Trump2016history through sources: a reference guide

An independent guide to working with historical sources. It has no connection with the former website on this domain, with politicians, parties or public authorities, and it is not political advocacy material.

Timeline

Timeline

This page gathers the key dates that come up across the guide. The list is short because we include only verified facts. It is handy to keep nearby when you read about the development of historical method or work through old photographs.

A timeline is not history itself but its skeleton. Sources give it flesh and a voice.

— Editor's note

Key dates

  1. 5th century BC

    Herodotus is at work. Since Cicero he has been called "the father of history": he was one of the first to make an account of the past the subject of a separate, large-scale work.

  2. Antiquity

    Thucydides writes the History of the Peloponnesian War, seeking to rely on verified testimony rather than rumour.

  3. 1826–1827

    Nicéphore Niépce creates "View from the Window at Le Gras", the oldest surviving photograph taken with a camera.

  4. 1839

    The daguerreotype is made public. Photography becomes an accessible technology and, later, one of the most important kinds of historical source.

  5. 19th century

    Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886) urges historians to show the past "as it actually was" (wie es eigentlich gewesen) and to rely on archival documents.

  6. 1992

    UNESCO launches the Memory of the World programme, dedicated to preserving documentary heritage.

  7. 2004

    On 22 October, Russia adopts Federal Law No. 125-FZ "On Archival Affairs in the Russian Federation", which governs the keeping and use of archival documents. Other countries have their own archive laws.

How to use the timeline

The dates in the list vary in precision. For ancient authors we give a century or an era, because the exact years of their lives are known only approximately. For modern inventions and documents the dates are more securely established.

If you come across a more detailed or different date elsewhere, check what it is based on. Discrepancies are common and are often explained by some authors counting from an invention and others from its public announcement.

  • History

    How attitudes to evidence about the past changed, from ancient authors to the archival scholarship of the 19th century.

  • Figures

    Herodotus, Thucydides, Ranke and the professions that archival work depends on.

  • Old photos (in Russian)

    An archived address: a step-by-step guide to reading an old photograph from a family album.

  • FAQ

    Short answers about this guide, archives, documents and family photographs.

Sources

  • Encyclopaedic sources on historiography and the history of photography
  • UNESCO Memory of the World programme
  • Russian Federal Law No. 125-FZ "On Archival Affairs in the Russian Federation"

Specific dates and facts in this guide come from encyclopaedic works and official programme descriptions; everything else is described in general terms. Dates for old documents are almost always approximate, and we try to state plainly how certain we are.