The Cenozoic era is the current and most recent of the Earth history. A series of major geological events of the tectonics, life evolutions and climate change happened during the Cenozoic. High-resolution Cenozoic geological time scale plays an important role in understanding the evolution of the Cenozoic Earth systems and predicting its trends. Recently, the theory of astronomical cycles has been applied to establish astronomical time scale. The high-resolution geological time scale can be constructed by identifying the Milankovitch cycles in sedimentary strata, and tuning these cycles to the astronomical solutions. A composite, continuous Cenozoic astronomical time scale can provide reliable geochronology constraints for better understanding the Cenozoic Earth's evolution. It is also reported that orbital forcing was one of the main driving mechanisms of some biological,climate,environment and geological events in the Cenozoic. This paper briefly introduces the theoretical basis of cyclostratigraphy, construction of the Cenozoic astronomical time scale, and the research progresses of orbital forced climate and biological events. In China, high-resolution astronomical time scales will contribute greatly to improve our understanding of some critical and global scientific questions, such as the origin and evolution of East Asian monsoon, climate effect of the Tibetan Plateau uplift, and Quaternary glacial and interglacial transition.