1847  Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio.

1851 Edison performed his 1st experiment.

1854 The Edison family moved to Port Huron, Michigan.
         Edison went to school for the first time.
         Edison stopped going to formal school three months later.

1857 Edison turned the family basement into a laboratory.

1859 Edison got his 1st job.
         Edison began to lose his hearing because of an accident.

1861 The Civil War began.

1863-1868 Edison worked as a telegraph operator.

1868 Came up with his 1st patented invention—an Electrical Vote Recorder.

1869 Edison became a professional inventor.

1870 Received $40,000 for his invention of a better stock ticker...
         Opened the 1st invention laboratory

1877 Edison invented the phonograph.

1879 Edison invented the light bulb that lasted 40 hours.
         Edison invented the light bulb that lasted 225 hours.

1881-1887 Invented a system of wireless telegraphy to and from trains in motion, or between moving trains

1900-1910 Ten years of work—along came the Alkaline Storage Battery

1912 Edison introduced the Kinetophone—or talking motion picture.

1914 Invented the Telescribe—the telephone that we know today

1917-1918 Edison worked on experiments to help in defense for WWI.

1929 Henry Ford threw Edison a 50th anniversary party of the invention of the light bulb.

1931 Thomas Alva Edison died.