1989
27 March
South Yorkshire police chief constable Peter Wright replaces Ch Supt Brian Mole, the experienced commander of football matches at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough ground. Wright promotes David Duckenfield in Mole’s place.
15 April
Nineteen days after Duckenfield is appointed, 54,000 people attend the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. In the lethal crush, 96 men, women and children are fatally injured.
1 August
Lord Justice Taylor’s official report into the disaster emphatically blames police mismanagement of the event and criticises South Yorkshire police for blaming Liverpool supporters instead of accepting responsibility. Wright states that he fully accepts the findings.
1990
30 August
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decides there is insufficient evidence to justify criminal proceedings against anybody from any organisation for any offence arising out of the deaths.
October
South Yorkshire police admits it was negligent and failed in its duty of care to the people attending the match when settling civil claims brought by bereaved families and injured people.
19 November
First inquest opens in Sheffield, heard by the local coroner, Dr Stefan Popper. South Yorkshire police renew their case that drunk supporters who arrived late and ticketless were to blame.
1991
28 March
Inquest jury returns a majority verdict of accidental death.
29 October
Duckenfield retires on medical grounds, diagnosed with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
1992
13 January
Disciplinary action against Supt Bernard Murray, the police control box commander at Hillsborough, is dropped.
1993
5 November
A judicial review application by six representative families to quash the inquest verdict is rejected by Lord Justice McCowan in the divisional court. McCowan rules that the inquest was properly conducted. Families continue to campaign for justice.
1996
5 December
ITV broadcasts a drama documentary written by Jimmy McGovern, researched by journalist Katy Jones, which powerfully highlights the families’ complaints of injustice and allegations of a police cover-up.
1997
30 June
The new Labour government orders the “scrutiny” of new evidence by Lord Justice Stuart-Smith. It is found that South Yorkshire police changed 164 officers’ accounts of the disaster before sending them to the Taylor inquiry. According to a civil service note (pdf) that became public in 1997, the then home secretary, Jack Straw, did not believe there was sufficient evidence for a new inquiry but said such an assertion had to come from an independent source such as a judge to be “acceptable”. The then prime minister, Tony Blair, had written across the note about setting up a new inquiry: “Why? What is the point.”
1998
13 February
Stuart-Smith rejects any grounds for prosecutions or quashing the inquest verdict. Straw accepts that conclusion.
2009
12 April
Twenty years after Hillsborough, the Guardian highlights the families’ ongoing grievances and complaints of injustice. Then Labour ministers Andy Burnham and Maria Eagle resolve to call for all documents relating to the disaster to be published.
15 April
Burnham’s speech to the 20th anniversary memorial service at Anfield is interrupted with calls from the crowd of “justice for the 96”. His call for disclosure is supported by Gordon Brown’s government.
2012
12 September
The Hillsborough independent panel, which has reviewed 450,000 documents disclosed to it, publishes its report. The police failings are highlighted, and their campaign to blame supporters further exposed. The Conservative home secretary, Theresa May, accepts the report and orders a new criminal inquiry into the disaster, Operation Resolve. The Independent Police Complaints Commission launches an investigation into alleged malpractice by the police in the case made afterwards.
19 December
The verdict in the first inquest is quashed by the lord chief justice, Igor Judge, and two other judges, who find that it was not properly conducted.
2014
31 March
The new inquests begin in Birchwood, Warrington. Together they become by far the longest case ever heard by a jury in British legal history.
2016
26 April
The inquest jury delivers its verdict. Among the 14 questions it is asked to decide upon, it concludes that the 96 people who died in the disaster were unlawfully killed, overturning the verdict of accidental death at the original inquest.
It adds that no behaviour on the part of Liverpool fans contributed to the dangerous situation at the Leppings Lane turnstiles. This, at last, comprehensively exonerates the supporters who were blamed for causing the disaster in its immediate aftermath.
Defects in the construction and layout of the stadium contributed to the disaster, the inquest finds, adding that “errors and omissions” by the entire police operation on the day contributed to the causes of the disaster. It adds that errors and omissions in the stadium’s layout and design, and its lack of a valid safety certificate also contributed to the tragedy, as did Sheffield Wednesday FC’s preparation for the match.
On the question of whether the club’s actions on the day of the game were a contributory factor, the jury could not say for sure but said they may have been. Errors and omissions by the South Yorkshire metropolitan ambulance service were also said to contribute to the disaster.
2017
29 June
Following Operation Resolve, the CPS charge Duckenfield, the police officer in command of the match, with manslaughter by gross negligence. The charge relates to 95 of the people who died at Hillsborough. No charge could be brought in relation to the death of the 96th victim, Tony Bland, in 1993.
Graham Mackrell, the Sheffield Wednesday club secretary and safety officer at the time of the disaster, is charged with two counts of breaching his duties under safety legislation.
2019
14 January
Duckenfield’s trial begins at Preston crown court. The 75-year-old stands trial alongside Mackrell, with both men pleading not guilty to the charges in pre-trial hearings.
Opening the prosecution’s case, Richard Matthews QC says: “Duckenfield’s criminal responsibility for the deaths ... flows from his gross failure to discharge his personal responsibility as match commander.” Ben Myers QC, setting out Duckenfield’s defence, said he was being “singled out unfairly”.
3 April
The jury fail to return a verdict on Duckenfield’s charge, after deliberating for eight days. Mackrell is found guilty, by a majority of 10-2, of breaching his legal duty to take reasonable care at work for people’s safety, in relation to the allocation of turnstiles for the match.
Matthews tells the judge, Sir Peter Openshaw, that the CPS will seek a retrial for Duckenfield on the same charge. Mackrell is later fined £6,500 following his conviction.
25 June
Just over a month after the 30th anniversary of the disaster, Openshaw rules that Duckenfield will face a retrial, to begin at Preston crown court in October.
7 October
Duckenfield’s retrial begins. Proceedings are relayed live to the Cunard building in Liverpool, to allow survivors and families of the victims to attend more easily.
28 November
Duckenfield is found not guilty of gross negligence manslaughter, after the jury spend three days considering their verdict. Openshaw had earlier told the 10-person jury he would accept a majority verdict, on which at least nine of the 10 jurors agreed.
