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| 1919 |
August 25: George Corley Wallace is born in Clio, Barbour County, Alabama, to George C. and Mozelle Wallace. A rural southeastern county famous for producing politicians, Barbour County remained the place where Wallace registered to vote throughout his life. |
| 1923 |
 Martial law is established in Oklahoma to protect citizens from Ku Klux Klan attacks. Following the end of World War I, the newly re-formed KKK began to grow in numbers as well as political power in the South and elsewhere. |
| 1929 |
October 28: The Great Depression in the U.S. begins with the stock market crash. |
| 1932 |
Franklin Delano Roosevelt is elected president in a landslide victory. This will be his first of four consecutive terms. |
| 1935 |
Wallace serves as a page in the Alabama Senate. |
| 1936 |
 Still in high school, Wallace wins the state Golden Gloves bantamweight title, which he successfully defends the following year. He only suffered four defeats in competitive boxing. |
| 1937 |
Eighteen-year-old Wallace enrolls at the University of Alabama Law School in Tuscaloosa. Six weeks after he leaves home, Wallace's father dies from Brill's disease. When he returns to college, Wallace runs for and is elected president of his freshman class. He continues to box. |
| 1939 |
World War II begins in Europe. |
| 1941 |
December 7: Pearl Harbor is attacked by the Japanese.
December 8: The U.S. enters World War II. |
| 1942 |
June: Wallace receives his law degree from the University of Alabama and,shortly afterwards, meets 16-year-old Lurleen Burns. Upon graduation, he enrolls in the U.S. Army Air Force. |
| 1943 |
January: Wallace enrolls in the U.S. Army Air Force.
April 1: Wallace is diagnosed by doctors at the Air Force Cadet Training Program in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, as having spinal meningitis. He slips into a coma for a week. After several weeks of recovery, he receives a 30-day medical leave.
May 21: Wallace and Lurleen Burns are married. |
| 1944 |
 June 6: June 6: D-Day: American troops land in Normandy.
Bobbi Jo, the Wallaces' first daughter, is born. |
| 1945 |
Wallace elects to forgo Officer Candidate School, reasoning that there will be more G.I.s among the Alabama electorate than officers, and instead opts for a training program as a flight engineer.
April 12: FDR dies. Vice President Harry S. Truman is sworn in as president.
May 8: V-E Day: The war ends in Europe after Germany capitulates.
September 2: Japan surrenders, signaling the end of World War II.
December 8: After nine combat missions over Japan, Wallace receives a medical discharge from the Air Force after suffering from chronic "severe anxiety." |
| 1946 |
Wallace wins his first election, as a representative of Barbour County in the Alabama legislature. Focused on enhancing Alabama's industry and education, Wallace became known as progressive and liberal in his dealings with and treatment of black Alabamians. |
| 1948 |
July: Wallace wins a seat as an alternate delegate to the Democratic Convention of 1948, held in Philadelphia. Despite his opposition to President Truman's proposed Civil Rights Program, Wallace refused to join the other Southern delegates, including half the Alabama delegation, in their walkout once the party adopted a civil rights platform. Later, in his 1963 gubernatorial inauguration, he excused this action on political grounds. |
| 1949 |
Wallace is appointed to the Board of Trustees of Tuskegee Institute, founded in 1881 by Booker T. Washington with the goal of training African Americans in teaching skilled trades and crafts. Although there has long been speculation that Wallace sought this appointment as a way of gaining the black vote, his record as an active, productive board member was strong.
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| 1950 |
Peggy Sue, the Wallaces' second child, is born. |
| 1951 |
George C., Jr., the Wallaces' third child, is born. |
