Russell's Life: A Chronology

Brief Chronology

1874 : born on the 18th of May at Ravenscroft in Trelleck, Monmouthshire, United Kingdom.
1876 : Death of mother and sister.
1878 : Russell’s father dies; Russell’s grandpa, Lord John Russell (the previous Prime Minister), and grandmother successfully overturn Russell’s father’s will in order to gain custody of Russell and his brother rather than raising them as free thinkers.
1883 : Russell’s grandfather passes; Lady Russell, Russell’s grandmother, manages Russell’s upbringing at Pembroke Lodge in London.
1893 : His brother Frank delivers him his first geometry lessons.
1894 : Enters Trinity College, Cambridge; meets Whitehead.
1895 : Awarded first-class BA in Mathematics.
1896 : Completes the Moral Sciences Tripos (Part II); appointed Honorary British Attaché in Paris; marries Alys Pearsall Smith.
1899 : University of Berlin research.
1899 : Appointed lecturer at the London School of Economics; also teaches at Johns Hopkins and Bryn Mawr in the United States.
1899 : Appointed lecturer at Trinity College, Cambridge.
1900 : At the initial Global Convention of Philosophy in Paris, he meets Peano.
1901 : Reappointed lecturer at Cambridge; discovers Russell’s paradox.
1902 : Corresponds with Frege.
1905 : Develops his theory of descriptions.
1907 : Runs for parliament and is defeated.
1908 : Elected Fellow of the Royal Society.
1910 : Because of his atheism, he does not receive the Liberal Party’s candidate for parliament; he is reappointed as a lecturer at Trinity College, Cambridge.
1911 : Meets Wittgenstein; becomes President of the Aristotelian Society; and divorces Alys.
1913 : Lectures à Paris’ École des Hautes Études Sociales.
1914 : Inspections Harvard University and teaches courses in logic and knowledge theory; meets T.S. Eliot.
1915 : Reappointed lecturer at Trinity College, Cambridge.
1916 : As a result of anti-war writings, he received a penalty of 100 pounds and expelled from Trinity College; he was denied a passport and so unable to talk at Harvard.
1918 : As a result of his anti-war writings, he was imprisoned for five months.
1920 : Visits Russia.
1921 : Divorce from Alys, marriage to Dora Black, and travels to China and Japan.
1922 : Runs for parliament and is defeated.
1923 : Runs for parliament and is defeated.
1924 : Lectures in the US.
1927 : Lectures in the United States; starts an experimental school in the United Kingdom with Dora.
1929 : Lectures in the US.
1931 : After his brother’s death, he becomes the third Earl Russell and gives lectures across the United States.
1935 : Divorce from Dora.
1936 : Marriage to Patricia (Peter) Helen Spence.
1938 : Appointed visiting professor of philosophy at Chicago.
1939 : Appointed as a philosophy professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.
1940 : Appointment to City College of New York abandoned before Russell’s arrival due to public protests and a legal judgment finding Russell “morally unfit” to teach at the college; delivers the William James Lectures at Harvard.
1941 : Appointed to the Barnes Foundation in Pennsylvania as a lecturer.
1942 : Dismissed from the Barnes Foundation, but wins wrongful dismissal action against the Foundation.
1944 : Reappointed a Fellow of Trinity College.
1948 : He and several passengers survive a plane accident while traveling to Norway by swimming in the water until aid arrives.
1949 : The Order of Merit was bestowed upon him, and he was made a Lifetime Fellow at Trinity College.
1950 : Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature; visits Australia.
1951 : Lectures in the US.
1952 : Marriage to Edith Finch after divorce from Patricia (Peter).
1955 : Releases Russell-Einstein Manifesto.
1957 : Elected President of the first Pugwash Conference.
1958 : Becomes the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s founding President.
1961 : In conjunction with anti-nuclear marches, he was imprisoned for one week.
1963 : Establishes the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation.
1967 : Launches the International War Crimes Tribunal.
1970 : Dies February 02 at Penrhyndeudraeth, Wales.