The Life of Howard Hughes
Dec. 24, 1905—Born in Houston.
Nov. 20, 1908—Hughes’s father files for patent on revolutionary oil-drilling bit.
Mid-1909—Sharp-Hughes Tool Company, a partnership, organized in Houston.
Feb. 3, 1915—Hughes Tool Company incorporated in Texas.
September 1920—Enrolls in Fessenden School, West Newton, Massachusetts, and graduates the following spring.
September 1921—Enrolls in Thacher School, Ojai, California.
March 29, 1922—Mother dies in Houston.
September 1922—Returns to Thacher, then withdraws at Christmas.
September 1923—Enrolls in Rice Institute, Houston.
Jan. 14, 1924—Father dies in Houston.
May 1924—Acquires minority interest of grandparents and uncle in the Hughes Tool Company, giving him 100 percent control.
Dec. 26, 1924—Houston judge signs order removing Hughes’s “disabilities as a minor” and eliminating need for appointment of a guardian.
May 30, 1925—Executes will at age nineteen, leaving bulk of estate to medical research; believed to be the only will he ever signed.
June 1, 1925—Marries Ella Rice in Houston.
Fall 1925—Leaves Houston to live in Los Angeles.
November 1925—Hires Noah Dietrich as financial adviser in Los Angeles.
October 1927—Begins filming Hell’s Angels.
Jan. 7, 1928—Receives first pilot’s license.
January 1928—First plane crash, at Mines Field, Los Angeles, during filming of Hell’s Angels.
Oct. 1, 1928—Ella and Hughes separate.
May 16, 1929—Two Arabian Knights wins Academy Award.
Dec. 2, 1929—Purchases house at 211 Muirfield Road, Los Angeles.
Dec. 9, 1929—Ella granted a divorce in Houston.
June 30, 1930—Hell’s Angels première.
June 30, 1930—Acquires 7000 Romaine Street in Hollywood.
Spring 1932—Founds Hughes Aircraft Company in Glendale, California.
Jan. 14, 1934—Wins first air trophy, in Miami.
Sept. 13, 1935—Sets new land speed record at Santa Ana, California.
Jan. 14, 1936—Establishes new transcontinental speed record from Los Angeles to Newark of nine hours, twenty-seven minutes.
Jan. 19, 1937—Sets new transcontinental speed record from Los Angeles to Newark of seven hours, twenty-eight minutes.
July 10-14, 1938—With four crewmen, establishes new record for around-the-world flight—three days, nineteen hours, and seventeen minutes.
May 1939—First acquires stock in Transcontinental & Western Airlines, later Trans World Airlines.
Fall 1939—Begins work on experimental military aircraft, the D-2.
Spring 1940—Begins filming The Outlaw.
July 1941—Hughes Aircraft Company moves to new plant at Culver City, California.
Nov. 7, 1941—Air Force rejects D-2 as a military plane.
Nov. 16, 1942—Defense Plant Corporation approves $18-million contract with Kaiser-Hughes Corporation to build three flying boats to aid war effort.
May 17, 1943—Sikorsky S-43, with Hughes at the controls, crashes in Lake Mead, Nevada; two die.
Oct. 11, 1943—Air force issues letter of intent for Hughes Aircraft Company to build 101 photo-reconnaissance planes—the XF-IIs.
Fall 1943—Nadine Henley becomes Hughes’s private secretary.
March 27, 1944—Kaiser-Hughes contract on flying boats cancelled; Defense Plant Corporation issues new agreement with Hughes to build one flying boat.
Late 1944—Suffers first nervous breakdown.
May 29, 1945—Air force cancels contract to build 101 XF-IIs; Hughes to complete two experimental planes under construction.
July 7, 1946—Critically injured in crash of XF-11 in Beverly Hills.
April 5, 1947—Successfully test-flies second XF-11 at Culver City.
August 6-10, 1947—Testifies before Senate War Investigating Committee probing his work as defense contractor in Second World War.
October 1947—Frank William Gay goes to work at Romaine Street.
Nov. 2, 1947—Test-flies the Hercules flying boat at Long Beach.
Nov. 8, 10, 11, and 14, 1947—Testifies again before the Senate War Committee.
May 10, 1948—Acquires control of RKO.
April 1951—Fires Paul Jarrico, a screenwriter, after he was subpoenaed to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
Nov. 20, 1952—Testifies in Los Angeles Superior Court in Jarrico case, his last courtroom appearance.
Sept. 23, 1952—Chicago syndicate buys control of RKO.
Feb. 10, 1953—Reassumes control of RKO after Chicago group forfeits $1.2-million downpayment.
Aug. 11, 1953—Dr. Simon Ramo and Dr. Dean Wooldridge resign at Hughes Aircraft Company, sparking crisis between Hughes and the Pentagon.
Dec. 17, 1953—Howard Hughes Medical Institute incorporated in Delaware.
March 31, 1954—Acquires 100 percent control of RKO for $23,489,478.
May 29, 1954—Jean Peters marries Stuart W. Cramer III.
Feb. 11, 1955—Takes last pilot’s test, in Miami, Florida.
July 19, 1955—Sells RKO to General Tire Company for an estimated $25 million.
February 1956—Orders first jets for TWA, thirty-three Boeing 707s.
June 7, 1956—Orders thirty Convair 880s from General Dynamics.
Dec. 10, 1956—Hughes Tool Company makes $205,000 loan to F. Donald Nixon.
Jan. 12, 1957—Marries Jean Peters in Tonopah, Nevada.
May 12, 1957—Fires Noah Dietrich.
Mid-1958—Suffers second nervous breakdown.
Dec. 15, 1960—Lenders impose voting trust; Hughes loses control of TWA.
Dec. 24, 1960—Moves with Jean to Rancho Santa Fe.
Spring 1961—Hires Chester C. Davis as vice-president and general counsel of the Hughes Tool Company.
June 30, 1961—TWA files antitrust complaint against Hughes in New York.
Nov. 23, 1961—Moves with Jean to 1001 Bel Air Road, Bel Air.
Feb. 11, 1963—Refuses to appear for deposition in TWA lawsuit.
May 3, 1963—Federal judge in New York awards TWA default judgment over Hughes’s refusal to give deposition.
June 21, 1964—U.S. Court of Appeals upholds the default judgment against Hughes.
May 26, 1965—Army awards contract to Hughes to build light observation helicopters, in what would become the largest single business loss of Hughes’s career.
May 3, 1966—Sells his 6.5 million shares of stock in TWA for $546 million.
July 17, 1966—Leaves Los Angeles by train for Boston to stay at Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
Nov. 27, 1966—Arrives in Las Vegas by train from Boston, taking over top floor of Desert Inn.
March 31, 1967—Acquires control of Desert Inn Hotel and Casino, first step in the building of his Nevada empire.
Dec. 27, 1968—Stockholders approve sale of Air West to Hughes.
Jan. 15, 1970—Jean Peters Hughes announces she and Hughes will obtain a divorce.
April 3, 1970—Acquires Air West.
April 14, 1970—Federal court enters judgment of $145,448,141.07 against Hughes for damages to TWA in antitrust case.
July 1970—Richard Danner delivers $50,000 secret Hughes campaign contribution to “Bebe” Rebozo at San Clemente.
August 1970—Danner delivers another $50,000 to Rebozo in Key Biscayne, Florida.
Nov. 14, 1970—Hughes signs proxy giving control of his Nevada empire to Chester Davis, Raymond Holliday, and Bill Gay.
Nov. 25, 1970—Flies from Las Vegas to Paradise Island, the Bahamas, moving into the Britannia Beach Hotel.
Dec. 3, 1970—Hughes Tool Company fires Robert Maheu as chief of Hughes Nevada Operations.
January 1971—Hughes organization employs new Washington representative, Robert F. Bennett, proprietor of a CIA front; negotiations underway to use Hughes as a front for CIA Project Jennifer.
June 18, 1971—Hughes-Peters divorce made final in Hawthorne, Nevada.
Jan. 7, 1972—Conducts telephone interview from the Bahamas with newsmen in Los Angeles to refute Clifford Irving book.
Feb. 10, 1972—Robert Maheu files $17.5-million lawsuit in Los Angeles against Hughes for libel and slander.
Feb. 15, 1972—Flees the Bahamas, going by boat to Miami, then by air to Managua, Nicaragua, moving into the Intercontinental Managua.
March 13, 1972—Meets briefly with U.S. Ambassador Turner Shelton and Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza in Managua shortly before flying to Bayshore Inn, Vancouver, Canada.
Aug. 29, 1972—Returns to Intercontinental Managua in Nicaragua after stay in Canada.
Sept. 25, 1972—Signs papers authorizing sale of the oil-tool division of the Hughes Tool Company.
Dec. 7, 1972—Oil tool division sold to public for $150 million, becomes Hughes Tool Company; Hughes’s holding company renamed Summa Corporation.
Dec. 24, 1972—Leaves Managua for London, moving into the Inn on the Park.
Jan. 10, 1973—U.S. Supreme Court overturns judgment and lower court rulings against Hughes in TWA case.
March 17, 1973—Meets with Governor O’Callaghan and Philip Hannifin in London.
Aug. 9, 1973—Falls in room at Inn on the Park, fracturing left hip.
Dec. 20, 1973—Flies from London to Freeport, Grand Bahama Island, moving into the Xanadu Princess Hotel.
Dec. 27, 1973—Federal grand jury in Nevada indicts Hughes in the acquisition of Air West.
Jan. 30, 1974—Air West indictment dismissed by federal judge.
June 5, 1974—Hughes’s personal papers stolen in Romaine Street burglary.
July 30, 1974—Federal grand jury in Nevada reindicts Hughes in Air West takeover.
Nov. 13, 1974—Federal judge again dismisses Hughes indictment in Air West case; Justice Department appeals, and indictment is reinstated by U.S. Court of Appeals on May 7, 1976, a month after Hughes’s death.
March 18, 1975—Hughes Glomar Explorer story disclosed.
Sept. 10, 1975—Hughes’s aides and executives approve employment contracts for themselves.
Feb. 10, 1976—Hughes is flown from Freeport to Acapulco, to a penthouse of the Acapulco Princess Hotel.
April 5, 1976—Dies aboard airplane from Acapulco to Houston.