Timeline

The series timeline includes events in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Nineteenth century

• 1814: The first constitution of Norway is signed on May 17, proclaiming Norway a state independent of Denmark.
• 1831: The Fitzgerald Distillery is established. ("Battle of the Century")
• 1839: Ethan Thompson is born. ("Battle of the Century")
• 1843: Louis Kaestner is born ("Paris Green")
• 1845-1852: Great Famine in Ireland.
• 1848: Elenore Thompson is born. ("Battle of the Century")
• 1861: The American Civil War begins.
• 1863: The Battle of Vicksburg takes place. The Commodore's brother is killed during the battle. ("Paris Green")
• 1865: The American Civil War ends.
• 1867: Jackson Parkhurst takes part in the Wagon Box Fight during Red Cloud's War. ("Gimcrack & Bunkum")
• 1868: Eddie Kessler is born in Germany
• 1871: Great Chicago Fire
• 1876: Custer's Last Stand at the Battle of Little Bighorn
• 1881: Nucky Thompson is a member of the Atlantic City Junior Beach Patrol. ("Home")
• 1883: Damien Fleming is born ("Ourselves Alone")
• 1884: Gillian Darmody is born. ("Paris Green")
• 1885:
  • Mabel Thompson is born. ("A Return to Normalcy")
  • Harry Daugherty and Jess Smith hide in Daugherty's parents' house as a tornado swepts Washington Court House, Ohio. The victims include 10-year old Mary Shakledorf. ("A Man, A Plan...")
• 1888:
  • A great winter blizzard falls over Atlantic City. ("Boardwalk Empire")
  • Nucky Thompson claims to have searched for food chestdeep in snow in order to feed his family, ultimately killing three rats, while his father Ethan Thompson was drunk. He later denied the story, however. ("Boardwalk Empire")
  • Mickey Doyle is born
• 1892: Doomsday cult leader Edgartin Sterry prophesizes the Second Coming to take place in this year. Nelson Van Alden's father, one of his followers, gives away the family farm in anticipation and the family awaits in a tent for the whole of the year. Van Alden's relation with his parents begins to sour afterwards.
• 1893: Margaret Schroeder is born. ("Family Limitation")
• 1894: Nelson Van Alden's aunt takes him to a play, his fundamentalist parents are enraged and shun all contact with her. ("A Dangerous Maid")

  

  Gillian during May Day, 1897 ("Paris Green")

• 1897: Gillian is raped by The Commodore on May 1. Nucky set up their meeting. ("Paris Green")
• 1898:
  • Jimmy Darmody is born in January.
  • Chalky White runs dice at the beach and meets Nucky for the first time. ("The Emerald City")
  • Julia Sagorsky is born. ("A Man, A Plan...")
  • Spanish-American War
• 1899: Beginning of the Philippine-American War

Twentieth century

1900s

• 1900: Paul Sagorsky fights at the Siege of Catubig in the Philippines.
• 1901:
  • Booker T. Washington makes a stop in Atlantic City.
  • Chalky claims that he met the Commodore for the first time and found out that Nucky had been overtaxing him for 3 years. ("The Emerald City")
• 1902: Official end of the Philippine-American War (fighting in the south continues until 1913)
• 1903:
  • Elenore Thompson dies aged 55. ("Battle of the Century")
  • Manny Horvitz and his wife move to the United States. ("Resolution")
• 1904: Rowland Smith is born
• 1905: Gillian tries to marry Mr. Lancaster ("Anastasia")
• 1907: Gyp Rosetti's first daughter is born. ("Margate Sands")
• 1908:
  • Nelson and Rose Van Alden are married. ("21")
  • Jimmy, The Commodore and Nucky attend a speech by Republican Presidential nominee William Howard Taft. ("The Ivory Tower")
• 1909:

  • 

    Margaret in 1909.

    Margaret gets pregnant with Douglas Walton's child, the son of the barrister she was working for as a maid. Refusing to tell the father's identity, and threatened with being confined to a Magdalene Sisters asylum, she steals Eamonn Rohan's passage and immigrates to the United States. She miscarries on arrival. ("Family Limitation")
  • Hans Schroeder becomes baker's helper ("The Ivory Tower").
  • A workers strike in Atlantic City is put down violently ("Georgia Peaches")
  • Gyp Rosetti's second daughter is born. ("Margate Sands")

1910s

• 1910: Fred Sagorsky wins a school championship in athletics. ("Sunday Best")
• 1911: Esther Randolph becomes a public defender in California ("Peg of Old")
• 1912:
  • Nucky (then Atlantic County Sheriff) arrests Hans Schroeder for public indecency during Oktoberfest. ("The Ivory Tower").
  • The Commodore Louis Kaestner is charged and imprisoned for election rigging during a PR campaign by then Governor Woodrow Wilson. Nucky succeeds the Commodore as new Atlantic County Treasurer ("Boardwalk Empire", "A Return to Normalcy")
  • Enoch Thompson Jr. is born and dies in the second half of December. ("A Return to Normalcy")
• 1913:
  • Mabel Thompson commits suicide aged 28. ("Boardwalk Empire", "A Return to Normalcy")
  • Manny Horvitz begins working with Waxey Gordon. Their relationship goes awry by 1921. ("What Does the Bee Do?")
  • Victor Sickles contacts Eli Thompson, interested in joining some police force in New Jersey. ("Spaghetti and Coffee")
  • Eddie Kessler begins to work for Nucky Thompson. (summary for "Resignation")
• 1914:
  • Teddy Schroeder is born on March. ("Acres of Diamonds")
  • The Commodore makes his last and only will, leaving everything to Louanne Pratt ("To the Lost")
  • World War I begins.
  • Rowland Smith's family receives a Christmas turkey from Nucky Thompson. ("Blue Bell Boy")
  • Paul Sagorsky starts drinking ("The North Star")
• 1915: The RMS Lusitania is torpedoed by a German submarine, sparking anti-German protests in the United States.
• 1916:
  • Emily Schroeder is born on May. ("The Milkmaid's Lot")
  • Gillian dates Arthur Henderson until he dumps her ("Under God's Power She Flourishes")

    

    Jimmy and Angela in 1916. ("Under God's Power She Flourishes")

  • Jimmy and Angela meet in Princeton and begin a relationship. She gets pregnant with Tommy late in the year ("Under God's Power She Flourishes", "Inside the Episode: Under God's Power She Flourishes")
  • Gillian visits Jimmy at Princeton. During her stay she sleeps with her son and causes him to get in a fight with his teacher Mr. Pearson, guaranteeing Jimmy's expulsion from the College. ("Under God's Power She Flourishes")
  • Jimmy enlists in the US Army. ("Under God's Power She Flourishes")
  • Last photos of Richard Harrow with Emma and the rest of his family in Plover, Wisconsin. ("Ging Gang Goolie")
  • Easter Rising against British occupation in Ireland.
• 1917:
  • Tommy Darmody is born. ("Under God's Power She Flourishes")

    

    The Schroeder family c.1916. ("Georgia Peaches")

  • The Rohann family move to the USA. ("A Dangerous Maid")
  • The D'Alessio brothers rob a restaurant and kill 3 people. ("Belle Femme")
  • The United States of America declare war on Germany.
  • Jimmy receives instruction at Camp Grant, Illinois before leaving to fight in World War I. ("Boardwalk Empire"). Richard Harrow presumably does the same.
  • Nucky ends his relationship with Annabelle and begins seeing Lucy Danziger. ("Home")
  • The Commodore gets out of jail ("A Return to Normalcy")
  • Margaret stops attending confession regularly. ("The Age of Reason")
  • Russian Revolution and beginning of the Russian Civil War.
• 1918:
  • Angela meets Robert and Mary Dittrich. ("Belle Femme")

    

    Jimmy in the trenches of the Western Front. ("To the Lost")

  • Jimmy earns a medal for his role in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel ("Boardwalk Empire")
  • Jimmy is injured by a German grenade during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and is treated in a field hospital in Verdun. Experimental surgery is able to save his leg. Fred Sagorsky is killed during the same battle. ("Anastasia", "Home", "Ging Gang Goolie")
  • Julia Sagorsky considers marrying Douglas. ("A Man, A Plan...")
  • World War I ends.
  • Nicholas II of Russia and his family are executed by the Bolsheviks.
• 1919:

  

  A paper's report on the Black Sox Scandal. ("Georgia Peaches")

  • The Irish War of Independence begins.
  • Jimmy spends several months at the Walter Reed Hospital in Washington DC and returns to Atlantic City in January of next year. ("Home", "Broadway Limited")
  • Arnold Rothstein fixes the World Series, resulting in the Black Sox Scandal.
  • A drunken member of the Order of Ancient Celts throws a midget known as "Captain Haddock" over the Boardwalk. ("Nights in Ballygran")
  • The League of Nations is formed.
  • The 18th Amendment to the US Constitution is ratified.
  • August Tucker leaves Georgia for Tampa, Florida. ("Acres of Diamonds")

1920s

1920

• 1920: First season

  

  Margaret and Nucky share their first dance together. ("Anastasia")

  • January - "Boardwalk Empire", "The Ivory Tower", "Broadway Limited"
  • February - "Anastasia"
  • March - "Nights in Ballygran"
  • April - "Family Limitation"
  • May - "Home"

    

    Torrio brokers peace between Nucky and Rothstein. ("A Return to Normalcy")

  • June - "Hold Me in Paradise"
  • July - "Belle Femme"
  • August - "The Emerald City"
  • September - "Paris Green
    • 14: Sacco and Vanzetti are indicted for armed robbery.
    • 16: Wall Street Bombing.
  • October 31 to November 2 - "A Return to Normalcy"
• December 11-12: British paramilitaries set fire to several buildings in the Irish city of Cork and shoot at the firemen when they try to contain the flames.
• Undated: Owen Sleater plants his first bomb at some Black and Tans barracks in County Tipperary, Ireland. ("What Does the Bee Do?")
• Undated: Bill McCoy meets August Tucker in Florida for the first time. ("Acres of Diamonds")

1921

• 1921: Second season

  

  Nucky and Margaret's wedding. ("To the Lost")

  • February - "21", "Ourselves Alone"
  • March - "A Dangerous Maid"
  • April - "What Does the Bee Do?"
  • May - "Gimcrack & Bunkum"

    

    Nucky kills Jimmy. ("To the Lost")

  • June - "The Age of Reason", "Peg of Old", "Two Boats and a Lifeguard"
  • July:
    • 1 to 2 - "Battle of the Century"
    • 23 to 25 - "Georgia Peaches"
    • 26 to 27 - "Under God's Power She Flourishes"
  • August - "To the Lost"
  • December - The Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed, proclaiming the Irish Free State as a dominion under British sovereignty.

1922

• 1922:
  • Undated: Arnold Rothstein introduces Nucky to Gyp Rosetti. ("You'd Be Surprised")
  • October - End of the Russian Civil War.
  • November - Howard Carter discovers King Tutankhamun's tomb.
  • December:

    

    Nucky is made a member of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great. ("Bone for Tuna")

    • 12: Nucky Thompson is awarded the title of Knight Commander of the Papal Order of Saint Gregory the Great. The ceremony of acceptance is set to take place on January 9, 1923. ("Spaghetti and Coffee")
    • "Some time before" 25: George Mueller sells a defective iron to Prohibition Agent Emmett Coughlin.
    • 31: "Resolution"

1923

• 1923: Third Season
  • January - "Resolution", "Spaghetti and Coffee", "Bone for Tuna", "Blue Bell Boy"
  • February - "You'd Be Surprised"

    

    Gyp Rosetti takes Nucky's office in the Ritz Carlton Hotel. ("Two Imposters")

  • March - "Ging Gang Goolie"
  • April - "Sunday Best"
    • Richard and Emma Harrow's father dies, making them orphans ("Resignation")
  • May - "The Pony", "The Milkmaid's Lot"
    • Emma Harrow marries Gerald ("Resignation")
  • June:
    • 21 - "A Man, A Plan..."
    • 22 - "Two Imposters"
    • 26 to 27 - "Margate Sands"
  • July-August - Tommy Darmody talks again after a month speechlessness as a result of the massacre at The Artemis Club. ("New York Sour")
  • August:
    • Emma Harrow becomes pregnant ("Resignation")
    • Warren G. Harding dies of a heart attack
• November - Gerald dies, making Emma a widow ("Resignation")

1924

• 1924: Fourth Season
  • January:
    • While in jail, George Remus tells the Bureau of Investigation that Nucky Thompson is 'the linchpin of a nationwide criminal conspiracy'. ("William Wilson")
    • BoI Agent James Tolliver travels to Atlantic City and poses as BIR Agent Warren Knox to investigate Nucky's organization and the corruption within the Prohibition Agents deployed there. ("New York Sour", "Resignation")
  • February - "New York Sour", "Resignation"
    • Woodrow Wilson dies
  • March - "Acres of Diamonds", "All In"
  • April - "Erlkonig", "The North Star"
  • May:
    • 21 to 22 - "William Wilson"
    • 23 to 24 - "The Old Ship of Zion"
  • June - "Marriage and Hunting"
  • July - "White Horse Pike", "Havre de Grace"