1990 Berlusconi found guilty of lying in court about his membership of subversive masonic lodge Propaganda 2. Conviction extinguished by amnesty, one of two from which he will benefit.
1995 Eight-month-old government falls after he is deserted by his ally, Umberto Bossi. For many, it is the end of a novel political experiment. But, after seven years in the wilderness, Berlusconi returns to power in 2001.
1998 Berlusconi gets a two year, nine month sentence for bribing his firm's tax inspectors. The conviction was later overturned and the case was "timed out" by a statute of limitations, something that gets him off the hook in five other trials.
2002 Acquitted of false accounting following a change in the law by his own government. The same thing happens three years later.
2004 President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi refuses to sign a bill which weakened independence of judiciary.
2007 Oggi magazine publishes "Berlusconi's Harem", with photos of him hand-in-hand with several young women at his villa on Sardinia.
2008 A former topless model, Mara Carfagna, becomes equal opportunities minister in his fourth government.
2009 Berlusconi's wife, Veronica Lario, announces she is leaving him because he "consorts with minors". The prime minister is found to have attended the 18th birthday party of an aspiring model and actress. The same year sees the release of a recording allegedly made by a prostitute in Berlusconi's bed.
2010: Investigation opened into the prime minister's "bunga bunga" parties and his relationship with a young Moroccan, Karima el-Mahroug.
2011 Berlusconi put on trial for allegedly paying a juvenile prostitute.
