Born: May 15, 1845, in the Kupiansky uyezd of the Kharkov district, probably in the village of Ivanovka

1862: Graduated from the 2nd Kharkov Gymnasium with a gold medal

1864: Studied in the Natural Sciences Department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty, Kharkov University

1864-1867: Scientific research in the universities of Giessen, Goettingen and Munich; collection of research material in Naples and Messina

1867: Awarded a Magister degree (equivalent to a Master of Science) in zoology

1868-1870: Dotsent (equivalent to assistant professor) and later professor of zoology, Imperial St. Petersburg University

1870: Awarded a doctoral degree in zoology

1870-1882: Professor of zoology, Head of the Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, Novorossiya University, Odessa

October 1882-April 1883: Scientific research in Messina, where he performed his famous starfish larvae experiments and began to formulate the phagocyte theory - the first modern theory of immunity

1883: Chaired the Seventh Congress of Russian Naturalists and Physicians, Odessa; delivered a talk, "On the Curative Forces of the Organism," in which he for the first time presented his theory of immunity in public

1883: Elected corresponding member of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences

1886-1888: Head of the Odessa Bacteriological Station

October 1888: Emigrated to France

1888-1916: Head of Department (Microbie morphologique), and from 1905, Deputy Director, Pasteur Institute, Paris

1891: Awarded an honoris causa doctoral degree, University of Cambridge

1891: Attended the Seventh International Congress of Hygiene and Demography, London, where he took part in the first ever public debate on immunity

1894: Attended the Eighth International Congress of Hygiene and Demography, Budapest; delivered a talk on immunity and served as Honorary Chairman of one of the congress's sections

1895: Elected to the Royal Society

1896: Named officier of the Legion of Honor by the President of France

1900: Elected to France's Academy of Medicine

1900: Attended the Thirteenth International Medical Congress, Paris; delivered his last major report on immunity studies in his laboratory. See a list of Metchnikoff's publications on immunity

1901: Received the Wilde Medal of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society; delivered a lecture, "The Flora of the Human Body," in which he presented his theory that aging was caused by harmful intestinal microbes. See a list of Metchnikoff's publications on longevity and the intestinal flora

1903-1906: Conducted research on syphilis, developing preventive measures

June 8, 1904: Delivered a lecture, "Old Age," that started a global mania for yogurt

1904: Elected corresponding member of France's Academy of Sciences; in 1912, promoted to associé étranger of the Academy

1906: Received the Copley Medal, the highest distinction of the Royal Society of London

1908: Awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (shared with Paul Ehrlich)

1908-1914: Published four scientific papers in the series "Studies of the Intestinal Flora"

1911: Expedition to the Astrakhan steppe to study the plague and tuberculosis among the Kalmyks

1915: Published his last scientific paper, on the death of silkworms

Died: July 15, 1916, in Paris