TIMELINE TEMPLATE

Here is my Timeline Template I use to write all of my Earth-based rpg campaign timelines.

I've used this for numerous campaigns, including my own Super Powered Legends series, Marvel, DC, and GIJoe/Transformers.

Is this timeline a bit western-world biased? Yes. I'm a white dude who grew up with public education. I'm doing the best I can here. But the great thing is you can copy and paste this template for yourselves and alter it according to your own campaign and add other events from world history.

Now, when I use this template, I follow several guidelines:

* Fictional events of your campaign's world history are not given any special notations.

* For any actual world history events, I underline the event, as to separate it from the fictional history of the world being created.

* When writing events that are happening in a currently-active campaign, I tend to  write them using a red color font, to note they are important to the current setting.

Enjoy building your timeline!

TIMELINE TEMPLATE

BILLIONS OF YEARS AGO…

13.5 Billion Years Ago

The Big Bang creates the Universe as we know it.

4.6 Billion Years Ago…

Earth (aka “Terra” or “Sol-3”) is created.

MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO…

HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO…

TENS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO…

THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO…

~3150 BC

Egypt is formed.

~1900 BC

Greece is formed.

~753 BC

Rome is founded.

356 BC

Alexander the Great is born in Macedon.

~332 BC

Alexander the Great conquers Egypt.

323 BC

Alexander the Great dies.

27 BC

Octavian is proclaimed Augustus Caesar.

5TH CENTURY AD

[Although fictional, this is the commonly-accepted era for these events] Former Roman General Uther Pendragon attempts to unite the British Isles under his rule. After lusting for the Welsh queen Ygraine – wife of Gorlois – Uther’s alliance dissolves. Gorlois is killed and Uther marries Ygraine.

Arthur Pendragon is born.

476 AD

Rome falls.

12TH CENTURY AD

1346-1353

The Black Plague sweep through Europe.

13TH CENTURY AD

1431

Vlad Tepes is born

1476

Vlad Tepes is killed in battle.

16TH CENTURY AD

1585

The Roanoke colony is established in North Carolina.

1590

1590, August 8: The Roanoke colony is discovered to be missing.

17TH CENTURY AD

1624

New York City is founded.

1690

The city of Chicago is founded.

1692

1692, February: The witch trials begin in the Puritan colony of Salem in Massachusetts.

1693

1693, May: The Salem witch trails come to an end. Over two hundred people are accused of witchcraft. Of them, thirty are found guilty; nineteen of whom are hanged.

18TH CENTURY AD

1776

1776, July 4: The United States declares independence from the British Empire.

1781, September 4: The city of Los Angeles is founded by Mexican colonists.

1783

1783, September 3: The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the American Revolutionary War and recognizing the United Stares as an sovereign nation.

1789

The French Revolution Begins.

19TH CENTURY AD

1861-1865: The American Civil War.

1865

1865, April 15: President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.

20TH CENTURY AD

1914

1914, July 28: World War I begins

1918

1918, November 11:World War I ends.

1920

1920, January: Prohibition begins in the United States. Organized crime explodes in North America.

1921

1921, February 27: Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the Nazi Party.

1922

1922, May 31 – June 1: The Tulsa Massacre occurs as white rioters attack and destroy the homes and businesses of black families in Greenwood. In the wake of the violence, 35 city blocks lay in charred ruins, more than 800 people are treated for injuries, and as many as 300 people are murdered.

1929

1929, October: The Stock Market Crash leads to the Great Depression.

1931

1931, January: The Empire State Building is completed, becomes the current tallest building in the world.

1931, September 18: The Japanese occupy Manchuria; the first act of aggression that leads to war in the Pacific.

1932

1932, July: The Nazi Party assumes control of Germany.

1933

The Great Depression reaches its nadir. 13-15 million Americans are unemployed and nearly half of its banks have failed.

1933, January: Adolf Hitler is appointed German Chancellor for life.

1933, January 20: Franklin Delano Roosevelt becomes President of the United States.

1933, December: Prohibition ends in the United States, after the passing of the 21st Amendment.

1934

1934, June 30: “The Night of Long Knives.” In a Nazi power struggle, Hitler's SS assassinates 150 rivals.

1935

1935, October: Italy invades Ethiopia.

1939

1939, September 1: Germany invades Poland. WWII begins.

1941, December 7: Japanese forces attack Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The United States joins the Allies against the Axis.

1943

1943, December 4: The Great Depression officially ends in the United States.

1944

1944, June 6: D-Day: Allied forces invade the beaches of Normandy in northern France.

1945

1945, May 8: Germany surrenders.

1945, August 6: An atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima.

1945, August 14: Japan surrenders. WWII ends.

1947

1947, March: President Truman institutes the Federal Employee Loyalty Program, requiring loyalty oaths and background checks for U.S. government employees.

1947, October: A group of screenwriters and directors known as the "Hollywood Ten" is forced to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and answer questions about their connections with the Communist Party. All are subsequently blacklisted in Hollywood, virtually ending their careers.

1950

1950, June: Korean War begins.

1953

1953, July: Korean War ends.

1955

1955, November: Vietnam War begins.

1957

1957, October: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first orbital satellite, into Earth's atmosphere.

1961

1961, January 20: John Kennedy becomes president of the United States.

1961, August: Berlin Wall is erected, heralding the beginning of the Cold War.

1962

1962, October 16-28: Cuban Missile Crisis.

1963

1963, November 22: President John Kennedy is assassinated in Texas.

1966

1966, September 8: Star Trek debuts with its first episode: The Man Trap.

1969

1969, June 28: The Stonewall Riots. After a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, NYC, a series of spontaneous violent demonstrations begin by members of the gay community against the police.

1972

1972, December 7-19: The Apollo 17 engages in the final lunar mission by NASA.

1974

1974, August 9: Facing certain impeachment and criminal charges, Richard Nixon resigns as POTUS. Nixon is succeeded by Gerald Ford.

1975

1975, April 30: Fall of Saigon. American forces withdraw. Vietnam War ends.

1979

1979, March 28: Three Mile Island Incident near Middletown, Pennsylvania.

1989

1989, November: Berlin Wall is opened, symbolizing an end of the Cold War.

1990

1990, May 25: The Hubble Space Telescope is launched into Earth orbit.

1990, August 2: The Gulf War begins.

1991

1991, February 28: The Gulf War ends.

1991, December 25: The Cold War ends with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

1993

1993, February 26: The World Trade Center Bombing occurs in NYC.

2001

2001, September 11: The World Trade Center buildings are destroyed in a terrorist attack.

2003

2003, March 20: The Iraq War begins.

2006

2006, March 21: Twitter is founded.

2006, September 26: Facebook opens itself to the public, resulting in a social media explosion across the world.

2007

2007, December: Stock markets plunge around the world, signaling the start of the Great Recession.

2009

2009, January 20: Barak Obama becomes President of the United States.

June 25: Michael Jackson dies.

2010

April 20: The Deepwater Horizon oil drilling platform explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers. The resulting oil spill spreads for several months, damaging the waters and the United States coastline.

2011

April 24: The Guantanamo Bay files leak to the press, exposing the fact that 150 innocent citizens from Afghanistan and Pakistan are being held in the camp without trial and detainees being as young as 14 years old.

May 1: Osama bin Laden is killed by Seal Team 7 during a military operation in Pakistan.

September 7: Occupy Wall Street protests begin in the United States, spreading to 82 other countries by October.

2017

January 20: Donald Trump becomes President of the United States.

August 21: A total solar eclipse is visible across North America.

2020

2020, March: The COVID-19 pandemic claims 3 million lives and infects 135 million people worldwide.

2021

2021, January 6: While Congress ratifies the election results, Donald Trump rallies his supporters to riot and assault the Capital Building.

2021, January 20: Joe Biden is inaugurated as President of the United States.

2022

2022, February 20: Russia invades Ukraine in an escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War that started in 2014.

2022, November 30: Chat GPT is released, signaling the casual use of AI-generated content.

2023

Global temperatures shatter records across the world, signaling that Global Climate Change is no longer a future problem.

2023, October 7: Hamas-led militant groups launch a surprise attack on Israel, involving a barrage of rockets attacking Israeli military bases and civilian communities.

In response, Israel invades the Gaza Strip and intentionally displaces the Palestinian population through bombing, blockades, and ground invasions. Against international law, Israeli forces fire upon innocent civilians, reporters, and relief aid workers and medical professionals seeking to aid the wounded and displaced.

2024

2024, April 8: A total solar eclipse is visible across half of North America.

2024, May 6: Israeli forces continue to push Palestinians into Rafah on the boarder of the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

2024, May 10: The United Nations passes a resolution granting the State of Palestine the right to be seated among the member states.

2024, May 20: The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court seeks arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes.

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