Timeline

1863: Charles Jones Soong was born in Wenchang City of Hainan province.

1886: Charles Soong went to Shanghai on a Christian mission.

1890: Charles Soong started a family with wife Ni Kwei-tseng and their first daughter was named Ai-ling.

1893: Second daughter Ching-ling was born.

1894: Charlie Soong met with Dr Sun Yat-sen and became a supporter of the latter's cause to overthrow the Manchurian regime.

1897: Third daughter Mei-ling was born.

1907: Ching-ling and Mei-ling followed their eldest sister to the US to study at Wesleyan College.

1909: Ai-ling graduated and moved back to China to work as Dr. Sun's secretary.

1912: Ching-ling returned to China. Charlie Soong fled to Tokyo with his family and Dr Sun when the republic collapsed. Ai-ling was married to H. H. Kung in Tokyo.

1915: Ching-ling and Sun, who was 25 years her senior, were married on Oct 25 that year.

1920: Mei-ling met Chiang Kai-shek, who was 11 years her senior. Chiang, a Buddhist, won the approval of his future mother-in-law by divorcing his ex-wife and converting to Christianity.

1925: Dr Sun died and Ching-ling was elected to the Kuomintang (KMT) Central Executive Committee.

1927: Mei-ling and Chiang Kai-shek were married on Dec 1.

1929: Ching-ling returned to China. She lived in Shanghai from 1931 to 1937. When the war broke out, she moved to Hong Kong and then Chongqing.

1939: Ching-ling founded the China Defense League, a fund-raising entity for the Chinese Communists.

1959: Ching-ling was elected Vice President of China.

1973: Ai-ling, who moved to the US in the 1940s, died in New York at the age of 83.

1975: Chiang died in Taiwan. Madame Chiang moved to New York.

1981: Ching-ling died in Beijing, just two weeks after she was named Honorary Chairwoman of the People's Republic of China.

2003: Madame Chiang died in her sleep in New York, aged 105.