February 27, 1891: Born to Leah and Abraham Sarnoff in Uzlian, Russia (a shtetl or village southeast of Minsk, now in Belarus; search for Uzlian here.)

1896: Abraham Sarnoff leaves for New York City.

1896-1900: Studies with his granduncle, a rabbi, in a kheder, memorizing lines of the Talmud.

July 2, 1900: Arrived New York City with his mother and two brothers via Minsk, the ports of Liepaja, Latvia; Liverpool, England; and Montreal, Canada; and New York’s Barge Office.

David, Leah, Lew, and Morris Sarnoff, in a studio in Borisov, Russia, c. 1897

1900-07: Helps support family by selling penny newspapers before and after school, and singing in his synagogue choir.

June 1906: Graduates from eighth grade at the Educational Alliance on New York’s Lower East Side.

June 1906: Begins working for the Commercial Cable Telegraph Company.

September 30, 1906: Begins work as office boy for Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America.