The Cosmic Minute (11:59 p.m. - Midnight)

1 second = 500 years

years ago time what happened
30,000 23:59:01 Venus of Willendorf; last of Neandertal; Homo sapiens reaches Americas; beads, bracelets and pendants are common items
27,500 23:59:05 Cro-Magnons in Europe, first sewing needle of bone
22,500 23:59:15 cave paintings in Dordogne, first boomerang
17,500 23:59:25 cave paintings at Lascaux; Homo sapiens in Australia
16,500 23:59:27 bow and arrow first used
15,000 23:59:30 Japan settled by Homo sapiens
12,500 23:59:35 Homo sapiens reaches the Straits of Magellan
11,000 23:59:38 earliest copper metalurgy; domestication of animals and crops (agricultural revolution); beginning of permanent settlements
10,000 23:59:40 first walled city, Jericho; first boats; most recent glacial period ends
8,000 23:59:44 first known pottery and woolen textiles; first ball for playing/sports/etc.
7,000 23:59:46 beginning of History -4241, oldest definitely dated year
6,000 23:59:48 earliest bronze metallurgy; Babylon settled; Sumerian writing on clay tablets; harps and flutes played in Egypt; Jewish calendar begins; Mediterranean shipping trade
5,500 23:59:49 1st and 2nd Dynasties of Egypt (Old Kingdom); first year of Mayan calendar; potter's wheel in Mesopotamia; invention of the wheel in Sumeria
5,000 23:59:50 the Iron Age; 3rd - 6th Dynasties of Egypt (Old Kingdom); Gilgamesh, King of Uruk; "Instructions to a Son" (earliest preserved literary document); Cheops pyramid erected at Giza; systematic astronomy in Egypt, Babylonia, India, China; Mathematics in Sumeria; oil burning lamps in Sumeria; metal mirrors in Egypt
4,500 23:59:51 Pharaohs in Egypt; first libraries; writing on papyrus; bow & arrow used in warfare; earliest Egyptian mummies; domestic chickens in Babylon; cotton cloth in Peru; first use of a sail on seagoing vessels
4,000 23:59:52 Code of Hammurabi; settlements in Norway; Egyptian alphabet of 24 characters; Stonehenge; Egyptian "Book of the Dead"; Bronze Age in Europe; geometry in Babylon; signs of the Zodiac; irrigation in Egypt; decimal system in Crete; the four elements in India (Earth, Air, Water, Fire); Contraceptives in Egypt; draft horses
3,500 23:59:53 Israelites cross the Jordan; Olmec culture in Mexico; the Trojan War; the Upanishads; Phoenician alphabet (basis of all European scripts); Gilgamesh Epic; first Chinese dictionary (40,000 characters); origin of "consciousness" in the breakdown of the bicameral mind; monotheism in Egypt; Iron Age in Syria and Palestine; polar axis known in China; silk fabric in China; first treatise on horse breeding and training
3,000 23:59:54 Hanging Gardens of Babylon; oldest Latin inscriptions; Aesop's Fables; Buddha's awakening; Pythagoras invented musical theory; sundial in Greece and China; first accurate prediction of a solar eclipse; Accession of King David to throne of Judah; Celts in Britain; Rome founded; vowels added to Greek script; Zoroaster; Lao-tse; Vedas written; the Iliad and the Odyssey; Apollo worshipped; earliest recorded music; steel production in India; battlefield surgery in Greece; water clocks in Assyria; Carthage founded; first Olympic Games; first verified date Ð Sept. 6, -775 (solar eclipse in China); banking in Babylon
2,500 23:59:55 Alexander the Great; end of Babylon; Hannibal crosses the Alps; Greece under Roman rule; Socrates; Plato; Aristotle; Rosetta Stone written; Temple of Zeus erected; trumpet-playing competitions in Greece; Temple to the Sun at Teotihuacan; Eratosthenes' heliocentric model of Universe; dams in India; Great Wall of China; first chemical warfare (charcoal/sulfer/pitch/fire/etc.); Hippocrates (father of medicine); state regulated money; first use of gears in irrigation; first paved streets; Julian calendar (365 1/4 days)
2,000 23:59:56 Jesus of Nazareth; Attila the Hun; height of Mayan civilization; Roman Empire splits; Christianity; Buddhism reaches China; books replace scrolls; first Shinto shrines erected in Japan; first compass
1,500 23:59:57 modern math notation introduced to Europe by Arabs; Mohammed founds Islam; Buddhism reaches Japan; population explosion in northern Europe; astrolabe invented; widespread trade between Europe and Asia; Viking ship-building and exploration; first crossbow; Machu Picchu founded; sleeping in beds becomes popular in Europe; rag paper comes into use; first organized news service; chess invented; first encyclopedia (China); Charlemagne
1,000 23:59:58 Magna Carta; Christian Crusades; Leonardo da Vinci; Columbus; beginning of Science; printing press; global shipping trade; playing cards invented; first eye-glasses; first use of explosives in warfare (China)
500

today

23:59:59

Midnight

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