MuggleNet's Harry Potter Timeline

1990 - The ideas for the characters in the Harry Potter series come to Jo as she rides on a train to London.

1995 - Jo finishes her manuscript for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on an old manual typewriter.

1996 - Bloomsbury decides to publish Philosopher's Stone. A rep of Bloomsbury suggests to Jo that she get a day job, as children's authors are usually not successful.

1997 - Scholastic purchases the rights to Philosopher's Stone for $105,000.

June 1997 - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is published by Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom. Today, over 107 million copies of the story have been sold worldwide.

July 1997 - Philosopher's Stone receives a raving review from The Scotsman, who describes it as "an unassailable stand for the power of fresh innovative story-telling in the face of formula horror and sickly romance."

July 1998 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is published in the United Kingdom. The book skyrockets straight to the number one spot on the BookTrack bestseller list.

September 1998 - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is published by Scholastic in the United States.

October 1998 - Warner Brother secures the rights to the first two Potter books and begins producing the first film, Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone. JK Rowling was quoted as saying, "I think Warner Bros will do a good job and be true to the character. Other children's films they have produced helped sway me."

June 1999 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is published in the United States.

July 1999 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is published in the United Kingdom.

September 1999 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is published in the United States.

October 1999 - MuggleNet.com opens its doors as one of first fansites dedicated to Harry Potter. To this day the website is still the most visited Potter fansite online.

October 1999 - JK Rowling begins a 3-week book tour of the United States where she promotes Prisoner of Azkaban and meets with fans. Each tour stop is packed with attendees. It's the first sign of a huge fandom.

March 2000 - Chris Columbus is chosen as director of Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone. Of note, Steven Spielberg was interested but did not get the spot.

July 2000 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is released in the United States and the United Kingdom simultaneously (July 8th). It was the first Potter book to be released in the US and UK on the same day.

July 2000 - The-Leaky-Cauldron.org and HP-Lexicon.org open their doors as a Harry Potter news site and encyclopedia respectively.

August 2000 - Warner Brothers announces that Dan Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint will be portraying the characters of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley in the first Potter film. At the time, the trio are only 11 - 12 years old.

October 2000 - Filming gets underway for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone.

March 2001 - Two schoolbooks from Harry's world-Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages-are released. All the profits go to Comic Relief, a British charity.

November 2001 - The first film is released, opening on a record 3,762 screens in the U.S. alone. On opening weekend, it grosses $90 million in America and £16 million in the U.K., setting records in both countries.

December 2001 - JK Rowling marries anesthesiologist Neil Murray.

June 2002 - The musical genre of Wizard Rock is born when Harry and the Potters, a band consisting of two brothers from Massachusetts, is created. Since then, hundreds of new Wizard Rock bands have sprouted up. All of the bands write music centered around Harry Potter themes.

October 2002 - The Harry Potter Automatic News Aggregator, more affectionately known as HPANA, opens. Still running today, it's primary purpose is to automatically gather Harry Potter news from all over the internet.

October 2002 - Richard Harris, the actor who played Albus Dumbledore in the first two Potter films, dies of Hodgkin's disease. His role as Dumbledore is replaced a few months later by Michael Gambon.

November 2002 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is released in theaters worldwide. It goes on to make a total of $879 million globally.

April 2003 - The Scotsman reports that JK Rowling has more money than the Queen of England.

March 2003 - The word "muggle" is added to the Oxford English Dictionary thanks to Potter's popularity.

March 2003 - The cover art for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is released in the United States and United Kingdom. It was the first cover to create lots of hype in the Harry Potter fandom because at that point fansites were flourishing.

June 2003 - CBBC Newsround reports that 7,000 copies of Order of the Phoenix are stolen prior to its release, sparking controversy over the security of the books and the likelihood of a spoiler leak.

June 2003 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is released in the United States and the United Kingdom with midnight release parties being held around the world.

March 2004 - USA Today names JK Rowing the most successful author of the decade.

April 2004 - JK Rowling revamps her website, formerly a boring list of publishers. It features lots of new information about the books, a Wizard of the Month, hidden easter eggs, and much more.

June 2004 - On her official website, JK Rowling reveals the title to Book 6. It was the original working title of Chamber of Secrets. This, after a huge rumor circulated around the web that presented some very believable evidence of another title.

January 2005 - JK Rowling gives birth to daughter Mackenzie.

March 2005 - Scholastic and Bloomsbury release the cover art for Half-Blood Prince, which is met with lots of hype.