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1844 October 15
I was born at Röcken in the outskirts of Lützen, Province of Saxony to Franziska Nietzsche and Carl Ludwig Nietzsche, a Lutheran minister/pastor. My father named me after King Friedrich William IV of Prussia.


1849 July 30
My father died at the age of 36 from a brain tumor. I was nearly five-years-old at the time of his death. I would have to search for a surrogate father.


1864 October 16
I enrolled as a student of theology and philology at the University of Bonn.


1865 October 17
In Rohm's second-hand bookstore, near the University of Leipzig, I discovered for the first time the works of Schopenhauer.


1868 November 8
Near the University of Leipzig, I met and befriended Richard Wagner.


1869 February
I was appointed professor of classical philology at the University of Basel. I would accept this position of May 28.


1870 March
I became a tenured professor at the University of Basel.

1872 January 2
I published my first book, The Birth of Tragedy. I was 28-years-old at the time.


1876 May 19
I requested a leave of absence from University of Basel (granted June 2, 1876).


1877 October 17
I requested an extension of leave of absence from the University of Basel. During these years, I wrote all my most important books, living in lodgings and hotel rooms mainly in Switzerland and Italy. Although I liked and needed solitude, during this decade I thought I was one of the loneliest men on this planet.


1878 February 11
I requested another extension of leave of absence from University of Basel.


1879 May 2
From Geneva, I send my letter of resignation to the University of Basel.


1879 June 14
The University accepts resignation, and grants me a six-year pension.


1888 Autumn
I began writing my last book, an autobiography entitled Ecce Homo. It would be end up being published eight years after my death.


1889 January
I suffered a severe mental breakdown in Turin.


1900 August 25
I died in Weimar.