Born May 2 in Riga, Latvia, the son of Max Halsman, a dentist, and Ita Grintuch, principal of a grammar school.

Discovers his father's old view camera and begins photographing his family and friends.

Graduates from high school first in his class, having studied Greek, Latin, French, German, and Russian.
Enrolls at university in Dresden, Germany, to study electrical engineering.

Father dies while on family vacation in the Austrian Alps.

Moves to Paris, begins work as a portrait photographer.

Opens studio at 22 rue Delambre in Montparnasse section of Paris.

Work appears in magazines Vogue, Vu, and Voilà. Makes portraits of André‚ Malraux, Paul Valery, Jean Painleve, Marc Chagall, André Gide, Jean Giraudoux, Le Corbusier.

Designs a 9 x 12 cm twin-lens reflex camera, which is built by a cabinetmaker whose grandfather (Alphonse Giroux) made the first camera for Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, inventor of photography.
First major exhibition, Galerie de la Pléiade, 73 boulevard Saint-Michel.

November: Obtains an emergency visa to enter the United States, through the intervention of Albert Einstein. With the help of the Emergency Rescue Committee, he leaves on a refugee ship from Lisbon, carrying one suitcase with his camera and a dozen prints. Joins his wife and daughter in New York City.

Meets Salvador Dali; their thirty-year collaboration begins.

Accepts fashion and magazine assignments from Black Star Agency in New York.

October 5: First Life cover published.

Travels to California and photographs his first Hollywood assignments for Life. Produces seven Life covers this year, including a major story on American fashion designers.

Elected the first president of the American Society of Magazine Photographers (ASMP).

Extensively photographs Martha Graham and her dance company in performance.

Photographs Albert Einstein at Princeton.
Designs an improved version of his twin-lens reflex camera in 4 x 5-inch format. Three prototypes, known as the Halsman-Fairchild, are manufactured. Continues to use this camera for portraits throughout his career.

Becomes a United States citizen.
Makes the photograph Dali Atomicus.

Publishes The Frenchman (Simon & Schuster), a book of photographs of the French film star Fernandel. It becomes a New York Times bestseller.

September 3: Fiftieth Life cover published: Gina Lollobrigida.
Returns to Europe for the first time since 1940; photographs Chagall, Churchill, Matisse, Sartre, Bardot, Magnani, and others. David Seymour ("Chim"), photojournalist and a founder of Magnum, the photo agency, invites him to join Magnum as a contributing member. Magnum begins to distribute his work in Europe.

April 7: Marilyn Monroe cover story published in Life.

Publishes Piccoli, a Fairy Tale (Simon & Schuster), which he had written for his daughters.

Publishes Dali's Mustache (Simon & Schuster), which includes thirty surrealistic images of his artist friend.

July 18: Seventy-fifth Life cover published: Audrey Hepburn.

Chosen one of the "World's Ten Greatest Photographers" in an international poll conducted by Popular Photography.

Photographs leading writers, philosophers, and scientists who contribute articles for the long-running series "Adventures of the Mind" for Saturday Evening Post.

Publishes Philippe Halsman's Jump Book (Simon & Schuster), a collection of more than two hundred images made from 1950 to 1959, in which illustrious subjects jump for him.

Sent to Russia by Life to photograph leading artists, writers, dancers, and politicians.

Publishes Philippe Halsman on the Creation of Photographic Ideas (Ziff-Davis). Photographs President John F. Kennedy and his entourage, including Robert F. Kennedy, Robert S. McNamara, McGeorge Bundy, Dean Rusk, and Arthur E. Schlesinger Jr. for "New Frontierland: The Big Wheels," published in Look on January 2, 1962.

Joins Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Alfred Eisenstaedt, and six others to form the Famous Photographers School.

Major solo exhibition at Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Receives the Newhouse Citation for journalistic achievement from Syracuse University School of Journalism.

Makes first of two extended visits to photograph Vladimir Nabokov in Montreux, Switzerland.

Makes official portrait of President Richard M. Nixon.

December 23: One-hundredth Life cover published: Johnny Carson. With a total of 101, Halsman has more Life covers to his credit than any other photographer.

Teaches course on "Psychological Portraiture" at the New School for Social Research, New York City.

Publishes Sight and Insight (Doubleday).
Health begins to decline.
Life ceases weekly publication after thirty-six years.

Exhibition "Sight and Insight" opens in Tokyo and travels throughout Japan.

Receives the American Society of Magazine Photographers award for Life Achievement in Photography.

With Cornell Capa, founder of the International Center of Photography in New York, mounts a comprehensive exhibition of his career, which travels throughout the United States for the next eight years.

June 25: Philippe Halsman dies in New York City.