| June 12, 1924: | Born in Milton, Massachusetts, to Prescott and Dorothy Walker Bush; family moved to Greenwich, Connecticut, six months later. |
| June 1942: | Graduates from Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. |
| June 12, 1942: | Enlists in the United States Navy on eighteenth birthday. |
| June 9, 1943: | Receives gold wings, becoming youngest naval aviator. |
| September 2, 1944: | Shot down near the island of Chichijima while flying combat missions off the aircraft carrier USS San Jacinto; after parachuting out of the plane, rescued a few hours later by the submarine USS Finback. |
| January 6, 1945: | Marries Barbara Pierce in Rye, New York. |
| September 18, 1945: | Released from active duty. |
| July 6, 1946: | Son George Walker Bush born in New Haven, Connecticut. |
| June 1948: | Graduates Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University with bachelor’s degree in economics. |
| June 1948: | Moves to Odessa, Texas, to take job as equipment clerk for Dresser Industries/IDECO. |
| 1948–1951: | As part of training program, holds variety of jobs for IDECO, including oilfield supply salesman and factory worker, moving from Odessa to California in 1949, then back to Midland, Texas, in 1950. |
| December 20, 1949: | Daughter Pauline Robinson Bush (Robin) born in Compton, California. |
| 1951–1953: | Cofounder, with John Overbey, of Bush-Overbey Oil Development Corporation, in Midland. |
| February 11, 1953: | Son John Ellis Bush ( Jeb) born in Midland. |
| October 12, 1953: | Robin dies of leukemia. |
| 1953–1959: | Cofounder, with Hugh and Bill Liedtke, of Zapata Petroleum in Midland. |
| January 22, 1955: | Son Neil Mallon Bush born in Midland. |
| October 22, 1956: | Son Marvin Pierce Bush born in Midland. |
| August 1959: | Moves to Houston, Texas, to run spin-off company, Zapata Offshore, a pioneering offshore drilling contractor. |
| August 18, 1959: | Daughter Dorothy Walker Bush (Doro) born in Houston. |
| February 1963: | Elected chairman of Harris County Republican Party. |
| November 3, 1964: | Loses Texas Senate race to Democratic incumbent Ralph Yarborough. |
| November 5, 1966: | Elected congressman from Texas Seventh District; serves on House Ways and Means Committee. |
| November 3, 1970: | Loses Texas Senate race to Lloyd Bentsen. |
| February 1971: | Sworn in as US ambassador to the United Nations. |
| January 1973: | Becomes chairman of the Republican National Committee. |
| October 1974: | Moves to Beijing as chief of the US Liaison Office in the People’s Republic of China. |
| January 1976: | Sworn in as director of Central Intelligence Agency. |
| January 1977: | Returns to private life in Houston. |
| May 1, 1979: | Announces candidacy for President of the United States. |
| July 16, 1980: | Becomes the running mate of former California governor Ronald Reagan. |
| November 4, 1980: | Elected Vice President of the United States, Reagan-Bush defeating Carter-Mondale. |
| March 30, 1981: | Assassination attempt made on President Reagan, who was seriously wounded. |
| November 6, 1984: | Reelected Vice President of the United States, Reagan-Bush defeating Mondale-Ferraro. |
| March 1985: | Meets Mikhail Gorbachev for the first time while attending funeral of Gorbachev’s predecessor, Konstantin Chernenko. |
| November 8, 1988: | Elected forty-first President of the United States, Bush-Quayle defeating Dukakis-Bentsen. |
| May 28, 1989: | Attends NATO Summit in Brussels. |
| July 9, 1989: | Visits Poland and Hungary. |
| November 9, 1989: | Berlin Wall falls. |
| December 2, 1989: | Meets with Gorbachev off Malta. |
| December 20, 1989: | Launches military operation in Panama to restore democracy and to capture renegade dictator and international drug trafficker Manuel Noriega. |
| May 31, 1990: | Bush-Gorbachev first official summit meeting in Washington. |
| July 26, 1990: | Signs Americans with Disabilities Act. |
| August 2, 1990: | Iraq invades Kuwait. |
| August 5, 1990: | Announces, “This will not stand, this aggression against Kuwait.” |
| September 30, 1990: | Announces a bipartisan federal budget agreement that breaks a budget deadlock and is a first move toward reducing the federal deficit. |
| October 3, 1990: | West and East Germany are united. |
| November 15, 1990: | Signs the Clean Air Act. |
| November 22, 1990: | Spends Thanksgiving Day with the troops in Saudi Arabia. |
| January 16, 1991: | Orders the beginning of Operation Desert Storm to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. |
| February 27, 1991: | Suspends combat operations in the Persian Gulf after Kuwait is liberated. |
| December 25, 1991: | Gorbachev resigns and the Soviet Union dissolves. |
| November 3, 1992: | Loses reelection bid for a second term, Clinton-Gore defeating Bush-Quayle. |
| January 20, 1993: | Returns to private life in Houston. |
| November 8, 1994: | Son George W. Bush elected governor of Texas. |
| March 25, 1997: | Fulfills a lifelong dream by making a second parachute jump. |
| November 6, 1997: | Dedication of the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University. |
| November 3, 1998: | Son Jeb Bush elected governor of Florida; George W. Bush elected to second term as governor of Texas. |
| May 14, 1999: | Commencement ceremony for first master’s degree graduates from the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M. |
| January 20, 2001: | George W. Bush sworn in as the forty-third President of the United States. |
| September 11, 2001: | The worst terrorist attack in the history of the United States. |
| June 2002: | For the first time since being shot down on September 2, 1944, returns to Chichijima. |
| June 12, 2004: | Celebrates eightieth birthday by jumping out of another perfectly good airplane. Birthday party raises $56 million for MD Anderson Cancer Center, the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation, and Points of Light. |
| December 26, 2004: | A tsunami in the Indian Ocean devastates South Asia. At the request of President George W. Bush, teams up with Bill Clinton to raise money in the private sector for disaster relief. |
| January 20, 2005: | George W. Bush sworn in for a second term. |
| August 29, 2005: | Katrina comes ashore near New Orleans as a category 3 hurricane, and becomes the costliest natural disaster in American history. Teams up again with President Clinton to form the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, raising more than $135 million. |
| January 10, 2009: | The USS George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier commissioned in Norfolk, Virginia. |
| June 12, 2009: | Another parachute jump with the Army’s Golden Knights parachute team, to celebrate eighty-fifth birthday. |
| February 15, 2011: | Receives Medal of Freedom from President Obama in a White House ceremony. |
| March 21, 2011: | Honored by Points of Light at a star-studded event at the Kennedy Center—including Presidents Carter, Clinton, and George W. Bush—for inspiring the volunteer movement. |
| May 4, 2014: | Receives the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award from the Kennedy Library Foundation, which cited his courage in negotiating and signing the 1990 budget deal. |
| April 17, 2018: | Barbara Bush dies at home, with her husband of seventy-three years holding her hand. |
| November 30, 2018: | President Bush dies at home, surrounded by friends and family. |