Fun Fact of the Week: Timeline of World History through the eyes of General Sherman

This one goes out to all of you environmental history fans. I propose a new calendar system, Tree Time (TT), where Year 0 is the germination date of the oldest still-living single tree. Known as Methuselah (who, in turn, was known for having supposedly broken the old age record at 969), this Great Basin bristlecone pine has been standing in the mountains of California for over 4,000 years. I tried to offer some perspective on world history (unfortunately, mostly Western world history). It might help put some things into perspective, when discussing Hum readings.  

Time Immemorial: Forests blanket the West Coast of what will later become the United States; Native Americans steward the land across North and South America.

6740 PTT (Pre Tree-Time): The oldest tree which regenerates branches and trunk germinates in Sweden.

~12 PTT: Prometheus (the world’s previous oldest tree) germinates. 

Year 0 TT: Methuselah sprouts from a single seed in the harsh rocks of the White Mountains of California.

~128 TT:  Legend says Huangdi (The Yellow Emperor) founded the first Chinese state. 

~220 TT: The first of the Pyramids of Giza was built.

~526 TT: Earliest theorized practice of Hinduism in the Indus Valley. 

~720 TT: The Epic of Gilgamesh starts being written. 

~994 TT: General Sherman (current world’s tallest tree) germinates in Sequoia Tree National Park, California.

~1433 TT: Moses born (according to Biblical tradition).

2073 TT: Rome was founded by Romulus and Remus, according to legend. (Methuselah has already lived more than a thousand years longer than Imperial Rome will last).

~ 2126 TT: Earliest sections of the Great Wall of China constructed. 

~2263 TT: Siddhartha Gautama born. (Earliest widely recognized date)

2379 TT: Parthenon built. 

2826 TT: Jesus is born. (According to Biblical tradition) (Methuselah has already lived 85 times the length of Jesus’s lifetime).

3436 TT: Prophet Muhammad receives the Quran.  (According to Islamic tradition).

3302 TT: Rome falls. 

4032 TT: Temujin (later to become Ghengis Khan) is born. 

4194 TT: The Mongol Yuan Dynasty (the last powerful remnants of the Mongol Empire) will fall to the Ming. Methuselah is currently (in 4850) ~30 times older than the duration of the Mongol Empire (from birth of Temujin in fall of Yuan). 

4279 TT: Byzantium falls. 

4318 TT: Christopher Columbus lands in the Bahamas.

4365 TT: Less than 1/10th of Methuselah total life span lies between 4265 and the present. 

4433 TT: First permanent British colony established in Jamestown, Virginia.

4602 TT: The US declares independence.

4631 TT: Lewis and Clark reach the Pacific Ocean. 

4674 TT: Large scale logging begins in California after the discovery of gold.

4753 TT: 97 years before present. The following events occur within 1/50th of Methuselah’s life span: 

Stalin comes to power; the Great Depression; fascism rises in Europe; WWII; first computer invented (ABC, 1942); first successful nuclear test; nuclear arms race; the Cold War begins and ends (countless wars and crises flare up and die out); beginning of decolonization; first satellite; Prometheus is cut down accidentally (born 700 years before Gilgamesh, died after the first human made satellite); first human sets foot on the Moon; Soviet Union collapses; the internet is invented; Communist China rises from economic backwater to second largest economy; climate change becomes global concern; 9/11 starts the War on Terror; the first African American president is elected; human population reaches eight billion (roughly 1600x what it was when Methuselah germinated). 

4850 TT: 2024 AD, the present. Methuselah has lived nearly 250 of my life spans at time of writing, and if I live to the ripe old age of 80, Mathuselah will have lived over 60 of my lifetimes. 

If you have a fun fact or topic that you would like to be brought to light, email me at qhoop@reed.edu!