Will Rogers. Oliver Hardy. Maxfield Parrish. Ray Bradbury. Janis Joplin. Nobel Prize winner Yasumari Kawabata. Miss Piggy...
Woman's Suffrage. The 1893 World's Fair. Communicating with outer space. The first Oz video game. Book banning. The alledged Populist connection...
The Oz Timeline: it's full of surprises.
This Oz chronology begins when L. Frank Baum is just a twinkle in his daddy's eye and proves that the history of Oz has no end. The Centennial Committee of the International Wizard of Oz Club, Inc., assembled this timeline for the curious, the fact-seeking, the Oz fan or the media representative in need of information about Oz during the years ahead.
How to use: When printed, the entire timeline is about 100 pages long. To find an historic Oz events in your state or hometown, run a word search for the name. (State abbreviations are consistent with the Associated Press Style Book.) Or if you're wondering when Daisy Duck appeared as Dorothy, what's become of the Ruby Slippers or in what year Russian Oz author Alexander Volkov was born, word search the timeline line for those key words. To build a list of stage and screen Scarecrows (Fred Stone, Larry Semon, Ray Bolger, Michael Jackson, Jackson Browne and Victor Petrinko are among those who will appear) search for "Scarecrow" and forward through responses for the information you want.
You also might want to check the Trivia area of this Web site for fun and unusual information. The Trivia area is not designed for on-line interactive use, but for you to download and use in publications (lots of fun side bar material here for media articles), classrooms or games.
Corrections/Additions: If you come across information that you know to be incorrect or incomplete, please forward corrections our way. Additional content for the timeline and missing information to include also is welcome. It would be most helpful if you would indicate the year with each comment so that we can make changes efficiently. To help us substantiate the accuracy of your contributions, please reference your information source where appropriate - if you have a foreign translation and can correct spelling errors or add an illustrators name, for example, indicate that your information is from the book. In some cases multiple dates have been published for the same event and your source note will help us determine if you have the most accurate information available.
Please note that all this material is based on the primary research of other writers and simply assembled here for convenient reference. It certainly represents the efforts of virtually every researcher and writer who has contributed to the Oz phenomena.
Jane Albright,
Centennial Committee Chairman,
The International Wizard of Oz Club, Inc.
© Copyright The International Wizard of Oz Club, Inc.
Page design copyright 1996, The Cuttenclips, Houston, Texas First Draft © Copyright Nate Barlow 1994 - Nate Barlow, December 1994 Revised/expanded - June 10, to include contributions from Bill Stillman. Revised - June 25, 1995, to include contributions from John Fricke, Steve Teller. Edited for style - July 8, Jane Albright. Note, July 15: Per discussion with Nate, too massive and more to add. Include as appendices any foreign language translations after the first appearance, Club history, and other material that people have offered to include. Further Revised - July 24, 1995, to include contributions from Peter Schulenburg. Further revised - August 21, 1995, to include contributions from Willard Carroll. Further revised - Sept. 5, 1995, to include contributions/corrections by Eric Shanower. Bold references indicate missing information. Underlined notes need to be double checked. Further revised - Sept. 11, 1995 to correct and include information gathered so far using my own reference collection and cross-referencing an extensive chronology contributed by Angelica Shirley Carpenter. Missing and contradictory information is underlined. Sept. 25-30, 1995 - New material from Angelica's list included. Oct. 1-4, 1995 - Copyedited, Patty Tobias Oct. 16. - Dec. 13, 1995 - Incorporated additional info. from Baum Bugles and material provided by Peter Schulenburg. April/May - More edits. Input from Doug Greene, Ozma Baum Mantele, Baum family history records and wills, Mike Gessel. July 4 - Copyedits and corrections noted during 1996 Ozmopolitan convention. Also material gleaned from Our Landlady (Koupal).