1849 – He was born this year in in Lancaster, Massachusetts, Burbank grew up on a farm and received only an elementary education.
1870 – His father died this year, and he used his small inheritance to buy a 17-acre (69,000 m²) plot of land near Lunenburg.
1872 – He developed the Burbank potato, this year until 1874.
1875 – He sold the rights to the Burbank potato for $150 and used the money to travel to Santa Rosa, California. He established a greenhouse, nursery, and experimental fields that he used to conduct crossbreeding experiments on plants.
1880 – He married twice to Helen Coleman in this year.
1893 – He published a descriptive catalog of some of his best varieties, entitled called New Creations in Fruits and Flowers.
1896 – He divorced his wife this year.
1907 – He published an “essay on childrearing,” called The Training of the Human Plant.
1916 – He married Elizabeth Waters in this year.
1921 – During his career, Burbank wrote, or co-wrote, several books on his methods and results, including his eight-volume How Plants Are Trained to Work for Man.
1926 – He suffered a heart attack and became ill with gastrointestinal complications. He died on April 11 of this year. He was at aged 77 and was buried at the Luther Burbank Home and Gardens.