Pokemon Timeline - Pokepedia

Ok, this up front stuff is pretty ugly (I'll come up with something better, later), but it's just intro text, so here goes...

If you know of events that are not in here, just click the "Add Event Timeline" link and add it.
If you see an event in here that either (a) has bad info or (b) is incomplete and you can contribute something to it, click the "Edit" link to the right and fix it.
Don't put inappropriate material in here. You know what it is.
I've put in as much information as I have pull from many many sources. It's up to you to make it keep growing.
Take a minute to read the credits at the bottom of this page. The people put in a lot of hard work keeping stuff up to date. The deserve a hand.
This Timeline is intended to be a living document.
If you feel like putting something in, put it in. It may seem trivial now, but it's better than getting down the road and saying "Man, I wish I could remember when that thing was."
There are a lot of things in here that are "groups" of event (Cities, Gyms, States, ...). If you want to put your specified event in, go right ahead. I'd love to see every City, State, Gym, Regional, National, STS, BattleZone, Gym Challenge, and Stadium Challenge listed in here eventually.
This is intended to be a fun thing and to help bring back many good memories of this game. Enjoy!
HEY! I just realized that you can embed HTML in the description and such. So you can bold things, underline things, italicize things, etc.
You can also embed an image using the IMG tag in HTML and having the image somewhere accessible on the web. (Don't link to someone's image without their permission though.)
This is intended to be a fun thing and to help bring back many good memories of this game. Enjoy!

I would like to think a TON of people for either their direct help or for making this information available:

PokePop and Myst for their terrific "History of Pokemon" series on the Pokegym that inspired this project.
Thanks to the owner of Raichu12.com (now defunct, apparently, but still available through The Wayback Machine) - I pulled a lot of data from your timeline.
Thanks to Moss who provided so much information via the Wikipedia and to anyone else who has contributed to the Pokemon Trading Card Game page of the Wikipedia - it is NOW a great source of info due to your efforts.
Thanks to Jeff Reynolds for your website listing all the event you've judged and participated in.
Thanks to Nintendo for maintaining a terrific set of information about Premier Events.
And thanks to all the players who have logged so many tournaments on the Internet - that's a HUGE source of great information.

This site is the Pokepedia. It is the most comprehensive, searchable Pokemon Trading Card Game (TCG) database on the web. In the world of TCGs and Collectible Card Games (CCG), there is nothing else like. Not in any other TCG/CCG. Not Magic the Gathering. Not Yu-Gi-Oh. Nothing. The Pokepedia is intended to provide a service to the competitive and casual Pokemon playing community, as well as Pokemon collectors. Among the features the Pokepedia provides is a decklist builder (for building and saving decks as well as printing out tournament-compliant decklists), an event mapper (showing leagues, organized play, and Premier Events across the United States), the Trader Base (where you can identify the cards you have for trade and the cards you're looking for and find others who need what you have and have what you need), a wide variety of information about Pokemon and the TCG (including artists and which cards they drew, Pokemon species, and evolution lines), examples of symbols from the various sets, the Pokemon Timeline (a user-driven history of Pokemon and the TCG), the Pokemon Frappr (an interactive map showing Pokemon players across the World), and a downloadable version of the Pokepedia (in Excel format). The Pokepedia also offers a user-maintained set of links to other sites of interest to the Pokemon community. But the Pokepedia is all about the search engine. Just enter the characteristics of a Pokemon card you're looking for and the Pokepedia will find it for you. As long as there are Pokemon players, the Pokepedia will continue to provide support. Thanks and enjoy the Pokepedia.

	Pokemon Timeline

1982
(unknown month) Satoshi Tajiri starts Game Freak, a fanzine about video games. It initially was handwritten and stapled together. It covered gave techniques and gave secret tips for games like Donkey Kong. Among the contributors was Ken Sugimori.

1989
April 26	Game Freak, Inc. founded by Satoshi Tajiri. In honor of the founder, the lead character in the Japanese version of the Pokémon TV series was named Satoshi.

1990
(unknown month) Satoshi Tajiri is inspired by the communications capability of Game Boy's cable and starts work on Pokémon.

1996
February 27	Nintendo releases Pokémon Red and Green for Game Boy in Japan. (Nintendo )
October 20	Game Freak and Nintendo release the starter deck and Base Set for the Japanese Pocket Mosters Trading Card Game.

1997
March 05	Jungle set is released in Japan.
June 05	Fossil set released in Japan.
November 21	Team Rocket set released in Japan.
December 16	A scene in the Pokémon TV show caused seizures in several Japanese children. Japanese TV pulled the show for several months. The episode was "Computer Soldier Porygon", and the seizure was caused by Pikachu, who flashed several red and blue lights.

1998
(unknown month) Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back opens in Japan.
March	Vending Series 1 (Blue) released in Japan.
April 26	Brock and Misty decks released in Japan. Introduction of "Gym Leader" cards.
June	Vending Series 2 (Red) released in Japan.
July	The Pokemon anime premieres on FOX Kids weekdays in an early morning time slot
July 25	Lt. Surge and Erika Gym Leader decks released.
August 27	Nintendo launches Pokémon in the United States. They manage to get Topeka Kansas to rename itself "Topikachu." They hold a Pokémon party that includes a helicoptor airdrop of plush Pokémon dolls.
September 07	The Pokémon anime begins airing on September 7th on Kids WB and quickly becomes the top rated kids' cartoon show.
September 28	Pokémon Red & Blue for Gameboy is introduced to America.
October	KFC runs the first fast food promotion with Pokémon. In addtion to Kids' Meals toys, four plush "beanies" are also available: Dratini, Zubat, Seel, and Vulpix. The promo does not reach much success because at this time, Pokémon is still fairly unknown.
October 23	Gym Leader 1 packs released in Japan.
November	Vending Series 3 (Green) released in Japan.
December	Wizards of the Coast under license by Nintendo of America starts producing the Pokémon Trading Card Game for the worldwide market outside of Japan. (Wizards )
December	2-Player starter set released in stores.

1999
(unknown month) Pokémon: The Revelation of Lugia opens in Japan.
January	Pokémon Trading Card Game Base Set packs, 1st Edition and unlimited are released. The Starter Set and Demo Decks had been released the previous month, in 1998.