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
38 entriesSeafaring to Sahul
Deliberate open-water crossings carried people to Australia and New Guinea.
Southeast Asia and Oceania
Donkey domestication
Nile pastoralists tamed wild asses as pack animals.
Northeast Africa
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
Camel domestication for desert caravans
The one-humped dromedary was domesticated in Arabia for transport, letting caravans cross deserts that had blocked wheeled traffic.
Arabia
Via Appia and the Roman road standard
Layered, cambered and drained roadbeds carried armies and trade.
Italy
Lighthouse of Alexandria
A tiered stone tower with a mirrored flame guided ships into harbour.
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
Horseshoe and the nailed iron shoe
Protected hooves let horses work hard roads and wet fields.
Europe
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
Dutch fluyt cargo ship
A cheap, large-hold, small-crew hull cut freight costs sharply.
Netherlands
Submarine navigation trial on the Thames
Drebbel's oared, greased-leather craft travelled submerged.
England
Marine chronometer
Harrison's clocks keep time at sea, solving the longitude problem.
England
Canal networks and inland freight
Engineered waterways cut coal and pottery transport costs dramatically.
Britain
Manned flight by balloon
The Montgolfiers send humans aloft under a hot-air envelope.
France
Parachute descent demonstrated
Lenormand jumped from a tower with a rigid canopy.
France
Steam locomotive
Trevithick runs a high-pressure steam engine on rails.
Wales
Bicycle ancestor: the running machine
Drais's steerable two-wheeler moved by foot push.
Germany
Underground railway
The Metropolitan Railway opened beneath London's streets.
Britain
Suez Canal opens
A sea-level cut joined the Mediterranean and Red Sea.
Egypt
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
Escalator and moving walkway
Continuous stair belts moved crowds in stations and stores.
United States
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
Jet engine patented
Whittle's turbojet promised speed beyond propellers.
Britain
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