ROBERT SCHUMANN

1810 - Robert Schumann born in Zwickau, June 8th, at 10:30pm, the
     fifth child of August and Johanna

     1817 - began piano lessons with Herr Kuntsch

     1820 - gave first public piano performances

     1822 - wrote first piece, Psalm 150, an overture for chorus and opera
     with odd instrumentation

     1825 - founded literary club, Litterarischer Verein, with 10 other
     Lyceum peers

     1826 - Father dies, August 10th. In the same month, his sister Emilie
     drowns herself

     1828 - graduates from the Lyceum with honours. Begins law studies at
     Leipzig.

     1828 - in Leipzig, meets Friedrich Wieck (his future piano teacher and
     father-in-law). Wieck refers to Schumann as "the hothead at the piano".

     1829 - while still studying law, Schumann begins seriously practising
     to be a virtuoso pianist

     1830 - finger injury begins to manifest itself in the form of numbness

     1830 - July 30th - asks mother's permission to abandon his law studies
     and become a virtuoso pianist

     1830 - August 12th - mother agrees

     1830 - October 20th - Wieck takes on Schumann as a live-in student

     1831 - June 8 and July 1 - Florestan and Eusebius, respectively, "born"

     1832 - May - 3rd finger of right hand completely paralyzed. Realizes he
     must compose as his virtuoso career is dead

     1833 - brother Julius and sister-in-law Rosalie die

     1834 - Davidsbuendler assemble; Neue Zeitschrift fuer Musik is born.
     Schumann is the editor, critic and writer. Schumann begins to
     recognize his love for Clara Wieck, his teacher's daughter who is nine
     years his junior

     1836 - Friedrich Wieck tries to separate Clara and Robert

     1838 - Schumann considers moving the production of the Neue
     Zeitschrift to Vienna. Has no luck and returns to Leipzig in April 1839

     1839 - sues Friedrich Wieck in order to marry Clara. Court fight begins

     1840 - February 24 - granted Doctorate of Philosophy (D.Phil). from
     University of Jena, making him Dr. Robert Schumann

     1840 - August 11 - Courts grant Robert and Clara permission to marry
     without her father's consent

     1840 - September 12 - Robert and Clara marry at Schoenefield near
     Leipzig

     1841 - September - Robert and Clara's first child is born. Seven more
     are to follow within the next 13 years

     1843 - Schumann begins teaching composition, score reading and
     piano at Felix Mendelssohn's Conservatory

     1844 - January - Robert and Clara tour Russia

     1844 - November - sells Neue Zeitschrift to Franz Brendel for 500
     thalers

     1844 - December - moves to Dresden

     1848 - flees Dresden to escape revolution

     1850 - moves to Duesseldorf; conducts orchestra and 2 church choirs
     there

     1853 - kicked out as musical director in Duesseldorf

     1853 - October - meets Johannes Brahms and heralds him as the
     future of  music

     1854 - February 27 - 12 noon - attempts suicide by jumping into the
     Rhein

     1854 - March 4 - transferred, upon his request, to the Endenich asylum

     1856 - July 29 - 4pm - dies alone in the asylum
Beethoven was born in Bonn, the son of Johann van Beethoven, tenor in the
        choir of the archbishop-elector of Cologne, and his wife, Maria Magdalena.
        His first music lessons were from his father, an unstable yet ambitious man
        whose rough temper, excessive drinking, and anxiety to mould a second
        Mozart did not destroy Beethoven's talent or his love for music. He studied
        and performed successfully, despite becoming the main breadwinner of the
        family by the time he was 18. His father's increasingly serious alcoholism
        and the earlier death of his grandfather (1773) had plunged the family into
        deepening poverty.