I don't know dates, and I'm hazy on certain aspects of the continuity. However, what I do know chronologically, from the in-universe perspective...

  • Thals and Kaleds go to war with each other on their home planet Skaro
  • A scientist named Davros creates The Daleks. At the same time the 4th Doctor is sent to Skaro, by the Time Lords, to avert their creation. He fails. This is seen as the first volley of The Great and Final Time War. The Daleks put Davros on ice.
  • Time-traveling Daleks (and Davros) from the future chase a pre-series First Doctor to Earth, where he hides a dangerous Time Lord weapon. He escapes again, but not before picking up some human passengers (Ian and Barbara).
  • The very next day from the time the 1st Doctor leaves Earth, the 7th Doctor returns to reclaim the weapon. He faces the Daleks, and an older Davros, that were chasing his first incarnation, and ends up using the weapon to wipe out a majority of the Daleks on Skaro.
  • Some time after that, the 1st Doctor, Susan, Ian, and Barbara land on the sterile Skaro. The Daleks left here are pre-time travel tech. I believe it's during this era the Daleks gain time travel tech, and encounter the 1st and 2nd Doctors.
  • The Daleks split into two factions: Pro-Davros, and Pro-Freedom.
  • Later, the pro-freedom faction somehow meet and agree to work with The 12th Master (actor Roger Delgado) to fight the 3rd Doctor. He betrays them (natch), and their fury turns towards Gallifrey itself. President of the Time Lords Romana II creates the Act of Master Restitution, whereby the Time Lords capture The Master and turn him over to the Daleks. In exchange, the Daleks won't start a war (yet). They execute The Master, and his "remains" are collected by the 7th Doctor (soon to be 8th).
  • The pro-Davros Daleks find and release Davros from cryo-freeze, encountering the 4th Doctor while doing so. Together with Davros, they are the ones that begin chasing the 1st Doctor, wanting his Time Lord weapons and technology.
  • The 5th and 6th Doctors are embroiled in a civil war between the Dalek factions.
  • The Time Lords fire the first shot of the Time War, and use The 4th Doctor to go back in time and try to avert the creation of the Daleks.
  • Davros leads the combined might of the Dalek Empire against the Time Lords. During which time, Dalek Kaan rips backwards through time and saves Davros.
  • The Time War happens, and the modern series of Doctor Who begins.


And that's pretty much all I know from memory. And certainly, some of that is probably wrong...