TIMELINE OF THE WARHAMMER 40,000 UNIVERSE  Compiled by Sean Patten
Color Code: Black= general history.  Blue= Space Marines.  Olive= IG. Red= Ecclesiarchy, administratum. Dark Red= Technology. Green=Alien / Chaos.

TIME EVENT

60 million years BC (approx) - Galaxy Wide Catastrophe. Faced with extinction, the Necrons constructed metal bodies as
repositories for their hyper-advanced minds. To weather the impending galatic bio-meltdown the Necrons constructed huge stasis chambers to shelter inside. NOTE: The C'tan are believed to have caused the near-extinction of life in the galaxy at this time.

9000 BC Birth of the EMPEROR.

8000 BC- 1400 AD  Birth of KHORNE, TZNEECH, NURGLE (Chaos Gods)

     ? ELDAR learn secrets of Warp Tunnel technology from the SLANN.
     ? Old SLANN culture dies out.  Slann warn Eldar of their own fall.

2,100 AD   MARS Terraformed.

3,000 WARP discovered.

15,000  Sublight spacecraft begin slowly colonizing nearby stars.

20,000  DARK AGE OF TECHNOLOGY.  Discovery of NAVIGATORS and development of WARP DRIVE aid colonization.  Galaxy explored in less than 1,000 years.  STC developed.  TITANS invented.

The Great Diaspora- humans seek to remake galaxy in their own image, including seeding worlds with familiar animals.

21,000  ALIEN WARS. Mankind encounters and fights with ORKS, ELDAR.

23,000- 24,000  AGE OF STRIFE.  Appearance of PSYCHIC powers, and WARP  ENTITIES. Earth and Colonies cut off by WARP STORMS. Appearance of ABHUMANS.  Man fights man.  STC system lost. AGE OF ISOLATION- Squat worlds cut off.  Formation of LEAGUES.

24,000  HORIAX TREATISE mentions genetic alteration techniques.

27,000 CIVIL WAR on Earth.   Earliest modified warriors aid the emperor in conquest of Terra.

29,500? Appearance of EMPEROR.  Earth tribes united.  Imperium begins.  AGE OF TRADE- Squats trade with Orks, Eldar (lasts 3000 yrs).

28,000   PRIMARCH PROJECT. 20 Primarchs created by Emperor.  Embryos are scattered through the warp by Chaos forces.  GREAT CRUSADE begins.

     ? AGE OF WARS-Squats betrayed by Orks, Eldar.

     ? FIRST FOUNDING.  20 chapters of SPACE MARINE created from gene seed samples that survived from the Primarch Project .

     ? ELDAR build CRAFT SHIPS, heeding the Slann warnings.

     ? FALL OF THE ELDAR. Eldar society collapses, creating Chaos god SLAANESH.  Homeworlds lost in creation of EYE OF TERROR.  End of the WARP STORMS  and the AGE OF STRIFE.

28,826  During banquet honoring pacification of the Cheraut system, Lord Princeps Ichabod Lethrai tells tale of conflict between primarchs Konrad Kurze and Rogal Dorn.  Shortly after their duel, Kurze disappeared, taking his fleet to Nostramo and destroying the planet, the first step in a campaign of terror whence Kurze eventually renounces the Emperor.

29,125?  LUNAR WOLVES renamed Sons of Horus.

29,812 (may be as early as 28,000)  GREAT CRUSADES.  Primarchs rediscovered and united with their Marine Chapters.  Human galaxy reclaimed under PAX IMPERIALIS.

29,000  GREAT CRUSADES continue, accelerated gene-culturing used to fill need for vast numbers of Marines leads to genetic flaws.

29,350 KARIS CEPHALON resettled during great crusades.

30,012 SCOURING OF ISSTVAN III.  Warmaster HORUS, with 4 other traitor Legions, virus bombs  Isstvan III to supress a minor rebellion.  Frigate EINSTEIN escape  with news of Horus' corrupt activities.

30,013 HORUS HERESY.  Seven legions Legion sent against Horus, but four defect to his side and three are destroyed.  Marine fight Marine in battles across the Galaxy.

30,014  (13th of Secundus)   SIEGE OF EARTH.  Horus lays siege to Emperor's Palace.  Emperor  teleports on board Horus' battle barge.  Sanguineous killed.  Horus  Mortally wounded.  Emperor wounded, placed in Golden Throne.

30,014- 30,021 GREAT SCOURING.  Rebel forces throughout the galaxy are quelled.  Chaos forces retreat into the Eye of Terror.

30,0XX  Dionerius' "Rise of Man" describes the Wulfen, the 13th comany of the Space Wolves, and how they  entered the Eye of Terror to pursue the traitor legions at the end of the Horus Heresy.  Primarch Guilliman and Dorn did not want to lose marines to such a campaign and advised against it, though it is not clear whether Russ sent the Wulfen in or if they went of their own accord.    The Wulfen were never seen or heard from again.

?  Roboute Guilliman compiles the first CODEX ASTARTES, which lays down the new organizational doctrine for Space Marine chapters.

30,021 SECOND FOUNDING.   Marine Legions broken into chapters.   23 new chapters created.  Grey Knights secretly created.

     ? Bjorn the Fell Handed becomes first Great Wolf after Russ dissapears.   After being fatally wounded, spends the next 500 years at the forefront of Space Wolves battles as a Dreadnought.

30,084- Jaghatai Khan disappears while fighting Dark Eldar on Corusil V, near the Maelstrom.  Presumably he pursued a Dark Eldar Lord through an alien portal that led into the dimension occupied by the Dark Eldar (Corrmaragh?).
 

     ? DARK FOUNDING (13th).  Unknown number or fate of chapters.  No record of the chapters or sample of their gene seed is maintained by Adeptus Terra.

31,000 Space Wolves base, the Fang, attacked by Magnus the Red and 1,000 sons as revenge for the destruction of Prospero.

31,000 Temple of the Savior Emperor recognized as the official religion of the Imperium, given the title of ADEPTUS MINISTORUM.

31,200 Ecclesiarch Veneris II becomes a High Lord of Terra.

31,243 Inq. Damakso first postulates that Chaos (and other?) gods must use mortals to manifest their power in the physical universe.

31,500 Ecclesiarch becomes a permanent position on the High Lords of Terra.

31,000+ Primarchs reportedly die or disappear over the following millenia.

33,000 BLACKSTAR CRUSADE Chaos forces Emerge from the Eye of Terror to mount a crusade into the Ganglax Sector.  Khorne champion Ekrak conquers M'laan XIII and turned it into a daemon world.

34,000 ECCLESIARCHY's power wanes.

34, 200 ECCLESIARCHY  under Benedin IV moves to Ophelia VII and grows in power.

34,342 Inquisitor Eisenhorn declares Inquisitor Quixos a heretic and Extremis Diabolus.  Eisenhorn leads a cell that hunts down and kills Quixos 3 years later. (Quixos approx. 300 years old at this point).

34,344   Initial Imperial surveys of Tomb complexes on Angelis (Gorkamorka)  Later in M.35,  Ork Spacehulk crashlands on Angelis, burying the humans alive around the temples. The survivors descend into savagery, becoming the Diggas. Necrons possibly ally with some members of the Diggas to subjugate the other tribes and repulse the Orks.

34,500 GREIGOR XI becomes Ecclesiarch, declares Ecclesiarchy will return to Earth.

34,359 - Imperial Explorators gain access to deserted Necrontyr tombs on Angelis.

34,762-765  Tallarn scout squad "Lurenz's Gravediggers" harass Eldar forces on Holon Prime.

34, 843 Distress call from Grendel's World investigated- planet discovered to have been attacked and all inhabitants slain by terror tactics of the Night Lords.

34,??? (late M35) BATTLE OF THE BROADSWORD- Tallarn supress chaemos Rebellion.

35, 266  SEBASTIAN THOR born on Dimmamar.

35,000  MYTHOS ANGELICA MORTIS written, including a description of the Emperor's Champion in the Appendix CXVI "Honorifics of the Legions Astartes".

     ? CURSED FOUNDING (21st).  Took place some time immediately before the Age of Apostasy.   Largest founding since the Second Founding.    Experimentation conducted to create improved, massive Space Marines goes awry.  Fire Hawks, Flame Falcons, Black Dragons,  and other chapters are created with cursed gene seed.  Some chapters mutated horribly.  Flame Falcons spontaneous and extreme physical corruption turn them into a race no longer human or sane- Chapter declared Excommmunicate and driven from it's home world of Lethe by the Grey Knights.

35,000  AGE OF APOSTASY- Warp storms increase.  Imperium in turmoil.  Ecclesiarchy becomes more tyrannical.  Chaos, ork attacks increase. Zhoros (Fire Hawks' world) Thermal Bombed.   High Lord Vandire comes to power, converts the Daughters of the Emperor to be his personal bodyguards.  Sebastian Thor becomes a threat to Vandire, but when Vandire sends the Frateris Templar fleet to destroy Dimmamar, the fleet is wiped out by a Warp Storm in the Clax system.  Vandire is finally defeated by combined forces of Tech Guard, Space Marines and Adeptus Custodes under the Confederation of Light, led by Thor.

35,000  WARS OF VINDICATION- shortly after the death of High Lord Goge Vandire, Tziz Jarek of the Callidus Assassins, under Vandire's orders, kills the Grand Master of Assassins and assumed his identity- but the Grand Master had actually replaced himself with another Callidus assassin, and gathered assassins loyal to him to wage war against this usurper, and both sides used horrible weapons of destruction.  Finally the Grand Master assassinated Jarek and then dissappeared in self imposed exile.  Inquisitor Jaeger, after investigating the wars, created the Ordo Sicarius to monitor the Officio Assassinorum and prevent such an occurrence again.

35,288  DECREE PASSIVE.  High Lords of Terra prohibits Ecclesiarchy from controlling any "men under arms".  Sebastian Thor forms the orders militant of the Adepta Sororitas.

35,298  SEBASTIAN THOR leaves the Ecclesiarchical palace and journeys throughout the Imperium for 80 years, quelling heresy and apostasy.

35, 300  PLAGUE OF UNBELIEF  Cardinal Bucharis, with Admiral Sehalla and Colonel Gasto, carves a bloody empire from Gathalamor, stretching as far south as Bakka and north to Fenris, and included the fleet at Hydraphur, Bucharis claimed that Earth was a lost cause and Gathalamor would be the new center of faith.  When his empire stretched into territories controlled by the Space Wolves, a protracted space and land war broke out including a 3 year siege of the Space Wolves fortress, the Fang.

35, 378  SEBASTIAN THOR returns to Earth, dies at age 112.  Ecclesiarch Alexis XXII, Thor's successor, splits the Convent Sanctorum and Convent Prioris into two orders each, forming the Orders Militant of the Ebon Chalice, Valorous Heart, Fiery Heart and Argent Shroud.

35, 453 Beelze conflict- Eldar of the Alaitoc craftworld cause diplomatic contact with Lexicos Aldus Mari to be broken.

35,694 STC QUEST.  Chief Artisan Tilius begins search for working STC.

35,994 Razorback STC discovered by Tilius.

35,776  16th Armageddon Steel Legion on Cassell put down  Rebellion by cult of The Way of the Emperor's Flesh in less than 6 hours.

36, 563  Assassin Urhua Thereaux of the Venenum Temple sent to assassinate renegade Governor Yawell.  Ship was caught in a warp rift, holding the vessel in a temporal stasis for 698 years.

36,361 Traitor marines led by Orik the Vile (Alpha Legion) vs. Cadians on Mihok Secundus.

37,261  Thereaux, unaware of the temporal stasis, proceeded to the target only to find the Governor long since dead and replaced by an anti-Imperial committee with 1,000 members.  Thereaux spent three days poisoning all the chairs in the council's auditorium to kill all the members.

37,437 IYBRAESIL Eldar Craftworld first detected in West Quadrant, Segmentum Obscurus.

37,788  Ecclesiarch Deacis VI creates two more orders of Sororitas (bloody rose and sacred rose).

37,873 Explorator vessel  Incalculus Stellar brings alien edifice to Skopios asteroid research base.  Base taken over by unknown enemy (possibly C'tan?), base turned over to manufacture of skeletal robots (Necons?).  Base destroyed, declared Purgatus for 300 years.

38, 763  Crusader pattern Land Raider officially recognized by the Techpriests of Mars.

38,985 SQUAT CIVIL WAR.  League THOR fights League GRINDEL over
 exploration of the Lost Stronghold of DARGON.  Cyclops invented.

38,985 DONIAN CRUSADE  Black Templars clear  the Donian sector of Orks.

38,998 UNHOLY HARBINGER space hulk breaks from warp near Cloras jump point.

39,433  Autarch of planet Krieg declares independence and renounces Emperor.  Colonel Jurten of Krieg 33rd unleashes campaign of atomic cleansing that lasts 5 years, turns Krieg into wasteland.  From then on, Death Korps forces embark on quest of absolution.

39,561 NEXXAS EXCULPATION.  Emperor's Children vs. Imperial Guard.

39,666  An Imperial patrol force engages Necron warships in the Yuctan system. Only a single Cobra destroyer escapes; when Imperial fleet returns, all colonists are missing.

39,675  Hive world Vidium lost to Dark Eldar.

39,924 Vindicare assassin destroys Gargant, terminates Warlord Urglak the unstoppable on Roxanzand.

39,989  YME-LOC Eldar Craftworld first detected in  Segmentum obscurus, West Quadrant

40,085  By request of Inquisitor Scallen, Sisters of the Order of the Valorous Heart purge Hive Tumulus (on planet Farglum) of the cult Epicurian.

40,139  Abaddon's forces complete construction of the Planet Killer in the Eye of Terror.
40, 142- 40,160  Abaddon uses the Planet Killer to lead a Black Crusade that ravages the Gothic Sector.
40,154 The Planet Killer is finally destroyed.  No traces of the remains are found by Inquisitor Horst's investigation 2 years later.

40,213 Castaburg invaded by orks under Warlord Skarmork.   Death Corps of Krieg counterattack.

40,273 Inq. Drako visits Stalinvast.  Hydra found.  Stalinvast destroyed.

40,342  Inquisitor Quixos declared Heretic and Extremis Diabolus by Inquisitor Eisenhorn.

40,356 MACHARIUS BORN, son of Pella, Imperial Commander of Donia

40,359  COPUL IV Cleansed by Ultramarines.

40,367  Ork world of  BALUR  scoured by Marine and IG campaign led by Calgar.

40,371  Brother Sergeant Severus of the Ultramarines  wounded  on Corinth, interred in Dreadnought.  Returns for 7 year Corinthian crusade in 698.M41.

40,373 Inquisitors murdered.  Drako raids Black Library. Planet Sabulorb   incinerated.   Drako killed in Eldar Webway.

40,374 Macharius earns the Colonelcy of the Donian XXVI.
40,379 Macharius becomes the general of the Donian IV army duringe the Roxane rebellion.
40,380  Macharius takes the stronghold of rebel leader Roxane Mountjoy, and rescues Lord Solar Commander Phillips, becoming Phillips' second in command and most successful general.
40,386  Lord Solar Phillips dies.  Macharius appointed Lord Solar.
40,387-391 As Macharius' armies assemble, he reconquers the worlds of Lands End, Morbellum and Jalfrezi III with his Donian army.
40,392 Macharius begins his great conquest of the western galaxy.  Over a thousand worlds fall to him and his Generals over the next seven years:
40,392 The hive world of Persepolis is recontacted after 5,000 years.  Macharius finds the tomb of the ancient explorer Indijona the Vagrant, and takes the Helm he finds there for himself.
40,393 While fighting against Chaos Marines on Zaga IV, a bolter round embeds in Macharius' chest but does not explode.  The Confessores proclaim this an Emperor's Miracle.
40,395  Macharius orders  the advanced technology world of Adrantis V destroyed by a redirected comet, and disbands the 3rd army group.
40,396 Macharius' 2nd and 5th army cross the boundary of the Astronomicaon.
40,398 Warp travel is slow, but Macharius still conquers another 15 worlds- and destroys seven.
40,399 Macharius bombards the Carnelion Palace of Leminitus into submission.  His Generals decide the conquests should end.
40,400 Macharius dies before reaching the old boundaries of the Imperium.
40,401 Macharius is entombed on Macharia, his first base of operations.

40,450-465 HESTEN manuscript, documenting principles of the God Incarnate (Thorian doctrine), compiled by Inq. Hesten.

40,474  ARMAGEDDON RIOTS.  Warp storms cut off Armageddon.  Food shortages lead to armed rebellion in a dozen hives.  First War of Armageddon?  (see 40,891.)

40, 452  Sororitas (Bleeding Heart) entrusted with  bones of St. Emiline must evacuate Emilines Hope (shrine world) when Yerena system invaded by Ork Waagh! under command of Arch Maniac of Calvera.

40,567 Sergeant Lystander awarded Imperial Laurel   for acts of courage under fire during pacification of heretical insurgence on Iduno.

40,659 LOGAN GRIMNAR becomes new Great Wolf of the Space Wolves.

40,698  CORINTHIAN CRUSADE  Calgar elected leader of Marine force including Ultramarines, Lamenters, Marines Errant, Angels of Absolution, and Silver Skulls on a 7 year crusade.  Orke empire of Charadon suffers series of heavy defeats, delaying the invasion of Waaagh Argluk by 30 years.

40,704  SIEGE OF TULWA- Calgar leads infiltration force that destroyed the Fortress of Pain (Iron Warriors).

40,737 VALOS reported stripped of life.  (Hive Fleet Behemoth).

40.738 LATEST FOUNDING (26th).  Most current founding as of 40,995.

40,745 Ultramarines retaliation against the Tau empire cut short by invasion of hive fleet Behemoth.

40,745 FIRST TYRANNIC WAR.   Hive Fleet BEHEMOTH attacks the Ultramarines homeworld MACRAGGE.   Defeated at great cost- entire first company wiped out.

40,759  SCOURING OF QUINTARN.  Calgar commands forces against Ork scavengers who captered triple system of Quintarn, Tarentus and Masali (part of Ultramarines Empire) in the aftermath of Hivefleet Behemoth.

40, 765  Space Marine Chapter Losses to date:  13 Lost in warp, 21 Irrecoverable battle losses, 9 Gene seed failure, 4 Inquisitorial purge, 16 Other circumstances.

40,780 FOURTH QUADRANT REBELLION.   (40,903?)

40,801  LUGANNATH eldar craftworld first detected by the Imperium.

40,807  PURGATION OF JHANNA- Calgar leads two Ultramarine companies in the recature of rebellious oceanic cities of Omon and Vorlencia, against renegades and Chaos marines.

40,815 Space Wolves Great Wolf Sven Ironhand revokes his oath and leads his Great Company into exile in the Eastern Fringes.

40,853 Battle of the Steel Cross- Captain Cortez of the Crimson Fists slays ork Warlord and his bodyguard.

40,861  Battle of Arconar- Calgar defeats coalition of Eldar Raiders on the feral world  of Arconar, scattering their forces and capturing their bases both on and off world.

40, 867 Captain Cortez of the Crimson Fists breaks through Eldar lines despite suffering 17 wounds including stab through one of his hearts and two heavy weapons hits.

40,879  Battle of Knarts Landing- Calgar defeats rebel army led by General Dornal  in 30 day battle on industrial world of Knart's Landing, taking less than 17% casualties.

40,891 FIRST BATTLE FOR ARMAGEDDON.  Chaos incursion led by Angron  and World Eaters beaten back by Space Wolves and Grey Knights.

40, 892 Cortez defended breach in Fortress Maladon's wall for 21 hours of constant fighting.

40,897  Massacre at Sanctuary 101.  Adeptus Sororitas fortress  destroyed by Necron raiders.

40,901 BADAB WAR.  Tiger Claws' master, Lufgt Huron, revolts.
40,903 Lamenters, Mantis Warriors, Executioners join revolt.
40,903  Captain Cortez fights through the entire Kardian  six week campaign without supplies after they had been lost to enemy fire during deployment.
40,904 Fire Hawks retaliate when their supply ship is captured by rebels.
40,906 Red Scorpions and Minotaurs called in to suppress revolt.
40,907(913?)Executioners, Lamenters sent on penitent 100 year Crusade.

40,917  Battle of Amion.  Red talons and Steel Legion vs. rebel Imperial forces.

40,940 Tzeench cults revolt on planet Chicano.  World lost.

40,941-2 SECOND BATTLE FOR ARMAGEDDON.   Ork WAAAGH! led by Ghazghkull  Mag Uruk Thraka assault the hive world Armageddon Secundus.  Lord Herman Von Straub's forces are saved by Commissar Yarrick's performance.

40,942 Eldar Commander YRIEL is the leader of the Iyanden Fleet.

40,944 Balur Crusade- Calgar elected leader of Marine Crusade force operating against worlds along the Eastern Fringe.  Operations began with scouring of Ork held Balur and ending with devastation of Boros.

40, 945 - 40, 959 Ghazghkull Thraka mounts raids on various planets

40,946 Dante, Yarrick, Mannheim monitoring stations established in outermost orbit of Armageddon system.

40,962 Imperial base on Buca III annihilated by ork asteroid base (Thraka)

40,963 Fire Hawks Fortress Monastery, Rapturous Rex, sent to Crow's World sector to investigate Dark Eldar.
 They dissapear en route.

40, 972 Imperial agri-world Chigon 17 overrun by orks under Thraka using guerilla tactics.

40,976 Hive fleet Perseus detected by Ultramarines.
40,981 Durlan Ocellati discovers warp route into Wheel of Fire.
40,982 Last encounter with Hive Fleet Perseus.  Drifts outsystem.

40,983 Fire Hawks declared lost in the warp.

40,984 BATTLE OF HELL TOWN.  Pyran Dragoons assigned to Armageddon jungle base desert their posts, leaving the Armageddon Ork Hunters to defend against ork invasion.

40, 986 Imperial Battlecruiser Radiant Way wiped out by ork pirates led by Thraka.

40,987 Space Wolves 519th crusade ends in Wheel of Fire (orks cleared)
.
40,988 Crimson Fists nearly wiped out by their own missile while fighting  orks on Rynn's world.

40,989 Blood Angels Terminators killed while exploring a Space Hulk.

40,992 SECOND TYRANNIC WAR.  Iyanden craftworld nearly destroyed by Hive Fleet KRAKEN.  Lamenters chapter lost.  Scythes of the  Emperor chapter badly depleted, homeworld lost.

40,992  The VIII Kimmerian regiment, fighting orks on the eastern fringe, are assisted by Jotun Bearclaw's renegade Great Company, who refused to return to Fenris after fighting at Ichar IV due to the length of travel time involved.

40,995 BATTLE OF KORSK II.  Lord Vorlak leads a rebellion that is crushed by marines in a major tank battle on the plains of Korsk II.

40,995 DEFENSE OF ICHAR IVCalgar acts as supreme commander in defense of Ichar IV, a vital industrial world on the Eastern Fringe.  Tyranid invaders from Hivefleet Kraken held in check by the combined efforts of Space Marines, Imperial Guard and alien Eldar forces.

40,998  Historicus Coran Celecius tried for heresy after his work links the Aphis hermitage massacre to the Necrontyr and other
mysterious past encounters.