Most of the action and adventure in The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy takes place during the Third Age of Middle-earth, so viewers might think they already know a lot about this era. However, the war of the Ring only took up a few years at the very end of the Third Age, and the whole timeline takes up several thousand years.
The Ring of Power was forged in the Second Age was lost by Isildur in the Anduin River in year 2 of the Third Age. These are the common plot points of the LotR and The Hobbit films and are common knowledge as pop culture references, but there was a lot more to the Third Age than the loss and the finding of the One Ring. In fact, for centuries everyone forgot about it, which is one of the reasons it took Gandalf decades to identify what Bilbo found.
The Third Age officially ends in the year 3021, and it's marked not by the destruction of the Ring but by the passing of Gandalf, Frodo, Galadriel, and Celeborn from the Grey Havens. That's more than 3000 years of Middle-earth history, found in the footnotes and appendices, and fans who have read the books might already know about some other exciting events that took place while the One Ring was buried in mud.
6 The Wars Of The Kin-Strife
When humans didn't have Sauron's minions to fight, they ended up fighting each other. The Wars of the Kin-strife plunged Gondor into a series of civil wars regarding the right of succession. King Rómendacil II married a woman who was not of Númenoreon blood, Vidumavi of Rhovanion. Their son, Eldacar, ascended the throne but was eventually deposed and forced into exile by Castamir the Usurper.
While the houses of men fought, the towers and settlements that had been set to watch Mordor were abandoned. With the ring forgotten and the kingdoms of Middle-earth in disarray, shadows began to grow again in the east.
5 The Great Plague
The Plague had been in Rhovanion during and after the Kin-strife, but about two centuries after the wars, the sickness reached the human city of Osgiliath and spread from there with horrible efficiency. The noble houses of humans, elves, and dwarves were further weakened.
The plague seems to have targeted descendants of Númenor, in particular, the Dúnedain. Whole regions of the former kingdom of Arnor were decimated, with the survivors fleeing, leaving the lands empty and desolate. Even the Hobbits of the Shire suffered great losses during this period.
4 Elrond's Wedding
The Third Age opened with several happy stories, mainly the defeat of Sauron, which is one reason this blessed event gets lost in the excitement. In the year 102 of the Third Age, Elrond married Celebrían, the daughter of Galadriel and Celeborn. They had three children: Elladan, Elrohir, and Arwen.
Arwen Undómiel was born in the year 241, which means she was already more than 2000 years old when Aragorn was born in 2931. It also means that Arwen is Galadriel's granddaughter, which is another little fact only book-readers know.
3 The Arrival Of The Wizards
The Wizards of Tolkien's books are supernatural beings, sent by the Valar to help the denizens of Middle-earth fight against the darkness of Sauron, which they helped create. Sauron himself was once one of these supernatural beings, in the same class as Gandalf, but the Valar that ruled Sauron was Morgoth. When his master turned to evil, he did as well.
The Wizards came to Middle-earth in the year 1000 and were also known as the Istari. The Council of Wizards originally had five members, three of which were assigned to the West, and another two who went East. The three Istari of the West were Gandalf, Radagast, and Saruman. The other two were known as the Blue Wizards, and although Tolkien has named them Alatar and Pallando, not much else is known about them.
2 The Baggins Family, A Boating Accident, And A Birthday
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A lot happened in the year 2980. Arwen Evenstar pledged her hand in marriage to Aragorn, son of Arathorn, Theoden son of Thengel became the King of Rohan, and the kingdom of Gondor had some important wins in the ongoing battle against the evil men of Umbar. However, two other events in the Shire eclipsed all of these.
Samwise Gamgee was born this year. Meanwhile, a couple in Buckland had died in a boating accident, leaving their 12-year-old son Frodo an orphan. He always shared a connection with his cousin Bilbo (whom Frodo calls his uncle), so nobody was surprised when the old eccentric adopted the lad and moved him to his own home.
1 The Founding Of The Shire
Frodo spent most of his early childhood in Brandy Hall, a famous location in Hobbit lore, and it has a long history in the Third Age. It was 1601 when the brothers Marco and Blanco would cross the River Baranduin to found the Shire.
The river was renamed the Brandywine in later years. After the King of Gondor gave way to the Steward, the Hobbits of the Shire decided to form the office of Thain in the year 1979 to replace the fallen authority figure. It was a prestigious office that many of the heroes in the War of the Ring would eventually hold.