1858	Born on 23 April [more ...]
1874/79	Academic studies in Munich and Berlin; H. Helmholtz and G. Kirchhoff were among his teachers [more ...]
1879	Doctoral thesis: "On the Second Law of Mechanical Theory of Heat" [more ...]
1885	Appointment as extraordinary professor at Kiel [more ...]
1889	Call to the University of Berlin as successor to G. Kirchhoff; initially as associate professor of theoretical physics [more ...]
1892	Promotion to full professorship [more ...]
1894	Election as member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences [more ...]; from 1912 to 1938 permanent secretary of the physico-mathematical class [more ...]
1900	Announcement before the German Physical Society of his radiation law and its derivation by means of the quantum hypothesis [more ...] - 14 December is considered the "birthday of quantum theory" [more ...]
1913/14	Rectorship of the University of Berlin
1919	Nobel Prize in physics for 1918
1926	Emeritus
1929	Endowment of the Max Planck Medal by the German Physical Society and first award to Max Planck and Albert Einstein [more ...]
1930/37	Presidency of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of the Sciences [more ...] [more ...]
1945	Renewed temporary presidency of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society
1946	Transferral of office to O. Hahn and nomination as honorary president; founding of the "Max Planck Society for the Advancement of the Sciences in the British Zone'' (Bad Driburg, 11 Sep. 1946)
1947	Death in Göttingen on 4 October [more ...]