1918 Born August 25, Lawrence, Massachusetts, first child of Samuel and Jennie Bernstein.
1932 First piano recital; began piano studies with Helen Coates, who later became Bernstein's secretary.
1935 Graduated from Boston Latin School; freshman year at Harvard University; piano studies with Heinrich Gebhard.
1937 First professional appearance as a solo pianist with orchestra; first met Aaron Copland, Adolph Green and Dimitri Mitropoulos.
1938 Music editor, Harvard Advocate.
1939 Graduated from Harvard cum laude in music; composed and conducted incidental music for a production of Aristophane's The Birds; entered Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia. Conducting studies under Fritz Reiner; piano studies with Isabelle Vengerova; orchestration with Randall Thompson; score-reading with Renee Longy Miquelle.
1940 Conducting studies under Serge Koussevitzky at Berkshire Music Center, Massachusetts, now Tanglewood Music Center.
1941 Graduated from Curtis Institute.
1942 First published work, Sonata for Clarinet and Piano; assistant to Koussevitzky at Tanglewood; moved to New York; completed First Symphony, Jeremiah.
1943 Appointed assistant conductor New York Philharmonic by Artur Rodzinski; substituted for Bruno Walter at Carnegie Hall concert November 14.
1944 First performances of Jeremiah, Symphony No. 1, the ballet Fancy Free and the musical On the Town.
1945 Appointed music director, New York City Symphony Orchestra, 1945-47.
1946 First European conducting appearances in Prague and London; conducted U.S. premiere of Britten's Peter Grimes.
1947 First visit to Israel; conducted in France, Belgium and Holland.
1948 Served as musical advisor, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, 1948-49; conducted concert at Beersheba, Israel during War of Independence; first appearance as conductor in Munich, Budapest, Vienna, Milan and Rome.
1949 Piano soloist in first performance of his Second Symphony, The Age of Anxiety, conducted by Koussevitzky.
1950 Premiere of the play Peter Pan with incidental music.
1951 Appointed head of conducting studies at Tanglewood, following the death of Koussevitzky; marriage to Felicia Montealegre Cohn.
1952 First performance of Trouble in Tahiti, opera in one act; birth of daughter Jamie; artistic director, Festival of Creative Arts, Brandeis University.
1953 First performance of the musical Wonderful Town; conducted Cherubini's opera Medea at La Scala with Maria Callas.
1954 Scored the film On the Waterfront; first performance, in Venice, of Serenade for Violin Solo, Strings and Percussion, modeled on Plat's Symposium; first television appearance on Omnibus.
1955 Conducted Symphony of the Air season in New York; birth of son Alexander; first performance of Jean Anouilh's play The Lark, as adapted by Lillian Hellman, with incidental music.
1956 Guest conductor, New York Philharmonic Orchestra; premiere of the comic operetta Candide.
1957 Joint principal conductor, New York Philharmonic, 1957-58; premiere of the musical West Side Story; conducted inaugural concert of Mann Auditorium, Tel Aviv.
1958 Music director, New York Philharmonic, 1958-69; shared tour of Latin America with Dimitri Mitropoulos; conducted first of fourteen seasons of "Young People's Concerts."
1959 Toured Europe and Soviet Union with New York Philharmonic; first book, The Joy of Music, published.
1960 Mounted Mahler centenary season with New York Philharmonic.
1961 Toured Japan with New York Philharmonic; film version of West Side Story released.
1962 Birth of daughter Nina; conducted inaugural concert at Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Center, now Avery Fisher Hall.
1963 First performance of Third Symphony, Kaddish, in Tel Aviv.
1964 Sabbatical year from New York Philharmonic; conducted Verdi's Falstaff at Metropolitan Opera.
1965 First performance of Chichester Psalms for Chorus and Orchestra in New York and Chichester; commenced two-year survey of twentieth-century symphonic music with New York Philharmonic.
1966 First engagements with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera (for Verdi's Falstaff).
1967 Conducted concert on Mount Scopus to mark reunification of Jerusalem; completed Mahler symphony cycle for CBS Records.
1968 Conducted Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier at Vienna State Opera; New York Philharmonic tour of Western Europe and Israel.
1969 Named lifetime Laureate Conductor on retirement from music directorship of New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
1970 Fund-raising meeting for Black Panthers held at Bernstein's residence; conducted bicentennial production of Beethoven's Fidelio opera in Vienna; named artistic advisor, Tanglewood, 1970-74.
1971 Premiere of Mass, A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players and Dancers, inaugurating the Kennedy Center, Washington; conducted one thousandth performance with New York Philharmonic.
1972 Conducted Bizet's Carmen at the Metropolitan.
1973 Delivered "The Unanswered Question," a series of six Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard University; conducted for Pope Paul VI at the Vatican.
1974 First performance of Dybbuk ballet; led New York Philharmonic on tour of New Zealand, Australia and Japan.
1976 Premiere of the musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
1977 First performance of Songfest: A Cycle of American Poems for Six Singers and Orchestra.
1978 Death of Felicia Bernstein, June 16th.
1979 Conducted Berlin Philharmonic in Mahler's Ninth Symphony.
1980 First performance of Divertimento for Orchestra; received the Kennedy Center Honor.
1981 Premiere of Halil, Nocturne for Solo Flute, Piccolo, Alto Flute, Percussion, Harp and Strings; recorded Wagner's Tristan und Isolde opera in Munich.
1982 Artistic director, Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute.
1983 Premiere of A Quiet Place opera in two acts at Houston Grand Opera.
1984 A Quiet Place (the revised three-act version incorporating Trouble in Tahiti) at La Scala; Conducted Deutsche Grammophon recording of West Side Story; marriage of daughter Jamie to David Evan Thomas.
1985 Conducted Journey for Peace concerts at Hiroshima.
1986 Bernstein Festival at Barbican Centre, London; inaugurated Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival; first performance of Jubilee Games for orchestra, with Baritone Solo.
1988 First performance of Arias and Barcarolles, for Mezzo-Soprano, Baritone and Piano Four Hands; four-day seventieth-birthday celebration at Tanglewood.
1990 Inaugurated the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan; last concert with Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, August 19; died October 14, 6:15 p.m. at his New York home.