| 1920 |
June 10: Ruth McCue Bell is born in China
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| 1927 |
Bell family temporarily settles in Waynesboro, Va., due to political upheaval in China
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| 1928 |
Bells return to Qingjiang, China aboard the S.S. President Cleveland
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| 1933 |
Ruth sails to Pyongyang, (now North) Korea to attend high school
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| 1935 |
Bells on one-year furlough to U.S., rent a stone house in Montreat, N.C.
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| 1936 |
Ruth graduates from high school in Montreat, but returns to China with her family as they believe she’s still too young for college in the U.S.
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| 1937 |
Japanese attack Chinese troops at Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing; the occupation of Northern China begins
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| 1937 |
War gets closer to the Bells in the fall
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| 1937 |
Ruth travels to Seattle in October through Kobe, Japan
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| 1938 |
Ruth enrolls at Wheaton College
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| 1940 |
Billy Graham begins fall semester at Wheaton College, and is introduced to Ruth Bell
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| 1941 |
Ruth drops out of school in March to take care of her sister, Rosa, who is convalescing from tubercular peritonitis; she and Billy continue to correspond
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| 1941 |
Ruth accepts Billy’s offer of marriage in April – several months after he proposed
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| 1942 |
Ruth returns for her final year at Wheaton
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| 1943 |
Ruth and Billy Graham marry August 13, two months after their graduation together from Wheaton; following honeymoon, begin pastorate at Western Springs Baptist Church outside Chicago
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| 1945 |
Ruth and Billy Graham resign Western Springs pastorate and move into an upstairs bedroom in the Bells’ home in Montreat, N.C.; Billy begins work with Youth for Christ
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| 1945 |
Ruth gives birth to their first child, Virginia Leftwich (Gigi), in September
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| 1948 |
Anne Morrow Graham, Ruth & Billy’s second child, is born in May
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| 1949 |
Ruth joins Billy for the Los Angeles Crusade, where media magnate William Randolph Hearst allegedly sent word to “puff Graham,” launching Billy into the national media spotlight
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| 1950 |
Billy establishes Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, begins a radio program that Ruth christens, “Hour of Decision”
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| 1950 |
Ruth Bell (Bunny) is born in December
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| 1952 |
Ruth assists Billy in writing his first book, “Peace with God”
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| 1952 |
William Franklin Graham III is born in July
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| 1952 |
Ruth accompanies Billy on the 12-week Greater London Crusade
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| 1954 |
Ruth designs the family home in Montreat, N.C.
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| 1956 |
The Grahams move into Montreat, N.C. home, called Little Piney Cove
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| 1957 |
Billy Graham holds historic crusade in New York
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| 1957 |
Billy Graham begins television career in June
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| 1958 |
Nelson Edman (Ned) is born in May
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| 1962 |
Billy Graham’s father dies
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| 1973 |
Ruth’s father preaches at Swannanoa Presbyterian Church, and dies later that year
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| 1973 |
Ruth travels to China and Bangkok
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| 1974 |
While visiting the family of daughter Gigi, Ruth falls out of a tree from a height of 15 feet while fixing a tree slide for the grandchildren, and remains in a coma for one week; later that year, Ruth’s mother dies at home
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| 1975 |
Ruth accompanies her husband for a crusade in Taiwan
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| 1976 |
The Grahams’ vacation in Mexico is interrupted by an earthquake
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| 1977 – 1980 |
Ruth travels around the world twice on ministry trips with her husband
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| 1980 |
Ruth joins her sister, Rosa, and her brother, Clayton, in traveling to China to visit their hometown of Qingjiang
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| 1988 |
Ruth’s husband accompanies her on a return visit to China, where he is invited to preach several times
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| 1996 |
Ruth is hospitalized with bacterial spinal meningitis, partially caused by a treatment for degenerative arthritis from her previous fall
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| 1996 |
In May, President Bill Clinton presents Billy and Ruth with the Congressional Gold Medal – the highest honor Congress can bestow on a citizen
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