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Noam Chomsky is born in Philadelphia, Pa.
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Noam Chomsky begins writing his thesis 'The Morphophonemics of Modern Hebrew' while he is a junior fellow at Harvard. This thesis is seen as a major landmark in linguistics and generative phonology. It also covers everything from syntax to phonology of the Hebrew language. This will not be fully published until the late 1970's. Chomsky adapted aspects of work from Zellig S. Harris and Nelson Goodman in his work.
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Noam Chomsky's book 'Aspects of the Theory of Syntax' is published. In this book Chomsky proposes a reformulation of the theory of transformational generative grammar that takes more recent developments of these fields into account.
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'Lectures on Government and Binding: The Pisa Lectures' is published. In it Chomsky touches on his Principles and Parameters Theory of Syntax, which was developed as a possible solution to Plato's Problem. This video goes more in depth about these ideals.
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Chomsky's book Knowledge of Language is published. In it he discusses his theory of Plato's Problem, named so because Plato philosophized about knowledge, experience, and how the two interrelate. 'Plato's Problem' refers to how humans know what they know, and how our knowledge relates to our experience. He thought it up while trying to account for the ability children have to use language before they develop other necessary skills.
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As of today, Noam Chomsky is still alive. He is 93 years old.