Rupert Murdoch's phone-hacking scandal: A timeline

Murdoch built a media empire on newspapers, and now one — News of the World — could be his downfall. A chronography of when and how things went awry

This article — originally published on July 19, 2011 — was last updated on April 4, 2012. Scroll down and click through for the latest updates

An electronic-eavesdropping scandal that started at Rupert Murdoch's Sunday tabloid News of the World is rapidly escalating into a full-fledged conflagration that threatens Murdoch, his global media empire, and the British government — and has already resulted in the arrest or resignation of several previously untouchable figures. How did allegations of listening in on the voicemails of the royal family snowball into a threat to one of the world's most powerful media titans? Here, a timeline of key events in the News Corp. phone-hacking scandal:

1843
News of the World is first published, by John Browne Bell

1969
Australian Rupert Murdoch buys the newspaper, his first toehold in Great Britain

1984
Murdoch revamps News of the World from a broadsheet to a tabloid format

1989
Rebekah Wade (she married horse trainer Charlie Brooks in 2009 and took his name) is hired at News of the World, as a secretary

2000
Wade becomes editor of News of the World at age 32, making her Britain's youngest national newspaper editor

March 2002
Milly Dowler, 13, disappears on a walk home in a London suburb. Days later, private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, working for News of the World, allegedly starts intercepting Dowler's cellphone voicemail messages, and erasing them to make room for more. The deletion of messages gives Dowler's family and the police false hope that Dowler is alive, until her remains are found in September 2002.

January 2003
Wade becomes editor of sister News Corp. paper The Sun; her deputy since 2000, Andrew Coulson, becomes editor of News of the World

March 2003
Wade tells a committee of the lower house of Parliament that News of the World has paid police officers for information; parent company News International says that is not common practice.

November 2005
News of the World publishes a story on Prince William's knee injury, with confidential information that leads royal court officials to complain to police about intercepted voicemails. The police open an investigation.

August 8, 2006
Mulcaire and News of the World royal-family editor Clive Goodman are arrested for phone-hacking

January 26, 2007
Mulcaire and Goodman are jailed for six and four months, respectively. Coulson resigns as editor of News of the World, claiming "ultimate responsibility" for the hacking, but denying any knowledge of it.

May 2007
News International lawyers conclude there is "no evidence" Coulson knew about Goodman's illegal activities. Coulson is hired as communications director for the Conservative Party and its leader, David Cameron.

December 2007
James Murdoch, son of Rupert, becomes chief executive of News Corp.'s European and Asian operations