Day 1 Chronology

April 30, 1941: Vincent A. Cianci Jr. is born.

1958: Cianci graduates from Moses Brown School.

Spring 1966: Cianci graduates from Marquette Law School and is drafted into the Army, serving two years as an officer in the military police.

April 20, 1968: Underworld bookmakers Rudolph Marfeo and Anthony Melei are murdered as they shop in Pannone's Market in Silver Lake.

January 1969: Cianci, having completed his Army service, is hired as a special assistant attorney general for Rhode Island by Herbert DeSimone, the attorney general.

December 1971: Cianci prosecutes mobster Frank L. "Bobo" Marrapese for conspiracy to steal a camper.

Spring 1972: Cianci assists in the prosecution of Raymond L.S. Patriarca, the New England mob boss accused of ordering the murders of Marfeo and Melei.

Day 2 Chronology

1964: Joseph A. Doorley Jr. is elected mayor of Providence.

1972: Atty. Gen. Richard Israel assigns Vincent A. Cianci Jr. to prosecute public corruption cases.

Nov. 3, 1972: Mayor Joseph A. Doorley Jr. celebrates the opening of the Providence Civic Center, with a Providence Reds hockey game. On the same night, President Richard M. Nixon addresses a pre-Election Day rally at the state airport in Warwick.

February 1973: Concert promoter Robert "Skip" Chernov goes to the attorney general's office with a tape-recording of Harold Copeland, the executive director of the Providence Civic Center, requesting $1,000 "under the table" to book a concert. Cianci is assigned to the case.

March 19, 1973: The state police stake out the Civic Center and wire promoter Chernov as he attempts to deliver the bribe to director Copeland at a Pink Floyd concert.

May 19, 1973: Nearly 3,000 people jam the Civic Center for a tribute to Democratic City Chairman Lawrence P. McGarry. Mayor Doorley is the toastmaster.

June 20, 1973: The Providence Democratic City Committee, led by Larry McGarry, refuses Doorley's attempt to secure the party's endorsement in advance for his 1974 reelection bid.

Oct. 10, 1973: Civic Center director Copeland is indicted by a Rhode Island grand jury for soliciting a bribe from promoter Chernov. Cianci is the prosecutor.

April 22, 1974: Cianci formally announces his candidacy for mayor of Providence at the Garden Room of the Biltmore hotel. Running as a Republican, he calls himself "the anticorruption candidate."

June 1974: Providence Democratic City Committee endorses McGarry's candidate, Francis Brown, for mayor. Doorley, facing a primary challenge from three Democrats, fires McGarry and Brown from their city jobs.

Sept. 10, 1974: Doorley defeats Francis Brown in the Democratic primary. Cianci meets with Brown supporters that night at the Rosario Club in Silver Lake to court dissident Democrats.

Oct. 2, 1974: Civic Center director Copeland is convicted of soliciting a bribe.

Oct. 3, 1974: Ronald Glantz, a former assistant city solicitor and McGarry ally, announces the creation of Democrats for Cianci.

Oct. 30, 1974: Doorley accuses Cianci of having participated in a fraudulent insurance scheme as a private lawyer in 1971.

Nov. 3, 1974: A Providence Journal poll predicts that Doorley will handily defeat the underdog Cianci.

Nov. 5, 1974: Cianci upsets Doorley by 709 votes. He is the first Republican elected since 1938 and Providence's first Italian-American mayor.

Jan. 1, 1975: Vincent A. Cianci Jr. is inaugurated as the first Italian-American mayor in Providence history. That afternoon, the Democratic City Council blocks his appointment of department directors.

Jan. 27, 1975: Cianci foe Robert Haxton, the City Council president, is arrested on a morals charge.

Feb. 15, 1975: Cianci has a private Oval Office meeting with President Gerald R. Ford to discuss his historic election.

June 24, 1975: The City Council rejects Cianci's first budget in a stormy session that coincides with fireworks marking the 100th birthday of City Hall.

August 1975: Cianci flies to Nashville, Tenn. and persuades the national Fraternal Order of Police to hold its 1977 convention in Providence, besting bids from New Orleans, Phoenix and Albuquerque.

July 2, 1976: Two thousand city workers strike to protest layoffs precipitated by budget impasse between Cianci and the City Council.

Aug. 17, 1976: Cianci makes a nationally televised speech to the Republican National Convention in Kansas City.

Fall 1977: City Council President Haxton is convicted on a morals charge.

Jan. 16, 1978: Providence Police Chief Robert E. Ricci commits suicide at police headquarters. Associates say he had been pressured by Cianci on police recruits, which the mayor denies.

February 1978: The Blizzard of '78 paralyzes the city under 3 feet of snow.

April 7, 1978: Cianci formally launches his campaign for reelection.

July 9, 1978: New Times magazine reports on allegations that Cianci raped a woman at gunpoint while a law student at Marquette University. The mayor, who was never charged, angrily denies it.

July 12, 1978: Cianci seizes control of the hostile City Council in the "Wednesday Night Massacre."

Aug. 9, 1978: The Rhode Island Supreme Court rules that the "Wednesday Night Massacre" was illegal.

Sept. 21, 1978: Polls show Cianci and Democratic challenger Francis Darigan in a dead heat.

Nov. 8, 1978: Cianci cruises to victory, winning 9 of Providence's 13 wards and taking 56 percent of the vote.

Jan. 1, 1979: Cianci is inaugurated for his second term, protected by police snipers and a bulletproof shield following death threats.

December 1979: Cianci draws national attention when he cancels a Civic Center concert by the rock group The Who after 11 fans are crushed to death in a stampede at a Who concert in Cincinnati. The ban is later rescinded, but The Who refuses to come to Providence.

May 1980: A state grand jury indicts seven men in a no-show jobs scheme at the Department of Public Works.

July 4, 1980: Cianci, who is running for governor, receives a hero's welcome at the Bristol Fourth of July parade, after officials had tried to ban him from marching.

July 14, 1980: Cianci addresses the Republican National Convention in Detroit.

November 1980: Faced with a mounting fiscal crisis, Cianci is crushed by Gov. J. Joseph Garrahy in the governor's race.

December 1980: Several hundred city workers walk off the job to protest Cianci layoffs.

March 6, 1981: With Providence facing possible bankruptcy, Cianci is jeered by angry taxpayers as he pleads with the City Council to pass a controversial midyear tax increase.

July 1981: Cianci fires striking city garbagemen and hires a private company to collect the trash, guarded by shotgun-toting police officers.

June 11, 1982: Cianci announces that he will run for reelection as an independent, abandoning the Republican Party in the face of a primary challenge from Fred Lippitt.

October 1982: City Council critics assail Cianci's $1.9-million street paving and sidewalk repair program as a transparent attempt to win votes with taxpayer money.

Nov. 2, 1982: Cianci wins reelection to a third term, beating Democratic challenger Francis Darigan by 1,000 votes.

1983

Jan. 3: Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. is sworn in for a third term as mayor. "Like the characters in Homer's Odyssey," he says, "my supporters and I have engaged in an eight-year journey beset by challenges and tribulations."

March 15: Vincent and Sheila Cianci receive a preliminary divorce decree.

March 20: Cianci assaults Raymond DeLeo in his carriage house on Power Street.

March 22: Cianci meets with socialite Lenore Siegel Steinberg at the Biltmore hotel.

April 18: DeLeo gives a statement to the Rhode Island State Police regarding Cianci's assault.

April 25: Channel 12 (WPRI) breaks the news that a grand jury is investigating the DeLeo assault.

April 27: DeLeo testifies before the grand jury.

May 5: Cianci testifies before the grand jury for 3 1/2 hours.

May 24: Cianci indicted for assaulting DeLeo.

Oct. 14: James Diamond, an ardent Cianci critic recently fired from his job at Providence parks director, says that he will lead an effort to recall Cianci from office.

Dec. 2: William "Blackjack" DelSanto of the Providence Public Works Department, is charged, along with another DPW employee, with obtaining money under false pretenses.

1984

March 1: Cianci opponents file 19,760 signatures with the Board of Canvassers calling for the mayor's recall.

March 5: Cianci pleads guilty to assaulting DeLeo.

April 18: DPW official Edward F. "Buckles" Melise is charged with federal extortion, regarding snowplowing contracts.

April 25: Cianci, having received a suspended prison sentence, resigns as mayor.

1990

June 27: After six years in exile, Vincent A. Cianci Jr. announces, live on his radio talk show on WHJJ, that he will run for mayor.

Nov. 6: Cianci is elected mayor, by 317 votes.

1991

Jan. 7: Cianci is sworn in for a fourth term, pledging to be "a different kind of mayor."

1992

May 22: Cianci announces a new minor-league hockey team, the Providence Bruins, will play at the Providence Civic Center.

Aug. 17: Mirage Resorts executive Steve Wynn meets with Cianci about possibly putting a casino in Providence. The mayor later opposes the idea.

Dec. 23: The Internal Revenue Service seeks Cianci's personal financial records and campaign records as part of an audit.

1993

Dec. 3: Cianci celebrates the gala opening of the Rhode Island Convention Center.

1994

July 13: Waterplace Park is dedicated, capping a decade-long river relocation project.

Nov. : Cianci easily wins reelection to a fifth term.

Dec. 31: WaterFire debuts at the newly redone Providence riverfront.

1995

May 3: Cianci unveils the Mayor's Own Marinara Sauce, handing out bottles at his annual birthday campaign fundraiser at the Biltmore hotel.

Aug. 10: Cianci establishes the Providence Film Commission to promote Hollywood filmmaking in Providence.

1997

Jan. 26: Cianci, trying to woo the New England Patriots to move to Providence, attends the Super Bowl in New Orleans.

Feb. 8: Cianci hosts "Rhode Island Night" at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, to promote the City of Providence to Hollywood filmmakers during Locations Expo '97.

1995

April 20: Edward Voccola and his longtime manager, Roger Cavaca, are indicted on federal charges of insurance fraud, involving staging phony automobile accidents. They subsequently plead guilty.

1996

Jan. ?: Roger Cavaca becomes a fugitive after failing to report to federal prison in Fort Dix, N.J., to begin serving his sentence.

1997

Undated: Cavaca is arrested in North Carolina and later agrees to cooperate with the FBI in an investigation of Voccola, Frank E. Corrente and city leases.

1998

Jan. 27: FBI agent W. Dennis Aiken visits Antonio R. Freitas, who subsequently agrees to serve as a cooperating witness to investigate corruption at City Hall.

April: Freitas begins working undercover for the FBI, secretly tape-recording conversations with tax-board chairman Joseph A. Pannone.

May 18: Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. celebrates the release of NBC's fall television lineup, which includes a prime-time drama, Providence.

July 30: Providence Building Board of Review rejects variances sought by the University Club for renovations.

Aug. 18: University Club leaders meet with Cianci to discuss the club's rejected variances and the mayor's membership rejection years earlier.

Sept. 11: The University Club's president hand-delivers Cianci a letter notifying him that he has been chosen as a lifetime honorary member.

Dec. 3: Freitas gives Corrente a $1,000 bribe at City Hall, which is recorded on videotape.

1999

April 28: Operation Plunder Dome becomes public with FBI raid on City Hall and the arrests of tax officials Pannone and David C. Ead.

Sept. 23: Cianci becomes longest-serving mayor in Providence history.

Dec. 6: Pannone pleads guilty to corruption charges.

2000

Feb. 15: Ead pleads guilty and agrees to testify that he arranged bribes with Cianci.

March 17: Jury convicts deputy assessor Rosemary Glancy of corruption charges.

June 29: Corrente indicted on corruption charges.

2001

April 2: Cianci is indicted on racketeering and corruption charges, along with Corrente, Voccola, chief of staff Artin H. Coloian and auto garage businessman Richard E. Autiello.

2002

April 22: Cianci's corruption trial begins.

June 11: Lawyers deliver closing arguments; the case goes to the jury the next day.

June 24: Jury convicts Cianci, Corrente and Autiello. (A judge had previously thrown out the charges against Voccola.)

Sept. 6: Cianci is sentenced to 5 years and 4 months in federal prison and resigns.

Dec. 6: Cianci reports to federal prison in Fort Dix, N.J.