Backward in Time

	B	C	L	M	N
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2	Hi! This is a spreadsheet I made which implements the formula in xkcd.com/1017. You can use it to track your progress in any task (e.g. working toward 100,000 points in Fitocracy). Feel free to take/modify it for your own use. —RM				To use this sheet yourself, go to "File -> Make a copy"
3					To edit what events appear in the "What's Happening" section, look at the "Events" sheet in the tabs at the bottom. It's a long list.
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5
6	Percent	Years	How far back	Date	What's Happening
7	85.38%	6,339,550.15	6.3 million years	6.3 million years ago	Africa hits Europe, forming Mediterranean. Messian salinity crisis
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9	Fitocracy 100k	Years	How far back	Date	What's Happening
10	9001	0.30	4 months	1/11/2025 5:42:02	#N/A
13	Fitocracy rate	53 minutes/point			#N/A
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15
16	Date	Percent complete
17	1/1/1918	44.95%
18
19	Years ago	Percent complete
20	1012	57.85%

	A	B	C
1	Years ago (sort by this, enter manually for old dates)	Date	Event

2	13.39	12/10/2011	$10,000 bet
3	13.45	11/18/2011	UC Davis pepper spray incident
4	13.47	11/11/2011	Skyrim released
5	13.47	11/9/2011	Oops
6	13.48	11/5/2011	Someone Like You leaves #1
7	13.53	10/20/2011	Gadhaffi killed
8	13.55	10/12/2011	We are the 99%
9	13.62	9/17/2011	Someone Like You reaches #1
10	13.70	8/20/2011	Party Rock leaves #1
11	0.55		Phone hacking scandal breaks
12	13.77	7/22/2011	Norway massacre
13	13.79	7/16/2011	Party Rock reaches #1
14	13.88	6/12/2011	Rolling in the Deep reaches #1
15	14.00	5/2/2011	Osama bin Laden killed, Iceland volcano erupts
16	13.94	5/21/2011	Rolling in the Deep leaves #1
17	14.08	4/2/2011	Born This Way stops
18	0.92		Japan tsunami
19	14.14	3/11/2011	Japan tsunami
20	14.17	2/26/2011	Born This Way starts
21	14.22	2/10/2011	Rebecca Black - Friday
22	1.15		Tea party sweep
23	1.43		Wikileaks posts state department cables
24	14.83	7/1/2010	Vengeance Dad
25	1.75		iPad released, health care reform law passed
26	2.11		Haiti, Ft. Hood, Michael Jackson
27	15.52	10/22/2009	Windows 7 released
28	2.53		Green revolution, swine flu
29	15.96	5/13/2009	It's dangerous to go alone
30	3.01		Obama inaugurated, Tea party forms
31	16.22	2/7/2009	I'm on a boat
32	16.38	12/14/2008	Shoe thrower Bush
33	16.38	12/11/2008	Chrome released
34	3.55		Obama beats Clinton, financial system collapses
35	16.80	7/13/2008	Dr. Horrible
36	16.94	5/23/2008	Pork and Beans video
37	17.27	1/24/2008	Ask Reddit created
38	4.16		Mortgage crisis, last Harry Potter book
39	17.84	6/29/2007	iPhone released
40	17.90	6/6/2007	Daft Hands
41	18.03	4/21/2007	Chocolate Rain
42	4.86		Virginia Tech massacre, iPhone
43	18.21	2/14/2007	What What in the butt
44	18.25	1/30/2007	Windows Vista released
45	18.31	1/9/2007	iPhone announced
46	18.45	11/19/2006	Wii released
47	18.47	11/11/2006	PS3
48	18.54	10/17/2006	Over 9000
49	5.64		Gas above $4.00, Democrats poised to win House and Senate
50	18.88	6/13/2006	I Can Has Cheezburger
51	19.07	4/5/2006	Evolution of Dance
52	19.17	3/1/2006	Twitter
53	19.33	1/1/2006	Leekspin
54	19.37	12/16/2005	Lazy Sunday
55	19.58	9/30/2005	Serenity released
56	19.66	8/31/2005	Diet Coke/Mentos
57	6.52		Hurricane Katrina, Terri Schiavo
58	19.75	8/1/2005	Leeeeeroy Jenkins
59	19.90	6/7/2005	DO NOT WANT
60	19.91	6/1/2005	Reddit founded
61	19.97	5/12/2005	XBOX 360
62	20.24	2/1/2005	YouTUBE launched
63	20.24	1/31/2005	Chuck Norris
64	20.29	1/14/2005	FSM
65	20.40	12/6/2004	numa numa
66	20.44	11/21/2004	Nintendo DS
67	7.52		Bird flu panic, tsunami, Facebook, Mars rovers
68	20.91	6/1/2004	Do a barrel roll
69	21.08	4/1/2004	GMail launched
70	21.22	2/9/2004	Firefox released
71	21.33	1/1/2004	Facebook launched
72	21.37	12/17/2003	Return of the King
73	21.58	10/1/2003	End of the WOrld
74	21.66	9/2/2003	Badger Badger Badger
75	8.63		Iraq invaded, same-sex marriage legalized in MA
76	22.13	3/14/2003	Internet is for porn
77	22.33	1/1/2003	I'm in your base
78	22.36	12/20/2002	Firefly cancelled
79	22.61	9/20/2002	Firefly premiers
80	22.90	6/7/2002	Pirates v. Ninjas
81	9.89		9/11, Afghanistan
82	23.47	11/10/2001	iPod released
83	23.52	10/23/2001	iPod announced
84	24.16	3/1/2001	All Your Base!
85	24.24	2/1/2001	Homestar Runner
86	11.31		Bush/Gore election, Google, Segway, Windows XP
87	25.16	3/4/2000	PS2 released
88	25.80	7/14/1999	The Blair Witch Project
89	12.90		Clinton impeached/acquitted, Columbine massacre, The Matrix
90	26.75	8/1/1998	Hamster Dance
91	27.62	9/15/1997	Google.com launched
92	14.70		Princess Diana dies
93	28.00	5/1/1997	Deep Blue
94	28.52	10/21/1996	Dancing Baby
95	29.33	12/31/1995	Ate My Balls
96	16.74		OJ Simpson trial, Windows 95
97	29.91	6/1/1995	Dysfunctional Family Circus
98	19.03		Clinton inaugurated
99	21.64		Soviet Union collapses, Tiananmen Square, Gulf War
100	24.60		Challenger, Pan Am Flight 103, Iran-Contra
101	27.97		Reagan crushes Mondale, Macintosh introduced, I'm born
102	31.81		Mt. St. Helens, AIDS, PCs, Empire Strikes Back
103	36.20		Watergate, Roe v. Wade, Microsoft, Ebola, Elvis dies
104	41.25		Moon landing, Kent State, Nixon
105	47.06		Civil rights, Kennedy shot, Six Day War
106	53.76		Elvis, velcro, Great Leap Forward, Castro, Cuban missiles
107	61.54		DNA, Stalin dies, Color TV, Polio vaccine, Elizabeth
108	70.59		Pearl Harbor, World War II, Manhattan Project
109	81.16		Great Depression, Dust Bowl, Hitler, Prohibition ends, Babe Ruth
110	93.55		Chaplin, Titanic, Russian Revolution
111	108		Flight, movies, Relativity, New York subway, San Francisco earthquake
112	125		telephones, Krakatoa, machine guns, cars, RADAR, coke, movie cameras
113	146		Civil War, Lincoln shot, dynamite invented
114	170		Wrenches, vulcanized rubber, bicycle, stamps, US I.R.
115	200		Photos, War of 1812, cement, battery, machine tools, Waterloo
116	235		American and French revolutions, Haiti rebellion, Industrial Revolution, Napoleon
117	278		First Great Awakening, Enlightenment, Qianlong Emperor expansion, Enlightenment
118	331		Newton's Principia, Ming Dynasty collapses, Great Turkish War, Salem witch trials
119	395		Logarithms, Kepler, 30 Years' War, Plymouth Rock, Jamestown, Shakespeare
120	474		Reformation, Columbian Exchange, Copernicus, Sack of Rome, Cortés, Pizarro
121	573		Agincourt, Joan of Arc, end of Byzantine Empire, Moctezuma I, printing press, Zheng He
122	695		Tenochtitlan, Renaissance, Chaucer, Lake Poyang, Ming dynasty, Black Death
123	849		Mongol empire, explosive weapons, windmills, compass, Crusades
124	1,044		Classical China and Islam, gunpowder, zero invented, moveable type, Mayan collapse
125	1,291		Muslim conquests, Constantinople flourished, Beowulf composed, Tang Dynasty, Viking raids
126	1,607		Teotihuacan, collapse of western Roman Empire, vandals, Atilla the Hun, Christianity
127	2,014		Roman Empire, Jesus, Pyramid of the Son, London, Pompeii
128	2,542		Rome founded, Roman Republic, Battle of Thermopylae, corn, Mexican writing, Alexander
129	3,232		Egypt conquers Nubia, Exodus, Judaism, Athens, Classical Greece, wheel, ironsmithing, alphabet
130	4,139		Ancient Egypt, pyramids, Ur, Bristlecone pine Methusaleh, chariots, Stonehenge
131	5,342		Otzi, Sumerian language, Minoans, silk, pottery, copper, bronze, dams, harps, Mayan day zero
132	6,947		Mesopotamia, wheel, copper, first cities, animal husbandry, menhirs, beer, maize
133	9,106		England separated, Norway megatsunami, wine, Jericho, cows, metal ornaments, agriculture
134	12,031		Ice withdraws, Clovis culture, people settling into permanent locations, domestic reindeer
135	16,028		Last glacial maximum, land bridge blocked by ice, permafrost/ice cover Europe, ice sheets in Tibet
136	21,530		Nets, dogs domesticated, recent glacial period starts, Neanderthals go extinct, wall paintings, Japan colonized
137	29,167		Ceramic art, bow and arrow, spear thrower, lunar calendars, first known shaman
138	39,855		Humans colonize colder areas, tools spread into Europe, Cro-Magnon, people in Australia
139	54,938		Big increase in diversity of artifacts, better stone tools, settlements, flint tools, art
140	76,403		Fishing in Congo, behavioral modernity, bone tools, Homo sapiens spreads
141	107,217		First Homo sapiens expeditions out of Africa
142	151,838		Homo sapiens evolves, Mitochondrial Eve and Y-Chromosomal Adam in Africa
143	217,031		Cooked food, flint and stone tools, Neandertals, prepared core technique
144	313,142		Glacial began, Neanderthals thrive
145	456,132		Homo heidelbergensis (ancestor of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens), burying dead, controlled fire
146	670,851		Homo heidelbergensis and many other homonids arise, possible use of fire
147	996,324		Homo antecessor common
148	1,494,404		Homo erectus first uses crude stone tools
149	2,264,025		Homo genus emerges from Australopithecus, modern Ice Ages begin
150	3,464,925		Isthmus of Panama forms, cooling oceans. Africa hits Europe, forming Mediterranean, Australopithecus
151	5,357,462		Africa hits Europe, forming Mediterranean. Messian salinity crisis
152	8,370,091		Himalayas start to rise, gorillas split off from hominids, owls, crows, all bird families
153	13,214,786		Africa collides with Asia, Greenland ice cap develops, wave of extinctions, permanent cooling, great apes
154	21,086,382		Ice cap began forming, grasses diversified
155	34,010,190		Ice began to build up in Antarctica, higher and narrow-nosed primates evolve
156	55,454,157		Asteroid impact kills most dinosaurs, PE warming, acidic oceans, mammals proliferated
157	91,417,696		Europe is island chain, sauropods grow huge, Tyrannosaurs dominant, birds replace pterosaurs, flowers
158	152,387,933		Pangea began to separate, ancestral Rocky Mountains form, large conifers dominate, ginkgos, dinosaurs
159	256,890,498		Pangea dominates, hot and dry, massive extinction wipes out nearly all life, winged insects and trees
160	438,001,584		Land vertibrates, sea scorpions, invertebrates diversify, green plants and fungi
161	755,416,585		Possible snowball earth, multicellular organisms followed by Cambrian explosion
162	1,318,055,081		Complex single-celled life, primordial supercontinent, green algae colonies, stable cratons
163	2,326,857,711		Cyanobacteria form, oxygen fills atmosphere, most life wiped out, several snowball Earth episodes
164	4,156,696,645		Solar system coalesces from nebula, sun ignites, Earth forms, impact forms Moon, late heavy bombardment, life
165	7,514,880,608		Milky Way forms from disc of matter, along with clusters and superclusters, full of heavy nova debris
166	13,751,310,953		Big Bang, universe cools, first stars and quasars form, first generation of supernovas create heavy elements