Timeline of the Holocene

See also: Timeline of extinctions in the Holocene

The timeline lists events in the external environment that have influenced events in human history. This timeline is for use with the article on environmental determinism.
For the history of humanity's influence on the environment, and humanity's perspective on this influence, see timeline of the history of environmentalism.
See List of periods and events in climate history for a timeline list focused on climate.

## Pre-Holocene

The time from roughly 15,000 to 5,000 BC was a time of transition, and swift and extensive environmental change, as the planet was moving from an Ice age, towards an interstadial (warm period). Sea levels rose dramatically (and are continuing to do so), land that was depressed by glaciers began lifting up again, forests and deserts expanded, and the climate gradually became more modern. In the process of warming up, the planet saw several "cold snaps" and "warm snaps", such as the Older Dryas and the Holocene climatic optimum, as well as heavier precipitation. In addition, the Pleistocene megafauna became extinct due to environmental and evolutionary pressures from the changing climate. This marked the end of the Quaternary extinction event, which was continued into the modern era by humans. The time around 11,700 years ago (9700 BC) is widely considered to be the end of the old age (Pleistocene, Paleolithic, Stone age, Wisconsin Ice Age), and the beginning of the modern world as we know it.

## 10th millennium BC

 c. 9700 BC
* Lake Agassiz reforms from glacial meltwater
* Bering Sea: Land bridge from Siberia to North America disappears as sea level rises. See Beringia for further information
* North America: Long Island becomes an island, and not just a terminal moraine, when rising waters break through on the western end of the interior lake
 c. 9660 to c. 9600 BC
 c. 9500 BC
* Ancylus Lake, part of the modern-day Baltic Sea, forms.
* There is evidence of harvesting, though not necessarily cultivation, of wild grasses in Asia Minor about this time.
* End of the pre-Boreal period of European climate change.
* Pollen Zone IV Pre-boreal, associated with juniper, willow, birch pollen deposits.
* Neolithic era begins in Ancient Near East.
* Evidence of the earliest settlement in Jericho
* In Antarctica, long-term melting of the Antarctic ice sheets is commencing.
* Creosote bush – *Larrea tridentata* clonal colony, named "King Clone", germinates in the Mojave Desert near the Lucerne Valley in California.
 c. 9270 BC
 c. 9000 BC

## 9th millennium BC

 c. 8500 BC to 7370
 c. 8000 BC
* Transition from Boreal period to Atlantic period
* Last glacial period ends
* Upper Paleolithic period ends and the Mesolithic period begins
* Old Man in the Mountain formed in New Hampshire by retreating glaciers
* Antarctica — long-term melting of the Antarctic ice sheets is under way.
* Asia — rising sea levels caused by postglacial warming.
* North America — The glaciers were receding and by 8000 BC the Wisconsin glaciation had withdrawn completely.
* World — Inland flooding due to catastrophic glacier melt takes place in several regions.
* Neolithic Revolution, some humans begin to switch from a hunter-gatherer existence, to agriculture

## 8th millennium BC

 c. 7900 BC
 c. 7640 BC
 c. 7500 BC
* Mesolithic hunters reach Ireland
* 9,500-year-old Norway spruce – *Picea abies* clonal colony named "Old Tjikko" germinates in Sweden.
 7500–7000 BC

## 7th millennium BC

 c. 6600 BC
 c. 6500 BC
* English Channel formed
* Ubaid period begins in Mesopotamia
* Chalcolithic (copper age) and invention of the wheel occur during this time
* Paleolithic period ends and Neolithic period begins in China, continues to 2300 BC
 c.6440±25 BC
 c. 6400 BC
 c. 6200 BC
 c. 6100 BC
* Climatic or Thermal Maximum, the warmest period in the past 125,000 years, with minimal glaciation and highest sea levels. (McEvedy)
* Rising sea levels form the Torres Strait, separate Australia from New Guinea.
* Increasing desiccation of the Sahara. End of the Saharan Pluvial period.
* Associated with Pollen Zone VI Atlantic, oak-elm woodlands, warmer and maritime climate. Modern wild fauna plus, increasingly, human introductions, associated with the spread of the Neolithic farming technologies.
* Rising sea levels from glacial retreat flood what will become the Irish Sea, separating the island of Ireland from the British Isles and Continental Europe.

## 6th millennium BC

 c. 5600 BC
 c. 5500 BC
 c. 5300 BC
* Vinca script (Tartaria tablets), among the oldest writing systems
 c. 5000 BC
* The Older Peron transgression, a global warm period, begins.
* Use of a sail begins. The first known picture is on an Egyptian urn found in Luxor.
* Transition from Atlantic period to Subboreal period
* Metallurgy appears
 5000 BC

## 4th millennium BC

 3900 BC
* Intense aridification triggered worldwide migration to river valleys, which might have caused changes in human behaviour.
* Abrupt end of the Ubaid period.
 3600 BC
* Climatic deterioration in Western Europe and the Sahara as the African humid period ends.
* In Europe Pollen zone VII Sub Boreal, oak and beech.
* Glacial advances of the Piora oscillation, with lower economic prosperity in areas not able to irrigate in the Middle East.
 3500 BC to 3000 BC
 3500 BC
 3200 BC
 between 3000 BC and 2800 BC

## 2nd millennium BC

 c. 2000 BC
 1900 BC
 Around 1600 BC
 1450 BC
 1206 BC

## 1st millennium BC

 800 BC
* Sub-Atlantic period in Western Europe.
* Pollen Zone VIII, sub-Atlantic. End of last Sea Level rise.
* Spread of "Celtic fields", Iron Age A, and Haalstadt Celts.
* Increased prosperity in Europe and the Middle East.
 200 BC
 753 BC
 508 BC
 c. 200 BC

## 1st millennium AD

### 2nd century

 114
 186

### 4th century

 c. 300
 301

### 5th century

 c. 400
 476

### 8th century

 750
 774

### 9th century

 c. 850
 874

### 10th century

 930
 980s

## 2nd millennium

### 11th century

 985
 1054

### 13th century

 c. 1250
 end of the 13th century

### 14th century

 1315
 1347
 1350

### 15th century

 1408
 1492

### 17th century

 1600
 1610

### 18th century

 c. 1750
 1755
 1770
 1783
 1789
 1798

### 19th century

 1804
 1815
Eruption of Mt. Tambora in what is now Indonesia, largest in the 2nd millennium AD. Leads to the...
 1816
"Year Without a Summer" across North America and Europe.
 1845
 1859
 1883
 1896

## 3rd millennium

### 21st century

 2004
 2005
* Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma cause widespread destruction and environmental harm to coastal communities in the US Gulf Coast region, especially the New Orleans area.
 2008
* Cyclone Nargis makes landfall over Myanmar, causing widespread destruction and killing over 130,000 people.
 2010
* Earthquake in Haiti destroyed vital infrastructure and kills over 100,000 people.
* Earthquake in Chile of a magnitude of 8.8, caused damage on many cities.
* The eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano affected activities in Europe and across the world.
* *Deepwater Horizon* oil spill in Gulf of Mexico causes millions of barrels of oil to pollute the gulf.
 2011
* Tsunami in Japan An earthquake and later a tsunami hit the continent on March 11, 2011. After this disaster, nuclear power plants in Japan have been releasing radiation due to damage from the earthquake.
* World human population reached the **7 billion mark**.
* Tornadoes of 2011, a series of destructive and record-breaking tornado outbreaks and tornado outbreak sequences strike the heartland of the United States, killing hundreds of people, injuring scores more, and causing billions of dollars in damages, particularly in St. Louis and Joplin in Missouri, Tuscaloosa and Birmingham in Alabama, and elsewhere.
 2012
* Hurricane Sandy devastates the eastern third of North America, from Florida to Quebec, and from Michigan to Nova Scotia, as the largest Atlantic basin hurricane in history.
 2013
* Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) ravages the central Philippines, with explosive strengthening and a record-setting wind-speed at landfall of 195 miles per hour (314 km/h).
* A multivortex tornado touches down in El Reno, Oklahoma and grows to a record-setting width of 2.6 miles (4.2 km).
* Minamata Convention on Mercury is signed, committing nations to reducing mercury poisoning.
 2015
* A global climate change pact is agreed at the COP 21 summit, committing all countries to reduce carbon emissions for the first time.
 2016
* 150 nations meeting at the UNEP summit in Rwanda agree to phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), as an extension to the Montreal Protocol.