1661, entered University of Leipzig (as a law student)
1663, baccalaureate thesis, De Principio Individui ('On the Principle of the Individual')
1667, entered the service of the Baron of Boineburg
1672 - 1676, lived in Paris (met Malebranche, Arnauld, Huygens)
1675, laid the foundation of the differential/integral calculus
1676, entered the service of the Duke of Hannover; worked on hydraulic presses, windmills, lamps, submarines, clocks, carriages, water pumps, the binary number system
published Nova Methodus Pro Maximus et Minimus ('New Method for the Greatest and the Least'), an exposition of his differential calculus
1685, took on the duties of historian for the House of Brunswick
1691, named librarian at Wolfenbuettel
1700, named foreign member of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris