3500: In Sumer and Elam, the start of pictographic writing
3000: Sumerians write wedge-shaped cuneiform numerals and ideographic symbols.
3000: In Near East, writing direction on clay changes from columns to rows.
3000: Egypt develops hieroglyphic writing.
3000: In Sumer, the first known written legend, Gilgamesh, a Noah's ark tale.
2350: Mesopotamian king uses homing pigeons.
2200: Oldest existing document written on papyrus.
2000: Chinese develop a pictographic-based written language.
2000: Nine Greek muses, responsible for poetry, history, comedy, song, dance.
1700: The written law code of Hammurabi, in Babylonia, carved on a stone pillar.
1700: First known alphabetic symbols, a few written by Semites in Canaan.
1500: Decimal system spreads through the Near East.
1400: Oldest record of writing in China, on bones and tortoise shells.
1300: First entirely alphabetic writing, 30 Ugaritic cuneiform symbols on tablets.
1270: Syrian scholar compiles an encyclopedia.
1250: Moses brings the tablets bearing the Ten Commandments.
1200: The Phoenician alphabet, 22 letters, all consonants.
1000: Alphabetic writing appears in various parts of the Near East.
950: The oldest books of the Bible are written.
900: China's Zhou Dynasty has an organized postal service for government use.
900: Beacon fires and smoke signals are used in China.
850: The Iliad and the Odyssey, 300 years after the Trojan War, ascribed to Homer.
800: Greeks improve Phoenician alphabet by adding vowels; capital letters only.
650: Egyptian papyrus arrives in Greek cities.
650: Assyrian royal library boasts 20,000 clay tablets.
640: Coins are circulated.
620: Draco gives Athens a written code of laws, "draconian" in its harshness.
610: Anaximander writes first known book of philosophy.
600: First appearance of Latin.
575: In Babylonian exile, Jewish scholars begin to compile the books of the Bible.
500: Greeks build theaters as drama emerges.
480: Aesop, possibly a freed slave, writes his Fables.
469: Birth of Socrates, inventor of the art of philosophical dialogue.
427: Birth of Plato, author of the Socratic Dialogues and The Republic.
420: Writings by Hippocrates begin the scientific study of medicine.
399: Socrates drinks poison. Nothing written by famed philosopher survives.
387: Plato's Symposium uses Socratic logic.
384: Birth of Aristotle.
347: Death of Plato, who leaves an unparalleled mark on Western thought.
340: Aristotle's logic; it will be a source of knowledge for more than 2,000 years.
322: Death of Aristotle, the great collector of human knowledge.
320: Greek sculpture spreads across Near East.
250: In Near East city of Pergamum, parchment is made as a writing surface..
196: Cutting of the Rosetta Stone in hieroglyphics, hieratic, and Greek.
170: Books are written on parchment and vellum, treated animal skins.
150: Paper, made from soaked, macerated hemp, is placed in Chinese tombs.
44: Caesar killed. Remarkable life includes writing Commentaries and Civil War.
28: Rome establishes two large libraries, the Octavian and the Palatine.
19: Virgil dies; the Aeneid, one of the greatest of the epic poems, is unfinished.
4: Likely birth of Jesus, according to modern calculations.
