If by “events” you mean major plot points, one such event could be Ishmael’s shipping aboard the Pequod in chapter 16—Ishmael has made friends with Quequeg, the savage harpooneer, and Quequeg is the one who picks out the Pequod. This choice is what sets the plot in motion. A second event would be the point at which Ahab reveals his quest for vengeance to his crew, in chapter 36 “The Quarter Deck.” In this chapter Ahab nails a doubloon to the mast as a reward to the person who first sights Moby Dick. A third event would be the climax of the story, played out across chapters 133-35, in which Ahab finally faces Moby Dick and is destroyed, along with the Pequod and all of its crew, excepting only Ishmael.

There are of course many other significant events in the novel. It’s important to remember that Moby Dick is less about the story than it is about the philosophical implications of Ahab’s quest. In this sense, many of the chapters may not register as “events” that move the story forward but, nevertheless, are important thematically. Some of these “events” include Chapter 35, “The Mast-head,” Chapter 42, ”The Whiteness of the Whale,” and Chapter 119, “The Candles.”