When did it happen?

Probably the most distinctive feature of history writing is time.

When did these events happen?

Apollo 11 mission (Source)

Sometimes we want to describe a specific event at a specific place and time.

For example, when did humans first land on the moon? And how many days did the mission take?

(If you don't already know, guess before reading and see how close you were!)

Forty years ago on July 20 the world stopped for a brief instant to witness a remarkable accomplishment, the first instance in which humanity set foot on another body in our solar system. It was a remarkable time.

When the Apollo 11 spacecraft lifted off on July 16, 1969, for the Moon, it signaled a climactic instance in human history.

Reaching the Moon on July 20, its Lunar Module — with astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin aboard — landed on the lunar surface while Michael Collins orbited overhead in the Apollo 11 command module.

Armstrong soon set foot on the surface, telling millions on Earth that it was “one small step for [a] man — one giant leap for mankind.”

Aldrin soon followed him out and the two planted an American flag but omitted claiming the land for the U.S. as had been routinely done during European exploration of the Americas, collected soil and rock samples, and set up scientific experiments.

The next day they returned to the Apollo capsule overhead and returned to Earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24.

Apollo 11 and the World(2009)

Galileo Galilei and Doge of Venice by Giuseppe Bertini (Source)

Other times, we describe events in broad, sweeping terms, covering centuries in a stroke.

For example, this next snippet covers many of the amazing events of the Renaissance over 200 years:

Renaissance (French: “Rebirth”)

Period in European civilization immediately following the Middle Ages and conventionally held to have been characterized by a surge of interest in Classical scholarship and values.

The Renaissance also witnessed the discovery and exploration of new continents, the substitution of the Copernican for the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, the decline of the feudal system and the growth of commerce, and the invention or application of such potentially powerful innovations as paper, printing, the mariner’s compass, and gunpowder.

To the scholars and thinkers of the day, however, it was primarily a time of the revival of Classical learning and wisdom after a long period of cultural decline and stagnation.

Renaissance(2024)

Aboriginal Australian migration 49-40,000 years ago (Source)

Or we might describe events in the ancient past that span tens of thousands of years:

Aboriginal Australians have effectively been on their country as long as modern human populations have been outside of Africa.

Many Aboriginal Australians would say with conviction that they have always been here. Their ancestors and traditional learnings tell them of this history, and their precise place within it.

Our review of the scientific evidence, published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that for all practical purposes, this is indeed the case.

Their ancestors arrived shortly after 50,000 years ago – effectively forever, given that modern human populations only moved out of Africa 50,000-55,000 years ago.

Analysis of maternal genetic lineages revealed that Aboriginal populations moved into Australia around 50,000 years ago. They rapidly swept around the west and east coasts in parallel movements - meeting around the Nullarbor just west of modern-day Adelaide.

When did Aboriginal people first arrive in Australia?(2018)

What timing language did we see in these snippets?

Forty years ago on July 20...
Immediately following the Middle Ages...
As long as modern human populations...
Their ancestors arrived shortly after 50,000 years ago...

Sometimes we think we know when something happened, or in what order, and we're surprised to find out we're wrong.

Can you sort the list of events below into their chronological order? (If you get stuck, the answers are below.)

Drag these sentences into the right order

0 checks used

First description of a full dinosaur fossil.
Construction of the first great pyramid in Egypt.
Founding of Nintendo.
People realise that the Earth is round.
Founding of McDonald's.
Death of the last woolly mammoths.
Start of World War II.

Writelike

Construction of the first great pyramid in Egypt (2650 BC) The great pyramids were built over a period of centuries, beginning roughly 4,500 years ago.

Death of the last woolly mammoths (1650 BC) The last of the woolly mammoths may have died out in eastern Russia about 3,500 years ago, though the DNA data is debated. A more certain date has the last population dying out 4,000 years ago, in Alaska. Either way, woolly mammoths were alive in the far north while the pyramids were under construction in Egypt.

People realise that the Earth is round (400 BC) Possibly people figured out the Earth was round earlier, but the first recorded evidence is found in writing from the ancient Greeks, who noticed changes in the visibility of stars as they travelled over the Mediterranean and into Egypt, changes that they argued made sense if the world was round.

First description of a full dinosaur fossil (1824) People discovered fossils and bones long before this, but this was the first time someone excavated and reconstructed a complete set of dinosaur bones: a British theologian and geologist named William Buckland, who discovered and named the megalosaurus.

Founding of Nintendo (1889) One of the greatest names in video game history, makers of Mario and Zelda, started as a playing card company in the late 19th century, when the cities of Japan were all still made of timber.

Start of World War II (1939) The most destructive war in human history and one that touched pretty much every part of the globe.

Founding of McDonald's (1940) McDonald's began as an ordinary restaurant in 1940 but really became the fast-food hamburger franchise everyone knows by 1953.

Describing historical events

When did it happen?