A new graphical query language, Time-by-Example (TBE), is proposed. Its user-friendly syntax is inspired by the known relational query language Query-by-Example. TBE manipulates relations of the historical relational data model (Sect. II), in which null values, set-valued attributes, triplet-valued attributes, and set-triplet-values attributes are allowed. In a triplet \(\) for an attribute A, \([1,u>\) is the time interval and v is a value from dom(A). The triplet denotes that v is valid over [1,u). Set-triplet attributes make it possible to save an object history, i.e. the model employs attribute time stamping. Sect. III gives a historical relational algebra consisting of operations similar to that ones known from algebras over nonfirst normal form relations. TBE is described in Sect. IV with many illustrative examples (the complete syntax of TBE is defined in the Appendix). An interesting Sect. V covers the translation of TBE queries into equivalent historical relational algebra expressions. Sect. VI results in the conclusions that both query tools have the same expressive power. Sect. VII gives a comparison of TBE to QUEL-based temporal languages. The paper offers a valuable contribution to the theory of temporal query languages. The results concerning QBE-expressions translations into lower operations give a possibility to implement QBE-based languages in a more systematic and effective way.