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April 9, April 9, 1926 |
Hefner is born in Chicago, Illinois.
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1940 |
Hefner enters Steinmetz High School in Chicago.
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1942 |
Hefner works as an usher at a Chicago movie theater.
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1944 |
Hefner joins U.S. Army, writing for a military newspaper.
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1946 |
Hefner honorably discharged from the army.
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1953 |
Hefner publishes the first issue of Playboy in December. Seventy thousand copies were printed and 54,175 copies were sold at 50 cents a copy.
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1959 |
Hefner and wife Millie are divorced. Hefner begins hosting the "Playboy's Penthouse" television show.
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February 29, 1960 |
The first Playboy Club opens in downtown Chicago.
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1962 |
Playboy publishes the first "Playboy Interview," in which author Alex Haley interviewed jazz musician Miles Davis in the September issue.
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1963 |
Hefner is arrested and subsequently acquitted on obscenity charges.
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1971 |
Circulation of Playboy peaks at 7 million issues a month.
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1982 |
Playboy reportedly loses more than $51 million.
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1985 |
Hefner suffers a minor stroke, and turns over business operations to daughter Christie Hefner.
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1988 |
The final Playboy Club closes.
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1989 |
Hefner and second wife Kimberley Conrad marry.
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1998 |
Hefner and second wife Kimberly Conrad separate and eventually divorce. Hefner named to the American Society of Magazine Editors' Hall of Fame.
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1999 |
Playboy subscriptions on college campuses increase by 62 percent.
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2001 |
Hefner celebrates 75th birthday with Playboy Mansion bash.
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Melissa Etheridge
