Censorship Timeline Outline

Pope Gregory IX Orders the Seizure and Burning of Jewish Books
(June 9 – June 20, 1239)

Early Origins of the Star Chamber
(1275)

Handbook for Witch-Hunters and Inquisitors
(April 1487)

The Beginning of Prepublication Censorship
(November 17, 1487)

"The Law of Printing" Issued in Response to Exsurge Domine
(May 26, 1521)

Pre-Publication Censorship in England
(November 16, 1538)

Henry VIII Restricts the Reading of the Bible
(May 12, 1543)

The Inquistion Publishes its First List of Censored Works
(1554)

Index Librorum Prohibitorum
(1559)

It is Forbidden for any French Printer to Print without Permission, under Penalty of being Hanged or Strangled
(September 10, 1563)

Consolidating and Amplifying the Regulation of Printing in England
(June 23, 1586)

The First Private Newspaper Published in English
(1621)

Forerunner of the English Newspaper
(May 23, 1622)

Introduction of Book Burning by the Hangman
(1634)

A Decree of the Star Chamber Concerning Printing July 11, 1637
(July 11, 1637)

Sixty Printed Books and Three Newsbooks Ordered to be Burned
(1640 – 1660)

Abolition of the Star Chamber Stimulates Publishing
(1641)

The British Government Attempts to Re-Establish Censorship
(June 16, 1643)

"For Books are Not Absolutely Dead Things; but Doe Contain a Potencie of Life . . . ."
(1644)

Laws of Book Production and the Book Trade
(1675)

The End of Pre-Publication Censorship Stimulates Newspapers and Other Publishing
(1695)

The Central Enterprise of the French Enlightenment
(1751 – 1780)

Candide, ou l'Optimism
(1759)

Probably the Most Ambitious Editorial Enterprise before the Wikipedia
(1773 – 1782)

Suppression of Printing in Russia
(1798)

The Natural History of Man
(1819)

Blue-Print for The Third Reich
(1925 – 1927)

Burning 100,000,000 Books and Killing 6,000,000 People
(1933 – 1945)

Purging Germany of Jewish Culture
(April 6 – April 8, 1933)

Burning 25,000 Volumes of "un-German" Books
(May 10, 1933)

Liste des schädlichen und unerwünschten Schrifttums
(December 31, 1938)

Final Edition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum
(1948)

"Nineteen Eighty-Four"
(1949)

"Fahrenheit 451"
(1953 – 2011)

Standing up to Censorship and McCarthyism
(1956)

"Nineteen Eighty-Four" Filmed
(1956)

Abolishing the Index Librorum Prohibitorum
(1966)

Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act
(November 29, 1999)

Working Around Chinese Censorship of Literary Works
(2002)

Development and State Control of the Chinese Internet
(April 14, 2005)

"An Uncensorable System for Mass Document Leaking"
(December 2006)

Wikileaks Manifesto
(December 31, 2006)

"Green Dam Youth Escort"
(May 19, 2009)

Piracy of Internet Filtering Software?
(June 13, 2009)

"The Web Pries Lid off Iranian Censorship"
(June 23, 2009)

U.S. National Text Pager Intercepts from 9/11 Are Released
(November 26 – November 26, 2009)

Google's Computers in China Come Under Attack, Initiating a Review of the Company's Operations in China
(December 2009 – January 12, 2010)

Google Pulls its Search Engine Out of Mainland China
(March 22, 2010)

Wikileaks Installs an "Insurance File"
(July 29, 2010)

The Wikileaks U. S. Diplomatic Cables Leak
(November 28 – December 8, 2010)

Founder of Wikileaks to Publish his Autobiography
(December 27, 2010)

Four Phases of Government Internet Surveillance and Censorship to Date
(February 25, 2011)

Major Websites Go Dark to Protest Web Censorship Legislation
(January 17, 2012)