Originally uploaded on 2017.05.15 Chronology of Events in Rizal's Life - a summary of events in Rizal's life leading up to his death

1. CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS IN RIZAL’S LIFE
Page 1 of 9National Historical Commission of the Philippines
1861
June 19 – Jose Mercado is born to Teodora Alonso and
Francisco Mercado, the 7
th
of eleven children in Calamba,
Laguna. The family adopts the surname Rizal from the Spanish
racial meaning green fields.
1869
Rizal is traditionally believed to have written the poem Sa
Aking Mga Kababata. The most quoted stanza speaks of love
for the native language:
Ang hindi magmahal sa kanyang salita
Mahigit sa hayop at malansang isda …
He who does not love his own tongue
Is far worse than a brute or stinking fish
(translated by Nick Joaquin)
1871
Teodora Alonso is jailed in Sta. Cruz, Laguna for conspiring
with her half brother Jose Alberto to poison his wife. Her 2 ½
years imprisonment is traumatic for the young Rizal.
1872
February 17 – Three Filipino secular priests Mariano Gomes,
Jose Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora are executed in
Bagumbayan after being implicated in the failed Cavite Mutiny.
June 26 – Rizal enters the Ateneo Municipal
1877
March 23 – Rizal receives his Bachelor of Arts degree at the
Ateneo with a grade of sobresaliente. He then takes up a
course in land surveying.
1878
July 2 – Rizal enters the University of Santo Tomas for the
preparatory medicine course.
Rizal and his board mates at Casa Tomasina

2. CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS IN RIZAL’S LIFE
Page 2 of 9National Historical Commission of the Philippines
1879
November 22 – Rizal wins the first prize in the poetry
competition sponsored by the Liceo Artistico Literario de
Manila for his poem A la juventud filipina. Rizal is the first to
use “Filipino” to denote his countrymen.
Alsa tu tersa frente
juventud filipina en este dia!
Look up with a tranquil face.
Philippine youth, on this day and shine
(translated by Nick Joaquin)
1880
December 8 – Rizal’s Junto al Pasig is presented by the
Ateneo.
1882
May 3 – Rizal leaves the Philippines to pursue higher studies
in Spain.
August 20 – Diariong Tagalog publishes Rizal’s first essay El
Amor Patrio under the pseudonym “Laong Laan” which means
“ever prepared”.
November 3 – Rizal enrolls at the Universidad Central de
Madrid in two courses, Medicine and Philosophy.
1884
June 25 – Rizal delivers a speech in honor of Juan Luna and
Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo who won gold and silver medals,
respectively, at the 1884 Exposicion General de Bellas Artes in
Madrid.
Spoliarium by Juan Luna
1885
While visiting Paris, Rizal draws “The Monkey and the Turtle”
in the album of Luna’s fiancée, Paz Pardo de Tavera.
Rizal’s illustrations for “The Monkey and the Turtle”
1886
April 22 – Rizal writes the poem A las flores del Heidelberg.
Rizal stays at the vicarage of Pastor Karl Ullmer in
Wilhelmsfeld outside Heidelberg.
July 31 – Rizal initiates correspondence with Ferdinand
Blumentritt and sends him a book on arithmetic in Spanish and
Tagalog.
August – While in Leipzig, Rizal translates Johann von
Schiller’s “Wilhelm Tell” from the original German into Tagalog.
October 14 – Rizal translates five Hans Christian Andersen’s
fairy tales into Tagalog and sends them to his nephews and
nieces in the Philippines as a gift.

3. CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS IN RIZAL’S LIFE
Page 3 of 9National Historical Commission of the Philippines
1887
March 21 – Rizal publishes the Noli me tangere in Berlin.
August 5 – Rizal returns to the Philippines and practices
medicine in Calamba. The townspeople call him Dr. Uliman
from El doctor Aleman (The German Doctor).
August 29 – Rizal is summoned to Malacañang to explain that
the Noli is not seditious. Governor General Emilio Terrero
assigns Lieutenant Jose Taviel de Andrade as Rizal’s escort.
1888
February 28 – Rizal arrives in Tokyo and stays in the Spanish
Legation where he is offered a job as official interpreter.
May 25 – Rizal conducts research at the British Museum. He
copies by hand Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas
Filipinas (1609).
1889
February 22 – La Solidaridad publishes Rizal’s letter to the
young women of Malolos.
March 19 – Rizal organizes Los Indios Bravos after watching a
show on American Indians at the Paris Exposition.
September 30 – Rizal’s Filipinas dentro de cien anos (The
Philippines within a Century) is serialized in La Solidaridad until
January 31, 1890.
Filipino students in Spain
1890
Rizal publishes an annotated edition of Antonio de Morga’s
Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas in Paris.

4. CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS IN RIZAL’S LIFE
Page 4 of 9National Historical Commission of the Philippines
July 20 – Rizal informs Blumentritt that his family and the
Calamba farmers lost in the land dispute case against the
Dominican friars. He feels responsible for encouraging the
tenant farmers to file litigation.
November 15 – Rizal becomes a Master Mason of the Lodge
Solidaridad and uses the name Dimas-Alang which is Tagalog
for “touch me not” or noli me tangere.
As a result of the Calamba land dispute, Paciano and brothers-
in-law Antonio Lopez and Silvestre Ubaldo are exiled to
Calapan, Mindoro. Another brother-in-law, Manuel Hidalgo, is
exiled to Bohol for serving as legal counsel of the tenant
farmers.
1891
September 18 – Rizal publishes El Filibusterismo in Ghent,
Belgium.
November 20 – Rizal opens an eye clinic in Hong Kong.
Early December – Teodora Alonso is arrested for not using
the name Teodora Realonda de Rizal and is forced to walk 85
kms. from Manila to Santa Cruz, Laguna despite her advanced
age.
December 6 – Rizal’s father, Paciano, and Silvestre Ubaldo
arrive in Hong Kong. After Christmas, his mother and sisters
Lucia, Josefa, and Trinidad join them in exile.
1892
March 7 – Rizal proposes to establish a Filipino colony in
Sandakan, British North Borneo.
June 26 – Rizal returns to the Philippines with his sister Lucia.
Subversive leaflets are found in his luggage.
July 3 – Rizal founds La Liga Filipina in Tondo, and meets
several people including Andres Bonifacio.
July 7 – Rizal is exiled to Dapitan. Upon hearing the news of
his exile, some progressive members of La Liga Filipinas found
the Katipunan.
1892
July 17 – Rizal arrives in Dapitan.
September 1 – Rizal responds to the letters of Father Pablo
Pastells, S.J., the Jesuit Superior in the Philippines, on matters
of philosophy and religion.
September 21 – Rizal wins in the lottery and purchases an
estate called Talisay. He plants coffee, cacao, sugar cane, and
other fruit-bearing trees. He also raises animals and poultry.

5. CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS IN RIZAL’S LIFE
Page 5 of 9National Historical Commission of the Philippines
Rizal designs Dapitan’s town plaza and embellishes it with a
relief map of Mindanao, now declared a National Historical
Landmark by the National Historical Institute and National
Cultural Treasure by the National Museum in 2005.
1893
Rizal opens a clinic on his estate.
1894
Rizal teaches reading, Spanish, English, Mathematics, and
Geometry to boys in Dapitan.
Rizal sculpts Oyang Dapitana and Mother’s Revenge.
1895
January 15 – Rizal builds a dam in Talisay.
Early February – Rizal diagnoses the failing vision of George
Taufer who arrives in Dapitan accompanied by Josephine
Bracken.
November 15 – Rizal writes La Curacion de los Hechizados
(The Cure of the Bewitched), acknowledged as the first
psychological essay written by a Filipino.
December 17 – Rizal offers his services as doctor of the
Spanish Army in Cuba to Governor General Ramon Blanco.
Rizal composes the song Himno a Talisay.
Rizal composes the poem A Josefina for Josephine Bracken.
Rizal sculpts Josephine Sleeping and a relief portrait of
Josephine Bracken.
1896
July 1 – Rizal confers with Pio Valenzuela on the plans of the
Katipunan for an armed uprising.

6. CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS IN RIZAL’S LIFE
Page 6 of 9National Historical Commission of the Philippines
July 30 – Rizal receives Governor General Blanco’s
permission to go to Cuba.
August 23 – The Philippine Revolution breaks out while Rizal
is in transit for Cuba.
September 30 – Rizal is arrested and imprisoned in Montjuich
Castle upon arrival in Barcelona, Spain.
November 3 – Rizal returns to Manila and is imprisoned in
Fort Santiago.
December 11 – Rizal appears before Spanish prosecutors
charged with sedition.
December 15 – Rizal writes a manifesto to the Filipino people.
December 26 – Rizal stands trial before a military tribunal and
is defended by Luis Taviel de Andrade, brother of his former
escort in Calamba.
December 27 – Rizal is sentenced to death for being “the
living soul of the Revolution”.
1896
December 29 – Rizal gives his sister Trinidad an alcohol lamp
where he hid the Mi Ultimo Adios.
December 30 – Rizal is executed in Bagumbayan and is
buried in an unmarked grave in Paco Cemetery.
1898
December 30 – General Emilio Aguinaldo declares this date “a
national day of mourning” in honor of Rizal.

7. CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS IN RIZAL’S LIFE
Page 7 of 9National Historical Commission of the Philippines
1901
June 11 – The Philippine Commission passes Act No. 137
creating the province of Rizal from the District of Morong and
several towns from the Province of Manila.
September 28 – The Philippine Commission passes Act No.
243 for a monument at the Luneta in honor of Rizal. Swiss
sculptor Richard Kissling designs the Rizal Monument.
1912
December 30 – Rizal’s remains are interred beneath the Rizal
Monument.
1956
June 12 – President Ramon Magsaysay signs Republic Act
No. 1425 mandating all public and private schools to include in
the curriculum the study of the life and works of Rizal
particularly the Noli me tangere and El Filibusterismo.
1960
March 23 – Construction of the National Library building starts.
1961
June 19 – The Philipppines celebrates the centennial of Rizal’s
birth.
June 19 – President Carlos Garcia inaugurates the National
Library building.
The Jose Rizal National Centennial Commission (JRNCC)
collates and publishes Rizal’s various writings.
The JRNCC unveils historical markers in various places in
Europe visited by Rizal.
1996
Celebration of the Centennial of Rizal’s Martyrdom.
2011
June 19 – Celebration of the 150
th
Birth Anniversary of Rizal.

8. CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS IN RIZAL’S LIFE
Page 8 of 9National Historical Commission of the Philippines
Concepcion, eighth child, died at the age of 3.

9. CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS IN RIZAL’S LIFE
Page 9 of 9National Historical Commission of the Philippines