Timeline of Rabindranath Tagore
1861----> Rabindranath Tagore born May 7 at Jorasanko, Calcutta; fourteenth child of Debendranath Tagore and Sarada Devi.
1866----> Begins learning Bengali alphabet.
1868----> Admitted to Oriental Seminary, then to Normal School.
1869----> First attempt at versification.
1871----> Admitted to Bengal Academy; begins truancy from school
1872----> First acquaintance with rural Bengal.
1873----> First visit to Santiniketan; tours North India; spends three months with his father in Himalayas; returns to Bengal Academy, which he leaves at end of year.
1874----> Home tutoring until admission to St. Xavier's School.
1875----> First public appearance, reciting patriotic poem at Hindu Mela (Fair): first poem published; leaves St. Xavier's School at end of year.
1876----> Publishes first literary criticism; first visit to Shelaidaha.
1877----> First stage appearance, in comedy based on Molière's Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, by brother Jyotirindranath; contributes poems, including Bhanusingherpadavali (Songs of Bhanusingha), to journal Bharati, founded by brother Dwijendranath
1878----> Studies English with brother Satyendranath in Ahmedabad; composes first musical settings for his own poems; goes to England with Satyendranath; attends school at Brighton.
1879----> Admitted to University College, London, and studies English literature under Henry Morley, contributes Iurope Prabāshir Patra (Letters of a Traveler in Europe) to Bhārati; begins first verse drama.
1880----> Returns to India (February) without completing studies.
1881----> Composes first devotional songs; first musical play, Valmiki-Pratibha (The Genius of Valmiki), in which he has title role; first polemical writing, on England's opium trade in China; first public lecture; sails for England but turns back at Madras.
1882----> Publishes Sandhya Sangit (Evening Songs).
1883----> Publishes Prabhât Sangit (Morning Songs); marries Mrinalini Devi, of Jessore.
1884----> Writes first prose drama, Nalini.
1885----> Publishes Rabichchāyā (Sunlight and Shade), first song collection.
1888----> Publishes Samalochana (Discussions), first collection of his essays in literary criticism.
1889----> Writes Rajā o Rāni (King and Queen), first five-act drama.
1890----> Takes charge of Tagore estates in East Bengal; second visit to England (August-November).
1891----> First short stories published: launches monthly, Sadhana.
1894----> Becomes editor of Sädhanā; publishes Sonar Tori (The Golden Boat).
1897----> Tries in vain to have Bengal Provincial Conference con ducted in Bengali; returns to Calcutta.
1898----> Becomes editor of Bhārati.
1900----> Publishes Kshanika (Ephemera).
1901----> Revives the monthly, Bangadarshan, which he edits until 1906; moves family from Shelaidaha to Santiniketan and opens school there, publishes Näibedya (Offerings).
1902----> Severe financial crisis for the school; death of his wife.
1905----> Death of father, Debendranath Tagore; Rabindranath leads public protests against Bengal Partition Order.
1907----> Withdraws from active politics and concentrates on edu cational work; death of son Somendranath; Rabindranath retires to Shelaidaha.
1908----> Presidential Address in Bengali sets new precedent at annual Bengal Provincial Conference.
1909----> Son Rathindranath returns from agricultural studies at University of Illinois.
1910----> Publishes Bengali Gitanjali; in London, William Rothen stein initiates organization of India Society, then leaves for India.
1911----> Rothenstein visits Calcutta, meets Rabindranath through artist nephews Abanindranath and Gaganendranath.
1912----> Jubilee observed January 12 by large public reception in Calcutta; departure for England on March 19 postponed by illness; recuperates at Shelaidaha and begins translating selected lyrics into English; sails May 27, with Rathindranath and wife Pratima, reaching England June 2; honored by India Society dinner on July 10, Rothenstein, with A. H. Fox Strangways and T. W. Rolleston, arranges for India Society to publish private edition of translated poems as Gitanjali: Song-Offerings, with Introduction by W. B. Yeats. Rabindranath, with Rathi and Pratima, leaves for Illinois October 19; Gitanjali published in November; first serial publication of poems in America, in Poetry (Chicago); Rothenstein proposes to George Macmillan a trade edition of Gitanjali.
1913----> Visits and lectures in Chicago, Rochester (New York), Boston; departs for England April 12, for India September 7; Macmillan publishes Gitanjali in November, University of Calcutta confers degree of Doctor of Letters at a convocation December 26. Receives the Nobel Prize for Literature.
1914----> C. F. Andrews joins Santiniketan staff.
1915----> Gandhi arrives from South Africa, goes to Santiniketan; Rabindranath is knighted.
1916----> Publishes Balākā (A Flight of Cranes).
1917----> Traveling via Japan, lectures in United States, but breaks lecture contract because of exhaustion; returns to India via Japan, arriving March 17.
1918----> On December 22, lays foundation-stone for Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan.
1919----> Resigns knighthood May 30, to protest Amritsar Massacre; nucleus of Visva-Bharati faculty formed, with opening of Department for Advanced Studies in Indology.
1920----> Lectures in England, America, and on Continent to raise funds for Visva-Bharati; American reception disappointing.
1921----> Returns to England March 24, has disappointing reception there and goes to Continent to lecture; asks, then rejects, Rothenstein's aid in organizing English advisory committee for Visva-Bharati, thus causing serious break in their friendship.
1922----> Initiates Sriniketan, rural reconstruction center, with Leonard Elmhirst as Director; resumes friendship with Rothenstein; lectures in Ceylon.
1924----> Visits China, but cancels lectures because of illness; goes to Japan; starts October 18 for Peru with Elmhirst to attend Centenary of Peruvian independence; visit is abandoned when he falls ill in Argentina, where he stays as guest of Victoria Ocampo.
1925----> Sails January 4 from Buenos Aires to Genoa; Italian lecture engagements cut short by illness; returns to India.
1926----> Leaves May 12 for Italy and is welcomed by Mussolini, whom he meets on May 31 and June 13; goes to Switzerland, where Romain Rolland points out propaganda misuse of Tagore's visit; Tagore issues disclaimer through Manchester Guardian; visits England briefly; goes to Continent but gives up visits to Poland and Russia because of illness; returns to India via Egypt.
1927----> Tours Southeast Asia (July-October).
1928---->Visits Ceylon in May, hoping to continue to England, but abandons plan because of illness.
1929----> Goes to Canada, at invitation of Canadian National Council of Education, via China and Japan; plans to lecture in United States universities but is refused entry at Los Angeles because of the loss of his passport; leaves because of discriminatory treatment by United States officials; returns to India via Japan and Southeast Asia.
1930----> Begins painting as hobby and pursues it with increasing seriousness; goes to Oxford to deliver Hibbert Lectures, postponed from 1928, published as The Religion of Man (1931); has exhibitions of paintings in Germany and England; visits Russia and the Continent (September); leaves October 3 for the United States.
1931----> Returns to India via England; The Golden Book of Tagore compiled as birthday tribute.
1932----> Visits Persia, invited by the Shah; accepts University Chair of Bengali at Calcutta University; publishes Parisesh (The End) and Punascha (Postscript).
1934----> Third visit to Ceylon (May-June).
1938----> Publishes Prāntik (The Borderland).
Source:
Rabindranath Tagore by Lago, Mary 1976