//JRR TOlken Related Dates //File Author: Justin Mckay on 10/28/2002 //found at http://gollum.usask.ca/tolkien/ //Name of page is The Tolken TImeline //Author Darryl Friesen Copyright 1995-2002 //I am a major Tolken fan and came upon this site on the web Dates will organize by date 04/16/1891 Mabel Suffield and Arthur Reuel Tolkien are married in Bloemfontein, South Africa 01/03/1892 John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is born in Bloemfontein, South Africa 01/31/1892 John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is christened in the Bloemfontein Cathedral 02/17/1894 Hilary Arthur Reuel Tolkien, younger brother to JRRT, is born in Bloemfontein, South Africa 1895 Mabel Tolkien boards the SS Guelph and returns to Birmingham, England with her two children, John and Hilary. Arthur Tolkien remains in South Africa with plans to join his family when time permits 02/15/1896 Arthur Tolkien dies in Bloemfontein, South Africa, as a result of a severe hemorrhage 1896 Mabel Tolkien moves her family from Birmingham to the hamlet of Sarehole 1899 JRRT, at the age of 7, takes the entrance exam for King Edwards School, but fails to obtain a place 1900 Tolkien retakes the entrance exam for King Edward's, and is accepted. 1903 JRRT wins a Foundation Scholarship to King Edwards, and returns there to continue his studies 11/14/1904 Mabel Tolkien, age 34, dies after six days in a diabetic coma 1906 J.R.R Tolkien begins his first term at Oxford 12/17/1910 Tolkien is awarded an Open Classical Exhibition to Exeter College 1913 Tolkien takes the Honours Moderations exams 1915 Awarded First Class Honours degree in English Language and Literature 03/22/1916 John Ronald Reuel Tolkien marries Edith Bratt 1916 Tolkien is assigned to the Lancashire Fusiliers and sent to France where he sees some action in Somme as second Lieutenant. Returns to England suffering from shell shock. 1917 Birth of J.R.R. Tolkien's first son John 1919 Tolkien works as an assistant on the Oxford English Dictionary for two years 1920 Birth of J.R.R. Tolkien's second son Michael 07/16/1924 Tolkien appointed Professor of English Language at University of Leeds 1924 Birth of third son Christopher 1925 Tolkien moves to Oxford, where he serves as Rawlingson Professor of Anglo-Saxon and Fellow of Pembroke College for the next 24 years 1925 Tolkien and E.V. Gordon publish their translation of Sir Gawain and the Greene Knight 1929 Tolkien's fourth child, Priscilla, is born 1933 JRRT first begins telling his children of a funny little creature named Bilbo 1936 Tolkien completes The Hobbit 1937 The Hobbit is published, and Tolkien begins working on the "sequel" 1939 Tolkien delivers his lecture "On Fairy-Stories" 1945 Tolkien becomes Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford; a position he holds until his retirement in 1959 1948 "Leaf by Niggle" is published 1948 The Lord of the Rings is completed. 1954 The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, the first two portions of The Lord of the Rings, are published 1955 The Return of the King, the final portion of The Lord of the Rings, is published 1957 Tolkien was to travel to the United States to accept honorary degrees from Marquette, Harvard, and several other universities, and to deliver a series of addresses. The trip was cancelled due to the ill health of his wife Edith. Tolkien never made the trip before his death in 1973. 1959 Tolkien retires his professorship at Oxford 1962 The Adventures of Tom Bombadil is published 1964 Leaf by Niggle" and "On Fairy Stories" are published together in a single edition called Tree and Leaf 11/29/1971 Edith Tolkien dies after a short, but severe, illness attributed to an inflamed gall-bladder 09/02/1973 John Ronald Reuel Tolkien dies at the age of eighty-one in a private hospital in Bournemouth 1977 Silmarillion published posthumously (final editing was completed by his son Christopher) 04/12/1994 Twenty-one years after Tolkien's death, Darryl Friesen begins compiling this list of important events in the life and career of J.R.R. Tolkien 08/24/1998 New Line Cinema announces plans to film a live action adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, directed by New Zealand file-maker Peter Jackson. 10/08/1999 New Line Cinema officially announces the cast for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, three days before the film is to begin shooting in Wellington, New Zealand. All three films are similtaneously, a first in major motion picture history, at a cost of $278 million (US). 12/19/2001 The Fellowship of the Ring opens in theatres world wide, earning $18.2 million (US) its first day, $95.3 million (US) its first week. 08/06/2002 The Fellowship of the Ring is released to DVD 2002 The Two Towers is scheduled for theatrical release.