Timeline of historic events in Dot - graphviz

Question

I am trying to create a timeline that associates years with historical events in DOT, but somehow don't get along with the DOT User's Guide.
Here is my first take:
digraph {
ratio=0.70 ranksep=.75
{
node [shape=plaintext, fontsize=16];
past -> 1933 -> 1943 -> 1988 -> 2001 -> 2015 -> future;
node [shape=plaintext, fontsize=14];
a -> b -> c -> d -> e -> f -> g;
{rank=same past -> a }
{rank=same 1943 -> c }
{rank=same future g }
}
}
The timeline on the left is taken from the User's Guide. The line on the right was meant to contain the corresponding information on the historic event, e.g. for the year 1943 the info is c.
The output looks like this:
However, I would like to have the line on the right much closer to the left timeline. And the historic events on right should not be connected by an arrow with each other.
Somehow the connection between f and g is messed up, too.

Answer 1

Both the ratio and the ranksep influence the distance between the nodes. I would advise using one or the other to see what the difference is. Removing both gives a shorter distance.
To remove the arrows between the events on the right, edge style can be set to "invis".
Running the posted DOT (see the resulting image) does not show any weird connection between f and g...
Using the following DOT:
digraph {
node [shape=plaintext, fontsize=16];
past -> 1933 -> 1943 -> 1988 -> 2001 -> 2015 -> future;
{
node [fontsize=14];
edge [style=invis];
a -> b -> c -> d -> e -> f -> g;
}
{rank=same past -> a }
{rank=same 1943 -> c }
{rank=same future g }
}
Yields this result: