1628 John Bunyan is born
John Bunyan is born the son of a brass-worker in the Bedfordshire village of Elstow

1649 John Bunyan marries a religious wife
John Bunyan marries a woman whose only possessions inspire him - they are two religious books inherited from her father

1653 John Bunyan becomes a Nonconformist
John Bunyan joins a Nonconformist church in Bedford and becomes one of their preachers

1656 Pamphlet war with Quakers
John Bunyan engages in a fierce war of pamphlets with the Quakers, with whose doctrines he profoundly disagrees

1656 John Bunyan's wife dies
John Bunyan's first wife dies, leaving him with four young children

1657 John Bunyan travels and preaches
John Bunyan becomes an itinerant preacher, supporting himself by mending pots and pans

1659 John Bunyan marries again
John Bunyan marries his second wife, Elizabeth

1660 John Bunyan is arrested
John Bunyan is arrested for preaching without a licence

1661 John Bunyan is sent to gaol
John Bunyan is convicted of unlicensed preaching and spends the next eleven years in Bedford Gaol

1666 John Bunyan publishes spiritual autobiography
John Bunyan publishes his spiritual autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, written in Bedford Gaol

1672 John Bunyan is released
John Bunyan is released from Bedford Gaol as a result of the Declaration of Indulgence

1677 John Bunyan back in gaol
John Bunyan is imprisoned again, for about six months, in a new wave of persecution of Nonconformists

1678 Ex-prisoner scores with Pilgrim's Progress
Part I of The Pilgrim's Progress, written during John Bunyan's two spells in Bedford Gaol, is published and is immediately popular

1680 Bunyan and Mr Badman
John Bunyan publishes The Life and Death of Mr Badman, an allegory of a misspent life that is akin to a novel

1682 Bunyan's Holy War
John Bunyan publishes The Holy War, an allegory of the devil laying siege to the human soul

1684 The Pilgrim's Progress Part 2
John Bunyan publishes the second part of The Pilgrim's Progress

1688 John Bunyan dies
John Bunyan dies during a preaching visit to London, and is buried in the Nonconformist cemetery, Bunhill Fields