Archive of Human Genius
The world’s largest database of social change milestones, from the first fire to today’s good news.
A Timeline of Human History
We are building the world’s largest database of social change milestones, from the first fire to today’s good news. Change is not only possible, it has happened consistently throughout human history.
Filter by era, country, topic, actor, source, and more.
Years All 14th Century C.E. 16th Century B.C.E. 1800-09 C.E. 1860s C.E. 1870s C.E. 1880s C.E. 1960s C.E. 1970s C.E. 2001 C.E. 2003 C.E. 2004 C.E. 2006 C.E. 2017 C.E. 2018 C.E. 2019 C.E. 2020 C.E. 2021 C.E. 2022 C.E. 2023 C.E. 2024 C.E. 2025 C.E. 2026 C.E. 2030's C.E. 2040s C.E. 2050s C.E. 2060s C.E. 2090s C.E. Before 10th Millennia B.C.E.
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Country All Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bangladesh Barbados Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia-Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Chad Cherokee Nation Chile China Colombia Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Democratic Republic of Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador England Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia European Union Faroe Islands Federated States of Micronesia Fiji Finland France French Polynesia Gabon Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guatemala Guyana Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Lithuania Luxembourg Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal New Caledonia New Zealand / Aotearoa Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue North Korea North Macedonia Northern Ireland Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestine Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Poland Portugal Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Scotland Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South America South Korea South Sudan Soviet Union Spain Sri Lanka St. Kitts & Nevis St. Lucia St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tanzania Thailand The Bahamas The Gambia The Netherlands The Philippines Timor Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad & Tobago Tristan da Cunha Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Wales Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe
Actor All Activists Artists & philosophers Athletes Business Cities Citizens Civil society Consumers Courts Early humans Engineers Finance Humanity Humankind Indigenous groups International organizations Inventors Kingdoms & empires Media & Journalists Military Nations Non-humans Regions Religious groups Science & academia Scientists & mathematicians Settlers & explorers States & provinces Utilities Workers World leaders
2026 C.E.
May 14 Nirsevimab, a long-acting antibody given to every infant in one Spanish region, cut RSV hospitalizations by 86% compared to previous seasons, according to a new study out of Valladolid University. Babies under six months — the group hit hardest by RSV every winter — saw the biggest drop, with pediatric intensive care admissions falling sharply too. Unlike a traditional vaccine, the shot delivers ready-made antibodies directly, which matters for newborns whose immune systems are...
2026 C.E.
May 14 Free tuition at the University of Chicago will soon reach families earning up to $250,000 a year — a ceiling roughly two to three times higher than most peer programs. Starting in autumn 2027, qualifying students pay nothing toward tuition, and those from households under $125,000 also get room, board, and fees covered. The move directly addresses the middle-income squeeze, where families often earn too much for traditional aid but too little to absorb...
2026 C.E.
May 14 Shanghai's waste overhaul has pushed industrial recycling to 98%, meaning almost nothing from the city's factories ends up in a landfill anymore. Six years in, companies have built whole businesses around the idea that scrap is just raw material in disguise — one Jinshan firm now processes 130,000 tons of aluminum cuttings a year, while another turns used cooking oil into bioplastic for take-out containers sold worldwide. At the neighborhood level, a Hongkou pilot...
2026 C.E.
May 13 Asiatic wild asses, known as khulan, are roaming eastern Mongolia again after more than 60 years away, with hundreds now recorded crossing the Trans-Mongolian Railway into habitat they had vanished from. The turnaround began with a simple experiment: conservationists and government partners opened fence-free stretches of railway and watched to see what would happen. Animals crossed, trains kept running safely, and in May 2025 a monitored passage corridor was made official near the China-Mongolia...
2026 C.E.
May 13 Trachoma has officially been eliminated as a public health concern in Australia, making it the 30th country to defeat the world's leading infectious cause of blindness. The win took nineteen years of patient work in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, where the disease quietly persisted long after vanishing from cities. What made the difference wasn't a miracle drug — it was Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organizations leading the response, paired with better housing,...
2026 C.E.
May 13 Newborn babies with malaria finally have a medicine made just for them. Coartem Baby, a cherry-flavored tablet that dissolves into breast milk or water, just earned World Health Organization prequalification — a green light that opens the door to public health systems across sub-Saharan Africa. For decades, doctors had to guess at doses using drugs built for older children, even as research showed infants were getting infected too. Ghana has already begun rolling it...
2026 C.E.
May 12 Little free pantries across Seattle quietly move an estimated 4 million pounds of food a year — more than the state's largest food bank — and a new University of Washington app called PantryMap is helping that grassroots web run smarter. Users can check stock levels, post wish lists, and log donations in real time, while four pilot pantries now use privacy-preserving sensors that track weight and door activity without any cameras. Volunteers are...
2026 C.E.
May 12 Electric concrete mixers are quietly rewriting what "hard to electrify" really means — and in China, they're on track to make up roughly 70% of new mixer sales in 2025, up from under 2% just four years earlier. The reason is refreshingly simple: these trucks return to the same batching plant every shift, so charging infrastructure can live right where the work begins and ends. In early 2026, Chinese buyers chose pure electric over...
2026 C.E.
May 12 Kenya's High Court has thrown out a law that could have sent farmers to prison for up to two years simply for saving or sharing seeds from their own harvests. The court ruled that criminalizing a practice Kenyan smallholders have relied on for centuries violated their rights to life, livelihood, and food. UN human rights experts welcomed the December 2025 decision and credited the farmers, Indigenous communities, and civil society groups who spent years...
2026 C.E.
May 11 A nasal spray for stroke, developed at the University of Hong Kong, cut brain damage by more than 80% when given within 30 minutes of an ischemic stroke in preclinical studies. The idea is beautifully simple: tiny particles travel from the nose directly along nerve pathways to the brain, sidestepping the blood-brain barrier that derails most neurological drugs. Designed to be as easy to use as an EpiPen, it could let a bystander start...
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