1047 - First appearence in written form of the word "upir" (an early form of the word later to become "Vampire") in a document referring to a Russian Prince as "Upir Lichy" or Wicked Vampire.

1190 - Walter Map's De Nagis Curialium includes accounts of vampire-like beings in England.

1196 - William of Newburgh's Chronicles records several stories of vampire-like revenants in England.

1431 - Vlad Dracula, son of Vlad Dracul is born.

1436 - Vlad Dracula becomes Prince of Wallachia and moves to Tirgoviste.

1442 - Vlad Dracula is imprisoned with his father by the Turks.

1443 - Vlad Dracula becomes a hostage of the Turks.

1447 - Vlad Dracul is beheaded.

1448 - Vlad briefly attains the Wallachian throne. Dethroned, he goes to Moldavia and he friends Prince Stefan.

1451 - Vlad and Stefan flee to Transylvania

1455 - Constantinople falls.

1456 - John Hunyadi assists Vlad Dracula to attain the Wallachian throne. Vladislav Dan is executed.

1458 - Matthias Corvinus secceeds John Hunyadi as King of Hungary.

1459 - Easter massacre of the boyers and rebuilding of Dracula's castle. Bucharest is established as the second governmental centre.

1460 - Attack upon Brasov, Romania

1461 - Successful campaign against Turkish settlements along the Danube. Summer retreat to Tirgoviste.

1462 - Following the battle at Dracula's castle, Vlad flees to Transylvania. Vlad begins 13 year imprisonment.

1475 - Summer wars in Servia against Turks take place. November, Vlad resumes the throne of Wallachia.

1476/77 - Vlad is assassinated.

1560 - Elizabeth Bathory is born.

1610 - Bathory is arrested for killing several hundred people and bathing in their blood. She is sentenced to life imprisonment.

1614 - Elizabeth Bathory dies.

1645 - Leo Allatius finishes writing the first modern treatment of vampires, De Graecorum hodie quirumdam opinationabus.

1657 - Fr. Francoise Richard links vampirism and witchcraft.

1672 - Wave of vampire hysteria sweeps thru Istra.

1679 - A German vampire text, De Masticatione Mortuorum, by Phillip Rohr is written.

1710 - Vampire hysteria sweeps thru East Prussia.

1725 - Vampire hysteria returns to East Prussia.

1725-30 - Vampire hysteria lingers in Hungary

1725-32 - The wave of vampire hysteria in Austrain Serbia produces the famous cases of Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paul (Paole).

1734 - The word "Vampyre" enters the English language in translations of German accounts of the European waves of vampire hysteria.

1744 - Cardinal Giuseppe Davanzati publishes his treatise, Dissertazione sopre I Vampiri.

1746 - Dom Augustin Calmet publishes his treatise on vampires.

1748 - The first modern vampire poem, Der Vampir, is published by Heinrich August Ossenfelder.

1750 - Another wave of vampire hysteria occurs in East Prussia.

1756 - Vampire hysteria peaks in Wallachia.

1772 - Vampire hysteria occurs in Russia.

1797 - Goethe's "Bride of Corinth" a poem concerning a vampire, is published.

1798 - 1800 - Samiel Taylor Coleridge writes "Christabel" no conceded to be the first vampire poem in English.

1800 - I Vampiri, an opera by Silvestro de Palma, opens in Milan Italy.

1801 - "Thalaba" by Robert Southey is the first poem to mention the vampire in English.

1810 - Reports of sheep being killed by having their jugular veins cut and their blood dreained circulate thru northern England. "The Vampyre" by John Stagg, an early vampire poem is published.

1813 - Lord Byron's poem "The Giaour" includes the hero's encounter with a vampire.

1819 - John Polidori's The Vampyre, the first vampire story in English, is published in the April issue of New Monthly Magazine. John Keats composes "The Lamia," a poem built on ancient Greek legends.

1820 - Lord Ruthwen ou Les Vampires by Cyprien Berard is published anonymously in Paris. June 13th Le Vampire, the play by Charles Nodier, opens at the Theatre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris. August The Vampire or The Bride of the Isles, a traslation of Nodier's play by James R Planche opens in London.

1829 - March, Heinrich Marschner's opera, Der Vampyr, based on Nodier's story, opens in Liepzig.

1841 - Alexey Tolstoy publishes his short story, Upyr, while living in Paris. It is the first modern vampire story by a Russian.

1847 - Bram Stoker is born. Varney the Vampyre begins lengthy serialization.

1851 - Alexandre Dumas's last dramatic work, Le Vampire, opens in Paris.

1854 - The case of vampirism in the Ray family of Jewett, Connecticut, is published in local newspapers.

1872 - "Carmilla" is written by Sheridan Le Fanu. In Italy, Vincenzo Verzeni is convicted of murdering two people and drinking their blood.

1874 - Reports from Ceven, Ireland, tell of sheep having their throats cut and their blood drained.

1888 - Emily Gerard's Land Beyond The Forest is published. It will become a major source of information about Transylvania for Bram Stoker's Dracula.

1894 - H.G. Wells's short story, The Flowering Of The Strange Orchid, is a precursor to science fiction vampire stories.

1897 - Dracula by Bram Stoker is published in England. The Vampire by Rudyard Kipling becomes the inspiration for the creation of the vamp as a stereotypical character on stage and screen.

1912 - The Secrets Of House No.5 possibly the first vampire movie, is produced in Great Britian.

1913 - Dracula's Guest by Bram Stoker is published.

1920 - Dracula, the first film based on the novel, is made in Russia. No copy has survived.

1921 - Hungarian filmmakers produce a version of Dracula.

1922 - Nosferatu, a German made silent film produced by Prana Films, is the third attempt to film Dracula.

1924 - Hamilton Deane's stage version of Dracula opens in Derby. Fritz Harmaann of Hanover, Germany, is arrested, tried and convicted of killing more than 20 people in a vampiric crime spree. Sherlock Holmes has his only encounter with a vampire in The Case Of The Sussex Vampire.

1927 - Feb 14, Stage version of Dracula debuts at the Little Theatre in London. Oct, American version of Dracula starring Bela Lugosi opens at Fulton Theatre in New York City. Tod Browning directs Lon Chaney in London After Midnight, the first full length vampire film.

1928 - The first edition of Montague Summers's influential work The Vampire : His Kith and Kin, appears in England.

1929 - Montague Summers's second vampire book, The Vampire in Europe, is published.

1931 - January, Spanish film version of Dracula is previewed. Feb, American film version of Dracula with Bela Lugosi premieres at the Roxy Theatre in New York City. Peter Kurten of Dusseldorf, Germany is executed after being found guilty of murdering a number of people in a vampiric killing spree.

 Source - The Vampire Book - The Encyclopedia Of The Undead
By J. Gordon Melton

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