1884 - Harry S. Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri on May 8.
1885 - Family moved to farm near Harrisonville, Missouri.
1887 Family moved to a farm owned by Solomon Young (grandfather) near Grandview,
Missouri.
1890 - Family moved to 619 Crysler Street in Independence, Missouri.
Six year old Harry met Bess Wallace in Sunday School at the
First Presbyterian Church
.
1892 - Entered Noland Elementary School in Independence, Missouri.
1896 - Family moved to 909 W. Waldo Avenue in Independence, Missouri.
1901 -
Graduated from Independence High School. Attended Spalding’s Business College.
1902 - Worked in mail room of Kansas City Star newspaper.
1902 Worked on Santa Fe Railroad as a timekeeper.
1903 Family moved to 902 N. Liberty in Independence, Missouri and moved again to
2108 Park Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri.
1903 Clerked at National Bank of Commerce in Kansas City, Missouri.
1905
1905 Worked as bookkeeper for Union National Bank in Kansas City, Missouri.
1906
1906 - Worked family owned farm in Grandview, Missouri.
1917 - Began courting Bess Wallace.
Organized the first Masonic lodge in Grandview, Missouri.
Purchased his first car, a 1911 Stafford.
John Truman, his father, died November 2, 1914.
Appointed postmaster in Grandview, Missouri in 1915
1917 Served in World War I as command captain of Battery D, 129 th
Field
Artillery regiment, 35 th
Division.
1919 - Discharged from the army.
Married Elizabeth (Bess) Virginia Wallace at Trinity Episcopal Church in
Independence, Missouri on June 28.
Moved into the home of his mother-in-law, Madge Gates Wallace, at
219 N. Delaware, Independence, Missouri.
107

Opened men’s clothing shop with partner, Eddie Jacobson, at 104 W.
12 th
Street, Kansas City, Missouri.
1922 - Elected eastern district judge of the Jackson County Court.
1924 - Daughter, Mary Margaret Truman, born.
Defeated for reelection as district judge, the only election Truman ever lost.
1925 - Worked for Kansas City Automobile Club as a membership salesman.
1926
1926 Elected presiding judge, Jackson County Court.
Served two four-year terms.
Secured voter approval of bond issue to construct 224 miles of paved highways in Jackson County, a county hospital, a new courthouse and jail in Kansas City, remodel the Independence jail and build a detention home.
1934 - Won Democratic primary for United States Senate.
Defeated Republican incumbent Roscoe C. Patterson by 262,000 votes.
1935 - Assigned as a member of the Committees on Appropriations, Interstate Commerce,
Public Buildings and Grounds and Printing.
1937 - Served as vice-chairman of a subcommittee of the Interstate Commerce Committee to
investigate American railroad finances.
1939 - Helped draft the Civil Aeronautics Act.
1940 - Won reelection to the Senate with 930,773 votes.
1941 - Won national recognition as chairman of the Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program (Truman committee). The savings to taxpayers thanks to the work of the Truman Committee was estimated to be almost $15 billion.
1944 - Look magazine selected Truman as one of the ten most useful officials in
Washington, D.C.
Nominated to run as Franklin Roosevelt’s vice president.
Roosevelt and Truman elected president and vice president respectively.
1945 - Sworn in as vice president at White House inauguration ceremony on
January 20.
Sworn in as 33 rd
President of the United States upon death of
President Roosevelt, April 12.
Announced the end of World War II in Europe, May 8.
United Nations charter approved by Senate.
Attended Potsdam Conference in Germany to determine post-war Germany.
108

Announced dropping of first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, August 6.
Second bomb dropped on Nagasaki on August 9.
Announced Japanese surrender on August 14.
Sent Twenty-one Point Address to Congress, containing most of his domestic program (the Fair Deal).
1946 - Signed the Employment Act of 1946 which established the Council of Economic
Advisers.
Signed the Atomic Energy Act of 1946.
Signed executive order ending all wage and price controls on rents, sugar, and rice resulting in dramatic increase in prices.
Signed proclamation declaring end of hostilities for World War II.
1947 - Requested congressional appropriation for $400 million to fight the spread of communism in Greece and Turkey (Truman Doctrine) and it was approved.
Established federal government loyalty program.
Secretary of State George C. Marshall outlines what becomes the Marshall Plan.
Vetoed Taft-Hartley Bill (Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947) on grounds that it discriminated against labor. Congress overrode the veto.
Signed the National Security Act of 1947 that unified the armed forces into one department, established the Central Intelligence Agency and the National
Security Council.
Attended mother’s funeral in Grandview, Missouri, on July 28.
1948 - Sent message to Congress that proposed civil rights legislation.
Signed Foreign Assistance Act of 1948 to put the Marshall Plan into operation.
Ordered government operation of the railroads by the army to head off a nationwide railroad strike.
Recognized the new state of Israel.
Ordered Berlin airlift as a response to Russian blockade of that city. Blockade lasted almost one year.
Secured the Democratic nomination for president after 35 delegates from the South walked out in protest of the strong civil rights plank in the party platform.
Kentucky senator, Alben W. Barkley, is the vice presidential candidate.
Issued Executive Order 9981 to end discrimination in the armed forces and federal government.
Began “Whistle Stop” campaign with 275 speeches in all parts of the country except the South. Covered almost 22,000 miles to take his messages about the “do nothing 80 th Congress” to the people.
Won 1948 election to the amazement of pollsters and the press.
1949 - Inaugurated for second term on January 20.
Signed Housing Act that appropriated federal monies for slum clearance and low-cost housing projects.
Signed North Atlantic Treaty which established the North Atlantic Treaty
109

Organization (NATO). Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed Supreme Allied
Commander, Europe.
Signed Mutual Defense Assistance Act approving funds for military aid to
NATO members.
1950 - Ordered Atomic Energy Commission to develop the hydrogen bomb.
Senator Joseph McCarthy announced he has a list of names of communists working in the U.S. State Department.
Ordered U.S. air, sea, and ground forces to aid South Korean Troops in resisting the Communist forces of North Korea which had invaded South Korea (June 25).
His Korean policy was backed by the United Nations Security Council and
General MacArthur was put in charge of all UN troops in Korea.
President Truman and General MacArthur met on Wake Island to discuss Far
Eastern policy.
Escaped attempted assassination by two Puerto Rico nationalists.
Announced a state of national emergency due to entry of Communist China into the Korean conflict, after UN forces had taken over most of North Korea.
1951 - Dismissed General MacArthur of all posts as commander of American and UN forces in Far East for criticizing administration’s policies in the Far East.
Signed India Emergency Food Aid Act that gave $190 million for grain purchase.
1952 - Moved back into the White House after renovation completed.
Announced decision not to seek reelection.
Issued order to seize steel mills to prevent strike.
Supreme Court declared Truman’s seizure order unconstitutional.
Met with president-elect Eisenhower at White House to prepare for transition.
1953 - Attended inauguration of President Eisenhower.
Returned to Independence, Missouri, by train.
Began work on his memoirs.
1955 - Broke ground for the Harry S. Truman Library.
Presidential Libraries Act signed.
Volume I of his memoirs, YEAR OF DECISIONS, published.
1956 - Daughter, Margaret, married to E. Clifton Daniel, Jr., in Independence, Missouri.
Grandsons will be born in 1957, 1959, 1963, and 1966.
Volume 2 of his memoirs, YEARS OF TRIAL AND HOPE, published.
1957 - The Harry S. Truman Library (now the Truman Presidential Museum & Library),
dedicated.
1960 - Published MR. CITIZEN, about his post-presidential years.
Actively campaigned for John F. Kennedy for president.
110

1961 - Attended Kennedy inauguration with Mrs. Truman and Margaret.
1963 - Attended funeral of President Kennedy.
1965 - Became first former president to address the U.S. Senate while the body was in formal session.
Attended funeral of brother, Vivian.
Participated in ceremony at Truman Library during which President Johnson signed the Medicare bill into law.
1966 - Harry S. Truman Center for the Advancement of Peace established in Jerusalem.
Truman stopped visits to his working office at the Truman Library due to illness.
1968 -
President Johnson issued proclamation honoring Truman’s role in creating the
United Nations in 1945.
1969 - President and Mrs. Nixon presented a Steinway piano that had been used in the
White House during the Truman presidency to the Truman Library.
1971 - President and Mrs. Truman toured the Truman Library for the last time.
1972 - President Truman died on December 26 at the age of eighty-eight. He is buried in the
courtyard of the Truman Library.
1978 - Mary Jane Truman, the only sister of President Truman, died on November 3.
1982 - Mrs. Bess Truman died on October 18 at age ninety-seven. She is buried beside her
husband in the Library courtyard.
111