Horcruxes are some of the most evil magic items created. They were originally invented by Herpo the Foul in ancient times. Tom Marvolo Riddle split his soul seven ways and created and hid a number of them in an effort to make himself immortal.

This timeline traces the people and events connected to the creation of all of those Horcruxes and the circumstances which led to their discovery and destruction:

Herpo the Foul, who is perhaps the original evil wizard in history, is the first to create a Horcrux successfully. He created only one horcrux; Voldemort was the first to split his soul multiple times. Read More
He is born in a Muggle orphanage to a witch mother, Merope Gaunt, and Muggle father, Tom Riddle. His mother Merope dies an hour later, living just long enough to name her son after his father, Tom, and her father, Marvolo Gaunt (HBP13). She is nineteen years old. The older… Read More
He first visits his uncle, Morfin Gaunt, and uses magic to steal Marvolo’s ring and frame Morfin for the murders of the Muggles in the Riddle house. Tom uses the murders to create his first Horcrux, the ring. The next day, Morfin is taken to Azkaban, where he remains until his… Read More
Myrtle Warren is being teased by Olive Hornby and flees into a second floor bathroom to sulk. She hears a male voice — that of Tom Riddle opening the Chamber of Secrets — and steps out to tell him off for being in the girls’ bathroom. Instead she comes face… Read More
c. 1944 – Tom Riddle, using his considerable charisma and charm, convinces the ghost of Ravenclaw House, Helena Ravenclaw, to reveal the secret hiding place of her mother’s long-lost diadem. Years later, she would confess to Harry that he seemed to understand her anguish and remorse (DH31). Read More
Tom Riddle had wheedled the location of the Horcrux from the Grey Lady while a student at Hogwarts. At some point after leaving school, he traveled to Albania, retrieved the diadem, and used the murder of an Albanian peasant to turn the diadem into a Horcrux (DH31). Read More
Ten years after the death of Hepzibah Smith, Voldemort returns to Hogwarts, ostensibly to ask Dumbledore for a teaching job. Dumbledore refuses. Voldemort then curses the Defence Against the Dark Arts position, and since that day, no professor has stayed for more than one year in that post. Voldemort’s… Read More
Voldemort attempts to kill Harry Potter after murdering his parents, but the spell rebounds onto Voldemort. Harry is left alive with a scar on his forehead that hides an accidental Horcrux made of Voldemort’s shattered soul. Voldemort, nearly dead and without physical form, retreats into the forests of Albania where… Read More
After finding an old diary in with her school books and assuming that it was something from her parents, Ginny starts to write in it, not thinking anything of it when the dairy starts writing back. Only realising something is wrong when she started to lose bit of her memory… Read More
Harry kills the Basilisk and uses its fang to destroy the diary, therefore destroying Riddle and saving Ginny’s life. Gilderoy Lockhart’s memory is destroyed when he attempts to Obliviate Ron and Harry and get out of the Chamber. Later that night, the Petrified people are restored using Mandrake Draught. Read More
She is missing for over a month at the time of the Quidditch World Cup of August 1994. Her Head of Department, Ludo Bagman, is too busy — and irresponsible — to send someone to look for her. Voldemort uses her murder to create a Horcux out of Nagini (BLC). Read More
Harry visits Hagrid with Slughorn, where the three hold a burial for Aragog. Slughorn and Hagrid drink to honor the deceased Acromantula, and when Hagrid falls asleep, Harry talks with Slughorn about his and Dumbledore’s efforts to reveal Voldemort’s past. Slughorn had refused to share his own… Read More
Just after midnight on the same evening that Aragog is buried, Harry returns to the entrance to Gryffindor Tower to find the Fat Lady asleep. After the burial, under the influence of a fair amount of alcohol and a rush of sad memories, Slughorn had given Harry… Read More
They leave Hogwarts on foot since it’s not possible to Apparate on Hogwarts grounds and walk through Hogsmeade. They greet Madam Rosmerta by the Three Broomsticks, then walk on to the Hog’s Head before Apparating away. Read More
Mundungus Fletcher admits to having stripped 12 Grimmauld Place of its valuables sometime after Albus Dumbledore’s death. While trying to sell them in Diagon Alley, Mundungus was approached by Dolores Umbridge, who asked to see his Ministry sales permit. Instead of landing him with a… Read More
The trio Disapparate from the infiltrated wedding at the Burrow to Tottenham Court Road. To calm down and figure out their next move the trio duck into an all-night café. However, because Hermione said ‘Voldemort’, enacting the Taboo for the first time, two undercover Death Eaters, Rowle… Read More
Kreacher tells Harry Potter the tale of how he was told to go with the Dark Lord by his master Regulus Black, and how he failed his master by not destroying the locket. Read More
Hermione frets about stealing the bread and eggs even though she left money to pay for the items in the chicken coop. Ron, with his mouth full of scrambled eggs on toast, tells her “‘Er—my—nee, ’oo worry ’oo much. ‘Elax!” (DH14)… Read More
On the run after escaping the Ministry, Harry, Ron and Hermione set up camp at the edge of a small town. Harry then takes his Invisibility Cloak and goes into the town in search of food. However, he does not get very far before he encounters dementors and discovers that… Read More
After rescuing Harry and the Sword of Gryffindor from the icy pool in the forest, Ron uses the Sword to destroy the locket horcrux. The horcrux doesn’t give up without a fight, however, and the visions Ron sees showing Hermione and Harry excluding him and being romantic nearly cause Ron… Read More
When the Room of Requirement is destroyed by the Fiendfyre spell cast by Crabbe, the Diadem of Ravenclaw is caught up in the inferno. Harry sees it tossed into the air as he speeds toward the door to escape and catches it. When he is outside of the room and… Read More
Harry faces Voldemort in the forest, unarmed and awaiting death. Harry is not a Horcrux, but he is harboring a piece of the Dark Lord’s soul. This piece is destroyed when Voldemort hurls the Killing Curse at Harry, thereby eliminating one more option for immortality for the Dark Lord. Read More
He pulls the sword out of the Sorting Hat, gives a mighty swing, and beheads the horcrux-snake (DH36). Read More