timeline

R code of the ggplot2 example

library(ggplot2)
library(dplyr)
library(HistData)

## The reigns Playfair drew under his chart of wheat prices and wages.
reigns <- Wheat.monarchs |>
  mutate(name = recode(name, `W&M` = "William & Mary"),
         row = rev(seq_along(name)),
         longest = end - start == max(end - start))

p <- ggplot(reigns, aes(y = row)) +
  geom_segment(aes(x = start, xend = end, colour = longest), linewidth = 2.2) +
  geom_text(aes(x = end + 3, label = name, colour = longest), hjust = 0, size = 2.8) +
  scale_colour_manual(values = c(`FALSE` = "#535353", `TRUE` = "#9b2367")) +
  scale_x_continuous(breaks = seq(1575, 1825, by = 50), limits = c(1560, 1860)) +
  scale_y_continuous(NULL, breaks = NULL) +
  labs(title = "George III reigned longest of the twelve, 60 years",
       subtitle = "English, then British, monarchs and the Commonwealth, 1565–1821",
       x = NULL,
       caption = "Data: Playfair 1821, via the HistData R package") +
  theme_lex_viz(grid = "x", arrows = "") +
  theme(legend.position = "none")