• January 17, 1942 – Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. was born in Louisville, Kentucky in the United States. His parents were Cassius Marcellus Clay, Sr. (billboards and signs painter) and Odessa Grady Clay (household domestic).
• 1960 – He wins a gold medal in the 175-pound division at the Olympic Games held in Rome, paving way for his professional boxing career to start under the supervision of the Louisville Sponsoring Group, an association composed of 11 rich white men.
• February 25, 1964 – He challenges Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight championship title, where Ali became the new champion. After two days, Ali announced that he had turned Muslim.
• March 6, 1964 – He takes the name “Muhammad Ali”, given to him by Elijah Muhammad, his spiritual adviser.
• May 25, 1965 – In a rematch, Ali again beats Liston via a first-round knockout victory.
• November 14, 1966 – He takes on Cleveland Williams, Ali emerges as the victor.
• April 28, 1967 – Imploring his religious beliefs, Ali turned down the induction into the US Army during the height of the Vietnam war.
• June 20, 1967 – Following his act of defiance, Ali gets sentenced to serve five years of imprisonment. Though he was able to post bail, it reportedly took him four years until the US Supreme Court unanimously overturned the conviction against him.
• October 1970 – With his skills “eroded”, Ali stages his boxing comeback. While his reflexes remained at a fantastic level, Ali won his two fights over Jerry Quarry and Oscar Bonavena.
• March 8, 1971 – Ali challenges Joe Frazier into the “Fight of the Century”, who had become the heavyweight champion after he temporarily lied low from boxing. Ali lost.
• March 31, 1973 – Budding boxer Ken Norton shatters Ali’s jaw in the second round of their 12-round boxing match.
• October 30, 1974 – Ali challenges George Foreman, who had unseated Frazier as the world heavyweight champion in 1973. He knocks out Foreman during the fight’s eight round, regaining the title.
• October 1, 1975 – Ali and Frazier stages their third match in Manila, which was dubbed as “Thrilla in Manila.” Ali won via 14th-round technical knockout.
• February 1978 – Ali loses his title to Leon Spinks, a neophyte boxer with an Olympic gold medal. Ali redeems himself seven months later after beating Spinks in a 15-round boxing rematch. He later on announces his retirement from boxing.
• 1980 – Wanting to make a return, Ali fights and loses to Larry Holmes.
• 1981 – Ali retires from the boxing industry for good, after suffering a loss against Trevor Berbick.
• 1984 – Ali speaks out publicly against Louis Farrakhan’s separatist doctrine. In the same year, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease after showing symptoms of the disease the last three years.
• 1986 – Ali marries his fourth wife, Lonnie (Yolanda Williams). They had nine children, and one of them, Laila, followed her father’s footsteps and pursued a career in boxing.
• 1996 – Ali lights the Olympic flame at the Games of the XXVI Olympiad in Atlanta, Georgia.
• 2014 – Ali’s life story is told in “I Am Ali”, a documentary film that included audio recordings that he came up with during his career’s entire span; hospitalized due to mild pneumonia.
• 2015 – Ali gets hospitalized anew due to urinary tract infection.
• June 2, 2016 – Ali’s family’s spokesman Bob Gunnell has announced that the former world heavyweight champion has been hospitalized due to a recurring respiratory ailment.
• June 4, 2016 – Muhammad Ali, who has suffered from Parkinson’s disease for years, dies at 74. Touted as one of the greatest boxers that ever lived in the boxing history, Ali’s final record was 56 wins, 5 losses, and 37 knockouts.