
Forced isolation in my house for 21 days and counting has given me a lot of time to think about things. Like; how in the hell was the entire world forced into quarantine literally in a matter of days? How we did get here? How in the hell did a microscopic blob of genome popularly called “coronavirus” manage to take over the entire world so quickly? I decided I needed to build a timeline and map it out.
I took a shot at a timeline a couple of weeks ago in an earlier post, for just five days worth of events. Since then I spent some time researching and working with new web building tools, and finally put it together. What I offer below the fold is over 200 coronavirus-related events, most of which have occurred since December.
Timeline Background
This is a complex timeline as it pulls together events from around the world through multiple sources. I’ve been careful to reference every entry, going back to source documents such as the actual press notes or Tweet whenever possible.
The red icon after each entry links to the reference.
This timeline is largely American-centric but I have included key data points from around the globe as needed. Many Chinese events are also includes given the probable origination of this pandemic.
I was careful to identify my source documents as this timeline doesn’t make our present administration look very good. No opinion, just facts, but trump-supporting right-wingers are going to jump on every instance of “MEDIA BIAS” possible to discredit information that happens to not conform to their world views.
This timeline is by no means complete and does not capture every worthy event. The pandemic is moving too fast to capture all news-worthy events. My timeline is simply meant to be a snapshot of events. I hope this timeline proves useful in understanding these interesting times we find ourselves in.
May 20, 2020 Editor Note: I’ve just posted a newer and more complete edition of a Coronavirus timeline COVID-19 Timeline Project. It provides more complete timeline information and extends past the ending point of this timeline. This newer timeline will be maintained current for at least the next several months.
Prelude
Year 2014

January 2017

Spring 2018


May 2018


July 2019


September 2019






organizations that worked on the PREDICT program laid off dozens of scientists and analysts.

November 18, 2019


December 2019
December 30





January 2020
January 1





January 7
January 9



January 20





January 21





January 23









January 24









January 28

January 29




January 31







February 2020
February 4





February 5



February 7
Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, the first doctor to identify the new virus strain, dies in Wuhan, China.







February 10

February 11
Mid-February

February 12







February 13

February 14





February 18


February 19





February 21




February 23




February 24





February 25












February 26












February 27









February 28





February 29





March 2020
March 2




March 3










March 4





March 6







March 7



March 8




March 9









March 10



March 11







March 12







March 13







March 17





March 18



March 20

March 23



March 27





March 28







March 29



March 31










April 2020
Working Notes
For my loyal readers who made it all the way through this timeline, I have a special bonus feature. I’ve included my working notes of events and reference links freely available under a creative commons license. It’s my hope that other people might find my work useful as a start for adding or otherwise expanding this timeline with additional references. Please feel free to download and use as desired, and post your timeline in your blog or other media.
Ron Charest
Coronavirus Timeline Working Notes
April 5, 2020: Formatting changed from a central timeline to a right-side timeline layout, to improve readability. I’m still learning how to use many of these advanced website-building tools.
May 20, 2020 Editor Note: I’ve just posted a newer and more complete edition of a Coronavirus timeline COVID-19 Timeline Project. It provides more complete timeline information and extends past the ending point of this timeline. This newer timeline will be maintained current for at least the next several months.
December 27, 2022: Reformatted the Timeline Working Notes download link.