1818 - began piano lessons with Herr Kuntsch
1820 - gave first public piano performances
1822 - wrote first piece, Psalm 150, an overture for chorus and opera with odd instrumentation
1825 - founded literary club, Litterarischer Verein, with 10 other Lyceum peers
1826 - Father dies, August 10th. In the same month, his sister Emilie drowns herself.
1828 - graduates from the Lyceum with honours. Begins law studies at Leipzig.
1828 - in Leipzig, meets Friedrich Wieck (his future piano teacher and father-in-law). Wieck refers to Schumann as "the hothead at the piano".
1829 - while still studying law, Schumann begins seriously practising to be a virtuoso pianist
1829 - Schumann transfers to the University of Heidelberg to continue his law studies; he lived at Hauptstrasse Nr. 64. Submitted by Jack Kelso
1830 - finger injury begins to manifest itself in the form of numbness
1830 - July 30th - asks mother's permission to abandon his law studies and become a virtuoso pianist
1830 - August 12th - mother agrees
1830 - October 20th - Wieck takes on Schumann as a live-in student
1831 - June 8 and July 1 - Florestan and Eusebius, respectively, "born"
1832 - May - 3rd finger of right hand completely paralyzed. Realizes he must compose as his virtuoso career is dead
1833 - brother Julius and sister-in-law Rosalie die
1834 - Davidsbuendler assemble; Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik is born. Schumann is the editor, critic and writer. Schumann begins to recognize his love for Clara Wieck, his teacher's daughter who is nine years his junior
1836 - Friedrich Wieck tries to separate Clara and Robert
1838 - Schumann considers moving the production of the Neue Zeitschrift to Vienna. He is unsuccessful and returns to Leipzig in April 1839
1839 - sues Friedrich Wieck in order to marry Clara. Court fight begins
1840 - February 24 - granted Doctorate of Philosophy (D.Phil). from University of Jena, making him Dr. Robert Schumann
1840 - August 11 - Courts grant Robert and Clara permission to marry without her father's consent
1840 - September 12 - Robert and Clara marry at Schoenefield near Leipzig
1841 - Schumann begins composing orchestral music including symphonies (Submitted by Spencer S. Li)
1841 - September - Robert and Clara's first child, Marie, is born. The others are Elise (b. 1843), Julie (b. 1845), Emil (b. 1846), Ludwig (b. 1848), Ferdinand (b. 1849), Eugenie (b. 1851), and Felix (b.1854). One child is miscarried in 1852; it is suspected that another child is miscarried in 1846.
1843 - Schumann begins teaching composition, score reading and piano at Felix Mendelssohn's Conservatory
1844 - January - Robert and Clara tour Russia, but the trip is called off early as Robert falls ill
1844 - November - sells Neue Zeitschrift to Franz Brendel for 500 thalers
1844 - December - moves to Dresden
1848 - flees Dresden to escape revolution
1850 - moves to Duesseldorf; conducts orchestra and 2 church choirs there
1853 - fired as musical director in Duesseldorf
1853 - October - meets Johannes Brahms and heralds him as the future of music
1854 - February 27 - 12 noon - attempts suicide by jumping into the Rhein
1854 - March 4 - transferred, upon his request, to the Endenich asylum
1856 - July 28 - Clara vists Robert for the first time during his two year stay at the asylum, having been summoned back from a musical tour
1856 - July 29 - 4pm - Clara goes into town and Robert dies alone in the asylum
