• Anne Shirley •

Birth Name: Anne Shirley

Date of Birth: March 1865

Birth Location: Bolingbroke, Nova Scotia, Canada

Parents: Walter and Bertha Willis Shirley

Spouse: Gilbert Blythe

Children: Joyce, James Matthew 'Jem', Anne 'Nan', Diana 'Di', Walter Cuthbert, Shirley, Bertha Marilla 'Rilla'

Location: Avonlea (Green Gables), Four Winds (House of Dreams), Glen St. Mary (Ingleside)

Hair colour: Fiery red, later auburn

Eye colour: Greenish-grey

In Books: Anne of Green Gables (1908), Anne of Avonlea (1909), Anne of the Island (1915), Anne of Windy Poplars (1936), Anne's House of Dreams (1917), Anne of Ingleside (1939), Rainbow Valley (1919), Rilla of Ingleside (1920), Chronicles of Avonlea (1912), Further Chronicles of Avonlea (1920)

Background: Anne Shirley is the main character in the Anne series, all written by the Canadian author, Lucy Maud Montgomery. Anne's character blossomed while Montgomery was caring for her grandmother in Prince Edward Island. The Anne series are based on her childhood experiences and the plot of the story is based on a notebook entry from 1904: 'Elderly couple apply to orphan asylum for a boy. By mistake a girl is sent them.' Anne's fiery, ambitious character combined with the lovable story itself raised a roaring interest among readers. The series focus on her struggle between imagination and propriety as a child, and the conclusion of her finally understanding decorum as an adult. This theme progresses in all the seven sequels proceeding Anne of Green Gables. View more information on "Anne's World," courtesy of Tai.

Timeline: From the Anne of Green Gables Treasury, courtesy of Tai:

1866	Anne is born in March in Bolingbroke, Nova Scotia; both parents die of fever when she is three months old; Anne lives with Mr. and Mrs. Thomas in Marysville until she is eight years old. • First meeting of the Canadian legislature • Dynamite is invented by Alfred Nobel • Beatrix Potter, artist and author of Peter Rabbit, is born
1867	Anne is one year old. • The Dominion of Canada is formed • Sir John A.Macdonald becomes the first Prime Minister of Canada • Alaska is bought from Russia • Marie Curie, discoverer of radium, is born • Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of Little House on the Prairie, is born • Barbed wire is patented in the United States
1868	Anne is two years old. • William E. Gladstone becomes Prime Minster of Great Britain • Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is published
1869	Anne is three years old. • John W. Hyatt discovers celluliod, the forerunner of modern plastics • Mahatma Gandhi is born
1870	Anne is four years old. • Charles Dickens, British Author, dies • Rosa Hartwick Thorpe publishes her poem, "Curfew Must Not Ring Tonight ," recited by Prissy Andrews in the February, 1878, Avonlea concert
1871	Anne is five years old. • Canada issues its first postcards • Chewing gum is invented by Thomas Adams
1872	Anne is six years old. • Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass is published
1873	Anne is seven years old • Prince Edward Island becomes a Canadian province • Northwest Canadian Mounted Police is established • Chester Greenwood invents earmuffs
1874	Anne is eight years old; she goes to live with the Hammonds • Benjamin Disraeli becomes the Prime Minister of Great Britain • Winston Churchill is born • Lucy Maud Montgomery is born • The ice-cream soda is invented in Philadelphia
1875	Anne is nine years old. • Hans Christian Andersen, Danish author, dies • Albert Schweitzer, humanitarian, is born • Prince Edward Island Railway is opened • Louis Prang produces the first American Christmas cards
1876	Anne is ten years old; she goes to Hopetown to live at the orphans' asylum. • The telephone is invented by Alexander Graham Bell • Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is published • General George Custer and his tropps are defeated by Sioux Indians in the Battle of little Bighorn in Montana • The carpet sweeper is invented by melville Bissell in Grand Rapids, Michigan
1877	Anne is eleven years old; she goes to Green Gables in June. • The phonograph is invented by Thomas A. Edison • Anna Sewell's Black Beauty is published • Euphemia Allen, age sixteen, publishes the first written version of "Chopsticks" in Britain
1878	Anne is twelve years old; she bakes "liniment cake" and breaks her ankle in a fall from the Barrys' kitchen roof; Matthew gives Anne the dress with puffed sleeves. • Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore is published • David Hughes invent the microphone
1879	Anne is thirteen years old; she dyes her hair green; she is rescued by the river by Gilbert; she begins studying for Queen's. • Albert Einstein, physicist, is born • Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown is opened to women • Ivory soap is introduced • The first Charlottetown Festival is held
1880	Anne is fourteen years old. • William E. Gladstone becomes the Primer Minister of Great Britain • Lew Wallace's Ben Hur is published (Anne must have had an advance copy - she was caught reading this in class in 1879!) • Author Helen Keller is born Johanna Spyri's Heidi is published • Edison invents the electric lightbulb • Canned goods become available in stores • The first baseball card is introduced • Ned Kelly, Australian outlaw and folk hero, is hanged in Melbourne
1881	Anne is fifteen years old; she takes the entrance examination for Queen's; she recites "The Maiden's Vow" at the hotel concert; she enrols at Queen's College. • Clara Barton starts the American Red Cross • Thomas Nast draws the modern version of Santa Claus
1882	Anne is sixteen years old; she earns her teacher's certificate and wins the Avery scholarship to Redmond College; Matthew dies; Anne begins teaching in Avonlea School; Davy and Dora Keith come to live at Green Gables. • Franklin D. Roosevelt is born • Charles Darwin, author of Origin of Species, dies
1883	Anne is seventeen years old; she discovers Hester Gray's garden; Anne and Diana meet Miss Lavendar Lewis of Echo Lodge. • Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island is published • Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio is published in Italy • Charles Stilwell invents the brown paper grocery bag
1884	Anne is eighteen years old; Mrs. Rachel Lynde comes to live at Green Gables; Miss Lavendar Lewis is married to Stephen Irving; Anne enrols at Redmond College. • Women are allowed to vote in Canada for the first time • Lewis Waterman invents the first practical fountain pen • Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn is published • The first American roller-coaster is built in Coney Island, New York
1885	Anne is nineteen years old; Anne, Priscilla, Stella and Philippa move into Patty's Place • Electric lights are introduced in Charlottetown, P.E.I. • The Canadian Pacific transcontinental railway is completed • The first commercially successful bicycle is introduced in the United States
1886	Anne is twenty years old; Gilbert proposes and is refused; Anne meets Roy Gardner • Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is published • The Statue of Liberty is dedicated • Frances Hodgson Burnett's Little Lord Fauntleroy is published • John S. Pemberton creates Coca-Cola • C.M. Hall invents aluminium cookware • Josephine Cochrane invents the first mechanical dishwasher
1887	Anne is twenty-one years old; Diana is married; Anne spends her last year at Redmond. • Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle publishes the first Sherlock Holmes story
1888	Anne is twenty-two years old; she graduates from Redmond; she refuses Roy Gardner; Gilbert proposes again and Anne accepts; Gilbert begins medical school; Anne accepts the principalship of Summerside High School. • Kodak introduces the box camera • Irving Berlin, American composer of "White Christmas" is born • Katherine Mansfield, author of The Garden Party, is born in Wellington, New Zealand
1889	Anne is twenty-three years old; she spends her second year at Summerside and Windy Poplars. • Alfred Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar," one of Captain Jim's favourite poems, is published • The Eiffel Tower is erected in Paris • Charlie Chaplin, famous comedian, is born
1890	Anne is twenty-four years old; she spends her third year at Summerside and Windy Poplars. • Peanut butter is invented by a St. Louis doctor • The First electric range is introduced • L.M. Montgomery goes to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, to live with her father for a year
1891	Anne is twenty-five years old; Anne and Gilbert are married and move to their House of Dreams in Four Winds Harbour. • Telephone service begins in "Avonlea" (Cavendish, P.E.I.) • John Naismith introduces basketball
1892	Anne is twenty-six years old; her first child, Joyce, is born and dies the same day. • Sir James Dewar invents the vacuum Thermos bottle • The first electric room heater is invented in England by R.E. Crompton and J.H. Dowsing
1893	Anne is twenty-seven years old; Anne's second child, Jem, is born; Captain Jim dies; Anne and Gilbert move to Ingleside. • Cole Porter, American composer, is born • The Ferris wheel and Cracker Jacks are introduced at the Chicago World's Fair • The "Happy Birthday" tune is composed

Last updated: June 16, 2009
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