As complex as the continuity sometimes may be, the Marvel Cinematic Universe remains fairly accessible. There's plenty of deep lore that devotees can dive into, but each of the films and television series works on its own, with connections to other events typically explained. Even Avengers: Infinity War, which depends upon audiences having seen previous films to know all the characters and fully appreciate the ramifications, is able to convey enough of the franchise mythology that viewers don't need to be versed in every detail.

Taken as a whole, however, the history of the MCU is overwhelming. Because Avengers: Endgame is rumored to employ time travel to defeat Thanos, it's a good time for a refresher on the timeline. This article lists every major event in the history of the MCU, from the movies and even the semi-disconnected TV series, in chronological order.

Before the universe existed: Six singularities (Soul, Reality, Time, Space, Mind and Power) predate the formation of the universe, as do the Dark Elves, who originated from the darkness before reality came into existence.

Really early on in the universe: The six singularities turn into the Infinity Stones, through some unknown processes. Celestials are the most powerful lifeforms in the early universe, wielding the Power Stone to render judgment on other worlds. However, eventually they go extinct, with Ego as the only survivor of the species. Also coming into existence in this time are the Elders of the Universe, notably The Collector and The Grandmaster.

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Dates unknown: The civilizations of the Kree, the Nova, the Skrulls and the Asgardians begin to emerge. Thanos' home planet Titan booms in population only to die out as resources are depleted, inspiring his philosophy on population control.

2.5 million B.C.: A Vibranium meteorite falls in East Africa, in the region that eventually becomes Wakanda.

first Black Panther

Around 8000 B.C.: Humans settle in Vibranium-affected land. Multiple tribes war over the territory, but they are ultimately united by Bashega, who was guided in a vision from the panther god Bast to the Heart-Shaped Herb, granting him the powers of the Black Panther. He establishes Wakanda, the first great civilization, which advances ahead of the rest of the world technologically, due to its rich Vibranium resources. The Jabari tribe isolates itself in the mountains.

Around 3000 B.C.: The Kree expand their empire across the universe. Those who resist, notably the Skrulls, are subjected to genocide. The Kree reach Earth, and their experiments on humans result in the creation of the Inhumans. The first Inhuman, Alveus, drives the Kree from Earth, but his powers of possession frighten humans and Inhumans alike, leading to his banishment to the planet Maveth. Alveus' followers form the cult of Hydra, while most of the other Inhumans move to a Kree lunar outpost, which they name Attilan.

2988 B.C.: The Dark Elves seek to recreate their original universe of darkness through use of the Reality Stone, but Asgardian King Bor wipes them out. However, a few survivors led by Malekith escape and hide in suspended animation until the next cosmic Convergence.

Odin and Hela Thor-Ragnarok

Some time after that: Bor's son Odin takes the throne. Along with his daughter Hela, he seeks to build an empire, but centuries later, he renounces his warlike ways and banishes Hela, who slaughters the Valkyries in a last act of retaliation. Odin and Frigga have a son, Thor.

Dates unknown: Sorcerer Supreme Agamotto, in possession of the Time Stone through unknown means, founds the Masters of the Mystic Arts and the Sanctum Santorums. Another mystical group establishes the city of K'un Lun, protected by the Iron First. Five K'un Lun disciples, seeking the secrets of immortality, are banished and form a new organization: the Hand.

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79 A.D.: The Hand triggers the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, destroying Pompeii and Herculaneum. The Iron Fist forms a new organization, the Chaste, to combat the Hand.

Date unknown: During a famine, two Choctaw children become the first Divine Pairing. One sacrifices herself in a ritual that ends the famine. Divine Pairings emerge throughout the history of New Orleans.

Around 1000: Frost Giant King Laufey of Jotunheim invades Midgard (Earth), and Odin leads the Asgardians in defending the realm. Odin adopts a Frost Giant child, Loki.

1014: The Kree and Nova empires go to war.

1300s: Asgard launches another campaign in Midgard, and a Berserker warrior deserts.

NEXT PAGE: The Marvel Universe Enters the Modern Era

1342: The Ancient One is born.

1409: Odin hides the Space Stone with worshipers in Tønsberg, Norway.

1500s: The transatlantic slave trade begins, the "chaos" illustrated in the opening scene of Black Panther, inspiring Wakanda to isolate itself from the world.

1876: The grandfather of Ulysses Klaue is killed by the Black Panther.

1918: Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes and Howard Stark are born.

1934: Hydra scientist Johann Schmidt uses the Night of the Long Knives as an opportunity to take control of the Nazis' weapons-testing program.

1940: Schmidt forces Dr. Abraham Erskine to test the Super-Soldier Serum, which transforms Schmidt into the Red Skull. British Intelligence rescues Erskine before Red Skull can kill him. Erskine, along with Howard Stark, becomes essential in the formation of the Strategic Science Reserve.

1941: As the United States enters World War II, Red Skull finds the Space Stone.

Captain America The First Avenger Hitler Punch

1943-45: Captain America: The First Avenger takes place. Steve Rogers takes the Super-Soldier Serum, becomes Captain America, and fights Hydra alongside his Howling Commandos; his friend Bucky Barnes seemingly falls to his death; Red Skull vanishes using the Space Stone; Steve ultimately sacrifices himself, and ends up frozen in an iceberg.

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1945: Hydra agent Werner Reinhardt takes the Kree Diviner from China, but as the defeat of Red Skull forces him to relocate, the S.S.R. is able to intercept it. Operation Paperclip brings Nazi scientists, including Hydra's Arnim Zola, to the United States

1946-47: Agent Carter takes place. Peggy Carter uncovers the Soviet spy program Leviathan, and help to clear Howard Stark's name following accusations of treason.

1949: Peggy Carter and Howard Stark form S.H.I.E.L.D. Zola joins and rebuilds Hydra within the framework of S.H.I.E.L.D.

1950s: Howard Stark recovers the Space Stone while Zola recovers Bucky Barnes. Zola uses S.H.I.E.L.D. resources to brainwash Bucky into becoming the Winter Soldier, who goes on to commit countless assassinations.

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1960s: Howard Stark backs out of S.H.I.E.L.D. and refocuses his energies on Stark Industries. At S.H.I.E.L.D., Hank Pym discovers Pym particles and invents super-suits utilizing the particles as well as EMP communication devices, allowing him and his wife Janet van Dyne to become the superheroes Ant-Man and The Wasp. Pym also develops Project G.O.L.I.A.T.H. alongside Dr. Bill Foster.

1967: Anton Vanko, Howard Stark's partner in developing the Arc Reactor, is found guilty of espionage and deported back to the Soviet Union. Howard takes full credit for the technology.

MCU Zola

1972: Zola dies and transfers his brain into a computer system.

1980: Ego comes to Earth, and romances and impregnates Meredith Quill. He then infects her with a tumor and leaves the planet.

1980s: Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S. is formed to study the Space Stone. Kree defector Mar-Vell disguises herself as a human, Dr. Wendy Larson, in hopes of using the research to help the Skrulls.

1987: To stop a missile, Janet van Dyne shrinks to subatomic size, and becomes trapped in the Quantum Realm.

1988: The night Meredith Quill dies, her son Peter is abducted by Yondu, who is assigned to bring him to Ego, but ultimately adopts the boy as his own.

1989: A busy year. A Kree ship piloted by Yonn-Rogg shoots down a test plane piloted by Lawson and Carol Danvers. Lawson dies, and Danvers absorbs the Space Stone's energy gaining unimaginable powers. She's taken to the Kree homeworld Hala, where she is brainwashed into working for Starforce and given a new identity, Vers.

Hank Pym quits S.H.I.E.L.D.

Werner Reinhardt learns the Inhuman Jianyang, whom he met during World War II, is immortal. He reverse-engineers her powers through dissecting her, and takes on the new name Daniel Whitehall. Jianyang destroys a village in order to heal herself, attracting S.H.I.E.L.D.'s attention. S.H.I.E.L.D. takes Jianyang's daughter into the foster system, and names her Skye.

Gamora-Thanos

Dates unknown: Thanos kidnaps Gamora and Nebula, and makes them his "daughters," as he destroys their families and homeworlds.

Early 1990s: Young Matt Murdock is blinded in an accident that also grants him enhanced senses.

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1991: Howard Stark develops a new Super-Soldier Serum. The Winter Soldier assassinates Howard and Maria Stark, orphaning their son Tony. Obadiah Stane takes over as interim CEO of Stark Enterprises.

NEXT: Welcome to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Carol Danvers

1992: King T'Chaka, the current Black Panther, travels to Oakland, California, to track down his brother N'Jobu, who has conspired with Klaue to smuggle Vibranium out of Wakanda to arm black revolutionaries in the United States. T'Chaka is ultimately forced to kill N'Jobu.

1995: Captain Marvel takes place. Vers comes to Earth to fight the Skrulls only to learn the truth about her past and, as Captain Marvel, helps to free Skrull captives from the Kree and recovers the Space Stone. Her heroics inspire Nick Fury to plot the Avenger Initiative.

Date unknown: Elihas Starr, a scientist fired by Pym, unsuccessfully tries to recreate quantum tunneling experiments, killing himself and his wife and giving his daughter Ava superpowers. Ava is taken in by Bill Foster and eventually becomes a spy for S.H.I.E.L.D as Ghost.

1998: Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, is sent to take down Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow. Black Widow ends up joining his side.

Iron Man 3 New Years

1999: At a New Years party, Tony Stark leaves Aldrich Killian feeling blue (da ba dee da ba die).

2000: Jessica and Alisa Jones die in a car accident, only for both to be resurrected with super-strength.

2001: The Hand kills Wendell and Heather Rand in a plane crash, orphaning Danny Rand.

Date unknown: Wrongfully convicted Luke Cage is subjected to a prison experiment that makes him bulletproof.

2002: The supervillain organization The Pride forms.

2000s: Frank Castle and Erik Killmonger serve in the military during the War on Terror.

2005: Bruce Banner's scientific experiments go awry and transform him into the Hulk. He quickly goes into hiding.

2010: Iron Man takes place. Tony Stark is kidnapped by terrorists using his own company's weapons. He builds the first Iron Man suit to escape, renounces weapons sales, becomes a superhero, defeats Obadiah Stane and announces his "secret identity" to the world, drawing Nick Fury's attention.

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Early 2010s: T'Challa becomes the new Black Panther. The parents of Wanda and Pietro Maximoff are killed by a stolen Stark missile.

2011: The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2 and Thor take place at about the same time. The Hulk fights The Abomination. Iron Man fights Ivan Vanko and rejects Fury's offer to join the Avengers, while James Rhodes steals one of Tony's suits to become War Machine. Thor is banished to Earth but proves himself worthy of wielding Mjolnir, saving New Mexico from the Destroyer before returning to Asgard and fighting Loki.

Captain America's body is recovered from the iceberg, and he awakens in the final scene of Captain America: The First Avenger.

2012: The Avengers takes place. Loki is sent by Thanos to take the Space Stone and conquer Earth, so S.H.I.E.L.D. assembles Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Black Widow and Hawkeye. Thor joins in the action, Loki kills Agent Phil Coulson, and there's a giant battle in New York to defeat Loki and his invading Chitauri allies.

The destruction creates a power vacuum in the city, allowing crime bosses like Kingpin, Cottonmouth and the Hand's Madame Gao to rise up. Adrian Toomes is initially in charge of clean-up but is forced out of the job by Tony Stark's Damage Control, inspiring him to move toward a life of crime using illegally obtained Chitauri technology as The Vulture. Matthew Ellis uses the fallout of the battle as campaign fuel, beating Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election.

2013: Iron Man 3 takes place. Iron Man deals with PTSD from the Battle of New York, investigates the Extremis bombings, discovers Killian is The Mandarin (who is ultimately defeated by Pepper Potts) and gets the arc reactor removed from his chest.

Thor: The Dark World takes place. Frigga dies, Thor defeats the Dark Elves, Loki secretly assumes the throne in place of Odin, and the Reality Stone ends up in the hands of The Collector.

Winter soldier helicarrier crash

2014: Captain America: The Winter Soldier takes place. Captain America and Black Widow discover Hydra's decades-long infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D. and stop the Project Insight surveillance/mass murder program with help from Falcon. Captain America also discovers Bucky is alive as the Winter Soldier, who makes his first steps toward remembering his past. Baron von Strucker continues Hydria's experiments with Loki's staff in Sokovia, where he turns siblings Wanda and Pietro Maximoff into Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.

Jessica Jones has an abusive relationship with the mind-controlling Killgrave, only breaking from his hold after he forces her to kill Reva Connors.

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In space, both Guardians of the Galaxy movies take place back to back. In the first movie, Starlord, Gamora, Rocket, Groot and Drax team up, fight Ronan the Accuser, and save the Power Stone. Then in Vol. 2, Starlord finds out Ego is his biological father and has to fight him, Gamora and Nebula deal with their past, Ego's slave Mantis joins the team and Yondu gets a heroic death.

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2013-onward: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. takes place. Coulson is brought back to life using Kree technology, and he and a team of agents investigate various goings-on with Inhumans and other super-beings. Despite S.H.I.E.L.D. being officially destroyed in Winter Soldier, the organization reforms to operate in even greater secrecy. This timeline is already getting pretty long and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is primarily reacting to, rather than influencing, events in the MCU, so we don't need to go into everything that's happened here.

2015: The Avengers: Age of Ultron takes place. The last Hydra outposts are defeated. Iron Man creates Ultron, a robot that turns evil, and then creates Vision, a robot who stays good and also has the Mind Stone in his head. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch initially side with Ultron but they join the Avengers' side. Quicksilver dies in the Battle of Sokovia. Thor and Hulk both leave for space. A new Avengers team with Captain America, Black Widow, Falcon, War Machine, Scarlet Witch and Vision is formed. Thanos forces the Dwarves to construct the Infinity Gauntlet, and vows to find the Infinity Stones himself.

Ant-Man takes place. Thief Scott Lang becomes the new Ant-Man and fights Yellowjacket. Hank Pym finally decides to allow his daughter Hope to become the new Wasp. Peter Parker has become Spider-Man by this point.

2015-2016: The Netflix shows (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders and The Punisher) take place. Gritty street-level heroes/antiheroes fight crime in New York City, team to take down the Hand, only for their stories to be ended by cancellation. Also, the movies will never reference these no matter how much you want them to.

At some point in this period, Tony Stark and Pepper Potts break up.

Captain America Civil War table scene

2016: Captain America: Civil War takes place. Iron Man supports the regulatory Sokovia Accords, Captain America opposes them, and the other Avengers take sides and fight. Zemo kills T'Chaka and frames Bucky Barnes. Iron Man recruits Spider-Man into the battle and gives him a new suit. Zemo reveals to Iron Man that the Winter Soldier killed his parents, forcing Iron Man and Captain America to come to blows over Bucky. Ant-Man and Hawkeye agree to house arrest while the rest of Captain America's side becomes fugitives. Bucky is brought to Wakanda for treatment.

Two months later, Spider-Man: Homecoming takes place (ignore the miscalculated title card saying it's eight years after The Avengers). Peter Parker fights The Vulture while trying to gain Iron Man's approval to become an Avenger, but eventually realizes he's fine serving as a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Iron Man and Pepper get back together and are engaged.

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2016-2017: Doctor Strange takes place. Stephen Strange, already famous enough as a surgeon to be on Hydra's radar in The Winter Soldier, is injured in accident but is trained by The Ancient One, who soon dies, to become Sorcerer Supreme. He fights Kaecilius and outwits Dormammu.

2016 or 2017?: The official timeline from the Marvel Studios: The First 10 Years book says Black Panther takes place in 2017 but it also seems like the movie takes place right after Civil War, so this date is a little controversial. T'Challa becomes the new King of Wakanda, fights Klaue and Killmonger, and opens up his country to the rest of the world.

2017-onward: Cloak and Dagger and Runaways take place far removed from the events of the films. A new Divine Pairing, Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson, emerges. The children of The Pride deal with the realization their parents are evil.

2017: Thor Ragnarok takes place. Odin dies, causing Hela to return and take over Asgard. Mjolnir is destroyed and Thor is banished to Sakaar, where he teams with Hulk and Valkyrie to escape and return to Asgard. He saves the people of Asgard while the planet itself is destroyed, and then flees on a ship that's eventually found by Thanos.

Inhumans also takes place, but Marvel wants you to forget about that show.

Thanos snapping have of the universes population in Avengers Infinity War while Thor watches

2017 or 2018?: The official timeline for Avengers: Infinity War is also somewhat controversial. The guidebook says it takes place the same year as Black Panther, but the script says it's a year later. Thanos gets all the Infinity Stones despite the best efforts of the heroes, and eliminates half of the universe's population. Right before he disappears, Nick Fury sends a message to Carol Danvers, who returns to Earth looking for him in the Captain Marvel mid-credits scene.

Simultaneously, Ant-Man and the Wasp take place. Scott Lang, Hank Pym and Hope van Dyne fight, but eventually help Ghost, and rescue Janet van Dyne from the Quantum Realm. At the time of the so-called Decimation, Scott finds himself trapped in the Quantum Realm while the Pym/van Dyne family disappears.

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, Avengers: Endgame stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, Benedict Wong, Jon Favreau and Bradley Cooper, with Gwyneth Paltrow and Josh Brolin. The film arrives April 26.