The exact date or even birthplace of Cullen is known, which is due to the fact that his mother had possibly abandoned him or died.

Theodore Roosevelt wins his first election for President after serving three years in the office due to the death of William McKinley.

Woodrow Wilson overcomes a three way race for presidency.

United States Congress declares war on Germany and joins the allies in World War I.

Mrs. Porter was the guardian of Cullen after his parents died and is perhaps his paternal grandmother

After the death of Mrs. Porter, Cullen is adopted by Reverend and Mrs Frederick A. Cullen.

He graduated with honors in Latin, Greek, Mathematics, and French.

While in NYU, Cullen wins the Witter Bynner undergraduate poetry contest, his poems would later be featured in some publications such as Harper's, Crisis, Opportunity, The Bookman, and Poetry.

Cullen graduated from NYU as one of eleven students selected to Phi Beta Kappa and continues his education in Harvard in hopes to acquire a masters in English.

The book included "Heritage" and "Incident", probably his most famous poems. "Yet Do I Marvel".

Daughter of W. E. B. Du Bois, the leading black intellectual.

Postwar prosperity ends in the 1929 Stock Market crash, stock prices led to losses between 1929 and 1931 of an estimated $50 billion and started the worst American depression in the nation's history.

Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats President Hoover in the presidential election for the first of his four terms.

He taught English, French, and creative writing at Frederick Douglass Junior High School in New York City.

He worked with Arna Bontemps to adapt Bontemps's 1931 novel God Sends Sunday into St. Louis Woman

On December 11, 1941, the United States declares war on Germany and Italy, responding to their declaration of war against America.

Three days later, the second bomb is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. On August 15, Emperor Hirohito of Japan surrenders.

Cullen died from high blood pressure and uremic poisoning on January 9, 1946.