| 1847 | March 3 | Alexander Bell is born to Alexander Melville and Eliza Symonds Bell in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is the second of three sons; his siblings are Melville (b. 1845) and Edward (b. 1848). |  [Alexander Melville Bell with his wife, Eliza Grace Symonds and their children, Melville James, Alexander Graham and Edward Charles]. [ca. 1852?] Reproduction Number LC-G9-Z1031. Gilbert H. Grosvenor Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.
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| 1858 | Bell adopts the name Graham out of admiration for Alexander Graham, a family friend, and becomes known as Alexander Graham Bell. | ||
| 1862 | October | Bell arrives in London to spend a year with his grandfather, Alexander Bell. Letter to Bell from his father | |
| 1863 | August | Bell begins teaching music and elocution at Weston House Academy in Elgin, Scotland, and receives instruction in Latin and Greek for a year. | |
| 1864 | April | Alexander Melville Bell develops Visible Speech, a kind of universal alphabet that reduces all sounds made by the human voice into a series of symbols. Visible Speech chart | |
| Fall | Bell attends the University of Edinburgh. |
 Chart, undated. Box 196, "Subject File: The Deaf--Visible Speech--Nature & Uses." Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers,
Manuscript Division , Library of Congress.
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| 1865-66 | Bell returns to Elgin to teach and experiments with vowel pitches and tuning forks. Letter from Bell to his father | ||
| 1866-67 | Bell teaches at Somersetshire College in Bath. | ||
| 1867 | May 17 | Younger brother Edward Bell dies of tuberculosis at the age of 19. | |
| Summer | Alexander Melville Bell publishes his definitive work on Visible Speech, Visible Speech: The Science of Universal Alphabetics. | ||
| 1868 | May 21 | Bell begins teaching speech to the deaf at Susanna Hull's school for deaf children in London.
Bell attends University College in London. |