1928: Jack Kevorkian is born in Pontiac, Michigan, the son of Levon and Satenig, Armenian immigrants.
1952: Graduates from University of Michigan medical school, planning to become a pathologist.
1956: Publishes research on the eyes of dying patients and earns the nickname "Dr. Death."
1961: Publishes research on cadaver blood transfusions. Due to its morbid nature, this research is ignored.
1970: Becomes chief pathologist at Saratoga General Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. Later in that year, however, he ends his pathology career.
1980s: Publishes many articles in a German medical journal concerning his views on euthanasia and medical ethics.
1989: Constructs the "Thanatron," a suicide machine out of spare parts from garage sales and items found around his home.
1990: June 4: Participates in the death of Janet Adkins, his first assisted suicide. Her death was the first use of Kevorkian's suicide machine. The suicide occurred in the back of Kevorkian's Van in Groveland Oaks Park in Michigan.
December 12: Charge against Kevorkian for the death of Janet Adkins is dismissed by District Court Judge Gerald McNally.
1991: October: Attends deaths of Marjorie Wantz and Sherry Miller.
November: License to practice medicine in Michigan is revoked.
1992: May: Susan Williams, a woman with multiple sclerosis, dies from carbon monoxide poisoning in Clawson, Michigan at 52 years old.
July: Circuit Court Judge David Breck dismisses charges against Kevorkian in deaths of Miller and Wantz.
September: Lois Hawes, a 52 year old woman with lung and brain cancer, dies in Neal Nicol's house of carbon monoxide poisoning. Nicol was Kevorkian's assistant.
November 1992 - January 1993: Attends 10 deaths during three months. All died of carbon monoxide poisoning, a common method Kevorkian used for assisted suicides.
February 1993: Attends death of Hugh Gale, who dies in his home. Gale was a 70-year-old man with emphysema and heart disease.
March 1993: Michigan State Legislature bans assisted suicide.
August 1993: Thomas Hyde, a 30-year-old man with ALS, is found dead in Kevorkian's van in Belle Isle, Michigan.
January 1994: Charges against Kevorkian for two deaths are dismissed by a Circuit Court Judge. This is the fifth time assisted suicide had been ruled as a constitutional right.
May 1994: Acquitted of charges of assisting in death of Thomas Hyde.
June 1995: Opens a "suicide clinic" in Springfield Township, Michigan. Erika Garcellano, a 60-year-old woman with ALS from Kansas City Missouri, becomes the first client. Kevorkian is soon kicked out of the building, and the clinic closes.
March 1996: Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rules that mentally competent, terminally ill adults have a constitutional right to assisted suicide.
March 14, 1998: 100th assisted suicide.
September 1998: Michigan passes a second law outlawing physician-assisted suicide.
November 22, 1998: "60 Minutes" airs a videotape of the death of Thomas Youk, who suffered from ALS.
November 25, 1998: Charged with first-degree murder and violating assisted suicide ban. Kevorkian defends himself during the trial.
April 13, 1999: Convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 10 - 25 years in prison.
June, 2007: Released from prison due to fading health and good behavior.