Timeline of the Wizarding World

Introduction:

The first half of the twentieth century is the era of Tom Riddle, Rubeus Hagrid, and Minerva McGonagall. The story of Harry Potter really starts during these years with the birth of two unusual, non-pure-blood boys who would have an enormous impact on his life fifty years later. Half-giant Rubeus Hagrid is described during these early years as "big, blundering,...in trouble every other week," while half-blood Tom Marvolo Riddle is the complete opposite: "poor but brilliant, parentless but so brave, school prefect, model student." The two boys, as well as Minerva McGonagall, were born in the mid-1920s. They attended Hogwarts one year apart from each other, until Tom Marvolo Riddle's malevolent actions framed Hagrid and got him expelled. Tom Marvolo Riddle had discovered the Chamber of Secrets, and this event was the catalyst for his eventual metamorphosis into Lord Voldemort some ten years later.

Minerva McGonagall was a witness to these events as a student, as was Albus Dumbledore, who was close to a hundred years old and a teacher at the time. Dumbledore's influence on events was subtle -- he suspected and distrusted Riddle and kept him under close watch. Dumbledore restored Hagrid to something akin to a normal life. He also defeated the dark wizard Grindelwald at this time. These events would resonate through the story of Harry Potter fifty years later.

early 20th century
Roderick Plumpton captains the Tutshill Tornados to five British and Irish League wins.

1900
Perpetua Fancourt, inventor of the Lunascope, is born (fw75)

1901
Gladys Boothby creates the Moontrimmer broom (QA9)

1903
Roland Kegg, president of the English Gobstones team, is born (fw76)
Tilly Toke, hero of the Ilfracombe Incident of 1932, is born (fw77)

1904
Dorcas Wellbeloved dies (fw62)

1910
Leopoldina Smethwyck dies (fw64)

1911
Joscelind Wadcock, famous Chaser for Puddlemere United, is born (fw78)

1912
Derwent Shimpling, comedian and famously purple wizard, is born (fw79)

1915
Jocunda Sykes, first person to cross the Atlantic on a broomstick, is born (fw80)

Y-63 (1917)

Frank Bryce born (GF1)
Frank was about to celebrate his 77th birthday at the beginning of book four, which is Y14. He was born, then, in Y14-77, which is Y-63. According to the official timeline, Y-63 is 1917.

1917
Celestina Warbeck, the "Singing Sorceress," is born (fw81)

1918
Augustus Worme of Obscurus Books commissions the young Newt Scamander to write a guide of magical beasts. The result is Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, first published in 1927, a book which has since gone into 52 editions. (FBix))

1921
Miranda Goshawk, famous spell-book writer, is born (fw83)

Roderick Plumpton of the Tutshill Tornados makes the fastest-ever capture of the Snitch: three and a half seconds in a match against the Caerphilly Catapults. (QA7)

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1922
Carlotta Pinkstone, famous for wanting to lift the Wizard's Statute of Secrecy, is born (fw84)

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c. Y-55 (c.1925) MM=0  AD=80

Minerva McGonagall born (Sch2).
JKR said in Sch2 that McGonagall was "a sprightly 70" years old. Using that information, we can determine the year in which she was born by subtracting 70 years. As with Dumbledore's birthyear, the trick, of course, is knowing what year to subtract that 70 years from. If we assume that Rowling was saying that McGonagall was 70 years old at that point in the stories, which was summer of Y15, then she was born in Y-55 (Y15 minus 70 years). According to the official timeline, Y-55 is 1925. Interestingly, that would make McGonagall a contemporary of Tom Marvolo Riddle at Hogwarts...

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1926 MM=1  AD=81
Bob, Bill, and Barnaby Ollerton start the Cleansweep Broom Company. Their first broom, the Cleansweep One, revolutionizes the game of Quidditch. (QA9)

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c. Y-54/53
New Years Eve
(1926) official timeline,
(1927) literal book interpretation MM=2  AD=82  TR=0

Tom Marvolo Riddle born
Tom Marvolo Riddle born in a Muggle orphanage to a witch mother, Merope Gaunt, and Muggle father, Tom Riddle. His mother dies, living just long enough to name her son after his father, Tom, and her father, Marvolo Gaunt. Sometime before this, Tom Riddle Sr. had left Merope when he realized that she was a witch, and the child is raised in an orphanage.
Tom said that he was sixteen years old at the time of Hagrid's expulsion from Hogwarts. Hagrid was expelled in his third year, which was fifty years ago from June of Y13, or Y-37. Tom was born in Y-53, therefore, or 1927. However, according to the official timeline (CS/DVD), Hagrid's expulsion was in June of 1942, not 1943, which means that Hagrid's expulsion from Hogwarts was actually fifty-ONE years before June of Y13. Riddle was 16, then, in June of 1942, and therefore was born in 1926. Either date may be considered correct. However, since the Lexicon follows what is directly given in the books over other sources, the dates in this timeline are derived from a literal interpretation of fifty years.

New Year's Eve is given in HBP13. Depending on exactly when Merope Gaunt Riddle arrived at the orphanage, Tom may have been born on New Year's Eve or just after midnight, on New Year's Day. Since the book says New Year's Eve, however, that's what we go with here on the Lexicon.

1927
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is first published. (FBix)

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Y-52 (1928) MM=3  AD=83  TR=1  RH=0

December 6
Rubeus Hagrid born of human father and Fridwulfa, a giantess

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1929 MM=4  AD=84  TR=2  RH=1
Randolph Keitch and Basil Horton create the Comet broom company. Their first model is the Comet 140 (QA9).

1929
October
Stock market crash in the U.S., beginning of the Great Depression

c. Y-49 (1931) MM=6  AD=86  TR=4  RH=3

Fridwulfa abandons Hagrid and his father, her human family
"'Course, I can' remember her too well...she left, see. When I was abou' three. She wasn' really the maternal sort." (GF24)

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1932 MM=7  AD=87  TR=5  RH=4

The Ilfracombe Incident
A rogue Welsh Green dragon descended on a beach full of Muggle holidaymakers. Tilly Toke and her family happened to be there. She was awarded the Order of Merlin First Class for saving Muggle lives. The Toke family cast the largest Mass Memory Charm of this century on all the Muggles of Ilfracombe. The Muggles now remember nothing of the incident, with the exception of an old fellow now called Dodgy Dirk, who still claims that a "dirty great flying lizard" attacked him on the beach. People think he's crazy, of course. (fw77, FBxvi, c.f.FB12)

Appleby Arrows defeat the Vrasta Vultures in what is considered by most Arrows fans to be their finest hour. The match lasted sixteen days (QA)

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1934 MM=9  AD=89  TR=7  RH=6
Cleansweep Two is released (QA9)

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1935 MM=10  AD=90  TR=8  RH=7
first Atlantic broom crossing by Jocunda Sykes on an Oakshaft 79

Oswald Beamish, pioneer of Goblin rights, dies (fw66)

Bertie Bott, inventor of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, is born (fw85)

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1936 MM=11  AD=91  TR=9  RH=8
c. Y-44 (1936)

September
McGonagall starts her first year at Hogwarts; she is sorted into Gryffindor
JKR has stated on her website that Heads of Houses were members of those Houses when they were at Hogwarts (JKR)

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1937 MM=12  AD=92  TR=10  RH=9
c. Y-43 (1937)

September
McGonagall starts her second year at Hogwarts

1937
Cleansweep Three is released (QA9)

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1938 MM=13  AD=93  TR=11  RH=10
Comet 180 is released (QA9)

c. Y-42 (1938)

summer
Dumbledore visits Tom Marvolo Riddle in the orphanage and offers him a place at Hogwarts. (HBP13)

September
McGonagall starts her third year at Hogwarts

Y-42 (1938)

September
Tom Marvolo Riddle starts his first year at Hogwarts

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1939 MM=14  AD=94  TR=12  RH=11
c. Y-41 (1939)

September
McGonagall starts her fourth year at Hogwarts

Y-41 (1939)

September
Tom Marvolo Riddle starts his second year at Hogwarts
he hears about the Chamber of Secrets and determines to find and open it

early 1940s

Albus Dumbledore is Transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts
Armando Dippet is Headmaster of Hogwarts
Frank Bryce returns from fighting in World War Two.
He "had a hard war," according to the barkeep at the pub in Little Hangleton. He was wounded and walks with a limp. He takes up as gardener for the Riddles and avoids people for the most part (GF1)
Bryce came home quite a few years before the end of the war in 1945, undoubtedly because he was wounded.

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1940 MM=15  AD=95  TR=13  RH=12
Tinderblast broom is released by Ellerby and Spudmore of the Black Forest (QA9)

c. Y-40 (1940)

September
McGonagall starts her fifth year at Hogwarts

Y-40 (1940)

September
Tom Marvolo Riddle starts his third year at Hogwarts
Hagrid starts his first year at Hogwarts; he is sorted into Gryffindor
His birthday is December 6 (JKR), so he turns 12 a couple of months after starting Hogwarts.

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c. Y-40 through -39 (1940-41)

Hagrid acquires an Acromantula egg and hatches it in a cupboard in the castle
"I was not born in the castle. I come from a distant land. A traveler gave me to Hagrid when I was an egg. Hagrid was only a boy, but he cared for me, hidden in a cupboard in the castle, feeding me on scraps from the table." (CS17)

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1941MM=16  AD=96  TR=14  RH=13

December 7 - Attack on Pearl Harbor

c. Y-39 (1941)

June
McGonagall sits her OWLs

September
McGonagall starts her sixth year at Hogwarts

Y-39 (1941)

September
Tom Marvolo Riddle starts his fourth year at Hogwarts

Hagrid starts his second year at Hogwarts
"...big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week..."

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Y-39-38 (1941-42)

Hagrid's father dies
"Course, I never was great shakes at magic, really... but at least he never saw me expelled. Died, see, in me second year..." (GF24)

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1942 MM=17  AD=97  TR=15  RH=14
Eunice Murray, famous Seeker for the Montrose Magpies, dies (QA7)

Y-38 (1942)

September
Tom Marvolo Riddle starts his fifth year at Hogwarts
He is made a Prefect.
McGonagall starts her seventh year at Hogwarts
[Anyone want to lay bets on whether she was Head Girl or not?]
Hagrid starts his third year at Hogwarts

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1943MM=18  AD=98  TR=16  RH=15
Y-37 (1943)

late May - early June
Tom Marvolo Riddle learns to open the Chamber of Secrets and releases the Basilisk
"It had taken me five whole years to find out everything I could about the Chamber of Secrets and discover the secret entrance."
a student named Myrtle dies in a second floor bathroom after seeing the basilisk
June - first week
McGonagall sits her NEWTs

June 13
Hagrid falsely accused of opening the Chamber of Secrets
Aragog the acromantula is released into the Forest where he establishes a colony of the giant spiders

after June 13
Tom Marvolo Riddle is given an Award for Service to the School
Hagrid is expelled from Hogwarts
McGonagall leaves Hogwarts
Tom Marvolo Riddle sits his OWLs
Deduced from Riddle's birth year

summer
Tom Marvolo Riddle murders his father and grandparents in their mansion in Little Hangleton
He first visits his uncle, Morfin Gaunt, and uses magic to steal Marvolo's ring and frame Morfin for the murders of the Muggles in the big house on the hill.
Tom gave up trying to find his father's name in wizarding records and then discovered his maternal line. According to HBP17:

"In the summer of his sixteenth year, he left the orphanage to which he returned annually and set off to find his Gaunt relatives... Meanwhile, in the village of Little Hangleton, a maid was running along the high street, screaming that there were three bodies lying in the drawing room of the big house: Tom Riddle Senior and his mother and father." (p340, 342)

September
Tom Marvolo Riddle starts his sixth year at Hogwarts
He is now wearing the ring he stole from his uncle Morfin during the summer. He meets with his Head of House, Professor Slughorn, accompanied by his group of friends which includes Avery and Lestrange. He asks Slughorn about Horcruxes.

Tom Marvolo Riddle constructs his diary
He uses the recent murders and the knowledge he gained from Slughorn to work the Dark Magic required to turn the diary into a Horcrux.
Tom says that he placed his "sixteen-year-old self" into the diary, so he must have done it in the fall after the summer when he killed the Riddles and before he turned 17 at the end of December. His conversation with Slughorn where he learned about Horcruxes must have taken place after school started that September, so the timeframe for the creation of the diary Horcrux is between September and December, 1943. All along, Tom realized that Dumbledore was watching him closely:

"I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was still at school. But I wasn't going to waste those long years I'd spent searching for it. I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so that one day, with luck, I would be able to lead another in my footsteps, and finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work."

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After June 1943

Hagrid is kept on and trained as gamekeeper, thanks to Professor Dumbledore
"Only the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore, seemed to think Hagrid was innocent. He persuaded Dippet to keep Hagrid and train him as gamekeeper."

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1944 MM=19  AD=99  TR=17  RH=16
Y-36 (1944)

September
Tom Marvolo Riddle begins his seventh year at Hogwarts.
He is Head Boy. He is dabbling in the Dark Arts and some of his closest friends are starting to refer to him as Lord Voldemort; outwardly, however, he is a model student

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1945 MM=20  AD=100  TR=18  RH=17
Devlin Whitehorn, founder of the Nimbus Racing Broom company, is born. (fw86)

Dumbledore defeats the dark wizard Grindelwald

Y-35 (1945)

June
Tom Marvolo Riddle sits his NEWTs
Tom Marvolo Riddle leaves Hogwarts

August 1945
World War Two ends

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after summer 1945
Tom Marvolo Riddle disappears after leaving school
He travels far and wide, sinking deeply into the Dark Arts, consorting with the very worst of wizard-kind. Riddle undergoes so many dangerous, magical transformations that when he resurfaces years later as Lord Voldemort, he is barely recognizable.

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1947 MM=22  AD=102  TR=20  RH=19
Darren O'Hare begins his career with the Kenmare Kestrels; he plays until 1960 (QA7)

Creation of the Werewolf Register by Newt Scamander of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures (FBvi).

A History of Magic, by Bathilda Bagshot, is published by Little Red Books (FBxv)

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1949 MM=24  AD=104  TR=24  RH=21
A blue roan Hippocampus is caught off the coast of Scotland by Merpeople and domesticated