1734   Wolfgang von Kempelen (Farkas Kempelen) is born in Bratislava on 23 January. His father, Engelbert Kempelen has been the controller of the tax office since 1715, his mother Anna Terézia Spindler is the daughter of the former mayor of Bratislava.

1754   Studies in Bratislava and Győr, some sources claim he reads philosophy and law in Vienna . When he finishes his studies, he sets out on a tour of Italy, visits Roma and Naples, among other places.

1755   Takes up service at the court of Maria Theresa, and translates the legal code of the empress from Latin to German.

1757   Is appointed secretary of the court chancellery. Marries Francziska Piani, lady-in-waiting of arch duchess Maria Carolina Ludovika. She dies two months later, of smallpox.

1762   Marries Anna Maria Gobelius, companion of the wife of count János Erdődy. Of the five children born between 1763-1771, only Károly survives his father.

1764   Is appointed royal councillor of the Hungarian-Transylvanian chancellery.

1766   Becomes the director of the Hungarian salt mines. Some sources claim he makes a well apparatus to provide water for the castle in Bratislava.

1767   Kempelen's short comedy, the Magic Book is performed in Bratislava in honour of the visiting Princess Christina and Prince Albert.

1768   Is appointed settlement commissioner for the Banat. He is in office until 1771, relates his experiences in the report Relation.

1769   Maria Theresa commissions him to build the chess automaton. The Mechanical Turk is fabled to have played its first game against count Cobenzl.

1770   The automaton is introduced in Bratislava. After the first displays, it is not seen in public for ten years.

1771   He is released from duties related to the Banat and the salt mines, receives a pension of 2000 gulden. His last report relates the expansion of the kerchief manufacture in Apatin, the local silk production and demographic developments.

1772   Maria Theresa commissions him to build a water raising engine for the park of the Schönbrunn Castle.

1774   Constructs a mobile bed for Maria Theresa.

1777   Takes part in the moving of the University of Nagyszombat to Buda.

1779   Constructs a typewriter for the blind composer, singer and pianist, Marie-Therese Paradis.

1781   Kempelen's melodrama, Perseus and Andromeda is presented in the Nationaltheater, Vienna. Russian grand duke Paul plays against the Mechanical Turk in Vienna.

1783-1784   Kempelen tours Europe with the chess automaton and the talking machine. Holds presentations in Paris, London and Leipzig, among other places.

1787   Joseph II commissions Kempelen to transform the Buda monastery of the Carmelites into a Hungarian theatre. The Castle Theatre opens on 17 October.

1789   Kempelen is granted a 12-year privilege on the steam and fire engines he invented, used in driving mills. He is admitted to the Imperial Academy of Arts.

1791   Kempelen's chef-d'oeuvre The Mechanism of Human Speech is published in Vienna. In it, he describes his speeking machine.

1794   Kempelen takes part in the planning of a channel that is to connect Buda with the Adriatic Sea.

1798   After forty-three years of service, Kempelen is pensioned off. He is awarded the title Knight of the Holy Roman Empire.

1804   Francis II withdraws Kempelen's pension. Shortly after this he dies in Vienna , on 26 March.