History is easier to hold when you know what came before what. Start with All of time, then open any of the eight parts. Tap an event to read about it. The ★ events are the dates worth knowing by heart. At the bottom of the page, a game asks you which of two events came first.
How to read the dates
Years ago. For the very distant past, we count backward from today: "300,000 years ago." Nobody knows these dates to the exact year, so they are rounded.
BCE and CE. For the last twelve thousand years or so, we use calendar years. CE means "Common Era": the years we count today, like 1492 or 2026. BCE means "Before the Common Era." BCE years count down toward year 1, so 3200 BCE is older than 500 BCE. There is no year zero: the year before 1 CE is 1 BCE. Some books write BC and AD instead; they mean the same years.
"About." When a date says "about," the true date could be a little earlier or later.
Before or After?
Two events. Tap the one that came first.
Which came first?