-3500

First formal writing system invented

-2700

Oldest known piece of literature

-2560

Great Pyramid of Giza is completed

-2500

Egyptians invent papyrus and use it for writing

-2000

First dingoes are brought to Australia

-2000

Stonehenge built

-1600

Civilisation in Minoan Crete destroyed

-1400

Invention of water clocks

-1150

First zoo in made in China

-753

Traditional date for founding of Rome

-710

Sundial is invented

-551

Confucius is born in China

-490

First Marathon (battle and race!)

-483

Death of Buddha

-460

First known book about aquaculture

-447

Building of the Parthenon in Athens

-400

Invention of the catapult

-323

Death of Alexander the Great

-280

King Ptolemy III builds the Lighthoue of Pharos (one of

the 7 Wonders)

-221

China is unified for the first time.

-214

Great Wall of China is started

-200

Tofu is first made from soybeans

-44

Death of Julius Caesar

-30

Death of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt

32

Death of Jesus Christ

79

City of Pompeii is destroyed by a volcano

100

Soap is invented and starts to become commonly

accepted

105

Tsai Lun invented paper

313

Christianity becomes the official religion of the Roman

Empire

476

With the capture of Emperor Romulus Augustus the

Roman Empire ends

610

Mohammed produces the Koran

700

First Easter Island statues start to be made

700

Stirrup for horses invented

1050

Tower of Pisa is built

1100

Game of draughts is invented

1200

The chimney is invented

1206

Genghis Khan begins his reign

1231

Start of the Spanish Inquisition

1250

Invention of the button hole

1269

First recorded use of eye glasses

1298

Marco Polo writes his account of travels to China

1305

Invention of standard shoe sizes makes it possible to

mass produce shoes

1335

First mechanical clock was made

1347

Black Death arrives in Europe

1431

Joan of Arc is burned at the stake

1521

End of the Aztec Empire

1570

First printed atlas

1616

Death of William Shakespeare

1628

Discovery of the circulation of blood

1668

First reflecting telescope built by Sir Issac Newton

1688

William Dampier sails to Western Australia

1695

Invention of the clarinet

1712

Thomas Newcomen develops the first practical steam

engine

1760

First bi-focal glasses

1770

Captain Cook wrote "all they (the Aboriginies) seemed to

want was for us to be gone"

1770

Captain James Cook explores the east coast of Australia

1775

Invention of the S-bend for toilets

1776

The American colonists won the War of Independence

against England

1779

Captain Cook killed in Hawaii

1780

Roulette is invented

1783

First human flew (in a hot air balloon) completing a flight

of 25 minutes

1785

First jigsaw puzzles invented

1786

British government decided to make Botany Bay a penal

colony

1787

First Fleet sailed from Portsmouth to Australia carrying

756 convicts

1788

Governor Philip issued Australia's first tree preservation

law

1788

The first European plants and animals brought to

Australia to change the environment

1789

First Australia school opened

1789

First play in a theatre performed in Australia

1789

First smallpox reported in Indegenous Australians

1790

Invention of the first nail making machine

1791

First effective and hygenic and false teeth

1795

First canning factory in the world opens

1797

The Marylebone Cricket Club (the MCC) starts

1798

Bass and Flinders circumnaviagted Van Deimen's Land

(Tasmania) proving it to be an island

1799

Invention by Volta of the battery

1800

Invention of the Nitrous Oxide Anesthetic laughing

gas)

1802

Invention of powdered milk

1803

Matthew Flinders finished his circumnavigation of

Australia

1803

The first newspaper in Australia is printed

1804

The Castle Hill convict rebellion

1807

First merino wool shipped from Australia to England

1809

Australia's first post office opened in Sydney

1810

Australia's first horse race

1814

Matthew Flinders, in a book published on the day of his

death, suggests the name Australia

1817

Bank of New South Wales, Australia's first bank, opens

1817

Invention of the cardboard box

1819

First book is published in Australia

1821

The Mouth Organ (aka the wind harmonica) is invented

1824

Braille, the system for helping blind people, is invented

by Louis Braille

1824

Invention of modern cement

1826

First photography

1827

First friction match

1830

First lawn mower invented

1834

First industrial sewing machine invented

1835

The 6 shooter Colt pistol invented

1836

First passenger ships leave England to settle South

Australia

1836

The city of Adelaide is started

1837

First hospital in South Australia

1837

Invention of the industrial steam hammer

1839

Invention of celluloid (which was used for movie making)

1842

First fax machine

1843

First typewriter)

1844

Morse Code is invented

1845

The first pneumatic tyre (one filled with air)

1845

The rubber band is invented

1848

Invention of chewing gum)

1849

First commercial dry cleaning)

1849

First postage stamp

1851

Singer released the first home sewing machine

1851

Start of the Victorian Gold Rushes

1852

First commerical elevator installed in a building

1854

Eureka Stockade

1856

First telegraph line between Adelaide and Melbourne

opened

1859

Flying trapeze is invented and becomes a circus act

1859

Leotard, a French wire walker and trapeze artists, invents

the leotard.

1862

Invention of the Gatling gun

1863

First underground urban railway in the world built in

London

1866

Alice in Wonderland is published

1866

Nobel invents dynamite

1867

Invention of barbed wire

1867

Lister pioneers antiseptic surgery)

1868

Invention of the stapler)

1868

Last convicts transported to Austarlia

1868

Mr Knight invents the paper bag)

1869

Opening of the Suez Canal

1872

Yellowstone is declared the first national park in the

world

1873

Strauss invents Blue Jeans

1874

First electric tram

1878

Invention of the phonograph by Thomas Edison

1883

First skyscraper in the world started

1883

Whitcomb Judson invented the zipper

1886

First oil tanker was built

1891

Dr James Naismith invents basketball

1894

First electric iron

1895

First x-ray machine

1895

Marconi produces the first wireless telegraph system

1898

Pepsi Cola is introduced this year

1899

Freud writes about Dreams and starts pyschoanalysis

1899

Spain grants Cuba Independence

1901

Edmund Barton becomes first Prime Minister of Australia

1901

First hearing aid

1905

First animated cartoon

1911

First people reach the South Pole

1912

Cellophane is invented

1912

Titanic sinks

1914

Start of the First World War

1915

Attack on Gallipoli by ANZAC and British troops

1915

First Aspirin

1917

First film shot in technicolour

1917

Russian Revolution sees the death of the Tsar and

formation of a Communist government

1918

Armistice ends the First World War

1918

Spanish flu kills 20 million people world wide

1920

Establishment of QANTAS

1920

First non-stop plane flight from Australia to England

1920

Income tax starts to pay off the First World War

1921

Edith Cowan, first female is elected member of Federal

Parliament.

1921

First Archibald prize is awarded in Austarlia and become

our richest art prize

1921

The word "ANZAC" is protected from commercial use in

this year

1922

Discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamen

1923

Radio broadcasting begins in Australia

1923

Sydney and Brisbane first connected by telephone

1923

Vegemite is first produced

1924

First disposable paper tissues

1924

First self winding wrist watch

1924

Invention of the popcicle (frozen icecream)

1925

Population of Sydney reaches 1 million - first city in

Australia to be this big

1926

Sir Jack Brabham the motor racing legend was born

1927

Canberra sees the first sitting of the Federal Parliament

1927

Mickey Mouse is created

1927

First flight across the Atlantic Ocean

1928

Flying Doctor Service is created

1929

First electric shaver invented

1929

Invention of penicillin

1929

Start of the Great Depression

1930

World population hits 2 billion: now over 7

1932

Death of Phar Lap

1932

Sydney Habour Bridge opens

1933

Game of Monopoly invented

1935

Invention of RADAR

1937

Tolkien published the Hobbit

1938

First nylon bristle toothbrush manufactured this year

1938

Superman makes his first appearance in a cartoon book

1939

Start of the Second World War

1939

The worst Black Friday bushfire

1940

M and M's invented by the Mars Company

1941

Australian women admitted to the armed forces

1942

Battle of the Coral Sea

1942

Japanese bomb Darwin

1942

Japanese submarines attack Sydney Harbour

1943

Invention of SCUBA gear

1944

First jet powered aircraft fly

1945

End of the Second World War

1945

United Nations was created

1946

French fashion designer Louis Reard presents the bikini

1946

Great South African Mine Workers Strike

1947

Chuck Yaegar is the first person to break the sound

barrier

1947

Lego is invented

1947

The 40 hour working week is introduced in Australia

1948

Apartheid is introduced into South Africa

1948

Black Peril election brings Malan and the National Party

to power in South Africa

1948

First Australian Holden Car is built

1950

Disposable nappies are invented

1950

Suppression of Communism Act in South Africa

1951

Mandela elected President of the ANC Youth League

1952

Australia's millionth migrant arrives

1952

British atomic bomb is tested in Australia

1953

Castro delivers his famous "History will absolve me"

speech

1953

Fidel Castro leads a revolt at the Moncada Barracks in

Cuba

1953

First time Mt Everest was climbed

1953

One hundred thousand Holdens have been sold

1953

Overthow of Mosaddeq in Iran by the CIA

1954

Korean War

1955

First atomic clock invented

1955

Melbourne Olympic Games

1956

Castro invades Cuba in the yatch Granma

1956

Disneyland is opened in California

1956

Elvis Presley releases his first record

1956

World's first nuclear power plant opens

1957

Alexandra bus boycotts in South Africa

1957

First man made object to orbit the earth

1957

Windsurfing invented

1958

Sir Douglas Mawson dies

1959

Antarctic Treaty signed

1959

First Barbie Doll is released

1959

First working hovercraft

1960

Banning of the ANC, PAC and SACP in South Africa

1960

First supermarket opens in Australia

1960

Rome Olympic Games

1960

The Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa

1961

Introduction of the contraceptive pill

1961

Ken, a friend for Barbie, is released

1961

Mandela becomes Commander in Chief of Umkhonto we

Sizwe (Spear of the Nation)

1961

Parkes radio telescope is opened

1961

Population of Australia reaches ten million

1961

Yuri Garagin becomes the first human to orbit the earth

1962

Cuban Missile Crises

1962

Start of the White Revolution in Iran

1963

First push button telephone

1963

The Parkes Radio Telescope identifies the first quasar

1964

Start of the exile of Ayatollah Khomeni

1964

Tokyo Olympics

1965

Diet Pepsi is introduced

1966

Introduction of decimal currenty

1966

South African Prime Minister Verwoerd is assassinated

1967

Che Guevara is killed in Bolivia

1967

Disappearance of Harold Holt the Prime Minister

1967

First successful heart transplant operation on a human

1967

Indigenous Australians given the right to vote

1967

Last execution in Australia

1968

Kylie Minogue born

1968

Mexico Olympic Games

1969

First flight of the Boeing 747 - the Jumbo Jet

1969

Men walk on the Moon for the first time

1969

Steve Biko founds the South African Student Organisation

1970

First Video Cassette recorder released

1970

Voting rights given to 18 year old Australians

1971

Microprocessor is invented

1971

Neville Bonner is the first indigenous Australia to be a

member of parliament

1972

Munich Olympic Games

1972

Sydney Opera House opened

1974

Cyclone Tracy destroys Darwin

1974

National anthem changes from God Save the Queen

1974

Rundle Mall is opened ; first mall in Australia

1975

First disposable razor

1975

Removal of the Whitlam government by the Governor

General

1976

Start of the Soweto riots

1977

Malls Balls are installed for the first time

1977

Star Wars is released

1977

Steve Biko dies in prison

1978

First Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney

1979

First Lotto Draw

1979

Islamic militants seize the US embassy in Iran

1979

Overthrow of the Shah of Iran in a violent revolution

1979

Sony Walkmam released

1980

Birth of Australia's first "test tube baby"

1980

Compact Disks (CD's) are released to the public'

1980

Moscow Olympic Games

1980

Start of the Iran-Iraq War

1981

First successful flight of the Space Shuttle

1981

The launch of the first space shuttle

1982

First artificial heart successfully placed into a human

1983

Ash Wednesday bushfires in SA

1983

Pioneer Ten became the first man made object to go

beyond the orbit of Pluto

1984

Genetic fingerprinting is invented

1984

Los Angeles Olympic Games

1984

Los Angeles Olympic Games

1985

Archbishop Tutu wins the Nobel Peace Prize

1986

Chernobyl nuclear accident

1986

Space shuttle Challenger explodes

1988

New parliament house in Canberra

1988

Seoul Olympics

1989

Death of Ayatollah Khomeini

1989

Newcastle Earthquake

1990

Cathy Freeman's first Gold Medal

1990

Mandela is finally released from jail for the last time

1991

Australia joins the First Gulf War

1992

Inkatha-ANC Conflict starts over the future of a post

apartheid South Africa

1992

Mabo Decision is handed down

1993

First fluorescent lamps were exhibited in this year

1993

Mandela and F.W.De Klerk awarded the Nobel Peace

Prize

1993

President John F Kennedy is assassinated

1994

First non-racial democratic election in South Africa

1994

Mandela elected President of South Africa

1994

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers released

1995

Wreck of the Titanic is found

1996

John Howard is first elected Prime Minister

1997

Adelaide born Andy Thomas becomes an astronaut

1997

Death of Princess Di

1997

DVD's are introduced to the consumer market

1997

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone published

1997

Tamagotchi pets are released onto the toy market

1998

Furbies are released onto the toy market

1998

John Glen (at 77) is the oldest astronaut

1998

Tragic Sydney-Hobart yacht race

1999

Snowtown murders

1999

Tony Lockett retires from AFL after 1357 goals

2000

First discovery of planets outside our solar system

2000

First world wide internet computer virus (The Love Bug)

2000

Sydney Olympic Games

2000

The International Space Station is completed

2001

Centenary of the Federation of Australia

2001

Sir Donald Bradman dies

2001

World Trade Centre destroyed

2002

Bali Bombing

2003

Australia joins the invasion of Iraq as part of the War on

Terror

2008

Prime Minister Rudd offers The Apology

2009

The movie Avatar is released

2010

Julian Gillard becomes the first female Prime Minister

2013

Abbott becomes Prime Minister