5000 ya

1. By 5,500 years ago larger aggregations of humans had formed in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Mesopotamia, each consisting of from 10,000 to 20,000 people. These settlements are usually regarded as the first cities. Recent excavations in the Peruvian desert have revealed the remains of a thriving 5000 year old city now called Caral, with pyramids, temples and ordinary houses.

2. The Ancient Greek civilisation is regarded as beginning around 3000 years ago (1000 BCE), and the so-called classical period was from 500 to 323 BCE. The first Olympic Games were held in 776 BC

3. Siddhartha Gautama, otherwise known as Buddha, lived in India for about 80 years from about 560 BCE (recent research suggests it may have been rather later than this)

4. Jesus of Nazareth lived for 37 or 38 years from 8-2 BCE

5. Muhammad, founder of Islam, lived between 570 and 632 CE.

6. The first written reference to gunpowder dates at 1267. Gunpowder was a mixture of sulphur, charcoal and saltpetre. Some think it was used in China from around 1000 BCE, and it is even suggested that it was used in ancient Greece.

7. The first steam engine was patented in 1698. It was used for pumping water out of mines

8. European settlement of Australia began on 18 January 1788 at Botany Bay

9. The first commercially produced motor cars were produced in Germany about 1890

10. On the 6 August 1945 the United States Army Airforces dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people. Another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki three days later, killing 280,000.

11. On July 21 (GMT) 1968 the first humans stepped on the moon

12. Global warming is now underway, believed to be due mainly to increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as a result of human activities.