Vampyre related Chronology

Prehistory: Vampyre beliefs and myths emerge in cultures around the world.

1047: First appearance in written from of the word upir (an early form of the word later to become "vampire") in a document referring to a Russian prince as "Upir Lichy," or wicked vampyre. NOTE: This was a mis-spelling of the correct Russian word which is upyr.

1190: Walter Map's De Nagis Curialium includes accounts of vampyre-like beings in England

1196: William of Newburgh's Chronicles records several stories of vampyre-like revenants in England.

1428/29: Vlad Dracula Son of the Dragon (later to be known as Vlad Tepes or Vlad "The Impaler"), the son of Vlad Dracul The Dragon, is born.

1447: Vlad Dracul is beheaded.

1459: Easter massacre of boyers and rebuilding of Dracula's castle. Bucharest is established as the second governmental center.

1476/77: Vlad is assassinated.

1560: Elizabeth Bathory is born.

1610: Bathory is arrested for killing several hundred people and bathing in their blood. Tried and convicted, she is sentenced to life imprisonment.

1614: Elizabeth Bathory dies.

1645: Leo Allatius finishes writing the first modern treatment of vampyres, De Graecorum hodie quirundam opinationabus.

1657: Fr. Francoise Richard's Relation de ce qui s'est passe a Sant-Erini Isle de l'Archipel links vampyrism and witchcraft.

1672: Wave of vampyre hysteria sweeps through Istra.

1679: A German vampyre text, De Masticatione Mortuorum, by Philip Rohr is written.

1710: Vampyre hysteria sweeps through East Prussia.

1725: Vampyre hysteria returns to East Prussia.

1725-30: Vampyre hysteria lingers in Hungary.

1725-32: The wave of vampyre hysteria in Austrian Serbia produces the famous cases of Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paul (Paole).

1734: The word "vampyre" (the spelling of "vampire" comes later) enters the English language in translations of German accounts of the European waves of vampyre hysteria.

1744: Cardinal Guideppe Davanzati publishes his treatise, Dissertazione sopre I Vampiri.

1746: Dom Augustin Calmet publishes his treatise on vampyres, Dissertations sur les Apparitions des Anges des Demons et de Espits, et sur les revenants, et Vampires de Hundrie, de Boheme, de Moravie, et de Silesie.

1748: The first modern vampyre poem, "Der Vampir," is published by Hienrich August Ossenfelder.

1750: Another wave of vampyre hysteria occurs in East Prussia.

1756: Vampyre hysteria peaks in Wallachia.

1772: Vampyre hysteria occurs in Russia.

1797: Goethe's "Bride of Corinth" (a poem concerning a vampire) is published.

1797-1800: Samuel Taylor Coleridge writes "Christabel," now conceded to be the first vampyre poem in English.

1800: I Vampiri, an opera by Silestro de Palma, opens in Milan, Italy.

1801: "Thalaba" by Robert Southey is the first poem to mention the vampyre in English.

1810: Reports of sheep being killed by having their jugular viens cut and their blood drained circulate through northern England. "The Vampyre" by John Stagg, an early vampyre poem, is published.

1813: Lord Byron's poem "The Giaour" includes the hero's encounter with a vampyre.

1819: John Polidori's The Vampyre, the first vampyre story in English, is published in the April issue of New Monthly Magazine. John Keats composes "The Lamia," a poem built on Greek legends.

1820: Lord Ruthwen ou Les Vampires by Cyprien Berard is published anonymously in Paris.
June 13: Le Vampire, the play by Chareles Nodier opens at the Theatre de la Porte Saint-Martinin Paris.
August: The Vampire; or, The Bride of the Isles, a translation of Nodier's play by James R. Planche, opens ins London.

1829: March: Heinrich Marschner's opera, Der Vampyr, based on Nodier's story, opens in Liepzig.

1841: Alexey Tolstoy publishes his short story, "Upyr," while living in Paris. It is the first modern vampyre story by a Russian.

1847: Bram Stoker is born. Varney the Vampyre begins lengthy serialization.

1851: Alexandre Dumas's last dramatic work, Le Vampire, opens in Paris.

1854: The case of vampyrism in the Ray family of Jewett, Connecticut, is published in local newspapers.

1872: "Carmilla" is written by Sherridan Le Fanu. In Italy, Vincenzo Verzeni is convicted of murdering two people and drinking their blood.

1874: Reports from Cevem, Ireland, tell of sheep having their throats cut and their blood drained.

1888: Emily Gerad's Land Beyond the Forest is published. It will become a major source of information about Transylvania for Bram Stoker's Dracula.

1894: H.G. Well's short story, "The Flowering of the Strange Orchid," is a precursor to science fiction vampyre stories.

1897: Dracula by Bram Stoker is published in England. "The Vampire" by Ruyard Kipling becomes the inspiration for the creation of the vamp as a stereotypical character on stage and screen.

1912: Bram Stoker dies. The Secrets of House No. 5, possibly the first vampyre movie, is produced in Great Britain.

1913: Dracula's Guest by Stoker is published.

1920: Dracula, the first film based on the novel, is made in Russia. No copy has survived.

1921: Hungarian filmmakers produce a version of Dracula.

1922: Nosferatu, A German-made silent film produced by Prana Films, is the third attempt to film Dracula.

1924: Hamilton Deane's stage version of Dracula opens in Derby. Firtz Harmaann of Hanover, Germany, is arrested, tried, and convicted of killing more than 20 people in a vampyric crime spree. Sherlock Holmes has his only encounter with a vampyre in "The Case of the Sussex Vampire."

1927: February 14: stage versions of Dracula debuts at the Little Theatre in London.
October: American version of Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, opens at Fulton Theatre in New York City. Tod Browning directs Lon Chaney in London After Midnight, the first full-length vampyre feature film.

1928: The first edition of Montague Summer's influential work The Vampire: His Kith and Kin appears in England.

1929: Montague Summer's second vampyre book, The Vampire in Europe, is published.

1931: January: Spanish film version of Dracula is previewed. February: American film version of Dracula with Bela Lugosi premieres at the Roxy Theatre in New York City. Peter Kurten of Dusseldorf, Germany, is executed after being found guilty of murdering people in a vampyric killing spree.

1932: The highly acclaimed movie Vampyr, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, is released.

1936: Dracula's Daughter is released by Universal Pictures.

1942: A. E. Van Vogt's "Asylum" is the first story about an alien vampyre.

1943: Son of Dracula (Universal Pictures) stars Lon Chaney, Jr. as Dracula.

1944: John Carradine plays Dracula for the first time in Horror of Frankenstein.

1953: Drakula Istanbula, a Turkish film adaptation of Dracula, is released. Eerie No. 8 includes the first comic book adaptation of Dracula.

1954: The Comics Code banished vampyres from comic books. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson presents vampyrism as a disease that alters the body.

1956: John Carradine plays Dracula in the first television adaptation of the play for "Atinee Theater." Kyuketsuki Ga, the first Japanese vampyre film, is released.

1957: The first Italian vampyre movie, I Vampiri, is released. American producer Roger Corman makes the first science fiction vampyre movie, Not of this Earth. El Vampiro with German Robles is the first of a new wave of Mexican vampyre films.

1958: 1958: Hammer Films in Great Britain initiates a new wave of interest in vampyres with the first of its Dracula films. Released in the United States as The Horror of Dracula. First issue of Famous Monsters of Finland signals a new interest in horror films in the United States.

1961: The Bad Flower is the first Korean adaptation of Dracula.

1962: The Count Dracula Society is founded in Los Angeles by Donal Reed.

1964: Parque de Juelos (Park Games) is the first Spanish-made vampyre movie. The Munsters and The Adam's Family, two horror comedies with vampyre characters, open in the fall television season.

1965: Jeanne Youngson founds The Count Dracula Fan Club. The Munsters, based on the television show of the same name, is the first comic book series featuring a vampyric character.

1966: Dark Shadows debuts on ABC afternoon television.

1967: April: In episode 210 of Dark Shadows, vampyre Barnabas Collins makes his first appearance.

1969: First Issue of Vampirella, the longest running vampyre comic book to date, is released. Denholm Elliot plays the title role in a BBC television production of Dracula. Does Dracula Really Suck? (aka Dracula and the Boys) is released as the first gay vampyre movie.

1970: Christopher Lee stars in El Conde Dracula, the Spanish film adaptation of Dracula. Sean Manchester founds the Vampire Research Society.

1971: Marvel Comics releases the first copy of a post-Comics Code vampyre comic book, The Tomb of Dracula. Morbuis, the Living Vampire, is the first new vampyre character introduced after the revision of the Comics Code allowed vampyres to reappear in comic books.

1972: The Night Stalker with Darrin McGavin becomes the most watched television movie to that point in time. Vampire Kung-Fu is released in Hong Kong as the first of a string of vampyre martial arts films.
In search of Dracula by Raymond T. McNally and Radu Florescu introduces Vlad the Impaler, the historical Dracula, to the world of contemporary vampyre fans.
A Dream of Dracula by Leonard Wolf complements McNally's and Florencu's effort in calling attention to vampyre lore.
Three Vampires of History by Donald Glut is the first attempt to assemble the stories of all the historical vampyre figures.
Stephen Kaplan founds The Vampire Research Center.

1973: Dan Curtis Productions' version of Dracula (1973) stars Jack Palance in a made-for-television movie. Nancy Garden's Vampires launches a wave of juvenile literature for children and youth.

1975: Fred Saberhagen proposes viewing Dracula as a hero rather than a villain in The Dracula Tape. The World of Dark Shadows is founded as the first Dark Shadows fanzine.

1976: Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice is published. Stephen King is nominated for the World Fantasy Award for his vampyre novel, Salem's Lot.
Shadowcon, the first national Dark Shadows convention, is organized by Dark Shadows fans.

1977: A new, dramatic, version of Dracula opens on Broadway starring Frank Langella.
Louis Jourdan stars in the title role in Count Dracula, a three-hour version of Bram Stoker's book on BBC television.
Martin V. Riccardo founds the Vampire Studies Society.

1978: Chelsea Quin Yarbo's Hotel Transylvania joins the volumes of Fred Saberhagen and Anne Rice as a third major effort to begin a reappraisal of the vampyre myth during the decade. Eric Held and Dorothy Nixon found the Vampire Information Exchange.

1979: Based on the success of the new Broadway production, Universal Pictures remakes Dracula (1979), starring Frank Langella.
The band Bauhaus's recording of "Bela Lugosi's Dead" becomes the first hit in the new gothic rock music movement. Shadowgram is founded as a Dark Shadow's fanzine.

1980: The Bram Stoker Society is founded in Dublin, Ireland. Richard Chase, the so-called Dracula killer of Sacramento, California, commits suicide in prison.
The World Federation of Dark Shadows Clubs (now the Dark Shadows Official Fan Club) is founded.

1983: In the December issues of Dr. Strange, Marvel Comic's ace occultist kills all the vampyres in the world, thus banishing them from Marvel Comics for the next six years.
Dark Shadows Festival is founded to host an annual Dark Shadows convention.

1989: Overthrow of Romanian dictator Nikolai Ceaucescu opens Transylvania to Dracula enthusiasts. Nancy Collins wins a Bram Stoker Award for her vampire novel, Sunglasses After Dark.

1991: Vampire: The Masquerade, the most successful of the vampyre role-playing games, is released by White Wolf.

1992: Andrei Chikatilo os Rostov, Russia, is sentenced to death after killing and vampyrizing some 55 people.

1994: A short-lived television series The Masquerade is released based on the popular role-playing game by White Wolf.

The main source for this chronology is The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead by J. Gordon Melton.