Kate Chopin
(1851-1904)
| Kate Chopin |
American Political
and Cultural History |
| 1851 Kate Chopin (Katherine O'Flaherty) born on February
8 to Thomas O'Flaherty, an Irish
immigrant, and Eliza Faris, a Creole. (KC) |
Congress passes the Land Act of 1851, an attempt to sort out competing land claims by Mexican Americans, called Californios, who were longtime settlers in California, and the immigrants, often from other areas of the United States, who contested their claims. (TLH) |
| 1855 "Kate's father dies in a rail accident. Kate begins school at Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis." (KC) | The first train crosses Niagara Falls on a suspension bridge. |
| 1861 April 12, Attack on Fort Sumter off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, signals the beginning of the Civil War. (TLH) | |
| 1863 Death of George O'Flaherty (half-brother), a Confederate soldier. (CKC) | January 1, The Emancipation Proclamation is signed. (TLH) |
| 1864 April 8, Civil War officially ends when Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox Court House. (TLH) | |
| 1868 Graduates from Sacred Heart Academy. (BKC) | Fourteenth Amendment grants full citizenship to all (including African Americans) born in the US except Native Americans. (TLH) |
| 1870 Kate marries Oscar Chopin on June 9 in St. Louis. Their honeymoon in Europe is cut short by the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. The couple moves to New Orleans in October. (KC) | December 5, When the 41st Congress meets, every state is represented, the first such Congress since 1860. John D. Rockefeller founds the Standard Oil Company. (TLH) |
| 1871 Jean Chopin, the first of Kate's six children, is born on May 22, baptized in St. Louis. (KC) | October, 8 Chicago is almost destroyed by fire. (TLH) |
| 1882 Kate's husband dies of malaria. (KC) | In Boston, a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe is lighted
by electric incandescent
light bulbs, the first such use of the new technology. In New York,
Edison's Pearl
Street power company begins to supply electricity for the city. (TLH) |
| 1883 "Telephone service is put into operation between Chicago and New York." (TLH) | |
| 1883 Husband dies from swamp fever. (DLB) | Pendleton Civil Service Act is passed to reform the corruption in the Civil Service. (TLH) |
| 1885 Eliza O'Flaherty, Kate's mother, dies of "sarcoma" in June. (CKC) | Ulysses S. Grant dies and is buried in New York after an elaborate funeral and procession. (TLH) |
| 1888 Kate writes her first poem, "If It Might Be," published in America and begins the story "Euphraisie." (BKC)(KC) | Secret ballot system introduced into U. S. (TLH) |
| 1890 "Kate's first novel, At Fault, is published privately." (KC) | December 29, Two hundred Sioux are killed by soldiers at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Sherman Anti-Trust Law. (TLH) |
| 1892 According to the Almanac of American History, on March 24. (TLH) | |
| 1894 "Writes "A respectable Woman" (Vogue) in January, introducing the character of Gouvernail, who reappears in The Awakening. Houghton Mifflin publishes Bayou Folk in March, and Chopin becomes nationaly known as a short story writer." (BKC) | A tailors' strike in New York City brings attention to sweat shops. (TLH) |
| 1894 "Bayou Folk published. Kate writes Story of an Hour." (KC) | Coxey's Army, a group of unemployed men, marches on Washington. A related group, Kelley's Army, sets out from the West Coast; one of them is Jack London. (TLH) |
| 1895 "Athenaise" written (KC) | Cuban rebellion.Strike of trolley workers in Brooklyn, N. Y., leads to riots. (TLH) |
| 1898 Kate writes The Awakening in January. (KC) | February 15, The explosion and sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana harbor results in 260 deaths, leading to the battle slogan "Remember the Maine!" (TLH) |
| 1899 Gives reading at Wednesday Club where almost 300 women praise and applaud her. (CKC) | August. Scott Joplin publishes the "Maple Leaf Rag," the most famous of his works. Other rags (published in 1902) include "Peacherine,""The Entertainer," and "The Strenuous Life," the last-named a tribute to Theodore Roosevelt. (TLH) |
| 1900 Kate writes "The Gentleman from New Orleans," and is listed in the first edition of Who's Who in USA. (KC) | June 20, The revolt known to the West as the Boxer Rebellion breaks out in China. (TLH) |
| 1901 September 6, President McKinley shot by Leon Czolgoz at the Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo, N. Y. He dies of his wounds on September 14 and Roosevelt is sworn in as president on the same day. (TLH) | |
| 1904 "Dies from a cerebral hemorrhage on August 22, after collapsing at the World's Fair, two days before." (BKC) | National Child Labor Committee formed. (TLH) |
| 1960 Kate's fiction is recognized for its psychological terrain, especially in her depiction of women who experience the power of passion that often brings them into conflict with society. (DLB) | |
WORKS CITED
TLH Campbell, Donna M. "1850-1910." Timeline of American Literature and Events. Seattle: Gonzaga University, 2000. March 17, 2003. http://guweb2.gonzaga.edu/faculty/campbell/enl311/1830.htm
BKC Wyatt, Neal. Biography of Kate Chopin. March 17, 2003. http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/eng384/katebio.htm
KC Williams, JoBeth. Kate Chopin: A Re-Awakening. 1998. Louisiana Educational Television Authority. March 15, 2003. http://www.lpb.org/programs/katechopin/chronology.html
CKC Toth, Emily. Chronology of Kate Chopin's Life. 1991. New York: Penguin Publishers . March 15, 2003. http://www.angelfire.com/nv/English243/Chronology.html
DLB Pizer, Donald
and Harbert, Earl. Dictionary of Literary Biography Volume 12: American
Realists and Naturalist. Michigan: Gale Research Company, 1982. March 22,
2003.