1629: Salem is settled.
1641: English law makes witchcraft a capital crime.
November, 1689: Samuel Parris is named the new minister of Salem.
October 16, 1691: Villagers vow to drive Parris out of Salem and stop contributing to his salary.
January 20, 1692: Eleven-year old Abigail Williams and nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris exhibit strange behavior. Soon Ann Putnam Jr. and other Salem girls begin acting similarly.
Mid-February, 1692: Doctor Griggs suggests that witchcraft may be the cause of their strange behavior.
Late-February, 1692: Pressured by ministers and townspeople to say who caused her odd behavior, Elizabeth identifies Tituba.
February 29, 1692: Arrest warrants are issued for Tituba, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne.
March 1, 1692: Magistrates John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin examine Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne for "witches teats." Tituba confesses to practicing witchcraft and confirms Good and Osborne are her co- conspirators.
March 11, 1692: Ann Putnam Jr. shows symptoms of affliction by witchcraft. Mercy Lewis, Mary Walcott, and Mary Warren later allege affliction as well.
March 12, 1692: Ann Putnam Jr. accuses Martha Cory of witchcraft.
March 19. 1692: Abigail Williams denounces Rebecca Nurse as a witch.
March 23, 1692: Salem Marshal Deputy Samuel Brabrook arrests four-year-old Dorcas Good.
March 26, 1692: Hathorne and Corwin interrogate Dorcas.
March 28, 1692: Elizabeth Proctor is accused of witchcraft.
April 11, 1692: Elizabeth’s husband, John, who protested the examination of his wife, becomes the first man accused of witchcraft and is incarcerated.
Early April, 1692: Mary Warren admits lying and accuses the other accusing girls of lying.
April 13, 1692: Ann Putnam Jr. accuses Giles Cory of witchcraft and alleges that a man who died at Cory's house also haunts her.
April 19, 1692: Abigail Hobbs, Bridget Bishop, Giles Cory and Mary Warren are examined. Mary Warren reverses her statement made in early April and rejoins the accusers.
May 10, 1692: Sarah Osborne dies in prison.
May 27, 1692: Phipps issues a commission for a Court to oversee the witch trials.
June 2, 1692: Bridget Bishop is the first to be tried and convicted of witchcraft. She is sentenced to die.
June 10, 1692: Bridget Bishop is hanged at Gallows Hill. Following the hanging Nathaniel Saltonstall resigns from the court.
June 15, 1692: Cotton Mather writes a letter requesting the court not use spectral evidence as a standard and urging that the trials be speedy. The Court pays more attention to the request for speed and less attention to the criticism of spectral evidence.
June 29-30, 1692: Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Sarah Wildes, Sarah Good, and Elizabeth Howe are tried, pronounced guilty and sentenced to hang.
July 19, 1692: Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe, Sarah Good and Sarah Wildes are hanged at Gallows Hill.
August 5, 1692: George Jacobs Sr., Martha Carrier, George Burroughs, John Willard and John and Elizabeth Proctor are pronounced guilty and sentenced to hang.
August 19, 1692: George Jacobs Sr., Martha Carrier, George Burroughs, John Willard and John Proctor are hanged on Gallows Hill. Elizabeth Proctor is not hanged because she is pregnant.
August 20, 1692: Margaret Jacobs recants the testimony that led to the execution of her grandfather George Jacobs Sr. and Burroughs.
September 9, 1692: Martha Corey, Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Dorcas Hoar and Mary Bradbury are pronounced guilty and sentenced to hang.
Mid-September, 1692: Giles Cory is indicted.
September 17, 1692: Margaret Scott, Wilmott Redd, Samuel Wardwell, Mary Parker, Abigail Faulkner, Rebecca Earnes, Mary Lacy, Ann Foster and Abigail Hobbs are tried and sentenced to hang.
September 19, 1692: Sheriffs press Giles Cory after he refuses to enter a plea to the charges of witchcraft against him. After two days under the weight, Cory dies.
September 22, 1692: Martha Cory, Margaret Scott, Mary Easty, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Willmott Redd, Samuel Wardwell, and Mary Parker are hanged. Hoar escapes execution by confessing.
October 8, 1692: Governor Phipps orders that spectral evidence no longer be admitted in witchcraft trials.
October 29, 1692: Phipps prohibits further arrests, releases many accused witches, and dissolves the ‘Witch’ Court.
January 3, 1693: Judge Stoughton orders execution of all suspected witches who were exempted by their pregnancy. Phipps denied enforcement of the order causing Stoughton to leave the bench.
January 1693: 49 of the 52 surviving people brought into court on witchcraft charges are released because their arrests were based on spectral evidence.
1693: Tituba is released from jail and sold to a new master.
May 1693: Phipps pardons those still in prison on witchcraft charges.
January 14, 1697: The General Court orders a day of fasting and soul-searching for the tragedy at Salem.
1697: Minister Samuel Parris is ousted as minister in Salem and replaced by Joseph Green.
1702: The General Court declares the 1692 trials unlawful.
1706: Ann Putnam Jr., one of the leading accusers, publicly apologizes for her actions in 1692.
1711: The colony passes a legislative bill restoring the rights and good names of those accused of witchcraft and grants 600 pounds in restitution to their heirs.
1752: Salem Village is renamed Danvers.
1957: Massachusetts formally apologizes for the events of 1692.
