CHRONOLOGY
1965
May 16 Krist Anothony Novoselic is born in Compton, California.
1967
February 20 Kurt Donald Cobain is born in Hoquiam, Washington.
1969
Winter Kurt Cobain gets together with future Melvins drummer Dale Crover and friend Greg Hokanson. The short-lived trio is called Fecal Matter. They record a 4-track demo of Cobain originals, including one song 'Downer', that would later appear on Bleach.
DecemberMarginally impressed with the Fecal Matter cassette, Krist Novoselic decides that he and Cobain should start a band. With an eye toward the money to be made in Aberdeen taverns, the two begin playing together as the Sellouts, a Creedence Clearwater Revival cover band.
1987
Winter After Novoselic returns from a period of residence in Arizona, he, Cobain and drummer Aaron Burckhard begin rehearsing. They perform as Skid Row, Bliss, Ted Ed Fred, Pen Cap Chew, Throat Oyster and Windowpane before settling on Nirvana.
April Cobain, Novoselic and Burckhard play as Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Among songs the band play are 'Love Buzz', 'Floyd the Barber', 'Mexican Seafood', 'Hairspray Queen' and 'Downer'.
1988
January 23 With drummer Dale Crover, Nirvana works through 10 songs at Reciprocal Studios in Seattle. Producer Jack Endino records and mixes the session. Three tracks from this session, 'Paper Cuts', 'Floyd the Barber' and 'Downer', will appear on Bleach.
February Endino passes a tape of the demos to Jonathan Poneman of Sub Pop records. Poneman loves the songs, though many he plays the tape for, including Sub Pop co-owner Bruce Pavitt, are not as impressed. He pursues the band, and gets them interested in doing a single for Sub Pop.
Spring The band rehearses and performs with Dale Crover, Aaron Burckhard and Dave Foster before deciding to recruit Chad Channing as Nirvana's drummer.
June-July The band has several sessions to record its first-single for Sub Pop records.
November Sub Pop releases the first Nirvana single, 'Love Buzz'/'Big Cheese'.
December Nirvana begins sessions with Jack Endino at Reciprocal Studios for tracks that will make up their first album, Bleach.
1989
February Nirvana becomes a quartet with the addition of guitarist Jason Everman. Everman does not play on Bleach, but puts up the money for its recording. The band begins a West Coast tour.
June 15 Bleach is released on Sub Pop. The group begins its first extensive US tour. The tour is cut short because of conflicts with Everman. When the band returns to Seattle, Everman is no longer a member of Nirvana.
August The band records its 'Blew' EP sessions with producer Steve Fisk at Music Source studios in Seattle.
October 20 Nirvana embarks on its first European tour, with label-mates TAD.
December 30 Krist Novoselic marries his long-time girlfriend Shelli in their Tacoma apartment.
1990
January-March The band plays gigs throughout California and the Northwest US.
April The band spends a week recording demo sessions at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, with producer Butch Vig. Among recorded tracks are 'In Bloom', 'Dive', 'Lithium' and the version of 'Polly' that woudl end up on Nevermind.
May The band undertakes its second major US tour. At the end of the tour, Kurt and Krist fire Chad Channing. Dale Crover fills in for a seven-date West Coast tour.
July 11 The band records 'Sliver' with producer Jack Endino. Mudhoney's Dan Peters plays drums on the track.
September 22 Nirvana, with Peters on drums, headlines a major show at the Motor Sports International and Garage in Seattle. Dave Grohl is in the audience.
October After a quick audition, Dave Grohl is welcomed into Nirvana. The new line-up takes off for a brief tour of Britain.
December 1 Sub Pop releases the 'Sliver'/'Dive' single. Nirvana is using its Smart sessions demos to generate major label interest.
1991
April 30 Nirvana formally signs on with Geffen Records.
May-June Nirvana temporarily relocates to Los Angeles and records the tracks for Nevermind at Sound City studios in Van Nuys, California, with Butch Vig producing. During these sessions, a relationship begins between Cobain and Courtney Love.
June Nirvana opens for Dinosaur Jr. on a West Coast mini-tour.
August 20 Nirvana plays nine dates across Europe, including a triumphant set at the Reading Festival.
September 13 Nevermind release party is held at Rebar in Seattle. It comes to a messy end when the members of Nirvana instigate a full-scale food fight.
September 20 The band embarks on a six-week tour of the US and Canada.
September 24 Geffen Records releases Nevermind. Its first pressing calls for less than 50,000 copies. By Christmas, the album is selling 400,000 copies a week.
October 25 Nirvana tapes a segment for MTV's Headbanger's Ball. 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' is the program's "Skullcrusher of the Week."
November 2 The band sets out on a European tour.
December Nirvana tours briefly with Pearl Jam and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
1992
January 11 Nevermind is the Number One record on the Billboard album charts.
January 24 Nirvana tours California, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Hawaii.
February 24 Kurt Cobain marries Courtney Love in Hawaii.
May Cobain checks into Exodus, a drug rehabilitation program in Los Angeles, for treatment of his heroin addiction. He leaves the program before his treatment is finished.
June The band tours Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scandinavia, France and Spain.
August Vanity Fair publishes an article insinuating that Courtney Love is an unfit, heroin-addicted mother-to-be.
August 18 Frances Bean Cobain is born in Los Angeles. Kurt Cobain is de-toxing at the same hospital. Child welfare authorities revoke the Cobains' custody of their child. The case isn't settled until March, 1993.
August 30 Making a joke of the (accurate) rumors of his ill health, Kurt is brought to the stage of Reading Festival in a hospital smock and wheelchair. Nirvana's head-lining set is ecstatically received.
September 9 Nirvana plays the MTV Video Music Awards. The band wishes to play 'Rape Me' but are asked not to by MTV staff. Cobain plays the opening bars of the song before the band breaks into 'Lithium'. Backstage, the Cobains and Axl Rose exchange unpleasant words, and Kurt and Axl engage in a shoving match.
September 11 Nirvana plays a Seattle benefit for the Washington Music Industry Coalition, an anti-censorship group.
December 15 Incesticide is released.
1993
January Nirvana, with L7, play two large stadium shows in Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
February The band has recording sessions for In Utero at Pachyderm Studios in Minnesota with producer Steve Albini.
March The Cobains buy two homes in the Seattle area - a lakeside home in the city itself, and an estate in Carnation.
March 23 The legal battles over Frances Bean come to an end, with the charges against Kurt and Courtney being rendered not legally valid.
April 9 Nirvana plays a benefit at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, on a bill with L7, the Breeders and Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. They raise money for the Tresnjevka Women's Group, a Croatian organization assiting rape victims in the war-torn region.
May 2 Cobain suffers a heroin overdose in Seattle and its hospitalized.
May 17 Newsweek magazine runs an article on the "controversy" behind the In Utero tracks that have been submitted to Geffen. A great deal of subsequent press focuses on the odd, three-way conflict of opinion between Nirvana, Steve Albini and Geffen as to the way the recording sessions went and the quality of the music made.
September 21 In Utero is released and debuts as the Number One album on the Billboard charts.
October 18 Nirvana embarks on an extensive US tour. Pat Ruthensmear is added as a second guitarist.November 18 Nirvana, in New York, plays the "unplugged" set that will be released the following year as an album.
1994
January 7-8 Nirvana, plays its final US shows, at the Seattle Center Arena.
February 2 Nirvana begins a European tour.
March 1 The band gives what will be its final performance at Terminal Einz, Munich.
March 4 Cobain overdoses in Rome on a combination of champagne and Rohypnol. Nirvana mangement at first claim that this is an accident. Later it is clear that it was a suicide attempt.
March 30 Cobain spends two days at the Exodus rehabilitation center in Los Angeles.
April 1 Cobain scales a wall to escape Exodus, and flies to Seattle.
April 5 In a room over the garage of his Seattle home at 171 Lake Washington Blvd. E., Kurt Cobain writes a suicide note, gives himself a heroin injuction and then ends his life with a shotgun blast to the head.
