| 1904 | Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dalí y Domenech is born on 11 May in Figueras, Spain to Salvador Dalí y Cusi and Felipa Domenech. Dalí's excellent drawing skills are recognized at an early age. |
| 1917-19 | Dalí's Impressionist and Pointillist period. Salvador studies drawing, etching and painting under Juan Núñez, an excellent teacher. |
| 1920-21 | Influences from Bonnard, the Italian futurists and Carriére. |
| 1921 | Enters the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts, where he meets Federico García Lorca, Luis Buñuel and Eugenio Montes. Death of Dalí's mother. |
| 1923 | Influences from Cubism, Pointillism and the Italian metaphysicists, including Carlo Carrá and Giorgio de Chirico. Expelled from the Academy for encouraging students to rebel against its authorities. Arrested for 35 days for political reasons. |
| 1925-29 | Becomes renowned as an artist. Writes numerous articles. |
| 1926 | Finally expelled by royal order from the San Fernando of Fine Arts. First visit to Paris, where he meets Picasso. |
| 1928 | Influences from Max Ernst, Arp and Miró. Causes a scandal with exhibition at the Salon d'Automne. |
| 1929 | Participates in making the sensational film Un Chien Andalou. Paints his first Surrealist works. The poet Paul Eluard and his wife Gala, the Russian-born Elena Diakonova, visit Dalí. Dalí seduces Gala and they get married. As a result Dalí's father breaks off all contact with his son. |
| 1930-33 | Influences from Gaudí, Böcklin and Vermeer. The film L'Age d'or. |
| 1934 | Falls out with Breton. |
| 1938 | Meets Freud in London and draws several portraits of him. |
| 1939 | Expelled for good from the Surrealists. |
| 1940-48 | Lives and works mainly in California. |
| 1946 | Cartoon sketches for Disney and film designs for Hitchcock. |
| 1948-49 | Paints his first religious works. |
| 1958 | Presents a 15-metre long loaf of bread in a performance in Paris. |
| 1960-73 | Makes important works of graphic art and designs Surrealist objects. |
| 1971 | The Teatro-Museo Dalí is established in Figueras, and the Salvador Dalí Museum in Cleveland. |
| 1982 | Gala dies on 10 June. Dalí moves to Púbol, Spain into a castle which he had given to Gala. |
| 1983 | "Dalí" perfume. Makes his last painting The Swallow's Tail. |
| 1984 | Receives severe burns in a fire at the castle in Púbol. |
| 1989 | Dalí dies of heart failure on 23 January at Torre Galatea, where he moved after the fire at the castle. Buried according to his wishes in the crypt of the Teatro-Museo. Dalí bequeaths all his works and property to the Spanish state. |
