Vertical timeline that uses width of the page?

Question

I'm trying to create a vertical timeline to list a chronology of dates and events.

(Dates are in format YYYY-MM-DD).

I found this post:

How can you create a vertical timeline?

which has a very pretty timeline

\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-0.5pt\vrule width 1pt\hspace{\labelsep}}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
\renewcommand\arraystretch{1.4}\arrayrulecolor{LightSteelBlue3}
\captionsetup{singlelinecheck=false, font=blue, labelfont=sc, labelsep=quad}
\caption{Timeline}\vskip -1.5ex
\begin{tabular}{@{\,}r <{\hskip 2pt} !{\foo} >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}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} 

However, the only problem is it creates a small table on the page - I would like the timeline width to take the whole page if possible. (I have a lot of text in each date).

I did try using tabularx package, but couldn't seem to get that work either.

Answer 1

\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-0.5pt\vrule width 1pt\hspace{\labelsep}}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
\renewcommand\arraystretch{1.4}\arrayrulecolor{LightSteelBlue3}
\captionsetup{singlelinecheck=false, font=blue, labelfont=sc, labelsep=quad}
\caption{Timeline}\vskip -1.5ex
\begin{tabular}{@{\,}r <{\hskip 2pt} !{\foo} >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}p{0.8\textwidth}}
\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} 

Answer 2

With tabularx:

\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}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\DeclareCaptionFont{blue}{\color{LightSteelBlue3}}

\newcommand{\foo}{\color{LightSteelBlue3}\makebox[0pt]{\textbullet}\hskip-0.5pt\vrule width 1pt\hspace{\labelsep}}

\begin{document}

\begin{table}
\renewcommand\arraystretch{1.4}\arrayrulecolor{LightSteelBlue3}
\captionsetup{singlelinecheck=false, font=blue, labelfont=sc, labelsep=quad}
\caption{Timeline}\vskip -1.5ex
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{@{\,}r <{\hskip 2pt} !{\foo} >{\raggedright\arraybackslash}X}
\toprule
\addlinespace[1.5ex]
1947-01-01 & An example entry.  An example entry.  An example entry.  An example entry.  An example entry.  An example entry. \\
\end{tabularx}
\end{table}

\end{document}