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Samuel L. Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri on November 30th, 1835 to Judge John Marshall and Jane Lampton Clemens. At the time of his birth, Halley's Comet was in the sky.
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In the year 1848, a year after Samuel's father dies, he goes to work as an apprentice for Joseph Ament at Missouri Courier newspaper.
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While working with his brother, Orion, Sam edited Orion's newspaper while Orion was on a trip. Sam ended up submitting two sketches to the Saturday Evening Post. Then, his sketch "The Dandy Frightening the Squatter" was published in the May issue of Carpet-Bag of Boston, Massachusetts.
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In 1853, Sam left Hannibal to become a journeyman printer in New York and Philadelphia.
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In 1857, Sam became an apprentice river pilot under Captain Horace Bixby and by 1859, he was a fully licensed pilot for steamboats.
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After being a miner for a short amount of time, in 1862, Sam settled as a reporter in the Virginia City, Nevada Territorial Enterprise. While he was here, he used the pen name Mark Twain in 1863.
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In 1865, Sam visited Jackass Hill in California where he heard the Jumping Frog story and attempted gold mining. On November 18th, he published the story in the November issue of the New York Saturday Press.
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On February 4th, 1869 Sam Clemens proposed to Olivia Louise Langdon who was from Elmira, New York. Following this, he bought part interest in Buffalo Express newspaper and began working as an editor. His very first book, The Innocents Abroad was published the same year.
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On February 2nd, 1870, Clemens married Olivia and they gave birth to their first son on November 7th. Unfortunately, their son died two years later.
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In 1872, Clemen's daughter, Susy, is born on March 19th. The same year, his son died, he built a large house in Hartford, and his second travel book, Roughing It, was published.
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On June 8th, 1874, Clara was born. She was Clemen's second daughter and third child.
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In 1876, Clemens published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
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On July 26th, 1880, Clemen's fourth child and third daughter, Jean, is born.
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Life on the Mississippi is published in 1883.
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In 1885, Twain published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and his publishing firm released a best-seller called Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant.
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In 1890, Twain visited his ill mother in Keokuk, Iowa. Very soon after this, he attended her funeral in Hannibal, Missouri.
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Twain's firm experienced bankruptcy in the year 1894, following the Panic of 1893.
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In 1895, Twain experienced personal bankruptcy and went on a twelve month round-the-world lecture tour to pay off his debts.
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On August 18th, 1896 Twain's daughter, Susy died of meningitis.
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In 1901, Twain received his honorary doctorate degree at Yale.
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Twain's last visit to Hannibal took place from May 29th to June 1st, 1902. While he was there, he handed out graduation diplomas at Hannibal High School. From there, he went to Columbia, Missouri to receive his honorary Doctorate from the University of Missouri.
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Twain's wife, Olivia, dies in 1904 after being sick on a trip to Florence, Italy. After her death, Twain returned to life in New York.
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In 1908, Twain moved into his last home, named Stormfield, in Redding, Connecticut on the 18th of June.
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On October 6th, 1909, Twain's daughter, Clara, married Ossip Gabrilowitsch, a Russian concert pianist and conductor at his home. 2 months later, on Christmas Eve, Twain's daughter, Jean, passed away.
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On Twain's last trip to the Bermuda, he began having heart complications. He returned to his home and died on April 21st. He was then buried in his wife's family's plot, Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira, New York. At the time of his death, Halley's Comet was in the sky again.
