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1769
15 August 1769 – Birth of Napoleon Bonaparte at Ajaccio (Corsica), in the Casa Buonaparte – the ancestral home of the Bonaparte family – from Carlo Maria (Charles-Marie) Buonaparte and Letizia (Laetitia) Ramolino.
1771
21 July 1771 – Baptism at the Ajaccio Cathedral .
19 August 1771 – The Corsica High Council officialy recognizes the Bonapartes' nobility.
1778
15 December 1778 – First trip to mainland France, with his father and his elder brother Joseph Bonaparte. – 30 December 1778 – Arrival at Autun, Burgundy.
1779
1st January 1779 – Napoleon Bonaparte is admitted to the Collège d'Autun...
15 May 1779 – ...then at the Military School of Brienne , north-central France .
1784
17 October 1784 – Napoleon leaves the Military School. – 19 October 1784 – First trip to Paris with school friends. – 22 October 1784 – Entry of Napoleon to the Royal Military School of Champ-de-Mars .
1785
24 February 1785 – Napoleon's father Charles-Marie Bonaparte dies of cancer in Montpellier, southern France.
28 October 1785 – Napoleon Bonaparte gets his Second-Lieutenant's diploma. His first assignment is with the artillery regiment of La Fère, in the garrison at Valence, a city upon the Rhône river.
1786
12 August 1786 – Departure to Lyon,
with his battalion. Some days later, he offers the local Academy a dissertation
on the following topic: What are the feelings which should
be recommended the most in order to make men happy?
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August 1786 – Return to Valence.
01 September 1786 – A first leave break enables Napoleon to return to Corsica, via Aix (Provence) where he meets his uncle Joseph Fesch and his younger brother Lucien Bonaparte . – 15 September 1786 – Arrival at Ajaccio.
1787
21 April 1787 – Another leave for family reasons.
12 September 1787 – He leaves Corsica to Paris.
22 November 1787 – Napoleon Bonaparte has his first sexual experience with a prostitute at the Palais-Royal in Paris.
1st December 1787 – His leave is extended for a six month period.
1788
1st January 1788 – Napoleon Bonaparte returns to Ajaccio.
1st June 1788 – He joins his regiment at Auxonne, a small town southeast Dijon, Burgundy.