Master Timeline
103 Generations Ago 30 Phil, Chapter 5: Confucius and Confucianism Confucius is remembered for his practical applied philosophy. His sayings are a reflection of many centuries of common sense sayings making his philosophy deeply Chinese. My favorite sayings: The man who knows he can, and the man who knows he cannot, are both correct. Real […]
Basic Timeline: 1787 – Article 1, S2, P3 of the Constitution states, “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be … determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons…excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.” 1868 – 14th Amendment passed, it declared all persons “born or naturalized in the United States, and
All States “allow” Native Americans to Vote Read More »
The millipede Pneumodesmus newmani is the oldest air-breathing animal known to date. This ancient denizen of the Scottish waters once roamed the Earth during the early Silurian era. The millipede likely supplemented its oxygen intake through air as well as using its gills while in water. Kingdom: Animalia > Phylum: Arthropoda > Class: Diplopoda (millipedes)
Oldest Known Air Breather Read More »
About 3.75 billion years lived LUCA. Not first life, but the common ancestor of all life today. LUCA used DNA, had ribosomes, used ATP, and had translation machinery. It lived in high-temperature environments.
LUCA: Last Universal Common Ancestor Read More »
Around 1.65 billion years ago, major eukaryotic lineages diverged, setting the ancestral paths that would eventually lead to plants, fungi, and animals.
Plant Ancestors Split from Animal and Fungi Ancestors Read More »
The earliest known vertebrates originated about 530 million years ago during the Cambrian explosion. Domain: Eukaryota > Kingdom: Animalia > Phylum: Chordata
Around 470 million years ago, plants evolved a waxy cuticle to prevent water loss; only later did water-transporting vascular systems evolve.
Embryophytes: First True Plants Read More »
The first true animals are the comb jellyfish which evolved about 555 million years ago.
First True Animals – Comb Jellyfish Read More »
Organisms that consist of more than one cell took several billion years to evolve from unicellular organisms. All species of animals, land plants and most fungi are multicellular, as well as many algae. A few organisms are partially both such as slime molds and social amoebae. Domain: Eukaryota > Kingdom: Animalia > Phylum: Porifera (sponges)
First Multicellular Animals Read More »
The earliest known life on Earth are fossilized microorganisms found in hydrothermal vent precipitates. Currently dated to about 3.42 billion BCE. These microorganisms were prokaryote cells. Single celled organisms with no nucleus and had early simple DNA. More complex DNA in a nucleus evolved about 1.5 billion years later in Eukaryotic cells, circa 2 billion
Oldest Known Fossil-Microorganisms Read More »
The earliest known man made glass dates back to circa 3500 BCE and to Egypt and Eastern Mesopotamia. Discovery of glassblowing around 1st century BC was a major breakthrough in glass making.
Starting in 1931 with the invention of the electron microscope, the nanoworld became visible to us. The nanoworld contains items as small in diameter as 1 micrometer (1 micron) to a diameter 1,000 times smaller, a diameter of 1 nanometer. The nanoworld includes the smallest single celled organisms, the smallest bacteria as well as viruses,
Electron Microscope = Nanoworld Discovered! Read More »
With the invention of the microscope, humanity became aware of the microworld which is defined as 1 to 1000 microns. A micron is equal to one thousands of a millimeter. A cell is about 10 microns wide. Paper is about 100 microns thick. The unaided human eye can see items as small as 50 microns,
Microscope Invented = Microworld Discovered! Read More »
The earliest known magnification dates back to the first century. These simple early magnification devices consisted of using natural crystals or a glass globe filled with water. It is reasonable to assume the use of natural crystals for magnification was around for many thousands of years. One possible specimen is the Nimrud lens dating back
Earliest Known Magnification Read More »
From 6500 to 4000 BCE, the Sumer civilization increased in social polarization. For example, central houses in the settlements became bigger. This early Sumer culture is characterized by large unwalled villages with multi-roomed rectangular mud-brick houses. The village featured public buildings including temples and centralized government. They had fine quality greenish colored pottery decorated with
Early Sumer Civilization Read More »
Hinduism, one of the world’s oldest religions, emerged around 1100 BCE, several centuries after the Indus Valley Civilization collapsed. Hinduism has no known roots in the IVC, but it’s a topic to follow as we uncover clues. There was a several century gap from the collapse of the IVC to the rise of the early
Major Religion: Hinduism Read More »
In the ninth year of the reign of Akhenaten, he declared the traditional supreme God Aten to be the only God of Egypt with himself as the sole communicator to Aten, kind of like an early Pope. This early attempt at monotheism failed after about 20 years and Egypt returned to their traditional polytheistic religion.
Oldest Known Monotheistic Religion: Atenism Read More »
The city of Çatalhöyük was a very large Neolithic city in the southern Anatolia peninsula in modern day Turkey. The population of 5,000 to 10,000 lived in mudbrick buildings. Some of the larger buildings have ornate murals. A painting of the village, with the twin mountain peaks in the background is frequently cited as the
City of Catalhoyuk Read More »
Denisovan: This bracelet dates from 70,000 to 40,000 BCE. It was discovered inside the Denisova Cave beside ancient human remains. The Denisova Cave is a cave located in Siberia, Russia. Other cave finds include woolly mammoth and woolly rhino bones. Scientists say there is evidence that the bracelet’s maker used a drill. This is the
Oldest Known Bracelet Read More »
A set of about 300 legal laws written in stone from ancient Near East that withstood the test of time. Hammurabi, the sixth king of the First Dynasty of Babylonian, wrote it in cuneiform in the Old Babylonion dialect of Akkadian. The text itself was copied and studied by Mesopotamian scribes for over a millennium.
