Humans evolved in East Africa about 130,000 years ago (almost 13.7 billion years after the Big Bang). If we condense the history of our species into one calendar year, each month represents approximately 10,800 years and each day covers about 360 years.
With that calendar in mind, humans remained on the African Continent through early May; by the middle of that month, adventurous clans began to leave Africa, moving westward along the edge of the Red Sea and, perhaps, directly across its shallows when sea levels fell during the last Pleistocene glaciation. By mid June, humans had reached Southeast Asia and, by mid July, some had crossed to Australia. During August, our ancestors spread northward through the Middle East and also colonized Japan which, at that time, was a peninsula along the east coast of Asia. Humans likely entered Europe by early September and had completely displaced Neanderthals in that region by early October. Having spread into eastern Siberia by late October, humans crossed the Bering land bridge in early November, entering North America; by late November, they had colonized South America as well.
As December dawned, most humans were giving up their nomadic lifestyle and began to establish permanent settlements; we had just domesticated the dog, which offered companionship, protection and assistance with hunting. Within the first week of December, we also domesticated goats, sheep, cattle and pigs; the domestication of horses, donkeys and camels would occur during the second week of that month (see Domestication of Animals). The ancient Egyptian Civilization arose sometime on December 17, the first Chinese Dynasty began on December 20, Polynesian exploration of the South Pacific got underway on December 21, Ancient Greek Culture took shape on December 23 and the Roman Empire arose on December 25. Polynesians reached New Zealand sometime on December 28, European Colonialism commenced on December 30 and both the American Revolution and European colonization of Australia would occur on the last day of our calendar year.
