1969	Thomas Gold presents lunar evidence which indicates that the Earth-Moon system has been exposed to a solar nova outburst or to a very large solar flare within the last 30,000 years.
1977	Herbert Zook, et al. present lunar evidence that the Sun's solar flare activity was extremely high at the end of the ice age, reaching a peak around 16,000 years ago. They propose this was somehow associated with the retreat of the ice sheets.
1977	Wdowczyk and Wolfendale propose that very rare, extremely large solar flare events could be responsible for producing mass extinctions.
1979	LaViolette begins doctoral research on the Galactic superwave hypothesis and its possible cause of abrupt climatic change and mass extinction, with special focus on the deglacial interval occurring between 11,000 and 15,000 years BP.
1981 - 1982	LaViolette conducts a cosmochemical study of ice age polar ice and reports the occurrence of several cosmic dust concentration peaks. This was the first study of its kind to be carried out and the first discovery of high iridium and nickel levels in ice age polar ice.
1983	LaViolette publishes his Ph.D. dissertation and presents papers on its conclusions at the American Geophysical Union meeting and Meteoritical Society meeting; see abstracts.
1983 (August)	LaViolette begins applying for funds to do additional ice core research to continue to explore his discovery of high cosmic dust concentrations in polar ice.
1984	LaViolette heads the Starburst Foundation, a research institute dedicated to the study of Galactic superwave catastrophes and increasing public awareness about them.
1984	One year after receiving a copy of LaViolette's dissertation, Victor Clube and Bill Napier publish a paper in Monthly Notices proposing a comet breakup and terrestrial bombardment as the cause of the elevated Ir and Ni concentrations LaViolette had found in polar ice.
1985 - 1993	LaViolette publishes 6 papers in refereed journals communicating various aspects of his doctoral findings. Submits more than 50 proposals seeking funding to do cosmic dust ice core studies of the period spanning the Pleistocene megafaunal extinction. No funding was obtained.
1985	LaViolette presents his findings on Galactic superwaves and their cause of the climatic change and mass extinction at the end of the last ice age at the Galaxy and Solar System Conference. He also begins to present public lectures on this subject.
1987	LaViolette publishes a paper in Monthly Notices challenging Clube and Napier's 1984 paper. He points out the flaws in their comet debris bombardment interpretation and demonstrates that his Ir and Ni findings are more likely due to a superwave induced cosmic dust influx.
1988	LaViolette is granted 17 Vostok ice core samples from the Soviet Union ice core program, thereby initiating the first ice core exchange program between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. Funding requests made to the National Science Foundation and NASA for conducting a cosmic dust analysis of the samples.
1989	LaViolette heads the Foundation's International Outreach Project to make governments around the world aware of hazards associated with the possible arrival of a Galactic superwave event. Organizations post his superwave alert write-up on the internet.
1990	LaViolette publishes a paper in Anthropos which among other things elaborates on the idea that the megafaunal demise was due to a coronal mass ejection catastrophe and associated flood cataclysm.
1990	Clube and Napier publish their book The Cosmic Winter attributing the catastrophe at the end of the ice age to the breakup of a giant comet.
1997	LaViolette publishes his book Earth Under Fire, which is written for a general audience and presents the Galactic superwave theory and supporting evidence with its main focus on the mass extinction event at the end of the ice age. Here he also discusses ancient myths and legends reporting about this event.
1997 - present	LaViolette presents many conference lectures about the superwave theory and its impact at the end of the ice age. He is also invited to speak about it on many radio talk shows.
1998	Conscious Wave Productions produces a video on Dr. LaViolette's superwave theory graphically, illustrating the demise of the Pleistocene megafauna as arising from a coronal mass ejection impact conflagration and ensuing glacier wave meltwater deluge. The video, titled Earth Under Fire, is aired on TV and sold widely.
1998	William Topping posts webpages summarizing doctoral research he had begun 7 years earlier in which he found evidence of anomalous radiocarbon dates and unusual pitting in paleoIndian artifacts. His findings led him to conclude that the megafaunal mass extinction at the Allerod/Younger Dryas boundary was caused by a conflagration induced by a solar coronal mass ejection.
2001	Richard Firestone and William Topping publish a general reader article in the paleontological magazine Mammoth Trumpet attributing the terminal Pleistocene megafaunal extinction to the occurrence of a supernova 250 light years away which they claim exploded around 41,000 years ago. They propose that the radiation influx was so intense as to reset the artifact radiocarbon dates to values 25,000 to 30,000 years younger than their actual age and allege that the artifacts actually date from around 39,000 to 55,000 years B.P.
2002	Southon and Taylor rebut the Firestone-Topping article. They note that if the Earth had been exposed to such high radiation levels current radiocarbon date levels should be thousands of times higher than actually observed. Indeed, this pointed out a major flaw in the Firestone-Topping theory.
2005	LaViolette publishes a paper in Planetary & Space Science that provides additional supporting evidence for his cosmic ray/cosmic dust/solar activity scenario. This shows that the Main Event acidity spike found in 15,800 year old Antarctic polar ice registers a major long-term incursion of cosmic dust into the solar system. He proposes this influx may have been responsible for triggering the subsequent increase in solar activity that was partly responsible for the catastrophic events ending the last ice age.
2005	Richard Firestone teams up with Alan West and the two present a modified version of the Firestone supernova explosion theory at the 2nd International World of Elephants Conference. In this version the supernova is accompanied by the impact of a 10 km diameter comet causing the demise of the Pleistocene megafauna around 12,900 years B.P. The claim for major resetting of radiocarbon dates is judicially avoided. However, in this version around 34,000 years B.P. the supernova showers the Earth with iron rich micrometiorite grains that have traveled 250 light years and also passed through the Earth's atmosphere at relativistic speeds, i.e., 3% of the speed of light. Their incredible announcement is preceded by a Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory press release.
2006	Firestone, West, and Warwick-Smith publish their book Cycles of Cosmic Catastrophes describing their supernova/comet explosion theory.
2007 (May)	The Younger Dryas Boundary (YDB) group, led by Firestone and West, present evidence for the Firestone-West supernova/comet theory with some additional modifications. The comet size is now reduced to 4 km in diameter and claimed to have exploded over the northern ice cap showering debris across the continent. Debris from this explosion is proposed to have produced the Carolina Bays.
2007 (Sept)	LaViolette points out 20 major flaws in the supernova/comet theory of Firestone, West and Warwich-Smith, published in their 2006 book.