Star Wars Reader's Timeline

The Reader's Timeline for Legends is divided into Eras, based on those used by Dark Horse Comics & Del Rey.
In addition, the movie adaptations are divided up so that the reader can choose the primary adaptation they prefer to read, which will leave out identical scenes in the other adaptations, yet maintain most of the unique scenes not shown in the primary adapation (I've done my best, but it's subjective). Please note that "Kids Book" refers to the Scholastic published adaptation.

Note: the Star Wars Expanded Universe, now called Legends, no longer produces new literature, though many existing items are being republished. This timeline is maintained here as an historical curiosity.

Some terms:
BSW4 indicates dates prior to Star Wars Episode IV.
SW4 indicates dates during Episode IV.
ASW4 indicates dates after Episode IV.
A range of dates (i.e. 4 ASW4-6 ASW4) means a story could have occurred anywhere within, and I haven't yet narrowed it down, or is a single scene spanning a large time period.
A ~ before a date (i.e. ~2 BSW4) means the story occurred at about that date.
TPB means Trade Paperback.

You will note that overlapping materials, primarily books, have references to "Scenes" as opposed to pages. Pagination varies by edition, paper- vs. hardback, etc. and is thus unreliable. For the purposes of this timeline, a Scene is a section of material up to a given dividing point, such as a gap like the break below:

Or denoted by asterisks, lines and other dividers, such as below:

Scenes are counted from the beginning of a chapter, when present, or from the beginning of the book or short story (as in some e-books). Sometimes there are errors in splitting scenes between hardcovers, softcovers and omnibus versions of novels. I use hardcover versions of books whenever possible as a personal preference, including omnibuses of paperback series. Whenever I notice an error between versions, and it would affect the timeline, I note the error. So far, the errors I've found are of little to no consequence, or would only disrupt the counting of scenes. In a worse-case scenario, a splitting error would be at a pivotal point where another work would be inserted. Again, I'd make a note of these in the timeline to narrow it down. If you happen to find an error in the timeline, particularly one caused by a scene splitting error, or counting error, please bring it to my attention using the e-mail address provided on the FAQ page.

Comics pose a small problem, namely no obvious scenes. Pagination is therefore used, and in some cases, reference to insets, panels or a change of locale. I'll try to be as precise as possible and apologize in advance for variances within the timeline. There are several cases where I have a trade paperback and couldn't tell where individual issues begin and end. In those cases, the reader will have to count pages. Advertisement pages and covers are not counted.

Links to outside sources within the timeline are the last known working links to those sources. If a link's broken and you know of an updated link please contact me.