Apple loves to hide little surprises, or “easter eggs,” within its software — such as the memorable quotes inside its OS X icons, or the temporary date (Jan 24, 1984 — when the first Macintosh was unveiled) given to apps downloaded from the Mac App Store. A new one has been discovered that’s sure to please Lord of the Rings fans.

Typing a simple comment into Terminal reveals a Lord of the Rings timeline that Apple has hidden in OS X. Here’s how to access it.

Open up the Terminal app on your mac, and enter:

cat /usr/share/calendar/calendar.lotr

There’s nothing funny about this command — it won’t change anything, and your Mac won’t explode on your desk. It’s just a bit of fun. Once you have hit return, you’ll be presented with a Lord of the Rings timeline.

We hate to provide spoilers for those who want to try this out themselves, but for those on Windows, we’ve pasted the timeline below:

#ifndef _calendar_lotr_

#define _calendar_lotr_ 01/05 Fellowship enters Moria

01/09 Fellowship reaches Lorien

01/17 Passing of Gandalf

02/07 Fellowship leaves Lorien

02/17 Death of Boromir

02/20 Meriadoc & Pippin meet Treebeard

02/22 Passing of King Ellesar

02/24 Ents destroy Isengard

02/26 Aragorn takes the Paths of the Dead

03/05 Frodo & Samwise encounter Shelob

03/08 Deaths of Denethor & Theoden

03/18 Destruction of the Ring

03/29 Flowering of the Mallorn

04/04 Gandalf visits Bilbo

04/17 An unexpected party

04/23 Crowning of King Ellesar

05/19 Arwen leaves Lorian to wed King Ellesar

06/11 Sauron attacks Osgiliath

06/13 Bilbo returns to Bag End

06/23 Wedding of Ellesar & Arwen

07/04 Gandalf imprisoned by Saruman

07/24 The ring comes to Bilbo

07/26 Bilbo rescued from Wargs by Eagles

08/03 Funeral of King Theoden

08/29 Saruman enters the Shire

09/10 Gandalf escapes from Orthanc

09/14 Frodo & Bilbo’s birthday

09/15 Black riders enter the Shire

09/18 Frodo and company rescued by Bombadil

09/28 Frodo wounded at Weathertop

10/05 Frodo crosses bridge of Mitheithel

10/16 Boromir reaches Rivendell

10/17 Council of Elrond

10/25 End of War of the Ring

11/16 Bilbo reaches the Lonely Mountain

12/05 Death of Smaug

12/16 Fellowship begins Quest #endif /* !_calendar_lotr_ */

Awesome, isn’t it?

Via: The Mac Observer