9 January : Simone de Beauvoir is born.
"My father was thirty, my mother twenty-one, and I was their first child.  I turn a page of the album; Mummy is holding a baby in her arms that isn’t me.  I am wearing a pleated skirt, a beret, I’m two and a half years old, and my sister has just been born."

October : Simone de Beauvoir begins school at Cours Désir. 
"The evening before my first class, I jumped for joy in the antechamber.  ‘Tomorrow I’m going to school!’ – ‘You won’t enjoy it’, Louise told me.  For once, she was wrong, I was sure of it.  The idea of gaining possession of my own life intoxicated me."

Diligent attendance of the Ecole Normale and regular time spent with fellow students.
Meets André Herbaut – the beginning of a friendship.
Studies "My Life" by Isadora Duncan in the Luxembourg Gardens.
Herbaud gives Simone de Beauvoir a picture that Sartre has drawn for her, with the dedication: "Leibnitz bathing with the Monads".
Herbaud’s inscription on Simone de Beauvoir’s exercise book: "BEAUVOIR = BEAVER".
Spends time with ‘the clan’ in between taking the written and oral parts of the ‘agrégation’ (the highest teaching diploma obtainable in France).
Simone de Beauvoir passes the written part of the ‘agrégation’ examination, as do Sartre and Nizan.  Herbaud fails.
Zaza dies.

Aron, Nizan, Pagniez.
Simone de Beauvoir earns a living teaching Latin at the lycée Victor Duruy.
November: Sartre leaves for military service.

Sartre is appointed as a teacher in Le Havre, Simone de Beauvoir in Marseille.
During the summer break, travels in Spain.
October: Simone de Beauvoir moves to Marseille.

Attempts to write a novel.
Summer: another journey to Spain.
Simone de Beauvoir appointed to a post in Rouen.
Meets Colette Audry.
Sartre discovers German phenomenology.

Easter holiday in London. Two rows with Sartre.
New attempt at a novel.
Sartre leaves for Berlin.

Travels to Berlin (February).
Reading: Faulkner and Kafka.
End of June: second trip to Germany with Sartre, then holidays in Corsica.
When term starts again, studies history and reads Husserl. 
Writes stories and short stories.

The trio. (Olga, Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir.)
Meets Jacques Bost (a pupil of Sartre’s.)
Summer: travelling in Italy.
Teacher at the lycée Molière à Paris.
Headquarters: Le Dôme.
Jean Paulhan rejects "Melancholia", Sartre’s novel that is later to become "Nausea".

The manuscript of Simone de Beauvoir’s "Primauté du spirituel" (the original title for "When Things of the Spirit Come First") is successively rejected by Gallimard and Grasset.
Summer travels in Morocco.
October - writes "L'Invitée" ("She Came to Stay").

1 September.  Following the declaration of war Sartre is conscripted. Simone de Beauvoir resumes her classes at Camille-Sée and Henri-IV.

Sartre is taken prisoner.
Nizan dies.

Sartre returns to Paris.
Attempt to create a resistance group with Sartre, Cuzin, Desanti, Bost, Jean Pouillon, Merleau-Ponty, Simone de Beauvoir and several others: ‘Socialism and Liberty’.
Meets Giacometti.
July: Simone de Beauvoir’s father dies.

Brice Parain then Paulhan agree to publish Simone de Beauvoir’s novel, but are unhappy with the title "Légitime défense" ("Legitimate Defense"). The author suggests "L'invitée" ("She Came to Stay").

Sartre agrees to join the CNE (National Committee of Writers) and assists in writing "Lettres françaises".
Finishes writing "Sang des autres" ("The Blood of Others").
On the invitation of Jean Grenier, Simone de Beauvoir writes "Pyrrhus et Cinnéas". The manuscript is accepted by Gallimard in July.
Writes a third novel: "Tous les hommes sont mortels" ("All Men are Mortel").
Publication of "L’Invitée"- positive critical reception.
Meets Albert Camus.

Simone de Beauvoir takes part in a reading at Michel Leiris’ of a play by Picasso, "Le désir attrapé par la queue" ("Desire Caught by the Tail"). Meets Salacrou, Bataille, Georges Limbour, Sylvia Bataille, Lacan, Picasso, Braque.
March, April: Fiesta period.
April - July: Writes "Bouches inutiles" ("Who Shall Die?")
August: Walks around liberated Paris with Sartre.
Autumn: "Pyrrhus et Cinnéas" is published by Gallimard.
Meets Hemingway.
Becomes friends with Camus.
Plans for a journal. The title "Les Temps Modernes" is chosen in place of the title suggested by Michel Leiris ("Grabuge"). The editorial board is finalised by September. Camus is unable to participate as he is too involved with "Combat"; Malraux refuses. The committee is made up of: Aron, Leiris, Merleau-Ponty, Albert Ollivier, Paulhan, Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir.
New friendships: Nathalie Sarraute, Violette Leduc.

Travelling in north Africa, Tunisia, Algeria.
Returns to Paris, meets Boris Vian via Queneau.
Finishes writing "All Men are Mortal". Begins "Pour une morale de l'ambiguité" ("The Ethics of Ambiguity").
May: Conference tour in Switzerland with Sartre.
Jean Cau becomes Sartre’s secretary.
June: Editorial board of "Les Temps Modernes" splits up.
Travels in Italy.
October: Meets Koestler. Evenings with Boris Vian. Quarrel with Camus.
"All Men are Mortal" is published.

Travels in America (May). Meets Nelson Algren. Travels in Sweden with Sartre. September: Second trip to the USA. Radio forum for "Les Temps Modernes" (discontinued after several weeks). Rupture with Raymond Aron puis then Arthur Koestler.

February-March
Founding of Rassemblement démocratique révolutionnaire (RDR), at David Rousset’s instigation.
Travels in the USA with Algren, cut short by Simone de Beauvoir.
Publication of "L'amérique au jour le jour" ("America Day by Day") by Mohrien.
Simone de Beauvoir works on an essay about the female condition.
Travels with Sartre in Algeria. Simone de Beauvoir moves to rue de la Bûcherie.
Following the publication in "Les Temps Modernes" of Simone de Beauvoir’s study "La femme et les mythes" ("Women and Myth"), work continues on the next part.

Simone de Beauvoir and Sartre assist in the Kravtchenko trial (January).
Winter spent with Sartre in the south, writing.
May-June: Rupture with Rousset and disbandment of the RDR.
Publication of "Le Deuxième Sexe" ("The Second Sex"),
Algren visits Paris.
Travels with Algren: Rome, Naples, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco.
November: Publication of the "The Second Sex, Part II".

Spring: Travels in sub-Saharan Africa via the Sahara with Sartre.
Travels to the USA to see Algren again.
Winter: Musical.  Simone de Beauvoir buys a gramophone and is operated on for a benign tumour. 

Simone Berriau introduces Simone de Beauvoir to Colette.
Summer travels with Sartre: Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, London.
October spent with Algren in Michigan.
Buys a car.

Early summer: Sartre breaks with Camus and moves closer to the communists.
Simone de Beauvoir finishes writing her novel "Les Mandarins" ("The Mandarins").
Meets Claude Lanzmann during an evening hosted by Bost.
Travels in Italy with Sartre.
December: Several days in Holland with Lanzmann.

Sartre in Moscow during May.
Hospitalised for acute hypertension.
Travels in Spain with Lanzmann.
Travels in Austria and Czechoslovakia with Sartre.
October: Publication of "The Mandarins".  40,000 copies sold in a month.  Prix Goncourt.

Takes part in the World Peace Congress in Helsinki with Sartre.
Travels in Spain with Lanzmann.
Autumn: Travels in China with Sartre.
"Privilèges" is published by Gallimard.

Works unremittingly on book about China.
Journey to Greece via Italy and Yugoslavia with Lanzmann, Sartre and Michelle Vian.
End of the holiday spent in Rome with Sartre.
Hungarian uprising.
Simone de Beauvoir and Sartre sign a writer’s petition against the Soviet intervention.   

Sartre writes "La critique de la raison dialectique" ("Critique of Dialectical Reason").
March: Manuscript for "Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée" ("Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter") delivered to Gallimard.
Summer: to Rome with Sartre.
Participation in the anti-Gaullist demonstration of 4 September and at meetings for the NO vote in the referendum.
New and worrying attack of fatigue suffered by Sartre.
Publication of "Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter".

Camus dies.
February: Leaves for Cuba with Sartre on the invitation of Carlos Franqui.
Brief stop in New York.
March: Nelson Algren in Paris. Travel to Spain together.
Simone de Beauvoir writes a preface for the book by Lagroua Weil-Hallé entitled "Planning familial" ("Family Planning") and another for "La grande peur d'aimer" ("The Great Fear of Loving").
End of May: Simone de Beauvoir intervenes, at the request of Gisèle Halimi, for Djamila Boupacha, the horribly tortured Algerian militant. Article in "Le Monde". Stormy meeting with Patin, President of the Committee for Public Safety. 
The 121 Manifesto.
Travels with Algren: Istanbul, Athens, Crete.  Return to Paris.
Mid-August: Start of a two-month trip to Brazil with Sartre.
Publication of "La force de l'âge" ("The Prime of Life") in November.
Meetings with Christiane Rochefort.

Merleau-Ponty dies.
Summer in Rome.
Meeting with Franz Fanon.
Return to Paris.
1 November - takes part with Sartre in a demonstration against the bloody repression of the Algerian demonstrations of 17 October. 
Preface for Gisèle Halimi’s book about Djamila Boupacha
Franz Fanon dies.
Gloomy winter.  

Travels to the USSR and Czechoslovakia.
"La force des choses" ("The Force of Circumstance") is finished in spring and published in the autumn.
Death of Simone de Beauvoir’s mother, recounted in "Une mort très douce" ("A Very Easy Death").

Spring: Preface to Jean-François Steiner’s "Treblinka".
May: Travels in the USSR. Unable to meet with Soljenitsyne as planned.
September: Trip to Japan with Sartre.
November: Publication of the novel "Les belles images".

February-March: Simone de Beauvoir, Sartre and Lanzmann are invited to Egypt by Hassanein Heykal (director of Al Ahram and confidant of Nasser).
They then go on to Israel.
June: Six-Day War.
Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir take part in the "Russel Tribunal" (charged with judging American war crimes in Vietnam) in Stockholm in May.   
Refuse to assist in the Congress of Soviet Writers in order to avoid supporting either the condemnation of Siniavski and Daniel or the silence to which Soljenitsyne was constrained.
Interviewed by Simone de Beauvoir in "L'Observateur", Claire Etcherelli is awarded the Fémina prize for "Elise ou la vraie vie".

January: Publication of "La femme rompue" ("The Woman Destroyed").
May: May 68.
November: Trip to Prague with Sartre (who had violently condemned the Soviet intervention) for performances of "Les Mouches" and "Les mains sales").

January: Publication of "La vieillesse" ("The Coming of Age").
Following the condemnation of maoist leaders Le Bris and Le Dantec, Simone de Beauvoir agrees to help direct the Association of Friends of "La cause du people" with Michael Leiris.   
For the same reasons, Simone de Beauvoir accepts the directorship of "L'Idiot International" (founded by Jean-Edern Hallier).
October: Participates in the defence of pupils (single mothers) at the CET du Plessis-Robinson.
November: Simone de Beauvoir becomes involved with the MLF’s (French Women’s Liberation Movement) campaign for free access to abortion and takes part in the Parisian demonstration of 20 November.

Publication of "Tout compte fait" ("All Said and Done").

Jean-Paul Sartre dies.

Publication of "La cérémonie des adieux" ("Adieux: A Farewell to Sartre").

Simone de Beauvoir dies aged 78. She is laid to rest with Sartre in the cemetery at Montparnasse, Paris. She is buried wearing the ring that Nelson Algren gave her on her finger.