Ok, so this isn't new, it is from Carl Sagan (if you remember the old mini-series "Cosmos" that he narrated, it was in that), but here is the link to the information on the "cosmic calender".
If the history of the universe was condensed into a one year calender, it would look like this:
Some dates:
January 1
Big Bang
May 1
Origin of Milky Way Galaxy
September 9
Origin of the solar system
September 14
Formation of the Earth
~ September 25
Origin of life on Earth
October 2
Formation of the oldest rocks known on Earth
October 9
Date of oldest fossils (bacteria and blue-green algae)
~ November 1
Invention of sex (by microorganisms)
November 12
Oldest fossil photosynthetic plants
November 15
Eukaryotes (first cells with nuclei) flourish
All of this happened on December 31:
Origin of Proconsul and Ramapithecus, probable ancestors of apes and men
~ 1:30 p.m.
First humans
~ 10:30 p.m.
Widespread use of stone tools
11:00 p.m.
Domestication of fire by Peking man
11:46 p.m.
Beginning of most recent glacial period
11:56 p.m.
Seafarers settle Australia
11:58 p.m.
Extensive cave painting in Europe
11:59 p.m.
Invention of agriculture
11:59:20 p.m.
Neolithic civilization; first cities
11:59:35 p.m.
First dynasties in Sumer, Ebla and Egypt; development of astronomy
11:59:50 p.m.
Invention of the alphabet; Akkadian Empire
11:59:51 p.m.
Hammurabic legal codes in Babylon; Middle Kingdom in Egypt
11:59:52 p.m.
Bronze metallurgy; Mycenaean culture; Trojan War; Olmec culture; invention of the compass
11:59:53 p.m.
Iron metallurgy; First Assyrian Empire; Kingdom of Israel; founding of Carthage by Phoenicia
11:59:54 p.m.
Asokan India; Ch'in Dynasty China; Periclean Athens; birth of Buddha
11:59:55 p.m.
Euclidean geometry; Archimedean physics; Ptolemaic astronomy; Roman Empire; birth of Christ
11:59:56 p.m.
Zero and decimals invented in Indian arithmetic; Rome falls; Birth of Islam and the Islamic Civilization
11:59:57 p.m.
Mayan civilization; Sung Dynasty China; Byzantine empire; Mongol invasion; Crusades
11:59:58 p.m.
Renaissance in Europe; voyages of discovery from Europe and from Ming Dynasty China; emergence of the experimental method in science
11:59:59 p.m.
Kind of puts things in perspective when talking about time scales
