* 1856 – April 5 – Booker T. Washington is born a slave on the Burroughs’ Plantation.
* 1861 – April – The Civil War begins. 1861 – Washington’s name appears on Burroughs’ property inventory. His value is $400.00.
* 1865 – The Civil War ends, and Washington becomes one of the four million slaves to be emancipated. During the fall, Washington sets out for Malden, WV with his mother (Jane), and two siblings (brother, John and sister, Amanda) to start a new life with stepfather, Washington Ferguson.
* 1865 – 1871 – Washington works in the salt furnaces and coal mines in Malden while attending school, for the first time, in the evenings. works in Ruffner home and learns to read with Mrs. Viola Ruffner and by attending William Davis' School in afternoons.
* 1872 – Washington leaves his home to attend the Hampton Institute.
* 1875 – Washington graduates from the Hampton Institute with honors.
* 1875 – 1877 – Washington teaches school, in his hometown of Malden, WV, while helping his brothers (John, and adopted brother James) pay their tuition for the Hampton Institute.
* 1878 – Washington spends 18 months studying in Washington D.C. at the Wayland Seminary School.
* 1879 – 1881 – Washington teaches at the Hampton Institute, while being dorm father to 50 Native American students.
* 1881 – May – When asked for a teacher to head a school in Tuskegee, Alabama, General Armstrong recommends Washington for the job.
* 1881 – July 4 – At age 25, Washington opens the Tuskegee Institute in an old church.
* 1882 – The first building of the Tuskegee Institute is built by the students with bricks they made themselves.
* 1882 – Washington marries his home-town sweetheart, from Malden, WV, Fannie Norton Smith.
* 1883 – Fannie Washington gives birth to Washington’s first child, Portia Washington.
* 1884 – Fannie Washington dies, possibly from injuries suffered in a fall from a wagon.
* 1885 – Washington marries his colleague, a teacher and Lady Principal at The Tuskegee Institute, Olivia America Davidson.
* 1887 – Olivia Washington gives birth to Washington’s first son, Booker T. Washington Jr.
* 1889 – Olivia Washington gives birth to Washington’s second son, Ernest Davidson Washington.
* 1889 – May 9 – Olivia Washington dies from injuries she suffered during a fire that broke out in the Washington home.
* 1893 – Washington marries Margaret James Murray who had been Lady Principal of Tuskegee Institute for two years.
* 1895 – September 18 – Washington delivers The Atlanta Address at the Cotton States and International Exposition, urging citizens of both races to work together toward social peace.
* 1896 – June 24 – Washington is presented with an honorary degree from Harvard University.
* 1899 – ‘The Oaks,’ Washington’s Tuskegee residence, is built by the school’s students and faculty with materials produced on campus.
* 1900 –
The Story of My Life and Work, Washington’s first autobiography, is published.
* 1900 – Washington founds the National Negro Business League an idea appropriated by W.E.B. Du Bois.
* 1901 – March – Washington’s most successful autobiography,
Up from Slavery, is published.
* 1901 – July 16 – Controversy arises after Washington dines at the White House while consulting President Theodore Roosevelt about political appointments in the South.
* 1915 – March – Washington sponsors National Negro Health Week, which was designed to bring money and energies to bear on issues of sanitation, hygiene, and disease prevention among the poor.
* 1915 – November 14 – Washington dies at home in Tuskegee, Alabama.
