The world will be wrapping up this millennium in no time! To celebrate, we at KidNews have taken time out to create a special project for you, and we hope you make time for it. We’ve made a timeline of kids history — events around the world that involved or affected kids. Some events were earth-shaking (like when the smallpox vaccine was invented), others just plain fun (did you know kids in ancient Rome used pig bladders as water wings?), but time and again, they all touched the lives of kids. We’ll run one or two timeline panels each week through Jan. 4. Your job is to save the panels and piece them together when you’ve got time on your hands. Not only will you discover cool facts along the way, but you’ll also end up with a stellar work of art. Plus, at the end we’ll print a quiz. All the answers will be found in the timeline — so hang on to it! You’ll get a chance to mail in the quiz — and, in a time-honored KidNews tradition, we’ll be giving out timely prizes, like calendars, daily organizers and watches, in a drawing from winning entries (but more on that another time). Also, you’ll get a chance to add events you think are important. Finally, we’ll show you how to make a time capsule, and you can use it to save the timeline or other objects. (Imagine some kid discovering it eons from now!)
We hope you have the time of your life with this project. So — no time like the present — let’s get started. The first panel is below, and the next five are on Page 3.
100 — 300 A.D.
105 — Cai Lun of China invents paper and paves the way for you to do homework.
200 — Diophantus, a Greek mathematician, contributes to the early development of algebra. “The Father of Algebra” uses quadratic equations to find unknown quantities, just like in math class.
300s — Nicholas, a 19-year-old priest from what is now Turkey, gets a reputation for generosity. When a poor nobleman needs money for his daughters, Nicholas secretly throws bags of it into the man’s house. The story of St. Nicholas, as in stockings and reindeer, will make him famous to generations of kids.
100s — Roman children like to play with toy marbles, soldiers and model chariots. A common meal is meatballs made from eggs, herbs and sheep’s brains. Yummy!
300s — In what will become Mexico and Central America, Mayan babies’ heads are strapped between boards, flattening them for life. Another Mayan beauty ritual? Moms tie a little ball to their baby’s bangs; the baby focuses on it and develops crossed eyes, which are much admired.
300s — Roman boys and girls wear “bullas” – charms or lockets – around their necks for good luck. Girls wear bullas until they marry, boys until they reach 14.
400 — 750 A.D.
405 — Patrick, a 16-year-old British boy, is sold as a slave to the Irish. Years later, he’ll escape. One day he’ll return to Ireland and become a priest – and later, St. Patrick. Now, every March, we’re all Irish on his special day.
570 — Muhammad is born in Mecca, in what will become Saudi Arabia. He will grow up to lead people of different backgrounds in the beliefs of Islam, one of the world’s major religions.
700s — The Anasazi kids have kind of a backpack craze going. The Anasazi people, who tuck their homes into cliffs in what will become Arizona and Utah, carry hunting supplies and other personal stuff in animal-skin bags. The bags are decorated with dangling animal legs or tails. And you thought your backpack was fancy with key chains!
400s — In ages to come, kids will dream of playing World Cup soccer. But at this date in Mayan lands, kids dream of a tougher game. Two teams compete to toss a rubber ball through a stone ring. Players can’t use hands or feet, but must bounce the ball off their hips and shoulders. Sometimes, losers are killed as sacrifices.
600s — St. Aldheim, the bishop of Sherborne in England, publishes the first children’s books. The author uses question and answer and verse to tell his stories.
750 — In Africa’s Ghana, Soninke kids are part of a prosperous new society. Ghana will grow and flourish because the people are awesome iron workers who are into trading and commerce. If malls existed, Ghana’s stores would be packed with tools, weapons, salt and gold.
800 — 1100 A.D.
800s — Imagine a kid getting to see birds as tall as 10 feet. It happens when colonists reach New Zealand. The birds, giant moas, have no natural enemies – but hunters take on that role and by 1500 will wipe out all 13 species.
900s — Scandinavian children love to ice skate, have snowball fights and play hneftafl, a game a lot like chess.
950 — In the Moslem world, a king has a habit of killing his wives, until his clever wife Sheherezades, begins telling the king wonderful stories every night. Her tales, about Ali Baba and Aladdin, are called “One Thousand and One Nights,” because Sheherezades keeps her husband royally enter-tained for such a long time. They’ll entertain kids for ages to come.
1000s — In China, people think females’ feet are most attractive when they are tiny, so wealthy young girls’ feet are wrapped with tight cloth strips. The painful practice, which stops foot growth and forces women to walk with itty, bitty steps, will last until the 1900s. (Now girls with big or small feet clunk around in chunky shoes. Hurray for free feet!)
1000 — Stars like Venus and Serena Williams, and any kid who likes to knock around a tennis ball, should know where it all began: Tennis gets its start in France as jeu de paune, or lawn tennis.
1100s — Kids in London play a form of soccer in the streets.
1100 — 1300 A.D.
1100s — Chinese invent playing cards. Now you know who to thank next time you play Go Fish, Crazy Eightsor your fave game.
1200s — In Europe, so many mothers die in childbirth that fairy tales with wicked stepmothers become common. And life isn’t great for kids in this rough medievalworld – at least half don’t reach age 6.
1212 — Led by French peasant Stephen of Cloyes, 12, the Children’s Crusades send 30,000 kids from France and Germany to Jerusalem, where they hope to convert people to Christianity. But thousands are sold into slavery. When another group of kids goes from Germany to Italy, most die of disease or starve.
1225 — Cotton manufacturing begins in Spain. Are T-shirts far behind?
1254 — Marco Polo is born. The Venetian explorer will one day tell people back home about Asian cultures and their paper money, coal, firecrackers, noodles (later Italians will cook up their own version as spaghetti) and fruit-flavored ice. And he gives future kids a name for a swimming-pool game.
1300s — In Europe, kids ages 7-9 are sent to other people’s homes to work for about nine years. These apprentice-ships give them job training in lots of fields, such as cloth making, iron working and fish selling.
1300 — 1422 A.D.
1300s — For balloons, kids in Europe blow up pig bladders. In the summer, the bladders are used as water wings to help the children swim.
1325 — What an exciting time for young and old! In Italy, sculptors, artists, writers and scholars begin to admire and celebrate human talents and achievements. Their excitement over this new idea will spread and be known as the Renaissance.
1400s — In the land that will become Peru, Inca kids count on a special tool: a quipa, which is a bundle of carefully tied knots and strings. It’s an early hand-held calculator!
1415 — Charles, Duke of Orleans, is jailed in the Tower of London. He sends a love note to his wife in France that shows Cupid shooting an arrow. Old Chuck’s idea stuck – from then till your valentine class parties. That’s a lotta love!
1422 — Eight-month-old Henry VI becomes King of England. As an infant king, we could remember him as the goo-goo ruler!
1421 — Silk workers in Florence, Italy, create the “Ospedale degli Innocenti,” the big-time orphanage of its day. All of the city’s young gittatelli, or castaways, are welcome. The orphanage demonstrates unusual care for kids when most people couldn’t care less.
1430 — 1500s A.D.
1430 — Peasant girl Jeanne d’arc (Joan of Arc), 19, is burned as a witch at Rouen, Normandy, France. At 13, Joan believed she heard voices telling her to go to the king of France and demand to lead his soldiers. She got her chance and succeeded – until she was captured and put to death.
1450 — German Johannes Gutenberg invents the printing press (right), creating a revolution in publishing. His machine can type 300 sheets a day. Textbooks, here they come!
1452 — Leonardo DaVinci is born in Italy on April 15. He will train as a painter, but also will become a scientist, genius, Ninja Turtle and the inspiration for Leonardo DiCaprio’s folks when they’re thinking up baby names.
1472 — English folklore says that when a pregnant woman eats lean foods, she’ll have a boy. If she eats rich food, the baby will be a girl. The sayings “snips and snails and puppy dog’s tails” and “sugar and spice and everything nice” have both stuck with us ever since.
1492 — Christopher Columbus,a sailor since the age of 14, lands in America and will give you a three-day weekend.
1500s — Dutch kids put wooden shoes out for “Sint Nikolass” at Christmas time. A century later, when the Dutch settle in New York, the jolly guy will be called “Sinterklass” and finally, “Santa Claus.”
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If you miss a week, you can call our back-issues department at 312-222-3990. Just keep in mind that they charge a fee, and once they run out, you’re outta luck, so take the time to tuck away each week’s panel!
