Back to the Future timeline

This page lists the history of the city of Hill Valley and its residents, from the Back to the Future trilogy.

Everything in this timeline is either seen in the films, or on newspapers seen in the films, in the novels, screenplays, or said by the Bobs (Robert Zemeckis and 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. Dates used in fan fiction (such as the birthdays of Doc and Marty) are not given if they were only made up for the fan fiction.

Events taking place in the alternate timeline seen in Back to the Future Part II, where Biff is powerful and corrupt, are in italics.

• 1850
  • Date unknown – Hill Valley is founded.
• 1855
  • Date unknown – Clara Clayton is born in New Jersey.
• 1861
  • Dates unknown – The earliest of Doc's emergency money is printed.
• 1865
  • September 5 – Hill Valley becomes a city.
• 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.
• 1884
  • Date unknown – Buford 'Mad Dog' Tannen shoots an editor who printed an unfavourable story about him in a newspaper.
• 1885
  • January 1 – Dr Emmett Brown (of 1985) arrives from 1955.
  • April – William Sean McFly born, first son to Seamus and Maggie McFly and the first McFly born in America.
  • July 4 – Doc passes out after drinking some alcohol at the 4th of July celebrations.
  • August 29 – 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.
  • September 1 – Doc buries the broken DeLorean time machine in the Delgado mine and writes a letter to Marty McFly, currently stranded in 1955.
  • September 2 – 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.
  • September 3 – 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.
  • September 4 – Doc tries repairing the DeLorean, and accidentally saves the life of Clara Clayton, who was supposed to originally fall into Shonash Ravine. It is love at first sight.
  • September 5 – The Hill Valley festival. Doc and Clara dance. Originally, Buford Tannen shot Doc here, causing him to die 2 days later, but thanks to "Clint", this is avoided.
  • September 6 – 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.
  • September 7 – 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 to not 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. Doc and Marty use a train to push the DeLorean up to 88 mph to go back to 1985. Marty goes back to the future, and Doc and Clara are forced to stay behind.
• 1887
  • Date unknown – Doc and Clara's eldest son, Jules, is born.
  • Date unknown – The Bridge over the Ravine is completed.
• 1888
  • October 29 – Doc and Clara's youngest son, Verne, is born.
• 1895
  • Date unknown – Doc finishes building his second time machine, out of a steam train, and he, Clara, Jules and Verne head to the future.
• 1908
  • Date unknown – Doc's parents arrive in Hill Valley, known as the Von Brauns.
• 1910
  • Date unknown – Marty's grandfather and Lorraine's father, Sam Baines, is born.
• 1914
  • Date unknown – Due to the First World 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.
• 1920
  • Date unknown – Emmett Lathrop Brown is born.
• 1923
  • Date unknown – Gray's, the future publishers of Gray's Sports Almanac, is founded.
• 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.
• 1932
  • Date unknown – At age 12, young Emmett tries digging to the center of the Earth.
• 1937
  • March 26 – Biff Tannen is born.
• 1938
  • April 1 – George McFly is born.
  • Date unknown – Lorraine Baines is born.
• 1940s
  • Date unknown – Emmett Brown works on the Manhattan Project.
• 1942
  • Date unknown – Milton Baines is born.
• 1947
  • Date unknown – Suitable repair parts for the DeLorean in 1885 are invented.
• 1949
  • Date unknown – Sally Baines is born.
• 1951
  • Date unknown – Toby Baines is born.
• 1954
  • Date unknown – Joey Baines is born.
  • Autumn – the copy of "Fantastic Story" that George is reading in 1955 is published.
• 1955
  • November 5 – Marty arrives in 1955 from 1985. Doc Brown slips off his toilet whilst hanging a clock and has a vision of the flux capacitor. Marty interferes with the meeting of George McFly and Lorraine Baines. Marty finds 1955 Doc and shows him the time machine.
  • November 6 – Doc realises 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.
  • November 7 – 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!
  • November 8 – 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.
  • November 9 – Marty and George come up with a plan for Saturday night.
  • November 12 – 1985 Doc and Marty arrive in 1955 again. 2015 Biff arrives with the sports almanac and gives it to his younger self. Original (Part I) Marty takes Lorraine to the dance, but Biff interferes and George punches Biff, saving Lorraine and they fall in love. Marty gets the almanac from Biff, erasing the skewed future and returning the timeline to normal. Doc, in the DeLorean, gets struck by lightning and sent back to 1885. Marty receives a letter from Doc in 1885. Lightning strikes the clocktower at 10:04pm, Original Marty goes back to 1985, Part II Marty scares 1955 Doc by "returning" seconds after he sent Original Marty back to the future.
  • November 13 – 1955 Doc reads the letter his older self in 1885 has written.
  • November 14 – Marty and Doc uncover the DeLorean from the Delgado mine.
  • November 15 – Doc repairs the DeLorean.
  • November 16 – Marty leaves 1955 and heads back to 1885 to rescue Doc.
• 1956
  • Date unknown – The youngest Baines sibling is born (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
  • March 26 – Biff Tannen wins his first million on a horse race using the sports almanac.
• 1959
  • Date unknown – Biff Tannen wins again and again, gaining the nickname, "The Luckiest Man On Earth".
• 1962
  • August 1 – Doc Brown's mansion burns down, except the detached garage, which Doc moves into, selling off the rest of the land.
• 1963
  • Date unknown – Dave McFly is born.
• 1966
  • Date unknown – Linda McFly is born.
• 1968
  • August 6 – Douglas J Needles is born.
  • Date unknown – Marty McFly is born.
  • Date unknown – Jennifer Parker is born.
• 1973
  • March 15 – George McFly wins an award for his writing. George McFly is murdered by Biff Tannen on his way to pick up the award.
  • Date unknown – Biff Tannen marries Lorraine and becomes stepfather to Dave, Linda and Marty McFly.
  • Date unknown – Ito Fujitsu, Marty's boss in 2015, is born.
• 1976
  • Date unknown – 8 year old Marty accidentally sets fire to the living room rug.
• 1979
  • Date unknown – Biff Tannen legalises gambling.
  • Date unknown – Hill Valley High School is burnt down.
• 1980s
  • Date unknown – Marty and Doc meet and become friends.
• 1981
  • Date unknown – The DeLorean motor car that Doc Brown ends up buying is made.
• 1983
  • May 22 – Doc Brown is commended and wins an award. Ronald Reagan announces he will run for a second term in office. Doc Brown is committed after being declared legally insane. Richard Nixon announces he will run for a fifth term in office.
• 1984
  • June – Linda McFly graduates in the Class of '84.
• 1985
  • October 12 – Libyan terrorists steal plutonium from the local power plant for Doc, but it is dismissed by the FBI as a "simple clerical error".
  • October 25 – Doc asks Marty to meet him at the Mall at 1:15am next morning. Marty fails his audition with his band, The Pinheads. Lorraine's brother Joey fails to make parole again.
  • October 26 – Doc demonstrates his new time machine. His dog Einstein becomes the world's first time traveller. The Libyans come and kill Doc. Marty accidentally goes back to 1955. 11 minutes earlier, but a week older, Marty returns from 1955 and finds out Doc lived because he'd been warned by Marty about the Libyans in 1955. Doc goes to the future, comes back and takes Marty and Jennifer to the future. They arrive back in 1985-A and find out things have changed. Marty meets the alternate versions of his mother and Biff.
  • October 27 – Doc realises what happened with Biff and the almanac and he and Marty head back to 1955 to put history back on track. Marty arrives back in 1985 from 1885 and the DeLorean is destroyed by a train. Marty originally races Needles and breaks his hand, causing his future to be rotten, but he has learnt his lesson and avoids the race. Doc, Clara and their sons arrive in the time train to visit Marty and Jennifer, before departing for times unknown.
  • October/November – George McFly's first novel, "A Match Made In Space", is published.
• 1987
  • Date unknown – Marty's driver's license expires.
• 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 – In the alternate timeline, something causes Biff's death but what happened is unknown, so Biff does not exist in 2015. 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.
  • Date unknown – Bottom's Up!, a plastic surgery place, opens in Courthouse Square.
• 2001
  • Date unknown – Gray's Sports Almanac is published.
• 2015
  • October 21 – Doc, Marty and Jennifer arrive in 2015 to save Marty Junior from being set up for a crime by Griff. Marty poses as Marty Junior and manages to change future history for the better. 2015 Biff steals the DeLorean and heads back to 1955 with the sports almanac. The 47-year-old Marty, dared by Needles, illegally lets Needles scan his card, and subsequently gets fired by Ito Fujitsu.
  • October 22 – Marty Junior is tried, sentenced and convicted for 15 years in jail due to a robbery. After Marty changes history, Griff is sent to jail for wrecking the Courthouse.
  • October 26 – Doc and Einstein arrive in the future (assuming they went exactly 30 years ahead from October 26, 1985).
  • October 28 – 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. 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 Junior's meeting with Griff on the 21st. Eventually, Doc leaves for 1985 to pick up Marty and Jennifer.
• 2030
  • Date unknown – Marty Junior is released from prison in the unaltered timeline.
• 2035
  • Date unknown – Marlene is released from prison in the unaltered timeline.