| Timeline |
| 1809 |
Born 29 August at Cambridge, Mass |
| 1819 |
Attends a school in Cambridgeport |
| 1829 |
Graduates at Harvard University |
| 1830 |
"Old Ironsides" written |
| 1833 |
Travels to Europe, studies in Paris until 1835 |
| 1836 |
Takes degree as doctor of medicine at Cambridge |
| 1838 |
Appointed to the chair of Anatomy and Physiology in Dartmouth College |
| 1839 |
Marries Amelia Lee Jackson |
| 1841 |
Son, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. born |
| 1847 |
Appointed chair at Harvard (professor of anatomy and physiology) |
| 1857 |
Begins to contribute to the Atlantic Monthly |
| 1858 |
The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table published |
| 1860 |
The Professor of the Breakfast Table published |
| 1861 |
Elsie Venner published |
| 1862 |
Songs in Many Keys published |
| 1872 |
Mechanism in Thought and Morals published |
| 1872 |
The Poet of the Breakfast Table published |
| 1875 |
Songs of Many Seasons published |
| 1880 |
The Iron Gate, and Other Poems published |
| 1881 |
Poetical Works published |
| 1883 |
Pages from an Old Volume of Life published |
| 1885 |
Biography Ralph Waldo Emerson published |
| 1887 |
Before the Curfew and Other Poems published |
| 1888 |
Wife dies |
| 1891 |
Over the Teacups published |
| 1894 |
Dies 7 October |
