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Benchmarks in Lifelong Learning
| 1607 | Apprenticeship programs: Jamestown (vocational-technical school ancestor) |
| 1704 | First American daily: The Boston Newsletter |
| 1727 | The Junto organized by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia |
| 1790 | Massachusetts Historical Society founded |
| 1791 | First art institution established by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts |
| 1826 | Boston Mechanics Institute established |
| 1828 | Franklin Institute established in New Haven |
| 1831 | First tax supported public library established in Peterborough, New Hampshire |
| 1836 | Lowell Institute founded in Boston |
| 1839 | First public evening school established in Baltimore |
| 1851 | Publication of The History of Adult Education by J.W. Hudson, in London |
| 1851 | First YMCA in Boston |
| 1851 | First Danish Folk School |
| 1859 | Cooper Union founded in New York City (proprietary school prototype) |
| 1860 | National Education Association resolution supporting public evening school for adults |
| 1873 | First University extension classes at Oxford and Cambridge |
| 1874 | First Chautauqua Assembly held on Lake Chautauqua, New York |
| 1881 | First Library Grant by Carnegie Foundation |
| 1890 | National Geographic Society founded |
| 1890 | General Federation of Women's Clubs founded |
| 1891 | International Correspondence Schools established |
| 1892 | First university correspondence study offered by the University of Chicago |
| 1897 | National Congress of Parents and Teachers founded |
| 1902 | First junior college established in Joliet, Illinois (still in operation) |
| 1904 | Seaman Knapp began his farm demonstration program in the South |
| 1914 | Smith Lever Act established cooperative extension |
| 1915 | National University Extension Association organized (Louis E. Reber, first President) |
| 1919 | Publication of The 1919 Report by the British Ministry of Reconstruction (reprinted in 1956 as A Design for Democracy) |
| 1926 | American Association for Adult Education organized (Dean James E. Russell, first President) |
| 1927 | Publication of Why Stop Learning by Dorothy Canfield Fisher |
| 1928 | Publication of Adult Learning by E.L. Thorndike |
| 1929 | Frank Launbach began his literacy program in the Philippines |
| 1935 | First doctorates in American adult education awarded to Wilburn C. Hallenbeck and William H. Stacey by the Teachers Colleges |
| 1944 | G.I. Bill established |
| 1945 | Great Books Foundation established |
| 1945 | American Society for Training Directors organized |
| 1951 | First grant by W.K. Kellogg Foundation for residential university continuing education |
| 1951 | Ford Foundation established its fund for adult education |
| 1954 | Department of Defense began paying tuition assistance for active service personnel |
| 1956 | Cold Springs Institute established by Ruth Andrus |
| 1961 | Publication of The Inquiring Mind by Cyril O. Houle |
| 1961 | The Open University of Great Britain began operation |
| 1971 | Invention of microprocessor at Intel |
| 1975 | Continuing education required for re-licensure by pharmacists |
| 1980 | Publication of The Modern Practice of Adult Education: From Pedagogy to Andragogy by Malcolm S. Knowles |
| 1989 | Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy established |
| 1996 | Houle Scholars established by W.K. Kellogg Foundation |
| 1996 | Induction of first class into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina |
| 1997 | Induction of the second class into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame in Louisville, Kentucky |
| 1998 | Induction of the third class into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame in Atlanta, Georgia |
| 1999 | Induction of the fourth class into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame in San Antonio, Texas |
| 2000 | Induction of the fifth class into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame in San Antonio, Texas |
| 2001 | Induction of the sixth class into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame in Orlando, Florida |
| 2002 | Induction of the seventh class into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| 2003 | Induction of the eighth class into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame in Norman, Oklahoma |
| 2004 | Induction of the ninth class into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame in Austin, Texas |
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