modified timeline graph
 

I have a table of dates and events (and "phase"), and I want to make a
timeline graph: 1-d horizontal line, no (visible) y-axis.

I want the distance between the events to be spaced based on the date,
and the event names to be shown at each point. The dates should be
shown too, either for each event or just based on auto-scaling of the
x-axis (e.g. major unit = 3 months).

Here's the hard part. The events happen in different "phases", and I
want to show the phases graphically somehow. I was thinking this
component of the graph would be a bar chart, and I could somehow format
the series such that there would be shaded areas just above the
timeline corresponding to "Phase I", "Phase II", etc. But I don't know
how. I would be grateful for any suggestions.