Biography:The second longest serving pope and the first non Italian for over 450 years he held office from 1978 to his death in 2005.
Polish born, he supported the Solidarity movement in Poland and was influential in the fall of the Eastern Bloc.
As pope he visited 129 countries and upheld orthodox beliefs on issues such as sexuality and abortion. He also worked to improve relations with other faiths.
1944-02-29 Karol Wojtyla, future Pope John Paul II, is run down and injured by a Nazi truck in Krakow
1946-11-06 Karol Wojtyla (future Pope John Paul II) holds his first Mass as newly ordained Catholic priest in Wawel Cathedral's crypt
1959-12-25 Bishop Karol Wojtyla (future Pope John Paul II) celebrates outdoor Mass at midnight of Christmas morning to demonstrate the need for a Catholic church in the community of Nowa Huta
1964-01-13 John Paul II [Karol Wojtyla] becomes archbishop of Krakow
1967-06-26 Pope Paul VI names 27 new cardinals including Karol Józef Wojtyła, the Archbishop of Cracow and future Pope John Paul II
1978-10-16 Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla elected Pope John Paul II
1978-10-22 Pope John Paul II is inaugurated as Pope
1979-01-25 Pope John Paul II's 1st overseas trip as supreme pontiff
1979-01-28 Pope John Paul II addresses the Third General Conference of Latin American Episcopate in Puebla, Mexico
1979-03-04 Pope John Paul II publishes his first encyclical "Redemptor Hominis"
1979-05-27 Pope John Paul II ordains John J O'Connor as a bishop
1979-06-02 John Paul II becomes 1st pope to visit a Communist country (Poland)
1979-09-29 Pope John Paul II becomes 1st pope to visit Ireland
1979-10-02 Pope John Paul II visits New York City, and at the U.N. denounces all concentration camps and torture
1979-10-06 Pope John Paul II is 1st Pope to visit The White House, meeting with President Jimmy Carter in Washington, D.C.
1979-11-28 Pope John Paul II's first papal visit to Turkey, almost 1 1/2 years before Turkish native Mehmet Ali Agca attempts to kill him
1980-06-22 Pope John Paul II beatifies Kateri Tekakwitha, making her the 1st Native American to be beatified
1980-07-09 7 die in a stampede to see Pope John Paul II in Brazil
1980-11-15 Pope John Paul II began 5 day visit to West Germany
1981-01-15 Pope John Paul II receives Lech Wałęsa and Solidarity delegation at the Vatican
1981-05-13 Pope John Paul II is shot and critically wounded by Turkish gunman Mehemet Ali Agca in St Peter's Square, Vatican City
1981-06-03 Pope John Paul II released from hospital after assassination attempt
1981-06-20 Pope John Paul II hospitalized for 55 days for infection
1981-09-15 Pope John Paul II publishes encyclical "Laborem exercens" against capitalism/Marxism
1981-11-25 Pope John Paul II names Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger "Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith"
1982-01-01 Pope John Paul II prays for an end to martial law in Poland
1982-05-12 In Fatima Portugal, a Spanish Traditionalist priest who opposed Vatican II reforms and saw Pope John Paul II as a perpetrator of them, is stopped prior to his attempt to attack the Pope with a bayonet
1982-05-23 Pope John Paul II declares "Peerke" Donders a saint
1982-05-28 Pope John Paul II is 1st reigning pope to visit Great Britain (Adrian IV was born in England, as Nicholas Breakspear)
1982-10-10 Pope John Paul II canonizes Rev Maximilian Kolbe, who volunteered to die in place of another inmate at Auschwitz concentration camp, a saint
1982-10-31 Pope John Paul II becomes first pontiff to visit Spain
1982-10-31 Pope John Paul II canonizes Canadian Marguerite Bourgeoys, founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal, as a saint
1983-02-02 Chicago Archbishop Joseph L Bernardin is among 18 new cardinals named by Pope John Paul II
1987-09-15 Pope John Paul II arrives in Los Angeles for a two-day papal visit, and addresses U.S. entertainment leaders
1987-09-16 Pope John Paul II's ends his Los Angeles tour with an interfaith meeting at Dodger Stadium with leaders of Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism
1987-09-17 Pope John Paul II arrives in San Francisco, meets with AIDS patients, and embraces an AIDS infected child
1988-09-25 Pope John Paul II beatifies Friar Junípero Serra (founder of 1st Californian missions)
1988-10-12 Pope John Paul II is the target of anti-papal heckling by Protestant leader Ian Paisley at a European Parliament meeting in Strasbourgh, France
1989-04-30 Pope John Paul II beatifies Victoire Rasoamanarivo of Madagascar
1990-09-10 Basilica of Our Lady of Peace consecrated by Pope John Paul II in Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire, as the largest church in the world at 30,000 square metres (320,000 sq ft)
1991-05-02 Pope John Paul II's encyclical on Centesimus annus
1991-06-04 Pope John Paul II compares abortion with Nazi murders
1992-07-15 Pope John Paul II hospitalized for 3 weeks to have tumor removed
1993-03-21 Pope John Paul II beatifies Duns Scotus, a philosopher-theologian of the Middle Ages
1993-07-02 Pope John Paul II hospitalized for Cat Scan test
1993-08-06 Pope John Paul II publishes encyclical Veritatis splendor
1995-01-12 Pope John Paul II begins visit to SE Asia
1995-01-18 Pope John Paul II begins visit to Australia
1998-01-23 Pope John Paul II condemns US embargo against Cuba
1998-01-25 Pope John Paul II visits Cuba and demands the release of political prisoners; he also condemns US moves to isolate the country
1998-03-16 Pope John Paul II asks God for forgiveness for the inactivity and silence of some Roman Catholics during the Holocaust
1999-05-07 Pope John Paul II travels to Romania becoming the first pope to visit a predominantly Eastern Orthodox country since the Great Schism in 1054.
1999-12-24 Opening of St Peter's Holy Door by Pope John Paul II in approach of 3rd millennium
1999-12-25 Opening of doors of St. John Lateran Pope John Paul II
2000-01-01 Opening of St Mary Major's holy doors by Pope John Paul II
2000-03-20 Pope John Paul II visits Holy Land - Jordan, Israel, Palestine
2000-04-30 Pope John Paul II canonizes Polish nun Sister Faustina [Helena Kowalska] as a Catholic saint
2001-05-06 During a trip to Syria, Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque
2001-06-10 Pope John Paul II canonizes Lebanon's first female saint, Saint Rafqa
2001-06-27 Pope John Paul II beatifies 28 Ukrainian Greek Catholics, including 27 martyrs most of whom were killed by the Soviet secret police. Beatification takes place at the service in Lviv, western Ukraine during his first visit to this country.
2002-04-23 Pope John Paul II meets with U.S. Catholic Church leaders at Vatican regarding sexual abuse of minors
Benedict XV
John XXIII
Julius II
Julius III
Paul IV
Pius XI