New York State Elementary Test Prep- ELA 4- Kindergarten

A timeline is a chronological display of important events.

Timelines can be about people, places, or events.

There are different ways to display a timeline. They can be vertical or horizontal.

Below is a vertical timeline about Martin Luther King Jr.

MLK Timeline

Key dates in the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:

1929	January 15th, birth of Michael Luther King Jr., later renamed Martin, born to schoolteacher Alberta King and Baptist minister Michael Luther King. Boyhood in Sweet Auburn district.

1953	June 18. King marries Coretta Scott in Marion, Ala. They will have four children: Yolanda Denise (b.1955), Martin Luther King III (b.1957), Dexter (b.1961), Bernice Albertine (b.1963).

1954	September. King moves to Montgomery, Ala., to preach at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.


1956	January 26. King is arrested for driving 30 mph in a 25 mph zone. January 30. King's house bombed.

1957	In this typical year of demonstrations, King traveled 780,000 miles and made 208 speeches.

1958	King's first book published, "Stride Toward Freedom" (Harper), his recollections of the Montgomery bus boycott. While King is promoting his book in a Harlem book store, an African American woman stabs him.

1959	King visits India. He had a lifelong admiration for Mohandas K. Gandhi, and credited Gandhi's non-violent techniques for his civil-rights successes.

1960	King leaves for Atlanta to pastor his father's church, Ebenezer Baptist Church.

1962	King meets with President John F. Kennedy to urge support for civil rights.

1963	August 28. 250,000 civil-rights supporters attended the March on Washington. At the Lincoln Memorial, King delivers the famous "I have a dream" speech.


1965	February. King continues to protest discrimination in voter registration, is arrested and jailed. Meets with President Lyndon B. Johnson Feb. 9 and other American leaders about voting rights for African Americans. March 16-21. King and 3,200 people march from Selma to Montgomery.

1968	April 4. King is assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., by James Earl Ray.

1986	January 20 is the first national celebration of King's birthday as a holiday.

A timeline is very easy to read. The date indicates an important event and the text tells about the event.

Let's practice using the vertical timeline.

What important event happened in 1963?
        First find the date on the timeline.
        Now read the information to the right of the date.

When was Martin Luther King Jr. born?
Skim through the text and locate words that would answer the question.
Now find the date.

Below is a horizontal timeline about the inventions of Thomas Edison.

Thomas Alva Edison's Timeline of Inventions:

1868	1869	1872	1876	1877	1879	1881	1886	1897	1900
Vote Recorder	Printing Telegraph Stock Ticker	Automatic Telegraph	Electric Pen	Carbon Telephone Transmitter Phonograph	Dynamo Incandescent Electric Lamp	Electric Motor	Talking Doll	Projecting Kinetoscope	Storage Battery

Let's practice using the horizontal timeline.

What was Edison's first invention and when was it invented?
Look at the timeline and find the earliest invention.

In 1877, what very important inventions were invented?
Locate 1877 and read the inventions listed below.

Click on the practice button below for practice using timelines.