60 Peter is pope
St Peter, believed to have come to Rome as leader of the Christian community, is subsequently considered the first pope

525 Monk selects AD 1
Dionysius Exiguus, commissioned by the pope to improve chronology, makes an error of at least four years in his selected event for AD 1

592 Lombards threaten Rome
Pope Gregory I negotiates with the Lombards who are threatening Rome

750 Pepin III is king of the Franks
With papal support Pepin III is elected king of the Franks, beginning the Carolingian dynasty (named from his father, Charles Martel)

753 Pepin and Charlemagne anointed by pope
Pope Stephen II anoints Pepin III and his two sons (one of them Charlemagne) in the abbey church of St Denis

756 Pepin helps Rome
Pepin III, after recovering Byzantine territories in Italy from the Lombards, hands control of the region to the pope in Rome

800 Christmas surprise for Charlemagne
In St Peter's in Rome, on Christmas Day, pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne emperor - supposedly to Charlemagne's surprise

805 Pope consecrates Charlemagne's chapel
Pope Leo III consecrates Charlemagne's new palace chapel in Aachen, modelled on San Vitale in Ravenna

962 Otto I crowned in Rome
The imperial coronation of Otto I by Pope John XII in St Peter's puts in place the formal role of a Holy Roman emperor

1001 Pope sends crown to Hungary
Pope Sylvester II, according to tradition, sends a sacred crown for the coronation of Hungary's first king, St Stephen

1054 Pope and Patriarch excommunicate each other
A papal delegate (from Leo IX) excommunicates Cerularius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the delegate is excommunicated in retaliation, launching a lasting East-West Schism

1075 Investiture controversy
Pope Gregory VII decrees that only the church may make ecclesiastical appointments, thus initiating the investiture controversy between pope and emperor

1077 Penitence at Canossa
The emperor Henry IV stands as a penitent outside the pope's castle at Canossa, so as to be released from excommunication.

1095 Pope preaches first crusade
Pope Urban II preaches the first crusade, urging the Christians of Europe to march east to recover Jerusalem from the Muslims

1113 Knights of St John
The Knights of St John of Jerusalem become an established order under papal protection

1139 Crossbow a weapon of mass destruction
Pope Innocent III and the second Lateran council outlaw the crossbow as a weapon causing unacceptable devastation

1144 Pope calls for new crusade
The fall of Edessa prompts the pope, Eugenius III, to call for a second crusade to defend the Latin kingdom

1208 Pope's man assassinated
The murder of the pope's legate to Toulouse provokes the Albigensian crusade, which aims to wipe out the Catharist heresy

1216 Dominican friars - official
The Dominicans are formally established by Pope Honorius III as Ordo Fratrum Praedicatorum, the Order of the Friars Preachers

1220 Frederick II is Holy Roman emperor
Frederick II is crowned Holy Roman emperor by a somewhat reluctant pope, Honorius III

1255 Pope offers Sicily to English prince
The pope, eager to fill the vacant throne of Sicily, offers it to a son of Henry III of England but gets no firm response

1256 Augustinian friars established
Pope Alexander IV establishes a third order of preaching friars, the Augustinians

1258 Provisions of Oxford
Henry III accepts severe curtailment of his powers in the Provisions of Oxford, but then asks the pope to absolve him from his oath

1263 Pope offers Sicily to French prince
Pope Urban IV offers Sicily to a French prince, Charles of Anjou, who marches south in 1266 to fight for the kingdom

1302 Estates-general in Paris
The estates-general of France gather for the first time, in Notre Dame, to consider the king's relationship with the pope

1309 Pope moves to Avignon
Clement V moves the papacy to Avignon, in a move which is expected to be temporary but which lasts for nearly seventy years

1376 Wycliffe critical of corrupt church
John Wycliffe, writing mainly in Oxford, is critical of the contemporary church and can find no basis for the pope's authority

1377 Pope returns to Rome
The papal curia returns to Rome in what would seem a conclusive move if there were not, two years later, two popes - one of them elected back in Avignon

1379 Great Schism in papacy
The French cardinals, objecting to the new Italian pope, elect their own man as Clement VII - and thus inaugurate the Great Schism of the papacy

1409 Two popes too many
The Council at Pisa elects a new pope, Alexander V, without persuading the other two to resign - bringing the total to an unprecedented three

1414 Council called at Constance
A council is called at Constance, to consider the radical views of John Huss and to deal with the present excess of popes

1417 Three popes reduced to one
The Council of Constance, having done its best to dispose of the three existing popes, elects a new one - Martin V

1422 Zizka and his 'war wagon fortress'
Jan Zizka wins a series of victories against papal armies, using the mobile barricade which becomes known as his 'war wagon fortress'

1433 Sacrament in both kinds for Prague
The Compacts of Prague, agreed with the papacy in 1433, allow the Hussite laity to receive the sacrament in both kinds

1438 French clergy make anti-papal stand at Bourges
The French clergy pass a resolution at Bourges, limiting the power of the papacy within France, which is adopted by the king as a 'pragmatic sanction'

1471 Sixtus founds chapel and choir
The new pope, Sixtus IV, secures his name in history, establishing the Sistine chapel and the Sistine choir

1478 Murder in the cathedral in Florence
A plot by the Pazzi family, with papal connivance, results in the murder of Guiliano de' Medici during high mass in Florence's cathedral

1491 Savonarola attacks morals of the mighty
Savonarola, the new prior of San Marco, is a stern critic of both the pope in Rome and the Medici in Florence

1492 Pope has four illegitimate children
Rodrigo Borgia, elected pope as Alexander VI, already has four illegitimate children and possibly sires three more while pope

1493 Pope allots New World
Pope Alexander VI draws a line through the Atlantic, dividing new discoveries between Spain (west) and Portugal (east)

1505 Julius II commissions tomb from Michelangelo
Pope Julius II summons Michelangelo to Rome to create the pope's own elaborately sculpted tomb

1509 Raphael's Stanze in Vatican.
Raphael begins work on the frescoes in the pope's apartment in the Vatican, known as the Stanze ('Rooms')

1520 Luther's writings burnt
Luther's writings are burnt in Rome by order of the pope

1521 Luther excommunicated
Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther after he has refused to recant

1527 Rome sacked by German mercenaries
Pope Clement VII hides in Castel Sant'Angelo while Rome is sacked by German mercenaries

1540 Jesuits are official
Pope Paul III establishes Ignatius Loyola and his followers as the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits

1542 Roman Inquisition
Pope Paul III establishes the Roman Inquisition, with the specific task of fighting against the Protestant heresy

1570 Pope excommunicates English queen
Pope Pius V excommunicates the English queen, Elizabeth I, causing a severe crisis of loyalty for her Catholic subjects

1582 Accurate calendar for Catholics only
The new and more accurate Gregorian calendar is introduced by Gregory XIII in the papal states

1712 Pope reveals rape of lock
Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock introduces a delicate vein of mock-heroic in English poetry

1796 Napoleon sets up Cisalpine Republic
Napoleon creates in northern Italy the Cisalpine Republic, formed from occupied territores including the papal states of Bologna and Ferrara

1797 Pope taken captive to France
Pope Pius VI is seized by a French army in Rome and is taken off to captivity in France

1801 Napoleon agrees with the pope
Napoleon mends France's fences with Roman Catholicism by agreeing a Concordat with Pope Pius VII

1809 Napoleon takes Papal States
Napoleon annexes the Papal States and is excommunicated by the pope, Pius VII

1848 Pope flees from radical Rome
An uprising in Rome causes Pope Pius IX to flee for safety to a coastal fortress at Gaeta

1848 Pope's right-hand man assassinated
The prime minister of the papal states, Pellegrino Rossi, is assassinated in Rome

1849 Pope returns to Rome
Pope Pius IX returns to Rome under the protection of French troops, with his enthusiasm for any form of change much reduced.

1854 Immaculate Conception to be believed
Pope Pius IX issues a papal bull declaring that the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary is to be an article of faith for Catholics

1857
The old Cromwell House is demolished and a new one, designed by Robert Philip Pope, is completed by June 1858

1864 Pius IX identifies modern errors
Pope Pius IX includes socialism, civil marriage and secular education among eighty modern errors listed in his Syllabus

1870 Pope infallible on faith or morals
Pope Pius IX, rapidly losing temporal authority, declares a new dogma – that the pope, when speaking from the throne, is infallible on matters of faith or morals

1870 Pope loses out to king of Italy
As the result of a plebiscite, Rome and the remaining papal states are included in the kingdom of Italy

1903 Pius X is pope
Giuseppe Sarto is elected pope and takes the name Pius X

1914 Pope Benedict XV
Giacomo della Chiesa is elected pope and takes the name Benedict XV

1922 Pius XI is pope
Ambrogio Ratti is elected pope and takes the name Pius XI

1937 Pius XI condemns Nazis
Pope Pius XI issues an encyclical, Mit Brennender Sorge, condemning the Nazi ideology of racism

1939 Pius XII is pope
Eugenio Pacelli is elected pope and takes the name Pius XII

1958 John XXIII is pope
Angelo Roncalli is elected pope and takes the name John XXIII

1959 Vatican II is summoned
Pope John XXIII summons a second Vatican Council

1963 John XXIII dies
Pope John XXIII dies, only a few month's after the start of the great Vatican council that he has summoned

1963 Paul VI is elected
Italian cardinal Giovanni Montini is elected pope and takes the name Paul VI

1964 Pope and Patriarch in historic meeting
Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras meet in Jerusalem, in the first such meeting since 1438

1965 Pope and Patriarch revoke excommunications
Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras preside over simultaneous ceremonies, in Rome and Istanbul, revoking the mutual excommunications of 1054

1967 Pope visits Patriarch
Pope Paul VI visits the Patriarch Athenagoras in Istanbul, shocking some Catholics that this visit has preceded one by the Patriarch to Rome

1967 Pope and Patriarch issue joint declaration
Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras issue a joint declaration, emphasizing mutual respect for each other's traditions

1968 Pope pontificates on birth control
Pope Paul VI issues the encyclical Humanae Vitae, condemning all methods of artificial birth control

1970 Panufnik's Universal Prayer
Polish composer Andrzej Panufnik's Universal Prayer, a cantata setting poetry by Alexander Pope, has its premiere in New York

1978 John Paul I is elected
Italian cardinal Albino Luciani is elected pope and takes the name John Paul I

1978 John Paul I dies
Pope John Paul I dies, after a pontificate of only 33 days

1978 John Paul II is pope
Polish cardinal Karol Wojtyla is elected pope and takes the name John Paul II

1986
Pope's Villa becomes St James Independent School for Boys.

2005 Patriarch attends Pope's funeral
Patriarch Christodoulos attends the funeral in Rome of Pope John Paul II

2005 John Paul II dies
John Paul II, dying after 26 years on the papal throne, is the third longest-serving pope in history

2005 Pope Benedict XVI
Joseph Ratzinger is elected pope and takes the name Benedict XVI

2006 Patriarch visits Pope in Vatican
Patriarch Christodoulos has talks with Pope Benedict XVI, in the first official visit to the Vatican by the head of the Greek Orthodox church

2013  February 28
Pope Benedict XVI resigns, the first pope to do so for 600 years

2013  March 13
The Argentinian archbishop Jorge Bergoglio is elected pope and takes the name Francis in honour of St Francis of Assisi