September, 1933
King Faisal dies. Ghazi, 21, his playboy son, takes throne.

1936
Failed coup attempt.

1937
Saddam Hussein born.

1939
King Ghazi dies in car crash. His toddler son, Faisal II, becomes king.

1941
British send troops to Baghdad after second coup attempt.

May 14, 1948
Israel declares independence. Iraq sends troops when Arabs declare war the following day.

July, 1958
Dissidents under Gen. Abdel Karim Qasim overthrow the monarchy and execute the king. Iraq is declared a republic with Qasim its prime minister.

1958-1962
There are 29 known coup attempts against Qasim government.

October 7, 1959
Saddam part of Baathist coup attempt, which fails.

February, 1963
Baathists overthrow Qasim, execute communists and Kurds.

November, 1963
Military overthrows Baathists.

1968
Baathists regain power. As Deputy Secretary-General of the Baath Party, Saddam involved in exiling rival leaders.

1969
Saddam is appointed deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council and vice president, becoming driving force in regime of President Ahmed Hassan Al-Bakr, his cousin.

1970
Baath government agrees to an autonomous region in the north for Kurds, but it never is implemented.

1972-1980
Iraq deports 200,000 Shiites, Turkmen and Kurds to Iran.

1974-1975
Government reportedly uses phosphorous shells against Kurds; two Kurdish villages are razed, and 8,000 Kurds disappear from another. The Kurds are crushed, but continue guerrilla activities.

July 16, 1979
Al-Bakr is forced to retire and Saddam becomes president.

July-August, 1979
Hundreds of Baathist party leaders and army officers are accused of plots against Saddam and executed.

1980
Saddam invades Iran.

February, 1987-August, 1988
Saddam appoints a cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, to "take care of" the Kurds. In the ensuing campaign, thousands of villages are razed and an estimated 180,000 Kurds disappear. Thousands more die when Kurdish villages on the Turkish border are gassed.

1990
Iraq restores diplomatic relations with Iran.

A BUILDUP OF AGGRESSION

August 1990
Iraqi troops invade Kuwait, declaring it Iraq's 19th province.

January-February 1991
U.S. and U.N. coalition forces retake Kuwait. U.N. imposes economic sanctions.

April 1991
Iraq accepts cease-fire. Allied troops withdraw. "No-fly" zones are created.

July 1991
Saddam Hussein, citing Iraqi sovereignty, rejects U.N. offer to sell oil to buy food and medicine as hunger and disease become widespread.

June 1991
U.N. chemists, biologists and weapons experts begin inspections aimed at disarming Iraq.

June 1991
Amnesty International urges Kurdish leaders to stop killing and mutilating prisoners in their custody.

1992
Iraqi troops march on Shiite shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala and force the grand ayatollah to denounce rebellion there. U.N. later reports many clerics are killed, with administrators put in charge of Shiite mosques.

1993
Saddam River Irrigation Project dams the Tigris and Euphrates, draining Shiite marshlands. U.N. calls it "the environmental crime of the century."

1993
Evidence surfaces of plans to assassinate former President Bush during April visit to Kuwait.

1996
Saddam accepts oil-for-food plan after U.N. estimates a quarter of Iraqi children suffer malnutrition.

March 1997
First shipment of food, chickpeas and white flour arrives.

1998
Iraq Sanctions Challenge, a coalition of U.S. opposition groups, delivers first shipment of medical supplies to Iraq in violation of sanctions.

December 1998
Because British/American bombing is soon to commence in retaliation for Iraq's lack of cooperation with weapons inspectors, U.N. pulls inspectors from Iraq.

December 1998
President Clinton orders Operation Desert Fox — the bombing of Saddam's Republican Guards — to force complete accounting of weapons.

Sept. 11, 2001
Attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Jan. 29, 2002
In State of the Union address, President Bush denounces Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an "axis of evil."

Oct. 16, 2002
Bush signs a resolution authorizing the use of armed forces against Iraq.

November 2002
U.N. calls for renewed weapons inspections and puts Iraq on notice to allow inspectors back into the country by Dec. 23 or face "serious consequences." Saddam agrees.

December 2002
Inspectors return to Iraq.

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