By using a basic TikZ function, it's not too hard to create a line and add some ticks, date values, and annotations. But it can require a lot of work, until it looks nice.
This recipe will show you another colorful and predesigned way: using the timeline library.
Until the timelime library officially becomes part of TikZ or becomes available on CTAN, you can download the tikzlibrarytimeline.code.tex file from its author's repository at https://github.com/cfiandra/timeline. You can install it in the TeX tree like any other package, but the easiest way is to simply put it into the same folder as your main TeX document.
The timelime library builds on TikZ, but also provides its own high-level commands. Follow these steps:
Start with a document class whose paper size is big enough:
\documentclass[a3paper]{article}Load the
geometrypackage with thelandscapeoption, since your diagram will be wider than it is high:\usepackage[landscape]{geometry}Load...