September 3 2002
Tony Blair announces imminent publication of a dossier spelling out why Iraq poses "a real and unique threat to the security of the region and the rest of the world" to a press conference in his Sedgefield constituency.
September 5
Draft version is circulated. Alastair Campbell says it needs a "substantial rewrite ... as per TB's discussion".
September 10-11
Piece of intelligence suggesting Iraq could launch chemical weapons within 45 minutes of order being given makes its first appearance in the dossier.
September 24
Dossier, titled Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction: the assessment of the British government, is published. The London Evening Standard's headline reads: "45 minutes to attack." Next day Sun splashes "He's got 'em ... let's get him" across front page. Iraq denounces the dossier as "short-sighted, naive lies".
November 8
UN security council votes unanimously to deliver ultimatum to Iraq to accept unconditional return of weapons inspectors or face unspecified "serious consequences".
March 20 2003
War begins as air strikes are launched in and around Baghdad against what President George Bush calls "targets of military opportunity". Baghdad falls to US troops on April 9.
May 1
Mr Bush declares major combat operations over. No WMDs, or weapons of mass destruction, are fired at invading troops or found in advance on main Iraqi cities.
May 22
David Kelly, Ministry of Defence biological weapons expert, meets BBC Today programme's defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan in Charing Cross hotel, London. They talk about intelligence officers' concerns over the dossier, the likely extent of Iraq's chemical and biological weapons programmes, and weapons inspections then under way in Iraq.
May 29
Gilligan makes series of reports on the Today programme and 5 Live based on meeting with Dr Kelly. He says his source told him the dossier was made "sexier" in week before publication, classic example being the claim that WMDs were ready for use within 45 minutes. In one report he says the government "knew that claim was questionable" when included in the dossier.
June 1
Gilligan revisits story in the Mail on Sunday. He says he asked his source how the transformation happened. "The answer was a single word," he wrote. "Campbell."
June 6
Mr Campbell writes to Richard Sambrook, BBC director of news, to complain the reports gave impression the government took Britain to war on false basis. He also uses press briefing to highlight what he says are series of inaccuracies in Gilligan's reports.
June 8
Gilligan accuses Downing Street of briefing against him in Mail on Sunday article on how "Hurricane Alastair and tropical storm Tony blew into my life".
June 19
Commons foreign affairs select committee questions Gilligan on his reports and his source. He says it was "one of the senior officials in charge of drawing up the dossier ... easily sufficiently senior and credible to be worth reporting".
June 25-26
Mr Campbell faces foreign affairs committee. He says he takes the accusations contained in the Gilligan report - which he calls a "lie" - very seriously. He writes to Mr Sambrook demanding apology.
27 June
Mr Sambrook stands by the story and accuses Mr Campbell of "conducting a personal vendetta" against Gilligan. Mr Campbell then makes surprise appearance on that evening's Channel 4 News. Angry and wagging his finger at presenter Jon Snow, Mr Campbell tears into a "fundamental attack upon the integrity of the government". He says: "Let them [the BBC] just accept for once they have got it wrong."
June 30
Dr Kelly writes to his manager, Bryan Wells, admitting he had met Gilligan on May 22.
July 3
Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, calls Downing Street to say a possible source has come forward but that his account of the meeting does not back up all the details of Gilligan's story. Mr Blair learns of this on visit to the north-west.
July 4
A meeting is held in Downing Street to discuss Dr Kelly's admission. Mr Campbell writes in his diary that he and Mr Hoon agreed it would "fuck" Mr Gilligan if Dr Kelly was indeed his source - due to the discrepancies between their two accounts.
July 5-6
Mr Campbell writes in diary he spent much of the weekend discussing Dr Kelly's admission with Mr Blair and Mr Hoon. He says he and the defence secretary wanted "to get the source up" but the prime minister was nervous. He also telephones Jonathan Powell, the Downing Street chief of staff, to warn him that to know of a possible source but not tell the foreign affairs committee (which is investigating use of intelligence ahead of the Iraq war) risks accusations of a cover-up.
A report in the Times, meanwhile, identifies Gilligan's source as a scientist working in Iraq, and the BBC governors release a statement giving unconditional backing to Gilligan. Sir Kevin Tebbit, the MoD's senior civil servant, warns Mr Blair that Dr Kelly could be named imminently.
July 7
Second meeting takes place in the prime minister's office. Described by Mr Powell as a fast-paced running meeting that "gets smaller and bigger, and bigger and smaller", Mr Blair, Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, and senior Whitehall figures and intelligence figures discuss whether to put Dr Kelly before the foreign affairs committee.
Dr Kelly is interviewed by Martin Howard, MoD deputy chief of intelligence, Richard Hatfield, MoD head of personnel, and Dr Wells. Dr Kelly later tells Sunday Times journalist Nicholas Rufford he was "put through the wringer".
July 8
Downing Street meeting chaired by Mr Blair decides to put out MoD statement saying an official had admitted speaking to Gilligan, after an earlier plan to disclose his existence in a letter to the Commons intelligence and security committee falls through. Supplementary material is put together by the MoD after consultations with No 10 to help press officers field follow-up questions. It is agreed at the meeting to confirm Dr Kelly's name to journalists who guess it correctly.
July 9
Mr Hoon writes to Gavyn Davies, BBC chairman of governors, asking him to confirm whether Dr Kelly was source. MoD press office later confirms to Financial Times journalist James Blitz that scientist admitted to meeting Gilligan. On advice of the press office, Dr Kelly drives from his Oxfordshire home to Cornwall to escape the media.
July 10
The Guardian, the Times, and the Financial Times name Dr Kelly as Gilligan's source. Mr Blair accepts Dr Kelly will have to give evidence to both the foreign affairs committee and the intelligence and security committee. Downing Street spokesman Tom Kelly sends an email to Mr Powell: "This is now a game of chicken with the Beeb."
July 13
Rejecting MoD's offer of a hotel in London, Dr Kelly leaves his wife in Cornwall to stay with his daughter, Rachel, in Oxfordshire. She said she overheard her father on phone saying he was "very depressed" by media coverage, and would only read sports sections of papers.
July 14
Government officials brief Dr Kelly ahead of his appearance before foreign affairs committee.
July 15
Dr Kelly faces foreign affairs committee. Rachel Kelly later told the inquiry he said that Andrew Mackinlay MP - who asked him if he was "chaff" - was an "utter bastard". His colleague, Wing Commander John Clark, said he had been thrown by a question from David Chidgey MP about his contact with Susan Watts, BBC Newsnight's science editor.
July 16
Dr Kelly appears in front of intelligence and security committee and returns that evening to Oxfordshire to his daughter's house before going to his own home. On same day, Mr Blair challenges the BBC to reveal Gilligan's source.
July 17
Gilligan faces foreign affairs committee for second time, and is branded an "unsatisfactory witness". At 3pm, Dr Kelly leaves home, telling his wife he is going for a walk. When he fails to return home by 11.45pm, his family contacts the police.
July 18
Thames Valley police find a body near to Dr Kelly's home. It is later confirmed as him. Journalists accompanying Mr Blair on flight from Washington to Tokyo are told by the prime minister's official spokesman there will be an independent judicial inquiry into circumstances surrounding the death.
Lord Hutton, law lord and former lord chief justice of Northern Ireland, is appointed to head inquiry into circumstances surrounding death of Dr Kelly.
July 20
BBC confirms Dr Kelly as source of both Gilligan's and Watts's reports.
August 1
Mr Blair, Mr Hoon, civil servants, BBC executives and journalists will be called to the inquiry, Lord Hutton announces. He also asks to see all letters, memos, reports, and any other documentation that "in any way related to Dr Kelly".
August 11
The inquiry begins in earnest as the first witnesses give evidence.
October 13
Inquiry finishes with the MoD official Sir Kevin Tebbit testifying.
January 28 2004
Lord Hutton reports.
