1801 - sent to the grammar school at Sedbergh after earlier instruction from his father.

1804 - entered Trinity College, Cambridge, as a sizar.

1805 - suffered a near fatal attack of typhoid.

1810 - obtained a Trinity fellowship.

1815 - became an assistant tutor in mathematics at Trinity College.

1818 - elected to the Woodwardian professorship of geology at the University of Cambridge.

1820 - became a fellow of the Royal Society of London.

1831 - travelled to north Wales with the young Charles Darwin.

1851 - awarded the Wollaston medal by the Geological Society.

1863 - awarded the Copley medal by the Royal Society in recognition of his anti-Darwinian campaign.