https://www.polygon.com/2019/3/10/1...eract-timeline-avengers-origin-infinity-stone
At some point in the history of the MCU, Asgard king Odin (also Thor’s father) gains possession of the Tesseract. Sometime after that, Odin hides the Tesseract on Earth — specifically in Norway.
Though not the first on-screen appearance —
Thor’s post-credits scene preceded it by a few months — the Tesseract became a major plot device in 2011’s
Captain America: The First Avenger. The movie opens when a group of Nazis / HYDRA soldiers led by Johann Schmidt (aka Red Skull) track the Tesseract to a church in Norway. Schmidt, whose knowledge of its existence seems to come from mythology, then takes the Tesseract and, along with co-conspirator Armin Zola, develop weapons that harness Tesseract’s energy.
Ultimately, Steve Rogers (aka Captain America) foiled those plans when he infiltrated an aircraft packed with the Red Skull, the Tesseract, and several nuclear bombs. In the end, Red Skull tries to physically hold the Cosmic Cube, which — as we learn in
Avengers: Infinity War — teleports him through space to the planet Vormir, where Thanos eventually sacrifices Gamora.
Post-wormhole, the Tesseract burns through the aircraft and falls into ocean, where it is later retrieved by Howard Stark (aka Iron Man’s dad, one of the many important dads in the MCU) while searching for Rogers. At some point, between then and 1989, the Tesseract finds itself at Project PEGASUS, a joint effort by NASA and the US Air Force to study the Tesseract. We’ll have to wait until the next Marvel prequel to know what happened to the Tesseract during the 45-year gap in MCU history
