| 1930 | The United States stock market crashes creating the great depression. |
| 1931 | Irma Rombauer takes $3000, the modest legacy her husband leaves at his death, and she self-publishes the first Joy of Cooking. She is 54 years old. |
| 1932 | Irma tries to sell her book to a commercial publisher, Bobbs-Merrill of Indianapolis, IN and is rejected. |
| 1933 | Prohibition is repealed and Adolf Hilter becomes to Chancellor of Germany. |
| 1935 | Bobbs-Merrill receives another submission of the Joy of Cooking from Irma. This version is not the self-published book but a revision, typed and bound in 15 notebook binders. |
| 1936 | March 26 is the publication date for the first commercial Joy of Cooking. The first print run is 10,000 copies and the book costs $2.50. |
| 1937 | The Golden Gate Bridge is completed in San Francisco and Gone with the Wind, a Scribner book, wins the Pulitzer Prize. |
| 1939 | Bobbs-Merrill publishes Irma Rombauer's book Streamlined Cooking, a cookbook dedicated to convenience foods. The book is not a commercial success. |
| 1940 | Freeze-drying is invented. |
| 1941 | Pearl Harbor is attacked and America enters WWII. |
| 1943 | The bestselling "wartime" edition of the Joy of Cooking is published which includes how to creatively deal with the food rationing during World War II. |
| 1946 | A "post-war" edition is printed with very few changes. |
| 1947 | The microwave oven is invented. |
| 1951 | Marion Rombauer Becker joins her mother Irma as co-author of this edition. |
| 1955 | Gunsmoke debuts on CBS. |
| 1961 | John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as the President of the United States. |
| 1962 | Irma Rombauer dies in her native St. Louis. The sixth edition of the Joy of Cooking is published. |
| 1963 | The French Chef with Julia Child debuts on public television. |
| 1969 | Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin become the first to walk on the moon. |
| 1970 | Beatles break up. |
| 1974 | President Nixon resigns and Stephen King's Carrie is published. |
| 1975 | The first -- and last -- edition of the Joy of Cooking that is completely Marion Rombauer Becker's work is published. |
| 1979 | Margaret Thatcher becomes the Prime Minister of Great Britain. |
| 1980 | The median household income in the United States is $19,074 and it seems the entire country is playing PacMan. |
| 1981 | The first genetically engineer plant -- the Flavr Savr tomato -- is approved for sale. |
| 1984 | Coca Cola changes its 99 year old formula and launches New Coke. |
| 1990 | East and West Germany unite. |
| 1997 | After a more than a two decade hiatus, the eighth edition of the Joy ofCooking is published by Scribner with Ethan, Marion's son, at the helm. |
| 2006 | A new edition of the Joy of Cooking based on the writing and structure of the 1975 edition is published to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Irma Rombauer's self-published cookbook. |