In the Anime...

A long time ago, there was a kingdom on the moon. It was called the Silver Millenium and was ruled by Queen Serenity. She had a daughter, who was Princess Serenity*. There was also four senshis who guarded Princess Serenity. They were Sailor Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Mercury. Sailor Venus was the leader of all of them.

Meanwhile, there were other senshis; Sailor Uranus, Neptune and Pluto were the guardians of the Silver Millenium, not the princess. That's why you don't see them that often in the past.

Then, there was the Prince of Earth, Prince Endymion*. Princess Serenity loved him and would want to visit him. The only trouble was that the people of Earth and the Moon were not allowed to meet each other.

There was also Queen Beryl who was also in love with Endymion, but Endymion refused her love. During the ecllipse of the Moon, Queen Beryl and her forces attacked the Moon. The senshis all fought but they were all killed. Beryl killed Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion.

Queen Serenity was so sad that she use her Moon wand and sent all of them to be reborn, while Luna and Artemis were put in hibernation until the time was right. From there, we know the rest...

*In the NA version, they are called Prince Darien and Princess Serena, which I think is rather dumb as the 'Queen' title is enough to differentiate all of them.

Out Of The Anime...

From there, 'Sailormoon Sailor Stars' started on the 9th of March 1996 with episode 167. Ths show has ended on 8th of February 1997