Timeline

1945 Birth of Peter James Rowling, Rowling’s father.
5 February 1945 Birth of Anne Volant, Rowling’s mother.
1964 Peter Rowling and Anne Volant met on a train departing from King’s Cross Station.
14 March 1965 Peter Rowling and Anne Volant get married.
31 July 1965 Birth of Joanne Rowling in Yate, Gloucestershire, England.
28 June 1967 Birth of Dianne Rowling, Rowling’s sister.
1969 The Rowling family moves to Winterbourne, Gloucestershire, England.
1970 Rowling attends St Michael’s Primary School.
1974 The Rowling family moves to Church Cottage, Tutshill, Gloucestershire, England. Rowling attends secondary school at Wyedean School and College.
c. 1977 Rowling’s great-aunt gives her a copy of Jessica Mitford’s autobiography, Hons and Rebels.
c. 1980 Anne Rowling is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
1982 After being rejected for Oxford University, the University of Exeter accepts her for a Bachelor of Arts in French and Classics.
1985 Rowling studies in Paris for a year.
1986 Rowling graduates from Exeter and moves to London to work for Amnesty International.
1990 Rowling and her boyfriend decides to move to Manchester. She works there in the Chamber of Commerce.
c. July 1990 On a four-hour-delayed train trip from Manchester to London, the idea for Harry Potter appears into her mind. She starts to write that very same night when she arrives to her flat.
30 December 1990 Anne Rowling dies after ten years suffering from multiple sclerosis.
1991 Rowling movs to Porto, Portugal to teach English as a foreign language.
1992 Rowlings meets Jorge Arantes in a bar in Porto.
16 October 1992 Joanne Rowling and Jorge Arantes get married on Porto, Portugal.
27 July 1993 Birth of Jessica Isabel Rowling Arantes (named after Jessica Mitford), daughter of Joanne Rowling and Jorge Arantes, in Portugal.
17 November 1993 Rowling and Arantes separate.
December 1993 Rowling moves to her sister’s, in Edinburgh, Scotland, with her daughter and three chapters of Harry Potter.
August 1994 Rowling fills for divorce from Jorge Arantes.
July 1995 Rowling finished Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
August 1995 Rowling beings a teacher training course at Edinburgh University.
Jan-Feb 1996 Rowling goes to Edinburgh Central Library to look up The Writers and Artists Year Book. She sends the first three chapters to literary agencies listed there. Bryony Evens, from Christopher Little Literary Agency, reads the manuscript and likes it. She requests the rest of it.
April 1996 Rowling signs a five-year contract with Christopher Little Literary Agency with the chance to renew the contract.
August 1996 Bloomsbury Publishing buys the book for an advance of £1,500 (Rowling received £1,250 of this initial payment).
March 1997 Arthur Levine, editorial director of Scholastic, reads a proof copy of Rowling’s book on the plane ride back from The Bologna Children’s Book Fair (Italy), and is determined to get the rights for the book.
May 1997 Christopher Little calls Rowling to say that they’d like to use her initials instead of her full name.
12 June 1997 Scholastic’s Arthur Levine buys the rights to publish Harry Potter in the United States for $100,000.
27 June 1997 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury.
28 June 1997 Lindsey Fraser publishes the first review of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in The Scotsman.
1998 Rowling publishes her short essay “What was the Name of that Nymph Again? or Greek and Roman Studies Recalled” in the University of Exeter’s journal Pegasus.
2 July 1998 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury.
1 September 1998 Scholastic publishes Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the United States.
7 October 1998 Warner Brothers pays a seven-figure sum for rights to the first two books.
8 July 1999 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury.
2000 Rowling establishes the Volant Charitable Trust to combat poverty and social inequality.
8 July 2000 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury.
12 March 2001 Rowling publishes two companion books to the Harry Potter series, Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
26 December 2001 Joanne Rowling and Neil Murray get married.
24 March 2003 Birth of David Gordon Rowling Murray, son of Neil Murray and Joanne Rowling.
23 June 2003 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury.
2005 J.K. Rowling and Emma Nicholson establish The Children’s High Level Group.
23 January 2005 Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray, daughter of Neil Murray and Joanne Rowling.
16 July 2005 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury.
21 December 2006 The title of the seventh Harry Potter book is announced as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
11 January 2007 Rowling finishes Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland.
21 July 2007 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury.
13 December 2007 The “Moonstone edition” of The Tales of Beedle the Bard is auctioned at Sotheby’s in London. The book is sell for £1.95 million. The money earned is donated to The Children’s Voice charity campaign.
4 December 2008 The Tales of Beedle the Bard is published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury, while the American edition is published by Scholastic, and the limited collector’s edition by Amazon.
25 February 2010 The charity co-founded by J.K. Rowling, The Children’s High Level Group, changes its name to Lumos.
5 April 2010 J.K. Rowling read passages from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at The White House as part of the Annual White House Easter Egg Roll.
July 2011 J.K. Rowling leaves Christopher Little Literary Agency and joins Neil Blair’s new agency, The Blair Partnership.
23 February 2012 The Blair Partnership announces that J.K. Rowling is going to publish a new book for adult readers.
27 September 2012 The Casual Vacancy is published by Little, Brown and Company.
April 2013 The Cuckoo’s Calling is published by Little, Brown and Company, under the pen name of Robert Galbraith.
13 July 2013 The Sunday Times reveals that Robert Galbraith is J.K. Rowling.
12 September 2013 It is announced J.K. Rowling is working on a new film inspired by the Harry Potter World. It will be Rowling’s debut as a screenwriter.
8 October 2013 The Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic at the University of Edinburgh opens.
19 December 2013 It is revealed that a stage play based on Harry Potter had been in development for around a year.
19 June 2014 The Silkworm, the second novel of Cormoran Strike series is published by Little, Brown and Company.
9 April 2015 J.K. Rowling lights up the Empire State Building to launch her children’s non-profit organization, Lumos USA.
24 April 2015 J.K. Rowling reveals the title of her third book as Robert Galbraith: Career of Evil.
26 June 2015 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the confirmed title for the stage play.
22 October 2015 Career of Evil, the third novel of Cormoran Strike series is published by Little, Brown and Company.
10 February 2016 Both parts of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play’s script will be released in print and digital format.
7 June 2016 Previews at the West End Palace Theatre, London, for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child begins.
30 July 2016 Official opening for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
31 July 2016 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Script is published worldwide.
18 November 2016 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is released worldwide.
14 March 2017 J.K. Rowling announces Lethal White as the title for the fourth novel of the Cormoran Strike series.
16 November 2017 Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald is the announced title for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them sequel.
23 March 2018 J.K. Rowling announces Lethal White is finished.
18 September 2018 Lethal White is publised in the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
18 November 2018 Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald film is released. The original screenplay is also published as a book.
25 January 2020 J.K. Rowling shares on Twitter that she finished the first version of the manuscript of Cormoran Strike fifth novel.
19 February 2020 It is announced that the fifth book of the Cormoran Strike series will be titled Troubled Blood and it will be released on September 29, 2020. The release date will change in the following months to September 15th.
26 May 2020 J.K. Rowling announces The Ickabog, her fairytale political story. It will be shared online for free and published as book on November 2020.
15 September 2020 Troubled Blood is published.
10 November 2020 The hardback edition of The Ickabog is published.
13 April 2021 J.K. Rowling announces The Christmas Pig, her new book for children. It will be published in October 12th, 2021.
12 October 2021 The Christmas Pig is released in the UK and the USA.
3 December 2021 J.K. Rowling reveals on Twitter that the title for the sixth book in the Cormoran Strike series will be The Ink Black Heart.
19 January 2022 The publication date for The Ink Black Heart is announced by the UK and the USA publisher. The book will be out on August 30th.
30 August 2022 The Ink Black Heart is published in the UK and the USA.
26 September 2023 The Running Grave is published in the UK and the USA.