Putting events on a timeline
History · Key Stage 1 · The School
A line for time
A TIMELINE is a line with the earliest thing at one end and the most recent at the other. Putting events on it shows their ORDER and also the GAPS between them, which a list cannot. Two events close together on a timeline really did happen close together.
Words for how long ago
History needs words for distance in time. TODAY, YESTERDAY, LAST WEEK, LAST YEAR, WHEN I WAS LITTLE, WHEN GRANDMA WAS LITTLE, LONG AGO, A VERY LONG TIME AGO. Using them roughly at first is fine; the point is knowing that some things are much further back than others.
Living memory
Some things happened WITHIN LIVING MEMORY — someone alive today remembers them and can tell you. Other things happened BEYOND living memory, and nobody alive was there, so we depend on what was written down or left behind. That difference decides how we can find out about it.
Mark on a line: Great Fire (1666), first steam railway (1825), first Moon landing (1969), today. On a timeline running 1600 to 2030, the gaps are 159, 144 and 57 years — the last gap is visibly the shortest. Now draw it 1900 to 2030 and three of the four events do not even fit. Same events, and the second line tells a completely different story, because the SCALE changed.