July 12, 1937: William Henry Cosby Jr. is born in Philadelphia.
1956: Enlists in the U.S. Navy. Honorably discharged in 1960.
Jan 25, 1964: Bill Cosby marries Camille Olivia Cosby (formerly Hanks) in Olney, Maryland. The couple would go on to have five children: Erika (April 8, 1965), Erinn (July 23, 1966), Ennis (April 15, 1969 – Jan. 16, 1997), Ensa (April 8, 1973) and Evin (August 27, 1976).
1964: Nominated for his first Grammy. He would go on to win one in 1965. Over a 23-year span, he was nominated a total of 16 times and won nine.
1965: Makes television debut on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson.
1965: Kristina Ruehli tells Philadelphia Magazine in 2014 that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her. She says the alleged events occurred at his house in California when she was 22-years old.
Sept. 15, 1965: “I Spy” premieres. It is the first TV drama to feature a black actor in a leading role. Cosby wins three consecutive Emmys for his role as Alexander Scott.
1967: Carla Ferrigno, wife of “Incredible Hulk” star Lou Ferrigno, tells the Daily Mail in 2014 that Cosby tried to sexually assault her at a party when she was a teenager.
1969: Joan Tarshis alleges in 2014 that Cosby drugged and assaulted her on two occasions in the fall of 1969. She was 19 years old.
1969: Linda Traitz says in 2014 that she was groped by Cosby while she was a 19-year-old waitress at Café Figaro, a restaurant that Cosby partially owned.
1970s: Tamara Green says in 2005 and in 2014 that Cosby gave her pills and sexually assaulted her at her apartment in West Hollywood when she was 19 years old.
1970: Victoria Valentino, a former Playboy Playmate, alleges that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her in Hollywood.
August 1971: Cosby moves the family from Beverly Hills, Calif., to Shelburne Falls, Mass.
1971: Louisa Moritz, an actress, tells the website TMZ in 2014 that when she was 24 or 25, while waiting in the green room before an appearance on the “Tonight Show,” Cosby entered the room and forced her to have oral sex.
1972: “Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids” debuts. Cosby created, produced and hosted the animated series. It runs, on and off, on network television and syndication, from 1972 to 1985.
1974: Has a consensual affair with Shawn Berkes, the mother of Autumn Jackson. Jackson alleges that Cosby is her father, and in 1997 tries to extort $40 million from him by threatening to go to “The Globe” tabloid with her story. Jackson was sentenced to 26 months in prison for her role in the extortion plot. She served 14 months and was released in June 1999.
1976: Becomes a spokesman for Jell-O, beginning a decades-long partnership representing the dessert.
1976: Therese Serignese tells the Daily Mail in 2014 that when she was 19, Cosby gave her pills after a show in Las Vegas, and when she woke up, he was having sex with her.
1982: Renita Chaney Hill tells Pittsburgh TV station KDKA in 2014 that Cosby drugged her when she was a 15-year-old model and aspiring actresss and had an “on again, off-again” relationship with him over a four-year period.
1982: Janice Dickinson, an actress and model, accuses Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, during a 2014 interview with “Entertainment Tonight.”
Sept. 20, 1984: “The Cosby Show” premieres. It was the top-rated prime-time show for most of its eight-year run on NBC. It was nominated for 29 Emmys, winning three.
Mid-1980s: Beth Ferrier, a model in the 1980s, tells the Philadelphia Daily News in 2005, that she was in “a months-long consensual affair” with Cosby that ended when she said he drugged her coffee.
1986: Barbara Bowman tells People Magazine in 2006 that Cosby sexually assaulted her one night in Reno, Nevada, when she was an 18-year-old model and aspiring actress. Bowman alleges that Cosby drugged and assaulted her a number of times when she was 18 and 19.
1987: “The Cosby Show” goes into syndication. By 1992 total syndication for the show reached $1 billion. Cosby’s share of the syndication deal was worth hundreds of millions.
Nov. 8, 1988: Cosby and his wife donate $20 million to Spelman College. At the time, the gift was the largest donation ever made to a historically black college.
1992: Angela Leslie, a model-actress, tells the N.Y. Daily News in 2014 that Cosby sexually assaulted her in his hotel room in Las Vegas.
Jan. 16, 1997: Cosby’s son, Ennis, is murdered at age 27 in a robbery attempt on a Bel-Air, Calif., roadside while attempting to change a spare tire. Mikhail Markhasev was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted robbery on July 7, 1998. At the request of the Cosby family, the death penalty was not sought, and Markhasev is serving a mandatory sentence of life without parole.
July 1, 1997: Cosby testifies in the Autumn Jackson extortion case that he paid $100,000 over 20 years to keep his affair with Jackson’s mother, Shawn Berkes, a secret.
1998: Receives one of the year’s Kennedy Center Honors awards.
2000: Lachele Covington, a 20-year-old actress, filed a police report saying Cosby put her hand under his T-shirt and guided it down toward his sweatpants, The New York Post reports. Covington said she pulled her hand away. No charges resulted.
July 9, 2002: Then-president George W. Bush awards Cosby a Presidential Medal of Freedom for his contributions to television.
January 2004: Andrea Constand, then-director of operations for Temple University’s women’s basketball team, tells authorities she had been out to dinner with Cosby and was invited alone to come back to his home in Pennsylvania. After she complained of stress, Cosby gave her three blue pills — “herbal medication” — that made her dizzy and weak. The subsequent lawsuit states, “Defendant positioned himself behind Plaintiff on the sofa, touched her breasts and vaginal area, rubbed his penis against her hand, and digitally penetrated her… . Plaintiff remained in a semiconscious state throughout the time of ordeal.” Constand claims she lost consciousness and did not fully awake until 4 a.m. when she awoke “feeling raw in and around her vaginal area.” Also, “her clothes and undergarments were in disarray.”
May 17, 2004: In a speech at a Constitution Hall gala celebrating the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, Cosby triggered a nationwide debate of class and race. His comments included: “In the neighborhood that most of us grew up in, parenting is not going on. … I’m talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was 2? Where were you when he was 12? … And where is his father, and why don’t you know where he is?”
Jan. 13, 2005: Constand, living in Canada, goes to the Canadian authorities to report the alleged 2004 incident. She accuses Cosby of “inappropriate touching.”
Feb. 10, 2005: Tamara Green, a California lawyer, appears on the “Today” show and tells Matt Lauer that Cosby had drugged her, groped her and took off her clothes. Cosby’s lawyers called the allegations “absolutely false.”
Feb. 17, 2005: The district attorney in Montgomery County, Pa., announces he will not bring criminal charges against Cosby in the Constand case.
February 2005: Berkes, whom Cosby admitted to having an affair with in 1974, tells the National Enquirer that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her. Cosby’s lawyers called the allegations “ridiculous” and “complete nonsense.”
March 8, 2005: Constand files a civil complaint against Cosby. The lawsuit charges Cosby with battery and assault, and asks for at least $150,000 in damages. Thirteen women are mentioned in court papers as Jane Doe witnesses.
June 23, 2005: Beth Ferrier, who was a model in the 1980s, claims in the Philadelphia Daily News that she had “a months-long consensual affair” with Cosby in the mid-1980s. The relationship ended, she said, after he drugged her coffee. Cosby’s lawyers declined to comment.
June 9, 2006: Barbara Bowman tells Philadelphia Magazine about alleged sexual abuse by Cosby that occurred in 1986. People Magazine carries a fuller account in its Dec. 18 edition. Cosby’s lawyer said the claim is “absolutely untrue.”
November 2006: Cosby settles with Constand. Terms are not disclosed, and none of the 13 other women testifies.
2014
Oct. 16: At the Trocadero Theatre in Philadelphia, comedian Hannibal Buress calls Cosby a rapist multiple times during his stand-up routine. Buress says: “Bill Cosby has the f——— smuggest old black man public persona that I hate. Pull your pants up, black people. I was on TV in the ‘80s. I can talk down to you because I had a successful sitcom. Yeah, but you raped women, Bill Cosby …” A video clip of the set goes viral.
Nov 13: Bowman publishes a first-person piece on PostEverything, a commentary section of The Washington Post’s website open to the public.
Nov. 16: Hollywood-elsewhere.com publishes a primarily first-person piece by Joan Tarshis in which she alleges sexual abuse by Cosby. A Cosby lawyer said repeating old allegations “does not make them true.”
Nov. 17: Linda Joy Traitz posts to her Facebook account an account of an experience with Cosby that took place in 1969. Cosby’s lawyer called Traitz “the latest example of people coming out of the woodwork with unsubstantiated or fabricated stories about my client.”
Nov. 19: Janice Dickinson accuses Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her in 1982 in an exclusive interview with “Entertainment Tonight.” Cosby’s lawyers said: “Janice Dickinson’s story accusing Bill Cosby of rape is a complete lie.”
Nov. 20: Therese Serignese tells the Daily Mail that in 1976 Cosby drugged her and they had non-consensual sex. Cosby’s lawyer dismissed the allegations as unsubstantiated, fantastical and absurd.
Nov. 20: Carla Ferrigno tells the Daily Mail that Cosby tried to sexually assault her in 1967 when she was a teenager. Cosby’s attorney called Ferrigno’s allegations “ridiculous” and “utter nonsense.”
Nov. 20: Actress Louisa Moritz tells TMZ that Cosby assaulted her in the green room of “The Tonight Show” in New York in 1971. Cosby’s attorney attacked the credibility of Moritz, who is now a lawyer, and pointed out she was prohibited from practicing law by the California bar.
Nov. 20: Renita Chaney Hill tells Pittsburgh TV station KDKA that when she was 15-year-old model in the 1980s she had an “on again, off-again” relationship with Cosby over a four-year period. Cosby’s lawyer dismissed the allegations as unsubstantiated, fantastical and absurd.
Nov. 21: Model-actress Angela Leslie tells the N.Y. Daily News that Cosby assaulted her in his hotel room in Las Vegas in 1992. Cosby’s lawyer dismissed the allegations as unsubstantiated, fantastical and absurd.
Nov. 21: Kristina Ruehli tells Philadelphia Magazine that Cosby attempted to force her to perform oral sex in 1965 at his house in California. Cosby’s lawyer dismissed the allegations as unsubstantiated, fantastical and absurd.
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