July 1985:
Houston Natural Gas merges with Inter North to form Enron, originally an interstate natural gas pipeline company.

1989:
Enron begins trading natural gas commodities

June 1994:
Enron trades its first unit of electricity.

Nov. 1999:
Enron Online is launched, the first global commodity trading web site.

Sept. 10, 2000:
Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay contributes more than $290,000 to George W. Bush's election campaign.

Oct. 10, 2000:
Enron hires Linda Robertson, from the Clinton administration, as vice president for federal government affairs to head its Washington office, infuriating Republican leaders who oppose business groups hiring Democratic lobbyists.

Jan. 3, 2001:
Lay is one of the 474 people Bush names to advise his presidential transition team.

Feb., 2001:
Jeffrey Skilling takes over as chief executive. Kenneth Lay remains chairman.

March, 2001:
Karl Rove, President Bush's senior adviser, met privately with Intel officials, of which company he owned over $100,000 worth of shares. At the time, Intel was concerned with government approval of a merger between a Dutch company and an Intel supplier. The merger was later approved.

May 19, 2001:
Congress begins implementing President Bush's energy plan into legislation.

June 5, 2001:
Rove divested his stocks in energy, defense and pharmaceutical companies. Rove owned holdings worth more than $100,000 in each Enron, Boeing, General Electric and Pfizer.

June 30, 2001:
The White House acknowledges Karl Rove was involved in shaping the administration's energy policy at a time when he owned equities in energy companies.

Aug. 14, 2001:
Kenneth Lay takes over as CEO after Jeffrey Skilling resigns for personal reasons. Jeffrey Skilling had helped transform the company from a natural gas pipeline company to a global marketer and trader of energy.

Oct. 12, 2001:
An in-house lawyer at Arthur Andersen e-mails the lead partner in the firm's Houston office to remind him of the firm's document-destruction policy.

Oct.15, 2001:
Lay talks to Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans. Commerce officials say the call did not cover Enron's financial troubles.

Oct. 16, 2001:
Enron reports a $618 million third-quarter loss and discloses a $1.2 billion reduction in shareholder equity, partly related to partnerships run by chief financial office Andrew Fastow.

Oct. 17, 2001:
SEC sends a letter to Enron asking for information after the company reported hundreds of millions of dollars in third-quarter losses.

Oct. 20, 2001:
A report filed with the Internal Revenue Service reveals that a political group allied with House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) raised nearly $500,000. The Republican Majority Issues Committee (RMIC) was required to show, for the first time, how it raises and spends its money. One of the committee's largest donations included Enron's $50,000.

Oct. 22, 2001:
Enron acknowledges a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry into a possible conflict of interest related to the company's dealings with the partnerships. Shares of Enron sank more than 20 percent on the news.

Oct. 23, 2001:
Lay reassures investors in a conference call. S

Oct. 24, 2001:
Enron ousts CFO Andrew Fastow.

Oct. 26, 2001:
Lay calls Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan to provide information.

Oct. 28, 2001:
Lay talks by telephone with Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill to inform him of financial problems facing Enron. A Treasury spokeswoman says O'Neill did nothing to help the company.

Oct. 29, 2001:
Lay talks by telephone with Evans. A Commerce spokesman says Lay asked Evans if he could do anything to influence a decision by Moody's Investors Service to downgrade Enron's credit rating. A commerce spokesman says Evans decided not to intervene.

Oct. 31, 2001:
Enron announces that the SEC inquiry has been upgraded to a formal investigation.
 
Nov. 8, 2001:
Enron begins talks to sell itself to rival Dynegy for about $8 billion in stock and cash.
 
Nov. 8, 2001:
Enron files documents with the SEC revising its financial statements for the past five years to account for $586 million in losses. Lay speaks with O'Neill again about Enron's plight.

Nov. 8:
Andersen receives a federal subpoena for documents related to Enron.

Nov. 9, 2001:
Dynegy announces an agreement to by its much larger rival Enron for more than $8 billion in stock and cash.

Nov. 9, 2001:
The company discloses that it overstated its earnings by $567 million since 1997. Two company officials are fired.

Nov13, 2001:
Kenneth Lay turns down a $60.6 million severance payment that would be triggered at the completion of the Dynegy deal.

Nov. 19, 2001:
Enron restates its third-quarter earnings and tries to restructure a $650 million obligation that could come due.

Nov. 21, 2001:
Enron reaches agreement to extend a $690 million debt payment.

Nov. 22, 2001:
Enron gets a 3-week loan extension on a $690 million note.

Nov. 28, 2001:
Dynegy seeks to abruptly cut the amount of it's buyout offer as Enron's credit rating is cut to junk-bond status.

Nov. 29, 2001:
Dynegy deal collapses.

Nov. 29, 2001:
SEC investigation is expanded to include Arthur Andersen.

Dec. 2, 2001:
Enron, once one of the world's largest electricity and natural gas traders, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Dec. 3, 2001:
Enron arranges up to $1.5 billion debtor-in-possession financing to keep operating while in bankruptcy and announces 4,000 layoffs.

Dec. 12, 2001:
Joseph F. Berandino, chief executive of Arthur Andersen, appears before Congress, testifying Enron might have violated securities laws.

Jan 3, 2002:
Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) chairs the full Governmental Affairs Committee that heads the investigation of the White House's involvement in the collapse. Top executives and directors of Enron are subpoenaed by the Senate committee.

Jan. 10, 2002:
The Justice Department confirms that a criminal investigation of Enron's collapse has begun.

Jan. 22, 2002:
A former Enron employee claims she saw documents being shredded after the announcement of the Securities Exchange Commission investigation in October.

Jan.23, 2002:
The FBI begins it's investigation of the document shredding.

Jan. 23, 2002:
Kenneth Lay resigns as Chairman.

Jan. 24, 2002:
Congressional hearings begin. David Duncan, former partner at Andersen LLP, refuses to testify about the shredding of Enron-related documents.

Jan. 25, 2002:
Former Enron Vice Chairman J. Clifford Baxter is found dead in his car, in an apparent suicide.

MORE ON ENRON >>

January 25, 2002.

[Source: The Washington Post, Jan 24, 2002]