Key dates
Following are key dates in the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, who died earlier today
1978
Oct 16:Election of Karol Wojtyla, the first Polish pope in the Roman Catholic Church's history, following the sudden death of his predecessor, John Paul I, after only 33 days.
1979
Jan 25:Pope John Paul II makes the first of 104 foreign trips, visiting the Dominican Republic and Mexico.
March 14:First encyclical, "Redemptor hominis", on the dignity of man.
June 2:First visit to Poland as pope. Tells Poles: "Do not be afraid", triggering start of mass resistance to communism.
June 7:During his visit to Poland, he prays at the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, near his home town of Krakow.
Oct 2:Addresses the United Nations in New York.
1980
April 4:Hears his first confessions as pope, in St. Peter's Basilica.
May 2: Begins tour of Africa, visiting Zaire, Congo, Kenya, Ghana, Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) and Ivory Coast.
Nov 30:Second encyclical, "Dives in misericordia", on the mercy of God.
1981
May 13:Turk Mehmed Ali Agca fires three bullets at the pope from close range, wounding him in the abdomen, the left hand and right arm.
1982
May-June:Pastoral visits to Britain and Argentina during which he attempts to mediate in the conflict over the Falklands (Malvinas).
1983
March 4:Visits Nicaragua where supporters of the ruling Sandinista regime jeer the pope.
June 16:Visits Poland for a second time, defying the regime's martial law.
Dec 28:Visits his would-be killer Mehmed Ali Agca in his jail in Rome.
1984
Feb 18:Signs, with the Italian Republic, a revision of the 1929 Lateran Concordat.
June 12:Visit to the Ecumenical Council of Churches in Geneva.
July 7:Denounces apartheid in South Africa.
1985
Nov 17:Personal message to US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on the occasion of their Geneva summit.
1986
April 13:John Paul II makes unexpected visit to Rome's main synagogue -- the first ever by a pope -- and prays with Rabbi Elio Toaff.
October 27: Attends first World Day for Peace which he convened in Assisi, central Italy with some 60 representatives of the main Christian and non-Christian religions.
1987
June 6:Official visit by US president Ronald Reagan.
Dec 3:Visit by Dimitrios, ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople.
Dec 30:Encyclical "Sollicitudo Rei Socialis" (On Social Concerns) criticises economic and political ideologies of both West and East.
1989
Dec 1:Visit by Mikhail Gorbachev, the first by a Soviet leader.
1991
Jan 15:Letters to US president George Bush and Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in attempt to avert the Gulf War.
March 4:Meeting with episcopal representatives from the countries directly implicated in the Gulf War.
1992
July 12:Operation to remove a benign tumour of the intestine.
1993
May 9:Denunciation of the Mafia during a visit to Sicily.
Aug 6:Encyclical "Veritatis Splendor" (the Splendour of Truth) reaffirms the Roman Catholic Church's traditional views on morals and ethics.
Sept 4:First visit to the former Soviet Union: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia.
Nov 11:Dislocates his right shoulder during a fall. His shoulder is immobilized for a month.
Dec 30:Signing of an accord establishing diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel.
1994
April 28:Fractures his right femur in a fall in his bathroom.
Oct 25: Beginning of working contacts of "permanent and official character" with the Palestine Liberation Organization.
1995
Jan 11:Visits Manila for celebration of 10th World Youth Day. Acclamation by four million people, the largest crowd of his pontificate.
March 25: Encyclical "Evangelium Vitae" (the Gospel of Life), definitively opposing contraception and euthanasia.
1996
Oct 7:Undergoes an appendectomy.
1998
March 12:Signs the document "We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah."
1999
June 5-17:Undertakes a 13-day visit to Poland, his fourth to his homeland and his longest pastoral journey outside of Italy. Several engagements are cancelled due to illness.
2000
Feb 24:Visits Egypt as part of his Jubilee 2000 pilgrimage to the lands of the Bible.
March 12:Makes an unprecedented public statement seeking forgiveness for the sins and faults committed or condoned by the Church in the 2,000 years of its history.
March 20-26:Makes his first visit to Israel, 36 years after Paul VI, as part of his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, following the footsteps of Moses and Christ. At a moving ceremony at the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem, and again at the Wailing Wall on the 26th, he repeats his plea for forgiveness by the Jews of the sins committed by the Church.
2001
May 4-9:Visits Greece and Syria, where, in Damascus, he becomes the first pope to enter a mosque in an Islamic country.
2002
Jan 24:Convenes an inter-faith meeting in Assisi to pray for peace and to banish the spectre of terrorism and conflict.
Feb 11:Creates four new dioceses in Russia, which cancels the visit of Cardinal Walter Kasper, his minister for ecumenical matters following condemnation by the Orthodox powers in Moscow of "an unfriendly act towards the Russian Church."
Aug 16-19:Makes his eighth visit to his native Poland and promises to remain in office until his death.
2003
April 17:Publishes his 14th encyclical, "Ecclesia de Eucharistia" (The Church of the Eucharist), emphasising the importance of the mass and the Eucharist, thus seeking to avoid any watering-down of Catholic belief.
June 5-9:Visits Croatia, his 100th foreign trip. It is calculated that the visit means he has now travelled the equivalent of three times the distance from the Earth to the Moon.
Sept 24:Cancels a weekly audience due to stomach problems. Worries over his health mount, notably after he was unable to complete an address during a visit to Slovakia.
Sept 30:Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn shatters the traditional Church silence on papal health, saying in an interview the pope is "dying".
Oct 16: Celebrates 25th anniversary of pontificate.
2004
March 14:Becomes the third longest-reigning Pope in history.
June 5-6:Defies health problems to visit Switzerland, the first time in eight months he has left Italy.
Aug 14-15:Pilgrimage to the shrine at Lourdes in France for the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Christ by the Virgin Mary.
2005
Feb 1:Is rushed to hospital with severe respiratory problems linked to the flu.
Feb 10:Discharged from hospital only to be re-admitted 14 days later after a relapse when he undergoes a tracheotomy.
March 13:Leaves hospital at end of 18-day hospital stay.
March 27: Fails to voice Easter blessing for first time, after missing key Easter week celebrations.
March 31/April 01:Pope John Paul II is struggling between life and death after suffering a heart attack, the Vatican says after the pontiff's condition deteriorates dramatically and he receives communion for the dying.