This is the beta version of the Peak oil Timeline, a resource for journalists, students, and anyone lse who wants to understand the chronology of peak oil. Soon we will be accepting suggestions of additions to the timeline.

Peak Oil Timeline:
19th Century to the present
 
1832-39 (year unknown): First electric automobile invented by Robert Anderson, of Scotland. Electric cars (developed along with steam-powered vehicles) would eventually  outsell all others until near the end of the century, given its miniscule market, when the invention of the internal combustion engine found a key use for all that cheap U.S. oil.
 
1848: World’s first oil wells are drilled in Asia, on the Aspheron Peninsula northeast of Baku.
http://bakerinstitute.org/Pubs/studies/gppca/gppca.html#Introduction
 
1849: Canadian Abraham Gesner develops process for distilling kerosene from oil (first from shale) and invents the kerosene lantern. Demand for whale oil decreases significantly.
http://www.cheminst.ca/ncw/articles/1999_gesner1_e.htm
 
1853: Kerosene is first introduced in Germany, creating European demand for the product.
 
1854: The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company (later called Seneca Oil Co.) founded in the U.S., the world’s first, after Edwin L. Drake’s recent discovery of oil in Pennsylvania. The company’s original idea was to develop oil floating on the water near Titusville, Penn.
 
Brief history of U.S. oil production in the early years:
http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_066100_oilindustry.htm
 
1859:  Drake drills oil well in Titusville – using a series of attached pipes to reach further underground (69 ft.) than previous attempts – launching the modern petroleum industry. The refining of kerosene is the main thrust at this point.
http://www.priweb.org/ed/pgws/history/pennsylvania/pennsylvania.html
 
1864: Austrian engineer Siegfried Marcus builds car with one-cylinder engine, able to go 10 m.p.h. for short distances. His invention is considered to be the forerunner of the modern internal-combustion-powered automobile.
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarssteama.htm
 
1867: Pennsylvania entrepreneur John D. Rockefeller forms oil refining partnership with S.V. Harkness and Henry Flagler, which would become known as Standard Oil.
 
1875: California’s first successful oil well drilled in Pico Canyon
 
1878: Electric light bulb invented by Thomas Edison eliminates demand for kerosene, and the oil industry enters a recession.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bllight.htm
 
1882: Standard Oil Trust is created, allowing Rockefeller to align his interests vertically and horizontally: controlling prices, dodging out-of-state taxes and limiting pesky competition.
http://www.buyandhold.com/bh/en/education/history/2000/standard_oil1.html
 
1886: Gasoline-powered automobiles introduced in Europe by Karl Benz and Wilhelm Daimler, creating additional markets for U.S. oil. Prior to the automobile, gasoline was a cheap solvent produced as a byproduct of kerosene distillation.
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarsgasa.htm
 
1890: Daimler founds Daimler Motoren-Gesellschaft to produce copies of his internal combustion engine for sale.
 
1892: California’s first oil well located in Los Angeles, followed by 25,000 more wells and 200 other oil companies in the area.
 
1893: Charles and Frank Duryea become America’s first manufacturers of gasoline-powered commercial cars.
 
1894: Benz Velo is first to mass-produce cars, building 134 identical Velos.
 
1895: Pure Oil Company Ltd. created, giving Standard its first real competition.
 
1900: Standard Oil purchases the Pacific Coast Oil Company (California) and in 1906 incorporates all its western operations into Pacific Oil, now Chevron.
 
1901: Massive oil fields discovered in Beaumont, Texas (Jan. 10). A single well on “Spindletop