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
25 entriesSeafaring to Sahul
Deliberate open-water crossings carried people to Australia and New Guinea.
Southeast Asia and Oceania
The wheel
Solid wooden potter's wheels and then wheeled carts appear in Mesopotamia and the Carpathians.
Mesopotamia and Europe
Horse domestication on the steppe
Botai communities in northern Kazakhstan corralled, milked and bridled horses.
Central Asia
Sailing ships
Square-rigged reed and wooden vessels on the Nile and the Gulf.
Egypt and Mesopotamia
Sewn-plank seagoing ships
Egyptian expeditions to Punt used timber hulls lashed with rope for open-sea voyages.
Egypt
Horse harness and the trace
Chinese carters devised a breast-strap harness that let horses pull without choking.
China
Camel caravans cross the Sahara
The dromedary made regular trans-Saharan crossings viable for salt and gold.
Sahara
Grand Canal of China
Over a million labourers linked the Yellow and Yangtze river systems by waterway.
China
Magnetic compass for navigation
Chinese sailors use a floating lodestone needle to hold course.
China
Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoe
Lashed twin hulls with crab-claw sails carried families, crops and animals across the Pacific.
Oceania
Stern-mounted rudder
A hinged rudder on the sternpost gives large ships reliable steering.
Northern Europe
Caravel and Portuguese Atlantic navigation
The lateen-rigged caravel could beat back against the wind on ocean passages.
Portugal
Mercator projection
Mercator devised a chart on which a constant compass bearing is a straight line.
Low Countries
Marine chronometer
Harrison's clocks keep time at sea, solving the longitude problem.
England
Manned flight by balloon
The Montgolfiers send humans aloft under a hot-air envelope.
France
Steam locomotive
Trevithick runs a high-pressure steam engine on rails.
Wales
Underground railway
The Metropolitan Railway opened beneath London's streets.
Britain
Electric tram and railway
Werner von Siemens demonstrated an electric passenger railway in Berlin.
Germany
Petrol automobile
Benz builds a three-wheeled vehicle around an internal combustion engine.
Germany
Pneumatic tyre
John Boyd Dunlop re-invented the air-filled tyre for his son's tricycle.
Ireland
Powered heavier-than-air flight
The Wright brothers achieve controlled, sustained flight at Kitty Hawk.
United States
Model T and affordable motoring
Ford's durable, simple car was priced for the people who built it.
United States
Shipping container
Malcom McLean sailed the first container ship, the Ideal X.
United States
Shinkansen high-speed rail
Japan opened a purpose-built 210 km/h line between Tokyo and Osaka.
Japan
GPS satellite navigation
The first Navstar satellites launch, later giving civilians global positioning.
United States