From 'Twilight' to Real Life: This Year in Vampire History

c. 300 B.C.: Aro, Caius, Marcus, and their wives form the Volturi.

• Elsewhere that same year: 300 B.C. was part of the classical era — Alexander the Great of Greece spent much of the period conquering other nations and advancing Greek culture eastward. Philosophers Aristotle and Plato spent time teaching and cultivating knowledge.

c. 1640: Carlisle Cullen born in London.

• King Charles I ruled England.

• Aug. 9: 41 Spanish delegates to Japan at Nagasaki are beheaded. Ouch!

c. 1163: Carlisle changed into a vampire.

• By now, King Charles II ruled England.

• March 24: King Charles II of England issues the Charter of Carolina, establishing the Province of Carolina and dividing it between eight Lords Proprietors.

c. 1720: Carlisle finds civilized vampires in Italy.

• Jonathan Swift begins writing Gulliver's Travels.

1843: Jasper Whitlock born in Texas.

• May 22: Around 1,000 pioneers start out from Elm Grove, Mo. on in a wagon train on the Oregon trail, headed for the American Northwest.

• Dec. 19: Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is first published.

• The world's first commercial Christmas cards are printed by Sir Henry Cole in London.

• Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" released.

1895: Esme Anne Platt born in Columbus, Ohio.

• Sept. 3:The first professional American football game is played, in Latrobe, Penn., with the Latrobe YMCA team beating the Jeannette Athletic Club 12-0.

• Feb. 14: Oscar Wilde's last play The Importance of Being Earnest premieres in London.

• Dec. 28: Auguste and Louis Lumière show the first moving picture film in Paris.

1901: On June 20, Edward Anthony Masen born in Chicago to Edward and Elizabeth Masen; Most likely in this year, Mary Alice Brandon born in Biloxi, Mississippi.

• The world celebrates the beginning of the 20th century.

• Jan. 28: Baseball's American League is elevated to Major League status.

• Aug. 30: Hubert Cecil Booth patents an electric vacuum cleaner.

• New Zealand inventor Ernest Godward invents the spiral hairpin, changing women's hair forever!

• Dec. 12: Guglielmo Marconi receives the first trans-Atlantic radio signal in Newfoundland, Canada, Morse code for the letter "S."

1911: Carlisle helps Esme's broken leg — she's just 16 — and most likely moves to Chicago soon after.

• March 25: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in NYC kills 146.

• Oct: 24: Orville Wright flies for 9 minutes and 45 seconds in a glider, setting a new world record that stands for 10 years.

1915: Rosalie Lillian Hale born in Rochester, N.Y.; Emmett McCarty born in Tennessee.

• January: Typhoid Mary infects 25 people while working as a cook at a NYC hospital, and is placed in quarantine for life.

• Feb. 12: The first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place in D.C.

• May 6: Babe Ruth hits his first career home run off Jack Warhop. Too bad he never saw vampires play baseball!

• The first stop sign appears in Detroit.

1918: Carlisle works as a physician in Chicago; The Spanish Influenza Epidemic claims the life of Edward's parents in September. Carlisle saves Edward and he begins his life as a vampire.

• March 4: The first confirmed case of the Spanish flu appears at Camp Fuston, Kan., where a soldier becomes ill.

• March 19: The U.S. Congress establishes time zones and Daylight Saving Time starts on March 31.

• Sept. 11: The Boston Red Sox defeat the Chicago Cubs for the 1918 World Series championship, their last World Series win until 2004.

• Nov. 11: World War I ends, the armistice becomes official at 11:11.

Around 1920. Alice changed into a vampire by a worker at the mental asylum.

• Jan. 9: Thousands witness "The Human Fly" George Polley climb the New York Woolworth Building. He gets to the 30th floor and is arrested.

• Jan. 16: Prohibition begins, banning alcoholic beverages in the U.S. Vampires are unaffected.

• Aug. 26: The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed, giving women the right to vote.

1921: Esme’s baby dies and she tries to commit suicide. Carlisle finds her and saves her. They fall in love and are married.

• Aug. 5: Harold Arlin announces the Pirates-Phillies game from Forbes Field over Westinghouse KDKA, in Pittsburgh, in the first radio broadcast of baseball.

• Sept. 7: The first Miss America pageant begins in Atlantic City, and a day later, Margaret Gorman, 16, is crowned the winner. Somewhere, Rosalie was probably jealous at age 6.

1933: Rosalie becomes engaged to Royce King. She is beaten and abused by him and his friends and left for dead. Carlisle Cullen finds her and changes her into a vampire.

• Jan. 5: Workers begin building the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.

• Feb. 10: The first singing telegram is introduced in NYC.

• March 12: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addresses the nation, which is suffering through the Great Depression, in the first of his "Fireside Chats."

• March 23: Adolf Hitler is named dictator of Germany.

• July 6: The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game is played at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

1935: Emmett found by Rosalie after a bear attack. She brings him to Carlisle and he is changed into a vampire.

• Jan. 11: Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California.

• May 30: Babe Ruth appears in his last game, playing for the Boston Braves in Philadelphia against the Phillies.

• June 12: Louisiana's Senator Huey Long makes the longest speech on Senate record at 15.5 hours.

• Nov. 5: Parker Brothers releases the board game Monopoly.

1936: Carlisle and family move to the area south of Forks called Hoquiam and make the treaty to stay off the Quileute land.

• March 1: Construction of Hoover Dam is completed.

• Aug. 3: African-American athlete Jesse Owens wins the 100-meter dash at the Berlin Olympics.

1950: Alice and Jasper (who found each other in 1948) find Carlisle and join his family.

• Jan. 17: During the Great Brinks Robbery, 11 thieves steal over $2 million from an armored car in Boston.

• Aug. 5: Florence Chadwick swims across the English Channel in 13 hours, 22 minutes.

• Oct. 11: The Federal Communications Commission issues the first license to broadcast television in color to CBS.

• Nov. 25: A winter storm in the northeastern U.S. brings 30-50 inches of snow and kills 323 people.

1987: On Sept. 13, Isabella Swan is born to Renee and Charlie Swan in Forks, Wash.

• Jan. 3: Aretha Franklin is the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

• March 19: Televangelist Jim Bakker, head of PTL Ministries in North Carolina, resigns after admitting an affair with church secretary Jessica Hahn.

• April 19: The Simpsons cartoon first appears on The Tracey Ullman Show.

• Aug. 31: Michael Jackson releases his third solo album, Bad.

• Oct. 14-16: Baby Jessica McClure captivates then nation after falling into a well in Midland, Texas, and is ultimately rescued.

2003: The Cullen family arrive in Forks.

• May 1: President George W. Bush lands on USS Abraham Lincoln, a U.S. aircraft carrier, and gives a speech announcing the end of major combat in the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. A banner on display behind him declares "Mission Accomplished."

• June 4: Martha Stewart and her broker get in trouble with the law and are accused of insider trading. Martha subsequently resigns as chairperson and chief executive officer of Martha Stewart Living.

• Dec. 13: Saddam Hussein is captured in Tikrit.

2005: On Jan. 17, Bella Swan moves to Forks. The rest is history!