Timeline (Pre-series)

Pre-series: pre-2005

Color Code: The color code should help you estimate the relevance of the information in canon, as there are some inconsistencies between the various texts. See Canon Discrepancies for further discussion.

White TV episodes.

Blue Online canon source (The Journal or Hunter's Blog).

Yellow Comics

Light Pink Tie-in Novels and other books.

Date	Event	Episode	Source
2005, first week of October	Sam's visions of Jess's death begins Max Miller's telekinetic abilities surface John Winchester cuts off contact with Dean (John is in Jericho, Dean in New Orleans) Possession of Meg Masters begins Andy Gallagher's powers of persuasion begin to manifest	N/A	Sam's dialogue in 1.05 Conversation between Sam & Max in 1.14 Dean tells Sam in 1.01 Meg reveals how long she's been possessed in 1.22 Andy discusses his powers with Sam in 2.05
2005, March	Jo transfers her diary entries from hardcopy to the online Hunter's Blog	N/A	Jo's Hunter's Blog.
2003, April 10	Jo goes on her first Ellen-sanctioned hunt, as an adult	N/A	Jo's Hunter's Blog.
sometime between 2002-05	Dean and Cassie Robinson meet and are romantically involved while Dean was doing a job near her college campus (In Athens, Ohio). Cassie breaks up with Dean after Dean tells her about hunting.	N/A	Dialogue in 1.12.
2001, August 22	Jo goes on her first hunt, with Gordon, without Ellen's permission	N/A	Jo's Hunter's Blog.
2001, March 6	Ash arrives at the Roadhouse	N/A	Jo's Hunter's Blog.
2001	Sam leaves hunting to go to Stanford University	N/A	First mentioned in 1.01. See Canon Discrepancies for discussion of how long Sam has been at college.
1999-2000	Dean goes on a solo "five states in five days" road trip, but ends up spending most of it in Cicero, Indiana, shacked up with a Yoga instructor called Lisa Braeden. In the meantime, John & Sam "tie up a hunt" in Orlando, Florida.	N/A	Dialogue between Sam & Dean in 3.02 The Kids Are Alright (Dean says it happened "about eight years ago".)
1998, January 17	Gordon starts frequenting the Roadhouse	N/A	Jo's Hunter's Blog.
1995, May 16	Death of William Anthony Harvelle. John Winchester stops coming to the Roadhouse	N/A	Jo's Hunter's Blog, dialogue of Ellen and Jo in 2.06.
1995 (approx)	Dean: ... So, picked up this crossbow, and I hit that ugly sucker with a silver-tipped arrow, right in his heart. Sammy's waiting in the car and, uh, me and my Dad take the thing into the woods, burn it to a crisp. I'm sitting there and I'm looking into the fire, I'm thinking to myself... I'm sixteen years old. Kids my age are worried about pimples, prom dates... I'm seeing things they'll never even know. Never even dream of. So right then I just sort of... Gordon: Embraced the life? Dean: Yeah.	N/A	This exchange occurs in 2.03.
1994, Februrary 19	John Winchester visits Harvelle's Roadhouse, not for the first (or last) time	N/A	Jo's Hunter's Blog.
1991, December 25	Sam (8) and Dean (12) are at a motel in Broken Bow, Nebraska. John is hunting while Sam and Dean spend Christmas alone together. Sam reads John's Journal and finds out that Mary's death was supernatural, monsters are real, and that John hunts them. He confronts Dean, who confirms it. Sam gives Dean an amulet.	3.08 A Very Supernatural Christmas	Flashback in 3.08
1991	John encounters and defeats a Woman in White outside Durant, Oklahoma	N/A	BoM
1990, September 29	Adam Milligan is born.	4.19 Jump The Shark	Mentioned in 4.19
1990, January	John is injured and goes to the hospital, where he meets Kate Milligan.	4.19 Jump The Shark	Mentioned in 4.19
1989, November 2	The Winchesters are in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Sam (age 6.5) believes that Mary died in a car accident. John is hunting. Dean (age 10) knows how to drive.	Origins 1 (back-up story)	The back-up story in Origins 1 gives the date & location, dialogue between Sam and Dean .
1989 (approx)	John is hunting a Shtriga in Wisconsin when he leaves Sam and Dean alone in a hotel room. Dean gets bored and goes out, and comes back to find the Shtriga attacking Sammy. John returns in time to scare the Shtriga off.	1.18 Something Wicked	Dean recounts the events to Sam in 1.18, saying they occured "16 or 17 years ago".
1985, April 7	Birth of Joanna Beth Harvelle (Jo)	N/A	Jo's Hunter's Blog.
1985-86 (approx)	Dean is "6 or 7". John takes Dean out shooting for the first time, using bottles as target practice. According to Dean, he "bullseyed every one of them." Dean cites this story as one of the fonder memories of his father	N/A	Story told by Dean to Jo in 2.06.
1984, January 24	Birth of Jessica Moore	N/A	Jess's headstone, with her birthdate, is shown in 1.02.
1983, December 25	Police close investigation of Mary Winchester's death.	N/A	The Journal (diary entries).
1983, December 23	John Winchester leaves Kate & Mike Guenther's, and possibly Lawrence	N/A	The Journal (diary entries).
1983, December 17	John Winchester meets Missouri Mosely	N/A	The Journal (diary entries).
1983, November	2-3 weeks following Mary's funeral (which John does not attend) - Missouri seeks John out, leads him to a supernatural death. John, Sammy & Dean are staying with Mary's best friend - Julie. Julie is killed by a supernatural evil that also threatens Sam and Dean.	Origins 1	The events of Origins 1.
1983, November 6	Mary Winchester's funeral. Her uncle arranges a headstone despite lack of remains.	N/A	The Journal (diary entries) and dialogue between Sam & Dean in 2.04.
1983, November 2	Death of Mary Winchester Sam is 6 months old	1.01 Pilot	Events of 1.01, documentation in The Journal (diary entries).
1983, May 2	Birth of Sam Winchester	N/A	Sam is 6 months old when Mary dies on November 2, 1983 (1.01). Sam's police record in 1.15 also states his birth date.
1979, January 24	Birth of Dean Winchester	N/A	Dean's police record in 1.15 states his birth date
late 1960s-early 1970s	John Winchester serves as a Marine in the Vietnam War	N/A	See John's page for speculation and reasoning behind suggested dates. In 1.01 we see John wearing a Marines shirt, and Dean's dialogue in 2.09 confirms this in more detail.
1955	Birth of Mary Winchester	N/A	Origins 1 back-up story. It is 1989 - Dean tells Sam that Mary would have been 34.
1954	Possible birth of John Winchester	2.20 What Is and What Should Never Be	In the alternate reality experienced by Dean in 2.20 John's gravestone indicates he was born in 1954. See John's page for speculation and reasoning behind suggested ages .