An in-universe timeline of events for the backstory and ongoing plot of Halloween Horror Nights. This continuity has also sometimes been identified as having shared continuity to classic Universal Studios attractions, Jaws and Back to the Future: The Ride.
1400s
1450s
- 1451:
- "Christopher Columbus" (Cristoforo Colombo/Cristóbal Colón) is born (real world history).
- April 22: Queen Isabella I of Castile (Spain) is born (real world history).
1490s
- 1492:
- "Christopher Columbus" (Cristoforo Colombo/Cristóbal Colón) leads an expedition of four ships to cross the Atlantic Ocean, where he accidentally finds the Americas. Lady Luck disguises herself as Queen Isabella of Spain and arranged a coin-toss between Columbus and his rival Antonio Cabot for who got to command the voyage. When Antonio Cabot planned a mutiny, he was found out and had his ship, the Philippa Muniz, attacked by Columbus' fleet and sunk to the depths.
1500s
1500s
- 1504:
- November 26: Queen Isabella I of Castile (Spain) dies (real world history).
- 1506:
- May 20: "Christopher Columbus" (Cristoforo Colombo/Cristóbal Colón) dies (real world history).
1590s
- 1592:
- The haunted Philippa Muniz raises from the depths and attacks a Spanish port.
1800s
1800s
- 1809:
- January 19: Edgar Allan Poe is born (real world history).
1820s
- 1822:
- August 15: Virginia Clemm is born (real world history).
- 1829:
- Lady Luck influences Edgar Allan Poe to move to Baltimore.
1840s
- 1843:
- Township of Carey, Ohio is established (HHN continuity, not real world history).
- 1847:
- January 30: Edgar Allan Poe's cousin-wife Virginia Poe dies at 22 (real world history). Poe and his work are heavily impacted by the work.
1850s
- 1858:
- Alternative year for founding of Carey.
1860s
- 1860:
- July 19: Lizzie Borden is born (real world history).
- 1865:
- December 14: Seweryn Antonowicz Kłosowski (George Chapman/George Kubsch) is born (real world history).
1870s
1880s
- Aldridge Kesterson moves from town to town as a coffin-maker.
- 1885:
- A time travelling Doc Brown is stranded in the 19th century. He is visited and saved by Marty McFly before finding love and making a new time machine. (Events of Back to the Future Part III)
- October 31: The Tribute Theater is has its grand opening on Fifth Avenue in New York City. It is the first use of electric lightbulbs in the New York theater district, and was funded by an anonymous benefactor.
- 1886:
- The Amity Foundry & Boatworks was founded on Amity Island.
- 1888:
- April 3: Emma Elizabeth Smith is the first official murder of "Jack the Ripper"'s Whitechapel Murders (real world history).
- August 31: Mary Ann Nichols is killed by Jack the Ripper. The autopsy is conducted by George Chapman (who falsifies a death certificate and becomes a Ripper suspect) while the coffin is made by Andrew Borden, father of Lizzie Borden.
- September 30: Elizabeth Stride is killed by Jack the Ripper. The autopsy is conducted by George Chapman (who falsifies a death certificate and becomes a Ripper suspect) while the coffin is made by Andrew Borden, father of Lizzie Borden.
- George Chapman flees to the USA and changes him name to George Kubsch to avoid being suspected in the Whitechapel Murders.
1890s
- 1891:
- Aldridge Kesterson has a son, Thornton M. Kesterson, in Bristol, England
- 1892:
- The Kesterson family moves to the midwest when Aldridge is suspected as an accomplice to body collector George Chapman Kubsch and possibly for transporting bodies related to Jack the Ripper's serial-killings. They wind up settling in Carey, Ohio where Aldridge becomes a school handyman.
- George Kubsch has a son, Jeremiah Kubsch.
1900s
1900s
- 1903:
- Doc Brown watches the first flight of the Wright Brothers.
- George Kubsch returns to London where his true identity as murderer Seweryn Klosowski is discovered.
- April 7: Seweryn Klosowski is executed via hanging.
- 1905:
- The Tribute Theater's owners have a son (hinted to be the villain "Major Sweets").
- 1908:
- April 28: Carl Laemmle Jr. is born (real world history).
- August 27: Carey, Ohio schoolteacher Mary Worthington disappears after a prank conducted by school handyman, Aldridge Kesterson along with students: Louise Hatfield, George Von Stebler, Shawn McPherson, Jim Deedle, Alice Dodgson, and Jeremiah Kubsch. Her body was never recovered though schoolmaster Mr. Renshaw found broken shards of glass.
1910s
- 1910:
- May 5: Eighteen year-old Jeremiah Kubsch and seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Carol of England have a son, Christian Kubsch, in Wyandot County Hospital.
- 1913:
- Earliest possible birth-year of Lawrence "Larry" Kurtzberg.
- 1914:
- July 28: World War I begins (real world history). At some point causes a Romanian man with the surname Meetz to emigrate to Carey, Ohio. Also during the war, an American man named Edmund Clarke is manipulated by Lady Luck disguised as a propaganda poster to join World War I. While at war, he encounters shapeshifting creatures called the Nightingales which disguise themselves as nurses to eat injured soldiers.
- 1918:
- November 11: Official end of World War I.
- November 26: Charlie McPherson is born.
1920s
- The Wyandot Estate is built in Carey, Ohio.
- 1920:
- Artist Markham Harrell and storyteller Louise Hatfield marry.
- October:
- Cindy Caine burns down the Good Harvest Orphanage (questionable continuity).
- October 31: Authorities begin closing in on clown/child-murderer Jack Schmidt AK Jack the Clown. Jack confides in carnival owner Doctor Oddfellow for assistance, and Oddfellow murders Jack then hides his and the childrens' corpses in the carnival as to avoid the authorities investigating the circus and discovering Oddfellow's accidental killings of certain circus patrons (may have been retconned to 1939).
- December 21: Diane Dodgson is born to Alice Dodgson.
- 1922:
- Latest possible birth-year of Lawrence "Larry" Kurtzberg.
- June 16: Eileen Harrell is born to Markham and Louise Hatfield.
- October 19: The Universal Palace Theater is reopened after being converted from an opera-house into a cinema by new owner, Carl Laemmle Jr. (1908-1979) of Universal Studios.
- 1925:
- Phantom of the Opera (1925) is released.
- September 6: A showing of Phantom of the Opera (1925) occurs in Universal Palace Theater.
- 1927:
- A stage production of Dracula starts being shown in the Tribute Theater.
- June 1: Lizzie Borden dies (real world history).
- 1928:
- Stage productions of Dracula in the Tribute Theater are scheduled to end.
- 1929:
- October 29: "Black Tuesday" Wall Street crash, causes the Great Depression (real world history). At some point results in Meetz Meats in Carey, Ohio to start selling human flesh, harvested from murdered criminals and homeless people.
- October 30: Malcolm Wyandot murders thirteen dinner guests, his wife, and himself.
1930s
- Lawrence "Larry" Kurtzberg begins his acting-career at age 17 in the musical comedy Babes in Arms at the Shubert Theatre of New York City.
- 1930:
- The Tribute Theater begins to be turned into a cinema.
- Photographer Shawn McPherson graduates Ohio University and replaces John R. Neill as head magazine photographer.
- 1931:
- The transformation of the Tribute Theater from a playhouse to a cinema are completed.
- Elizabeth Hawthorn dies. She is buried in Hawthorn Cemetery.
- 1932:
- Wyandot County Farmer's Cooperative Association is established.
- 1933:
- June:
- Bobby "The Blade" Galletta begins murdering citizens of the town of Carey.
- October:
- October 13: Bobby Galletta's murder spree ends.
- October 25: Bobby "The Blade" Galletta is executed by electric-chair in Carey State Penitentiary.
- June:
- 1934:
- On the third anniversary of Elizabeth's death, Jonathan Hawthorn commits suicide. He is buried in Hawthorn Cemetery where he and Elizabeth become undead.
- 1935:
- Jim Deedle opens the, "Butchered Buck" bar.
- 1936:
- December 11: Lt. Von Stebler is born to retired naval admiral and harbor master, Admiral George Von Stebler.
- 1939:
- The owners of the Tribute Theater disappear. Their 24 year-old son (hinted to be Major Sweets) takes over the business.
- Official end of the Great Depression (real world history).
- Carla Deedle marries Peter Samish, owner of the Samish Gun Supply Wholesalers.
- October 31: Possible new date of when Doctor Oddfellow murdered Jack the Clown (previously identified as 1920).
1940s
- 1940:
- During a re-release of The Phantom of the Opera (1925) in the Universal Palace Theater, usher Julian Browning gets into a skirmish with a rude theater patron. Amidst the struggle, the usher is strangled by ropes, inadvertently recreating the death of Phantom of the Opera character Joseph Buquet. Browning goes on to become a ghost known as, "The Usher" who haunts the theater.
- July 29: Johnny Deedle is born to Jim Deedle.
- August 15: A party is thrown in the Butchered Buck to celebrate the birth of Johnny Deedle.
- 1942:
- Mysterious disappearances in New York City are linked to poisoned concessions at the Tribute Theater. The owner and his girlfriend are wanted for questioning but go on the run.
- A paranoid Thornton M. Kesterson receives a wide variety of vaccinations from Dr. Christian Kubsch.
- 1943:
- The Tribute Theater closes down.
- A paranoid Thornton M. Kesterson receives a wide variety of vaccinations from Dr. Christian Kubsch.
- 1946:
- In summer, Christian Kubsch goes on a fishing-trip with navy pilot Lt. Von Stebler and his father Admiral George Von Stebler. Lt. Von Stebler first sees the symbols connected to Bloody Mary, causing him to develop uncontrollable night terrors.
- 1948:
- Metropolis Tribune Newspaper in New York City hires Charlie McPherson.
- Christian Kubsch becomes a doctor of psychiatry.
- October 25: The mysterious totem of the Baccanoids is left at the doorstep of New York City cop-turned-P.I., Boris Shuster. He also encounters a ghoul which murdered a woman in his building. This begins Shuster's years-long quest to assemble the totems of the many Legions of Fear.
1950s
- 1951:
- March 25: Diane Dodgson marries Frank Bennett and becomes Diane Bennett.
- 1953:
- The mayor begins working with a candy-maker (presumably Major Sweets) to reopen the Tribute Theater as a family-friendly Halloween attraction, though the benefactor had an ulterior motive to use it for murders.
- March 16: A time-travelling Doc Brown meets Albert Einstein alongside New York attorney general Nathaniel Goldstein for the presentation of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
- 1954:
- October: At a Halloween parade, the candy-maker benefactor of the Tribute Theater uses the Halloween parade to lace candy with a mutagen causing children to murder their parents, including the mayor's daughter murdering the mayor. (Implied events of Sweet Revenge and 2022 Halloween Tribute Store).
- 1955:
- Doc Brown invents a brainwave analyzer.
- Charlie McPherson exposes otherwise reputable diamond seller Thornton Kesterson for diamond smuggling.
- The Metropolis Tribune fires Charlie McPherson for, "Disorderly conduct".
- April:
- Eileen begins working for, " Children's Classics".
- November:
- November 5: Marty McFly uses a DeLorean to travel to 1955 from 1985.
- November 12: Marty McFly goes back to the future.
- 1957:
- Boris Shuster finds that the various the various Legions of Fear totems have been assembled in police station no. 5 and have formed a portal. Shuster retrieved the totems and dismantled the portal before hiding the totems in the attic of a New Jersey building. He writes several books on the adventures which he had assembling the totems.
- Carey Hunting Club is founded.
- Peter Samish begins dealing shotguns to the Butchered Buck bar.
- 1958:
- June:
- June 20: The late Mary Worthington's daughter Marie W. Agana dies. Family attorney Alexander Pohl provides Marie's daughter Dr. Mary Agana with silver heirlooms which belonged to her mother and grandmother. This included a silver jewelry and music box.
- June 25: The National Association of Mental Health (NAMH) denies funding for Doctor Agana's proposal for extreme exposure therapy to cure fears.
- Dr. Mary Agana opens the controversial, "Living Fearlessly: Specialized Treatments for Fear Based Ailments" to cure people of their phobias via extreme exposure therapy (events of Reflections of Fear). Mary is possibly slowly corrupted/possessed by the spirit of her grandmother. Her first two victims die due to her treatment.
- Boris Shuster is hired by Diane Bennett to see if her husband, Frank Bennett, is cheating on her. Boris hires Charlie McPherson to get photographic evidence of the affair, which he does. The Bennetts have a divorce and Diane develops a fear of fairy-tale endings, while Charlie begins to see zombies within his photographs that only he can see.
- July:
- July 9: New York illustrator Eileen Harrell visits Dr. Mary Agana to cure her fear of the headless horseman. Agana shows her a severed human head, causing Harrell to break down and be institutionalized (events of The Hallow).
- July 15: George Von Stebler goes to Doctor Agana against the wishes of his past psychiatrist Dr. Christian Kubsch. He tries curing his phobia of Bloody Mary and visions of symbols, only to by exposed to the therapies by Agana causing him to carve the symbols into his flesh before carving out an eye to escape the trance (events of Interstellar Terror).
- Charlie McPherson visits Doctor Agana to cure the visions he sees in photographs. She accidentally kills him when she puts him in a glass coffin with strobe lights where he suffocates. His spirit is then absorbed into the Realm of Nightmares, attacked by the zombies from his visions (causes events of Dead Exposure). Boris Shuster begins to investigate the disappearances surrounding Doctor Agana.
- July 30: Barkeep Johnny Deedle goes to Agana to cure his fear of tentacled monsters which he saw attacking a character with his name in the horror comic "Creatures!" (drawn by Agana's past patient Eileen Harrell). She intentionally hypnotizes and hangs him, causing him to live out being attacked by the monsters in the comic in the mirror dimension (causes events of Creatures!).
- August:
- August 8: Diane Bennett goes to Doctor Agana to cure her fairy-tale related fears. Agana has hypnotized patients murder her, causing her to live out horrific fairy tale delusions (events of Scary Tales: Once Upon a Nightmare).
- August 18: Thornton Kesterson goes to Doctor Agana to cure his fear of fire. She incinerates him (events of Doomsday).
- The National Association of Mental Health (NAMH) rejects Doctor Agana's request for funding. Doctor Mary Agana then kidnaps Dr. Christian Kubsch and brutally murders him to trigger his fear of botched surgeries (events of Body Collectors: Collections of the Past).
- August 27: As part of his investigation, Boris Shuster arranges a session with Dr. Mary Agana. That night, Agana is brutally murdered with the killer unknown. Boris Shuster is initially arrested, though her former-criminal patient and/or orderly David Gronoll is convicted for the crime. Doctor Agatha's body disappeared after this and her spirit became the murderous ghost, "Bloody Mary".
- June:
1960s
- Boris Shuster founds the organization Legendary Truth: The Collective (possibly in 1963).
- 1961:
- Shadowcreek Enterprise is founded in Carey.
- 1964:
- A time travelling Doc Brown witnesses the Beatles arriving in America.
1970s
- Nicodemus Felling purchases the house at 17 Hemingway Lane.
- Lady Luck poses as Moyra at Audit Management Associates and hires Larry Kurtzberg to be H.R. Bloodengutz on the WKNB Midnight Horror Show in Carey, Ohio.
- 1974:
- July: A monstrous shark kills five people around Amity Island, which the mayor attempts to cover up due to the island's 4th of July tourism industry. It is tracked down by Chief Brody, Dr. Matt Hooper and seaman Quint aboard Quint's ship the ORCA then killed the creature, though the details are unreliable. Taxidermist Chester W. Pattongill reassembled the animal's body and hung it up.
- 1975:
- Steven Spielberg directs the film, "Jaws" based on the events of the 1974 shark attacks of Amity Island. He was supposedly threatened by Chief Brody into romanticizing the character of Brody in the film. Film's success results in increased shark-themed tourism to Amity Island.
- Wyandot Wildlife Management Area is established.
- 1979:
- Newly elected mayor of New York City announces to reopen Tribute Theater.
- September 24: Carl Laemmle Jr. dies (real world history).
1980s
- 1980:
- In Louisiana, a BBC television crew focusing on American dark rides happen upon the corpse of Jack Schmidt and his thirteen young victims.
- 1982:
- Events of The Thing (2011). Lady Luck assumed the form of an air traffic control worker who offered Juliette the option of going to the Antarctic base or turning back. An alien shapeshifter gets loose in the Antarctic research base and kills many of the scientists.
- October 31: Tribute Theater receives funds to reopen.
- 1983:
- C. events of Dr. Pamela Darnell being attacked by a great white shark in the waters of Amity Island. She is saved by friends.
- 1985:
- The film Back to the Future is released.
- Doc Brown unveils his DeLorean time machine to the rest of the world.
1990s
- Leading up to one of Amity's Old Shark Days Festival, tourist carrying boats of Captain Jake's Amity Boat Tours in Amity's waters are attacked by a shark similar to that from the 1974 shark attacks. The shark kills several people before being electrocuted to death (events of the ride Jaws).
- 1991:
- The Wyandot Estate is transformed into, "Lydia's Garden Bed & Breakfast".
- From his organization the Institute of Future Technology in Orlando, Florida, Doc Brown runs tours/volunteer-work to the next day within his new eight person Deloreans. Biff Tannen sneaks into the institute from 1955 and hijacks a Delorean, causing Doc Brown to send out his volunteers to stop him (events of Back to the Future: The Ride).
- October 31: Conspiracy theorist Tim Foyle tracks down the New Jersey attic where Shuster hid the totems of the Legions of Horror, and appears to inadvertently activate the supernatural portal (events of Case Files Unearthed: Legendary Truth).
2000s
2000s
- 2000:
- Universal Studios buys authentic props from the House of Horrors which Jack the Clown's corpse was found in. They inadvertently release Jack's undead spirit onto the park.
- 2003:
- November 2: The Caretaker moves from Carey to the town of Nobel, Georgia and has building permits filed/approved.
- 2007:
- March 30: Doc Brown loses control of the Institute of Future Technology. While the continuity is questionable, it has been repeated multiple times that he lost control to capitalist children's entertainer, Krusty the Clown.
- December 24: A bus of inmates from Shadybrook Rest Home and Sanitarium escape.
- 2008:
- August 27: Legendary Truth: The Collective investigates Bloody Mary on the 50 year anniversary of her death. At 11:03 pm, Bloody Mary appears and causes agents to vanish. Mary then opens a portal from the Mirror dimension into Universal Studios along with her allies The Evil Queen, Samhain and the Wicked Witch of the West to terrorize more guests disguised as the event, "Halloween Horror Nights". Legendary Truth CEO Calvin Thorncastle starts leading an investigation to try and stop Bloody Mary.
2010s
- 2010:
- Legendary Truth: The Collective investigates the shut-down Shadybrook Rest Home and Sanitarium.
- In early 2010, members of Legendary Truth: The Collective encounter mysterious symbols in photographs as part of a puzzle.
- September 16: The god-like entity Fear is released from imprisonment as a result of Legendary Truth members Ignatia Himmel and Gabriel Fell solving the puzzle. Fear possesses Universal art team director Heather Summers and as part of his, "Twentieth Cycle" summons five heralds: Jack the Clown (representing Chaos), the Caretaker (representing Death), the Director (representing Sacrifice) and the Storyteller (representing Legend). Gabriel Fell goes missing.
- September 24: Fear puts his plan into action but is forced back into imprisonment within his lantern.
- Boris Shuster's bio is removed from the Legendary Truth website.
- Legendary Truth member Ignatia Himmel is fired due to allegations of intentionally releasing Fear.
- COO Dr. Richard W. Steerington replaces Calvin Thorncastle as CEO of Legendary Truth: The Collective.
- Legendary Truth CEO Dr. Richard W. Steerington visits Amity Island for a fishing-trip with Captain Lawrence B. "Lazy Bastard" Manely. Steerington disappears, and is believed to have been murdered as part of a conspiracy from within the Collective.
- 2013:
- Dr. Richard W. Steerington's daughter Paige Steerington goes by the alias, "P.S." and releases several videos on horror artifacts which she had discovered, and of her theories regarding her father's murder.
- 2015:
- Ignatia Himmel is reinstated into Legendary Truth: The Collective by the new CEO, Dr. Calvin Thorncastle.
- Original, "Future" setting of Back to the Future Part 2. Doc Brown makes a speech to onlookers which includes apologizing for how their predictions of 2015 were different. (Back to the Future Day).
- 2016:
- Writer/conspiracy-theorist Thaddeu Hampton releases the book, "Dogs of War: An Epic Cover Up" on the subject of the US Government covering up Shadowcreek Labs' Dogs of War soldiers going on a rampage in Carey. During a talk on the book at Carey Book Emporium, Hampton alleges that the US government burned evidence which he stored in the Carey Storage Palace.
- June 27: Carey News releases newspaper article on Chance being institutionalized in Shadybrook Asylum, the allegations of the government covering up the Dogs of War, and Ultra Violent Comics being banned in Carey due to them supposedly increasing violence and causing one child to have a seizure.