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.
June 6
From Poland to Romania to the U.K., European wood bison are now firmly recognized as one of the best tools for returning what little wilderness Europe has left to as wild a state as possible. In Portugal, the gradual abandonment of the Greater Côa Valley has presented an unprecedented opportunity for rewilding in the small country. The government has already set aside a quarter million acres of land for conservation.
2024 C.E.
June 4
Tetanus is a bacterial disease that causes paralysis and can lead to death. Globally, it was estimated to kill more than 250,000 people each year in the early 1990s. Most of these deaths were in children. By 2019, annual deaths had fallen to less than 35,000. The rollout of the combined vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis among children has been crucial in driving this.
2024 C.E.
June 4
Bottom trawling, a practice criticized by NGOs for impacting ecosystems, involves dragging heavy nets over the seabed, damaging ecosystems, and releasing carbon into the oceans. Sweden is set to become the second EU country to ban bottom fishing in marine protected areas, going a step further than Greece’s April decision by banning it in all territorial waters.
2024 C.E.
June 4
The world’s largest solar farm, in the desert in northwestern Xinjiang, is now connected to China’s grid. The 3.5-gigawatt, 33,000-acre solar farm is outside Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital.
Assuming an EV consumes about 3,000 kWh per year, 6.09 billion kWh could power 2.03 million EVs annually.
2024 C.E.
June 3
An immunotherapy drug could spare bowel cancer patients the need for surgery and chemotherapy after results showed it was effective in 100% of cases. Jemperli from British pharmaceutical company GSK showed “unprecedented results”, the firm said, with no evidence of disease in all patients treated. The data showed all 42 patients in a trial led by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the U.S. had a complete response to treatment, with no evidence of tumors on scans.
2024 C.E.
June 3
The number of abortions among women under 20 rose during the 1990s in Finland, leading the Nordic country to make morning-after pills available without prescription from 15 years of age and sexual education compulsory in all schools. As a result, the number of abortions fell 66% to 722 in 2023 from 2,144 in 2000 among all teenagers aged 19 or younger in Finland, while the drop was even steeper at 78% among those under 18 in the same period.
2024 C.E.
June 3
Mexico's official electoral authority said preliminary results showed the 61-year-old former mayor of Mexico City winning between 58% and 60% of the vote in the recent election. That gives her a lead of about 30 percentage points over her main rival, businesswoman Xóchitl Gálvez. Ms. Sheinbaum will replace her mentor, outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on 1 October.
2024 C.E.
June 2
An "ultra-sensitive" new blood test developed and tested by Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) London can predict if breast cancer will return years before the disease shows up on scans, researchers say. It picks up traces of a tumor's DNA before a full relapse and was found to be 100% accurate at predicting which patients would see their cancer return. It is hoped that the test can allow treatment to start earlier and improve survival rates.
2024 C.E.
June 1
Vermont has enacted a law requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a share of the damage caused by climate change after the state suffered catastrophic summer flooding and damage from other extreme weather. The funds could be used for upgrading stormwater drainage systems; upgrading roads, bridges and railroads; relocating, elevating or retrofitting sewage treatment plants; and making energy-efficient weatherization upgrades to public and private buildings.
2024 C.E.
May 31
After 10 years of negotiations, Peru’s Council of Ministers has approved the creation of the Grau Tropical Sea National Reserve. To Peruvians, it is a much-awaited marine protected area, as it’s one of the most biodiverse stretches along the country’s coastline. The reserve covers over 285,000 acres of sea off the departments of Piura and Tumbes in northern Peru. The IUCN ranked the area among the 70 most important places in the world for marine biodiversity conservation.
Load More