The Cosmic Calendar
To give us a better idea of the time scale involved in human evolution, it is interesting to compare the numbers involved with something a little more familiar. Here, the history of the universe has been scaled down to one year, That is, one month is equivalent to one billion year, one day to 30 million years, one hour to 1.2 million year and one minute to 20 000 years.
Physical Evolution
|
January 1st
Midnight |
In a cosmic embrace, time and the universe are created |
-14 billion
years |
|
January 1st
12:30 |
Formation of the first atoms |
-14 billion
years |
|
February 1st
|
Formation of the oldest stars and galaxies |
One million year after the Big Band |
|
March 1st |
Formation of the Milky Way |
- 11 billion years |
|
July 1st |
Formation of the nebulae from which the solar system originates. Formation of molecules and rocks. |
- 10 billion years |
|
July 7th |
Formation of the planets in the solar system. |
-4.6 billion years |
|
August 3rd |
The Earth starts to solidify. |
-3.9 billion years |
Biological Evolution
|
August 1st |
Apparition of life (bacteria) |
-4 billion years |
|
August 16th |
Older fossils ever found |
-3.5 billion years |
|
November 20th |
The atmosphere is created on Earth. |
-1.3 billions years |
|
December 14th |
First vertebrates (fish). |
-500 million years |
|
December 16th |
Plants start growing. |
-440 million years |
|
December 19th |
Insect and amphibians appear on Earth. |
-390 millions years |
|
December 22nd |
Dinosaurs. |
-280 million years |
|
December 24th |
First mammals. |
-225 million years |
|
December 25th |
First birds. |
-180 million years |
|
December 29th, 9AM |
Disappearance of the dinosaurs. |
-80 million years |
|
December 31st, 9:00 |
First primates. |
-20 million years |
|
December 31st, 22:10 |
First hominids (Australopithecus) (fire is domesticated at 23:45). |
-2 million years |
|
December 31st, 23:57 |
First homo sapiens. |
-60 000 |
Intellectual Evolution
The last minute of the last day is very busy.
|
23:59, 10 sec |
Domestication of animals. |
-15 000 |
|
23:59, 30 sec |
Neolithic revolution (wheels, agriculture) |
-9 000 |
|
23:59, 47 sec |
Writing |
-2 500 |
|
23:59, 52 sec |
Hellenic period (philosophy, science, theatre, democracy) |
-500 |
|
23:59, 54 sec |
Birth of Christ |
0 |
|
23:59, 57 sec |
Dark ages in Europe |
+ 1000 |
|
23:59,
58.5 sec |
Renaissance, Discovery of America, Printing press. |
+ 1500 |
|
23h59,
59.3 sec |
Political and industrial revolution |
+1790 |
|
23h59
59.8 sec |
Planes, cars |
+ 1910 |
|
23h59
59.9 sec |
Mankind on the moon, Computer revolution, Cloning. |
+ 1969 + |