In short: Yearline above is a free guess-the-year game: read a moment from history, drag the slider to the year, and score up to 100 points depending on how close you are. Pick an era to drill one period, or play today's daily round to compare with friends.
Try it on paper: 8 moments, one per era
Guess each year before you open it — then see how many points that guess would score in the game.
Mount Vesuvius erupts and buries Pompeii · Rome
Show the year
AD 79 — the 1st century.
William of Normandy wins the Battle of Hastings · England
Show the year
1066 — the 11th century.
Gutenberg prints his Bible with movable type · Germany
Show the year
1455 — the 15th century.
Isaac Newton publishes the Principia · England
Show the year
1687 — the 17th century.
The Suez Canal opens · Egypt
Show the year
1869 — the 19th century.
Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin · Britain
Show the year
1928 — the 20th century.
Apollo 11 lands on the Moon · Space
Show the year
1969 — the 20th century.
Apple unveils the first iPhone · USA
Show the year
2007 — the 21st century.
How close is close? The scoring table
Points for a guess that is off by a given number of years, for an event in AD 400, in 1500 and in 1950:
| Off by | AD 400 | 1500 | 1950 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exact | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| 5 years | 95 | 85 | 61 |
| 10 years | 90 | 72 | 37 |
| 25 years | 78 | 43 | 8 |
| 50 years | 61 | 19 | 1 |
| 100 years | 37 | 4 | 1 |
How to get better at guessing years
- Rule out centuries by technology. Printing, gunpowder, steam, electricity, flight, computers — each one is a hard floor for the date.
- Learn a dozen anchors. 476, 1066, 1453, 1492, 1789, 1815, 1914, 1945, 1969, 1989 — most events sit a short count from one of these.
- Use people you know. If an event involves Napoleon, it is 1795–1815; Queen Victoria, 1837–1901; the Cold War, 1947–1991.
- Decade first, then the year. In modern history, settle the decade before nudging the exact year; a decade-right guess still scores well.
Guess-the-year games compared
| Game | You see | You guess |
|---|---|---|
| Yearline (here) | Short event descriptions | The year |
| Eraly | Historical moments | The year |
| TimeGuessr | Photos | The year and the place |
| Chronophoto | Photos | The year |
| Wikitrivia | Cards of events and inventions | The order on a timeline |
Yearline is the only one here with a free era filter. Eraly's infinite mode is paid — see our Eraly unlimited page for a free alternative.
More to play
Eraly hints today · Farflung unlimited (geography) · Rarest Answer daily trivia · Krillion daily hints · all games