3.3 million years · one continuous record
All of Human History
Every invention, discovery and turning point, laid out on a single coiling spiral — the centre is three million years ago, the rim is today. Drag to pan, scroll to zoom, or jump straight to a year.
In view · 3.3 million BCE – 2026
21 entriesPeopling of Australia
Occupation at Madjedbebe in Arnhem Land shows humans established across open water in Sahul.
Australia
Peopling of the Americas
Coastal and interior routes carried people from Beringia into two continents.
Americas
Lapita voyaging into the Pacific
Lapita seafarers crossed open ocean to Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa with crops and livestock.
Oceania
Glass ingot trade of the Uluburun
A single shipwreck carried copper, tin, glass and ivory across the Mediterranean.
Mediterranean
Phoenician maritime trade network
City-states such as Tyre, Sidon and Byblos built cedar ships and ran regular routes across the Mediterranean, trading dye, glass, timber and metals.
Levant
Founding of Carthage
Settlers from Tyre established Carthage on the North African coast, with an artificial harbour able to shelter and repair a large fleet.
North Africa
Silk Road opens
Han envoy Zhang Qian's missions west linked China to Central Asia and beyond.
China
Polynesian wayfinding to Hawaii and Rapa Nui
Navigators read swells, stars and birds to settle the remotest islands on earth.
Oceania
Norse landfall at L'Anse aux Meadows
Greenlandic Norse built a timber and turf outpost in Newfoundland.
North America
Zheng He's treasure fleets
Ming admiral Zheng He led vast fleets to India, Arabia and East Africa.
China
Transatlantic contact
Columbus's voyages link the Americas and Eurasia permanently.
Atlantic
First circumnavigation
The remnant of Magellan's expedition, led by Elcano, returned to Spain.
Global
Sextant and lunar-distance navigation
Precise angle measurement fixed latitude and, with tables, longitude.
Britain
Liquid-fuelled rocket
Robert Goddard flew a small rocket burning petrol and liquid oxygen.
United States
Artificial satellite
Sputnik 1 orbits the Earth and beeps at the world.
Soviet Union
Human spaceflight
Yuri Gagarin orbits the Earth aboard Vostok 1.
Soviet Union
Moon landing
Apollo 11 lands Armstrong and Aldrin on the lunar surface.
United States and Moon
Hubble Space Telescope
An optical telescope placed above the atmosphere.
Low Earth orbit
Reusable orbital rockets
A Falcon 9 first stage lands vertically after delivering payload to orbit.
United States
First image of a black hole
The Event Horizon Telescope combined radio dishes worldwide to image M87's shadow.
Global
James Webb Space Telescope images
JWST returned infrared views of the earliest galaxies and exoplanet atmospheres.
Global