Back to home
Archive of Human Genius
The world’s largest database of good news and social change milestones from throughout human history
A Timeline of Human History A Database of Good News An Imagining of our Collective Future
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.
Era Tomorrow (2026 C.E. - ???)
Today (2017 C.E. - 2025 C.E.)
Post-modernity (1945 - 2016 C.E.)
Modernity (1500 - 1945 C.E.)
Post-classical (500 - 1500 C.E.)
Civilization (3000 B.C.E. - 500 C.E.)
Agriculture (10000 - 3000 B.C.E.)
Prehistory (250000 - 10000 B.C.E.)
Years All 10th Century B.C.E. 10th Century C.E. 10th Millennia B.C.E. 11th Century B.C.E. 11th Century C.E. 12th Century B.C.E. 12th Century C.E. 13th Century B.C.E. 13th Century C.E. 14th Century B.C.E. 14th Century C.E. 1500-1509 C.E. 1510s C.E. 1520s C.E. 1530s C.E. 1540s C.E. 1550s C.E. 1560s C.E. 1570s C.E. 1580s C.E. 1590s C.E. 15th Century B.C.E. 15th Century C.E. 1600-09 C.E. 1610s C.E. 1620s C.E. 1630s C.E. 1640s C.E. 1650s C.E. 1660s C.E. 1670s C.E. 1680s C.E. 1690s C.E. 16th Century B.C.E. 1700-09 C.E. 1720s C.E. 1740s C.E. 1750s C.E. 1760s C.E. 1770s C.E. 1780s C.E. 1790s C.E. 1800-09 C.E. 1810s C.E. 1820s C.E. 1830s C.E. 1840s C.E. 1850s C.E. 1860s C.E. 1870s C.E. 1880s C.E. 1890s C.E. 18th Century B.C.E. 1900-09 C.E. 1910s C.E. 1920s C.E. 1930s C.E. 1940s C.E. 1950s C.E. 1960s C.E. 1970s C.E. 1980s C.E. 1990s C.E. 19th Century B.C.E. 1st Century B.C.E. 1st Century C.E. 2000 C.E. 2001 C.E. 2002 C.E. 2003 C.E. 2004 C.E. 2006 C.E. 2007 C.E. 2008 C.E. 2009 C.E. 2011 C.E. 2012 C.E. 2013 C.E. 2014 C.E. 2015 C.E. 2016 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. 21st Century B.C.E. 23rd Century B.C.E. 24th Century B.C.E. 26th Century B.C.E. 27th Century B.C.E. 28th Century B.C.E. 29th Century B.C.E. 2nd Century B.C.E. 2nd Century C.E. 3rd Century B.C.E. 3rd Century C.E. 4th Century B.C.E. 4th Century C.E. 4th Millennia B.C.E. 5th Century B.C.E. 5th Century C.E. 5th Millennia B.C.E. 6th Century B.C.E. 6th Century C.E. 6th Millennia B.C.E. 7th Century B.C.E. 7th Century C.E. 7th Millennia B.C.E. 8th Century B.C.E. 8th Century C.E. 8th Millennia B.C.E. 9th Century B.C.E. 9th Century C.E. 9th Millennia B.C.E. Before 10th Millennia B.C.E.
Topic All #Resist Abortion rights & access Activism & Protests Agriculture Air pollution Animal husbandry & domestication Animal rights & well-being Architecture & design Artificial intelligence Arts, music, literature & entertainment Astronomy & space exploration Athletics & sport Black Lives Matter Blockchain & cryptocurrency Capital punishment Caste abolition Child well-being Circular economy & zero waste Cities Civilization Clean & renewable energy Climate crisis Clothing Colonialism Communication & language Conscious management Consumer rights & well-being Corporate responsibility COVID-19 Crime Culture Dark skies Death & Grief Debt Decolonization Democracy & voting Disabilities & special needs Discovery & exploration Drinking water; sanitation & hygiene Drugs & Entheogens Economic inequality Education Elections Electrification Environment Ethical sourcing Ethics Evolution Finance Flora & fauna Food & diet Free speech & censorship Fresh water conservation Gay rights Gender Genocide Government Green bonds Green space Gun safety Hate speech Healthcare Houselessness Human rights Immigration Independence Indigenous rights & well-being Infrastructure International cooperation Internet rights Journalism Justice system Kindness Kingdoms & empire Law LGBTQ+ rights & well-being Life expectancy & mortality Literature Local resilience Marine conservation Medicine Men's health & well-being Mental health & addiction Migration & settlement Military Mindfulness & self-care Minimum wage Mythology & folklore Nations Natural gas & divestment News & media No coal No fracking Nuclear disarmament Numbers & math Ocean health Oil Oil, natural gas & divestment Parenting Paris Agreement Peace Philanthropy Philosophy Physics Plastic pollution Police reform Pollution Poverty alleviation Prison justice Privacy & security Public health & disease Public safety Racial justice Refugees Religion Reparations Reproductive rights Responsible sourcing & consumption Revolution Rights of nature Same-sex marriage Seniors' rights & well-being Sexual assault & domestic violence Shamanism & rituals Social media Sustainability Sustainable Development Goals Technology & innovation Tourism Trade Transgender rights & well-being Transportation Trees & reforestation Universal basic income Water pollution Wildlife & land conservation Women's rights & well-being Workers' rights & well-being Youth & student movements
Country All Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahrain 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 Cote D'Ivoire 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 Haiti Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Navajo Nation 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 Tahiti 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 Government 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
2024 C.E.
November 8
New Mexico voters are sending 11 additional women to boost female representation in their state legislature. Women have made steady advances in statehouse representation across the country, with one notable surge in the 2018 election cycle almost entirely among Democrats in a trend associated with the #MeToo movement and political engagement linked to the election of Donald Trump. The share of women in all state legislatures across the United States combined roughly tripled from about 11% in 1980 to 33% in October 2024.
2024 C.E.
November 7
Brazil recently announced a plan to restore an area of degraded land about half the size of the U.K. by 2030, in a bid to combat climate change and biodiversity loss. The Planaveg 2.0 initiative, launched at the U.N. biodiversity summit, COP16, in Colombia on Oct. 28, aims to restore 30 million acres, about half of Brazil’s degraded land area. Home to 15-18% of the world’s known species, Brazil is the most biodiverse nation on Earth, making it a key player in global ecosystem restoration.
2024 C.E.
November 6
Monroe Nichols will become the first Black mayor of Tulsa. Nichols, a state representative, edged out Tulsa County Commissioner Karen Keith in a runoff election to become the mayor of Oklahoma’s second-largest city. Nichols’ election comes 103 years after the Tulsa Race Massacre, when a white racist mob, including some deputized by authorities, descended on the city’s Greenwood District, also known as Black Wall Street. They burned down homes and businesses, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 300 Black residents.
2024 C.E.
November 5
New Yorkers have passed Amendment 1, branded the Equal Rights Amendment. The New York Constitution already forbids discrimination based on race, creed, or religion. Amendment 1 adds language that would prohibit denial of civil rights based on national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes or reproductive healthcare and autonomy. The amendment effectively guarantees a right to abortion and adds protections for trans New Yorkers.
2024 C.E.
November 5
The amendment is similar to a law Democratic Gov. Jared Polis signed in 2022 and would codify protections for abortion including barring local governments from passing their own laws to try to restrict the procedure. It would also remove Colorado’s current constitutional ban against public funding for abortions. That would allow the state to cover the procedure under Medicaid and add it to state employee health plans.
2024 C.E.
November 5
LignoSat, developed by Kyoto University and homebuilder Sumitomo Forestry, opens new tab, will be flown to the International Space Station on a SpaceX mission, and later released into orbit about 250 miles above the Earth. Named after the Latin word for "wood", the palm-sized LignoSat is tasked to demonstrate the cosmic potential of the renewable material as humans explore living in space. Decommissioned satellites must re-enter the atmosphere to avoid becoming space debris. Conventional metal satellites create aluminum oxide particles during re-entry, but wooden ones would just burn up with less pollution.
2024 C.E.
November 5
Her recent election win makes McBride the first out transgender person to serve in Congress. She beat her Republican opponent, John Whalen III, who ran on an anti-immigration, anti-choice platform. At only 34, McBride has already made an impressive name for herself, with her seat in Congress adding yet another “first” to the list. After working for the Human Rights Campaign and interning in the Obama-Biden White House, the 2020 elections in her home state of Delaware made her the first trans person elected to a state senate.
2024 C.E.
November 2
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said that his government plans to cut student loans for around three million Australians by 20%, wiping off around $10 billion USD in debts. The move builds on May's budget, which attacked cost of living pressures in Australia and gave debt relief for students, as well as more investment to make medicines cheaper, and a boost to a rent assistance program. The changes would mean the average graduate with a loan of A$27,600 would have A$5,520 wiped, the government said, adding that they would take effect from June 1, 2025.
2024 C.E.
November 1
Thailand’s cabinet has approved an accelerated pathway to permanent residency and nationality for nearly half a million stateless people, marking one of the region’s most significant citizenship initiatives. The decision will benefit 335,000 longtime residents and members of officially recognized minority ethnic groups, along with approximately 142,000 of their children born in Thailand. The country recently pledged at the Global Refugee Forum 2023 to resolve statelessness and was among the founding members of UNHCR's Global Alliance to End Stateless, launched in October 2024.
2024 C.E.
October 25
President Biden has issued a formal presidential apology to Native American communities for the atrocities committed against Indigenous children and their families during a 150-year era of forced federal Indian boarding schools. "After 150 years, the United States government eventually stopped the program," the president said. "But the federal government has never, never formally apologized for what happened — until today. I formally apologize, as president of the United States of America, for what we did."
Load More