1972: Everyone is born: Billie Joe - February 17th, Mike - May 4th, and Tre - December 9th.

... Mike is given up for adoption and is taken in by a native American woman and her white husband.

1977: Billie records a seven-inch single called "Look For Love."

... Billie gets his first taste of live performance by singing at hospices and homes.

1979: Mike smokes his first joint, with a friend of his mom's.

... Mike's adoptive parents divorce.

1982: Billie's career as a flasher begins at a swim meet in Crockett. He takes off all his clothes and streaks around the swimming pool.

... Billie's father, a truck driver and sometimes jazz musician, dies of cancer.

... Billie and Mike meet in the school cafeteria and discuss songwriting.

... Mike sleeps over at Billie's house. They learn to play "Ain't Talking About Love" by Van Halen, "Photograph" by Def Leppard, and "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne.

1983: Billie gets his first listen of punk rock when neighborhood friends bring over DOA, TSOL, and the Dead Kennedys.

1985: Armed with screwdrivers, Mike and his friend Jason break into newly built houses and dismantle them.

... Mike's stepfather whom he had got very close to, passes away.

1986: Billie's sister Anna buys the replacements Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash. Then she pounds on Billie for scratching the record.

... Tre Cool drums in Lawrence Livermore's band the Lookouts. They release an album which is the first release ever from Lookout! Records. The album is titled "One Planet, One People", and features the song "The Mushroom Is Exploding" which was written by Tre.

1987: Billie and Mike, as Sweet Children, play their first show at Rod's Hickory Pit, where Billie's mom works. Thirty friends show up.

...Billie sells joints at school for two dollars apiece. He is called Two-Dollar Bill. ... The band record their first record under the name Sweet Children on Skene Records.

... Mike's mom moves to Santa Rosa, so he rents a room from Billie's mom. He pays rent by working at Rods Hickery Pit as a cook.

1989: Billie and Mike tour for the first time in different bands. Billie plays guitar for Corrupted Morals. Mike sings for Crummy Musicians, since the real singer's mother won't let him go on tour.

... Billie writes an article on how to be a couch potato - root beer, pizza, and TV - for his friend Eggplant's fanzine, Absolutely Zippo.

... The name Sweet Children is dropped in favour of Green Day.

... Green Day travel to a remote shack in Mendocino county to try out for Lawrence Livermore's Lookout! Records. There is no electricity or a roof and it's raining outside. The band find a generator and 12 kids hold up candles, Livermore is very impressed and signs the band.

1990: The band releases "39/Smooth" (recorded in two days for $600) to go along with their E.P.'s, "Sweet Children", "1,000 Hours", and "Slappy". The album is later re-released under the name "1,039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours" with the 1,000 Hours and Slappy ep's included on it.

... Billie drops out of high school February 16, 1990, the day before his eighteenth birthday.

... First Green Day tour. The day after Mike graduates from high school, they hop into a van and do forty-five dates across the U.S.

... Original drummer John Kiftmeyer leaves for college. His drum teacher, Tre Cool, joins the band.

... Billie and Tre get a job selling newspaper subscriptions outside Safeway. They end up ditching the papers and smoking weed the rest of the day. They are fired.

1991: Billie has a peculiar speed experience, smashing beer bottles and screaming "God damn Van Damme!" He has never seen a Van Damme movie.

1992: The band releases "Kerplunk" and begin to achieve minor fame. An NME critic calls the album a "storming but soothing antidotal cream to smear on the current rash of grunge merchants."

... Tre's dad buys a disused bookmobile from the Phoenix library system. It becomes Green Day's new travelling home, with Mr. Cool Sr. as driver.

1993: Green Day decide to leave Lookout! Records and join a major label. There is a huge bidding war amongst the labels but Reprise Records comes out on top and signs the band to a 5 record deal.

1994: "Dookie" is released and thanks to MTV's heavy play of the first single "Longview", Green Day's popularity sky-rockets and so begins the "sell-out" arguement. The album sells 12 million copies worldwide.

... During the coarse of the next two years, Green Day appear on several magazine covers but most notably Rolling Stone and Spin. They also appear on talk shows like "The Late Show with David Letterman", "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brian".

... At the Woodstock reunion festival, Green Day increase their popularity by starting a huge mud fight during their set.

... Green Day slips through MTV's no-drug-references policy by talking about burning Jurassic monkeys, their personal slang for joints.

1995: Green Day are nominated for four Grammy's and win 'Best Alternative Performance' for Dookie.

... The bands "Insomniac" album is released and is loved by reviewers but fails to come close to the sales of Dookie by "only" selling 8 million copies worldwide.

... During a European tour, Green Day packs up and heads home claiming exhaustion. During the next year, Billie Joe writes around 50 songs in preperation for Green Day's next release, "Nimrod".

1997: Green Day record their new album, "Nimrod", with very high expectations. No Doubt members help out with the music on two songs.

... Under the alias "The Nimrods" Green Day play a secret warm-up gig at Johnny Depp's "Viper Room" in LA. The band used the gig to warm up for the Mt. Fuji Rock Festival that they agreed to play. The Fuji Fest appearance is cancelled after a typhoon hits Japan. Green Day spend the day at an amusment park instead with members of Beck, Prodigy, the Foo Fighters, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Tre later shoots the Foo Fighters drummer with a BB-gun and Billie Joe has to step in and break-up the situation.

... Green Day make headlines for 'destroying' Tower Records when they trash the store and Billie writes "Fuck You" and "Nimrod" on the windows in black spray-paint. Later at KROQ's annual accoustic Christmas, the band agains makes headlines when they throw the stage Christmas tree into the crowd. Once again Billie wrote obscenities on the stage and apparently there was a fight backstage with KROQ workers. KROQ called the police but no charges where laid. ... Green Day's hit song 'Time Of Your Life (Good Riddance)' is used in two episodes of ER and the series finale of Seinfeld.

1998: Billie starts Adeline Records with 3 friends.

1999: After a long hiatus, Green Day return to play Neil Young's accoustic concert, the Bridge School Benefit. They debut the song 'Warning'.

2000: The band begin production on Warning and headline the Vans Warped Tour in the summer.

... Warning is released and sells more than 250,000 copies in it's first week thanks to the hit single, Minority, that spent 6 weeks at #1 on the Modern Rock chart.

... Billie co-writes the first single ('Unforgiven') from the new Go-Go's CD, he also plays guitar and sings back-up vocals on the song.

2001: Green Day announce plans to release a singles package which will include new songs.

... VH1 does a 'Behind The Music' on the band.