History of Physics and Astronomy

Big Bang to 0 AD

This section shows the important events in Physics and Astronomy from the Big Bang until 0 AD. The names of people are highlighted in blue, important people are in bold blue.

1.4x10¹⁰ years ago Big Bang
300000 years later Universe becomes dark
A billion years later Star – first one appears
4.5x10⁹ years ago Origin of the Earth
500 000 years ago Human race appears
3400 BC Ten - use of the symbol for 10 in Egypt
2700 BC Babylonian astronomers named the constellations
2000 BC Water clocks in Mesopotamia
1400 BC Iron Smelting
900 BC Pulleys
624-547 BC Thales of Miletus
572- 492 BC Pythagoras
500-428 BC Anaxagoras
460-370 BC Democritus – idea of atoms
444 BC Empedocles- optical tentacles theory of vision
400-355 BC Eudoxus – spheres theory
427-347 BC Plato
400 BC Tortoise paradox
384-322 BC Aristotle
332 BC Alexandria founded
310 -230 BC Aristarchus – heliocentric theory
300 BC Euclid – laws of reflection of light
275-194 BC Eratosthenes – size of the Earth- 24000 miles
287-212 BC Archimedes
200 BC Hero of Alexandria
46 BC Calendar introduced by Julius Caesar