| 1824 | March 9 | Leland Stanford born |
| 1828 | Aug. 25 | Jane Lathrop Stanford born |
| 1861 | Sept. 4 | Leland Stanford elected governor of California |
| 1868 | May 14 | Leland Stanford Jr. born |
| 1869 | May 10 | Leland Stanford drives Gold Spike at Promontory, Utah, for the first transcontinental railroad |
| 1884 | March 13 | Leland Stanford Jr. dies at age 15 |
| 1885 | Jan. 28 | Leland Stanford elected U.S. senator from California |
| | Nov. 11 | Founding Grant of the university executed |
| 1887 | May 14 | Cornerstone of the university laid |
| 1891 | March 22 | David Starr Jordan accepts Leland Stanford’s offer to become the university’s first president |
| | May 14 | Cornerstone of the museum laid |
| | Oct. 1 | Opening Day of the university; 555 students registered the first year |
| 1892 | March 19 | First Big Game with Cal |
| | June 27 | Hopkins Marine Station established on Monterey Bay |
| 1893 | June 21 | Leland Stanford dies |
| 1894 | May 30 | First Ph.D. awarded |
| 1895 | May 29 | Pioneer Class graduates, including Herbert Hoover |
| 1896 | April 4 | First women’s intercollegiate basketball game |
| 1899 | May 31 | Amendment to Founding Grant limits number of women students to 500 |
| 1903 | Jan. 25 | Memorial Church dedicated |
| 1905 | Feb. 28 | Jane Lathrop Stanford dies |
| 1906 | April 18 | Great San Francisco Earthquake causes extensive damage |
| 1908 | Oct. 30 | Cooper Medical College transferred to Stanford |
| | Dec. 18 | School of Law organized |
| 1913 | May 23 | School of Medicine organized |
| | Aug. 1 | John Casper Branner takes office as second president |
| 1916 | Jan. 1 | Ray Lyman Wilbur takes office as third president |
| 1917 | April 27 | School of Education organized |
| | | Thomas Welton Art Gallery completed |
| 1919 | June 20 | Hoover War Collection (now Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace) established |
| | July 14 | Main Library opens |
| 1921 | May 23 | Honor Code adopted |
| 1925 | May 15 | School of Engineering organized |
| | Sept. 30 | Graduate Business School opens |
| 1930 | Jan. 1 | First round of golf at the Stanford Golf Course |
| 1933 | May 11 | Board of Trustees resolution allows for enrollment of more than 500 women students |
| 1937 | | Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hanna House constructed |
| 1941 | June 16-20 | University’s 50th anniversary celebrated and Hoover Tower dedicated |
| 1943 | Sept. 1 | Donald B. Tresidder takes office as fourth president |
| 1946 | | Creative Writing Program founded by Wallace Stegner |
| 1947 | Jan. 6 | First broadcast of campus radio station KSU (later KZSU) |
| | | School of Mineral Sciences (now Earth Sciences) organized |
| 1948 | Sept. 1 | Schools of Biological Sciences, Humanities and Physical Sciences and Social Sciences merged into School of Humanities and Sciences |
| 1949 | April 1 | Wallace Sterling takes office as fifth president |
| 1951 | Oct. 1 | First research park lease signed with Varian Associates |
| 1952 | April 1 | Biology Professor Douglas Whitaker becomes first provost |
| | Nov. 6 | Physics Professor Felix Bloch becomes Stanford’s first Nobel laureate |
| 1958 | June 24 | First overseas campus opened near Stuttgart, Germany |
| 1959 | August | Planning begins for the radio telescope called “the Dish” |
| | Sept. 17 | School of Medicine building dedicated |
| 1965 | Jan. 1 | Computer Science Department founded |
| 1967 | Sept. 9 | Stanford Linear Accelerator Center dedicated, now called the SLAC National Accelerator Center |
| 1968 | Sept. 12 | Inaugural session, Senate of the Academic Council |
| | Dec. 1 | Kenneth Pitzer takes office as sixth president |
| 1970 | Sept. 24 | Richard Lyman takes office as seventh president |
| 1973 | Jan. 9 | University trustees designate Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve |
| 1974 | Feb. 11 | B. Gerald Cantor donates his collection of Rodin sculptures |
| 1980 | Aug. 1 | Donald Kennedy takes office as eighth president |
| 1989 | Oct. 17 | Loma Prieta earthquake causes extensive damage |
| 1992 | Sept. 1 | Gerhard Casper takes office as ninth president |
| 1998 | September | Stanford Alumni Association integrated into the university |
| 1999 | January | The Leland Stanford Jr. Museum reopens as part of the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts |
| 2000 | May 2 | The foothills surrounding “the Dish” become a habitat conservation area |
| | Oct. 20 | John Hennessy is inaugurated as Stanford’s10th president |
| 2005 | Dec. 31 | Campaign for Undergraduate Education raises more than $1 billion |
| 2011 | April 15 | Stanford earns its 100th NCAA team national title. |
| 2012 | Feb. 8 | The Stanford Challenge fundraising campaign raises $6.2 billion |
| 2014 | Sept. 21 | The Anderson Collection at Stanford University opens |
| 2015 | Sept. 21 | Stanford launches its 125th anniversary celebrations |
| 2016 | Feb. 23 | The Knight-Hennessy Scholars program is announced |
| | Oct. 21 | Marc Tessier-Lavigne becomes 11th president |
| 2018 | | President shares Stanford’s long-range vision |
| 2020 | | Worldwide pandemic moves classes, many university activities online |