April 2 (Bloomberg) -- Pope John Paul II became the spiritual leader of the world's 1 billion Roman Catholics in 1978.

Since then, the pontiff traveled the globe for more than two decades, survived an attempt on his life, became the first pope to send a message over the Internet and wrote five books.

The following is a chronology of events his storied career:

May 18, 1920:       Karol Josef Wojtyla was born in Wadowice, an
                    industrial town about 25 miles (40 kilometers)
                    from Krakow, Poland. He is the second of two
                    sons to Karol Wojtyla, a sergeant in the army,
                    and Emilia Kacorowska, a school teacher.

1929:               Makes his First Holy Communion. This same
                    year, his mother dies.

1932:               Elder brother, Edmond, dies.

May 1938:           Receives the Sacrament of Confirmation.
                    Graduates from Marcin Wadowita high school.

June 1938:          Enrolls at Jagellonian University, Krakow,
                    where he moved with his father, to study
                    Polish philosophy.

November 1940:      Karol is forced to work in a stone quarry to
                    avoid deportation and imprisonment after Nazi
                    occupation forces the university to close.

Feb. 18, 1941:      Father dies.

1942:               Aware of his call to the priesthood, Karol
                    begins courses in the underground seminary of
                    Krakow, run by Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha.
                    Enrolls in Jagellonia University's Faculty of
                    Theology.

Nov. 1, 1946:       Ordained as priest. A day later, he celebrates
                    his first Mass in the crypt of the Saint
                    Leonard at Wavel.

Nov. 15, 1946:      Leaves Poland to begin studies in Rome at
                    Angelicum University.

June 14 to June 19, Earns a doctorate in philosophy after
1948:               defending his thesis.

August 1949:        Returns to Poland and serves as vicar of
                    various parishes in Krakow until 1951.

Sept. 28, 1958:     Named Bishop of Krakow.

Oct. 5, 1962:       Summoned by Pope John XXIII to participate in
                    the Second Vatican Council, his first sortie
                    into the highest ranks of the international
                    Church.

March 8, 1964:      Becomes Archbishop of Krakow.

June 28, 1967:      Is consecrated as a new cardinal by Pope Paul
                    VI in the Sistine Chapel.

Oct. 17, 1971:      Participates at the beautification of Father
                    Maximilian Kolbe.

Oct. 16, 1978:      Elected 264th Pope of the Catholic Church and
                    takes the name John Paul II. He is the 263rd
                    Successor of Peter, and the first non-Italian
                    pope in 455 years.

Jan. 25, 1979:      Makes first pastoral visit to Dominican
                    Republic and Mexico.

June 2, 1979:       Historic homily at Victory Square in Warsaw:
                    ``It is not possible to understand the history
                    of the Polish nation without Christ.''

Oct. 2, 1979:       Addresses United Nation's general assembly in
                    New York.

May 2, 1980:        Makes pastoral visits to Zaire, Republic of
                    the Congo, Kenya, Ghana, Upper Volta and the
                    Ivory Coast.

June 21, 1980:      Receives visit from U.S. President Jimmy
                    Carter.

Oct. 17, 1980:      Receives visit from Queen Elizabeth II.

May 13, 1981:       Young Turk Mehmet Ali Agea severely wounds the
                    pope in an assassination attempt. John Paul II
                    undergoes six hours of surgery.

May 17, 1981:       John Paul II forgives the would-be assassin.

May 31, 1981:       Creates Council of the Cardinals to study
                    economic and organizational problems at the
                    Vatican.

June 3, 1981:       Returns to the Vatican after 22 days of
                    recovery.

June 20, 1981:      Hospitalized again for a cytomegalovirus
                    infection.

June 7, 1982:       Visited by U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

Sept. 15, 1983:     Visited by Yasser Arafat.

January 1983:       Becomes the only pope featured in a comic book
                    when Marvel releases ``The Life of Pope John
                    Paul II.''

Dec. 27, 1983:      Visits his would-be assassin, Ali Agca, in
                    prison.

Jan. 10, 1984:      Diplomatic relations between the Vatican and
                    the U.S. begin.

Feb. 19, 1985:      Visited by Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres.

Feb. 27, 1985:      Visited by USSR Foreign Minister Andrei
                    Gromyko.

Oct. 27, 1986:      Pope attends the First World Day of Prayer for
                    Peace, which he convened in Assisi, Italy.

June 6, 1987:       President Reagan visits.

Sept. 10-21, 1987:  Visits the U.S. and Canada.

March 3, 1988:      The first-ever financial report of the Holy
                    See is published, for 1986.

July 17, 1989:      Diplomatic relations between Poland and the
                    Vatican are restored.

May 27, 1989:       President George H.W. Bush visits.

Dec. 1, 1989:       Mikhail Gorbachev, president of the USSR,
                    visits.

Jan. 15, 1991:      Writes letters to Bush and to Saddam Hussein
                    in an attempt to avert the Gulf War.

Feb. 5, 1991:       Official visit from Lech Walesa, president of
                    the Polish Republic.

June 2, 1994:       Visited by U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Oct. 20, 1994:      Becomes the first pope to write a best-selling
                    book ``Crossing the Threshold of Hope.''

Oct. 4, 1995:       Visits New York; Brooklyn; Newark, New Jersey;
                    Baltimore.

Jan. 20, 1996:      Visited by Jacques Chirac, president of
                    France.

Feb. 1, 1996:       President of Mexico Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de
                    Leon visits.

Oct. 8, 1996:       Undergoes an appendectomy.

Dec. 19, 1996:      Visited by Arafat.

Feb. 3, 1997:       Visited by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
                    Netanyahu.

Nov. 19, 1997:      Visited by Cuba's Fidel Castro.

Jan. 21, 1998:      The pontiff makes his first-ever trip to the
                    Cuba, and meets with Castro again.

Nov. 22, 2001:      Sends the first ever papal message via the
                    Internet.

December 2002:      The Vatican approves policy removing sexually
                    abusive priests from active ministry after
                    U.S. bishops revise their initial proposal.

May 2003:           Vatican confirms for first time that Pope has
                    Parkinson's disease.

June 2003:          Pope makes his 100th trip during his 25 years
                    in the Vatican to beatify a nun in Croatia.

July 2003:          Pope names Sean Patrick O'Malley archbishop of
                    Boston to lead the diocese at the focus of the
                    Roman Catholic church's sexual-abuse scandal.

Oct. 6, 2003:       Pope names three new saints: Daniele Comboni,
                    an Italian priest who served in Africa, Arnold
                    Janssen, a German priest and Josef
                    Freinademetz, an Austrian who died from
                    Typhoid while caring for patients in China. He
                    has now made 476 people saints.

Oct. 7, 2003:       The Pope travels to Pompeii by helicopter to
                    urge his followers to pray for world peace. He
                    talks to a crowd of more than 30,000 people
                    gathered at a shrine to the Virgin Mary.

Oct. 15, 2003:      Pope John Paul II celebrates his 25th
                    anniversary as pontiff amid thousands of the
                    faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square.

Oct. 19, 2003:      The Pope beatifies Mother Theresa, moving the
                    Albanian nun a step closer to sainthood. He
                    declares Mother Theresa a ``Blessed of the
                    Church'' for her work with the poor and sickly
                    in India.

Oct. 21, 2003:      The Pope appoints 30 new cardinals, most of
                    whom will be called upon to choose his
                    successor. In a two-hour ceremony, he reads
                    the names of the new ``princes of the
                    church,'' and greets each individually,
                    allowing them to kiss his ring.

Nov. 5, 2003:       Pope meets with Russian President Vladimir
                    Putin in Rome. In his 25 years as head of the
                    roman Catholic Church, John Paul has visited
                    more than 130 countries, though has never
                    managed to visit Russia because of opposition
                    from the Russian Orthodox Church.

May 18, 2004:       The Pope marks his 84th birthday with the
                    publication of a new volume of memoirs. ``Get
                    Up and Let's Go'' is a collection of memoirs
                    that focus on his early years in Poland.

June 4, 2004:       Pope meets with U.S. President George W. Bush
                    in Rome, their 3rd visit. This is their first
                    visit since the start of the Iraq war. The
                    Pope asks Bush for a ``speedy'' return of
                    Iraqi sovereignty.

Aug. 14, 2004:      Pope visits Lourdes, a pilgrimage site near
                    the Spanish frontier, for Assumption Day
                    celebrations.

Oct.  15, 2004:     The Pope, now the third-longest-serving
                    pontiff since Saint Peter, celebrates his 26th
                    anniversary by attending a celebration by the
                    Russian army choir. As many as 7,000
                    spectators take part in the celebrations.

Jan. 31, 2005:      The Pope cancels audiences because of flu
                    symptoms.

Feb. 1, 2005:       The Pope is rushed to Rome's Gemelli hospital,
                    suffering from the flu and having difficulty
                    breathing.

Feb. 10, 2005:      Released from hospital after nine days.

Feb. 22, 2005:      Pope's newest book, ``Memory and Identity,''
                    is released. The book describes for the first
                    time the moments after being shot in 1981.

Feb. 23, 2005:      The Pope holds his longest audience -- 30
                    minutes -- since being hospitalized. It's
                    broadcast by video instead of being held in
                    person at his apartment window because of rain
                    and wind.

Feb. 24, 2005:      The Pope is readmitted to hospital, suffering
                    from fever and congestion after a relapse of
                    the flu. He undergoes a tracheotomy to aid
                    breathing.

March 13, 2005:     The pope returned to the Vatican 17 days after
                    entering the hospital.

March 25, 2005:     His frail health prevents him from taking part
                    in person in the Good Friday Stations of the
                    Cross ceremony for the first time in his 26-
                    year pontificate.

March 30, 2005:     The Vatican announced the pope is receiving
                    some food through a tube in his nose to
                    ``increase his calories and contribute to a
                    quick recovery of his strength.''

March 31, 2005:     Italian news agency Apcom reports that the
                    pontiff's medical condition has worsened. It
                    is reported that he is suffering from a high
                    fever brought on by a urinary tract infection
                    and has been administered the sacrament of
                    Last Rites, given to the seriously ill.

April 2, 2005:      Pope John Paul II dies 9:37 p.m. Rome time at
                    the age of 84.

Sources: Vatican, CNN.com, Bloomberg News.

To contact the reporter on this story: Aimee Sullivan in Princeton at asullivan@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 2, 2005 15:23 EST