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Samuel Langhorne Clemens is born in Florida, Missouri, the sixth child of John Marshall and Jane Lampton Clemens.
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The Clemens family moves to Hannibal, Missouri, a riverbank town that is a frequent stop for steamboats traveling the Mississippi. Young Samuel reveres the riverboat pilots and hopes to become one himself. This is where he grows to love the Mississippi river he writes about in his books.
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Samuel Clemens begins a successful two-year apprenticeship to become a licensed river pilot. He learns the lingo of the trade, including "mark twain," a phrase that refers to the river depth at which a boat is safe to navigate. He soon adopts it as his pen name.
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The short story "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog" (later "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavaras County") appears in the New York Saturday Press. The story proves extremely popular and raises Twain's profile as a writer.
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In 1870 Mark Twain marries Olivia Langdon in Elmira on February 2, 1870.
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In the span of less than a year, Twain publishes both his greatest fiction and non-fiction works: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and a biography of President Ulysses S. Grant.
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Received Master of Arts degree from Yale University.
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Pudd'nhead Wilson, Twain's last novel, is published. After ten difficult years, Twain's publishing house, Charles L. Webster & Co., finally goes belly-up. The writer finds himself essentially bankrupt. Close friend Henry Huttleston Rogers takes over his finances, saving him from complete disaster.
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Mark Twain dies at the age of 74 at his home in Redding, Connecticut.
