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Deep water Horizon explosion
An explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, 52 miles (84km) south-east of Venice, Louisiana, kills 11 workers. Operator Transocean, under contract for BP, says it had no warning of trouble ahead of the blast. -
Making history
The US Coast Guard warns the oil leak could become the worst oil spill in US history. -
Oil on shore
Oil from the leaking well begins washing ashore in Louisiana. Soon fragile coastal wetlands are inundated with thick, brown mud. -
Obama
President Obama makes his first trip to the Gulf Coast and says BP is responsible for the leak and for paying for its clean-up. -
Carrying oil
Oceanographers say oil from the leak has entered an ocean current - the "loop current" - that could carry it towards Florida and potentially up the US east coast. -
Clean up
Adm Thad Allen, the commander of the US response, says clean-up of the oil-stricken Gulf could take years. The US government says underwater oil plumes have travelled as far as 40 miles from the site of the leaking well. -
Those effected
BP announces it will place $20bn in a fund to compensate victims of the oil spill and says it will not pay a shareholder dividend this year. -
The cost
BP says the oil spill response has cost the company $3.12bn (£2bn), including the cost of containing the spill and cleaning up the oil, and the cost of drilling relief wells. The figure also includes $147m paid out in compensation to some of those affected by the spill. -
Detected seep
Adm Allen tells BP he is concerned about a "detected seep" on the sea floor near the well and other "undetermined anomalies". He said that if methane was found to be seeping from the sea floor, oil might also be leaking. -
Well sealed
The ruptured well is finally sealed and "effectively dead", says the top US federal official overseeing the disaster, Coast Guard Adm Thad Allen.
