Random Time Period Generator: 139 Named Periods With Their Dates

One press draws named stretches of history, from the Stone Age to the 2010s, each with its usual dates, where it applies and one line on what marks it.

Random Time Period Generator: 139 Named Periods With Their Dates

  1. 1960s
  2. French Revolution
  3. Golden Age of Piracy
  4. Goryeo
  5. 2010s
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Random Time Period Generator: 139 Named Periods With Their Dates: how it works

Five named periods come up on each press of this random time period generator, from a list of 139 that runs from the Stone Age to Japan's Reiwa era. Every card gives the usual start and end years, where the name applies and one line on what marks the period.

Where a period lands: the middle-year rule

The Era row holds 9 periods of prehistory, 29 ancient, 33 medieval, 27 early modern and 41 modern, 12 of them single decades. A long period sits under the era that holds its middle year, with cut-offs at 3000 BC and the years 500, 1500 and 1800, so the Ming dynasty is Early modern. The Region row combines with it: Medieval with East Asia leaves seven, from the Tang dynasty to Goryeo. Of the 139, 76 lie wholly outside Europe.

Why two books give different years

Most period dates are a convention. Nobody announced the Bronze Age: historians drew its edges long afterwards, and bronze reached regions at different times. Japan's Sengoku period ends in 1568, 1600 or 1615, depending on the book. So 60 of the 139 cards hedge their dates, with about, roughly, a century or two possible years. Reigns and wars with recorded dates, such as the Tudor period from 1485 to 1603, do not.

Tips

  • Southeast Asia in the Region row holds 11 periods, from Champa and the Khmer Empire to French Indochina.
  • For a class timeline, press Hide all dates, draw five and line them up by start year, then tap to check.
  • Tap Single decades before a theme party: twelve cards, from the 1900s to the 2010s.

Questions and answers

Where do the period dates come from?

Each card follows the opening of the period's own encyclopedia article, last read on September 19, 2026. For 63 periods a second source was read too, World History Encyclopedia or English Heritage; where it gives other years, or none, the card keeps the article's. Periods with no usable years, such as the Hittites and the Kingdom of Kush, were left off. Found a better-sourced year? Send it through the contact page.

What counts as a time period here?

A span of years that has a name, from World War I at just over four years to the Stone Age at roughly 3.4 million. A single dated moment, such as a battle or a launch, belongs to the random historical event generator.

Does the list include fantasy or future eras?

No. All 139 periods are real, and the newest is Japan's Reiwa era, which began on May 1, 2019 and is still running. For invented ages, the random setting generator has 30 fantasy ages and futures among its eras.

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All 139 periods

Prehistory 9

  • Archaic period in North America About 8000 to 1000 BC, North America. People lived on nuts, seeds and shellfish before settled farming.
  • Jōmon period About 14,000 to 300 BC, Japan. Named for pottery decorated by pressing cords into the wet clay.
  • Mesolithic About 15,000 to 5,000 years ago in Europe. The last hunter-gatherers there, before farming arrived.
  • Neolithic About 10,000 to 2000 BC, Asia, Europe and Africa. The New Stone Age, when farming and settled life began.
  • Paleolithic About 3.3 million to 11,650 years ago, worldwide. The Old Stone Age, when people made knapped stone tools.
  • Stone Age Roughly 3.4 million years, ending between 4000 and 2000 BC, worldwide. All but about 1% of the human past.
  • Upper Paleolithic About 50,000 to 12,000 years ago, Africa and Eurasia. The things people left behind grow far more varied.
  • Uruk period About 4000 to 3100 BC, Mesopotamia. Named after the city of Uruk, it is when cities first appeared.
  • Yangshao culture About 5000 to 3000 BC, along China's Yellow River. A farming culture named after a site found in 1921.

Ancient 29

  • Achaemenid Empire 550 to 330 BC, from Iran outward. Founded by Cyrus the Great, it was the largest empire of its time.
  • Akkadian Empire About 2334 to 2154 BC, Mesopotamia. Sargon of Akkad's realm is often called the first empire in history.
  • Bronze Age From about 3000 BC to about 1200 BC in much of the Old World. The middle of the three ages, before iron.
  • Classical Greece About 510 to 323 BC, Greece. Some 200 years that took in democratic Athens and the Peloponnesian Wars.
  • Gupta Empire Mid 3rd to mid 6th century AD, northern India. Some historians call it the Golden Age of India.
  • Han dynasty 202 BC to AD 220, China. A golden age, broken from AD 9 to 23 by the Xin dynasty of Wang Mang.
  • Hellenistic period 323 to 30 BC, eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. From Alexander the Great's death to Cleopatra VII's.
  • Indus Valley Civilization About 3300 to 1300 BC, Pakistan and northwest India. A Bronze Age civilization also called Harappan.
  • Iron Age About 1200 to 550 BC, Europe and the Near East. The last of the three ages, after stone and bronze.
  • Maurya Empire About 320 to 185 BC, South Asia. Founded by Chandragupta Maurya and known from the Edicts of Ashoka.
  • Migration Period About AD 300 to 600, Europe. Goths, Vandals, Huns and others moved in as the Western Roman Empire fell.
  • Minoan civilization About 3100 to 1100 BC, Crete. Often called Europe's first civilization, with palaces at Knossos.
  • Mycenaean Greece About 1750 to 1050 BC, mainland Greece. The last phase of the Greek Bronze Age, named after Mycenae.
  • Nazca culture About 100 BC to AD 800, south coast of Peru. Makers of the Nazca lines, huge designs in the desert.
  • New Kingdom of Egypt About 1570 to 1069 BC, Egypt. Also called the Egyptian Empire, it was the peak of Egypt's power.
  • Nok culture Perhaps 1500 BC to 1 BC, Nigeria. Known for terracotta sculptures first found at the village of Nok in 1928.
  • Old Kingdom of Egypt About 2700 to 2200 BC, Egypt. The Age of the Pyramids, when Khufu and Khafre built theirs at Giza.
  • Olmec civilization About 1200 to 400 BC, Veracruz and Tabasco, Mexico. Its center moved from San Lorenzo to La Venta.
  • Ptolemaic Kingdom 305 to 30 BC, Egypt. A Greek dynasty ruled from Alexandria until the death of Cleopatra VII.
  • Qin dynasty 221 to 206 BC, China. The first imperial dynasty and the shortest major one, founded by Qin Shi Huang.
  • Roman Empire 27 BC to AD 476 in the West. One-man rule began under Augustus; the eastern half lasted until 1453.
  • Roman Republic 509 to 27 BC, Rome. The first date is traditional. Rome grew from one city to rule the Mediterranean.
  • Sasanian Empire AD 224 to 651, Iran. Founded by Ardashir I, the House of Sasan ruled for over four centuries.
  • Shang dynasty About 1600 to 1046 BC, Yellow River valley, China. The earliest Chinese dynasty backed by archaeology.
  • Three Kingdoms period AD 220 to 280, China. Cao Wei, Shu Han and Eastern Wu split the country after the Han dynasty fell.
  • Vedic period About 1500 to 500 BC, northern India. The age when the Vedas were composed, which gives it its name.
  • Warring States period About 475 to 221 BC, China. Rival states fought until Qin conquered the rest and founded an empire.
  • Yayoi period About 300 BC to AD 300, Japan. Wet-rice farming took over from the hunting and gathering of Jōmon times.
  • Zhou dynasty About 1046 to 256 BC, China. At 790 years it is the longest-lasting dynasty in Chinese history.

Medieval 33

  • Abbasid Caliphate 750 to 1258, Iraq. Caliphs who ruled mostly from Baghdad, the capital they founded in 762.
  • Al-Andalus 711 to 1492, Spain and Portugal. Muslim-ruled Iberia, which shrank at last to the Emirate of Granada.
  • Anglo-Saxon England 5th century to 1066, England. From the end of Roman rule in Britain to the Norman Conquest.
  • Aztec Empire 1428 to 1521, Valley of Mexico. An alliance of three city-states that fell to Cortés and his allies.
  • Byzantine Empire AD 330 to 1453, centered on Constantinople. Its people called themselves Romans to the end.
  • Champa About the 2nd century to 1832, central and southern Vietnam. Cham coastal states; Vietnam annexed the last.
  • Crusades 1095 to 1291, Europe and the Holy Land. Campaigns called by the popes, the first by Urban II in 1095.
  • Delhi Sultanate 1206 to 1526, northern India. Five dynasties in turn ruled from Delhi, from the Mamluks to the Lodis.
  • Early Middle Ages Late 5th to 10th century, Europe. Once called the Dark Ages, a name historians now argue over.
  • Goryeo 918 to 1392, Korea. The state that unified the peninsula and gave Korea its name.
  • Great Zimbabwe About 1100 to 1550, Zimbabwe. A walled city; nothing of stone in precolonial southern Africa is larger.
  • Heian period 794 to 1185, Japan. The capital moved to what is now Kyoto, and hiragana and katakana emerged.
  • High Middle Ages About 1000 to 1300, Europe. Europe's population grew fast and the great Italian city-states rose.
  • Holy Roman Empire 800 or 962 to 1806, central Europe. A loose empire that lasted a millennium until the Napoleonic Wars.
  • Inca Empire 1438 to 1533, the Andes. The largest empire in the Americas before Columbus, run from Cusco.
  • Islamic Golden Age 8th to 14th century, Islamic world. Scholars at Baghdad's House of Wisdom put old learning into Arabic.
  • Kamakura period 1185 to 1333, Japan. The first shogunate, under Minamoto no Yoritomo, and the rise of the samurai.
  • Khmer Empire 802 to 1431, Cambodia. Also called the Angkor period, after the empire's best-known capital.
  • Kievan Rus' Late 9th to mid-13th century, eastern Europe. The first East Slavic state, ruled by the Rurik dynasty.
  • Kingdom of Benin About the 11th century to 1897, southern Nigeria. Its capital, Edo, is now called Benin City.
  • Late Middle Ages About 1300 to 1500, Europe. Famine and the Black Death cut the population to around half.
  • Majapahit 1292 to 1527, Java, Indonesia. A Hindu-Buddhist sea empire that peaked under Hayam Wuruk.
  • Malacca Sultanate About 1400 to 1511, Malaysia. A Malay sultanate and busy trading port until the Portuguese took its capital.
  • Mali Empire About 1235 to 1610, West Africa. Founded by Sundiata Keita and famed for the wealth of Mansa Musa.
  • Middle Ages 5th to late 15th century, Europe. The middle of the three ages of Western history, after Rome fell.
  • Mississippian period Late 10th to 16th century, southern United States. Maize-farming towns; the city of Cahokia began in 1050.
  • Mongol Empire 1206 to 1368, Mongolia to eastern Europe. The largest contiguous empire in history, begun by Genghis Khan.
  • Song dynasty 960 to 1279, China. Founded by Emperor Taizu and ended by the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty.
  • Sukhothai Kingdom 1238 to 1438, north-central Thailand. Si Inthrathit made it a kingdom; it later came under Ayutthaya.
  • Tang dynasty 618 to 907, China. Seen as a high point of Chinese civilization, with a break under Empress Wu Zetian.
  • Vijayanagara Empire 1336 to 1646, southern India. A Hindu empire founded by the brothers Harihara I and Bukka Raya I.
  • Viking Age About 800 to 1050, northern Europe. Norse raiders, traders and settlers reached as far as North America.
  • Yuan dynasty 1271 to 1368, China. Kublai Khan's Mongol-led dynasty, between the Song and the Ming.

Early modern 27

  • Age of Discovery About 1418 to 1620, worldwide. European sailors explored, colonized and conquered across the globe.
  • Age of Enlightenment 1715 to 1789 by tradition, Europe. Thinkers put reason, evidence and individual liberty first.
  • American Revolution 1765 to 1789, Thirteen Colonies. A rebellion that became a revolution and created the United States.
  • Ayutthaya Kingdom 1351 to 1767, Thailand. A Thai kingdom and trading power, for 15 years from 1569 a vassal of Toungoo Burma.
  • Dutch Golden Age About 1588 to 1672, the Netherlands. The Dutch Republic became a leading trading and sea power.
  • Edo period 1603 to 1868, Japan. The Tokugawa shoguns kept a long peace and shut out most foreign contact.
  • Elizabethan era 1558 to 1603, England. The reign of Elizabeth I, when playwrights such as Shakespeare broke new ground.
  • Ethiopian Empire About 1270 to 1974, Ethiopia and Eritrea. From Yekuno Amlak to the last emperor, Haile Selassie.
  • French Revolution 1789 to 1799, France. It ran from the Estates General to the Coup of 18 Brumaire.
  • Georgian era 1714 to 1830, Britain. Named after four kings called George; many stretch it to 1837.
  • Golden Age of Piracy 1650s to 1730s, North Atlantic and Indian Oceans. It began with buccaneers raiding Spanish colonies.
  • Joseon 1392 to 1897, Korea. A kingdom of 505 years that made Neo-Confucianism the state's ideology.
  • Kingdom of Kongo About 1390 to 1914, central Africa. Independent until 1862, then at times a vassal of Portugal.
  • Lan Xang 1353 to 1707, Laos. Founded by Fa Ngum; the capital moved from Luang Prabang to Vientiane in 1560.
  • Ming dynasty 1368 to 1644, China. The last imperial dynasty ruled by the Han people, after the Mongol-led Yuan.
  • Mughal Empire 1526 to 1857, South Asia. Founded by Babur after his win at the First Battle of Panipat.
  • New Spain 1535 to 1821, Mexico and beyond. A Spanish viceroyalty with its capital in Mexico City.
  • Ottoman Empire About 1299 to 1922, centered on Turkey. It began as Osman I's small state and took Constantinople in 1453.
  • Qing dynasty 1644 to 1912, China. The Manchu-led last imperial dynasty, proclaimed in 1636 and in Beijing from 1644.
  • Reformation 1517 to 1648, Europe. Most accounts start the clock at Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses.
  • Renaissance 15th and 16th centuries, Europe. A revival of classical art and learning that began in Florence.
  • Safavid Iran 1501 to 1736, Iran. Shah Ismail I made Twelver Shi'ism the official religion.
  • Scientific Revolution About 1543 to 1687, Europe. Often dated from a book by Copernicus to Isaac Newton's Principia.
  • Sengoku period 1467 to about 1600, Japan. An age of civil war; books end it anywhere from 1568 to 1615.
  • Thirteen Colonies 1607 to 1776, Atlantic coast of North America. British colonies, from Jamestown to independence.
  • Toungoo dynasty 1510 to 1752, Burma. It ruled in two runs, 1510 to 1599 and 1599 to 1752; the Second Burmese Empire.
  • Tudor period 1485 to 1603, England and Wales. From Henry VII's accession to the death of Elizabeth I.

Modern 41

  • 1900s 1900 to 1909, worldwide. The first powered flight came in 1903, and cars went into mass production.
  • 1910s 1910 to 1919, worldwide. World War I broke out in 1914 and ran until a truce on November 11, 1918.
  • 1920s 1920 to 1929, worldwide. The Roaring Twenties, or the Jazz Age, until the Wall Street crash of October 1929.
  • 1930s 1930 to 1939, worldwide. The decade of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and, from 1933, the New Deal.
  • 1940s 1940 to 1949, worldwide. World War II filled most of the first half, and the Cold War began after it.
  • 1950s 1950 to 1959, worldwide. Recovery from World War II, the baby boomer generation and, in 1957, Sputnik 1.
  • 1960s 1960 to 1969, worldwide. Known as the countercultural decade, with the Beatles and the first Moon walks.
  • 1970s 1970 to 1979, worldwide. An oil crisis brought recession. Historians now call the decade a pivot of change.
  • 1980s 1980 to 1989, worldwide. The final decade of the Cold War. It closed with the Berlin Wall coming down.
  • 1990s 1990 to 1999, worldwide. The post-Cold War decade. The World Wide Web arrived and population hit 6.1 billion.
  • 2000s 2000 to 2009, worldwide. Internet use rose from 7% to 26% of the world, and the 2008 financial crisis hit.
  • 2010s 2010 to 2019, worldwide. It opened with recovery from the Great Recession. Smartphones became widespread.
  • Apartheid 1948 to 1994, South Africa and Namibia. A system of racial segregation written into law.
  • Belle Époque 1871 to 1914, France and Europe. The 'Beautiful Era' between the Franco-Prussian War and World War I.
  • British Raj 1858 to 1947, Indian subcontinent. The years of rule by the British Crown.
  • Civil rights movement 1954 to 1968, United States. A campaign to end legal segregation that won the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
  • Cold War About 1947 to 1991, worldwide. A rivalry between the United States, the Soviet Union and their allies.
  • Cultural Revolution 1966 to 1976, China. Launched by Mao Zedong, it lasted until his death.
  • Edwardian era 1901 to 1910, United Kingdom. The reign of Edward VII, often stretched to the start of war in 1914.
  • French Indochina 1887 to 1954, Southeast Asia. French-held territories in Vietnam and Cambodia, joined by Laos in 1899.
  • Gilded Age Late 1870s to late 1890s, United States. Named after an 1873 novel by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner.
  • Great Depression 1929 to 1939, worldwide. A severe global downturn, often dated from the Wall Street crash of 1929.
  • Industrial Revolution About 1760 to 1840, Britain first. Hand work gave way to machines, steam power and factories.
  • Konbaung dynasty 1752 to 1885, Burma. The last Burmese royal dynasty; it lost three wars with Britain between 1824 and 1885.
  • Meiji era 1868 to 1912, Japan. The Meiji Emperor's reign, when Japan left feudal rule behind and industrialized fast.
  • Mexican Revolution November 20, 1910 to December 1, 1920, Mexico. A decade of regional wars rather than one single conflict.
  • Napoleonic era 1799 to 1815, France and Europe. From Napoleon Bonaparte's coup to his defeat at Waterloo.
  • Nguyễn dynasty 1802 to 1945, Vietnam. The last Vietnamese dynasty; after 1883 it ruled in name only under the French.
  • Prohibition era 1920 to 1933, United States. Making, moving and selling alcoholic drinks was banned nationwide.
  • Reconstruction era 1865 to 1877, United States. It followed the Civil War and ended when the last federal troops left the South.
  • Regency era About 1795 to 1837, Britain. The formal regency it is named for ran only from 1811 to 1820.
  • Reiwa era May 1, 2019 to today, Japan. The current era, which began when Naruhito became the 126th emperor.
  • Russian Empire 1721 to 1917, northern Eurasia. The last era of the tsars, ended when a republic was proclaimed.
  • Scramble for Africa Late 19th century to 1914, Africa. By the end only Ethiopia and Liberia were outside European control.
  • Shōwa era 1926 to 1989, Japan. The reign of Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito), the longest of any Japanese emperor.
  • Sokoto Caliphate 1804 to 1903, northern Nigeria. Founded by Usman dan Fodio and ended by British, French and German conquest.
  • Soviet Union 1922 to 1991, Eurasia. A communist state, the largest country by area, with roots in the 1917 revolution.
  • Space Race About 1955 to 1975, United States and Soviet Union. Rival satellite plans led to a joint flight in orbit.
  • Victorian era 1837 to 1901, United Kingdom. The reign of Queen Victoria, when schooling first reached nearly every child.
  • World War I July 28, 1914 to November 11, 1918, worldwide. The Allies fought the Central Powers in the Great War.
  • World War II September 1, 1939 to September 2, 1945, worldwide. The Allies fought the Axis powers.

How this list was compiled: Compiled by Random Generator HQ. We chose the 139 periods and wrote the lines ourselves, then checked each one on 2026-09-19 against the opening of its own English Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/). The start and end years, the place and the fact on each card all had to appear in that text. 63 periods were also read the same day against a second source: 59 against the World History Encyclopedia article (https://www.worldhistory.org/) and 4 English periods against English Heritage's Story of England (https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/story-of-england/). The other 76 rest on the one article. A second source does not always repeat the card's years. Where it gives different years, or a century and no year, the card keeps Wikipedia's years and we keep a note of the difference: the Aztec Empire, for example, is 1428 to 1521 on the card and about 1345 to 1521 in World History Encyclopedia. Six cards take a year from the second source because the Wikipedia opening gives none: the Akkadian Empire, the Shang dynasty, Great Zimbabwe, the start of the Byzantine Empire, the end of the Reformation and the end of the Mongol Empire. A seventh, the Bronze Age, takes its end year from the summary box of its Wikipedia article (about 3000 BC to about 1200 BC), because the opening gives a start and no end. The Toungoo dynasty's years come from the sentence on its two periods of rule, not from the first sentence, which says mid-16th century. The Scramble for Africa line about Ethiopia and Liberia comes from the body of its Wikipedia article. 60 cards have dates that are a convention or an estimate, and they hedge: most say about, roughly or perhaps or name a century, and a few give two possible years, a decade or the words by tradition. The Reiwa era was still running on the check date, so its card ends at today. Each period sits under the era that holds its middle year: before 3000 BC, 3000 BC to AD 499, 500 to 1499, 1500 to 1799, 1800 on. We tried Britannica as a second source, but it refused every request, so nothing here was checked against it. Periods whose opening text gave no usable years were left off, among them the Hittites, Phoenicia, the Kingdom of Kush, the Kingdom of Aksum, the Three Kingdoms of Korea, the Ghana Empire, the Chola Empire, the Toltecs, the Ancestral Puebloans, the Pagan Kingdom and Srivijaya. Licence: own work