1831: Born in Ohio

1857-61: Serves as president of Hiram College

1859: Serves in Ohio state senate

1861-63: Serves as colonel in Civil War

1863-80: Serves in the U.S. House of Representatives

1877: Member of the fifteen-man electoral commission appointed by Congress to investigate the presidential election of 1876 and to declare a winner

1881: Inaugurated as president, March 4; shot several times by an assassin, July 2; dies in New Jersey on September 19