Help with timeline sorting

Maybe I'm missing something but I can't seem to sort the timeline by chronological order. Events are in order from left to right but since they are in no discernable order from top to bottom, it's very difficult to work through them sequentially. For example. I wanted to look at a timeline of philosophers in order to better appreciate how they relate etc. Even filtered to just individuals, there are so many entries and in no apparent order that it is quite hard to use. Is there some sort function I've missed? thanks for any tips...