History timeline maker
Built for dates that ordinary tools choke on: 3100 BCE, c. 1754 BC, the Ides of March. Plot centuries or single days, switch BCE/CE and BC/AD, and print it for the wall.
History templates
- Ancient EgyptThree thousand years of pharaohs, from the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt to the death of Cleopatra VII.
- Ancient RomeFrom the legendary founding of the city to the end of the Western Empire, spanning more than 1,200 years across BCE and CE.
- Prehistory & Early HumansThe deep-time template: from the earliest known Homo sapiens fossils to the first writing, a span of nearly 300,000 years.
- The Space RaceThe Cold War contest in orbit, from Sputnik to the Apollo–Soyuz handshake, with every date to the day.
- American RevolutionFrom the Stamp Act to the signing of the Constitution: the key events of the American Revolution in order.
- World War IIThe major turning points of the Second World War in Europe and the Pacific, 1939–1945, with long battles shown as spans.
- History of ComputingEighty years from Turing's paper on computable numbers to the smartphone, in ten well-documented milestones.
- Scientific RevolutionHow astronomy, anatomy and physics were rebuilt between Copernicus and Newton, 1543–1687.
- School Year CalendarA September-to-July school year with terms as bars and exams, holidays and parents' evenings as milestones.
Making a history timeline students can read
- Pick a question, not a period. "Why did the Western Roman Empire fall?" gives you criteria for which events belong; "Rome" gives you hundreds.
- Choose 8–12 events. More than that and labels start fighting for space on a slide or page.
- Use spans for reigns, wars and eras. Give them an end date so they draw as bars and overlaps become visible.
- Mark uncertainty. Use "c." for approximate dates and say in the subtitle whose chronology you follow.
- Colour by theme (politics, war, culture) so patterns jump out.
Dates that behave
Most spreadsheet and slide tools can't store a date before 1900, let alone 1 BCE. TimelineForge stores years as historians write them and does the arithmetic properly, including the missing year zero, so 44 BCE and 79 CE land the right distance apart.
You can mix precisions freely: "c. 2560 BCE" next to "15 Mar 44 BCE" next to "1969-07-20". Each event shows the precision it has, and dragging snaps to it.
Short on time? The AI timeline generator drafts events for a topic you type, which you then check against your sources.
History timeline questions
Can students use this history timeline maker for free?
Yes. It is free, needs no account or email address, and works on school Chromebooks, tablets and phones. Timelines are saved in the browser, so students should export a PDF or JSON file before switching devices.
How do I enter BC or BCE dates?
Type the year followed by BC or BCE, for example "753 BC" or "c. 3100 BCE". You can also type a negative year like -500. Switch the labels between BCE/CE and BC/AD at any time.
How far back can a timeline go?
To 1,000,000 BCE, which covers human prehistory. For very long spans, the vertical layout is easiest to read because it spaces events evenly instead of to scale.
What if I only know the approximate date?
Put "c." in front of the date (c. 2560 BCE). It is plotted at that year and labelled "c." so readers know it is an estimate.
Can I print the timeline for a classroom wall?
Export an SVG for crisp printing at any size, or a PDF for a one-page handout. PowerPoint export gives an editable slide for lessons.