| 1824 | Mar. 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 |
| 1872 | May | Eadweard Muybridge performs first horse-in-motion experiments |
| 1884 | Mar. 13 | Leland Stanford Jr. dies in Italy at 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 | Oct. 1 | Opening Day of the university; 555 students registered the first year |
| 1892 | Mar. 19 | Stanford wins first Big Game vs. University of California, Berkeley |
| | June 27 | Hopkins Marine Station established on Monterey Bay |
| 1893 | June 21 | Leland Stanford dies |
| 1894 | May 30 | First PhD awarded |
| 1895 | May 29 | Pioneer Class graduates, including Herbert Hoover |
| 1896 | April 4 | First women’s intercollegiate basketball game |
| 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 acquired |
| | Dec. 18 | School of Law organized |
| 1913 | May 23 | School of Medicine organized |
| 1917 | April 27 | School of Education organized |
| 1919 | June 20 | Hoover War Collection (now Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace) established |
| | July 14 | Main Library opens |
| 1920 | Jan. | First undergraduate tuition charged |
| 1921 | May 23 | Honor Code adopted |
| 1925 | May 15 | School of Engineering organized |
| | Sept. 30 | Graduate Business School opens |
| 1941 | June | University’s 50th anniversary celebrated; Hoover Tower dedicated |
| 1946 | | Creative Writing Program founded by Wallace Stegner |
| 1947 | | School of Mineral Sciences (now Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability) organized |
| 1948 | Sept. 1 | Schools of Biological Sciences, Humanities and Physical Sciences and Social Sciences merged into School of Humanities and Sciences |
| 1951 | Oct. 1 | First Stanford 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 |
| 1962 | | The radio telescope called the Dish begins operations |
| 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 |
| 1971 | May 1 | First Stanford Powwow held |
| 1974 | Feb. 11 | B. Gerald Cantor donates his collection of Rodin sculptures |
| 1989 | Oct. 17 | Loma Prieta earthquake causes extensive damage |
| 1998 | Sept. | Stanford Alumni Association integrated into the university |
| 1999 | Jan. | 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 |
| 2016 | | The Knight-Hennessy Scholars program launches |
| 2019 | Mar. 21 | Stanford Redwood City opens |
| 2020 | | Worldwide pandemic moves classes, many university activities online |
| 2022 | Sept. 1 | Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability opens |