Timeline

January 13: Jackie and Rachel have their only daughter, Sharon Robinson.

Jackie stars in his film biography The Jackie Robinson Story.

October 26: Branch Rickey resigns as President of the Dodgers and Walter O'Malley is introduced as the new President of the team.

May 14: Jackie's second son David Robinson is born.

Winter: Dodger manager Chuck Dressen quits and is succeeded by a minor league manager in the system, Walter Alston.

October 4: The Dodgers claim their first World Championship beating the Yankees by four games to three.

January: Jackie announces his retirement as a professional baseball player.
Robinson joins Chock Full O'Nuts, a restaurant and food chain, as Vice-President of community relations.

June 7: Jackie Robinson, along with Martin Luther King, Jr., receives an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Howard University.

Jackie Robinson acts as a spokesman and fundraiser for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Jackie campaigns for presidential candidate Richard Nixon.

His plaque reads: Jack Roosevelt Robinson, Brooklyn N.L. 1947 to 1956, Leading N.L. batter in 1949. Holds fielding mark for second baseman playing in 150 or more games with .992. Led N.L. in stolen bases in 1947 and 1949. Lifetime batting average .311. Joint record holder for most double plays by second baseman, 137 in 1951. Led second baseman double plays 1949-50-51-52.

May: Jackie joins Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others in a civil rights protest in Birmingham, Alabama.

Jackie is named by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller as one of six national directors of his presidential campaign.

Jackie is appointed Special Assistant to the Governor by New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller.

Jackie Robinson's mother, Mallie, passes away.

Jackie is named National Chairman of the Brotherhood Week for the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

The Jackie Robinson Construction Company is established to build housing for families with low and moderate incomes.

June 17: Jackie Robinson Jr. is killed in an automobile accident.

June 4: Jackie's number 42 is retired in a ceremony at Dodger Stadium along with Roy Campanella's number 39 and Sandy Koufax's number 32.

October 14: Jackie makes his last public appearance before the start of the second game of the World Series in Cincinnati. He said "I'd like to live to see a black manager, I'd like to live to see the day when there is a black man coaching at third base."

October 23: Jackie Robinson dies of a heart attack at his home in Stamford, Connecticut. The Reverend Jesse Jackson gave the eulogy at the funeral, held at Cypress Hills Cemetary in Brooklyn. A portion of that eulogy is below:

"Jackie's body was a temple of God, an instrument of peace that had no commitment to the idle gods of fame and materialism and empty awards and cheap trophies... Jackie, as a figure in history, was a rock in the water, hitting concentric circles and ripples of new possibility. Jackie, as a co-partner with God, was a balm in Gilead, in America, in Ebbets Field... When Jackie took the field, something within us reminded us of our birthright to be free. And Somebody without reminded us that is could be attained. There was strength and pride and power when the big rock hit the water, and concentric circles came forth and ripples of new possibility spread throughout the nation... He didn't integrate baseball for himself. He infiltrated baseball for all of us, seeking and looking for more oxygen for black survival, and looking for new possibility... His feet on the baseball diamond made it more than a sport, a narrative of achievement more than a game. For many of us...is was a gift, of new expectations, on that dash... He helped us to ascend from misery, to hope, on the muscles of his arms, and the meaning of his life. With Rachel, he made a covenant, where he realized that to live is to suffer, but to survive is to find meaning in that suffering. Today we can raise our hands and say Hallelujah... In his last dash, Jackie stole home. Pain, misery, and travail have lost. Jackie is saved. His enemies can leave him alone. His body will rest, but his spirit and his mind and his impact are perpetual and as affixed to human progress as are the stars in the heavens, the shine in the sun and the glow in the moon. This mind, this mission, could not be held down by a grave... No grave can hold this body down. It belongs to the ages, and all of us are better off because the temple of God, the man with convictions, the man with a mission passed this way."

The Jackie Robinson Foundation is established. The JRF is a public, not-for-profit national organization founded by Rachel Robinson as a vehicle to perpetuate the memory of Jackie Robinson and his achievements.