1979
December -- U.S. Embassy in Tripoli burned. United States suspends diplomatic activities, but embassy staff remains. U.S. interests in Libya taken over by Belgium.
1980
May -- U.S. Embassy in Tripoli closed after attacks on the French Embassy. Libya detains two U.S. nationals and expels 25 others on espionage charges.
Oct. 14 -- A Colorado State University graduate student, an opponent of Col. Moammar Khadafy, shot and seriously wounded at his home in Fort Collins, Colo. Authorities charge a former Green Beret was hired to assassinate anti-Khadafy dissidents living in the United States.
1981
May -- Reagan administration, referring to Libyan ''assassination squads,'' orders closing of Libya's Washington Embassy and expulsion of Libyan diplomats. Administration says United States will ''not conduct business with a regime that grossly distorts the rules of international behavior.''
August -- Two F-14 fighters from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz down two Soviet-built Libyan Sukhoi-22 fighters with missiles over the Gulf of Sidra.
December -- Reagan asks Americans in Libya, some 1,500 mostly in the oil industry, to leave. Hundreds leave, many only temporarily.
1982
Oct. 7 -- Khadafy says Libyan exiles who work against his regime - ''escaped agents of America'' -- face assassination.
1984
Dec. 13 -- State Department again warns Americans to leave Libya.
1985
March 31 -- Khadafy calls on guerrilla groups to launch organized ''suicide missions'' to topple moderate Middle Eastern governments.
July 8 -- Reagan charges ''a new international version of Murder Inc.,'' made up of Iran, Libya, North Korea, Cuba and Nicaragua, is ''engaged in acts of war'' against the United States. He urges a Western campaign against terrorist attacks.
December -- United States accuses Libya of backing the Dec. 27 terrorist attacks at Rome and Vienna airports that killed 20 people and wounded 110 others.
1986
January -- Reagan announces economic sanctions against Libya and orders all Americans out by Feb. 1 under penalty of legal action. Western allies refuse to join boycott.
Jan. 13 -- Two Libyan MiG-25 jet fighters buzz U.S. Navy surveillance plane north of Libya. Khadafy two days later declares Libya will train, arm and protect Arab guerrillas for ''suicide and terrorist missions.''
February -- Many Americans leave Libya by Reagan's Feb. 1 deadline. Some risk legal action and stay.
Feb. 4 -- Israel intercepts Libyan civilian jet flying from Tripoli to Damascus and forces it to land in Israel in a search for Palestinian terrorist leaders. Libya accuses U.S. Navy ships of aiding the Israeli action.
March 24 -- Libya in a letter to U.N. secretary-general denounces ''dangerous and provocative'' U.S. military maneuvers off its coast and warns it will use all means to defend itself. Libya fires six antiaircraft missiles at U.S. jets near the Gulf of Sidra ''line of death.'' U.S. Navy warplanes blast a missile launch site and destroy two Libyan missile boats.
March 25 -- Khadafy vows his forces will not give up their ''brave confrontation'' against the U.S. military in the Mediterranean.
March 27 -- U.S. Navy ends maneuvers off Libya after twice bombing a missile guidance base in the Gulf of Sidra and firing on five Libyan ships, sinking three.
March 28 -- Libya, claiming victory over U.S. in Gulf of Sidra confrontation, urges ''all Arab peoples'' to attack anything American, ''be it an interest, goods, a ship, a plane or a person.''
April 2 -- Bomb explodes on TWA Flight 840 traveling from Rome to Athens, blowing a hole in the side of the Boeing 747. Four passengers, all Americans, are killed.
April 5 -- Bomb rips through West Berlin discotheque frequented by American troops, killing an American serviceman and a Turkish woman and injuring more than 150 people, over a third of them Americans.
April 6 -- Richard Burt, U.S. ambassador to West Germany, said there is ''very clear evidence that there is Libyan involvement'' in the April 5 bombing in West Berlin.
April 9 -- Two U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups in the Mediterranean ordered to remain in area. Khadafy threatens to attack United States and U.S. targets worldwide if Reagan orders more military strikes against his nation. West Germany orders the expulsions of two Libyan diplomats.
April 10 -- Khadafy said he prepared to ''escalate the violence against American targets'' if United States uses West Berlin discotheque and TWA bombings as excuse to attack Libya. Bodies of four Americans killed in TWA bombing flown back to United States.
April 12 -- Special U.S. envoy Vernon Walters begins series of closed-door talks with world leaders seeking allied support for U.S. action against Libya.
April 14 -- European foreign ministers meeting in Netherlands brand Libya as supporter of terrorism and vow to restrict movements of Libyan diplomats -- but reject imposing economic sanctions against Tripoli and urge U.S. military restraint. That night, U.S. attacks Libya.
