22 July: Calder is born in Lawnton, Pennsylvania, to Nanette Lederer Calder, a painter, and Alexander Stirling Calder, a sculptor. His sister Peggy is two years old. (CF, birth certificate)

Calder poses for his father's sculpture, Man Cub, in Philadelphia. Calder sculpts his own clay elephant. (Calder 1966, 13)

Spring: Stirling Calder contracts tuberculosis. Calder's parents move to a ranch in Oracle, Arizona, leaving the two children in the care of Dr. Charles P. Shoemaker, a dentist, and his wife, Nan. (Calder 1966, 15; Hayes 1977, 18)

End of March: Nanette picks up Calder and Peggy and they rejoin their father in Oracle. Calder befriends Riley, an elderly man recuperating at the ranch who shows him "how to make a wigwam out of burlap bags pinned together with nails." (Calder 1966, 16)

Fall: The Calders move to Pasadena, California. Calder attends second and third grades at William McKinley Elementary School. Encouraged by his parents, the cellar becomes his first workshop and he receives his first tools. He makes jewelry for his sister's dolls from copper wire and beads. (Calder 1966, 19-21)

1 January: Calder attends Pasadena's Tournament of Roses, where he experiences the four-horse chariot races. (Calder 1966, 22)

Summer: The Calders move to a new house on Linda Vista (Beautiful View) Avenue. Calder's workshop consists of a tent with a wooden floor. Calder attends fourth grade at Garfield School. (Calder 1966, 26-27)

December: Calder makes Dog and Duck from sheet brass for his parents' Christmas gifts. (Hayes 1977, 41)

Before 11 January: For his father's birthday, Calder makes Animal Zoo Puzzle, a game consisting of five painted animals--a tiger, a lion, and three bears--and a wooden board with nails divided into six pens. The challenge was to move the animals to clean their pens without having two animals in the same pen at once. (Hayes 1977, 42)

Fall: The Calders return east to Philadelphia. Calder attends Germantown Academy for two or three months while his parents search for a house close to New York City. (Calder 1966, 28)