Timeline Examples
Every timeline puts events in date order on a shared axis. What changes from one kind to the next is what the events are, how many strands they fall into and who is going to read the result. The examples below cover the kinds people make most often. Each one links to a finished timeline you can open, or to a guide for building that kind in Preceden.
History
The most familiar kind: the events of a period, a war or a movement, laid out so you can see what led to what. The French Revolution, World War II, the Roman Empire and the Industrial Revolution are good examples of how much one subject can hold. Our history timelines collection has more than 2,000 more.
If your subject runs back before year 1, Make a BC and AD Timeline covers entering those dates.
A person's life
A biography timeline follows one person from birth onward, usually with their personal life, their work and the world around them kept apart. See Marie Curie or Abraham Lincoln, and Make a Biography Timeline for what to include.
Science and technology
These show how an idea or an invention developed, one discovery or release at a time. Atomic Theory runs from early atomism to the discovery of the neutron, Cell Theory from Robert Hooke's first observations to gene editing, and the history of the internet from ARPANET to the smartphone.
Company history
A company history timeline shows how an organization got where it is: founding, products, leadership changes and milestones. The history of Apple, Google and NASA are examples. Make a Company History Timeline covers building your own and adding your logo.
Two sides at once
A comparative timeline puts two or more sets of events against the same dates, so you can see what one side was doing while the other made its moves. The Cold War and the Space Race are natural subjects. In Preceden each side gets its own layer; Make a Comparative Timeline explains the setup.
Project plans
A project timeline lays out work that has not happened yet: phases, tasks, deadlines and milestones. Often it is drawn as a Gantt chart, with one row per task. Gantt Chart vs Timeline explains the difference, and Creating Gantt Charts with Preceden shows how to build one. For specific plans, see the guides to a business plan timeline, a marketing timeline, an event planning timeline and a swimlane timeline, which gives each team its own lane.
Personal and family
These are about your own life or your family's: the homes, schools, jobs and milestones you remember, or the generations before you. See Make a Timeline of Your Life, Make a Family History Timeline and Make a Career Timeline.
Legal chronologies
Lawyers and investigators build chronologies of a case: every filing, meeting, message and deadline in the order it happened, often with a layer per party or witness. How to Make a Chronology covers gathering the events and settling the dates, and our page on legal case timelines covers using Preceden for case work.
Stories and books
Writers use timelines to keep a plot straight, and students use them for book reports. A story timeline often has no real dates at all, which Dateless Timelines covers. See Make a Book Report Timeline and our page on timelines for writers.
Starting your own
Every Preceden timeline begins with one of four layouts: Simple, Multiple Layers, Gantt Chart and Classic. Timeline Templates describes each one, and Create a Timeline walks through the first screen. If you need a subject for a school assignment rather than an example, Timeline Project Ideas has a list grouped by class.