1842 William James born on January 11, Astor House, New York City.
1843 Brother Henry born on April 15. James family goes to London in October.
1844 Family goes to Paris, then Windsor, England. Father, Henry James Sr., has “vastation.”
1845 Family returns to New York City. Brother Wilky (Garth Wilkinson) born on July 21.
1846 Brother Bob (Robertson) born on August 29.
1848 Sister, Alice, born on August 7.
1855 Family moves to London, then Geneva. William attends boarding school. Family returns to London in October.
1856 Family moves to Paris in June. William attends Fourierist school.
1857 Family moves to Boulogne-sur-Mer. William attends Collège Impériale.
1858 Family returns to America, moves to Newport. William takes up sketching in William Morris Hunt’s studio.
1859 Family goes to Geneva. William studies science at Geneva Academy.
1860 Family returns to Newport in October. William studies painting with Hunt.
1861 Abandons painting to enter Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard in September. Studies chemistry with Charles W. Eliot. Meets Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and Charles S. Peirce.
1862 William at Lawrence School, Henry at Harvard Law School. Wilky enlists in 44th Massachusetts Regiment.
1863 Wilky transfers to 54th Massachusetts. Bob enlists, joins 55th Massachusetts. Wilky badly wounded at Fort Wagner on July 18. William continues at Lawrence School, begins studying under anatomist Jeffries Wyman.
1864 Enters Harvard Medical School. Family moves to Boston.
1865 Joins Agassiz’s expedition to Brazil. Sails from New York on April 1.
1866 Returns to medical school in February. Family moves to Cambridge in November.
1867 Sails for Europe in April. Attends physiology lectures in Berlin starting in September.
1868 Adrift, visits Teplitz, Dresden, Heidelberg, Geneva, Paris. Returns to Cambridge in November.
1869 Takes M.D. degree in June.
1870 Minnie Temple (cousin) dies on March 22. William has crisis, probably in April, involving a vision of a green-skinned youth in an asylum.
1872 Appointed to teach physiology at Harvard College starting in spring 1873.
1873 Appointed to teach anatomy and physiology at Harvard. Postpones the appointment and sails for Europe in October.
1874 Returns to Cambridge, teaches comparative vertebrate anatomy. Becomes part of the new Metaphysical Club.
1876 Meets Alice Howe Gibbens. Teaches physiological psychology.
1877 Meets Josiah Royce.
1878 Gives “The Brain and the Mind” lectures at Johns Hopkins in February. Engaged to Alice Gibbens in May. Signs contract for book on psychology. Marries Alice on July 10 and honeymoons at Keene Valley, New York.
1879 Son Henry born on May 18.
1880 Spends summer in Europe. Appointed assistant professor of philosophy at Harvard.
1882 Mother dies on January 30. Son William born on June 17. Travels to Europe while wife and sons stay with her mother. Father dies on December 18.
1883 Returns to Cambridge in March. Wilky dies on November 15.
1884 Son Herman born on January 31. William edits and publishes The Literary Remains of the Late Henry James.
1885 Herman dies on July 9.
1886 Buys summer home in Chocorua, New Hampshire.
1887 Daughter, Peggy, born on March 24.
1889 Builds house at 95 Irving Street, Cambridge. Appointed Alford Professor of Psychology at Harvard. Reunion with sister Alice in England in July.
1890 Publishes Principles of Psychology. Son Aleck born on December 22.
1891 Trip to England to visit sister Alice in the fall. Sees dramatic adaptation of brother Henry’s The American in London.
1892 Publishes Psychology: Briefer Course. Sister Alice dies on March 6. Goes abroad, with family, for sabbatical in May.
1893 Returns to Cambridge in August.
1896 Presents Lowell Lectures on exceptional mental states in Boston.
1897 Publishes The Will to Believe. In August, appointed professor of philosophy.
1898 Walpurgisnacht at Keene Valley. Overexertion and start of heart trouble. Travels to California, delivers “Philosophical Conceptions and Practical Results.”
1899 Opposes American policy in the Philippines. Publishes Talks to Teachers. Goes to Bad Nauheim for heart treatments. Begins preparation for Gifford Lectures in Edinburgh.
1900 Lives abroad, works on Gifford Lectures.
1901 May—June, delivers Gifford Lectures. Returns to Cambridge on August 31.
1902 Sails for England on April 1. Presents second set of Gifford Lectures. Both sets published as The Varieties of Religious Experience. Sails for America on June 10.
1903 Gives talks on radical empiricism at Glenmore, in the Adirondacks.
1905 May—June, trip to Europe.
1906 January 8, arrives in California to teach at Stanford. February 21, first version of “The Moral Equivalent of War.” April 18, San Francisco earthquake. End of April, returns to Cambridge.
1907 Resigns professorship at Harvard. Last lecture on January 22. Pragmatism published in June.
1908 Delivers Hibbert Lectures at Oxford in May.
1909 April, A Pluralistic Universe published. October, The Meaning of Truth published. September, meets Freud and Jung.
1910 March 29, sails to England with Alice to nurse brother Henry. August 18, returns to United States. August 26, dies at Chocorua.