If you use PowerPoint, then Office Timeline is a free add-in that may interest you.  It's designed to help you create project timelines.  Just enter details of each stage of the project (start date, description, etc), and the program instantly creates a timeline slide within your current presentation.  There's lots of templates and designs to choose from, in addition to the one shown below.

You can edit a timeline at any time, using the Office Timeline tab that appears on the PowerPoint ribbon once you've installed the add-on.  There's also a useful 3-minute video that shows you a demo of all the program's major features.

Office Timeline is free.  You can get it from www.officetimeline.com.  You'll need PowerPoint 2007 or 2010, and also the .NET Framework v3.5.  Office Timeline itself is a 6 MB download.

I've checked the download with VirusTotal and this file appears to be totally free of viruses and malware.