TUPAC TIMELIME
The following time line charts 2pac's life from his birth to his death.
September
1968 : Tupac's mother,
Afeni Shakur, joins the New York Black Panther party at age 22.
April 1969 : Afenis is arrested and charged with
conspiracy to bomb several public areas in new York City. While
out on bail, Afeni courts two men: Legs, a local hood, and Billy,
a member of the party.
February
1971 : Afeni, pregnant
with Tupac, has her bail revoked; she's sent to the Women's House
of Detention in Greenwich Village.
June 16,
1971 : Shortly after his
mom is acquitted on bombing charges, Tupac Amaru Shakur is born
in New York. Tupac Amaru are Inca Words meaning "shining
serpent." Shakur is Arabic for Thankful to God.
1975-1983 : Tupac's family shuttles between the
Bronx and Harlem, at times living in shelters.
1983 : Legs comes to live with the Shakur
family; Tupac "claims" him as his father. Legs
introduces Afeni to Crack.
September
1983 : Afeni enrolls 12-year-old
Tupac in the 127th Street Ensemble, a Harlem theater group. In
his first performance, Tupac plays Travis in a Raisin the Sun.
June 1986 :
Shakur's family moves to Baltimore;. As MC New York Tupac writes
his first rap.
September
1986 : Tupac enrolls at
the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studies ballet and
acting.
June 1988 : Tupac and his family move to Marine
City, California "Leaving that school affected me so much,"
he said later. "I see that as the point where I got off
track." Shortly after, Tupac moves in with a neighbor and
begins selling drugs.
August:
1988 : Mutulu Shakur, Tupac's stepfather, is
sentenced to sixty years in prison for his involvement in a 1981
armored-car robbery.
1990 : Tupac joins Digital Underground as a
rodie/dancer/rapper. While on tour, he learns that his mother is
using crack.
January 3,
1991 : Tupac makes his
recording debut on DU's. This is an E.P. Release.
November
12, 1991 : 2Pacaplypse
Now is released. Shorty thereafter, Tupac files a $10 million
lawsuit against the Oakland police for alleged brutality
following an arrest for jaywalking.
January 17,
1992 : Tupac makes his
big-screen debut in Ernest Dickerson's Juice, earning praise for
his portrayal of Bishop. He is perhaps best remembered for the
line "I am crazy, and I don't give a f*ck!"
April 11,
1992 : Ronald Ray Howard,
19, shoots a Texas trooper. Howard's attorney claims 2Pacalypse
Now, which was in his client's tape deck, incited him to kill.
August 22,
1992 : Tupac has an
altercation with old acquaintances in Marine City. A 6 year old
bystander is shot in the head. Tupac's half brother, Maurice
Harding is arrested but released due to lack of evidence.
September
22, 1992 : Tupac is
denounced by Vice President Dan Quayle, who says 2Pacalypse Now
"has no place in our society."
February 1,
1993 : Strictly 4 My
NIGGAZ is released and eventually goes platinum.
March 13,
1993 : Tupac has a fight
with a limo driver in Hollywood who accuses him of using drugs in
the car. Tupac's arrested but the charges are dropped.
April 5,
1993 : Tupac is arrested
in Lansing Michigan, for taking a swing at a local rapper with a
baseball bat during a concert. He's sentenced to 10 days in jail.
July 23,
1993 : John Singleton's
Poetic Justice, starring Tupac and Janet Jackson, is released.
Before filming began, Jackson demanded Shakur take an HIV test
before she would do any kissing scenes.
October 31,
1993 : Tupac is arrested
for allegedly shooting two off-duty Atlanta police officers who
he says were harassing a black motorist. Charges are eventually
dropped.
November
18, 1993 : A 19 year old
woman, whom Tupac picked up 4 days earlier in a New York
nightclub, is allegedly sodomized and sexually abused by the
rapper and 3 of his friends.
December
1993 : John Singleton is
forced by Columbia Pictures to drop the rapper from the cast of
his upcoming film, Higher Learning.
March 10,
1994 : Tupac is sentenced
to fifteen days in a Los Angeles jail for punching out director
Allen Hughes. (Hughes and his brother, Albert, had dropped Tupac
from Menace II Society.)
March 23,
1994 : Tupac stars as
Birdie, a troubled drug dealer, in Above the Rim. The soundtrack
album, featuring the song "Pour out a little Liquor,"
recorded by Tupac's group, Thug Life, sells 2 million copies.
September
7, 1994 : Two Milwaukee
teens murder a police officer and cite Tupac's "Souljah's
Story" as their inspiration.
November,
30 1994 : While on trial
for sex and weapons charges, Tupac is shot five times and robbed
of $40,000 worth of jewelry in the lobby of a Times Square
recording studio. Tupac checks himself out of the hospital less
than three hours after surgery. The case remains unsolved.
December 1,
1994 : Tupac is acquitted
of sodomy and weapons charges but is found guilty of sexual abuse.
February
14, 1995 : Tupac is
sentenced to up to four and a half years in a maximum security
prison, convicted of touching her bum. He immediately begins
serving his time in New York's Rikers Island penitentiary.
April 1,
1995 : While he's
incarcerated, Tupac's third album, Me Against the World, debuts
at no. 1 on Billboard's pop chart. Fueled by the single "Dear
Mama," the album goes double platinum in 7 months.
April 1995 : In a vibe interview from jail, Tupac
renounces "Thug Life" persona and commits himself to
positive works. He also implicates Biggie Smalls, Puffy Combs,
Andre Harrell, and his close friend Stretch, and others in the
recording studio ambush.
August
1995 : Biggie, Puffy and
Harrell tell Vibe, they had no connection to Tupac's shooting.
October
1995 : Death Row Records
CEO Suge Knight posts $1.4 million bond to release Tupac, who
immediately flies to LA, signs with Death Row and begins
recording All Eyez on Me.
November
30, 1995 : Exactly on
year after Tupac's shooting, Randy "Stretch" Walker is
murdered execution-style in Queens.
February
1996 : In Vibe Tupac
suggests he's been sleeping with Biggie's wife, Faith Evans. She
denies the stories.
February
13, 1996 : Tupac's Death
Row Debut, All Eyez on Me, rap's first double CD, is released.
March 29,
1996 : Words are
exchanged and a gun is pulled when Death Row and Bad Boy
employees face off after the Soul Train awards in Los Angeles.
April 25,
1996 : All Eyez on Me
goes quintuple platinum.
May 1996 : Tupac and Snoop Doggy Dogg release
"2 of Amerikaz most Wanted." In the video, caricatures
of Biggie and Puffy and punished for setting up Tupac.
June 4,
1996 : Death Row releases
Tupac's "Hit 'Em Up," a brutal diatribe against Biggie,
Bad Boy, Mobb Deep, and others.
September
4, 1996 : Tupac returns
to New York for the MTV music awards and gets into a scuffle.
September
7, 1996 : After leaving
the Mike Tyson-Bruce Seldon fight in Las Vegas in Suge Knight's
car, Shakur is shot four times in the chest by an assailant in a
white Cadillac. Knight, who has connections with the Bloods,
escapes with a minor injury. Shakur is rushed to University
Medical Center, where he undergoes surgery, including the removal
of his right lung.
September
11, 1996 : A Compton man
who police say is associated with the LA Crips is shot to death
while sitting in his car, the first in a series of gang releated
murders. Police begin investigating possible connections to Tupac's
shooting.
Friday,
September 13 1996 : After
six days in critical condition, Tupac Shakur is pronounced dead
at 4:03pm. His body is later cremated. He was only 25.