The Lord of the Rings involves huge historical epochs, and it is difficult to keep a sense of them. So I thought I would rough out what the timeline of the Third Age would look like if it were instead in our own timeline. You could do it from the present moment, but I went from 1955, the year The Return of the King was published. I've put in a few battles, dynasties, and empires in a very rough way for comparison. The only real institutions in our history that consistently work on anything like the scales of time we see in the Second Age and the Third Age are things like the Chinese Empire, the Roman Empire (including the Byzantines), Ancient Egypt, the Japanese Imperial House, and the Catholic Church. Almost everything else starts looking very brief.
Incidentally, I suspect it's not an accident that the Founding of the Shire occurs roughly around the time that we get the foundations of Post-Roman Britain (what we might think in legendary terms as 'Arthurian times' and historically as the development of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that eventually became 'England'). The hobbits have an English-length culture as well as an English-like culture.
___________________________________________________________
1955 => The War of the Ring ends with the destruction of the One Ring; the end of the THIRD AGE. [T.A. 3019]
1954 => The War of the Ring begins
1952 => Gollum is captured and taken to Barad-dur
[End of World War II]
1937 => Bilbo's Birthday Party; Frodo inherits the One Ring.[T.A. 3001 = S.R. 1401]
[Beginning of World War II]
1926 => Birth of Pippin Took [T.A. 2990 = S.R. 1390]
[End of World War I]
1918 => Birth of Merry Brandybuck [T.A. 2982 = S.R. 1382]
1916 => Birth of Sam Gamgee and Fatty Bolger; Theoden becomes King of Rohan. [T.A. 2980 = S.R.1980]
[Beginning of World War I]
1904 => Birth of Frodo Baggins. [T.A. 2968 = S.R. 1368]
1889 => The last formal meeting of the White Council.
1885 => Gandalf and Balin visit Bilbo in the Shire.
1877 => Bilbo meets Gollum and discovers the One Ring; the Death of Smaug; the Battle of the Five Armies; the re-founding of the Kingdom of Erebor. [T.A. 2941]
1867 => Birth of Aragorn. [T.A. 2931]
[American Civil War]
1826 => Birth of Bilbo Baggins. [T.A. 2890 = S.R. 1290]
1815 => Birth of Gimli. [T.A. 2879]
[Rise and Fall of the Napoleonic Empire]
1788 => The White Tree of Gondor dies.
1787 => The White Council meets to discuss the problem of Dol Guldur.
[American Revolution]
1735 => With the Battle of Azanulbizar (also known as the Battle of the Mines of Moria), the War of the Dwarves and the Orcs ends; death of Azog.
1729 => The War of the Dwarves and the Orcs begins.
[Collapse of the Safavid Empire]
1706 => Smaug comes to Erebor and destroys both City of Dale and the Kingdom of Erebor.
1695 => Saruman is given the keys of Orthanc and takes up residence there.
1682 => Birth of Thorin II Oakenshield. [T.A. 2746]
[Jamestown established in Virginia]
[Battle of Lepanto]
1526 => Thror becomes King under the Mountain in Erebor; his brother Gror becomes Lord of the Iron Hills.
[Conquest of the New World begins]
[Rise of the Safavid Empire]
[Fall of Constantinople]
1399 => The Council of the Wise (White Council) is formed. A fisherman named Deagol rediscovers the One Ring, and is murdered for it by Smeagol, who becomes Gollum.
[Rise of the Mongol Empire]
[Crusades Begin]
[Battle of Manzikert]
[Norman Conquest]
986 => The Witch King kills King Earnur of Gondor, ending the line of the Kings of Gondor. Mardil Voronwe becomes the first Ruling Steward of Gondor [T.A. 2050]
938 => The Nazgul capture Minas Ithil and it becomes Minas Morgul; Minas Anor is renamed Minas Tirith.
935 => The Kingdom of Erebor is founded and the Arkenstone is discovered.
[Unification of England]
926 => Durin's Bane wakes in Moria and King Durin IV is killed; the Dwarves begin to flee Moria.
921 => The Host of the West is formed, as King Earnur of Gondor, Cirdan of Lindon, and the remaining forces of Arnor; the Witch Kingdom of Angmar is destroyed; due to the sudden arrival of a force from Rivendell led by Glorfindel, the Witch King is forced to flee.
920 => The Witch King takes Fornost and destroys the Kingdom of Arnor.
[Rise of the Carlovingian Empire]
[Aethelwealh Becomes First Christian King of Sussex]
[Aethelberht Becomes First King of Kent]
[Traditional Date for Wehha Becoming First King of East Anglia]
[Traditional Date for Creoda Becoming First King of Mercia]
537 => The Shire is founded. [T.A. 1601 = S.R. 1]
[Aescwine Becomes First King of Essex]
[Cerdic Becomes First King of Wessex]
[Age of Justinian]
236 => The Witch King founds the Kingdom of Angmar.
BC
[Birth of Christ]
[Rise of the Roman Empire]
64 => (approximately) The Wizards (Istari) arrive in Middle Earth.
[Punic Wars][End of Zhou Dynasty]
[Rise of the Parthian Empire]
[Rise of the Macedonian Empire]
[Peloponnesian War]
[Persian War]
[Rise of the Persian Empire; Collapse of the Babylonian Empire]
[Collapse of the Assyrian Empire; Rise of the Babylonian Empire]
[Traditional Beginning of the Imperial House of Japan]
823 => Arwen is born [T.A. 241]
[Rise of the Assyrian Empire]
1062 => Disaster of the Gladden Fields; the Death of Isildur; the One Ring is lost.
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1065 => Gil-Galad and Elendil are slain; the Last Alliance defeats Sauron. Isildur takes the Ring. The end of the SECOND AGE.
[Beginning of Zhou Dynasty]
