For the twenty-fifth anniversary observance of CSICOP (now CSI) and the Skeptical Inquirer in 2001, we published “A CSICOP Timeline: A Capsule History in 85 Easy Steps” in our May/June 2001 issue. You can find it on our website at http://www.csicop.org/si/show/csicop_timeline. The timeline covered a series of highlights, among them our founding at SUNY Buffalo April 30–May 1, 1976, and publication of the first issue of SI (initially called The Zetetic) that fall; news in 1978 that CSICOP was generating “tremendous enthusiasm” among scientists, scholars, media, and the public; the start of construction of a new building, the Center for Inquiry, in Amherst, New York, in 1990; court sanctions imposed against Uri Geller in 1992 for prosecuting a “frivolous” case against CSICOP; CSICOP’s campaign calling for newspaper astrology-column disclaimers; various announced expansions of our mission; adding the subtitle “The Magazine for Science and Reason” to the Skeptical Inquirer in 1994; our increase from a quarterly to bimonthly publication and from digest-size to magazine-page size in 1995; asteroids Skepticus 6630 and Kurtz 6629 named for CSICOP and its founder Paul Kurtz in 1996; cover stories on CSICOP investigative delegations to China in 1988 and 1996; SI’s first “Science & Religion” issue in 1999; our January/February 2000 cover story on ten outstanding skeptics of the twentieth century; and reports on our many CSICOP conferences over the years, national and international.
Here now, in observance of our fortieth anniversary, is an update of that timeline adding key events over the most recent fifteen years.
2001