TimelineJS

TimelineJS is an open-source library and workflow for creating interactive timelines for the web. Developed by the Knight Lab at Northwestern University, TimelineJS emphasizes a simple, data-driven approach that can be embedded in news stories, classroom sites, and personal projects.

Users provide data in a Google Sheets template, though JSON and other formats can also be used. The sheet is published to the web, and TimelineJS reads the data to render a responsive timeline with events arranged chronologically. The standard template fields include start_date, end_date, headline, text, and media information. Each event can include media such as images, videos, audio, or interactive maps, with supported sources including YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, SoundCloud, and more.

Timelines created with TimelineJS are embeddable on any webpage via an iframe, facilitating integration into articles, blogs, or educational platforms. The project is designed with accessibility and cross-device compatibility in mind, aiming to work across modern browsers and screen sizes.

TimelineJS was first released in the early 2010s and has since become widely used by educators, journalists, and researchers. The source code is hosted publicly on GitHub under an open-source license, and the project is maintained by the Knight Lab along with a community of contributors. The tool is widely cited for enabling rapid, multimedia storytelling through structured timeline data.