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Wilbur Wright born to Reverend Milton Wright and Susan Catherine Koerner Wright near Milville, Indiana. He is their third child; his older siblings are Reuchlin (b. 1861) and Lorin (b. 1862).
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Wright family moves to Dayton, Ohio.
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Orville Wright born.
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Wilbur and Orville’s sister, Katharine Wright, born.
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Upon his return from a church business trip, Bishop Milton Wright brings home a toy Penaud helicopter. The toy inspires Wilbur and Orville’s first interest in flight.
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Wright brothers build their first aircraft, a rubber-band powered helicopter they call a "bat."
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Wright family moves to Richmond, Indiana, where Orville takes up kite-building.
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Wright family returns to Dayton.
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Wilbur, Orville and Katharine attended Central High School, located at Fourth and Wilkinson Streets in downtown Dayton. While neither Wilbur nor Orville completed their high school education, Katharine graduated from Central in 1892.
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A sports injury leads to health problems that prevent Wilbur from attending college.
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Wilbur takes special “postgraduate” courses at Dayton Central High School and studies Greek and trigonometry.
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Orville starts a printing business while he is still in high school.
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Orville publishes a newspaper, the "West Side News," and Wilbur joins him as editor. The newspaper business does not profit and the Wrights return to "job" printing.
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The Wright brothers begin to sell and repair bicycles.
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The Wrights manufacture their own bicycles, the "St. Clair" and the "Van Cleve." The bike business is profitable.
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The Wrights take an interest in the "flying problem."
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Wilbur devises an aerodynamic control system for aircraft and builds a kite to test it.
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The Wright brothers fly gliders at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, refining their control system. At home in Dayton, Ohio, they build a wind tunnel and conduct research on wing shapes.
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The Wright brothers make the first controlled, sustained powered flights at Kitty Hawk.
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The Wrights develop a practical airplane near Dayton
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The Wright brothers demonstrate a two-passenger airplane in Europe and America.
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The Wrights begin to manufacture airplanes.
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Wilbur Wright dies of typhoid in Dayton, Ohio.
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Orville Wright sells his airplane- company.
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The Wright Brothers Monument at Kitty Hawk is dedicated.
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The Wright Bicycle Shop and Wright home are opened to the public at Henry Ford Museum/Greenfield Village.
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Orville Wright dies of a heart attack in Dayton, Ohio and the Wright brothers' first powered airplane, the 1903 "Flyer," is enshrined at the Smithsonian Institution.
