This Chronology offers a list of selected dates related to the 1919 Bishops’ Plan website.

• 1891
  • Pope Leo XIII issues Rerum Novarum.
• 1892
  • Populist Party offers James B. Weaver as candidate for president.
• 1892
  • John A. Ryan enters seminary.

• 1900
  • American Federation of Catholic Societies founded
• 1902
  • Maryland adopts first Workmen's Compensation law
• 1905
  • Federal Council of Churches established
• 1906
  • John A. Ryan publishes A Living Wage
• 1911
  • Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and Commission
• 1912
  • Progressive Party Convention and Platform
• 1916
  • Federal Child Labor Law
• 1917
  • National Catholic War Council created
• 1918
  • April: Committee on Reconstruction formed by National Catholic War Council
• 1918
  • November: World War I ends
• 1918
  • November to December: Committee on Reconstruction refines goals and enlists John A. Ryan as author
• 1919
  • February: "Bishop's Program" for Social Reconstruction issued
• 1919
  • Labor upheaval, steel and other strikes
• 1919
  • September: National Catholic Welfare Council formed
• 1920
  • Social Action Department of National Catholic Welfare Council formed and John A. Ryan appointed as its head
• 1920
  • Warren G. Harding elected president promising to return to "normalcy"