Draw a chronological timeline with ggplot2

Question

I have data like

data = as.data.frame(  rbind(   c(\"1492\", \"Columbus sailed the ocean blue\"),
                                c(\"1976\", \"Americans lis         


        

Answer 1

This seems like a better job for R's base graphics (really, this kind of thing probably better fits with a tool like Illustrator or something of that ilk).

dat = as.data.frame(rbind(c("1492", "Columbus sailed the ocean blue"),
                       c("1976", "Americans listened to Styx"),
                       c("2008", "Financial meltdown")))
dat$V1 <- as.Date(dat$V1,"%Y")
dat$val <- c(-1,1,-0.5)

plot(dat$V1,dislocations, type = "n",xaxt = "n",bty = "n", 
     xlab = "Time", ylab = "Dislocations")
u <- par("usr")
arrows(u[1], 0, u[2], 0, xpd = TRUE)
points(dat$V1,dat$val,pch = 20)
segments(dat$V1,c(0,0,0),dat$V1,dat$val)
text(x=dat$V1,y=dat$val,labels=dat$V2,pos=c(4,2,2))

produces something like this: