Obama & Clinton's long race

Washington - Significant events in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary race:

2007

January 16: Senator Barack Obama of Illinois launches his campaign by forming a presidential exploratory committee, saying voters are hungry for change.

January 20: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York announces she is joining the presidential race. She is considered the early favourite for the nomination.

April 15: Obama and Clinton report raising about $26m in the first quarter of 2007.

May 23: A Clinton campaign memo urges her to bypass the Iowa caucuses because it is her weakest state. She disavows the memo.

July 1: Obama reports raising $33m during the second quarter of 2007, compared to $27m for Clinton.

October 30: In a televised debate, Obama and candidate John Edwards sharply challenge Clinton's candour, consistency and judgement. Clinton evades direct answers to several questions, including her views on New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's plan to offer driver's licences to illegal immigrants.

November 26: Despite surging interest in Obama, Clinton remains the favourite to win the nomination.

2008

January 3: Obama wins the Iowa caucuses with 38% of the vote. Edwards places second with 30%; Clinton takes third with 29%.

January 8: Clinton pulls a surprise victory over Obama in New Hampshire, taking 39% of the vote to Obama's 36%. The win comes a day after Clinton chokes up with emotion as she tells an audience: "This is very personal for me. It's not just political. It's not just public."

January 15: Clinton wins the renegade Michigan primary, taking 55% of the vote. Obama and Edwards are not on the ballot.

January 19: Despite losing narrowly to Clinton in Nevada caucuses, Obama gains more delegates - 14 to Clinton's 11 - due to the complicated way delegates are apportioned in Democratic races.

January 26: Obama wins the South Carolina primary with 55% of the vote, a wider-than-expected margin. Former President Bill Clinton later notes that civil rights leader Jesse Jackson had won the South Carolina primary in past elections; many see the remark as a bid to marginalise Obama.

January 28: Liberal icon Senator Edward M Kennedy endorses Obama.

February 5: Super Tuesday, featuring 22 state contests, takes place. Obama wins the popular vote in 13; Clinton takes nine states plus American Samoa. Obama would go on to rack up 11 straight victories for a net gain of more than 200 delegates, a lead from which Clinton would never recover.

February 10: Clinton replaces campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle with long-time aide Maggie Williams.

March 4: Clinton wins in Texas and Ohio but only dents Obama's pledged delegate lead.

March 17: Clinton recounts how she braved sniper fire during a visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina as first lady. Accounts and video from the events do not support her story. After days of criticism, she admits she made a mistake.

March 18: Obama delivers a speech on race, in part to distance himself from racially charged sermons by his long-time Chicago pastor, the Rev Jeremiah Wright, that had been circulating on the Internet and were being played on cable news programmes.

April 6: Clinton dismisses chief strategist Mark Penn after it is disclosed that Penn met with representatives of the Colombian government to help promote a free trade agreement that Clinton opposes.

April 22: Clinton scores a major victory in Pennsylvania, winning the state by 10 points over Obama. The win raises doubts about Obama's ability to connect with white, working-class voters.

April 29: A day after Wright tells reporters that the US government was capable of planting Aids in the black community and that criticism of him amounted to criticism of black churches in general, Obama denounces Wright's "divisive and destructive" comments and breaks with his former pastor.

May 6: Clinton wins Indiana, while Obama takes North Carolina.

May 20: Losing Kentucky but winning in Oregon, Obama garners a majority of all pledged delegates.

May 23: Clinton cites the 1968 assassination of Senator Robert F Kennedy in defending her decision to keep running despite long odds of winning. Amid criticism, she apologises.

May 31: After video surfaces of a visiting priest mocking Clinton from the pulpit, Obama resigns his membership in Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

Meanwhile, Democratic Party leaders agree to seat the disputed Michigan and Florida delegations with half-votes at the summer convention, a compromise that pushes Obama toward the nomination.

June 3: On the final day of the primary race, Obama draws enough superdelegates to win the nomination.

- AP