This is a timeline of events that occurred before the 20th century.
Circa 2,000,000 BCE
- The first light emitted by SN 1885A, a supernova in the Andromeda Galaxy, begins its two million year journey to Earth.[1][2]
1303 BCE
- Ramesses II is born.[1]
1213 BCE
- Ramesses II dies.[1]
356 BCE
July
21/22
- Alexander the Great is born.[1]
323 BCE
June
10/11
- Alexander the Great dies.[1]
1095
- Geoffrey of Monmouth is born.[1]
1138
- The Historia Regum Britanniae (The History of the Kings of Britain), is a pseudohistorical account of British history, by Geoffrey of Monmouth is completed. It helped popularize the legend of King Arthur.[1]
1636
- Harvard University is established.[1]
1701
October
9th
- Yale University is established.[1]
1746
January
18th
- Princeton University is established.[1][2]
1794
- "The Tyger", a poem by William Blake is published.[1]
1818
January
11th
- "Ozymandias", a sonnet by Percy Bysshe Shelley, is published.[1]
February
1st
- "Ozymandias", a sonnet by Horace Smith, is published.[1]
Mid to Late 1800s
- Hollis Wordsworth Mason is born in Montana to a conservative family.
1856
March
- "Ride of the Valkyries" by Richard Wagner is released.[1][3]
1873
- Moe Vernon is born.[3]
1879
March
14th
- Albert Einstein is born.[1]
1882
January
30th
- Franklin D. Roosevelt is born.[1]
1884
May
8th
- Harry S. Truman is born.[1]
1885
January
1st
- J. Edgar Hoover is born in Washington, D.C..[1]
August
20th
- German astronomer Ernst Hartwig detects SN 1885A, a two-million-year-old supernova in the Andromeda Galaxy.[1][2]
1886
May
8th
1889
April
20th
- Adolf Hitler is born.[1]
1890
October
14th
- Dwight D. Eisenhower is born.[1]
1896
- American businessman, Henry John Heinz, the founder of H.J. Heinz Company, conceives of the slogan "58 Varieties" to describe his company's products.[4]
1898
- Norman Vincent Peale is born.[1][5]