynamics 1798: Eli Whitney's factory for mass-producing muskets
Patrick O'Brian has written eighteen brilliant volumes of the c1800-1815 naval adventures of Jack Aubrey. They've inspired a fan-presence on the Web, inventoried here, that in ways surpasses Joyce's
Tolstoy's War and Peace is also a fun Napoleonic history:
1800: Volta's electric pile; Jacquard's loom w/cards; Maudslay's lathe 1800+: coal gas used for lighting, enabling nightlife, clubs 1803: Robertson and Lloest measure weather in a balloon at 23,000 feet 1808: Maudslay makes ships' blocks by mass-production 1809: Appert wins French prize for bottled preserved foods 1813: Donkin produces canned foods 1814: Lowell's Boston Mfctrng Co factory mass-produces cotton cloth 1820: Oersted connects electricity and magnetism 1825: Sturgeon's electromagnet; Faraday's generator; rubberised Mac 1830: Drummond demonstrates limelight 1846: Schonbein discovers gun cotton 1850: Gorrie announces refrigeration/ air conditioning 1855: France establishes network of weather stations 1856: Wm Perkin discovers first coal-tar dye 1859: Drake discovers petroleum in Pennsylvania 1861: Francis Galton's book of weather maps 1870: Gramme's dynamo powers arc light; Hyatt patents celluloid 1875: Bell makes first telephone 1876: Otto's gas-powered four-stroke engine 1877: Edison's phonograph 1878: Muybridge's zoopraxiscope 1879: Edison's lightbulb 1880: Refrigerated meat from Australia reaches England 1881: Frederick Taylor's time-motion studies 1890: US Census uses Hollerith's punched cards; Dewar invents thermos 1891: ammonia refrigerators increasing in German and American homes 1892: Maybach's carburettor 1893: Edison's kinetoscope 1894: CTR Wilson begins cloud-chamber research after meteorol. observ.
A heroic profile of 1880s 'stunt journalist' Nellie Bly
Leopold of Belgium kills 8 million Congolese
1800s newsgroups: rec.music.indian.classical, soc.religion.bahai, soc.history.war.us-civil-war, alt.conspiracy.abe-lincoln
1900: Maybach and Daimler's spark-and-carburettor Mercedes auto 1904: Hitler traumatized by Wittgenstein? 1912: Rutherford applies cloud-chamber to particle physics 1927: The Jazz Singer first talking picture
Archive of early animations (multiple formats) http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/oahtml/oachron.html
Historical inflation calculator
Could the devastating flu epidemic of 1918 (30 million deaths worldwide) have originated in burning manure???
The new FBI FOIA-section is in ~5mb PDF lumps
HISTORICAL INTEREST
- Alcatraz Escape
- Barbie, Klaus
- Booth, John Wilkes
- Earhart, Amelia
- The Hindenburg Disaster
- Hitler, Adolph
- MIBURN
- Ness, Eliot
- Tesla, Nikola
- Trotsky, Leon
"Blackshirts and Reds"s first chapter, documenting the forgotten story of how Mussolini and Hitler were funded by rich capitalists, to crush the labor movement
The three online chapters of his "Against Empire" give a taut portrait of recent US imperialism
A long, detailed history of US covert ops, especially in Central America, by Philip Agee
Orson Welles vs Wm Randolph Hearst PBS transcript
1900-1920 newsgroups:
alt.movies.silent, rec.music.ragtime, alt.comedy.vaudeville, alt.history.ocean-liners.titanic
1920-1940 newsgroups:
rec.music.country.old-time, alt.music.big-band, rec.autos.antique, rec.antiques.radio+phono
Would you trust your private key to this agency? Since 1956, the NSA has had a secret deal with the Swiss company that supplies the world with crypto
And the happy puzzle of rising IQs
1940s newsgroups: alt.revisionism, soc.history.war.world-war-ii, soc.culture.jewish.holocaust
1950s newsgroups: alt.rock-n-roll.oldies, alt.books.beatgeneration, alt.fan.elvis-presley, alt.fan.ed-wood
A moving book review about the early civil rights movement
Sam Smith's memoir of Washington DC radio 1957-63
One of the first hippie communes, Morning Star, is memorialised in a fine online book called "Home Free Home". (Chapter 14, about massive acid overdosing, is so intense I got flashbacks!)
The virtues of the hippie movement are proved best in the health of their children. An especially good startingpoint on Morning Star is Pam Read's memoir
1967: Israel's attack on the USS Liberty kills 34 US sailors
The CIA used Xerox copiers for 60s spying
An utterly horrifying long piece on the School-of-the-Americas' torture training (US-funded, US-hosted, US-designed)
I'm really enjoying Art Kleiner's "Age of Heretics" about 60s experiments in corporate reform. His webpage is here but this page gives a more interesting snapshot of how he thinks:
A 500k expose on Scientology, its origins and its celebrities
But my favorite McGeehee piece is this one on his data-analysis techniques in 1960s Thailand
early 60s newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.jfk, alt.fan.james-bond, rec.music.artists.beach-boys, alt.tv.man-from-uncle
late 60s newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1960s, alt.tv.prisoner, alt.drugs.psychedelics, rec.drugs.psychedelic, alt.comedy.firesgn-thtre, alt.gathering.rainbow
60s music newsgroups: rec.music.gdead, rec.music.beatles, rec.music.dylan, alt.music.led-zeppelin, alt.music.monkees, alt.music.the-doors, alt.music.who, alt.music.psychedelic, alt.fan.jimi-hendrix, alt.music.the-band, alt.rock-n-roll.psychedelic
Novelised tales of radical 70s feminism by Blanche McCrary Boyd
The pot-smoking snowboarder hullaballoo reminds me of the Dock Ellis LSD no-hitter scandal
vietnam newsgroups: soc.history.war.vietnam, alt.fan.richard-nixon, alt.politics.vietnamese
70s newsgroups: alt.culture.us.1970s, comp.sys.apple2, comp.sys.cbm, bit.listserv.coco, alt.collecting.8-track-tapes
Here's one source that doubts an earthquake caused Chernobyl. The purported quake would have been around 1:23:25 on this detailed timeline
I've wanted a timeline on CIA-Contra-crack
Chris Hitchens fetes nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu
1997 in review from an international perspective
For other 1990s see issues.literate
World current-events-hotspots map
http://www.stratfor.com/hotspots/default.htm
The Irish Times has a gentle FAQ about the euro changeover
At the Foresight Exchange, futurologists can put their virtual money where their mouths are. The full list of active claims is here. And a good tips-page from a successful trader
futurology newsgroups: alt.society.futures, comp.society.futures, alt.books.toffler, alt.history.future, bit.listserv.2000ad-l, bit.listserv.future-l, alt.future.millennium, alt.apocalypse
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