From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The
Cosmic Calendar is a scale in which the lifetime of the
universe is mapped onto a calendrical year; that is to say, the
Big Bang took place on a cosmic January 1 at precisely midnight, and today's date and time is December 31 at midnight.
[1] On this calendar, the solar system did not appear until September 9, life on Earth arose on September 30, the first dinosaurs appeared on December 25th, the first flowers on December 28th, and the first primates on December 30. The first
humans did not arrive until around 10:30 p.m. on New Year's Eve, and all of human history has been recorded in the last 10 seconds. The
Middle Ages to the present is a little more than one second. On this timescale, an average human life is about 0.15 seconds. The scale was popularized by
Carl Sagan in his book
The Dragons of Eden and on the television series
Cosmos, which he hosted.
The Cosmic Year
2 LIFE BIRTH
October, 2 - Life on Earth
October, 9 - Oldest
fossils
November,1 - Development of
sex
November, 12 - Oldest fossil of
photosynthetic plants
November, 15 -
Eukaryotes flourish
December, 1 - Oxygen atmosphere begins to develop
December, 17 -
Invertebrates flourish
December, 18 - First oceanic
plankton
December, 19 -
Fish and
Vertebrates appear
December, 20 - Vascular plants appear. Plants begin colonization of land
December, 21 -
Insects appear, animals begin colonization of land
3 GIANTS DOMINATION
December, 22 -
Amphibians and Winged insects appear
December, 23 -
Trees and
Reptiles appear
December, 24 -
Dinosaurs appear and dominate for over 160 million years
December, 26 - First
mammals
December, 27 - First
birds, first
Flowers
4 GLOBAL EXTINCTION
December, 28 -
K-T mass extinction, many forms of life perished, including dinosaurs
5 PRIMATE DOMINATION
December, 29 - First
primates
December, 30 - Early brain evolution of primates, first hominids
December, 31 Time 13.30.00 - Ancestors of apes and men
December, 31 Time 22.30.00 - First
humans
December, 31 Time 23.00.00 - Use of stone tools
December, 31 Time 23.46.00 - Domestication of fire
December, 31 Time 23.56.00 - Most recent glacial period
December, 31 Time 23.59.00 - Rupestral painting in Europe
December, 31 Time 23.59.20 -
Agriculture
December, 31 Time 23.59.35 - Neolithic civilization
6 HISTORY BEGINS
December, 31 Time 23.59.50: End of prehistory and beginning of history, Dynasties in Sumer, Ebla and Egypt,
Astronomy
December, 31 Time 23.59.51:
Alphabet, Akkadian Empire
Wheel is invented
December, 31 Time 23.59.52: Hammurabic legal codes in Babylon, Middle Kingdom in Egypt
December, 31 Time 23.59.53: Bronze metallurgy, Mycenaean culture,
Trojan War, Olmec culture
December, 31 Time 23.59.54: Iron metallurgy, Assyrian Empire, Kingdom of Israel, Founding of Carthage
7 EMPERORS AND GODS
December, 31 Time 23.59.55: Birth of Buddha and Confucius, Ch'in Dynasty China, Periclean Athens, Asokan Indian empire, Indian Veda holy scriptures are completed
December, 31 Time 23.59.56: Euclidean geometry, Archimedean physics, Ptolemaic astronomy, Greek Olympic games,
Roman Empire, Birth of
Christ
December, 31 Time 23.59.57: Birth of
Muhammad, Zero and decimals invented in Indian arithmetic, Rome falls,
Moslem conquests
December, 31 Time 23.59.58: Mayan civilization, Sung Dynasty China, Byzantine empire, Mongol invasion, Crusades.
8 VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY
December, 31 Time 23.59.59: Voyages of discovery from Europe and from Ming Dynasty China, Columbus lands in America,
Renaissance in Europe
9 THE LAST SECOND
December, 31 Time 24.00.00: Beginning of modern culture, science and technology development,
French revolution,
World War I,
World War II, Apollo lands on the moon, Spacecraft planetary exploration, Search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
