June 2, 1840:  Birth at Higher Bockhampton. Oldest of the 4 children of Thomas Hardy and Jemima (née Hand).

1848-1856: Schooling in Dorset.

1856: Hardy watches the hanging of Martha Browne for the murder of her husband (thought to be remembered in the death of Tess Durbeyfield on the gallows).

1856-1862: Apprenticed to John Hicks, Architect.

1862: Moves to London where he is employed as a draughtsman by architect Arthur Blomfield.

1867: Poor health forces Hardy’s return to Dorset working for Hicks on church restoration.

1868: Completes his first novel The Poor Man and the Lady; it is rejected for publication.

1869: Begins working for the architect R.G. Crickmay in Weymouth on church restoration.

1870: Meets Emma Lavinia Gifford.

1871: Desperate Remedies.

1872: Under the Greenwood Tree.

1873: A Pair of Blue Eyes (based on his meeting with Emma). Horace Moule commits suicide at Cambridge University.

1874: Far From the Madding Crowd.

Hardy marries Emma.

1876: The Hand of Ethelberta.

1878: The Return of the Native.

1881: The Trumpet-Major.

1881: A Laodicean. The Hardys return to Dorset.

1882: Two on a Tower.

1884: Hardy becomes a Justice of the Peace and serves as a magistrate in Dorchester.

1885: The Hardys move into Max Gate, designed by Hardy and built by his brother Henry, where they remain for the rest of their lives.

1886: The Mayor of Casterbridge.

1887: The Woodlanders. The Hardys begin their annual visits to London for ‘the Season’, and travel to Italy.

1888: Wessex Tales. The Hardys visit Paris.

1891: Tess of the d’Urbervilles. A Group of Noble Dames.

1892: Hardy’s father Thomas dies. The serial version of The Well-Beloved appears in the Illustrated London News, vastly different from the novel that would be published five years later.

1893: Hardy meets Florence Henniker, with whom he collaborates with on The Spectre of the Real (1894).

1894: Life’s Little Ironies.

1895: Jude the Obscure.

1895-6: Sixteen-volume edition of The Wessex Novels.

1897: The Well-Beloved.

1898: Wessex Poems and Other Verses.

1901: Poems of the Past and the Present (post-dated to 1902).

1904: Hardy’s mother Jemima dies. Part 1 of The Dynasts.

1905: Hardy meets Florence Dugdale, who would later become his second wife.

1906: Part 2 of The Dynasts.

1908: Part 3 of The Dynasts.

1909: Time’s Laughing Stocks and Other Verses.

1910: Hardy is appointed as a member of the Order of Merit (he previously refused a knighthood).

Receives the Freedom of the Borough of Dorchester.

November  27 1912:  Emma dies.

1912-13: 24 volume edition of novels and verse – the Wessex Edition.

1913: Poems of 1912-1913. A Changed Man and Other Tales.

1914: Satires of Circumstance. The Dynasts: Prologue and Epilogue. Hardy marries Florence Dugdale.

1915: Hardy’s sister Mary dies.

1916: Selected Poems.

1917: Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses.

1919-20: 37-volume edition of novels and verse: the Mellstock Edition.

1922: Late Lyrics and Earlier with Many Other Verses.

1923: The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall. Florence Henniker dies. Edward VIII visits Max Gate.

1924: Dramatized version of Tess is first performed.

1925: Human Shows, Far Phantasies, Songs and Trifles.

11 January 1928:  Hardy dies. His heart is buried with Emma in Stinsford. His ashes are buried at Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey.

1928-30: Hardy’s autobiography completed by his second wife Florence Hardy.

1937: Hardy’s second wife Florence dies.