The closest I can think of is to run popularity-contest > out.txt which will take a while to generate a file, out.txt, listing programs, from most recently used to least recently used. I get the impression that ...

• The first column is the most recent time (epoch format) the program was used
  and the next column is the time it was first used (or installed?).


• The only programs listed are, I think, programs that are registered
  (as a result of being installed via apt-get or the Software Center).
  Those that aren't, don't figure in the list. For example, I installed
  Seamonkey by uncompressing a tar.gz. That doesn't show.

The output of popularity-contest looks like this:

POPULARITY-CONTEST-0 TIME:1359204011 ID:ae1dc87f150c489082f0ddb28af40350 ARCH:i386 POPCONVER:1.53ubuntu1

1359204011 1349657211 openbox /usr/bin/openbox

1359204011 1349657211 xscreensaver /usr/bin/xscreensaver

1359204011 1354294761 perl-base /usr/bin/perl

1359204011 1349833421 update-notifier /usr/bin/update-notifier

1359204011 1349657224 xfconf /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd

1359204011 1349657224 lxpanel /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/lxpanel/plugins/monitors.so

1359204011 1349657225 policykit-1-gnome /usr/lib/policykit-1-gnome/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1

1359204011 1358559008 lxterminal /usr/bin/lxterminal

1359204011 1349664550 ttf-ubuntu-font-family /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ubuntu-font-family/Ubuntu-RI.ttf

1359204011 1349664535 pcmanfm /usr/bin/pcmanfm

1359204011 1349657224 lxpanel-indicator-applet-plugin /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/lxpanel/plugins/indicator.so

1359204011 1349657235 ttf-dejavu-core /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSansMono-Bold.ttf

1359204011 1349657210 lxsession /usr/bin/lxsession

1359204011 1349833422 update-notifier-common /usr/share/locale/en/LC_MESSAGES/update-notifier.mo

1359204011 1349664531 network-manager-gnome /usr/bin/nm-applet

1359204011 1349657205 zlib1g /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libz.so.1.2.7

1359204011 1352212906 xfce4-power-manager /usr/bin/xfce4-power-manager

1359204008 1349657221 libxfconf-0-2 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libxfconf-0.so.2.0.0

1359204008 1358215752 libnss3 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/nss/libfreebl3.so

1359204008 1349657221 libvorbis0a /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libvorbis.so.0.4.5

1359204008 1349657221 libvorbisenc2 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libvorbisenc.so.2.0.8

1359204008 1349657217 libxcursor1 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libXcursor.so.1.0.2

1359204008 1349657217 libx11-6 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libX11.so.6.3.0

1359204008 1349657221 libtasn1-3 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libtasn1.so.3.1.16

1359204008 1349657221 libwind0-heimdal /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libwind.so.0.0.0

The first two columns can be converted by pasting the entire output into a spreadsheet. I used LibreOffice Calc for the purpose and inserted blank columns after each column of "epoch time". I then filled down with a formula to convert "epoch time" to human-readable time (and using Format, Cells, Time to get a suitable format).

For the first row of data, assuming the first "epoch time" cell is in A2, put =(A2/86400)+25569 in B2 and fill down. Do the same for the second "epoch time", using =(C2/86400)+25569 in cell D2.

The content, just a few lines, then looks like this:

POPULARITY-CONTEST-0        TIME:1359204011     ID:ae1dc87f150c489082f0ddb28af40350 ARCH:i386

1359204011  26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349657211  08/10/2012 00:46:51 openbox /usr/bin/openbox

1359204011  26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349657211  08/10/2012 00:46:51 xscreensaver    /usr/bin/xscreensaver

1359204011  26/01/2013 12:40:11 1354294761  30/11/2012 16:59:21 perl-base   /usr/bin/perl

1359204011  26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349833421  10/10/2012 01:43:41 update-notifier /usr/bin/update-notifier

1359204011  26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349657224  08/10/2012 00:47:04 xfconf  /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd

1359204011  26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349657224  08/10/2012 00:47:04 lxpanel /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/lxpanel/plugins/monitors.so

1359204011  26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349657225  08/10/2012 00:47:05 policykit-1-gnome   /usr/lib/policykit-1-gnome/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1

1359204011  26/01/2013 12:40:11 1358559008  19/01/2013 01:30:08 lxterminal  /usr/bin/lxterminal

1359204011  26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349664550  08/10/2012 02:49:10 ttf-ubuntu-font-family  /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ubuntu-font-family/Ubuntu-RI.ttf

1359204011  26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349664535  08/10/2012 02:48:55 pcmanfm /usr/bin/pcmanfm

1359204011  26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349657224  08/10/2012 00:47:04 lxpanel-indicator-applet-plugin /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/lxpanel/plugins/indicator.so

1359204011  26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349657235  08/10/2012 00:47:15 ttf-dejavu-core /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-dejavu/DejaVuSansMono-Bold.ttf

1359204011  26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349657210  08/10/2012 00:46:50 lxsession   /usr/bin/lxsession

1359204011  26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349833422  10/10/2012 01:43:42 update-notifier-common  /usr/share/locale/en/LC_MESSAGES/update-notifier.mo

1359204011  26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349664531  08/10/2012 02:48:51 network-manager-gnome   /usr/bin/nm-applet

1359204011  26/01/2013 12:40:11 1349657205  08/10/2012 00:46:45 zlib1g  /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libz.so.1.2.7

1359204011  26/01/2013 12:40:11 1352212906  06/11/2012 14:41:46 xfce4-power-manager /usr/bin/xfce4-power-manager

1359204008  26/01/2013 12:40:08 1349657221  08/10/2012 00:47:01 libxfconf-0-2   /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libxfconf-0.so.2.0.0

1359204008  26/01/2013 12:40:08 1358215752  15/01/2013 02:09:12 libnss3 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/nss/libfreebl3.so

1359204008  26/01/2013 12:40:08 1349657221  08/10/2012 00:47:01 libvorbis0a /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libvorbis.so.0.4.5

1359204008  26/01/2013 12:40:08 1349657221  08/10/2012 00:47:01 libvorbisenc2   /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libvorbisenc.so.2.0.8

1359204008  26/01/2013 12:40:08 1349657217  08/10/2012 00:46:57 libxcursor1 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libXcursor.so.1.0.2

1359204008  26/01/2013 12:40:08 1349657217  08/10/2012 00:46:57 libx11-6    /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libX11.so.6.3.0

1359204008  26/01/2013 12:40:08 1349657221  08/10/2012 00:47:01 libtasn1-3  /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libtasn1.so.3.1.16

1359204008  26/01/2013 12:40:08 1349657221  08/10/2012 00:47:01 libwind0-heimdal    /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libwind.so.0.0.0

You can read more at popcon.ubuntu.com but a quote from there is here:

Q) What information is reported by popularity-contest ?

A) popularity-contest reports the system architecture you use, the
version of popularity-contest you use and the list of packages
installed on your system. For each package, popularity-contest
looks at the most recently used (based on atime) files, and reports
the filename, its last access time (atime) and last change time
(ctime). However, some files are not considered, because they have
unreliable atime.

You can also run man popularity-contest for more information.