| 0 yrs | Oprah Winfrey was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, the illegitimate child of Vernita Lee and Vernon Winfrey. | 1954 |
| 6 yrs | Oprah left Mississppi for Milwaukee to live with her mother and stepsister and later, her stepbrother. She excelled at school and ran wild at home. | 1960 |
| 14 yrs | Her mother tried to place her in a juvenile hall but Oprah was turned away for lack of beds. | 1968 |
| Fourteen-year-old Oprah gave birth to a premature boy, who died soon after birth. | ||
| Her father Vernon and his wired, Zelma, took Oprah into their Nashville home. In this new atmosphere Oprah became an honor student and was popular at school. | ||
| 16 yrs | WVOL Radio hired Oprah "Gail" Winfrey to read news on the air. She was $100 per week, an excellent salary for a 16-year-old. | 1970 |
| 17 yrs | Oprah graduated from East Nashville High School and was voted "Most Popular." She won a four-year scholarship to Tennessee State University based on her speaking abilities. | 1971 |
| Oprah was crowned Miss Black Tennessee. | ||
| 19 yrs | At 19, Oprah became the first African American woman ever to anchor the news at Nashville's WTVF-TV. | 1973 |
| 22 yrs | WJZ-TV Baltimore hired Oprah to host the 6 o'clock news. Oprah met her lifetime pal, Gayle King, a production assistant at WJZ-TV. | 1976 |
| April 1: Oprah was demoted from news anchor to morning talk show host. Oprah became cohost of People are Talking on WJZ-TV, a job that lasted until 1983. | ||
| 30 yrs | Oprah Winfrey moved to Illinois to host A.M. Chicago. | 1984 |
| 31 yrs | The Oprah Winfrey Show replaced A.M. Chicago; later in the year the show became nationally syndicated. | 1985 |
| The Color Purple was released and Oprah was nominated for an Oscar for her performance as Sophia. | ||
| 32 yrs | The movie Native Son was released. In it Oprah plays a mother who begged for her son's life after he accidentally killed a young woman. | 1986 |
| Oprah won her first Emmy as outstanding talk/service show host, and The Oprah Winfrey Show is named best show. | ||
| February 9: Oprah aired what is considered by some critics to be her best show: It was from Forsyth County, Georgia, where no blacks had been allowed to live since 1912. | ||
| Tennessee State University granted Oprah a diploma, after refusing to waive her senior project in lieu of work experience. She got her degree in speech and drama, then delivered the commencement address. | ||
| Oprah played herself in the Danny DeVito movie, Throw Momma from the Train. | ||
| 34 yrs | Oprah was named Broadcaster of the Year by the International Television and Radio Society. The youngest-ever recipient of that award. She joined the ranks of Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley, Barbara Walters, and Ted Koppel. | 1988 |
| Oprah obtained ownership and control of her show from Chicago's ABC-TV station, WLS. She began producing the show in the fall of 1988. | ||
| Oprah bought her Chicago facility and her farm in Indiana. | ||
| Billy Rizzo, Oprah's longtime assistant died of AIDS. | ||
| Oprah was a guest star on Pee-Wee Herman's Playhouse: Christmas Special | ||
| 35 yrs | Oprah's half brother Jeffrey Lee died of AIDS. | 1989 |
| Oprah starred as Mattie Michael in the movie The Women of Brewster Place. | ||
| Using the Optifast liquid diet, Oprah reduced her weight to 142 pounds, allowing her to fit into a size 10 dress. She celebrated by dragging a 67-pound slab of animal fat onto her show. She soon regained the pounds she lost. | ||
| 36 yrs | Brewster Place, a weekly television show that Oprah produced and starred in, closed after just 10 weeks. | 1990 |
| Oprah played herself in the movie Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones. | ||
| On a show in which she interviewed child sexual abuse victim Truddi Chase, Oprah revealed that she too had been molested as a child. | ||
| 38 yrs | Stedman Graham and Oprah became engaged and, to her later regret, Oprah announced on national television. | 1992 |
| When Oprah won Best Talk Show Host at the Daytime Emmy Awards, she was miserable. She weighed 237 pounds, her highest weight ever. | ||
| Oprah found Colorado trainer Bob Greene to supervise her exercise program. | ||
| 39 yrs | With looking on Oprah, President Bill Clinton signed the National Child Protection Act. | 1993 |
| Oprah produced and starred in the made-for-TV movie, There Are No Children Here. | ||
| Oprah took up running and began to lose the nearly 80 pounds she gained following her liquid diet. | ||
| Publishing company Alfred E. Knopf signed Oprah for an alleged $4 million contract for her biography. In the summer of 1993, Oprah withdrew the finished book and it was never published. | ||
| 41 yrs | January 13: Oprah admitted on a broadcast television show that 20 years earlier she had used cocaine. | 1995 |
| Oprah became the first woman to head the Forbes Top 40 Entertainers list, a ranking of entertainers by their income. She also was the only entertainer and the only black on Forbes' list of 400 richest Americans. | ||
| 43 yrs | Before Women Had Wings, starring Oprah and produced by her, aired on ABC. The show helped make ABC number 1 in the Nielsen ratings for the week. | 1997 |
| Bob Greene and Oprah's video, Oprah: Make the Connection, was released. | ||
| The Wedding, a four-hour miniseries directed by Charles Burnett and starring Halle Berry, was produced and released under the banner Oprah Winfrey Presents. | ||
| Oprah announced the formation of Oprah's Angel Network, a national effort to encourage viewers to make charitable contributions and to do volunteer work. | ||
| 44 yrs | February 26: Oprah prevailed in defending herself in the food disparagement lawsuit brought by Texas cattlemen. | 1998 |
| Oprah received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Daytime Emmy Awards, plus an award for top talk show host. | ||
| 45 yrs | She becomes "Professor Winfrey" teaching along with Stedman Graham at Northwestern University's J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management. She is also presented with the National Book Foundation's 50th anniversary gold medal for all that Oprah's Book Club has done for books and authors. | 1999 |
| 50 yrs | The 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Concert was hosted by Oprah and Tom Cruise. There were musical performances by Cyndi Lauper, Andrea Bocelli, Joss Stone, Chris Botti, Diana Krall, Tony Bennett and others. The concert was broadcasted in the United States on Dec. 23, 2004 by E!. | 2004 |
| 51 yrs | An unofficial Oprah fanclub, also organized a petition drive in 2005, to nominate Oprah for the Nobel Peace Prize. | 2005 |
| On December 1 Oprah appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman to promote the new Broadway musical The Color Purple, of which she was a producer, joining the host for the first time in sixteen years. | ||
| 52 yrs | On February 9 it was announced that Oprah signed a $55 million, 3-year contract with XM Satellite Radio to establish a new radio channel. The channel will be called Oprah & Friends and will feature popular contributors to The Oprah Winfrey Show and 'O' Magazine | 2006 |
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