Originally from the Back to the Future timeline article.

The popularity of the Back to the Future film trilogy is due in part to the detailed and believable local history of the fictitious city of Hill Valley and the genealogies of its residents.

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Everything in this timeline is either seen in the films (or on newspapers seen in the films), in the novels, in the screenplays, or said by the Bobs (director/co-writer Robert Zemeckis and producer/co-writer Bob Gale). In addition, a couple of dates (Verne's birthdate and Clara's birth year) have been concluded from the animated series, although whether or not that information is canon is subject to dispute by fans. Information from fan fiction is not included.

Events taking place in the alternate timeline seen in Back to the Future Part II, are in italics.

1850s

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1860s

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  • 1861
    • Dates unknown: The earliest of Doc's emergency money is printed.
  • 1866
    • Date unknown: Eleven-year-old Clara comes down with diphtheria and is quarantined for three months. As a result, her father places a telescope next to her bed for her to use, which sparks her lifelong interest in astronomy and science.

1870s

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1880s

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  • 1880
    • Date unknown: Around this year Seamus McFly, his wife Maggie McFly and his brother Martin emigrate from Ireland to the United States. Based on Seamus saying that his brother was stabbed in Virginia City, the McFlys might have taken a few years to get to California, settling in a few other places along the way.
  • 1885
    • Thursday, January 1st: Dr. Emmett Brown (of 1985) arrives from 1955. He sets up as a blacksmith in Hill Valley. (In so doing, Doc may interfere with the normal timeline by replacing another blacksmith or stealing business from other blacksmiths in town or other towns - however, it is possible that there would have been no blacksmith at all if Doc were not there.)
    • April: William Sean McFly born, first son to Seamus and Maggie McFly and the first McFly born in America.
    • Saturday, July 4th: Doc passes out after drinking one shot of whiskey at the 4th of July celebrations.
    • Saturday, August 29th: There is a meeting of the townspeople over who will pick up the new schoolteacher on the 4th. Originally, no one volunteers. In the timeline with Doc there, he volunteers; and in the timeline without Marty, he picks her up.
    • Tuesday, September 1st: Doc buries the broken DeLorean time machine in the Delgado mine and writes a letter to Marty McFly, currently stranded in 1955.
    • Wednesday, September 2nd: Marty McFly arrives in 1885 to rescue Doc and accidentally rips the fuel line in the time machine. He later meets his ancestors Seamus and Maggie McFly.
    • Thursday, September 3rd: Marty runs into Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen, great grandfather of Biff Tannen, and upsets him, causing Tannen to nearly hang Marty (going under the name "Clint Eastwood"). Doc saves Marty in time.
    • Friday, September 4th: Doc tries repairing the DeLorean, and accidentally saves the life of Clara Clayton, who was supposed to originally fall into Shonash Ravine (resulting in the name Clayton Ravine until the Doc's picking her up on the 29th prevented that change). It is love at first sight.
    • Saturday, September 5th: The Hill Valley festival. Doc and Clara dance. Originally, Buford Tannen shot Doc here, causing him to die two days later, but thanks to "Clint," this is avoided.
    • Sunday, September 6th: Doc and Marty prepare to go back to the future. Doc says goodbye to Clara and tells her the truth, but she doesn't believe him.
    • Monday, September 7th: Marty has a showdown scheduled with Tannen; Marty and Doc are ready to escape through the back door when Tannen calls Marty "yellow." Marty still decides not to face Tannen, showing an incredible amount of growth from a mere day earlier, and is about to walk away when Tannen's gang gets ahold of Doc and threatens to shoot him. Marty then decides to face Tannen, and survives due to a trick learned from the Clint Eastwood movie A Fistful of Dollars. Meanwhile, Clara, on a train to San Francisco, hears someone talking about a man talking about her, and she stops the train and jumps off to find Doc. She discovers clues at the blacksmith shop and runs to the spur line Doc and Marty are using. Doc and Marty use a train's locomotive to push the DeLorean up to 88 mph toward Shonash Ravine to go back to 1985. Marty goes back to the future, but Doc, who went to Clara's rescue, and Clara are forced to stay behind. Since "Clint" was seen stealing the engine, and is presumed to have gone down with it, he enters the town's folklore as the man who beat Mad Dog Tannen, and Shonash Ravine is renamed Eastwood Ravine.
    • Tuesday, December 15th: Doc marries Clara.
  • 1887
    • Date unknown: Doc and Clara's elder son, Jules, is born.
    • Date unknown: The Bridge over the Ravine is completed.

1890s

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  • 1895
    • Date unknown: Doc finishes building his second time machine, out of a steam locomotive, and he, Clara, Jules and Verne head to the future (2015 or later) where he retrofits the time machine with a hover conversion and other possible modifications.

1900s

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1910s

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  • 1910
    • Date unknown: Marty's grandfather and Lorraine's father, Sam Baines, is born.
  • 1914
    • Date unknown (though could be as late as 1917, when the U.S. entered World War I) Due to the war, Doc's father changes his family's name from "Von Braun" to "Brown."
  • 1915
    • Date unknown: Marty's grandmother and Lorraine's mother, Stella [Baines], is born.

1920s

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  • 1923
    • Date unknown: Gray's, the future publishers of Gray's Sports Almanac, is founded.

1930s

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  • 1930
    • Date unknown: A History of Hill Valley, 1850-1930 is published.
  • 1931
    • Date unknown: At age 11, young Emmett Brown reads the works of Jules Verne for the first time and decides to dedicate his life to science.

1940s

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  • 1942
    • Date unknown: Milton Baines is born to Sam and Stella Baines.
  • 1947
    • Date unknown: Suitable repair parts (mainly the "transistor") for the DeLorean (that was stranded in 1885) are invented.
  • 1949
    • Date unknown: Sally Baines is born to Sam and Stella Baines.

1950s

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  • 1950
    • Date unknown: 12-year-old George McFly tries standing up for his friend Billy Stockhausen, but fails to do so.
  • 1951
    • Date unknown: Toby Baines is born to Sam and Stella Baines.
  • 1954
    • Date unknown: Joey Baines is born to Sam and Stella Baines.
    • Date unknown: George McFly reads How to Win Friends and Influence People.
    • Autumn: the copy of Fantastic Story that George is reading in 1955 is published.
  • 1955
    • Saturday, November 5th: Marty arrives in 1955 from the original 1985, on Old Man Peabody's farm (a.k.a. Twin Pines Ranch) on the future site of the Twin Pines Mall. Doc Brown slips off his toilet whilst hanging a clock and has a vision of the flux capacitor. Marty knocks down one of Old Man Peabody's two pine trees. Marty interferes with the meeting of George McFly and Lorraine Baines. Marty finds 1955 Doc and shows him the time machine.
    • Sunday, November 6th: Doc realizes that Marty has interfered with his parents' first meeting and that he and his siblings will be erased from existence unless Marty can get them together.
    • Monday, November 7th: Marty, as "Calvin Klein", goes to Hill Valley High School to try and get George and Lorraine together, but she has a crush on Marty instead of George!
    • Tuesday, November 8th: Marty, in a radiation suit as "Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan", visits George to try and make him take Lorraine to the dance that Saturday. Marty defeats Biff in a skateboard chase around Courthouse Square. Lorraine asks Marty to the dance.
    • Wednesday, November 9th: Marty and George come up with a plan for Saturday night that will see George become a "fighter" for Lorraine.
    • Saturday, November 12th:
      • At 6am, Doc and Marty (Marty B) arrive in 1955 from the alternate 1985;
      • 2015 Biff arrives with the sports almanac and gives it to his younger self, creating the alternate timeline;
      • Marty (Marty A, from the real 1985) takes Lorraine to the dance, but Biff interferes and George punches Biff, saving Lorraine and they fall in love. Marty B also keeps Biff's gang from jumping Marty A, without the latter noticing;
      • Marty B gets the almanac from Biff and burns it, erasing the alternate future and returning the timeline to normal. The 1985 Doc, in the DeLorean, gets struck by lightning and sent back to 1885. A car approaches a moment later with a Western Union man, who gives Marty a letter from Doc in 1885. Marty hurries back downtown, to see the 1955 Doc;
      • At 10:04pm, lightning strikes the clocktower, Marty A goes back to the real 1985, but Marty B scares 1955 Doc by "returning" seconds after he sent Marty A back to the future;
    • Sunday, November 13th: 1955 Doc reads the letter his older self in 1885 has written.
    • Monday, November 14th: Marty and Doc uncover the DeLorean from the Delgado mine at the Boot Hill Cemetery, where Doc Brown was buried in 1885.
    • Tuesday, November 15th: Doc repairs the DeLorean.
    • Wednesday, November 16th: Marty leaves 1955 and heads back to 1885 to rescue Doc.
  • 1956
    • Date unknown: The youngest Baines sibling is born to Sam and Stella Baines (name and sex are never mentioned, but Stella is very pregnant in 1955).
    • Date unknown: Lyon Estates, the future home of George and Lorraine McFly and their kids in 1985, is completed.
  • 1958
    • Monday, January 6th: Chuck Berry records the single "Johnny B. Goode."
    • Wednesday, March 26th: Biff Tannen, now at the legal age of 21, wins his first million on a horse race using the sports almanac.
  • 1959
    • Wednesday, October 14th: Biff Tannen wins another large sum of money at a sports event. He is seen smiling on the cover page of the next day's edition of the newspaper.
    • Date unknown: Biff Tannen wins again and again, gaining the nickname, "The Luckiest Man On Earth."

1960s

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  • 1962
    • Wednesday, August 1st: Doc Brown's mansion burns down, except the detached garage, which Doc moves into.
    • Date unknown: Doc sells off the rest of the land.
  • 1963
    • Date unknown: Dave McFly is born to George and Lorraine McFly.
  • 1964
    • Date unknown: Riverside Drive, the street of Doc Brown's residence, is renamed John F. Kennedy Drive.
  • 1966
    • Date unknown: Linda McFly is born to George and Lorraine McFly.

1970s

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  • 1973
    • Thursday, March 15th: George McFly wins an award for his writing.
    • Thursday, March 15th: George McFly is shot dead by Biff Tannen on his way to pick up the award. He was against BiffCo's policies.
    • Date unknown: Biff Tannen marries Lorraine and becomes stepfather to Dave, Linda and Marty McFly, shipping Marty off to boarding schools overseas.
    • Date unknown: Ito Fujitsu, Marty's boss in 2015, is born.
    • Date unknown: The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is repealed, presumably due to lobbying by the alternate Biff, so that Richard Nixon not only avoids impeachment over Watergate, but also can run for more than two terms as President of the United States.
  • 1976
    • Date unknown: 8-year-old Marty accidentally sets fire to the living room rug.
  • 1979
    • Date unknown: Biff Tannen's lobbying is successful as the state legalizes gambling.
    • Date unknown: Hill Valley High School is burnt down.

1980s

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  • 1980s
    • Date unknown: Marty and Doc meet and become friends. According to the original Part One script, Doc shows up at Marty's house and hires Marty to sweep his garage in the year 1983. Doc gave Marty total access to his record collection, and they became friends.
  • 1981
    • Date unknown: The DeLorean motor car that Doc Brown ends up buying is made.
  • 1982
    • Date unknown: Pepsi Free, the drink Marty asks for in 1955, is introduced.
  • 1983
    • Diet Pepsi Free, the can of soda sitting on Marty's bedside table in 1985 is introduced.
    • Sunday, May 22nd: Doc Brown is commended and wins an award. Ronald Reagan announces he will run for a second term in office.
    • Sunday, May 22nd: Doc Brown is committed after being declared legally insane. Richard Nixon announces he will run for a fifth term in office. BiffCo's representatives announce that the company is going to build a new dioxin plant in Hill Valley.
  • 1984
    • June: Linda McFly graduates in the Class of '84.
  • 1985
    • Saturday, October 12th: Libyan terrorists steal plutonium from the local power plant for Doc, but it is dismissed by the FBI as a "simple clerical error".
    • Friday, October 25th: Doc asks Marty to meet him at Twin Pines Mall at 1:15 AM next morning. Marty fails his audition with his band, The Pinheads. Marty admires a black Toyota 4x4 at the Statler Toyota dealership (a Statler Studebaker dealership in 1955, and Statler’s Fine Horses in 1885). Lorraine's brother Joey fails to make parole again.
    • Saturday, October 26:
      • From about 1:18 AM to 1:35 AM, in the parking lot of the Twin Pines Mall, Doc demonstrates his new time machine. His dog Einstein becomes the world's first time traveller at 1:20 AM. The Libyans find, shoot and (seemingly) kill Doc. Marty flees in the DeLorean and accidentally departs for 1955 at 1:35 AM.
      • At 1:24 AM, Marty returns from his first trip to 1955, runs from the town square over to what is now the Lone Pine Mall, and finds out Doc lived because he'd been warned by Marty in 1955 about the Libyans.
      • Doc goes to the future, comes back and takes Marty and Jennifer to 2015.
      • Doc, Marty and Jennifer arrive back from 2015 at 9:00 PM and find out things have changed. Marty meets the alternate versions of his mother and Biff.
    • Sunday, October 27th:
      • Doc realizes what happened with Biff and the almanac and he and Marty head back to 1955 at 2:42 AM to put history back on track.
      • Marty arrives back in 1985 at 11 AM from 1885 and the De Lorean is destroyed by a train. Marty originally races Needles and crashes into a Rolls-Royce causing his future to be rotten, but he has learned his lesson and avoids the race, thus changing the future (and rendering all entries after this as part of an alternate timeline). Doc, Clara and their sons arrive in the time locomotive to visit Marty and Jennifer, before departing for times unknown.
    • October/November: George McFly's first novel, A Match Made in Space, is published. The cover alludes to young George, young Lorraine, and "Darth Vader" (Marty's anti-radiation suit, utilized as a costume in 1955).
  • 1986
    • June: Marty and Jennifer graduate from Hill Valley High School.

1990s

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  • 1990s
    • Date unknown: Marty and Jennifer are married at the Chapel O' Love.
    • Date unknown: Marlene McFly is born to Marty and Jennifer McFly.
    • Date unknown: Latest possible decade for retirement of Mr Strickland, the latest in a series of Stricklands who enact discipline in their livelihoods.
  • 1992
    • Date unknown: Roberta Needles, older daughter of Douglas, is born.
  • 1994
    • Date unknown: Amy Needles, younger daughter of Douglas, is born.
  • 1996
    • Date unknown: Griff Tannen is born.
    • Date unknown: Rafe "Data" Unger, future gang member of Griff's, is born.
    • Date unknown: Something causes Biff's death, but exact details are unknown. A theory suggested by the Bobs says that Lorraine found out Biff had killed George, and shot him out of revenge.
  • 1997
    • Date unknown: Leslie "Spike" O'Malley, future gang member of Griff's, is born.
    • Date unknown: Chester "Whitey" Nogura, future gang member of Griff's, is born.
  • 1998
    • Date unknown: Marty McFly Jr. is born to Marty and Jennifer McFly.
    • Date unknown: Bottoms Up!, a plastic surgery place, opens in Courthouse Square.

2000s

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  • 2001
    • Date unknown: Gray's Sports Almanac is published.
  • 2000s - 2010s
    • Date unknown: Continuing a national trend, the Hill Valley local newspaper closes or sells its printing and news-gathering operations to USA Today to create yet another local edition of the nationwide newspaper. (The local newspaper is becoming obsolete as national chains with thousands of local editions take over.)
    • Date unknown: Invention of: hover conversion, Mr. Fusion, the Black & Decker hydrator, the Mattel hoverboard, power shoelaces and self-drying jackets, skyways, rejuvenation clinics, suspended-animation kennels, automated gas stations, automated dog-walking leashes, thumbprint ID verifications, the 300+ channel universe, automated hovering news units (as used by USA Today), roll-down TV sets (the McFly home runs the Scenery Channel on it in a window).
    • Date unknown: The United States abolishes the trade of lawyers, allowing the justice system to move with far greater speed and efficiency. The National Weather Service develops extremely detailed forecasting ability (to the minute), or perhaps the control of the weather.
    • Date unknown: Relations with Vietnam improve and now there are promotions to surf there
    • Date unknown: Pepsi introduces Pepsi Perfect, a vitamin enriched cola that Marty orders from the video waiter at the Café 80's.

2010s

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  • 2015
    • Friday, October 16th or earlier: Jaws 19 debuts at the theater: this time, it's really really personal.
    • Wednesday, October 21st: Doc, Marty and Jennifer arrive in 2015 to save Marty Jr. from being set up for a crime by Griff. Marty poses as Marty Jr. and manages to change future history for the better. 2015 Biff steals the De Lorean and heads back to 1955 with the sports almanac, then returns the De Lorean without Doc and Marty noticing. The 47-year-old Marty, dared by Needles, illegally lets Needles scan his card, and subsequently gets fired by Ito Fujitsu. The Chicago Cubs win the World Series.
    • Thursday, October 22nd: Marty Jr. is tried, sentenced and convicted for 15 years in jail due to a robbery. After Marty changes history to save Marty Jr., Griff is sent to jail for wrecking the Courthouse.
    • Friday, October 23rd: Queen Diana visits Washington according to the 2015 newspaper (of course, in reality, the princess died in 1997).
    • Monday, October 26th: Doc and Einstein arrive in the future (assuming they went exactly 30 years ahead from October 26th, 1985).
    • Wednesday, October 28th: Before Marty alters the course of future events, his daughter Marlene attempts to break her brother out of prison. She is sentenced to 20 years in jail.
    • Dates unknown: Doc spends an unknown amount of time in 2015 and later. While he's there, he outfits the time machine with a Mr. Fusion and a hover conversion, undergoes personal rejuvenation surgery, and learns as much as he can about Marty Jr.'s meeting with Griff on the 21st. Eventually, Doc leaves for 1985 to pick up Marty and Jennifer.
  • 2016
    • June: Marty McFly, Jr. graduates Hill Valley High School in the slightly altered timeline.

2030s

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  • 2030
    • Date unknown: Marty Jr. is released from prison in the unaltered timeline.
  • 2035
    • Date unknown: Marlene is released from prison in the unaltered timeline.

Timeline of the DeLorean's travels

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File:Back to the future time line.PNG

The DeLorean takes 14 trips to specified years. Here is a list of those trips.

  1. 1 minute into the future (Einstein's test journey)
  2. Back to 1955 (Marty flees the Libyans)
  3. Forward to 1985 (Marty goes "back to the future")
  4. Forward to several unspecified points in the future (Doc begins his exploration)
  5. Back to 1985 from these unspecified points ("Marty, you've got to come back with me!")
  6. Forward to 2015 (To help Marty and Jennifer's future children)
  7. Back to 1955 (Old Biff's trip with the Almanac)
  8. Forward to 2015 (Old Biff's return to the future)
  9. Back to alternate 1985 (Doc ready to dismantle the time machine)
  10. Back to 1955 (to reclaim almanac after old Biff leaves)
  11. Back to 1885 (accidental - Doc taken to the old west)
  12. Forward to 1955 by natural progression of time (inside a mine)
  13. Back to 1885 (Marty goes back to rescue Doc)
  14. Forward to 1985 (Marty returns to his own time; the DeLorean is destroyed)