Timeline of L. Ron Hubbard

Last updated

Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard in 1950 L. Ron Hubbard in 1950.jpg
Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard in 1950

This is a timeline of L. Ron Hubbard , founder of Scientology.

Contents

Early life

1910s

1911

1920s

1922

  • 18 Feb 1922 - Harry Ross Hubbard visit to Helena recorded in local paper as USS Oklahoma undergoes repairs. [2]
  • 12 Mar 1922 - Harry Ross Hubbard assigned "assistant to disbursing" aboard USS Oklahoma. [3]
  • May 7 - Harry Ross Hubbard apparently loses $942.25, a loss which will later be excused by Act of Congress in 1926.
  • 16 Jul 1922 - Ron and mother leave Montana. [4]

1923

  • July 5 - Hubbard advances to First Class Scout in Tacoma, Washington Boy Scout Troop 31.
  • October 20 - Hubbard's father detached from USS Oklahoma
  • November 1[ citation needed ] - Hubbard and family travel depart San Francisco aboard USS U.S. Grant, traveling through the Panama Canal. [5] :23
  • December 11 - Awarded merit badges by Boy Scout Troop 10 of Washington DC

1924

  • March 28: Awarded Eagle Scout badge, was one of forty boys presented to President Calvin Coolidge. [6] :50
  • Hubbard enrolled at Union High School, Bremerton [5] :27

1926

  • 1926-27: studied at Queen Anne High School in Seattle. [5] :28
  • June 12, 1926 - Approval of relief for $942.25 for Harry Ross Hubbard. [7]

1927

  • April 1927 - leaves Queen Anne
  • April 5: Hubbard's father sails for Guam; Weeks later, Hubbard and mother traveled to Guam aboard the President Madison and USS Gold Star via Hawaii, China, and the Philippines. Hubbard spent about six weeks on the island before returning to the United States. [6] :54
  • June 6: Hubbard arrives in Guam aboard USS Gold Star .
  • July 16: Hubbard departs Guam aboard USS Nitro , while his parents remain behind. [6] :54
  • August 6: Hubbard arrives in Bremerton, Washington. [6] :54
  • September 6: Enrolled at Helena High School, Helena, Montana.
  • October 1927: Hubbard joined Montana Army National Guard at 16, falsely stating he was 18. Enlisting at the State Armory in Helena, he served as a private in the Headquarters Company of 163rd Infantry. [5] :35

1928

  • May 1928 - Abandoned school and went back west to stay with his aunt and uncle in Seattle. [5] :34
  • June 31: Departed San Diego for Guam aboard USS Henderson. [5] :41
  • July 25: Hubbard arrives in Guam. [5] :41
  • October 6: Hubbard family departs for China. [5] :41
  • October to December 1928: Hubbard and parents visit China via the Philippines aboard the USS Gold Star. [6] :54 [5] :31,41

1929

  • 07 Jun 1929 - Harry Ross Hubbard detached from receiving ship at San Francisco and assigned to Washington Navy Yard. [8]
  • 18 Sep 1929 - Helena paper reports family statement that Harry Ross Hubbard has been placed in charge of "the supply and disbursing department at the naval hospital in Washington". [9]

1930s

1930

  • February 1930 - enrolled at Woodward School for Boys in Washington, D.C. to earn credits for admission to George Washington University, thereby avoiding the university's entrance examination
  • June 1930 - Graduated from Woodward.
  • September 1930 - entered George Washington University. [5] :47
  • October 5, 1930 - An article titled "What has Senator Walsh Done for Montana? Here is the Answer", lists a bill which "relieved Harry Hubbard from liability on account of the loss of money in his hands as an officer of the navy" [10]

1931

  • Enlisted as a Private in the United States Marine Corps Reserve, stating his age as 21 and listing his profession as "photographer". [5] :46 He was promoted to First Sergeant only six weeks later, a development that Jon Atack attributes to the fact that the unit he joined – the 20th Marine Corps Reserve – was actually a training unit connected with George Washington University. His character was rated "excellent".
  • September 1931 - placed on academic probation [11]
  • September 4, 1931 - Michigan newspaper reports Hubbard staying with local aviator Phillip W. Browning and attempting to revive two local glider clubs. [12]
  • September 8, 1931 - Michigan newspaper reports Hubbard injured in hit-and-run. [13]
  • Wrote for the George Washington University student newspaper, The University Hatchet , as a reporter for a few months in 1931. [5] :47
  • October 22: discharged from Marine Corps Reserve with the notation, "Not to be re-enlisted." [6] :58

1932

  • April 10, 1932 - Hubbard reportedly elected president of student chapter of American Society of Civil Engineers at GWU. [14]
  • Spring 1932 - Completed first year at GWU where he received a D average grade, earning an A for physical education, B for English, C for mechanical engineering, D for general chemistry and Fs for German and calculus. [5] :49
  • During his second year, he enrolled in a class on atomic and molecular physics  – the "nuclear physics" course cited in his official biographies – but earned an F grade. His other grades were also poor, ranging from a B for English to D in calculus and electrical and magnetic physics. [5] :57
  • May 1932 - Hubbard announced the "Caribbean Motion Picture Expedition" in The University Hatchet aboard the schooner Doris Hamlin to explore and film the pirate "strongholds and bivouacs of the Spanish Main" and to "collect whatever one collects for exhibits in museums". [5] :52
  • June 23, 1932 - Hubbard and classmates depart from Baltimore. The ship was blown far off course, making an unplanned first landfall at Bermuda, before the ship sailed on to its intended first port of call, Martinique. [5] :54 As the expedition was critically short of money, the ship's owners ordered it to return to Baltimore, [5] :54–5
  • August 11, 1932 - Papers report the students have become stranded. Lt. Hubbard tells press he cabled $300 but his son would not accept the funds. [15]
  • August 25-29, 1932 - Hubbard travels from San Juan Puerto Rico to New York aboard SS Caomo. He lists his address as that of the US Naval Hospital in D.C.
  • Fall 1932 - Hubbard fails to return to GWU. [11]
  • November 4: Hubbard arrived in Puerto Rico aboard USS Kittery. [5] :57

1933

  • February 16: A letter describes Hubbard as field representative for Washington D.C. firm "West Indies Minerals" who had accompanied the letter's author on a survey of a small property near the town of Luquillo, Puerto Rico. [6] :63
  • March 30: Harry Ross Hubbard reassigned from "naval hospital, Washington" to Destroy division. [16]
  • April 13: Hubbard married Margaret "Polly" Grubb
  • August 18: Hubbard featured in the Washington Daily News , described as having "left here last year for Antilles, West Indies, in search of gold so that he might return and marry the girl he met shortly before his departure". [5] :61
  • Hubbard turned to full-time fiction writing to support himself and his new wife; [5] :62 six of his pieces were published commercially during 1932 to 1933 [6] :64

1934

1936

  • January 15: Hubbard's second child, Katherine May, born. [5] :70 The Hubbards lived for a while in Laytonsville, Maryland. [5] :62
  • Spring 1936 - Hubbard family moves to Bremerton, Washington to live with Hubbard's aunts and grandmother, later settling in nearby South Colby. [5] :74
  • Hubbard spent an increasing amount of time in New York City, [5] :71 working out of a hotel room where his wife suspected him of carrying on affairs. [5] :75,84

1938

  • 1938 - Hubbard authors a manuscript called "Excalibur" which contains ideas that were later incorporated into Scientology. [18]

1939

  • 1939 - According to Barbara Klowden, Hubbard told her: "In 1939, I was very much in love with a girl. She felt that way too. When I knew she had a boyfriend coming up, I waited on the stairway with a gun, just for a moment. Then I said they are flies. I realized who and what I was and left. I told her I would leave her free to marry a sharpie with a cigar in his mouth from Muncie, Indiana." [5] :172

1940

1940

  • February 1940, Hubbard joined The Explorers Club [5] :85 and carried its flag on an "Alaskan Radio-Experimental Expedition". [5] :88 consisting of himself and his wife aboard his ketch Magician. [5] :89
  • July 1940, Magician's engine broke down only two days after setting off
  • August 30, 1940, the Hubbards reached Ketchikan after many delays following repeated engine breakdowns. The Ketchikan Chronicle reported that Hubbard's purpose in coming to Alaska "was two-fold, one to win a bet and another to gather material for a novel of Alaskan salmon fishing". [5] :89 Having underestimated the cost of the trip, he did not have enough money to repair the broken engine. He raised money by writing stories and contributing to the local radio station [5] :91 and eventually earned enough to fix the engine. [5] :85
  • Hubbard told The Seattle Star in a November 1940 letter that the expedition was plagued by problems and did not get any further than Ketchikan near the southern end of the Alaska Panhandle, far from the Aleutian Islands. [6] :68
  • December 27, 1940 Hubbards make it back to Puget Sound. [5] :91

Military

1941

1942

1943

Lts (jg) L. Ron Hubbard and Thomas S. Moulton in Portland, Oregon in 1943 Hubbard and moulton.jpg
Lts (jg) L. Ron Hubbard and Thomas S. Moulton in Portland, Oregon in 1943

1944

1945

After the war

1946

Hubbard and second wife Sara L Ron and Sara Hubbard June 1946.jpg
Hubbard and second wife Sara

1947

1948

Dianetics

1949

1950

1951

Scientology

1952

1953

1954

1955

1959

1960s

1963

1965

  • The Church of Scientology was banned in several Australian states, starting with Victoria. [48] The ban was based on the Anderson Report, which found that the auditing process involved "command" hypnosis, in which the hypnotist assumes "positive authoritative control" over the patient." [49]

1966

  • Narconon founded.
  • Hubbard declared South African Scientologist John McMaster to be the first true Clear. [50] [51] (McMaster left the Sea Org in November 1969) [6] :193
  • 7 April - report of Hubbard having entered Rhodesia [5] :257
  • 15 July - Hubbard departs Rhodesia after being ordered out of the country. [5] :260
  • November - Hubbard travels to Tangier, Morocco. [5] :265

1967

  • Hubbard travels from Tangiers to Las Palmas, Canary Islands. [5] :266
  • OT III is made available to Scientologists.
  • The Sea Organization (or Sea Org) officially established. [52]
  • December 27: The first Advanced Organization, offering the advanced levels of Scientology to the public, was established aboard the Royal Scotman , the flagship of the Sea Organization. (This ship was later renamed the Apollo.)[ citation needed ]

1968

1970s

1972

  • September: Hubbard travels to New York and goes into hiding

1973

  • December: Hubbard injured in motorcycle accident, RPF established.

1975

  • Summer - In Curaçao, Hubbard suffered a heart attack and pulmonary embolism. [6] :255 Hubbard spends two days in the ICU, three weeks in hospital.
  • December 5 - Hubbards move to King Arthur's Court in Dunedin, near Clearwater, Florida.

1976

  • October - Hubbards move to La Quinta
  • November 12 - Quentin Hubbard dies by suicide

1977

  • July 15 - Hubbard flees with Pat Broeker to Sparks, Nevada

1978

  • August 18: Hubbard collapses while filming in the desert. [5] :357 Hubbard had a pulmonary embolism, falling into a coma, but recovered. [6] :256

1979

1980s

1980

  • February: Hubbard departs with Annie and Pat Broeker. [5] :364

1982

1985

  • December: Hubbard allegedly attempts suicide by e-meter, according to caretaker Sarge Pfauth. [54]

1986

References

  1. Hall, Timothy L. American religious leaders, p. 175. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2003. ISBN   978-0-8160-4534-1
  2. The Independent-Record (Helena, Montana) 18 Feb 1922, Sat Page 6
  3. The Washington Post (Washington, District of Columbia) 12 Mar 1922, Sun Page 8
  4. The Independent-Record (Helena, Montana) 16 Jul 1922, Sun Page 10
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 Miller, Russell (1987). Bare-faced Messiah : The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard. Henry Holt and Company. ISBN   0805006540. OL   26305813M.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 Atack, Jon (1990). A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed. Lyle Stuart Books. ISBN   081840499X. OL   9429654M.
  7. Chap. 575. - An Act For the relief of Harry Ross Hubbard. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. That the Comptroller General of the United States is authorized and directed to credit the accounts of Harry Ross Hubbard, lieutenant (junior grade), United States Navy, with the sum of $942.25, disallowed in item 5 of statement of differences, certificate number N-1379-E dated May 7, 1922. Approved, June 12, 1926.
  8. Evening Star (Washington, District of Columbia) 07 Jun 1929, Fri
  9. The Independent-Record (Helena, Montana) 18 Sep 1929, Wed Page 10
  10. The Montana Standard (Butte, Montana) 05 Oct 1930, Sun
  11. 1 2 Wallis, p. 21
  12. The Times Herald (Port Huron, Michigan) 04 Sep 1931, Fri Page 1
  13. The Times Herald (Port Huron, Michigan) 08 Sep 1931, Tue Page 5
  14. Evening Star (Washington, District of Columbia) 10 Apr 1932, Sun
  15. The Cincinnati Enquirer (Cincinnati, Ohio) 11 Aug 1932, Thu
  16. Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Honolulu, Hawaii) 30 Mar 1933, Thu Page 29
  17. Lewis, James R. (2009). Scientology. Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780199715954.
  18. Chryssides, George D. (1999). Exploring new religions. London: Cassell. p. 281. ISBN   0-8264-5959-5.
  19. Malia, Joseph (March 1, 1998). "Inside the Church of Scientology: Judge found Hubbard lied about achievements". Boston Herald.
  20. USS PC-815 logbook. National Archives & Records Administration, College Park, MD
  21. Scheffler, p. 56
  22. 1 2 3 Stafford, Charles (1979). "Scientology: An in-depth profile of a new force in Clearwater" (PDF). St Petersburg Times. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 9, 2007. "The 1980 Pulitzer Prize Winner in National Reporting". The Pulitzer Prizes .
  23. Bent Corydon, L. Ron Hubbard: Madman or Messiah?, p. 294 (Lyle Stuart, 1987)
  24. Hubbard, L. Ron, letter to Veterans Administration, October 15, 1947; quoted in Miller, p. 137
  25. "RON THE "WAR HERO" - "Crippled and blinded"".
  26. Gardner, p. 272
  27. e.g. The Herald-News (Passaic, New Jersey) 10 Jun 1948, Ventura County Star-Free Press 23 Jun 1948, Spokane Chronicle (Spokane, Washington)29 Sep 1948
  28. "Article: Today's Terrorism – Decoding Scientology Propaganda". Archived from the original on October 8, 2017.
  29. "The Heinlein Letters: What L. Ron Hubbard's close friends really thought of him | the Underground Bunker".
  30. Eisenberg, Ellen (June 1969). "The Dangerous New Cult of Scientology". Parents Magazine .
  31. "Of Two Minds". TIME Magazine . July 24, 1950. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved October 2, 2008.
  32. O'Brien, p. 27
  33. The San Bernardino County Sun (San Bernardino, California) 21 Dec 1950, Thu Page 6
  34. Los Angeles Evening Citizen News (Hollywood, California) 10 Feb 1951, Sat
  35. "Sara Northrup Hubbard - Complaint for Divorce".
  36. Methvin, Eugene H. (May 1990). "Scientology: Anatomy of a Frightening Cult." Reader's Digest . pp. 16.
  37. Martin, Walter Ralston; Zacharias, Ravi K. (ed.). The Kingdom of the Cults, p. 338. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2003. ISBN   978-0-7642-2821-6
  38. Staff (April 24, 1951). "Ron Hubbard Insane, Says His Wife." San Francisco Chronicle
  39. "Dianetics Inventor Sued for Divorce, Wife's Complaint Charges He Subjected Her To 'Scientific Torture Experiments'", Los Angeles Times, April 24, 1951
  40. Hubbard, letter to FBI of May 14 1951
  41. "Departure in Dianetics". TIME Magazine . September 3, 1951. Archived from the original on November 14, 2007. Retrieved October 14, 2008.
  42. "Remember Venus?". TIME Magazine . December 22, 1952. Archived from the original on March 19, 2007. Retrieved October 2, 2008.
  43. https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-inquirer-hubbard-warran/37087575/
  44. "Advertising". Healesville Guardian (Lilydale, Vic. : 1942 - 1954) . Lilydale, Vic.: National Library of Australia. March 18, 1955. p. 3. Retrieved August 13, 2013.
  45. Banville, Jule (September 11, 2007). "The L. Ron Hubbard House: Get There Before Travolta". Washington City Paper . Retrieved April 3, 2009.
  46. Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Florida) 08 May 1982, Sat
  47. "Founding Ch. of Scientology v. United States". Casetext . February 5, 1969.[ dead link ]
  48. Melton, J. Gordon (2000). The Church of Scientology. Salt Lake City: Signature Press. p. 14. ISBN   978-1-56085-139-4.
  49. Report of the Board of Enquiry into Scientology by Kevin Victor Anderson, Q.C. Published 1965 by the State of Victoria, Australia, p. 155
  50. Levy, Alan (November 15, 1968). "Scientology". Life.
  51. Michener, Wendy (August 22, 1966). "Is This the Happiest Man in the World?". Maclean's.
  52. Hankins, Barry; Davis, Derek (2003). New Religious Movements and Religious Liberty in America. Waco, Tex: Baylor University Press. p. 46. ISBN   0-918954-92-4.
  53. "A rare gem from 1968: When the Daily Mail tracked down L. Ron Hubbard in Tunisia | the Underground Bunker".
  54. "Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's caretaker and friend, Steve 'Sarge' Pfauth, 1945-2016 | the Underground Bunker".
  55. "L. Ron Hubbard's death certificate and other documents" (PDF). Archived from the original on November 23, 2015. Retrieved June 15, 2012.
  56. "L. Ron Hubbard, Church of Scientology founder, dies". Seattle Post-Intelligencer . January 28, 1986. Retrieved October 3, 2008.