Significant events in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary race:

2007

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

JAN. 20: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York announces she's joining the presidential race. She is considered the early favorite for the nomination.

APRIL 15: Obama and Clinton report raising about $26 million 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 $33 million during the second quarter of 2007, compared to $27 million for Clinton.

OCT. 30: In a televised debate, Obama and candidate John Edwards sharply challenge Clinton's candor, consistency and judgment. Clinton evades direct answers to several questions, including her views on New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's plan to offer driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

NOV. 26: Despite surging interest in Obama, Clinton remains the favorite to win the nomination.

2008

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

JAN. 8: Clinton pulls a surprise victory over Obama in New Hampshire, taking 39 percent of the vote to Obama's 36 percent. 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."

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

JAN. 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.

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

JAN. 28: Liberal icon Sen. Edward M. Kennedy endorses Obama.

FEB. 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.

FEB. 10: Clinton replaces campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle with longtime 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 don't 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 longtime pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, that had been circulating on the Internet and were being played on cable news programs.

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 U.S. 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 Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in defending her decision to keep running despite long odds of winning. Amid criticism, she apologizes.

MAY 31: After video surfaces of a visiting priest mocking Clinton from the pulpit, Obama resigns his membership in Trinity United Church of Christ. Meanwhile, Democratic Party leaders agree to seat the renegade 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.

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