I've been going through the timeline examples posted under the timeline category in our Delicious site and I've picked a couple that y'all have found that are in the ballpark of what we're looking for. While many of them have usefull information what we're particularly looking for is something that displays multiple timelines and or multiple topics across time. That list, though short, is as follows...

Nice display of multiple events and links between them in time.
MSNBC 9/11

Lots of functionality here. Gotta click all over to check it all out, interface is a mess, but some ineresting ideas.
World History

Only one timeline, but easy on the eyes and provides detailed info in a pop-up
Egypt

Ugly, but shows info and jumps, on click, to more detailed info
9/11 take 2

Multiple events and projects in different phases. Zooms at click but doesn't provide additional info.
Mars Missions

This one is also ugly, but shows some color coding and differentiation between types of information
Civilization

This one show's many events, but not multiple types of events. Could be broken down by color code, etc.
Inventions

Last but not least an article on Timeline Construction in Excel which might have some useful design process info.

We'll start talking about them in class Tuesday and kick around some ideas.