Chronology of Rizal

1848, June 28 -- Rizals parents married in Kalamba, La Laguna: Francisco RizalMercado y Alejandra (born in Bian, April 18, 1818) and Teodora Morales AlonsoRealonda y Quintos (born in Sta. Cruz, Manila, Nov. 14, 1827).
1861, June 19 -- Rizal born, their seventh child.
1861, June 22 -- Christened as Jos Protasio Rizal-Mercado y Alonso-Realonda
1870, age 9 -- In school at Bian under Master Justiniano Aquin Cruz.
1871, age 10 -- In Kalamba public school under Master Lucas Padua.
1872, June 10, age 11 -- Examined in San Juan de Letran college, Manila, which,
during the Spanish time, as part of Sto. Toms University, controlled entrance to all
higher institutions.
1872, June 26 -- Entered the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, then a public school, as a
day scholar.
1875, June 16, age 14 -- Became a boarder in the Ateneo.
1876, March 23, age 15 -- Received the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree, with highest
honors, from Ateneo de Manila.
1877, June. -- Entered Sto. Toms University in the Philosophy course.
1877, Nov. 29 -- Awarded diploma of honorable mention and merit by the Royal
Economic Society of Friends of the Country, Amigos del Pas, for the prize poem.
1878, June, age 16. -- Matriculated in the medical course. Won Liceo ArtisticoLiterario prize, in poetical competition for Indians and Mestizos, with the poem To
the Philippine Youth.
Wounded in the back for not saluting a Guardia Civil lieutenant whom he
had not seen. The authorities ignored his complaint.
1880, April 23, age 19. -- Received Licco Artstico-Literario diploma of honorable
mention for the allegory, The Council of the Gods, in competition open to
Spaniards, mestizos and Indians. Unjustly deprived of the first prize.
1880, Dec. 8. -- Operetta On the Banks of the Pasig produced.
1881, age 20. -- Submitted winning wax model design for commemorative medal for
the Royal Economic Society of Friends of the Country centennial.

1882, May 3, age 21. -- Secretly left Manila taking a French mail steamer at
Singapore for Marseilles and entering Spain at Port Bou by railroad. His brother,
Paciano Mercado, furnished the money.
1882, June. -- Absence noted at Sto. Toms University, which owned the Kalamba
estate. Rizals father was compelled to prove that he had no knowledge of his sons
plan in order to hold the land on which he was the Universitys tenant.
1882, June 15. -- Arrived in Barcelona.
1882, October 3. -- Began studies in Madrid.
1886, --Received degree of Licentiate in Medicine with honors from Central
University of Madrid on June 19 at the age of 24.
Clinical assistant to Dr. L. de Wecker, a Paris oculist.
Visited Universities of Heidelberg, Leipzig, and Berlin.
1887, Feb. 21, age 26. -- Finished the novel Noli Me Tangere in Berlin.
Traveled in Austria, Switzerland and Italy.
1887, July 3. -- Sailed from Marseilles.
1887, Aug. 5. -- Arrived in Manila. Traveled in nearby provinces with a Spanish
lieutenant, detailed by the Governor-General, as escort.
1888, Feb. -- Sailed for Japan via Hong Kong.
1888, Feb. 28 to April 13, age 27. -- A guest at the Spanish Legation, Tokyo, and
traveling in Japan.
1888, April-May. -- Traveling in the United States.
1888, May 24. -- In London, studying in the British Museum to edit Morgas 1609
Philippine History.
1889, March, age 28. -- In Paris, publishing Morgas History. Published The
Philippines A Century Hence in La Solidaridad, a Filipino fortnightly review, first of
Barcelona and later of Madrid.
1890, February to July, age 29. -- In Belgium finished El Filibusterismo which is the
sequel to Noli Me Tangere.
Published The Indolence of the Filipino in La Solidaridad.
1890, August 4. -- Returned to Madrid to confer with his countrymen on the
Philippine situation, then constantly growing worse.

1891, January 27. -- Left Madrid for France.

1891, November, age 30. -- Arranging for a Filipino agricultural colony in British
North Borneo.
Practiced medicine in Hong Kong.
1892, June 26, age 31. -- Returned to Manila under Governor-General Despujols
safe conduct pass.
Organized a mutual aid economic society: La Liga Filipina on July 3.
1892, July 6. -- Ordered deported to Dapitan, but the decree and charges were kept
secret from him.
Taught school and conducted a hospital during his exile, patients coming
from China coast ports for treatment. Fees thus earned were used to beautify the
town. Arranged a water system and had the plaza lighted.
1896, August 1, age 35. -- Left Dapitan en route to Spain as a volunteer surgeon for
the Cuban yellow fever hospitals. Carried letters of recommendation from GovernorGeneral Blanco.
1896, August 7 to September 3. -- On Spanish cruiser Castilla in Manila Bay.
Sailed for Spain on Spanish mail steamer and just after leaving Port Said
was confined to his cabin as a prisoner on cabled order from Manila. (Rizals
enemies to secure the appointment of a governor-general subservient to them, the
servile Polavieja had purchased Governor-General Blancos promotion.)
1896, October 6. -- Placed in Montjuich Castle dungeon on his arrival in Barcelona
and the same day re-embarked for Manila. Friends and countrymen in London by
cable made an unsuccessful effort for a Habeas Corpus writ at Singapore. On arrival
in Manila was placed in Fort Santiago dungeon.
1890, December 3. -- Charged with treason, sedition and forming illegal societies,
the prosecution arguing that he was responsible for the deeds of those who read his
writings.
During his imprisonment Rizal began to formulate in his mind his greatest poem
who others later entitle, My Last Farewell. (later concealed in an alcohol cooking
lamp)
December 12 --- Rizal appears in a courtroom where the judges made no effort to
check those who cry out for his death.

1896, December 15. -- Wrote an address to insurgent Filipinos to lay down their
arms because their insurrection was at that time hopeless. Address not made public
but added to the charges against him.
1896, December 27. -- Formally condemned to death by a Spanish court martial.
Pi y Margall, who had been president of the Spanish Republic, pleaded with the
Prime Minister for Rizals life, but the Queen Regent could not forgive his having
referred in one of his writings to the murder by, and suicide of, her relative, Crown
Prince Rudolph of Austria.
1896, December 29 -- Completes and puts into writing "My Last Farewell." He
conceals the poem in an alcohol heating apparatus and gives it to his family. He
may have also concealed another copy of the same poem in one of his shoes but, if
so, it is lost in decomposition in his burial.
1896, December 30, age 35 years, 6 months, 11 days. -- Roman Catholic sources
allege that Rizal marries Josephine Bracken in his Fort Santiago death cell to
Josephine Bracken; she is Irish, the adopted daughter of a blind American who came
to Dapitan from Hong Kong for treatment.
Shot on the Luneta, Manila, at 7:03 a.m., and buried in a secret grave in Paco
Cemetery. (Entry of his death was made in the Paco Church Register among
suicides.)
1897, January. -- Commemorated by Spanish Free-masons who dedicated a tablet to
his memory, in their Grand Lodge hall in Madrid, as a martyr to Liberty.
1898, August. -- Filipinos who placed over it in Paco cemetery, a cross inscribed
simply December 30, 1896, sought his grave, immediately after the American
capture of Manila. Since his death his countrymen had never spoken his name, but
all references had been to The Dead.
1898, December 20. -- President Aguinaldo, of the Philippine Revolutionary
Government, proclaimed December 30th as a day of national mourning.
1898, December 30. -- Filipinos held Memorial services at which time American
soldiers on duty carried their arms reversed.
1911, June 19. -- Birth semi-centennial observed in all public schools by an act of
the Philippine Legislature.
1912, December 30. -- Rizals ashes transferred to the Rizal Mausoleum on the
Luneta with impressive public ceremonies.