Literary Chronology

1580: Thomas Middleton is born in London, England.

1611: Thomas Middleton's A Chaste Maid in Cheapside is first produced in London at the Swan Theater.

1622: Molière is born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin on January 13 in Paris, France.

1627: Thomas Middleton dies on July 4 in Newington Butts, Surrey, England.

1664: Molière's Tartuffe is first produced in Versailles, France, at the Château de Versailles on May 12.

1673: Molière dies on February 17.

1871: J. M. Synge is born on April 16 in the Dublin suburb of Newton Little.

1882: Susan Glaspell is born on July 1 in Davenport, Iowa.

1902: Langston Hughes is born on February 1 in Joplin, Missouri.

1906: Samuel Barclay Beckett is born on April 13 in Foxrock County, Dublin, Ireland.

1907: J. M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World is first produced in Dublin, Ireland, on January 26 at the Abbey Theatre.

1909: J. M. Synge dies on March 24 in Dublin.

1911: Tennessee Williams is born on March 26 in Columbus, Mississippi.

1917: Carson McCullers is born Lula Carson Smith on February 19 in Columbus, Georgia.

1921: Susan Glaspell's The Verge is first performed at the Provincetown Playhouse on November 14.

1923: Norman Beim is born on October 2 in Newark, New Jersey.

1927: Neil Simon is born on July 4 in Bronx, New York.

1932: Megan Terry is born Marguerite Duffy on July 22 in Seattle, Washington.

1934: Herb Gardner is born on December 28 in Brooklyn, New York.

1935: Langston Hughes's Mulatto is first produced in New York at the Vanderbilt Theatre on October 24.

1948: Susan Glaspell dies on July 27.

1950: Tennessee Williams's The Rose Tattoo is first produced in New York at the Martin Beck Theatre on February 3.

1957: Samuel Beckett's Endgame is first produced in London at the Royal Court Theatre on April 3.

1957: David Henry Hwang is born on August 11 in Los Angeles, California.

1957: Carson McCullers's The Square Root of Wonderful is first produced in New York at the National Theatre on October 30.

1965: Megan Terry's Calm Down Mother is first produced in New York at the Sheridan Square Playhouse March 29.

1967: Langston Hughes dies on May 22 in New York of congestive heart failure.

1967: Carson McCullers dies on September 29 in Nyack, New York, following a stroke.

1969: Samuel Beckett is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1978: Norman Beim's The Deserter is first produced Off-Off Broadway at the Troupe Theatre on April 17.

1983: Tennessee Williams dies on February 24 in New York City from choking.

1983: David Henry Hwang's The Sound of a Voice is first produced in New York at the Shakespeare Festival Public Theatre on November 6.

1985: Herb Gardner's I'm Not Rappaport is first produced.

1989: Samuel Beckett dies on December 22; he is buried in Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris.

1991: Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers is first produced in New York at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on February 21.

1991: Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.