Timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Part 1, Beginning to Pre-Modern Day

(updated 3/10/13)

5000 Years Ago: The Dark Elves attempt to plunge the universe into darkness, but are stopped by the Asgardians, led by Odin’s father Bor.

975 AD: The Frost Giants attempt to conquer earth, but are stopped by Odin and the Asgardians. After a long war between the two, during which Odin loses an eye in battle, a fragile peace is declared. (Thor)

1480 Harbin Zemo stood alone against an invading horde armed only with a sword. He was elevated to nobility as a reward. He built Castle Zemo far into the Bavarian mountains of Europe. He attempted to uncover something buried in the mountains, something he heard in half remembered local legends called the Sleeper. He began excavation even as castle was constructed. Later the Third Baron Heller Zemo, found the Sleeper. Little else is known about subsequent Zemo’s except they slowly uncovered secrets from the Sleeper, and the 8th Zemo, Hillard, desired to educate the peasantry. (Captain America: Super Soldier, Video Game)

1930 September A young orphan, Steve Rogers, is attacked by bullies in Hell’s Kitchen New York. However, Rogers resiliency despite his small stature inspires a young Bucky Barnes to come to his aid and fight the bullies. The two become friends.(Captain America: First Vengeance, Digital Comic #1)

1934 February: Physicist Johann Schmidt meets Hitler at a Wagnerian Opera  in Berlin., where he speculates magic may be “the oldest science ever known ” Hitler is intrigued by  Schmidt’s ideas, but aid Ernst Kaufman is less impressed. Kaufman is head of Sturmabteilung’s special weapons division, which Schmidt says could supplant the German army with it’s advanced arsenal. Schmidt offers to conduct research in Kaufman’s unit, but is violently rejected. Himmler, head of the S.S. overhears the conversation, and takes Schmidt under his wing. (Captain America: First Vengeance, Digital Comic #3)

       June 30th: Hanselbauer Hotel Bad Weissee Bavaria, Schmidt kills Kaufman, and takes over the special weapons division. Schmidt says “You would be a “storm” trooper Kaufman. I will bring them thunder.”  (Captain America: First Vengeance, Digital Comic #3)

July 4th: Schmidt meets scientist Arim Zola, as a SA weapons testing grounds in Kummersdorf, 46 KM south of Berlin. Zola was working in Exo-skeleton technology, but Schmidt recruits him for his own projects. (Captain America First Vengeance, Digital Comic #4)

1935

       September 14th, At the German/Swiss border, Dr. Erskine is captured by Schmidt while trying to escape Germany, and is forced to continue his biology research under Schmidt. (Captain America: First Vengeance comic book)

1937  Unbeknownst to Dr. Erskine, his wife and children die of Typhus at a camp near Dachau.

1940

      February: In Los Angeles, after an attempted demonstration of the metal Vibranium, Howard Stark is recruited by Col. Phillips to help the allies in the upcoming war. (Captain America: First Vengeance comic book)

November: 2 days after Schmidt has an accident with Erskine’s formula, which disfigures his face but gives him super-human abilities, Agent 13/Peggy Carter rescues Dr. Erskine and reveals that his family is dead. Together they escape to America.

1941 Howard Stark presents inventions at the Worlds Fair (Stark Expo Website)

1942 March The Red Skull finds the Tesseract, a cube of strange power, said to be the jewel of Odin’s treasure room, in Tonsberg Norway. (Captain America: The First Avenger)

1943 Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes attend the Worlds Fair, before Bucky goes off the the army. Steve, a 90 pound sickly man, enters the Super Soldier Project where he becomes a semi-superhuman physical specimen. Nazi spies destroy the lab before more soldiers can be made. He becomes a propaganda tool known as Captain America, appearing in comics and film. During the next few years, he leads a group of soldiers from the SSR, Strategic Scientific Reserve, to fight Hydra, the Nazi Deep Science Division. (Captain America: The First Avenger)

1944 April Captain America invades a castle in Nazi in the occupied Danish Straits . The castle is controlled by Nazi special weapons unit Hydra. Here Cap fights a Nazi wearing an arc reactor powered battle suit, as well as an arc powered tank. He and the Howling Commandos survive an attempt by Schmidt to destroy them using a mystical Viking rune stone. (Captain America: First Vengeance, Digital Comic)

Also this year Captain America and his allies invade Castle Zemo in the Bavarian mountains. Here HYDRA attempts to unearth a Sleeper, a giant robotic like humanoid of unknown origin that is buried under the castle. Captain America defeats HYDRA and the castle is destroyed.

Near End of WWII Captain America hijacks a Hydra super plane that was going to attack the United States. On board was the Tesseract, which falls to the ocean. Captain America crashes the ship into the arctic, where he is frozen in suspended animation until the next century. While searching for Cap, Howard Stark finds the Tesseract under the sea, which presumably is the basis for Arc reactor technology. (Captain America: The First Avenger)

1946 Agent Carter recovers the Zodiac, after which Howard Stark appoints her head of the new organization known as SHIELD. (Agent Carter One Shot short film, on Iron Man 3 Blue Ray)

1954 Howard Stark makes first Stark Expo at Flushings New York (Stark Expo Website)

1963  Anton Vanko Defects from the Soviet Union (Iron Man 2)

Date Undertermined. Stark and Anton together develop arc reactor technology, but most of it is theoretical. However, they had an ideological disagreement. Anton wanted to use the researc to make money, and Howard wanted to help humanity with it. (Iron Man 2)

1967 Howard Stark took credit for all Arc Reactor research and Anton was deported back to the U.S.S.R. Because Anton couldn’t develop the technology on his own he’s sent to Siberia for 15 years. (Iron Man 2)

1969/1970 Tony Stark born. (It’s stated elsewhere Tony was 21 in 1991)

1973/74 Tony Stark builds his first circuit board at the age of four. (Iron Man)

1974 The last Stark Expo is held (Stark Expo website, Iron Man 2)

1975/76 Tony Stark at age 6 builds his first engine, apparently the first V-8.(Iron Man)

Tony’s engine is reported in a science magazine, which includes the headline “Will Arc Reactor Save All Our Energy Needs. Later it is stated the arc reactor was not cost effective, and no breakthrough is made for 30 years.

1986/87 Tony Stark graduates Summa Cum Laude from M.I.T at age 17. (Iron Man)

1988 A young Peter Quill is abducted by aliens and never returns to Earth. (Guardians of the Galaxy)

Early December 1991 Howard Stark and his wife are killed in a car accident. Tony Stark, at the age of 21, becomes CEO of Stark Industries. (Iron Man: A newspaper runs the story on 12/17)

1999 Tony Stark meets  Maya Henson, a scientist who was developing Extremis, which was a treatment for crippling injuries. Stark also meets and embarrasses Aldrich Killian, a crippled scientist who has a scientific think thank called Advanced Idea Mechanics, or AIM.

Date unknown: Harvard students Bruce Banner and Betty Ross volunteer for induced hallucination experiments. (Hulk)

About 5 years ago (Possible date March 7th). General Ross, Betty Ross, and Bruce Banner attempt to re-activate the WWII super soldier program. An accident occurs and Bruce Banner becomes the Hulk. He becomes a fugitive from the military and seeks a cure. Various sighting and incidents occur in 2004 and 2006 (Hulk)

Advertisement