January 14 1946
Harold Shipman is born on Nottingham's Bestwood council estate. Later, at school, he works his way through the 11-plus into the city's High Pavement Grammar school, where he was known as a loner.
1963
While Shipman is 17 and studying for A-levels, his mother Vera dies at the age of 43 from cancer. Years later, his bereavement was to prompt speculation that it could have led to his obsession with causing death.
1965
He starts studying at Leeds university medical school. Lodging in nearby Wetherby, he begins going out with farmer's daughter Primrose Oxtoby. She became pregnant and the couple are married during Shipman's first year at university.
1970s
He graduates in 1970, becoming a junior houseman at Pontefract General Infirmary in West Yorkshire, before joining his first practice in the Pennines.
Later he develops a drug habit, injecting painkillers. When this is discovered, he resigns immediately. He was later fined £600 on drugs and forgery charges. He was not struck off but did receive a warning letter. He undergoes a course of psychiatric treatment and returns to work as a medical officer in Durham.
1979
Shipman begins practising as a GP in Hyde, Greater Manchester, with partners in the Donneybrook practice. By this time he has four children with Primrose.
1985
Police investigate the possible murder of one of Shipman's patients. But no action is taken against him.
1992
Shipman sets up his own surgery in Hyde's Market Street.
March 1998
A local GP expresses concerns about Shipman to a coroner. A police investigation is launched into suspicions surrounding Shipman but he goes on to kill three more patients before he is arrested.
June 24 1998
Former mayoress of Hyde Kathleen Grundy dies suddenly at the age of 81.
July 1 1998
Hundreds of mourners attend Mrs Grundy's funeral at Hyde chapel, Greater Manchester.
August 1 1998
Mrs Grundy's body is exhumed after her daughter, solicitor Angela Woodruff, becomes suspicious over a new will, which leaves everything to Shipman.
September 7 1998
Shipman is charged with Mrs Grundy's murder after going to Ashton-Under-Lyne police station for an interview.
September 8 1998
Shipman makes the first of many appearances before Tameside magistrates' court in Ashton-under-Lyne, charged with murdering Mrs Grundy and forging her £350,000 will. He is refused bail.
September 21 1998
The body of Joan Melia, 73, who died in June 1998, is exhumed.
September 22 1998
The body of Winifred Mellor, 73, who died in May 1998, is exhumed.
September 23 1998
The body of Bianka Pomfret, 49, who died in December 1997, is exhumed.
October 7 1998
Shipman appears in court again and is charged with murdering Mrs Melia, Mrs Mellor and Mrs Pomfret.
October 12 1998
The body of Ivy Lomas, who died in May 1997, aged 63, is exhumed.
October 13 1998
The body of Marie Quinn, 67, who died in November 1997, is exhumed.
November 10 1998
The body of Irene Turner, 67, who died in July 1996, is exhumed.
November 11 1998
Shipman is charged with the murders of Mrs Quinn and Mrs Lomas.
November 12 1998
The body of Jean Lilley, 59, who died in April 1997, is exhumed.
December 3 1998
Shipman is charged with the murders of Mrs Lilley and Mrs Turner.
December 8 1998
The body of Muriel Grimshaw, 76, who died in July 1997, is exhumed.
February 22 1999
Shipman is charged with murdering Mrs Grimshaw and six other patients whose bodies were cremated - Norah Nuttall, 65, who died in January 1998; Laura Wagstaff, 81, who died in December 1997; Maureen Ward, 57, who died in February 1998; Pamela Hillier, 68, who died in February 1998; Marie West, 81, who died in March 1995, and Lizzie Adams, 77, who died in February 1997.
October 5 1999
Shipman goes on trial at Preston crown court charged with murdering 15 patients and forging Mrs Grundy's will.
January 31 2000
Shipman is convicted of 15 murders, and of forging Mrs Grundy's will.
September 2000
Inquiry ordered. A month later the high court judge Dame Janet Smith is invited to be its chair.
June 20 2001
The Shipman inquiry's public hearings begin at Manchester Town Hall.
November 16 2001
Shipman's wife Primrose gives evidence to the inquiry, but says she remembers little.
July 2002
The first report is published from the Shipman inquiry led by Dame Janet Smith, which finds that he killed at least 215 patients with suspicion over a further 45.
July 4 2002
The home secretary, David Blunkett, rules Shipman should serve "whole life" tariff, condemning him to death behind bars.
July 14 2003
The Shipman inquiry's second and third reports are published. The former criticised two Greater Manchester police officers for an initial, flawed investigation into Shipman that raised no concerns five months before he was caught.
The latter called for an overhaul of the system of certifying deaths, coroners and cremation after Shipman's actions had gone undetected for so long.
January 13 2004
Shipman is found hanging in his cell in Wakefield prison at 6.20am and pronounced dead around two hours later, having apparently committed suicide. The prisons minister, Paul Goggins, said the prisons and probation ombudsman, Stephen Shaw, would carry out an investigation.
July 15 2004
The Shipman inquiry's fourth report is published. It calls for stringent controls on the use and stockpiling of controlled drugs such as diamorphine, which Shipman used to kill at least 214 of his victims.
December 9 2004
The fifth report on the regulation and monitoring of GPs criticises the General Medical Council for failing in its primary task of looking after patients, because it was too involved in protecting doctors.
January 27 2005
The sixth and final report concludes that Shipman had killed 250 patients and may have begun his murderous career at the age of 25, within a year of finishing his medical training.
August 25 2005
The investigation into Shipman's own death concludes that it "could not have been predicted or prevented". But the report by the prisons and probation ombudsman, Stephen Shaw, criticises jail staff over their handling of the mass murderer in the weeks prior to his death.
