Imagine that the history of the universe is compressed into one year—with the big bang occurring in the first seconds of New Year’s Day, and all our known history occurring in the final seconds before midnight on December 31. Using this scale of time, each month would equal a little over a billion years. Here’s a closer look at when important events would occur when we imagine the universe in one year.

The visions we offer our children shape the future. It matters what those visions are, often they become self-fulfilling prophecies. Dreams are maps.
- Carl Sagan

The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark
Carl Sagan
Copyright 1997