Pre-Series Timeline

[hells_half_acre]

PRE-SERIES TIMELINE:

March 4-5, 1861 – Two very clean strangers show up in Sunrise Wyoming looking for Samuel Colt. (Frontierland)

1954 – John Winchester is born. (What Is And What Should Never Be)

December 4, 1954 – Mary Winchester (Nee Campbell) is born. (year - Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things, date – What Is And What Should Never Be)
-The article on the plane crash in the DjinnWish-verse in WIAWSNB is dated December 5th, Newspaper report on events the day AFTER they happen, which means that the plane crash actually occurred on December 4th, therefore when Dean watches (I’m assuming the 11 o’clock) news after celebrating Mary’s birthday in the DjinnWish-verse and they say that it is one year anniversary of the crash, it would mean that it is December 4th

April 24, 1967 – The Impala rolls off the assembly line in Janesville, Wisconsin. (Swan Song)

October 1972 - 8 Nuns are disemboweled at St. Mary's Convent in Ilchester, Maryland. (Lucifer Rising)
-The newspaper Sam reads this from is dated October 16th, 1972.

April 30th, 1973 - John Winchester buys a 1967 Impala on the recommendation of a stranger. (In The Beginning)

May 2nd, 1973 - John Winchester proposes to Mary Campbell (In The Beginning)
- Samuel and Deanna Campbell are murdered (In The Beginning)

One night around April/May 1978 – Anna attempts to kill John and Mary Winchester. They end up with no memories of the encounter or the two Hunters that helped them. At this time, John and Mary live at the address 485 Robintree, Lawrence, Kansas. It is not the same house as the Sam and Dean’s childhood home. (The Song Remains The Same)
-Mary is pregnant with Dean, but it is still very early in the pregnancy.

January 24th 1979 - Dean is born

May 2nd, 1983 - Sam is born

Between May and November 1983 – John and Mary have a fight and John leaves home for a few days. (Dark Side of the Moon)

November 2nd 1983 - Mary Dies

1985/1986 – John takes Dean shooting for the first time.

April 7th, 1985 - Jo Harvelle is born (Hunters Log - S2 DVD special features)

March 1985 - a meteor is seen over Kentucky. (Heaven and Hell)

December 1985 - Anna Milton is born. (Heaven and Hell)

~1989/1990 - A Shtriga almost kills Sam in Fort Douglas, Wisconsin (Something Wicked)
-(I've also seen this year referenced as 1988 with a citation to John Winchester's Journal)

January 1990 - John Winchester investigates a series of grave robbings in Windom, Minnesota. (Jump the Shark)

September 29th, 1990 - Adam Milligan is born. (Jump the Shark)

December 25, 1991 - Sam and Dean spend Christmas alone in Broken Bow, Nebraska, while John is on a hunt. (A Very Supernatural Christmas)

Summer 1994 – Sam and Dean spend a portion of the summer being looked after by Donna, a babysitter (and maid at the Mayflower) in Housatonic, Massachusetts, while their father hunts. On one occasion, John is gone for two weeks. It is the summer before Sam enters 6th grade, and he assigns himself a summer reading list. Dean possibly has a crush on Donna. (Swap Meat)
-Year estimated by assuming Sam was 11 when he entered 6th grade.

Unknown – One or both boys go to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens on a field trip. (Dark Side of the Moon)

November 24th, 1994 (Thanksgiving) – Sam has his first traditional Thanksgiving dinner at his friend Stephanie’s house. He has been attending a school called McKinley for two weeks. (Dark Side of the Moon)

1995 - Sam wins a division championship soccer trophy (Bad Day at Black Rock)
- While Sam waits in the car, Dean kills something (most likely a werewolf) with a silver-arrow to the heart while on a hunt with his father and "embraces the life" of a hunter.(Bloodlust)

May 16th, 1995 - William (Bill) Anthony Harvelle is killed while on a hunt with John.(Hunters Log - S2 DVD special features)

July 4th, 1996 – Sam and Dean “burned down that field” when they set off their own fireworks display. (Dark Side of the Moon)

Unknown (presumably when Sam is a teenager) – Sam runs away for two weeks and lives in Flagstaff, Arizona. He befriends a dog, who he names Bones. Dean fears he is dead and gets in trouble for Sam leaving “on his watch.” (Dark Side of the Moon).

~1996/1997 - at the age of 13, Sam experiences a brief phase where he wants to be a magician. (Chriss Angel Is A Douchebag)

Summer 1997 - The Winchesters hunt a werewolf (After School Special).
-There is an inconsistency in After School Special, because it informs us that it is 1997, and Sam says it's November, but in the High School there are "class of 97" banners everywhere, which would indicate that the graduating class is going to graduate in June 1997, which would make it November 1996. That being said, the caption on the episode itself informs us that it is 1997.

November 1997 - Sam and Dean attend Truman High in Fairfax, Indiana, for 3 or 4 weeks, while John is on a hunt that was originally supposed to be 2 weeks but ended up taking longer than expected. (Dean is in 12th Grade. It is the third school they have attended since September.) (After School Special)
-There is an inconsistency in After School Special, because it informs us that it is 1997, and Sam says it's November, but in the High School there are "class of 97" banners everywhere, which would indicate that the graduating class is going to graduate in June 1997.That being said, the caption on the episode itself informs us that it is 1997.

~1998 - Sam is a mathlete (Metamorphosis).

~September 1998 - Dean takes a roadtrip alone, while Sam and John are in Orlando, Florida, hunting a banshee. He meets Lisa Braeden. (The Kids Are Alright)

Late May or Early June, 1999 – Ben Braeden is born. (The Kids Are Alright)

2002 - Sam leaves for Stanford.

2002/2003 - Adam Milligan meets John Winchester. (Adam states that he is 12 at the time) (Jump the Shark).

Thanksgiving 2003 - Sam's friend Brady returns from holiday and begins to get into drugs. Sam attempts to help. (The Devil You Know).

A Spring either in 2003 or 2004 - Dean dates Cassie Robinson in Athens, Ohio, for a few weeks, while she finishes up her senior year of college (at Ohio University). Personal Opinion - Spring 2003. (Route 666)

Sometime in early 2004 - Sam begins dating Jessica, after being introduced by his friend Brady. (Route 666 - Sam said he dated Jessica for a year and a half) (The Devil You Know - Sam tells us that Brady introduced him to Jess.)

Summer 2005 - John teaches Adam Milligan to drive using the Impala. (Jump the Shark)
- Adam claims he was 15 when John taught him to drive in the Impala, but that's impossible given that Dean had sole possession of the car while Adam was 15. So, John must have taught him the summer he was 14.

Comments

[dairygirl.livejournal.com]

I just watched "Something Wicked" and Dean said "Fort Douglas, Wisconsin" not Fort Worth named in your timeline:
~1989/1990 - A Shtriga almost kills Sam in Fort Worth Wisconsin (Something Wicked)

[trystan830.livejournal.com]

oh very cool... thank you for this!

[nwspaprtaxis.livejournal.com]

This was actually insanely helpful -- I needed to know Jo's Birthday for my Big Bang and was guesstimating it'd be in the spring / summer... and you gave me the answer! *smishes*

[klutzy-girl.livejournal.com]

This was awesome.

And Jess was born on January 24th somewhere in the timeline since in a season one nightmare that Sam has where he visited her grave, it's on the headstone. (Yay for Jess and Dean having the same birthday!)

[simonejester.livejournal.com]

((This is rambly and nitpicky and unnecessarily long and I apologize for all three of those things. Though you're right in both instances I'm waxing verbose about. Also, thanks for this and the other timeline. It's an excellent resource! Would you mind if I added them to spnverticalfile? BTW I'm here via all_spn.))

-(I've also seen this year referenced as 1988 with a citation to John Winchester's Journal)

John Winchester's Journal also says that Dean graduated, and that apparently he got the Impala on a hunt early on. And other stuff but whatever, that book is 80% copypasta about supernatural stuff and...well, if I was keeping a journal about hunts and thing to look out for and my kid for 22 years...there'd be a lot more of it.

-Year [1994] estimated by assuming Sam was 11 when he entered 6th grade.

I just wrote it out and it makes sense to me too. I was born in November of '83 and was Class of '02, but my parents told me that they could have put me in kindergarten earlier and I would have been Class of '01 like Sam is in canon (though John Winchester's Journal has him graduating a year late in '02 and not leaving for Stanford right away, possibly as troubleshooting for Dean saying that Sam was at Stanford for two years when Kripke said oops, no it was four).

[100yeargirl.livejournal.com]

Just had a thought - the incident that drove Bobby and Rufus apart in Omaha, where a woman important to Rufus died because of Bobby, happened 15 years before Bobby directed Dean to him in 'Time is On My Side'. This would mean the events of Omaha took place in 1993. Could give us a little perspective on when Karen Singer died. Worth adding?

[tricksterfae.livejournal.com]

I love this!

Maybe add the approx date Sam took the LSAT?

or maybe the approx years Sam was in the Drama Club?

DEAN: You know, I've gotta say Dad and me did just fine without these stupid costumes. I feel like a high school drama dork....What was that play that you did? What was it – Our Town. Yeah, you were good, it was cute. -Shadow S1E16

I was a drama dork so yes I remembered this random off handed mention for a season one episode but I did have to look up the transcript to get the line.

[yalumesse]

...I think I might just be in love with you. I've been scouring episodes trying to work out dates and times and wrangling with the two missing years they just ignored, and here you are with a lovely lovely and as-tidy-as-possible-with-this-fandom timeline that's exactly what I was trying to make. Thank you.

(Erm, may I friend you? Don't fret if you want to say no; I won't be offended.)

[lindaleriel.livejournal.com]

I see you already had a looooong discission as to why the dates for the boys in school are all wonky, but it still just bugs me. My birthday is 8 days after Sam's I KNOW from experience that a May '83 baby graduates high school in May/June of '01, goes to college in August of '01, and should have graduated from college in May of '05 unless you were on a 5 years to your BA/BS plan, which is highly unlikely with a full ride I would think. Going by that he should have already been on law school in October/November of '05, not interviewing for law schools. I also have a good friend born in January of '79, he graduated high school in '97, and we know from cannon that Dean got his GED as soon as he turned 18, so while he was certainly still a Senior in high school in November of '96, he already had his GED by November of '97 and in November of '96, a May '83 baby was in 8th grade, not a freshman in high school as is implied in "After School Special". The whole thing just really really bugs me. It just doesn't make sense to me for a lot of reasons that Sam would have ever repeated a year. I could probably let it go a little better if I didn't feel so much like I know when someone with Sam's birthday did all this stuff because I was doing it too. OK, vent from random fic searcher over.

[moonshayde.livejournal.com]

I just found out about your timeline, for some reason. So much love!

Sinking of Titanic

[58vintagesunburst (from livejournal.com)]

I don't know exactly how one handles this one. Balthazar sinks Titanic or Titanic simply sinks or both, April, 1912

[supernutjapan.livejournal.com]

Wonderful! and a fun read too! otsukaresama!

(I have a few friends who write fic so I'm going to introduce your timeline for anyone who could use it aye?)

[cappy712.livejournal.com]

You are awesome!!!! Thank you for the time you spend doing this and sharing with all of us!