Year

Event

1942

November 29, 1942: Ann Dunham is born Stanley Dunham in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Her parents are Stanley Armour Dunham and Madelyn Dunham. Her father names his daughter Stanley after himself because he wanted a son. When she's 18, Stanley, who doesn't like her boyish name, starts introducing herself as Ann.

1956

Ann Dunham is 13. Her family moves to Mercer Island, Washington, so Ann can attend a new high school that has recently opened. Ann spends 8th grade through high school on Mercer Island. Ann is deeply influenced by two of her teachers: Val Foubert and Jim Wichterman. Foubert, English teacher, and Wichterman, philosophy teacher, encouraged their students to challenge authority and societal norms. The reading list provided by them included: Atlas Shrugged, 1984, and The Communist Manifesto. Parents on Mercer Island were outraged and tried to have Foubert and Wichterman fired. During high school years Ann Dunham states she is an atheist and that she is not interested in getting married or having children.

1960

Ann Dunham is 18. Her family moves to Honolulu, Hawaii. Ann begins classes at the University of Hawaii.

- She meets Barack Obama Sr. in a Russian-language class. Barack Obama Sr. is a foreign student from Kenya, who has a magnetic personality. Barack Obama Sr. is very opinionated, talkative and passionate. The two start dating.

- Ann tells her parents about her African boyfriend and they invite him for dinner.

1961

February 2, 1961: Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Sr. get married in Maui in a discreet ceremony. Nobody is invited. At the time of the wedding Ann is already three months pregnant with Barack Obama Jr.

August 4, 1961: Barack Obama Jr. is born. Ann is eighteen. She drops out of college after one semester in the University of Hawaii.

1962

When Barack Obama Jr. is 1, his father, Barack Obama sr., leaves the family and goes to Harvard to pursue a Ph.D. in economics.

- When Barack Obama Jr. is almost 2, Ann returns to college. Her parents help take care of baby Barack. Money is tight.

- Ann meets Lolo Soetoro at the University of Hawaii. Lolo is a foreign student from Indonesia.

1964

Ann files for divorce from Barack Obama Sr. and he signs the papers.

1967-1970

Ann Dunham and Lolo Soetoro get married.

- Lolo returns to Indonesia. Several months later Ann and Barack Obama follow Lolo to Indonesia.

- They live in Lolo's house, on the outskirts of Jakarta, the Indonesian capital. Power failures are frequent and paved roads are rare.

- Barack Obama attends a Catholic school.

- Lolo is promoted and moves the family to a better neighborhood.

- Barack Obama moves to a public elementary school.

- Ann constantly feels lonely and the marriage begins to fall apart as she finds out she has less and less in common with Lolo.

- Ann takes a job teaching English at the U.S. embassy.

- Ann is worried about Barack's education so she gives him daily English lessons from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m.

- Ann regularly provides Barack with black music and reading material about black people in an effort to compensate for the absence of black people in his life.

- August 15, 1970: Maya Soetoro is born to Ann Dunham and Lolo Soetoro. Maya is Barack Obama's half sister.

1971

Ann Dunham sends 10 year old Barack Obama back to Hawaii. There he lives with Ann's parents in their two bedroom apartment. With the help of Ann's parents, Barack Obama enrolls in the prestigious Punahou prep school on a scholarship.

1972

Ann Dunham returns to Hawaii with her daughter Maya. She and her two children live in a small apartment in Honolulu. Money is still tight.

1974

Ann Dunham goes back to Indonesia to do fieldwork for her Ph.D. Barack Obama decides to stay in Hawaii with Ann's parents.

1980

Ann Dunham files for divorce from Lolo Soetoro.

1988-1992

Ann Dunham is back in Indonesia, continuing her anthropological research for her Ph.D. Her research helps establish a microfinance program in Indonesia, through which financial services are available to poor and low-income Indonesians. In 1992 Ann Dunham finally earns a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Hawaii's with a dissertation titled "Peasant blacksmithing in Indonesia: Surviving and Thriving Against All Odds."

1994

While in Jakarta, Indonesia, first signs of Ann's ovarian cancer appear and misconstrued by a local doctor as indigestion.

1995

Ann Dunham is back in Hawaii. Proper diagnosis reveals she suffers from ovarian and uterine cancer. Ann Dunham dies on November 7, 1995, at 52.