This is a timeline of events that occurred before the 20th century.
Circa 2,000,000 BCE[]
- The first light emitted by SN 1885A, a supernova in the Andromeda Galaxy, begins its two million year journey to Earth.[1][2]
1303 BCE[]
- Ramesses II is born.[1]
1213 BCE[]
- Ramesses II dies.[1]
356 BCE[]
July[]
21/22[]
- Alexander the Great is born.[1]
323 BCE[]
June[]
10/11[]
- Alexander the Great dies.[1]
1095[]
- Geoffrey of Monmouth is born.[1]
1138[]
- The Historia Regum Britanniae (The History of the Kings of Britain), is a pseudohistorical account of British history, by Geoffrey of Monmouth is completed. It helped popularize the legend of King Arthur.[1]
1636[]
- Harvard University is established.[1]
1701[]
October[]
9th[]
- Yale University is established.[1]
1746[]
January[]
18th[]
- Princeton University is established.[1][2]
1794[]
- "The Tyger", a poem by William Blake is published.[1]
1818[]
January[]
11th[]
- "Ozymandias", a sonnet by Percy Bysshe Shelley, is published.[1]
February[]
1st[]
- "Ozymandias", a sonnet by Horace Smith, is published.[1]
Mid to Late 1800s[]
- Hollis Wordsworth Mason is born in Montana to a conservative family.
1856[]
March[]
- "Ride of the Valkyries" by Richard Wagner is released.[1][3]
1873[]
- Moe Vernon is born.[3]
1879[]
March[]
14th[]
- Albert Einstein is born.[1]
1882[]
January[]
30th[]
- Franklin D. Roosevelt is born.[1]
1884[]
May[]
8th[]
- Harry S. Truman is born.[1]
1885[]
January[]
1st[]
- J. Edgar Hoover is born in Washington, D.C..[1]
August[]
20th[]
- German astronomer Ernst Hartwig detects SN 1885A, a two-million-year-old supernova in the Andromeda Galaxy.[1][2]
1886[]
May[]
8th[]
1889[]
April[]
20th[]
- Adolf Hitler is born.[1]
1890[]
October[]
14th[]
- Dwight D. Eisenhower is born.[1]
1896[]
- American businessman, Henry John Heinz, the founder of H.J. Heinz Company, conceives of the slogan "58 Varieties" to describe his company's products.[4]
1898[]
- Norman Vincent Peale is born.[1][5]