Pan Am flight 103 explodes over southern Scotland. Massive chunks of the doomed Boeing 747 hurtle out of the night sky and smash into the border town of Lockerbie. All 259 passengers and crew die instantly, along with 11 people on the ground.
July 1990
The UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch concludes that the crash was the result of "the detonation of an improvised explosive device located in a baggage container".
November 1991
Two Libyans, Abdelbaset Al Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, are charged with the Lockerbie bombing in the US and in Scotland. Two weeks later, the US, British and French governments demand that the Libyan Government give up the suspects for trial in their courts.
December 1991
Libya insists it will try the men in its own courts.
March 1992
After a United Nations order to surrender the Lockerbie suspects goes unheeded, the UN impose sanctions on Libya. Air travel and arms sales to Libya are banned.
September 1993
Ibrahim Legwell, the Libyan lawyer for the two suspects, says that they would be willing to stand trial in Switzerland, but Britain and the US continue to insist that the two suspects must face trial either in the Scotland or America.
December 1993
UN sanctions are tightened. Libyan assets in foreign banks are frozen and the import of spare parts for the Libyan oil industry is banned.
January 1994
Robert Black, professor of law at Edinburgh university, and Ibrahim Legwell propose a trial in the Hague by international judges, but the British government rejects the proposal.
January 1995
MPs demand a new Lockerbie inquiry after US intelligence documents suggest it was not Libya but Iran behind the bombing. US officials later play down the report.
May 1995
Prime Minister John Major rejects an appeal from president Nelson Mandela of South Africa to reconsider his opposition to a trial in a neutral country of the two Lockerbie bombing suspects.
June 1995
US President Bill Clinton is reported to have given up hope of bringing to trial the two Libyans accused of plotting the Lockerbie bomb, and will not order new efforts aimed at their extradition.
October 1997
Nelson Mandela asks Britain and the US to accept a trial in a neutral state after meeting Jim Swire, the father of a victim.
December 1997
A month after Libya announces it does not believe its citizens would receive a fair trial in Britain (although it does not object to Scottish law or Scottish judges) a UN report says that the Libyan suspects would receive a fair trial in Scotland.
February 1998
The international court of justice in The Hague rules that it has the right to decide where two Libyan suspects should be tried. Britain and the United States maintain that the Lockerbie bombing suspects should be tried in Scotland or the US.
April 1998
Libyan government officials, lawyers and British representatives of the bombing victims - including Jim Swire, the spokesman for the UK families of flight 103 - meet in Tripoli. The Libyans confirm that they would accept a trial in a neutral country, operating under Scottish law.
June 1998
African members of the Organisation of African Unity ignore some of the sanctions imposed against Libya by the UN. They, along with the Arab League, had backed Libya's proposal to surrender the two suspects for trial in a neutral country at a UN meeting in the spring.
July 21 1998
The Guardian reveals a decision by Britain and the United States that the two Libyan suspects can be tried in The Hague under Scottish law. The plan follows months of secret discussions between Britain, the US and the Netherlands - initiated by foreign secretary Robin Cook. It is announced in response to the threat of a collapse of sanctions against Libya. It also shifts the onus onto Colonel Gadafy to hand them over.
August 28 1998
Colonel Gadafy says he has no objections to handing over the two Lockerbie bombing suspects for trial in the Netherlands, but demands assurances there are no "tricks" in the Anglo-American proposal.
September 2 1998
A Sudan Airways aircraft flies to Tripoli despite the UN ban on flights to Libya. The ban is later broken by the presidents of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Niger and the Gambia.
September 1998
There remain sticking points to a trial in the Netherlands. Britain insists the Libyans must serve any sentence in Scotland; Libya informs the UN that it wants the suspects, if convicted, to serve their sentence in the Netherlands or in Libya.
December 5 1998
Kofi Annan meets Libyan officials in an attempt to persuade them to hand over the suspects. He calls the talks "fruitful and positive".
December 21 1999
Britain and the US threaten Libya with tougher sanctions after Colonel Gadafy calls for an international court to be prepared for the two Libyan suspects in the Netherlands.
January 7 1999
After Tony Blair's visit to South Africa, Nelson Mandela launches a diplomatic initiative to bring an end to the impasse over the Lockerbie suspects. He arranges for Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the US, and Jakes Gerwell, Mr Mandela's chief of staff to meet Colonel Gadafy. President Mandela's ability to negotiate a deal is enhanced by an arms-and-oil trade agreement between South Africa and Libya.
February 14 1999
After mediation by Saudi Arabia and South Africa, diplomats suggest that Libya will, after all, accept that the two suspects serve sentences in Scotland if convicted. Several days earlier, Libya's foreign minister, Omar Al Muntasser, had said there was "no alternative" to imprisonment in Libya.
February 26 1999
The UN security council extends sanctions against Libya for four months. Meanwhile, the US demands that Libya surrender the suspects within a month, threatening to withdraw the offer of a Netherlands-based trial under Scottish law and tighten the sanctions against Libya.
March 19 1999
Nelson Mandela flies to Tripoli to speak with Colonel Gadafy with special UN permission. He announces that the Lockerbie suspects will be surrendered on or before April 6. Sanctions will be suspended immediately and lifted within 90 days.
April 5 1999
The suspects are taken into Dutch custody after flying from Tripoli to an airbase near The Hague and formally charged with the bombing. UN sanctions against Libya are suspended as agreed.
June 7 1999
A Scottish judge agrees to delay the trial for six months.
December 7 1999
The suspects appear for the first time at a pre-trial hearing. Their lawyers apply for the charges against them to be reduced.
February 2000
The suspects formally plead not guilty to the charges. The BBC is refused permission to broadcast the trial.
May 3 2000
The trial finally begins at Camp Zeist, the Netherlands.
December 6 2000
FBI agent Edward Marshman tells the court of an interview with a Jordanian bomb maker, Marwan Khreesat, in which he confessed to supplying five explosive devices similar to the one used to bring down Pan Am flight 103 - not to Libyans, but to the Palestinian militant group, the PFLP-GC.
January 9 2001
Defence lawyers unexpectedly announce that they will present no further evidence.
January 10 2001
Prosecution counsel in their turn surprise the court by dropping conspiracy charges, leaving the two Libyan defendants to face only murder charges. The trial, effectively, is over after 78 days.
The verdict
Full text of the judges' verdict (pdf file)
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Reaction
What the relatives and people in Lockerbie say
Audio
Two accused 'utterly impassive' at verdict
31.01.2001: Gerard Seenan reports on the reaction to the Lockerbie verdict at Camp Zeist. (2mins 10)
Photo gallery
The evidence in pictures
Related articles
31.01.2001: Lockerbie verdict: Libyan found guilty
31.01.2001: Lockerbie campaigner collapses at verdict
31.01.2001: Lockerbie verdict today
The issue explained
The charges
Three possible verdicts
Lockerbie conspiracies: from A to Z
Interactive guide
How was the plane destroyed?
You will need Macromedia flash to use this guide. If you don't already have it, download it here free.
Talk about it
Have your say on the verdict
From the Guardian archive
23.12.1988, eyewitness: Life goes on among the debris
Useful links
Scots court Lockerbie site
Glasgow University's school of law: Lockerbie Briefing
Government air accidents investigation branch: report on Lockerbie crash
Libya v UK - international court of justice
