October 17, 1928
Born in Jamaica, Queens, to James Earle and Frances Breslin
1939
Editor and publisher, The Flash
1947
Graduates John Adams High School
1948–1951
Copyboy, Long Island Press, while attending Long Island University, 1948–50
1951
Short stint as a writer, Nassau Daily Review-Star
December 26, 1954
Marries Rosemary Dattolico
April 1959
Sports reporter, Newspaper Enterprise Association Sports Syndicate
April 1959–1960
Sports reporter, New York Journal-American
1960
Quits Journal-American
1961
Receives Best Sports Stories Award for “Racing’s Angriest Young Man”
1962
Sunny Jim: The Life of America’s Most Beloved Horseman, James Fitzsimmons published
(Breslin’s first book)
1963
Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game? published (this book about the hapless New York Mets’ first season caught the attention of the Herald Tribune’s publisher, Jock Whitney)
May 1963
Joins the New York Herald Tribune
November 24, 1963
“A Death in Emergency Room One” and “It’s an Honor” published by Herald Tribune
March 27, 1964
Receives Meyer Berger Award, $500 and a plaque
May 1967
Herald Tribune closes
March 11, 1968
Joins New York Post
1968
TV commentary for New York ABC and NBC affiliates (various dates in 1968–69 and 1973)
February 1, 1969
Quits New York Post (“The placement of my column in the paper was poor, I got lost between the girdle ads.”)
1969
Joins New York Magazine
(writes articles 1969–1971)
March 31, 1969
Norman Mailer and Breslin run for New York City mayor and city council president, respectively
November 1969
The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight published
1970
Attacked and beaten by Jimmy “the Gent” Burke at The Suite (then owned by Lucchese crime family associate Henry Hill)
1971
The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight opens in theaters
1972
Delegate to Democratic National Convention
1973
World Without End, Amen published
1975
How the Good Guys Finally Won: Notes from an Impeachment Summer published
November 14, 1976
Joins New York Daily News (first column, “On Slay St., and Atrocity Ave.”)
May 30, 1977
Son of Sam Letter addressed to Jimmy Breslin arrives at the Daily News
1978
.44 published
(with Dick Schaap)
August 1980
I Go Pogo (voices the character P. T. Bridgeport)
June 9, 1981
Rosemary dies
September 12, 1982
Marries Ronnie Eldridge
1982
Forsaking All Others published
1984
The World According to Breslin published
1985
Wins George Polk Award
October 1986
Lands his own twice-weekly late night talk show, Jimmy Breslin’s People (disgusted because the show is often delayed or preempted, Breslin takes out a full-page ad in The New York Times announcing that he is “firing the network”)
1986
Wins Pulitzer Prize for Commentary
May 17, 1986
Hosts Season 11, Episode 17, of Saturday Night Live (with Marvin Hagler)
January 1987
Table Money published
January 1988
He Got Hungry and Forgot His Manners: A Fable published
February 17, 1988
The Queen of the Leaky Roof Circuit opens at the Actor’s Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky
May 1988
Final column appears in the Daily News
October 1988
First New York Newsday column appears
May 13, 1990
After a colleague describes one of Breslin’s articles as sexist, he retorts with racist invective, appears on the Howard Stern Show to double down on his outburst, is asked by New York Newsday city editor Richard Esposito to write an apology, and is then suspended
January 1991
Damon Runyon: A Life published
August 19, 1991
Crown Heights riots (Breslin is torn from a taxi, robbed, beaten and left with only his underwear and his press card)
December 1995
Stops writing regular column for Newsday (New York Newsday ceased publication July 1995)
1996
A Slight Case of Amazing Grace: A Memoir published
1997
I Want to Thank My Brain for Remembering Me: A Memoir published following his brain aneurysm in 1994
June 1997
Returns to writing a column for Newsday
2002
I Don’t Want to Go to Jail: A Good Story published
2002
The Short Sweet Dream of Eduardo Gutierrez published
June 14, 2004
Daughter Rosemary dies from a rare blood disease
November 2, 2004
Quits Newsday (“I’m right—again. So I quit. Beautiful.”)
2004
The Church That Forgot Christ published
2008
The Library of America selects a Son of Sam column for inclusion in its anthology of American True Crime writing.
2008
The Good Rat: A True Story published
2009
Daughter Kelly, 44, dies after a cardiac arrhythmia in a New York City restaurant
March 2011
Branch Rickey published (Breslin started his career writing sports books, now his final book is grounded in sports and civil rights)
November 5, 2011
“Occupy Wall Street”—his last significant piece of journalism
July 24, 2012
Receives honorary degree from LIU Brooklyn
November 14, 2013
Inducted into the New York Journalism Hall of Fame
March 19, 2017
Breslin dies
March 22, 2017
Breslin’s funeral