World Timeline

There have been several upon several mysteries in One Piece. Some left unanswered, some answered. Some we scratch our heads about every day, some we don't think of often. But one subject that's always been on my mind is finally getting the gateway opened, and it's all thanks to the Vivre Card databook. The snowmen Luffy and Usopp built were given the birthdays February 18th. "Hold on, are you saying this is a big deal ironically?" NO!!! HAHA!!

Let me explain why. Do you see?? They built those snow men on their way to Whiskey Peak, and Reverse Mountain and Whiskey Peak (Chapter 106) happened on the same day, so those arcs occurred specifically February 18th, 1522!!! We've never known what date an arc occurs outside of the year, this is probably because Oda doesn't want to accidentally make more arcs than what could possibly happen within that period of time. (Some people still can't believe that everything pre-timeskip was 1522 but I explained why that was perfectly plausible in a previous ramble).

Well, what other arcs can we make an educated guess on dates as a result of this? Well, the morning after Whiskey Peak they immediately leave for Little Garden. Usually, it would be indeterminable how many days the voyage took. However, as they get near Little Garden, Usopp and Sanji are informed of what happened while they were asleep, so it's safe to assume the voyage only took one day, making Little Garden February 19th. (Chapter 115)

It also would be hard to determine how many days were between Little Garden and Drum Island. However, we can see from Dr. Kureha's analysis of Nami that it's only been 3 days since Little Garden. (Chapter 139) And the Drum Island arc took one day so that was all on February 22nd, 1522. It gets even better. The crew gets to Alabasta 5 days later so that starts February 27th. (Chapter 156) Nighttime falls once before the Utopia clock is set. (Chapter 161)

Now I hear you say "Wait! Here nighttime falls a second time!" (Chapter 162) Wrong. Earlier the narrator set the clock back a few hours. So we simply watched it go to night twice on the same day. (Chapter 161) The next day on the 28th they say the operation will begin tomorrow morning at 7. Since 1522 was not a leap year, that means March 1st. (Chapter 165) And as we all remember, when Luffy put a stop to that operation that very same day, he fell asleep for 3 days, making it March 4th. (Chapter 213) After that, night fell once and they said they'd leave tomorrow morning, making it March 5th. (Chapter 214)

When Robin reveals herself, everyone is in the same clothes, so it has to still be March 5th. (Chapter 217) Now they do change clothes mid-scene, but as you can see, Usopp was still interviewing Robin, so it couldn't have suddenly skipped to a new day. In this same scene the boat falls, so Jaya must happen March 5th. (Chapter 218) Nightfall only passes once so whenever they shoot up to Skypiea the next morning it's March 6th. (Chapter 229) After they split up and then meet back together and go camping with wolves, nightfall passes and it's March 7th. (Chapter 254)

Here one might be inclined to claim nightfall occurs again, but do not be mistaken; it is simply a storm Eneru is causing. Just to confirm this, it immediately becomes daylight when Luffy destroys his thunderstorm. (Chapter 297) After defeating Eneru, nightfall passes once more and they leave on March 8th. (Chapter 300) Now if you watch the anime, you might feel inclined to say nightfall occurs again, however the colored manga debunks the idea that Doflamingo confronting Bellamy occured at night. (Chapter 303) After this, there is a scene where Nami talks about the treasure and they eat dinner and stuff. However, the next chapter is about a sea monkey tsunami and it's sadly impossible to confirm how long they were at sea. (Chapter 302, 303)

We could assume it was one day, but we don't see the sea monkey tsunami in the same sequence we see them land and eat dinner, so there's room for possibility that 1, 2, hell even 20 nights occured before reaching Long Ring Long Land. Thanks Long Ring Long Land, you ruined everything. So now that the road ends here we should work backwards. Sadly, we can't work backwards either. There was a storm as they left Loguetown, and it can't be confirmed if night passed during this time. (Chapter 100)

Sure, it's daytime before and after the storm, but we don't know how long the storm went on for because after this page the next chapter cuts to a new scene and, again, it could've been 1, 2, 30 days. (Chapter 101) However, I do have one final hoorah. You see, Sabo, Ace, and Luffy all planned to set sail when they were 17. We can guess Ace left on his birthday (January 1st), but with Luffy it's unclear if he left exactly 3 years later or on his own 17th birthday. Now some translations make it sound like Luffy left when he turned 17 (So May 5th), but honestly that fan translation can't be any more trusted than Viz can, and I don't speak Japanese myself so I can't interpret what the narrator said exactly. (Chapter 589)

However, because of what we just learned, we know Luffy can't have possibly left on his birthday because if he left May 5th 1522, Whiskey Peak couldn't possibly have happened February 18th, 1522. It's also entirely possible that he didn't leave on his or Ace's birthday, and just planned to leave that general year when he felt most ready. So in conclusion Luffy set out to sea on January 1st, 1522 but that's a hard maybe, it could have been anywhere between then and February 18th. Now sadly, after Chapter 2, Luffy voyages with Coby for an indefinite amount of time, so we can't even fill in the dates for the remainder of Romance Dawn, much less the rest of East Blue. (Chapter 3) The buck truly starts here.

But to recap, here are canonical dates of arcs we can conclude thanks to Oda giving a goddamn snowman a birthday.

East Blue Saga ~January 1st, 1522 — February 17th, 1522~

Romance Dawn ~January 1st, 1522 — ???~

Alabasta Saga -February 18th, 1522 — March 5th, 1522-

Reverse Mountain -February 18th, 1522

Whiskey Peak -February 18th, 1522

Little Garden -February 19th, 1522

Drum Island -February 22nd, 1522

Alabasta -February 27th, 1522 — March 5th, 1522-

Sky Island Saga -March 5th, 1522 — March 8th, 1522-

Jaya -March 5th, 1522 — March 6th, 1522-

Skypiea -March 6th, 1522 — March 8th, 1522-

Water 7 Saga ~March 8th, 1522 — ???~

Long Ring Long Land ~March 8th, 1522 — ???~

I tried my best to keep this well-researched but feel free to fact check me. I'm pretty excited I've always wanted to know this stuff.