How-To Geek

A History of the World in 100 Seconds [Video]

If you’re a sucker for interesting data maps (and we certainly are), then you’ll want to check out this world map animation created by geolocating thousands of historical dates.

Gareth Lloyd and Tom Martin dreamed up an interesting visualization project: what if you mapped all the dated events from Wikipedia in chronological order? After parsing through 424,000 Wikipedia articles they found 35,000 references to event dates. They further combed through those dates and were able to link 15,000 of them to a specific location. They mapped them over time and create a world map generated by historical records. Watch the video below to see the world slowly take shape based on available historical documents.

Hit up the link below to read more about the project and even grab the code to undertake a similar project of your own.

A History of the World in 100 Seconds [Ragtag via Flowing Data]

Comments (7)

  1. Johnnie

    Any way to slow it down and play more slowly?


    Utterly boring and a waste of time.

  3. edgardiazemes

    i would add some sound to it, may be something classic.

  4. jonesy

    What qualified as an historical date for this project?

  5. vicsar

    Funny, according to this, America is a late bloomer (Oh and I mean the continent not just the USA).

    …I thought I better clarify as some people tend to forget America is a continent, not just the USA.

  6. Irish_IT

    This is almost utterly pointless with out a map background to help explain the significances of where the dots are. (yes, you can assume the start is in the middle east/europe but it is not as visually appealing)

  7. Grumpy

    I agree with Irish_IT that an underlaying map would help a great deal in visualizing where population is developing. Viscar’s comment about America developing late — remember that there would be no historical dates for the original inhabitants, i.e. Indians, Inca’s etc., so they are probably not included in this video.


  • Published 03/22/11