A Timeline of Events in To Kill a Mockingbird

A Timeline of Events Related to the Novel To Kill a Mockingbird

Year	Time Period	Ch.	Event
1883			Atticus Finch is born
1923			Jeremy Atticus “Jem” Finch is born
1926	April 28		Nelle Harper Lee is born in Monroeville, Alabama
1927			Jean Louise “Scout” Finch is born
1928			Atticus Finch’s wife, a “Graham from Montgomery,” dies
1929			The Depression begins in the United States
1931	March 25		The “Scottsboro Boys” are arrested
1933	January 30		Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany
	Summer	1	Atticus and Calpurnia are raising Scout and Jem. Dill comes to visit his Aunt Rachel. He and the Finch children keep watch on the Radley house.
	Late August	1	Dill decides to make Boo come out of the Radley house
	September	2	Dill returns home. Scout starts 1^st grade.
		3	Walter comes to dinner.
		4	Boo leaves 2 pieces of chewing gum in the Radley’s oak tree.
1934	Late Spring	4	Jem and Scout find a small box containing two polished pennies
	Late August	6	Jem, Scout, and Dill try to look in Boo’s window. Nathan Radley fires a shotgun.
	October	7	Scout starts 2^nd grade. Jem and Scout find soap carvings of a boy and girl in the knothole
	the next week	7	They find a spelling medal
	four days later	7	They find a pocket watch, chain, and knife
	next morning	7	The knothole is filled with cement
	November 21		Tom Robinson arrested
	that winter	8	Mrs. Radley dies
	the next day	8	Snow. Jem turns the snowman into a caricature of Mr. Avery
	1:00 a.m.	8	Miss Maudie’s house burns down; Boo puts a blanket around Scout’s shoulders
	before Christmas		Atticus agrees to defend Tom Robinson
	Christmas	9	Cousin Francis calls Atticus a “nigger lover”; Scout fights him
	winter	10	Atticus shoots a mad dog in the street
1935	late winter	11	Jem is punished for cutting off Mrs. Dubose’s camellias
	2 months later	11	Mrs. Dubose dies
	that summer	12	Jem & Scout go to Calpurnia’s church; Aunt Alexandra moves in
		14	Dill returns to Maycomb
	before the trial	15	Atticus and the children stop a lynch mob at the jail
	during the trial	16-21	Scout, Jem, and Dill sit in the balcony. Testimony. Talk with Dolphus Raymond. Calpurnia comes to court. Tom R. is found guilty.
	next morning	22	Calpurnia discovers gifts of food on the porch
	late August	24	Lunching with the ladies of Maycomb
	late August	24	Tom Robinson is shot attempting to escape from prison
	fall	26	Cecil Jacobs brings in a current events article about Hitler persecuting the Jews in Germany
	mid-October	27	Bob Ewell loses his job, leaves a hate note at the judge’s home, and stalks Helen Robinson. Scout prepares for a part in the Halloween pageant.
	October 31	28-30	Ewell attacks Scout and Jem; Boo stabs Ewell. Scout sees Boo and escorts him home.
1948	January 27		William Horner is killed and his wife attacked, leading to the roundup and jailing of the “Trenton Six”
1955	August 28		Emmett Till is kidnapped, tortured, and murdered in Money, Miss.
1957			To Kill a Mockingbird is first submitted to publishers.
1960			To Kill a Mockingbird is published, and wins the 1961 Pulitzer Prize
1961	May 4		The Freedom Riders depart on a bus from Washington, D.C.
1962			The film version of To Kill a Mockingbird is released
1963	June 12		Medgar Evers assassinated
1964	June 21		“Freedom Summer” in Mississippi. Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney murdered in Philadelphia, Miss.

Based upon information compiled by

and me.