Put historical events in chronological order
A free online game for putting historical events into chronological order. You get nine real events a day, one already placed, and you slot the rest into the timeline earliest to latest — no dates to type and no account to make. Built for anyone practising chronology, whether that is a class exercise or a daily habit.
Play today's puzzleNine events, free, no sign-upHow the game works
Each day deals nine historical events and pins one of them to the timeline as an anchor. You place the other eight, one at a time, into the gaps between the cards already down. Drop a card and you are told immediately whether it belongs there.
- 1Place each event in chronological order.
- 2Solve the current event before moving to the next.
- 3Scroll horizontally or use the arrows to navigate.
- 4Place every event correctly to complete the challenge.
- 5New timeline drops at midnight in your timezone.
Every card carries points and each wrong placement costs one, so the score reflects how cleanly you reasoned rather than how fast you clicked. Because there is no year to type, the exercise is pure sequencing — which is the skill most chronology worksheets are actually testing.
For teachers
The reason this works as a classroom exercise is that nothing gets in the way: there is no login, no app to install and no student data to collect. A shared puzzle is a URL, and it opens straight into the game.
Matching a puzzle to what you are teaching
The daily timeline draws from all of recorded history, which is good for general practice and wrong for a specific unit. For a unit, build a custom timeline: choose the events yourself, name the set, and share the link. Students play it without accounts, and you can reuse the same link across classes and years.
Using it as a starter or a plenary
One round is about two minutes, so it fits a lesson opener. Because everyone playing on a given day gets the same nine events, scores are directly comparable — which turns it into a quick whole-class warm-up without you having to prepare anything.
What it does and does not assess
It assesses relative sequencing and period sense. It does not assess date recall, causation or source analysis, and it is not a substitute for them. Treated as a five-minute fluency drill rather than an assessment, it earns its place.
A free online version of the Timeline and Chronology card games
If you arrived looking for an online version of a physical chronology-card game, this is the closest thing: the mechanic is the same one those games are built on — you hold an event, decide where it belongs relative to the cards already on the table, and commit.
What is different is that a web version can check you instantly and can deal a fresh set every day without anyone buying an expansion. What is missing is the part that made the tabletop version fun — arguing with the person next to you before you commit. Timdle is not affiliated with any published board game; it is an independent daily game that happens to share the mechanic.
Ways to practise
Pick whichever matches how much time you have and how specific you need to be:
- Today's timelineNine events spanning all of recorded history. The standard exercise, refreshed daily.
- Endless modeEvents keep coming until you misplace one. Best for drilling until it sticks.
- Timelines by topicPlayer- and staff-made sets on specific eras, countries and subjects — pick one that matches what you're studying.
- Build your own setChoose the events yourself and share the puzzle with a link. Free, and the link needs no account to play.
- Previous timelinesYesterday's puzzle is free, and the archive goes back to 2024.
- History Wordle gamesHow this compares to Historydle, Chronle, Yeardle and Wikitrivia — all separate games with different mechanics.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a chronological order game?
- Any exercise where you are given a set of events and have to arrange them from earliest to latest. Timdle is the daily version: nine historical events, one already placed on the timeline, and eight for you to position. Each placement is checked as soon as you make it, so you learn the order rather than just being marked on it.
- Is it free, and do students need accounts?
- It is free and no account is needed to play. That applies to shared puzzles too — if you build a set and send the link, anyone can open it and play without signing up, which is what makes it usable in a classroom.
- Can I choose which events appear?
- Yes. Build a custom timeline, pick the events yourself, and share it as a link. That is how you match a puzzle to a specific unit — the Industrial Revolution, the Cold War, a single country's history — rather than taking whatever the daily deals.
- Do I have to know the exact years?
- No. You never enter a date. The only judgement is whether an event goes before or after the ones already on the line, which is why the game works for students who have a rough sense of a period but have not memorised dates.
- How long does one round take?
- About two minutes for the daily nine, which makes it workable as a lesson starter. A custom set is as long as you make it.
- Is this the Timeline board game?
- No — Timdle is not affiliated with, or licensed by, any published board game. It is an independent daily web game that happens to use the same core mechanic of placing event cards in order, which is why people looking for an online version of those games often end up here.