History of Esperanto - Timeline of Esperanto

Timeline of Esperanto

• 1859: Lazar Zamenhof, the creator of Esperanto, is born in Białystok, Russia (now Poland).
• 1873: The Zamenhof family moves to Warsaw.
• 1878: Zamenhof celebrates the completion of his universal language project, Lingwe Uniwersala, with high-school friends.
• 1879: Zamenhof attends medical school in Moscow. His father burns his language project while he's away. Meanwhile Schleyer publishes a sketch of Volapük, the first constructed international auxiliary language to acquire a number of speakers. Many Volapük clubs will later switch to Esperanto.
• 1881: Zamenhof returns to Warsaw to continue medical school, and starts to recreate his project.
• 1887: Zamenhof marries, and with his wife's help publishes Unua Libro, the book introducing modern Esperanto.
• 1888: Leo Tolstoy becomes an early supporter.
• 1894: Zamenhof, reacting to pressure, puts a radical reform to a vote, but it is overwhelmingly rejected.
• 1901: Zamenhof publishes his ideas on a universal religion, based on the philosophy of Hillel the Elder.
• 1905: The first Universala Kongreso (World Congress) is held in Boulogne-sur-Mer, with 688 participants and conducted entirely in Esperanto. The Fundamento de Esperanto is published.
• 1907: Twelve members of the British parliament nominate Zamenhof for the Nobel Peace Prize. The Ĉekbanko Esperantista (Esperantist Checking Bank) is founded in London, using the spesmilo, an auxiliary Esperanto currency based on the gold standard. A committee organised by Louis Couturat in Paris proposes the Ido reform project, which provides significant competition for Esperanto until the First World War.
• 1908: Universala Esperanto-Asocio, the World Esperanto Association, is founded by Hector Hodler, a 19-year-old Swiss Esperantist.
• 1909: The International Association of Esperantist Railway Workers is founded in Barcelona.
• 1910: 42 members of the French parliament nominate Zamenhof for the Nobel Peace Prize.
• 1917: Zamenhof dies during World War I.
• 1910s: Esperanto is taught in state schools in the Republic of China, Samos, and Macedonia. (Today it is part of the curriculum of China, Hungary, and Bulgaria.)
• 1920: The first Esperanto magazine for the blind, Aŭroro, begins publishing in Czechoslovakia. It's still in print today.
• 1921: The French Academy of the Sciences recommends using Esperanto for international scientific communication.
• 1922: Esperanto is banned from French schools. The French delegate to the League of Nations vetoes the use of Esperanto as its working language, leaving English and French.
• 1924: The League of Nations recommends that member states implement Esperanto as an auxiliary language.
• 1920s: Offices of the Brazilian Ministry of Education use Esperanto for their international correspondence. Lu Xun, the founder of modern Chinese literature, becomes a supporter of Esperanto. Montagu C. Butler is the first to raise Esperanto-speaking children.
• 1933/34: Reorganisation of the international (neutral) Esperanto movement, under the name UEA.
• 1934: Encyclopedia of Esperanto first published in Budapest.
• 1935: Kalocsay and Waringhien publish the influential Plena Gramatiko de Esperanto (Complete Grammar of Esperanto).
• 1936: All Esperanto organisations in Nazi Germany prohibited.
• 1937: Leaders of the Esperanto organisation in the Soviet Union arrested; Esperanto activities made impossible.
• 1938: The World Esperanto Youth Organisation TEJO is founded.
• 1939–1945: In World War II many countries are occupied by Germany and the Soviet Union, where Esperanto organisations often were prohibited or Esperanto activities were limited in other ways.
• 1948: The railway workers' association is refounded as IFEF, the Internacia Fervojista Esperanto-Federacio (International Railway Workers' Esperanto Federation) to foster the use of Esperanto in the administration of the railroads of the world (so far, of Eurasia).
• 1954: UNESCO establishes consultative relations with the World Esperanto Association.
• 1966: The precursor to Pasporta Servo is launched in Argentina. Pasporta Servo is a global network of Esperanto speakers who host Esperantists traveling through their countries.
• 1967: István Nemere founds the Renkontiĝo de Esperanto-Familioj, the first organisation for Esperanto-speaking families.
• 1975: The Esperanto movement spreads to Iran, with three thousand learning the language in Tehran.
• 1980: The Internacia Junulara Kongreso (International Youth Congress) in Rauma, Finland makes explicit the view of many in the Esperanto movement that Esperanto is a goal in itself.
• 1985: UNESCO encourages UN member states to add Esperanto to their school curricula.
• 1987: 6000 Esperantists attend the 72nd Universala Kongreso in Warsaw to mark Esperanto's centennial.
• 1991: The first pan-African Esperanto Conference is held in Lomé, Togo.
• 1992: PEN International accepts an Esperanto section.
• 1999: The Esperanto poet William Auld is nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 2001: The Vikipedio project (Esperanto Wikipedia) is launched, resulting in the first general encyclopedia written in a constructed language. It is now one of the most popular websites in Esperanto.
• 2004: The Europe - Democracy - Esperanto party (E°D°E°) contests the European Parliament elections in France, on a platform of making Esperanto the second language of all EU member states, taking 0.15% of the vote.
• 2007: The State of Israel issues a stamp to commemorate 120 years of Esperanto (1887–2007). An image of Zamenhof is designed in a text describing his life, reproduced from the Wikipedia article on Esperanto. The corner of the tab shows the flag of the Esperanto movement.
• 2009: The Senate of Brazil passed a bill which would make Esperanto an optional part of the curriculum in its state schools. As of 2010 the bill has not yet been passed by the Chamber of Deputies.