October 18, 1813 – Death of Prince Józef Poniatowski in the Battle of the Nations at Leipzig. Polish hopes in Napoleon are shattered.
June 1, 1814 – Mikolaj Chopin is appointed lecturer of French literature and language at the Warsaw Lyceum
June 20, 1815 – Proclamation in Warsaw of the Polish Kingdom. Tsar Alexander I becomes King of Poland.
1815-1816 – Music permeates the Chopin household: Mikolaj plays violin or flute, while Mme Chopin plays the piano and sang. According to Izabela, her brother ‘soon began to display a sensitivity to musical impressions by crying’.
1816 – Six-year-old Fryderyk begins regular lessons under Wojciech Zywny, formerly a teacher at the family boarding house. Chopin never has another piano teacher.
March, 1817 - The Chopin family moves, with the Warsaw Lyceum, to the Kazimierz Palace. Chopin’s first compositions: polonaises, military marches and variations.
November, 1817 - Polonaise in G Minor is published.
1819 - As a child prodigy, begins to perform in the homes of nobility and aristocracy.
December 6, 1824 - In Warsaw, he writes and stages a short comedy with his sister Emilia. Founds the children’s ‘Literackie Towarzystwo Rozrywki’ [Literary Entertainment Society]. During this time, composes a number of waltzes, mazurkas, and polonaises.
Spring, 1827 – Emilia’s health shows a steady decline.
April 10, 1827 - Emilia Chopin dies of consumption. At the Powanzki cemetery, her gravestone reads: ‘perished in the fourteenth spring of her life, like a flower in which blossomed the beautiful promise of fruit’.
April 21, 1829 - At a concert, Chopin meets Konstancja Gladkowska, his ‘first love’.
1830 - Active part in artistic life of Warsaw. Composes waltzes, mazurkas, and écossaises.
November 29, 1830 - Insurrection breaks out in Warsaw. Chopin writes to his parents of ‘a burning desire to return to Poland’.
January 25, 1831 – The Tsar dethroned in Warsaw.
September 8, 1831 – The capture of Warsaw and the downfall of the November Rising.
September 11, 1831 – Arrives in Paris.
February 26, 1832 – His own first concert in Paris, in the Salle Pleyel, as one of thirteen performers. The audience includes the musical elite of Paris, including Franz Liszt.
March, 1832 – Begins to work as a private piano teacher.
April 13, 1833 – Mikolaj Chopin writes to his son: ‘… in spite of your talent and the flattery which they lavish on you – it is hot air, they will not help you in times of need. Should, God forbid, some indisposition or illness force you to break off your lessons, you will be threatened with poverty in exile.”
June 20, 1833 – Chopin’s friendships, including those with fellow composers, become more intimate. Although he is at times critical of their music, he dedicates some of his own compositions to them (“a mon ami F. Liszt”).
Winter, 1835-1836 – Seriously ill. Writes a will.
September 9, 1836 – Asks for the hand of seventeen-year-old Maria Wodzinska, and is accepted, on condition that he takes care of his health. During their secret engagement, Chopin writes what would become the first two Etudes of Op. 25 in his fiancé’s album.
October, 1836 - At a soirée at the residence of Countess Marie d’Agoult, meets 32-year-old George Sand for the first time. Writes “What an unpleasant woman!”
April 3, 1837 – In a letter to Countess Marie d’Agoult, Sand writes: ‘Tell Chopin that I idolize him’.
May, 1838 – In a now-famous 32-page letter to Chopin’s close friend Wojciech Grzymala, Sand writes: ‘I ask not if he loves or is loved, if he loves her more or less than me…I want to know which of us he should forget or abandon in order to preserve his peace, his happiness, his life, indeed, which appears to be too frail and faint to be exposed to great suffering.’
December 14, 1838 – Sand to Marliani: ‘Our family ties are becoming even closer, and we hug each other with ever-increasing feeling and trustful happiness’.
February 11, 1839 –Sand, her children, and a seriously-ill Chopin leave Valldemossa, for Majorca.
June-November 1841 – Spends summer and fall at Nohant. Composes seven new opuses (Nos. 43-49).
July 30, 1842 – Spends ten days in Paris with Sand, choosing a new apartment. They decide on a complex of houses; Sand would live at no. 5, Chopin at no. 9.
May 3, 1844 – Mikolaj Chopin dies in Warsaw.
March 5, 1845 – Chopin stops giving lessons due to ‘asthma’.
November, 1846 – Returns from Nohant to Paris.
Summer, 1848 – Chopin’s pessimism grows: ‘I am no longer capable of sadness or joy – I have used up my feelings completely – I only vegetate and wait for it to end more quickly’. And in a letter to Grzymala, he writes "I feel alone, alone, alone, although surrounded by people.”
October 17, 1849 - Shortly after midnight, Fryderyk Chopin dies. His last words were reportedly: ‘Matka, moja biedna matka’ [‘Mother, my poor mother’].
October 30, 1849 – Thousands attend funeral in Church of the Madeleine. Music performed during the services included Preludes in E Minor and B flat, Mozart’s Requiem, and the Funeral March from the B-Flat Minor Sonata. Although Chopin is buried in the Pere-Lachaise cemetery, his heart rests in the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw.
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