# History: the big steps

> The Eternity II story at a glance, from the mailing list founded in 2000 to the 470 record that still stands. A scannable timeline of the turning points, each linking into the full two-part history and the message where it happened.

- Canonical page (with interactive figures/demos): https://eternity2.dev/research/history/
- Updated: 2026-07-11
- Source: The eternity2 mailing-list archive (groups.io): every milestone below links its original message — https://groups.io/g/eternity2
- Source: Wikipedia, "Eternity II puzzle" — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternity_II_puzzle

---
Eternity II has an official story (a launch, a $2,000,000 prize, a deadline)
and a real one, which played out on a mailing list. This page is the real one,
compressed to its turning points: the moments that actually moved the puzzle,
each one a single line you can read at a glance.

For the whole account in prose, the history is told in two parts:
[part I](/research/community/hunt) covers 2000 to 2009, from the group's
founding to the first scrutiny prize; [part II](/research/community/hunt-part-2)
covers 2009 to today. Every milestone here links into them, and to the archive
message where it happened.
> **[Interactive: HistoryTimeline]** Rendered on the canonical page (link above); not shown in this markdown export.
## Where to go next

- The [record timeline](/research/records) plots the score itself over time,
  the 467 of 2008, the long silence, the fast climb to 470, and the flat line
  since 2021, with the full table and every board viewable edge by edge.
- The [full history](/research/community/hunt) tells the same story in prose,
  with far more of the people, the arguments and the dead ends than fit on a
  timeline.
- The [people behind it](/research/people) is the same story told by person:
  who did what, and where to read it in their own words.

## Related

- [The hunt, a history (part I: 2000–2009)](https://eternity2.dev/research/community/hunt) — The community's story, from a mailing list founded seven years before the puzzle existed to the $10,000 scrutiny prize won under a borrowed name, with every event sourced to its original message. Part I of a growing chronicle.
- [The hunt, a history, part II: 2009–2026](https://eternity2.dev/research/community/hunt-part-2) — Seventeen years after the prize: the contest dies with its solution locked in a safe, 467 stands for a decade, the archive survives Yahoo's shutdown by days, and then an outsider from Reddit rewrites the record book. Every event sourced to its original message.
- [Records & solvers](https://eternity2.dev/research/records) — Eternity II has never been solved, but fifteen years of community effort have pushed the best board to 470/480. Who holds what, how they did it, and why some headline "480" boards are not actually the real puzzle.
- [Who's who of E2 research](https://eternity2.dev/research/people) — Two decades of Eternity II research were done by named people on a mailing list. This page is the gallery: who they are, what each of them contributed, and where to read it in their own words. A thank-you as much as an index.