At 6:45 AM, Leonard Cohen was born, the son of Nathan and Masha Cohen at Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal.
Leonard Cohen spends his childhood with his parents and older sister, Esther Cohen, in the Westmount family home (pictured) at 599 Belmont Avenue. More information about LC's childhood can be found in the accompanying video.
The impact of his father’s death when Leonard Cohen was nine (Nathan Cohen was 52 when he died) was important to his growth as an artist even though its psychological impact remains ambiguous. First the ambiguous part – it’s an oft repeated anecdote that weeks after his father’s death and burial, Cohen buried one of his father’s bow ties wrapped in a paper containing a few lines of verse. While some have identified that act as an especially significant point in Cohen’s artistic development, Cohen himself accounts it as “just a singular gesture,” going on to note, “I don’t know why I did that.” On the other hand, his father’s death also resulted in Cohen receiving an inheritance large enough to allow him to pursue the afore mentioned artistic development as a poet and novelist as well as to live, to some extent, as he wished without the immediate urgency to earn enough money selling poetry and prose to pay the rent.
Leonard Cohen has his bar mitzvah at 13 at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim. (Note: exact date in 1947 unknown)
Also purchases first guitar. (Note: These events took place in 1949 but exact dates are unknown)
Leonard Cohen reads: For Wilf And His House (1955), Beside The Shepherd (1956), Poem (1955), Lovers (1955), The Sparrows (1955), Warning (1956), Les Vieus (1954), & Elegy (1955) Note: exact release date unknown
Leonard Cohen read his poetry while Maury Kay & members of Kay’s band played at Dunn’s Jazz Parlour, Montreal
Leonard Cohen moves to 19b Hampstead High Street in London. He purchases an Olivetti 22 typewriter and works on "Beauty at Close Quarters," which is completed in winter of 1959-1960.
Leonard Cohen arrives in Greece, settling in Hydra. He purchases a home on the Island on September 27, 1960 and later that year meets Marianne Ilhen. He will begin writing "Beautiful Losers" in 1964 in Hydra
Note: Exact date in 1964 unknown
National Film Board of Canada releases Donald Brittan's "Ladies and Gentlemen...Mr. Leonard Cohen"
A year before Leonard Cohen or Judy Collins performed his music on stage, the Stormy Clovers were playing Cohen’s songs at festivals and in clubs, coffee houses, and campuses in Toronto, Montreal, and other Canadian cities and towns (Note: While this performance & recording took place in 1966, the exact date is not known)
Invited by University of Alberta to serve as a writer-in-residence, Cohen was in the process of shifting from poet to singer-songwriter.
Leonard Cohen professional singing debut with Judy Collins at the SANE Against The Vietnam War concert at New York Town Hall.
Leonard Cohen participated in the Songwriters Workshop along with Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Janis Ian, David Blue, Mike Settle, Tom Paxton, and Eric Andersen.
Debut album, "Songs of Leonard Cohen", released. Suzanne Master Song Winter Lady The Stranger Song Sisters of Mercy So Long, Marianne Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye Stories of the Street Teachers One of Us Cannot Be Wrong
Bird on the Wire Story of Isaac A Bunch of Lonesome Heroes The Partisan Seems So Long Ago, Nancy The Old Revolution The Butcher You Know Who I Am Lady Midnight Tonight Will Be Fine
A concert at Trinity College in Hartford opened Leonard Cohen’s 1970 Tour. The show took place April 8, 1970 before a crowd of a few hundred. The Tour included about 30 (records conflict) stops in North American & Europe.
Leonard Cohen performs an acclaimed set at the Isle of Wight Festival.
Avalanche Last Year's Man Dress Rehearsal Rag Diamonds in the Mine Love Calls You by Your Name Famous Blue Raincoat Sing Another Song, Boys (live at the Isle of Wight Festival 31 August 1970) Joan of Arc
March 18 to April 19: 21 concerts in Ireland, England, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, France, and Israel
Birth of son, Adam to Cohen and Suzanne Elrod
Minute Prologue (London) Passing Through (London) You Know Who I Am (Brussels) Bird on the Wire (Paris) Nancy (London) Improvisation (Paris) Side 2 (Recorded in 1970 and 1972) Story of Isaac (Berlin) Please Don't Pass Me By (A Disgrace) (London) Tonight Will Be Fine (Isle of Wight) Queen Victoria (Tennessee)
LC played several concepts and military bases during the Yom Kippur War (exact dates & venues unknown)
Birth of daughter, Lorca to Cohen and Suzanne Elrod Note: Year of Birth is 1974; Date unknown
Bird on a Wire, Tony Palmer's documentary of the 1972 tour, is released; it is re-released in re-edited format in 2010
Is This What You Wanted Chelsea Hotel #2 Field Commander Cohen Why Don't You Try There Is a War A Singer Must Die I Tried to Leave You Who by Fire Take This Longing Leaving Green Sleeves
September 1 - October 19: 29 concerts in Belgium, France, England, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Austria, and Spain November 29 - December: 12 concerts in New York and Los Angeles
January - March 4: 14 concerts, three more in November
April 22 - July 7: 55 concerts in Germany, Ireland, England, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Denmark, France, Belgium, Austria, and Switzerland
True Love Leaves No Traces Iodine Paper Thin Hotel Memories I Left a Woman Waiting Don't Go Home with Your Hard-On Fingerprints Death of a Ladies' Man
The Guests Humbled in Love The Window Came So Far for Beauty The Lost Canadian (Un Canadien errant) The Traitor Our Lady of Solitude The Gypsy's Wife The Smokey Life Ballad of the Absent Mare
October 13 - December 15: 51 concerts in England, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and Ireland Picture - Brighton Dome Concert Hall, Brighton, England, December 15, 1979
March 6 - March 14: 7 concerts in Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney October: Bread and Roses Festival and Berkeley October 24 - November 29: 29 concerts in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Germany, Spain, and Israel Poster advertises the November 16, 1980 concert at Velódromo de Anoeta, San Sebastian, Spain and the November 17, 1980 concert at Palacio de Deportes, Barcelona, Spain
I Am A Hotel was broadcast for first time, it features five songs and won the Golden Rose award at Rose D'Or festival in Montreux
Book of Mercy wins the Canadian Author's Association Literary Award for Poetry
January 31-March 24: 42 concerts in Germany, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, England, Ireland, Austria, Poland, and Italy April 30 - July 21: 35 concerts in USA, Canada, Australia, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Israel, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, France, and Italy
“Jennifer’s record [the Famous Blue Raincoat album by Jennifer Warnes] did do a lot in resurrecting my credentials.” Leonard Cohen (Note: released Jan 1987; exact date unknown)
First We Take Manhattan Ain't No Cure for Love Everybody Knows I'm Your Man Take This Waltz Jazz Police I Can't Forget Tower of Song
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