* 1822, 8 March - Zaduszniki (Mielec district). Ignacy Łukasiewicz was born to an intellectual family of noble origin. His father was a manor house leaseholder.
* 1832-1836 - Rzeszów. Grammar school education; he took 5 exams, but 4 exams enabled him to start work. The families precarious financial position (he had several siblings) forced him to start work when he was very young.
* 1836-1840 - Łańcut. Apothecary practice at the pharmacy of Antoni Swoboda.
* 1837-1840 - Participating in consecutive democratic and independence organisations; finally, he was registered by the authorities as a political activist.
* 1840 - He passed tyrocinal exam and obtained promotion to apothecary’s assistant.
* 1840-1846 - Rzeszów. Apothecary’s assistant at the Edward Hübel’s pharmacy. Over the next few years he gained professional experience.
* 1845 - He met Edward Dembowski and then became a certified agent of The Centralization of the Polish Democratic Society in Rzeszów - an organisation of a similar profile as the previous one but at that time Łukasiewicz was highly involved in its activity.
* 1846, 19 February- He was arrested together with his collaborators. The arrest prevented the uprising in Rzeszów (see Kraków Uprising). Afterwards he was sent to prison in Lwów.
* 1847, 27 December - Released from prison after a one year investigation due to the lack of evidence, but he still remained under strict observation and was banned from leaving Lwów. Łukasiewicz abandoned his conspiracy activity.
* 1848-1852 - In August 1848 he started to work at the ‘Under Gold Star’ pharmacy owned by Piotr Mikolasch. Thanks to his intervention Łukasiewicz got permission to leave the city and started studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. He passed all exams except for pharmacology, thus it was impossible to get a diploma. He got the diploma of master of pharmacy at the Vienna University on 30 July 1852.
* 1852 - He came back to Lwów and Mikolasch’s pharmacy. In the pharmacy laboratory he and another assistant - Jan Zeh - conducted research into petroleum distillation ordered by Mikolasch. As time passed Mikolasch abandoned the research, because he saw no application of the new distillates as medications.
* 1853 - late 1852 early 1853 Łukasiewicz and Zeh obtained paraffin by using the fractional distillation method. Then Łukasiewicz tried to find some practical applications for paraffin. The oil lamps previously used were not suitable for paraffin and they required to be modified. The first lamp designed by Łukasiewicz illuminated the pharmacy shop display.
* 1853, 31 July - is quite symbolic as the official date of birth of the petroleum industry. On that day the paraffin lighting was applied for the first time during an urgent night time operation in the municipality hospital in Łyczaków, quarter of Lwów.
* 1854 - At the beginning of that year Łukasiewicz moved to Gorlice to be closer to the oil-bearing fields. The petroleum had been exploited for a long time and used for commercial purposes, for example as medicines for cattle or lubricants. He started to work at a local pharmacy owned by Jan Tomaszewicz. Simultaneously, he established oil companies and sank oil wells along with the oil field owners. Successive oil wells and companies were founded during the following years in the area of Gorlice, Jasło and Krosno.
* The first oil well in the world was made in Bóbrka near Krosno (Trzecieski&Łukasiewicz oil company) and is still productive today.
* 1856 - Ulaszowice near Jasło. Łukasiewicz opened the first oil refinery in the world, strictly speaking its archetype petroleum distillery. His business activity was already at a high level - Łukasiewicz was the co-owner of many companies and shops opened in various towns and he returned to social and political activities (covertly this time). He produced from petroleum not only paraffin but also greases, lubricating oils and asphalt.
* 1858 - He moved from Gorlice to Jasło.
* 1859 - His daughter Marianna died. He moved to Polanka near Krosno, where after the Ulaszowicka refinery was destroyed by fire, Łukasiewicz established another one.
* 1863 - He provided financial support to freedom fighters participating in the January Insurrection and afterwards he helped the refugees.
* 1865 - He purchased the village of Chorkówka and the adjacent Leśniówka manor.
He established a modern oil refinery in Chorkówka.
* 1868-1881 Łukasiewicz initiated drilling of several successive oil wells in the Beskid Dukielski mountains (Ropianka, Wilsznia, Smereczne) and in the Gorlice area (Ropa, Wójtowa). He built a sanatorium with iodine-bromine baths Bóbrka, a chapel for the local population in Chorkówka, and together with Klobassa, his business partner, he founded a large neo-Gothic church in Zręcin (near Chorkówka). By the end of his life he had been elected to the Galician Parliament.
* 1877 - Łukasiewicz organised the petroleum congress in Lwów, and then he founded the National Oil Society in Gorlice.
* 1882, 7 January - he died prematurely in the prime of life suffering from severe pneumonia. He rests in the Zręcin graveyard.
source: http://pl.wikipedia.org/
