| 15 October 1926 |
Paul-Michel Foucault is born in Poitiers, France |
| 1936–40 |
Attends Lycée Henri-IV Poitiers |
| 1940–45 |
Attends Collège Saint-Stanislaus, Poitiers |
| Autumn 1945 |
Enters Lycée Henri-IVV Paris (to study for khâgne – a year of special preparatory training for entry into the Ècole Normale Supérieure); meets Jean Hyppolite |
| Autumn 1946 |
Enters Ècole Normale Supérieure, Paris; meets Louis Althusser |
| August 1951 |
Achieves Agrégation de Philosophie; examined by Georges Canguilhem |
| Autumn 1951–Summer 1952 |
Fondation Thiers, Centre de recherches humanistes, Paris |
| June 1951 |
Earns a Diploma in Psychopathology from the Paris Institute of Psychology |
| 1952–55 |
Assistant Lecturer at University of Lille |
| 1955–58 |
Cultural Delegate to the University of Uppsala, Sweden; meets Georges Dumézil in March 1956 |
| 1958 |
Director of Center for French Civilization, Warsaw, Poland; teaches in the Romance Languages Institute at the University of Warsaw |
| 1959 |
Director of French Cultural Institute, Hamburg, Germany; teaches in the Department of Romance Languages at the University of Hamburg |
| 1960–66 |
Member of the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, University of Clermont-Ferrand; becomes a tenured professor in 1962 after successfully defending his thesis |
| 1961 |
Publication of Folie et déraison. Histoire de la folie à l’âge Classique (Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason) |
| 1963 |
Publication of Naissance de la Clinique. Une archéology du regard médical (The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception) |
| 1966–68 |
Visiting Professor of Philosophy, University of Tunis, Tunisia |
| 1966 |
Publication of Les Mots et les choses. Une achéologie des sciences humaines (The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences) |
| 1968–69 |
Tenured Professor of Philosophy, University of Paris VIII, Vincennes |
| 1969 |
Elected to the Collège de France; Publication of L’Archéologie du savoir (The Archaeology of Knowledge) |
| December 1970 |
Delivers inaugural lecture at the Collège de France, “L’Ordre du discours” (The Discourse on Language) |
| 1971 |
Founds Groupe d’Information sur les Prisons (GIP) |
| 1975 |
Publication of Surveiller et punir. Naissance de la prison (Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison) |
| 1976 |
Publication of La Volonté de Savoir: Volume I of Histoire de la sexualité (Volume I of The History of Sexuality) |
| 1980 |
Visiting Professor at the University of California, Berkeley; delivers the Howison Lectures in October |
| Autumn 1982 |
Spends eight weeks at the University of Vermont |
| Autumn 1983 |
Visiting Professor at the University of California, Berkeley |
| 1984 |
Publication of L’Usage des plaisirs: Volume II of Histoire de la sexualité (The Use of Pleasure: Volume II of The History of Sexuality) |
| 1984 |
Publication of Le Souci de soi: Volume III of Histoire de la sexualité (The Care of the Self: Volume III of The History of Sexuality) |
| 2 June 1984 |
Foucault collapses in his apartment; he is admitted to the Hôpital Salpêtrière on 9 June |
| 25 June 1984 |
Foucault dies in the Hôpital Salpêtrière, Paris |
All information comes from Eribon (1991).