With a vertical time-line and multilined cells — and a caption on the left side of the table:

documentclass[a4paper, twoside, 11pt]{report}



usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

usepackage[TS1,T1]{fontenc}

usepackage{fourier, heuristica}

usepackage{array, booktabs}

usepackage{graphicx}

usepackage[x11names,table]{xcolor}

usepackage{caption}

DeclareCaptionFont{blue}{color{LightSteelBlue3}}



newcommand{foo}{color{LightSteelBlue3}makebox[0pt]{textbullet}hskip-0.5ptvrule width 1pthspace{labelsep}}



begin{document}



begin{table}

renewcommandarraystretch{1.4}arrayrulecolor{LightSteelBlue3}

captionsetup{singlelinecheck=false, font=blue, labelfont=sc, labelsep=quad}

caption{Timeline}vskip -1.5ex

begin{tabular}{@{,}r <{hskip 2pt} !{foo} >{raggedrightarraybackslash}p{5cm}}

toprule

addlinespace[1.5ex]

1947 & AT and T Bell Labs develop the idea of cellular phones\

1968 & Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre envisage the 'Dynabook\

1971 & Busicom 'Handy-LE' Calculator\

1973 & First mobile handset invented by Martin Cooper\

1978 & Parker Bros. Merlin Computer Toy\

1981 & Osborne 1 Portable Computer\

1982 & Grid Compass 1100 Clamshell Laptop\

1983 & TRS-80 Model 100 Portable PC\

1984 & Psion Organiser Handheld Computer\

1991 & Psion Series 3 Minicomputer\

end{tabular}

end{table}



end{document} 

Added (3/12/18)

Here is a code to satisfy the request of smaller bullets, an initial bullet and an arrow on the time-line:

documentclass[a4paper, twoside, 11pt]{report}



usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

usepackage[TS1,T1]{fontenc}

usepackage{fourier,erewhon}

usepackage{amssymb, amsbsy}

usepackage{array, booktabs, longtable}

usepackage{graphicx}

usepackage[x11names, table]{xcolor}

usepackage{caption}

DeclareCaptionFont{blue}{color{LightSteelBlue3}}



newcommand{foo}{color{LightSteelBlue3}makebox[0pt]{tinytextbullet}hskip-0.5ptvrule width 1pthspace{labelsep}}

newcommand{bfoo}{raisebox{2.1ex}[0pt]{makebox[dimexpr2tabcolsep]%

{color{LightSteelBlue3}tinytextbullet}}}%

newcommand{tfoo}{makebox[dimexpr2tabcolsep]%

{color{LightSteelBlue3}$boldsymbol uparrow $}}%



begin{document}



renewcommandarraystretch{1.4}arrayrulecolor{LightSteelBlue3}

captionsetup{font=blue, labelfont=sc, labelsep=quad}

begin{longtable}{@{,}r <{hskip 2pt} !{foo} >{raggedrightarraybackslash}p{5cm}}

 caption{Timeline} \[-1.5ex]

toprule

addlinespace[1.5ex] 

 multicolumn{1}{c!{tfoo}}{}& \[-2.3ex]

1947 & AT and T Bell Labs develop the idea of cellular phones\

1968 & Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre envisage the 'Dynabook\

1971 & Busicom 'Handy-LE' Calculator\

1973 & First mobile handset invented by Martin Cooper\

1978 & Parker Bros. Merlin Computer Toy\

1981 & Osborne 1 Portable Computer\

1982 & Grid Compass 1100 Clamshell Laptop\

1983 & TRS-80 Model 100 Portable PC\

1984 & Psion Organiser Handheld Computer\

1991 & Psion Series 3 Minicomputer\

 multicolumn{1}{c!{bfoo}}{}&

end{longtable}



end{document} 

I have posted posted an answer before which realizes a vertical timeline for another question, but I think this may fit your needs. You can make multi line entries for each timeline entry and multiple entries for each year. Note that it may need some tweaking here and there to fit your needs.

Also note that I'm posting this answer as a community wiki entry because I have posted this same answer before. If you want to give credit for it, please do it at the original question: High level macros and environments based on Tikz.

documentclass[10pt]{article}



usepackage[paperwidth=210mm,%

    paperheight=297mm,%

    tmargin=7.5mm,%

    rmargin=7.5mm,%

    bmargin=7.5mm,%

    lmargin=7.5mm,

    vscale=1,%

    hscale=1]{geometry}



usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

usepackage[T1]{fontenc}



usepackage{tikz}



usetikzlibrary{arrows, calc, decorations.markings, positioning}



pagestyle{empty}



makeatletter

newenvironment{timeline}[6]{%

    % #1 is startyear

    % #2 is tlendyear

    % #3 is yearcolumnwidth

    % #4 is rulecolumnwidth

    % #5 is entrycolumnwidth

    % #6 is timelineheight



    newcommand{startyear}{#1}

    newcommand{tlendyear}{#2}



    newcommand{yearcolumnwidth}{#3}

    newcommand{rulecolumnwidth}{#4}

    newcommand{entrycolumnwidth}{#5}

    newcommand{timelineheight}{#6}



    newcommand{templength}{}



    newcommand{entrycounter}{0}



    % https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/85528/checking-whether-or-not-a-node-has-been-previously-defined

    % https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/37709/how-can-i-know-if-a-node-is-already-defined

    longdefifnodedefined##1##2##3{%

        @ifundefined{pgf@sh@ns@##1}{##3}{##2}%

    }



    newcommand{ifnodeundefined}[2]{%

        ifnodedefined{##1}{}{##2}

    }



    newcommand{drawtimeline}{%

        draw[timelinerule] (yearcolumnwidth+5pt, 0pt) -- (yearcolumnwidth+5pt, -timelineheight);

        draw (yearcolumnwidth+0pt, -10pt) -- (yearcolumnwidth+10pt, -10pt);

        draw (yearcolumnwidth+0pt, -timelineheight+15pt) -- (yearcolumnwidth+10pt, -timelineheight+15pt);



        pgfmathsetlengthmacro{templength}{neg(add(multiply(subtract(startyear, startyear), divide(subtract(timelineheight, 25), subtract(tlendyear, startyear))), 10))}

        node[year] (year-startyear) at (yearcolumnwidth, templength) {startyear};



        pgfmathsetlengthmacro{templength}{neg(add(multiply(subtract(tlendyear, startyear), divide(subtract(timelineheight, 25), subtract(tlendyear, startyear))), 10))}

        node[year] (year-tlendyear) at (yearcolumnwidth, templength) {tlendyear};

    }



    newcommand{entry}[2]{%

        % #1 is the year

        % #2 is the entry text



        pgfmathtruncatemacro{lastentrycount}{entrycounter}

        pgfmathtruncatemacro{entrycounter}{entrycounter + 1}



        ifdim lastentrycount pt > 0 pt%

            node[entry] (entry-entrycounter) [below of=entry-lastentrycount] {##2};

        else%

            pgfmathsetlengthmacro{templength}{neg(add(multiply(subtract(startyear, startyear), divide(subtract(timelineheight, 25), subtract(tlendyear, startyear))), 10))}

            node[entry] (entry-entrycounter) at (yearcolumnwidth+rulecolumnwidth+10pt, templength) {##2};

        fi



        ifnodeundefined{year-##1}{%

            pgfmathsetlengthmacro{templength}{neg(add(multiply(subtract(##1, startyear), divide(subtract(timelineheight, 25), subtract(tlendyear, startyear))), 10))}

            draw (yearcolumnwidth+2.5pt, templength) -- (yearcolumnwidth+7.5pt, templength);

            node[year] (year-##1) at (yearcolumnwidth, templength) {##1};

        }



        draw ($(year-##1.east)+(2.5pt, 0pt)$) -- ($(year-##1.east)+(7.5pt, 0pt)$) -- ($(entry-entrycounter.west)-(5pt,0)$) -- (entry-entrycounter.west);

    }



    newcommand{plainentry}[2]{% plainentry won't print date in the timeline

        % #1 is the year

        % #2 is the entry text



        pgfmathtruncatemacro{lastentrycount}{entrycounter}

        pgfmathtruncatemacro{entrycounter}{entrycounter + 1}



        ifdim lastentrycount pt > 0 pt%

            node[entry] (entry-entrycounter) [below of=entry-lastentrycount] {##2};

        else%

            pgfmathsetlengthmacro{templength}{neg(add(multiply(subtract(startyear, startyear), divide(subtract(timelineheight, 25), subtract(tlendyear, startyear))), 10))}

            node[entry] (entry-entrycounter) at (yearcolumnwidth+rulecolumnwidth+10pt, templength) {##2};

        fi



        ifnodeundefined{invisible-year-##1}{%

            pgfmathsetlengthmacro{templength}{neg(add(multiply(subtract(##1, startyear), divide(subtract(timelineheight, 25), subtract(tlendyear, startyear))), 10))}

            draw (yearcolumnwidth+2.5pt, templength) -- (yearcolumnwidth+7.5pt, templength);

            node[year] (invisible-year-##1) at (yearcolumnwidth, templength) {};

        }



        draw ($(invisible-year-##1.east)+(2.5pt, 0pt)$) -- ($(invisible-year-##1.east)+(7.5pt, 0pt)$) -- ($(entry-entrycounter.west)-(5pt,0)$) -- (entry-entrycounter.west);

    }



    begin{tikzpicture}

        tikzstyle{entry} = [%

            align=left,%

            text width=entrycolumnwidth,%

            node distance=10mm,%

            anchor=west]

        tikzstyle{year} = [anchor=east]

        tikzstyle{timelinerule} = [%

            draw,%

            decoration={markings, mark=at position 1 with {arrow[scale=1.5]{latex'}}},%

            postaction={decorate},%

            shorten >=0.4pt]



        drawtimeline

}

{

    end{tikzpicture}

    letstartyear@undefined

    lettlendyear@undefined

    letyearcolumnwidth@undefined

    letrulecolumnwidth@undefined

    letentrycolumnwidth@undefined

    lettimelineheight@undefined

    letentrycounter@undefined

    letifnodedefined@undefined

    letifnodeundefined@undefined

    letdrawtimeline@undefined

    letentry@undefined

}

makeatother





begin{document}



begin{timeline}{1900}{1990}{2cm}{2.5cm}{5cm}{12cm}

entry{1903}{Wilbur and Orville Wright fly the first powered airplane}

entry{1914}{Assassination of Franz Ferdinand}

plainentry{1917}{The October Revolution}

entry{1928}{Discovery of Penicillin}

plainentry{1929}{Stock Market Crash of 1929}

entry{1941}{Attack on Pearl Harbor}

plainentry{1944}{D-Day}

entry{1945}{The Bombing of Hiroshima}

plainentry{1947}{Creation of Israel as a Jewish State}

entry{1963}{US president John F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas}

entry{1969}{The Moon Landing}

plainentry{1989}{Fall of the Berlin Wall}

end{timeline}



bigskip



Text from: A Brief History of LaTeX http://www.xent.com/FoRK-archive/feb98/0307.html



smallskip



begin{timeline}{1974}{1985}{2cm}{7cm}{10cm}{0.45textheight}

entry{1974}{Donald Knuth stops submitting papers to the AMS because ``the finished

product was just too painful for me to look at''.}

entry{1977}{Knuth begins his research on typography.}

entry{1978}{Knuth delivers an AMS Gibbs Lecture entitled Mathematical Typography to the AMS membership at its annual meeting.}

entry{1979}{Digital Equipment Corporation and the AMS jointly publish Knuth's TeX and METAFONT: New Directions in Typesetting.}

entry{1980}{The first draft of Spivak's Joy of TeX is announced in TUGboat, vol. 1, no. 1.}

entry{1982}{Spivak announces AMS-TeX at the joint math meetings.}

entry{1982}{Version 0 of Spivak's Joy of TeX is released.}

entry{1982}{Knuth releases dvitype, a model DVI driver.}

entry{1983}{Lamport writes a LaTeX manual, the earliest known LaTeX manual in existence.}

entry{1984}{Addison-Wesley publishes Knuth's The TeXbook, destined to become the definitive TeX reference.}

entry{1984}{Lamport releases version 2.06a of the LaTeX macros.}

entry{1985}{The Computer Modern (CM) fonts replace the American Modern (AM) fonts in TeX.}

entry{1985}{Patashnik releases BibTeX version 0.98 for LaTeX 2.08. [``BibTeX 1.0'', TUGboat, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 269--274, Sept. 1994.}

end{timeline}



end{document}

An attempt without any package (except for add some color, obviously):

documentclass{article}

usepackage{xcolor}

newcommandytl[2]{

parbox[b]{8em}{hfill{color{cyan}bfseriessffamily #1}~$cdotscdots$~}makebox[0pt][c]{$bullet$}vrulequad parbox[c]{4.5cm}{vspace{7pt}color{red!40!black!80}raggedrightsffamily #2.\[7pt]}\[-3pt]}

begin{document}

begin{table}

caption{Timeline of something.}

centering

begin{minipage}[t]{.7linewidth}

color{gray}

rule{linewidth}{1pt}

ytl{1947}{AT and T Bell Labs develop the idea of cellular phones}

ytl{1968}{Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre envisage the `Dynabook'}

ytl{1971}{Busicom 'Handy-LE' Calculator}

ytl{1973}{First mobile handset invented by Martin Cooper}

ytl{1978}{Parker Bros. Merlin Computer Toy}

ytl{1981}{Osborne 1 Portable Computer}

ytl{1982}{Grid Compass 1100 Clamshell Laptop}

ytl{1983}{TRS-80 Model 100 Portable PC}

ytl{1984}{Psion Organiser Handheld Computer}

ytl{1991}{Psion Series 3 Minicomputer}

bigskip

rule{linewidth}{1pt}%

end{minipage}%

end{table}

end{document}

Here is another example with TikZ matrices.

The code:

documentclass{article}

usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

usepackage{charter}

usepackage{environ}

usepackage{tikz}

usetikzlibrary{calc,matrix}



% code by Andrew:

% http://tex.stackexchange.com/a/28452/13304

makeatletter

letmatamp=&

catcode`&=13

makeatletter

def&{iftikz@is@matrix

  pgfmatrixnextcell

  else

  matamp

  fi}

makeatother



newcounter{lines}

defendlr{stepcounter{lines}\}



newcounter{vtml}

setcounter{vtml}{0}



newififvtimelinetitle

newififvtimebottomline

tikzset{description/.style={

  column 2/.append style={#1}

 },

 timeline color/.store in=vtmlcolor,

 timeline color=red!80!black,

 timeline color st/.style={fill=vtmlcolor,draw=vtmlcolor},

 use timeline header/.is if=vtimelinetitle,

 use timeline header=false,

 add bottom line/.is if=vtimebottomline,

 add bottom line=false,

 timeline title/.store in=vtimelinetitle,

 timeline title={},

 line offset/.store in=lineoffset,

 line offset=4pt,

}



NewEnviron{vtimeline}[1]{%

setcounter{lines}{1}%

stepcounter{vtml}%

begin{tikzpicture}[column 1/.style={anchor=east},

 column 2/.style={anchor=west},

 text depth=0pt,text height=1ex,

 row sep=1ex,

 column sep=1em,

 #1

]

matrix(vtimelinethevtml)[matrix of nodes]{BODY};

pgfmathtruncatemacroendmtx{thelines-1}

path[timeline color st] 

($(vtimelinethevtml-1-1.north east)!0.5!(vtimelinethevtml-1-2.north west)$)--

($(vtimelinethevtml-endmtx-1.south east)!0.5!(vtimelinethevtml-endmtx-2.south west)$);

foreach x in {1,...,endmtx}{

 node[circle,timeline color st, inner sep=0.15pt, draw=white, thick] 

 (vtimelinethevtml-c-x) at 

 ($(vtimelinethevtml-x-1.east)!0.5!(vtimelinethevtml-x-2.west)$){};

 draw[timeline color st](vtimelinethevtml-c-x.west)--++(-3pt,0);

 }

 ifvtimelinetitle%

  draw[timeline color st]([yshift=lineoffset]vtimelinethevtml.north west)--

  ([yshift=lineoffset]vtimelinethevtml.north east);

  node[anchor=west,yshift=16pt,font=large]

   at (vtimelinethevtml-1-1.north west) 

   {textsc{Timeline thevtml}: textit{vtimelinetitle}};

 else%

  relax%

 fi%

 ifvtimebottomline%

   draw[timeline color st]([yshift=-lineoffset]vtimelinethevtml.south west)--

  ([yshift=-lineoffset]vtimelinethevtml.south east);

 else%

   relax%

 fi%

end{tikzpicture}

}



begin{document}



begin{vtimeline}[description={text width=7cm}, 

 row sep=4ex, 

 use timeline header,

 timeline title={The title}]

1947 & AT and T Bell Labs develop the idea of cellular phonesendlr

1968 & Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre envisage the `Dynabook'endlr

1971 & Busicom 'Handy-LE' Calculatorendlr

1973 & First mobile handset invented by Martin Cooperendlr

1978 & Parker Bros. Merlin Computer Toyendlr

1981 & Osborne 1 Portable Computerendlr

1982 & Grid Compass 1100 Clamshell Laptopendlr

1983 & TRS-80 Model 100 Portable PCendlr

1984 & Psion Organiser Handheld Computerendlr

1991 & Psion Series 3 Minicomputerendlr

end{vtimeline}



begin{vtimeline}[timeline color=cyan!80!blue, add bottom line, line offset=2pt]

1947 & AT and T Bell Labs develop the idea of cellular phonesendlr

1968 & Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre envisage the `Dynabook'endlr

1971 & Busicom 'Handy-LE' Calculatorendlr

1973 & First mobile handset invented by Martin Cooperendlr

1978 & Parker Bros. Merlin Computer Toyendlr

1981 & Osborne 1 Portable Computerendlr

1982 & Grid Compass 1100 Clamshell Laptopendlr

1983 & TRS-80 Model 100 Portable PCendlr

1984 & Psion Organiser Handheld Computerendlr

1991 & Psion Series 3 Minicomputerendlr

end{vtimeline}



end{document}

In the first environment the header is activated. The result is:

In the second environment the header is not set up, but a line is added at the bottom of the timeline with a custom offset (default 4pt). In addition, the color is different and no constraints have been put on the description width:

Here is another variation using tikz to produce:

As you said that you wanted to be able to have multiple lines for each entry in the timeline I have given them a text width of 60mm and positioned the different entries below each other (and the years to the left of them). Here's the code:

documentclass[a4paper, twoside, 11pt]{report}

usepackage{tikz}

usetikzlibrary{shapes,positioning}



newcommand{foo}{hspace{-2.3pt}$bullet$ hspace{5pt}}



begin{document}



newcounter{year}

begin{tikzpicture}[yscale=0.5,%

           year/.style={draw=red,text=blue,fill=yellow!20,shape=ellipse,inner sep=2pt},

           description/.style={rectangle,align=center,text width=60mm,anchor=west},

           timeline/.style={->,thick,red!50}]



    foreach year/desc [count=y] in {%

       1947/AT and T Bell Labs develop the idea of cellular phones,%

       1968/Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre envisage the 'Dynabook,%

       1971/Busicom 'Handy-LE' Calculator,%

       1973/First mobile handset invented by Martin Cooper,%

       1978/Parker Bros. Merlin Computer Toy,%

       1981/Osborne 1 Portable Computer,%

       1982/Grid Compass 1100 Clamshell Laptop,%

       1983/TRS-80 Model 100 Portable PC,%

       1984/Psion Organiser Handheld Computer,%

       1991/Psion Series 3 Minicomputer%

       } { ifnumy=1 node[description](y){desc};

           elsenode[description,below=1ex of z](y){desc};

           fi

           node[year](y-y) [left=of y] {year};

           ifnumy>1draw[timeline] (y-z)-- (y-y);fi

           globalletz=y% for drawing from last node

       }



end{tikzpicture}

end{document}

I have used the counters y and z to dynamically draw the edges between the years...I feel like there should be a more efficient tikz-y way of doing this...

Here is a modified version of chronology.sty, chronology-vert.sty. Note that this is not at all well-tested and is liable to break. In particular, the timeline is not boxed or resized, so the user must ensure that things fit appropriately.

Caveat emptor...

%% Modifications copyright 2015 Clea F. Rees

%% Code from origfile copyright 2011 Levi Wiseman (see below)

%%

%% This work may be distributed and/or modified under the

%% conditions of the LaTeX Project Public License, either version 1.3

%% of this license or (at your option) any later version.

%% The latest version of this license is in

%%   http://www.latex-project.org/lppl.txt

%% and version 1.3 or later is part of all distributions of LaTeX

%% version 2005/12/01 or later.

%%

%% This work has the LPPL maintenance status `maintained'.

%%

%% The Current Maintainer of this work is Clea F. Rees.

%%

%% This work consists of the file chronology-vert.sty.

%%

%% chronology-vert.sty is a derived work under the terms of the LPPL.

%% The original file, chronology.sty, is supplied with chronology. A

%% copy of chronology including an unmodified copy of chronology.sty

%% is available from

%% http://ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/chronology.

%%

%% The main modifications made to this file are as follows:

%% - This notice is added.

%% - The file is renamed.

%% - The timeline is created as a vertical, rather than horizontal

%% progression.

%% - The timeline is not boxed or resized. Hence, it is up to the user

%% to ensure that things fit appropriately.



% based on chronology 2010/6/12 v1.0 Horizontal timeline

NeedsTeXFormat{LaTeX2e}%

ProvidesPackage{chronology-vert}[2015/05/02 v1.0 Horizontal timeline]

RequirePackage{calc}

RequirePackage{tikz}

RequirePackage{ifthen}

newcounter{step}newcounter{stepstart}newcounter{stepstop}

newcounter{yearstart}newcounter{yearstop}newcounter{deltayears}

newlength{ystart}newlength{ystop}

newlength{unit}newlength{timelineheight}

makeatletter

newififchronology@star

newenvironment{chronology}{%

    @ifstar{chronology@startruechronology@i*}{chronology@starfalsechronology@i*}%

}{%

    end{tikzpicture}%

}%

defchronology@i*{%

    @ifnextchar[{chronology@ii*}{chronology@ii*[{5}]}%

}%

defchronology@ii*[#1]#2#3#4{%

    @ifnextchar[{chronology@iii*[{#1}]{#2}{#3}{#4}}{chronology@iii*[{#1}]{#2}{#3}{#4}[{#4}]}%

}%

defchronology@iii*[#1]#2#3#4[#5]{%

    newififflipped%

    ifchronology@star%

        flippedtrue%

    else%

        flippedfalse%

    fi%

    setcounter{step}{#1}%

    setcounter{yearstart}{#2}setcounter{yearstop}{#3}%

    setcounter{deltayears}{theyearstop-theyearstart}%

    setlength{unit}{#5/thedeltayears}%

    setlength{timelineheight}{#4}%

    pgfmathsetcounter{stepstart}{theyearstart+thestep-mod(theyearstart,thestep)}%

    pgfmathsetcounter{stepstop}{theyearstop-mod(theyearstop,thestep)}%

    addtocounter{step}{thestepstart}%

      begin{tikzpicture}[baseline={(current bounding box.north)}]%

          draw [|->] (0,0) -- (0,-thedeltayears*unit-unit);%

          foreach y in {1,...,thedeltayears}%

              draw[yshift=-y*unit] (-.1unit,0) -- (.1unit,0);%

          addtocounter{deltayears}{1}%

          foreach y in {thestepstart,thestep,...,thestepstop}{%

              pgfmathsetlengthystop{(-y+theyearstart)*unit}%

              draw[yshift=ystop] (-.3unit,0) -- (.3unit,0);%

              ifflipped%

                  node at (0,ystop) [left=.2unit] {y};%

              else%

                  node at (0,ystop) [right=.2unit] {y};%

              fi%

          }%

}%

makeatother

newcommand{event}[3][e]{%

    pgfmathsetlengthystop{(#2-theyearstart)*unit}%

    ifx #1e%

        ifflipped%

            draw[fill=black,draw=none,opacity=0.5]%

                (0,-ystop) circle (.2unit)%

                node[opacity=1,rotate=30,right=.5unit] {#3};%

        else%

            draw[fill=black,draw=none,opacity=0.5]%

                (0,-ystop) circle (.2unit)%

                node[opacity=1,rotate=30,left=.5unit] {#3};%

        fi%

    else%

        pgfmathsetlengthystart{(#1-theyearstart)*unit}%

        ifflipped%

            draw[fill=black,draw=none,opacity=0.5,rounded corners=.2unit]%

                (-.2unit,-ystart) rectangle%

                node[opacity=1,rotate=30,right=.5unit] {#3} (.2unit,-ystop);%

        else%

            draw[fill=black,draw=none,opacity=0.5,rounded corners=.2unit]%

                (-.2unit,-ystart) rectangle%

                node[opacity=1,rotate=30,left=.5unit] {#3} (.2unit,-ystop);%

        fi%

    fi}

newcommand{decimaldate}[3]{(#1-1)/31/12+(#2-1)/12+#3}

endinput

The example file provided with the chronology package produces the following if chronology-vert is used instead (and the vertical spacing removed):

Applying this to the original example:

documentclass[tikz,border=5pt]{standalone}

usepackage{chronology-vert}

begin{document}

  begin{chronology}*[5]{1940}{1995}{20cm}

    event{1947}{AT and T Bell Labs develop the idea of cellular phones}

    event{1968}{Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre envisage the 'Dynabook}

    event{1971}{Busicom 'Handy-LE' Calculator}

    event{1973}{First mobile handset invented by Martin Cooper}

    event{1978}{Parker Bros. Merlin Computer Toy}

    event{1981}{Osborne 1 Portable Computer}

    event{1982}{Grid Compass 1100 Clamshell Laptop}

    event{1983}{TRS-80 Model 100 Portable PC}

    event{1984}{Psion Organiser Handheld Computer}

    event{1991}{Psion Series 3 Minicomputer}

  end{chronology}

end{document}

produces:

I haven't looked at the chronology package but can a simple table as the following do?

documentclass{report}



usepackage[tableposition = top]{caption}

usepackage{booktabs}



begin{document}



begin{table}[htbp]

centering

caption{Timeline.}

label{tbl:1}

begin{tabular}{r l}

  toprule

  1947 & AT&T Bell Labs develop the idea of cellular phones\

  1968 & Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre envisage the `Dynabook'\

  1971 & Busicom `Handy-LE' Calculator\

  1973 & First mobile handset invented by Martin Cooper\

  1978 & Parker Bros. Merlin Computer Toy\

  1981 & Osborne 1 Portable Computer\

  1982 & Grid Compass 1100 Clamshell Laptop\

  1983 & TRS-80 Model 100 Portable PC\

  1984 & Psion Organiser Handheld Computer\

  1991 & Psion Series 3 Minicomputer\

  bottomrule

end{tabular}

end{table}

Here we have table~ref{tbl:1}.



end{document}