William Butler Yeats
13 June: William Butler Yeats born in Sandymount Ave., Dublin. (Father, John B. Yeats; Mother, Susan Pollexfen Yeats).
July: Yeats family moves to 23 Fitzroy Road, London.
July: Susan Yeats returns with WBY and her other children to Sligo. (Stays with her parents, William and Elizabeth Pollexfen, at Merville).
October: Yeats family returns to London. Settles at Edith Villas.
Spring: WBY enrolls at Godolphin School, Hammersmith, London.
Summer: Yeats family settles at Balscadden Cottage, Howth, near Dublin.
Fall: WBY attends Erasmus Smith High School, Dublin.
May: WBY enrolls at Metropolitan School of Art, Dublin.
April: First poems published in the Dublin University Review.
June: Founds Dublin Hermetic Society with AE and Charles Johnston.
April: Leaves Metropolitan School of Art.
April: Returns with family to London.
May: Visits Madame Blavatsky.
March: Yeats family moves to Bedford Park.
November: Joins the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society.
January: The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems published. Meets Maud Gonne.
January: Founds Rhymers' Club with Ernest Rhys.
March: Initiated into the Order of the Golden Dawn.
August: Proposes to Maud Gonne, but is refused.
October: Death of Charles Stewart Parnell, the uncrowned king of Ireland.
May: Irish Literary Society founded in London.
August: The Countess Kathleen published.
December: The Celtic Twilight published.
November: Stays with aristocratic Gore-Booth family at Lissadell in Sligo.
August: Poems published
February: Takes rooms at Woburn Buildings in London. Begins affair with Olivia Shakespear.
August: Meets Lady Gregory at Tulira Castle, Galway.
July: Stays at Coole Park. Discusses the foundation of the Irish Literary Theatre with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn, and George Moore.
December: WBY and Maud Gonne embark on a mystical marriage.
February: Visits Maud Gonne in Paris and proposes marriage.
April: The Wind Among the Reeds published.
May: The Countess Cathleen performed by the Irish Literary Theatre in Dublin.
October: Diarmuid and Grania produced in Dublin.
April: Cathleen Ni Houlihan, with Maud Gonne in the title role, produced by W. G. Fay.
The Pot of Broth produced by Irish National Theatre Society.
February: Maud Gonne marries John MacBride, a Boer War veteran.
November: Leaves for first U.S. Lecture Tour.
December: The Abbey Theatre opens with On Baile's Strand.
January: J. M. Synge's Playboy of the Western World opens at the Abbey.
September: First volumes of W. B. Yeats's Collected Works published.
September: Accompanies Abbey Theatre on tour of U.S.
October: Meets his future wife, Georgie Hyde-Lees.
November: Rents Stone Cottage in Sussex with Ezra Pound.
January: Leaves for U.S. Lecture Tour.
May: Hugh Lane, Lady Gregory's nephew, drowned on the S.S. Lusitania.
March: First volume of autibiography, Reveries over Childhood and Youth, published.
April: At the Hawk's Well, modeled on the Japanese Noh, produced in London.
April: Easter Rising in Dublin.
May: Execution of leaders of Easter Rising, among them John MacBride.
July: WBY visits Maud Gonne in Normandy. She again refuses his offer of marriage.
March: WBY buys Thoor Ballylee, a Norman tower near Coole Park in Galway.
August: Proposes marriage to Maud Gonne's daughter Iseult and is refused.
October: Marries Georgie Hyde-Lees.
November: The Wild Swans at Coole published.
January: Settles in Oxford.
Death of Lady Gregory's son, Major Robert Gregory, in action.
September: WBY moves into renovated Thoor Ballylee; rents Dublin home from Maud Gonne.
February: Birth of daughter Anne in Dublin.
June: Gives up London apartment at Woburn Buildings.
October: Civil unrest in Ireland.
January: Leaves with his wife for U.S. Lecture Tour.
Birth of Michael Yeats in Oxfordshire.
October: Four Plays for Dancers published.
December: Anglo-Irish Treaty signed in London.
January: Civil War in Ireland.
October: The Trembling of the Veil, second volume of autobiography, published.
December: WBY elected to the Irish Senate.
December: Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
January: First version of A Vision published.
February: Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars opens at Abbey Theatre. WBY challenges rioters from Abbey stage.
November: Winters in Algeciras. Ill with congestion of the lungs.
The Tower published.
September: WBY resigns from Irish Senate.
Summer: Last visit to Thoor Ballylee.
September: Makes first radio broadcast from BBC in Belfast.
July: Buys lease on last home, "Riversdale," Rathfarnham, near Dublin.
October: Starts on last American Lecture Tour to raise funds for Irish Academy of Letters.
July: Supports fascist Blueshirts in Dublin.
September: The Winding Stair and Other Poems published.
April: Undergoes Steinach operation for rejuvenation.
January: WBY's health deteriorates.
November: His controversial Oxford Book of Modern Verse published.
First production of Purgatory at Abbey Theatre. WBY makes final public appearance.
January: WBY dies at Cap Martin in the south of France. Buried nearby at Roquebrune.
WBY's remains re-interred in Drumcliff, Sligo.
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread lightly because you tread on my dreams.