Robert Ripley - Chronology

Chronology

• 1890 Born in Santa Rosa, California
• 1901 Receives his formal education
• 1906 Becomes a semi-pro in baseball and sells first cartoon to Life
• 1908 Quits baseball briefly to support mother
• 1909 Moves from the San Francisco Bulletin to the San Francisco Chronicle
• 1912 Creates his last drawing for the San Francisco Chronicle and moves to New York that winter
• 1913 On January 2, writes his first comic for the New York Globe and tries out for the New York Giants, but an injury ends his baseball hopes
• 1914 Takes his first trip to Europe
• 1918 On December 19, publishes Champs and Chumps in the New York Globe
• 1919 Marries Beatrice Roberts
• 1920 Takes his first solo trip to Europe to cover the Olympics, held in Antwerp, Belgium
• 1922 On December 3, takes first trip around the world; writes in installments in his travel journal
• 1923 On April 7, returns to the U.S. and hires researcher and linguist Norbert Pearlroth; the Globe ceases publication and the series moves to the New York Evening News
• 1925 Writes travel journal, handball guide
• 1926 Becomes New York handball champion and writes book on boxing score; divorces Beatrice Roberts after being separated for some time.
• 1929 On July 9, William Randolph Hearst's King Features Syndicate features Believe It or Not! in seventeen papers worldwide
• 1930 Begins an eighteen-year run on radio and a nineteen-year association with show producer Doug Storer; Hearst funds Ripley's travels around the world, where Ripley records live radio shows from underwater, the sky, caves, snake pits and foreign countries
• 1931 Releases movie shorts for Vitaphone, second book of Believe it or Not!
• 1932 Takes trip to the Far East
• 1933 First Odditorium opens in Chicago
• 1934 Does the first radio show broadcast simultaneously around the world and purchases 28-room home in Mamaroneck, New York
• 1935 Odditorium opens in San Diego
• 1937 Odditorium opens in Cleveland; Peanuts creator Charles Schulz's first published drawing appears in Believe it or Not!
• 1939 Odditoriums open in San Francisco and New York City; Ripley receives honorary degree from Dartmouth College
• 1940 Purchases a 13-room Manhattan apartment; receives two more honorary degrees; number of foreign countries visited through funding by Hearst reaches 201
• 1945 Stops foreign travel to do World War II charity work
• 1946 Purchases a Chinese junk, the Mon Lei (万里)
• 1947 Purchases third home, at High Mount, Florida
• 1948 Radio program ends; the 30th anniversary of Believe it or Not! is celebrated at a New York costume party
• 1949 Ripley dies of a heart attack on May 27 in New York City, New York, shortly after thirteenth telecast of first television show and is buried in Santa Rosa; auction of his estate is held; estate is purchased by John Arthur.