| 1836 | 18 November; born Strand, London. |
| 1843 | First formal schooling, Boulogne. |
| 1849 | Returns to England to study at the Great Ealing School. |
| 1853 | Enters King's College, London. |
| 1857 | Earns the B.A. from King's College. Studies for the artillery commissioning exam; Crimean War ends before he can put his artillery skills to use so he gets a four year assistant clerkship in the Education Department of the Privy Council Office. |
| 1861 | An respectable inheritance liberates him to quit the Education Department (which vocation he had not enjoyed) and enroll at the Inner Temple to study law. He was never a very busy solicitor. |
| 1861 | Submits first article and illustration to Fun, a new humor magazine which would soon rival Punch. The submission begins a career in (mostly satirical) writing and illustration that will support him for over a decade. |
| 1865 | Founds the informal "Serious Family"--a Saturday night gathering of contemporary young humorists, journalists, and draftsmen based on other celebrated bohemian groups like the "Savage Club". Members include Hood, Sketchley, Prowse, Paul Gray. |
| 1865 | Begins to write for the stage. Early experiments include hastily-wrought but successful lyrics for pantomimes: Millward's King Solomon, and also his Harlequin Prince Paragon and the Queen of the Valley of Perpetual Spring, and Hush A Bye, Baby, on the Treetop; or, Harlequin Fortunia, King of Frog Island, and the Magic Top of Lowther Arcade. |
| 1866 | Dulcamara! runs; a burlesque of Donzetti's L'Elisir d'Amore, this is Gilbert's first acknowledged play. |
| 1867 | Another burlesque: La Vivandiere; or, True to the Corps!. |
| 1867 | Marries Lucy Agnes Blois Turner--"Kitty"--with whom he develops a close and loving marriage, unusual for the period. |
| 1869 | Compilation of Bab Ballads from Fun (an early cause of Gilbert's popularity as a satirist) published. |
| 1869 | Joins the Junior Carlton Club, a conservative organization. |
| 1869 | An Old Score, Gilbert's first complete attempt as satrirical comedy for the stage, appears. |
| 1869 | Introduced to composer Arthur Sullivan by Frederic Clay (composer of Ages Ago). |
| 1870 | The Princess, another burlesque; this one a blank verse parody of mock-heroism. |
| 1870 | Maneuvers with the Royal Aberdeenshire Highlanders, a sort of military reserve of which Gilbert was a member, provide a break from the ascending literary career and show the writer's professional depth. |
| 1871 | The Palace of Truth: Gilbert's first "fairy play". |
| 1875 | Richard D'Oyly Carte (the eventual third--the business--part of the Gilbert and Sullivan collaboration) has Gilbert show his libretto for Trial by Jury to Arthur Sullivan. The latter agrees to score the work, which becomes the first Savoy Opera. |
| 1877 | The Sorcerer opens 17 November. Like Trial by Jury, it is another successful Gilbert and Sullivan joint-endeavor. |
| 1878 | H.M.S. Pinafore; greatest G and S triumph to date. |
| 1877 | Attends the trial of Whistler v. Ruskin. |
| 1879 | Writes and stages Gretchen, his "Faust play." |
| 1879-80 | Tours United States with Sullivan and others. |
| 1880 | Pirates of Penzance; opens in the United States before U.K. |
| 1881 | D'Oyly Carte's new theater opens; one of the first to be illuminated by electric (as opposed to the more dangerous gas) light. |
| 1884 | Princess Ida, a light satire of the feminist movement, opens; more serious and melodious than the earlier G&S operettas, having been produced by Gilbert in response to a falling out with Sullivan who was weary of the repeated "topsy turvy" plots associated with Gilbert and Sullivan works like Pinafore. |
| 1885 | The Mikado premieres, revealing the Eastern influence introduced to mainstream England by the Aesthetic movement. Most popular opera, it becomes--like Pinafore--a fad in the U.S. where it is heavily pirated. |
| 1888 | The Yeomen of the Guard, topsy-turvy free and mostly serious in response to Sullivan's requests for an operetta more in this style. |
| 1888 | Brantinghame Hall (solo effort) opens; Gilbert designs costumes himself. The play is generally not well received. |
| 1889 | Sullivan's grumbles too loudly that he can no longer produce light comic opera at the expense of his creative integrity. Asks Gilbert to write a serious opera in which the words are secondary to the music, rather than the other way around as in the Savoy Operas. Gilbert refuses to subordinate himself, regarding both Sullivan and himself as equally brilliant. The future collaboration is jeapordized, and splits like this one become increasingly frequent. |
| 1889 | The Garrick Theater, Gilbert's own modern, electric-lighted, theater opens. |
| 1889 | The Gondoliers, the product of a renewed relationship with Sullivan, opens to immediate popular and critical acclaim. Victoria likes it so much that she has it performed at Windsor Castle. |
| 1890 | Gilbert, Sullivan, and Carte have a row over money. The relationship is patched up again, but never the same. |
| 1891 | Tries working with Cellier on a new operetta, but the composer dies before its completion. When The Mountebanks finally opens in 1892, it is warmly received and reviewed. |
| 1891 | Becomes a magistrate--Justice of the Peace in Middlesex. |
| 1893 | Reunites with Sullivan: Utopia Limited. |
| 1894 | His Excellency; music by Dr. Osmond Carr. |
| 1896 | Last Savoy Opera, The Grand Duke. |
| 1900 | 22 November; Sullivan dies. |
| 1901 | 22 January; Victoria dies. |
| 1901 | 3 April; Richard D'Oyly Carte dies. |
| 1906 | Elected to Garrick Club. |
| 1907 | 15 July; Knighted. |
| 1909 | One final libretto: Fallen Faries. |
| 1911 | 29 May; dies of a heart attack in cold water while attempting to save what he took for a drowning adolescent. |
Works refered to in this chronolgy are acknowledged and briefly discussed in the Sullivan Bibliography.