1908 – Marshall named Thoroughgood on July 2 to Norma and William Marshall in Baltimore, Maryland; shortens name to Thurgood in second grade.
1929 – Marshall marries University of Pennsylvania student Vivian “Buster” Burrey.
1930 - Marshall graduates from Lincoln University of Pennsylvania (cum laude).
1934 –Marshall graduates from Howard University School of Law (magna cum laude); begins private practice in Baltimore.
1934 – Marshall works for National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Baltimore division.
1935 – Marshall is victorious in first major civil rights case, Murray v. Pearson with his mentor Charles Hamilton Houston.
1936 – Marshall becomes Assistant Special Counsel for NAACP in New York.
1940 – Marshall won first of 29 Supreme Court victories.
1940 – Marshall is named first Director-Counsel of NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
1944 – Marshall successfully argues Smith v. Allwright, removing the South's "white primary."
1948 - Marshall wins Shelley v. Kraemer, in which Supreme Court strikes down legality of racially restrictive covenants.
1950 – Marshall wins Supreme Court victories in two graduate-school integration cases, Sweatt v. Painter and McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents.
1951 – Marshall visits South Korea and Japan to investigate charges of racism in U.S. armed forces. He reported that the general practice was one of "rigid segregation."
1954 – Marshall wins landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka court case.
1955 - Marshall marries Cecelia “Cissy” Suyat Marshall.
1956- Thurgood Marshall Jr. was born.
1959- John W. Marshall was born.
1961 – Marshall defends civil rights demonstrators, winning Supreme Circuit Court victory in Garner v. Louisiana; nominated to Second Court of Appeals by President John F. Kennedy.
1961 – Marshall appointed circuit judge, makes 112 rulings, all of them later upheld by Supreme Court (1961-1965).
1965 – Marshall appointed U.S. Solicitor General by President Lyndon Johnson; wins 14 of the 19 cases he argues for the government (1965-1967).
1967 – Marshall appointed Associate Justice of U.S. Supreme Court by President Lyndon Johnson (served in the position from 1967-1991). He is the first African American appointed to coveted position.
1971- Marshall and the other U.S. Supreme Court Justices guaranteed abortion rights in landmark Roe v. Wade case.
1978 – Marshall and the other U.S. Supreme Court Justices barred quota systems in college admissions in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke case.
1987 - Marshall gifts his name to establish the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund to benefit Public Historically Black Colleges and Universities
1991 – Marshall retires as Associate Justice of U.S. Supreme Court.
1993 – Marshall succumbs to heart failure in Baltimore, Maryland at age 84 and leaves behind a lasting legacy of civil rights.
