THE EARLY YEARS
29th Aug 1958 Born Michael Joseph in Gary, Indiana. Parents were Joseph
and Karen Jackson. Six brothers: Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, Steven, and
Randy. Three sisters: Maureen, LaToya and Janet. All eleven family members
lived in a small two-bedroom clapboard house at 2300 Jackson St.
1963 Mother Kath
erine became a Jehovah's Witness. Began to attend
school at Garnett Elementary. Also became "the lead guy" in the
Jackson singing group.
1964 Jacksons performed first non-contest show at a Big Top
supermarket.
Aug 1967 Jackson Five performed in the Amateur Show. Won in the most
prestigious category the "Superdog".
July 1968 Jacksons signed contract for Motown.
Oct 1969 First single "I want you back" released.
Dec 1969 First album "Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5"
released.
31st Jan 1970 "I Want You Back" reached number one in the
Billboard chart. Sold more than six million copies.
STARDOM
1972 "Ben" released as a single was first solo number 1 and
sold 1.7 million copies in the U.S alone.
1975 Jackson Five and Michael signed with Epic. As well as "a
signing bonus" of $750,000 they were
guaranteed $350,000 per album.
1978 Starred in the film "The Wiz" along with Diana Ross. The
film flopped but was notable in Michael's career in that it introduced
Michael to Quincy Jones.
1979 Collaborated with Quincy Jones in making "Off the wall".
This sold more than 10 million copies and established Michael as a superstar
in his own right. It included the number one singles "Don't stop till
you get enough" and "Rock with you".
MEGASTARDOM
1982 "Thriller" released. Again produced by Jones, this sold
upwards of forty million copies, which remains a record. It received eight
Grammy awards and charted a record six top ten singles. It made Michael more
than £100 million.
28th Jan 1984 While filming a Pepsi Cola commercial in Los Angeles a
canister, designed to send smoke billowing around him, exploded and set fire
to Michael's hair. He subsequently needed laser treatment for his scarred
scalp.
1985 Bought "The Beatles" song back catalogue for £31
million.
Nov 1986 Michael revealed that he sleeps in a £90,000 pressurised
oxygen chamber to help stop ageing. He claimed "I believe if I treat my
body properly I'll live to be at least 150."
1987 "Bad" album released. Went straight in at number one in
the Billboard chart.
Apr 1988 Autobiography "Moonwalk" published.
1991"Dangerous" album released.
TROUBLED 90s
1992 Video for single "Black and White" attracted much
criticism for the violence of its ending which featured Jackson grabbing his
crotch and smashing a car with a hammer.
1993 In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Michael said he had been
whipped and abused as a child by his father.
Aug 1993 13 year old Jordan Chandler accused Michael of sexual abuse.
Among the allegations reported over the ensuing months was that Michael
repeatedly "kissed and fondled" Jordan.
25th Jan 1994 Jackson's lawyers announced £26.6 million out of court
settlement with Jordan Chandler.
26th May 1994 Married Lisa Marie Presley in Santa Domingo, Dominican
Republic.
21st Sept 1994 LA district attorney Gil Garcetti ruled that no charges
would be brought against Michael because Jordy Chandler had "repeatedly"
refused to testify
1995 "HIStory" double album of past and new songs released.
Sales were disappointing and the new tracks were panned by the critics.
18th Jan 1996 Lisa Marie Presley filed for divorce citing "irreconcilable
differences"
.
19th Feb 1996 Michael Jackson's performance of Earthsong at the Brit
Awards disrupted when Jarvis Cocker jumped on stage and wiggled his bottom
at the audience before being chased off by extras.
14th Nov 1996 Michael married nurse Debbie Rowe, 37 in Sydney.
13th Feb 1997 Debbie Rowe gave birth to Michael's first child called
Prince Michael Jnr.
3rd Apr 199 Second child, a baby girl called Paris born.
8th Oct 1999 Divorce papers were filed in Los Angeles County Superior
Court ending Michael's marriage to Debbie Rowe. Their lawyer, Howard J
Rubenstein, said the couple "mutually agreed to end their marriage".
14th Oct 1999 Was announced that Michael was giving Debbie Rowe £5
million in exchange for their two children in a divorce settlement.
7th Jan 2000 Reported that Michael was going to quit the music business
and said his next album would be his last.
3rd Sept 2000 Pictures in The News of the World show that Michael's son
Prince had blond hair and baby blue eyes.
6th Mar 2001 Michael addressed the Oxford University Union on the
subject of childcare and promoted his new initiative "Heal the Kids".
7th Sept 2001 Michael Jackson hosted the first of two star studded
concerts at Madison Square Gardens to celebrate his 30 years in
showbiz.Marlon Brando, Liza Minnelli, Elizabth Taylor, Ray Charles, Britney
Spears, Destiny's Child and Yoko Ono were amongst those who appeared.
Michael himself only sang one song, his new single "You Rock My World",
it was his first live American concert appearance in 11 years.
30th Oct 2001 Jackson released the album Invincible.
22nd Aug 2002 It was revealed that Michael Jackson had secretly became
a father for the third time. But even close associates did not know who the
child's mother was.
10th Oct 2002 A book written by Jackson's former brother-in-law Jack
Gordon claimed that Jackson hit his pet chimp Bubbles, paid both his wives
to marry him and used injections to make his skin paler.
19th Nov 2002 Michael Jackson was criticised after he dangled his baby,
Prince Michael the Second aka Blanket, over the fifth floor balcony rail of
a hotel in Berlin.
20th Nov 2002 Jackson took his children Prince Michael and Paris
Michael to Berlin Zoo. The children's faces were obscured by veils prompting
concern over their bizarre upbringing.
3rd Jan 2003 ITV televised Living with Michael Jackson, a documentary
where he was interviewed by Martin Bashir. He discussed how he let children
sleep in his bed. He admitted that he had had 2 operations on his nose but
denied he had changed his appearance in any other way. He talked about his
traumatic childhood. His three children were also shown, their faces
obscured by masks and veils.
12th Feb 2003 Michael agreed a £1.5 million deal with the Fox network
in America to show his own version of the Bashir documentary entitled Take
2: The Documentary They Wouldn't Show You.
4th Mar 2003 The magazine Vanity Fair claimed that Michael Jackson paid
£100,000 to put voodoo curses on 25 "enemies" that included
Steven Spielberg and David Geffen. It alleged that to strengthen the spell
he spent another £100,000 on a ritual bath of animals' blood for which
eighty beast were slaughtered.
8th Apr 2003 Michael Jackson put his Californian ranch, Neverland, on
sale for £15million.
27th May 2003 Jackson's former financial advisers, Union Finance and
Investment Corporation, filed court papers suing him for £8million in unpaid
debts and expenses.
13th Sept 2003 Michael opened Neverland to the public attempting to
sell tickets for five thousand dollars each. However, tickets were being
sold on eBay for far less than that.
18th Nov 2003 Dozens of police officers used a warrant to search
Michael Jackson's Neverland mansion. Jackson's lawyer, Brian Oxman, said the
search was connected to sexual abuse allegations brought by a boy aged 12.
20th Nov 2003 Michael Jackson gave himself up to police and was led in
hand cuffs into Santa Barbara sheriff's office. He surrendered his passport
and paid £1.9million in bail.
18th Dec 2003 Michael Jackson was formally charged with performing lewd
acts with a young boy. He was accused of serious sexual conduct with an
under age child and that he plied him with an intoxicating agent. The child
involved was believed to be Gavin Arvizu who featured in Martin Bashir's
documentary on the singer.
16th Jan 2004 Michael Jackson made his first court appearance and
pleaded not guilty to seven charges of child molestation and two of giving a
child an "intoxicating agent". Jackson played to the crowds of
supporters when he arrived at the court in Santa Maria, California, signing
autographs and jumping onto the roof of a jeep for an impromptu song and
dance routine.
23rd Jan 2004 Michael Jackson's ex-wife, Debbie Rowe, was said to be
suing him for custody of their two children, Prince, 6, and Paris ,5. The
move came amid claims that the children were not biologically related to
Jackson but the children of an anonymous sperm donor.
29th Jan 2004 Jackson's ex-business manager Myung-Ho Lee claimed that
the singer was addicted to alcohol and painkillers. He claimed that Michael
had been in rehab as recently as 1999 and regularly swigged wine, he dubbed
jesus juice, from soft drinks cans.
30th Apr 2004 Jackson was charged with conspiracy to kidnap a child and
false imprisonment and could be jailed for up to 74 years if found guilty.
29th May 2004 Daniel Kapan, 18, made detailed allegations of abuse
which he claimed was filmed by Jackson and began when he was
three-years-old.
16th June 2004 It emerged that Michael Jackson paid 25million dollars
to silence allegations of sexual abuse made by Jordan Chandler eleven
years-ago.
31st Jan 2005 Jackson's trial began in Santa Maria, California, where
he faced charges of sexually abusing a 13-year old leukaemia survivor.
28th Feb 2005 Michael Jackson's trial began with Tom "Mad Dog"
Sneddon's opening statement He described how the singer allegedly had
visited sexually explicit websites and showed cancer survivor Gavin Arvizo -
who was 13 at the time - and his younger brother pornography and plied them
with alcohol.
10th March 2005 Jackson arrived an hour late at the court in pyjamas.
8th Apr 2005 A former security guard at Michael Jackson's Neverland
ranch testified that he saw the singer sexually abusing a boy in the early
1990s. Ralph Chacon gave graphic evidence at the trial in California. But
defence lawyers attacked his credibility, painting him as a bitter
ex-employee.
11th Apr 2005 June Chandler, the mother of alleged abuse victim Jordy,
gave evidence telling how Jackson had begged her to allow her son to share
his bed. She said she initially refused to let teenager Jordy Chandler sleep
in Mr Jackson's bed, but relented when the singer got upset. "He said,
'You don't trust me? We're a family... There's nothing wrong,'" she
told the court in California.
11th May 2005 Macaulay Culkin admitted that he had slept in Michael
Jackson's bed but said that allegations of abuse were "ridiculous".
Giving evidence at Jackson's child abuse trial, the former child actor said
that he had shared a "special bond" with Jackson.
3rd June 2005 The jurors retired to consider their verdict on the
charges against Jackson. The trial had lasted sixty days, with 135 witnesses
and more than 1,000 pieces of evidence. Jackson had worn 66 different
outfits, including pyjamas. If convicted Jackson would face twenty years in
jail.
13th June 2005 Michael was cleared of all 10 counts of abuse by the
jury in Santa Monica.
7th Oct 2005 Jackson was seen in public for the first time since being cleared
of child abuse charges in June. He attended the Billy Elliot musical in
London's West End and was besieged by fans a day earlier at a recording
studio in the city, where he was believed to be recording a single for the
American victims of Hurricane Katrina.
16th Feb 2006 An appeals court refused to reinstate an order granting
pop star Michael Jackson sole custody of his two children with ex-wife
Debbie Rowe.
13th Apr 2006 Michael Jackson relinquished control over the $1 billion
Beatles back catalogue. Sony agreed to pay $200 million for half of
Jackson's stake in order to save him from bankruptcy.
March 2009 After three years largely out of the spotlight, Jackson
announces a comeback show of 50 dates at London's O2 arena.
25 June, 2009 Jackson dies from heart attack at his Hollywood home.
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