1953	Jacqueline Hoban marries Joseph Coleman Sr., and is excommunicated.
1955	Joe Coleman Jr. born (11/22/55) Norwalk, CT.
1961	Placed into special 1st Grade class for emotionally disturbed, disabled and retarded children.
1963	Draws first pictures of bleeding saints, death by fire and stabbing.
1965	Wins art award from Lady Bird Johnson for drawing of garbage, age 10.
1967	Sets fire in elementary school yard.
	"Confesses" to committing several murders, to a priest at St. Mary's Catholic Church, Norwalk, CT.
1972	Begins "party explosions" series of performances.
1975	First performances of The Steel Tips.
1976	Attends (briefly) School of Visual Arts, New York.
	First publication, Bizarre Sex, Kitchen Sink Press.
1977	The Joe Coleman Portfolio published by Bagginer Press.
1980	"Ten-year high-school reunion" piece (a.k.a. the Doug Sprag prank).
1981	First "art world" performance, at The Kitchen, NY.
	Marries Nancy Pivar.
1982	Self-publishes The Mystery of Woolverine Woo-bait.
1985	Begins exhibiting paintings at Limbo and Civilian Warfare galleries in the Lower East Side.
1986	Exhibitions at Wooster Gallery, Chronocide Gallery, Limbo and Civilian Warfare Galleries, NYC.
1987	Exhibition at Chronocide sells out. Victoria and Albert Museum curator David Owsley buys a piece and hangs it next to a Breughel in his collection. Other shows at New York Academy of Art, NY Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle.
	Apocalypse Culture, with cover image by Coleman published by Feral House.
	Performance at Cuando Theater, NY.
	Death of Joseph Coleman, Sr. of a massive heart attack.
1988	Performances at Yale University; The Goteborg Film Festival, Sweden; The Werkstattkino, Munich; Hotel Amazon New York.
	Exhibition at Todd Capp Gallery, New York.
	Appears in shockumentary film, Mondo New York: Bob Barker has Coleman arrested for mouse-munching.
	Kicks heroin.

1989	Exhibitions at La Luz de Jesus, Los Angeles; Stockwell Gallery, New York.
	L.A. performance at The Bridge cancelled by police. Coleman performs secretly by the light of car headlights at Venice Beach instead.
	Creates painting for movie poster of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, which is later dropped by the film company for being too extreme.
	Death of mother, Jacqueline Coleman, from lymphatic cancer and cancer of the pancreas and spleen.
	Kicks methadone.
	Boston Film and Video Foundation performance.
	Coleman arrested for being an "Infernal Machine" 10/30/89.
1990	Nancy Pivar Coleman abandons marriage.
	Infernal Machine picture-disk LP with color booklet , Steel Tips songs and old-time murder music issued by Blast First Records.
	Coleman meets Dian Hanson.
1991	Exhibition at La Luz de Jesus Gallery, New York.
1992	Exhibitions at Psychedelic Solution, New York; La Luz de Jesus, Los Angeles.
	Plays The Misfit in Black Hearts Bleed Red, an independent film by Jeri Cain Rossi.
	Publication of Cosmic Retribution, Feral House and Fantagraphics Books.
	The Man of Sorrows published by Gates of Heck, Inc.
1993	Cult Rapture exhibition at Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle.
1994	Moves from the Lower East Side of Manhattan to Brooklyn, NY.
1995	Raw Vision outsider art magazine features Coleman (Spring 1995 issue, Number 11).
	Coleman and Dian Hanson break up.
1997	R.I.P.: Rest in Pieces, a documentary film about Joe Coleman by Robert Pejo (Prisma Films) premieres at the Rotterdam Film Festival.
	The End is Near! exhibition at the American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore. Ozone Gallery Group show, New York City.
	Original Sin: The Visionary Art of Joe Coleman published by Heck editions, New York.
1998	Original Sin exhibition at The Horse Hospital, London, England (visits Scotland Yard's Black Museum by special invitation.)
	LOVE show at American Visionary Art Museum
	Solo exhibition at Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, IL
	Cover feature articles on Coleman in World Art and Poliester Magazines
1999	"Joe Coleman: Matrix 139" solo exhibit at The Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, CT
	"Odditorium" show at Jim Corcoran Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
	Cover feature article in Juxtapoz Magazine
	Joe celebrates 44th birthday on 11/22/99
2000	Exploding Preacherman perfomance at Disinfo Conference, New York City.
	The Collectors, a documentary film about serial killer art collectors, featuring Joe.
	Joe Coleman and Whitney Ward are married on 11/11/00 at The American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, MD
2001	World Premiere of Scarlet Diva, a film by Asia Argento in which Joe plays an unscrupulous Hollywood producer.
	Scarlet Diva plays in Norway, Italy, the US and elsewhere.
	Heironymus Bosch show, Rotterdam the Netherlands. Joe Coleman's Man of Sorrows painting is included in the selection of artists influenced by the master.
	War and Peace, The American Visionary Art Museum
	Brooklyn/718 exhibition at Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art
	Outsider/Music at the Barbican Theatre, London England. A film of Joe's paintings accompanied by the music of The Delgados.
2002	Group exhibitions at The Wadsworth Museum in Hartford, CT; the Franz Hals Museum in The Netherlands; Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT.
2003	Doppelganger, a mockumentary about a Robert deNiro lookalike. Joe plays a psychotic derelict who attempts to murder the lookalike, thinking he is the real actor.
	The Book of Joe published by La Luz de Jesus Press and Last Gasp
2004	R.I.P: Rest in Pieces DVD released by Disinformation Networks in the USA.
2005	"Retinal Stigmatics: An Evening with Joe Coleman", a live multimedia midnight mass. Fantasia Festival, Montreal, July 15.
	Muzzlers, Guzzlers and Good Yeggs published by Fantgraphics Books
2006	"Joe Coleman: 30 Paintings and a Selection from the Odditorium" solo exhibition at Jack Tilton Gallery, New York.