| 1882-1946 | Shri Sanatan Dharma Sabha is founded in 1882 at Rawalpindi. Among numerous other activities, it successfully runs a degree college, a high school, two middle schools and four primary schools. |
| 1947-52 | After partition, many members of the Sabha settle in Delhi. In 1952, the Sabha gets registered at Delhi and associated philanthropists begin working towards locally rehabilitating their most efficiently run institutions left behind in Pakistan. |
| 1958 | Sabha conceives the idea of reopening their degree college of Rawalpindi at Delhi. |
| 1959 | On 12th of July, the Hon’ble Vice Chancellor Prof. V.K.R.V. Rao, grants permission to open a College as a Constituent College of the University of Delhi in a rented building at Anand Parbat area. Shri F.C. Mehra takes charge as the Chairman of the College Governing Body and Dr. R.N. Rai, a reputed physicist, becomes the first Principal. On August 3rd , Sanatan Dharma College is inaugurated. On 6th of December, foundation stone of the new building is laid by Pandit G.B. Pant. |
| 1960-61 | Honours course in Hindi is started and another new course Hindi (Elective) is launched. Permission is received for starting Honours courses in English, Maths and Economics and also B.Sc. NCC is started and 3 scholarships are started for meritorious students from poor background. |
| 1962-64 | Shri B.N. Paruthi takes over as the Principal. Department of Health, Physical Education, Games and Sports comes into existence and a regularly constituted Sports Board of the College is established. |
| 1965 | In July—after operating out of its temporary campus at Anand Parbat for over five years—the College shifts to its current campus at Dhaula Kuan, with which annual athletic meet finally begins to be held inside College premises. |
| 1966 | In March, Shri C.L. Suri, the Head of the Department of Political Science of Kirori Mal College, takes over as the Principal. |
| 1968 | In May, Shri Sanatan Dharma Sabha, agrees to change the existing name of the College from Sanatan Dharma College to Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, New Delhi and on 27th of May, Shri Atma Ram Chadha is elected as the Chairman of the College Governing Body. In September, Mool Chand Sharma becomes the President of first Students’ Union, inaugurated by Shri I.K. Gujral. |
| 1969 | Honours course in History is introduced. |
| 1970 | Hon’ble Member of Parliament, Chandra Shekhar inaugurates the Students’ Union. Inauguration of College Mountaineering Association. Constitution of College Sports Board changed to now include in addition to four captains of major games, one girls’ and one Students’ Union representative. |
| 1973 | College staff cricket team under the leadership of Vimal Dhawan wins first inter-college staff cricket tournament of the University. |
| 1974 | Wrestler Jagminder represents country at 7th Asiad games at Tehran. Bengali Cultural Society is founded. |
| 1975 | Principal C.L. Suri retires in February. In July, Dr. Rajkumar Kaushik of the Dept. of English, Delhi College, takes over as the Principal. Shri Shankar Dayal Sharma and Shri P.V. Narsimha Rao come to inaugurate the new Students’ Union and deliver a lecture respectively. NSS gets a student Executive Body. |
| 1976 | First Lady Begum Abida Ahmed inaugurates the Students’ Union. In pursuance of the Prime Minister’s 20-point economic programme, vocational guidance and training scheme is launched by Principal Kaushik. Formation of a Junior Red Cross wing in the College. |
| 1977 | The College gets a Seminar Room and a DTC concession pass counter. Play Chandramukhi is staged at Sri Ram Centre to raise funds for cyclone hit people of the South; NSS raises an additional Rs. 1,500 and 160 units of blood. |
| 1983-85 | Recipient of Young Chemist Award, Dr. Ashok Kumar Bakhshi of the Department of Chemistry is selected as a member of the 3rd Indian expedition to Antarctica. In 1984, the Students’ Union gets its first elected female member. Acknowledging their tireless service in various relief camps during anti-Sikh violence, Delhi administration gives cash incentive to 2 students of the College. University also selects 3 students for Best Volunteership Award. |
| 1987 | Chairman, College Governing Body, Shri Atma Ram Chadha passes away. His biography by Promila Mehra Fault is Mine is published. Shri C.M. Chadha is the new Chairman. |
| 1991 | Dr. B.L. Arora, a Ph.D. in Physics from Georgia University, USA, takes over as the (Officiating) Principal and continues until 2001 in the same position. Dr. Jagdish Bharadwaj ‘Samrat’ Memorial Lecture and Dr. Kaushlesh Bharadwaj Memorial Lecture get started. |
| 1992-93 | Three-day cultural festival Tide is held in College premises for the first time. The College gets a permanent stage and a sports complex is inaugurated by the Governing Body Chairman, Shri C.M. Chadha. |
| 1993-94 | A record 503 students enrol for NSS. Staff Council introduces home exam system. |
| 1994-95 | Home exam is made compulsory. Cultural Society starts a new wing of foreign students of the College. |
| 1996 | College gets a United Nations Students’ Association. MA courses in Hindi, English and Political Science get started. |
| 1997 | Hindi Academy gives a special prize to College magazine. Computer Science course is started. |
| 2001-02 | Dr. B.L. Arora takes over as the Permanent Principal. |
| 2002-03 | Alumnus Rajesh Chugh becomes the first Asian Senator in New Jersey, USA. As the only amateur selected by Indian Mountaineering Association, SUO Meena Rai, successfully climbs the 22,000 ft. Sudarshan Peak and also gets selected for Indo-Nepal girls’ expedition to Mt. Everest. |
| 2003-04 | Founders’ Day is celebrated for the first time. Dramatics Society Rangayan is founded. |
| 2005-06 | Rangayan gets an independent existence. Biology laboratory is inaugurated. |
| 2006-07 | College organizes an inter-college street play competition for the first time. |
| 2007-08 | Girls occupy the posts of vice-president, secretary and jointsecretary in the Students’ Union. In December 2007, long serving Principal, Dr. B.L. Arora retires. In 2008, Placement Cell and Equal Opportunity Cell are started. – |
| 2009 | College celebrates its Golden Jubilee and also holds its first annual Alumni Meet. |
| 2010 | Addition of a separate Commerce Department block |
| 2012 | College website gets an upgrade. Major plans afoot to streamline stalled projects and take up new ones. |
| 2013 | In March, alumnus of SRCC Shri Pawan Jaggi takes over as the College Governing Body Chairman and in November, Dr. Gyantosh Kumar Jha of the Department of Hindi of the College, joins his duties as the Permanent Principal. |
| 2014-15 | The College is awarded Star College status (DBT, GOI). The University of Delhi sanctions a grant of Rs. 1.95 crore under its Star Innovation Project Scheme. College fast-tracks its Mega Infrastructural Expansion Plan. Alumnus Rajkummar Rao is awarded the National Film Award for Best Actor for his lead role in the biopic Shahid. The Dramatics society of the College, Rangayan becomes perhaps the first in the University to organize a three-day theatre festival |
| 2016 | The quality status score is given by the National Accredition and Assessment Council (NAAC), an autonomous body of University Grants Commission (UGC). ARSD bagged the grade ‘A’ in 2016 with a score of 3.11. |
| 2017 | The college was ranked 5th in India and 3rd in the University of Delhi under the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), MHRD, Govt of India. 500 colleges participated in the survey. |
| 2018 | The college was ranked 14th in India and 8th in the University of Delhi under the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), MHRD, Govt of India. This time the number of participating educational institutions were more than 3000. |
| As per the recent India Today ranking of Arts , Science and Commerce colleges in India, The college was ranked 12th among 100 Science colleges of the country and 11th among Commerce colleges in India, while 6th best college for Commerce among University of Delhi and 15th for Arts courses in India and bagged 8th position among University of Delhi. |