Annals are historical records that describe events year by year, like a chronicle of what happened when. The word comes from the Latin word for “year,” and true annals organize history the way a diary organizes your life: January, February, March, and so on through time.

Ancient civilizations kept annals to remember important events like battles, natural disasters, or the reigns of kings. The Annals of Imperial Rome, written nearly 2,000 years ago, recorded what happened during the reigns of different Roman emperors. Medieval monasteries kept annals tracking everything from wars to unusually cold winters.

Today, we use the phrase “in the annals of” to mean “in the recorded history of” something. A teacher might say that your class science fair project will go down in the annals of the school as one of the most creative ever attempted. When a baseball player hits the longest home run in stadium history, sports writers say it's secured a place in the annals of the game.

Unlike regular history books that might jump around in time or focus on themes, annals march forward methodically, year by year. They're the backbone of how we remember and organize the past.