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Marshall Herff Applewhite, the founder of Heaven's Gate, is born in Texas. -
Marshall is hired at the Roman Catholic college University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas.
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Marshall is dismissed from his job at the university over a student relationship scandal.
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Marshall is employed by St Mark's Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas.
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Marshall Herff Applewhite and Bonnie Lu Nettles meet. Bonnie is an astrologer who is interested in Theosophy and reincarnation. -
The two open a New Age bookstore in Houston, Texas, but it fails. They then "soul-search" for six weeks throughout Texas Hill country. They open their Sunshine Company restaurant in Taos, New Mexico, but it also fails and they live nomadically.
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While camping along the Rogue River in Oregon, they convince themselves they are the "Two Witnesses" mentioned in the Book of Revelation.
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Nettles leaves behind her husband and four children so she may be with Applewhite.
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Applewhite spends 6 months in jail following his arrest for stealing rental cars and using stolen credit cards. During his time in jail, he writes his first recruiting piece: Statement I. This predicts the assassination and resurrection of Heaven's Gate followers, as well as promising to take them away in a spaceship after they are resurrected. -
In September, the press attends a meeting in Waldport, Oregon and the group receives bad publicity. Members are then sent to meetings in Denver, Chicago, and Tulsa without Bo and Peep.
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In March, Nettles and Applewhite mail Statement I from Olaj, California as a public notice. Cult recruitment begins as they hold a campground classroom near Gold Beach, Oregon, and begin to get converts. Nettles and Applewhite now go by "Bo" and "Peep".
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Bo and Peep make their first public appearance at a college in Canada in August. The cult membership has grown to approximately 200. -
The cult falls into a disorganized state between January and April.
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Cult leaders re-emerge and Nettles makes the announcement that they are no longer recruiting, as the "Harvest" is now over.
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The group moves to Medicine Bow National Forest in Wyoming in July and they live in seclusion. Some members leave as Bo and Peep ban drug use and sex. Applewhite now goes by "Do" and Nettles goes by "Ti".
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By October, the group is now down to less than 70 members.
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Bonnie Lu Nettles dies of cancer and the cult has shrunk to a few dozen members. These members believe they will be picked up by aliens soon, inspired by the movie "Cocoon". -
The group produces and broadcasts its "Beyond Human" video, leading to the return of some former members. -
Teams of Heaven's Gate members are sent out to find new recruits.
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The group returns to seclusion and uses the internet to get its message to the public. They post two "exit statements" in an attempt to do so.
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The group moves into a $1.6 million dollar mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, rented by a member named "Brother Logan". They use this as their base of operations for their computer website business, "Higher Source". -
In January, they repost their "exit statements" and avoid business, believing the Hale-Bopp comet to be their sign to leave Earth. -
As the Hale-Bopp comet approaches Earth, 39 of the cult members commit suicide. Their motive was to shed their physical bodies so a spacecraft could take them to the Kingdom of Heaven. This was contradictory to Do and Ti's original claim that the Kingdom of Heaven was only accessible in a living physical body.
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A cult member who was absent during the mass suicide discovered their bodies and notified authorities. The vast majority of the Heaven's Gate cult had come to a tragic end.