| 6/78 | Arkansas Attorney General Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, join Jim and Susan McDougal in purchasing 230 acres along the White River in Northern Arkansas. Susan McDougal christens the property "Whitewater." |
| 11/78 | Bill Clinton is elected Governor of Arkansas. |
| 10/80 | Jim and Susan McDougal buy the Bank of Kingston, a small state-chartered bank, which is renamed Madison Bank & Trust. |
| 11/80 | Bill Clinton is defeated in bid to be re-elected Governor. |
| 1/82 | Jim McDougal buys the Woodruff Savings & Loan in Augusta, renames it Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan and moves the headquarters to Little Rock. |
| 11/82 | Bill Clinton wins back the Governor's office. |
| 5/84 | Federal Home Loan Bank Board issues highly critical exam of Madison Guaranty. Soon after, the S&L enters supervisory agreement to correct lending practices. |
| 4/85 | McDougal holds fundraiser for Governor Clinton at offices of Madison Guaranty. The event raises an estimated $35,000. Questions are later raised about whether the source of some individual contributions was, in fact, other Madison accounts. |
| Spring 1985 | According to McDougal, the Governor jogs by Madison's office and asks that some of the S&L's legal work be given to his wife, Hillary. The Rose Law Firm is later placed on a $2,000/month retainer. |
| 10/85 | Jim McDougal, through Madison Guaranty's real estate subsidiary, Madison Financial, and friend Seth Ward purchase the Castle Grande property for $1.75 million. Madison Financial puts up $600,000, its legal limit, and Ward pays $1.15 million, borrowed on a non-recourse loan from Madison Guaranty. |
| 2/86 | According to local municipal judge David Hale, a meeting between Hale, McDougal and Governor Clinton takes place at the Castle Grande sales office where they discuss a $300,000 loan from Hale to Susan McDougal. |
| 2/28/86 | The Dean Paul Loan is implemented. Madison Guaranty loans Paul $825,000, who then buys three properties from David Hale. Hale, through his SBA-backed lending company, then loans $150,000 to Jim Guy Tucker and R.D. Randolph, who borrow an additional $1.05 million from Madison. Tucker, Randolph and Senator William Fulbright, who borrows $700,000 from Madison, buy out the bulk of Seth Ward's Castle Grande holdings. Ward's non-recourse loan, a potential red flag to examiners, is moved off of Madison's books. |
| 3/86 | Federal Home Loan Bank Board examiners arrive at Madison Guaranty. |
| 4/3/86 | Hale loans $300,000 from his SBA-backed operation to Susan McDougal d/b/a Master Marketing, an advertising agency. The money is deposited into Jim and Susan McDougal's personal account at Madison Guaranty. Funds are used to pay down a year-old McDougal personal loan, $25,000 is used to cover overdrafts in the Whitewater account and another $25,000 is used as downpayment on additional property purchased in the name of Whitewater Development Corp. |
| 4/7/86 | Madison Guaranty senior loan officer Don Denton has telephone conference with Rose Law Firm attorney Hillary Clinton. According to Denton, the two discuss transactions intended to provide commissions to Seth Ward for his role in Castle Grande deal. |
| 5/86 | An option agreement is drafted providing Ward with compensation for the future sale of property to Madison. According to Rose Law Firm billing records, the agreement is prepared by Hillary Clinton. Federal investigators would later determine that the option agreement was used by Madison to further conceal the ¦sham² Castle Grande deal. |
| 7/86 | Federal Home Loan Bank Board meets in Dallas to review Madison Guaranty examination. Jim and Susan McDougal are forced to resign from the institution. |
| 1988 | As part of "routine" document retention procedures, Hillary Clinton authorizes the destruction of her working files on Madison Guaranty and Castle Grande. |
| 2/89 | The Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation is appointed conservator for Madison Guaranty. |
| 11/89 | Jim McDougal is indicted on bank fraud. He is acquitted during jury trial in 1990. |
| 10/91 | Governor Clinton announces his candidacy for President. |
| 2/92 | A Clinton Campaign Whitewater team is assembled to address reporter's inquiries. A copy of the Rose Law Firm billing records for Madison Guaranty are printed from the Rose computer. The underlying computer record vanishes. Webb Hubbell and Vince Foster review the billing records. Mrs. Clinton believes she also looked at them at that time. |
| 3/92 | Articles in The New York Times and The Washington Post question the Clinton's Whitewater investments and Hillary Clinton's representation of Madison Guaranty. |
| 11/92 | Bill Clinton is elected President of the United States. |
| 1/93 | Jim McDougal agrees to buy out the Clinton's interest in Whitewater for $1,000. |
| 7/20/93 | Vince Foster commits suicide. The removal of the Clinton's personal files from Foster's office generates new interest in the Whitewater controversy. |
| 9/93 | David Hale is indicted for defrauding the federal government with his SBA-backed operation. He would later plead guilty and cooperate with the independent counsel. |
| 1/94 | Attorney General Janet Reno names Robert Fiske as independent counsel to investigate Whitewater. |
| 8/94 | Fiske is replaced by Kenneth Starr as independent counsel. |
| 1995 | House and Senate Congressional Committees hold months of Whitewater hearings. |
| 8/95 | Jim and Susan McDougal and Governor Jim Guy Tucker are indicted on multiple counts of bank fraud. |
| 1/4/96 | A copy of the Rose Law Firm billing records, under subpoena for nearly two years, is turned over to investigators by Mrs. Clinton's assistant Carolyn Huber. Ms. Huber has testified that she found the records, along with a stack of other papers, in the First Lady's book room in August, 1995. She moved all of the documents to her office before realizing in January that the billing records were among the papers. |
| 1/26/96 | Mrs. Clinton becomes the first First Lady ever to be called to testify before a grand jury. |
| 4/96 | Jim and Susan McDougal and Governor Jim Guy Tucker stand trial for bank fraud. David Hale testifies that then-Governor Bill Clinton inquired about his $300,000 loan to Susan McDougal in 1986. President Clinton testifies via videotape and denies that he had any involvement with or knowledge of the Hale loan to Susan McDougal. |
| 5/96 | The McDougals and Governor Tucker are convicted. Soon after, Jim McDougal begins to cooperate with the independent counsel. Susan McDougal refuses to answer any questions before the grand jury and is sent to prison for contempt. |
| 11/96 | President Clinton is relected to a second term. |
| 2/97 | Kenneth Starr announces his intention to resign as independent counsel and become dean at Pepperdine Law School. Following a few days of negative publicity, Starr announces he will stay on until the investigation is over. |
| 9/97 | The General Accounting Office reports that costs of the independent counsel's investigation of Whitewater have exceeded $30 million. |
