1982
May 30: Cal Ripken's consecutive-games streak begins when Orioles manager Earl Weaver starts him at third base at Memorial Stadium against the Blue Jays. Floyd Rayford played third base the night before in the second game of a doubleheader against Toronto.
June 5: Ripken's innings streak begins in Minnesota. The night before, Jim Dwyer hit for Ripken in the ninth inning.
June 30: Ripken's last start at third base until July 15, 1996.
Nov. 10: General Secretary Leonid I. Brezhnev dies and is succeeded as leader of Soviet Union by Yuri Andropov two days later.
1983
Oct. 2: Ripken becomes the first Oriole to play in every inning of every game for a full season.
Oct. 16: Orioles win World Series for third time, finishing off Phillies in Game 5 with 5-0 victory. Ripken records final out, catching a line drive by Garry Maddox. A month later, Ripken is named American League Most Valuable Player.
Oct. 23: U.S. Marine headquarters in Beirut is blown up by truck bomb, killing 241 Marines.
1984
March 29: The Baltimore Colts leave under cover of darkness for Indianapolis.
May 6: Ripken hits for the cycle against Texas Rangers, going 4-for-5.
Nov. 3: Ronald Reagan elected president for second term.
1985
April 10: Ripken sprains his left ankle taking a pickoff throw at second base in the third inning against the Rangers but does not come out of the game, No. 444 in the streak. X-rays taken after the game at Greater Baltimore Medical Center are negative. He doesn't play the next day in the club's exhibition game at the U.S. Naval Academy but was in the lineup the next night.
May 18: Tank's Prospect, ridden by Jockey Pat Day, wins 110th Preakness Stakes.
Sept. 1: Divers find Titanic wreck after 73 years.
1986
Jan. 28: Space shuttle Challenger explodes, killing seven astronauts.
June 24: University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias, the first draft pick of the NBA's Boston Celtics, dies of a cocaine overdose.
Oct. 5: Ripken's consecutive-games streak reaches 765 by the end of the season, putting him 10th on the all-time list.
1987
Jan. 4: Amtrak accident in Chase, east of Baltimore, kills 16 passengers.
July 11: Bill Ripken is promoted from Triple-A Rochester, joining brother Cal and manager and father Cal Sr.
Sept. 14: Ripken's innings streak, believed to be a record, is ended at 8,243 in Toronto by his father, who sends in Ron Washington at shortstop in the bottom of the eighth of an 18-3 Blue Jays win.
Sept. 25: Ripken is ejected for the first time in his career, for arguing a called strike in the first inning against the Yankees.
Oct. 19: Black Monday stock market plunge sends Dow Jones industrials down 508 points.
Nov. 3: Kurt L. Schmoke elected mayor of Baltimore.
1988
April 29: Ripken gets four hits, including a double and homer, as the Orioles end a major-league-record 0-21 start.
June 25: Ripken plays in his 1,000th consecutive game, at Fenway Park in Boston.
Nov. 8: Vice President George Bush elected president.
Dec. 1: Terrorist bomb causes Pan Am crash in Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270.
1989
April 3: Ripken hits three-run homer off Roger Clemens on Opening Day, helping the Orioles rally for a 5-4 victory over Boston.
June 3-4: Chinese Army troops crush pro-democracy protest in Tiananmen Square.
Aug. 7: Ripken is ejected in the first inning against the Twins for arguing a called strike.
Oct. 17: Earthquake in San Francisco Bay area kills 59.
1990
Feb. 11: Nelson Mandela freed from prison in South Africa after 27 years.
April 14: Ripken begins his major-league-record streak of 95 errorless games and 431 errorless chances by a shortstop.
June 12: Ripken moves past Everett Scott into second place on list of consecutive games played with No. 1,308.
1991
Feb. 23: U.S and allied forces launch 100-hour ground war to liberate Kuwait.
July 8-9: Ripken wins the home run contest at SkyDome the day before the All-Star Game, then homers in the game the next night and is named the game's Most Valuable Player.
Oct. 6: Ripken is the last major-league batter in Memorial Stadium history, grounding into a double play.
Nov. 19: Ripken is named American League Most Valuable Player for the second time. He celebrates at a news conference at the unfinished Camden Yards ballpark, drinking milk from a champagne glass.
Dec. 25: U.S.S.R. officially disbanded.
1992
April 30: "The Cosby Show," which had been TV's No. 1 series in the mid-1980s, airs its finale.
May 17: Baltimore's Light Rail opens for regular service.
Sept. 11: Ripken twists his right ankle running out a double against the Brewers but does not come out of the game, No. 1,713 during the streak. Manny Alexander is called up from Triple-A Rochester as a precaution, but Ripken doesn't miss as much as an inning for another week.
Aug. 24: Ripken signs a five-year, $30.5 million deal with the Orioles on his 32nd birthday, ending 333 days of negotiations.
Nov. 3: Bill Clinton elected president.
1993
March 13: The Blizzard of '93 hits Maryland and rest of the Eastern Seaboard.
June 6: Playing in game No. 1,790 of the streak, Ripken twists his right knee when his spikes get caught in the infield grass during a bench-clearing brawl with the Mariners. Though he doesn't come out of the game, the knee is swollen and painful the next day. Still, he doesn't even miss infield practice. Ripken later says: "It was the closest I've come to not playing."
June 9: Ripken collides with Athletics catcher Terry Steinbach at home plate. Steinbach leaves the game with headaches and dizziness. The streak goes on.
July 15: Ripken hits his 278th home run as a shortstop, passing Ernie Banks for first all-time at that position.
1994
Aug. 1: Ripken plays in his 2,000th consecutive game, at Minnesota.
Dec. 7: Maryland election officials declare Parris Glendening the winner over Ellen Sauerbrey by a margin of 5,993 votes in the November gubernatorial election.
1995
April 19: An Oklahoma City federal building is bombed, killing 168 people.
Sept. 5-6: Ripken ties and breaks Lou Gehrig's major-league record by playing in his 2,130th and 2,131st consecutive games. In the record-tying and record-setting games, he goes a combined 5-for-9 with two home runs.
Oct. 8: Pope John Paul II visits Baltimore.
1996
Jan. 6: Blizzard cripples much of East Coast.
March 29: Baltimore's NFL team is named the Ravens.
May 28: Ripken drives in eight runs against the Mariners.
June 14: Ripken breaks Japanese star Sachio Kinugasa's world record by playing in his 2,216th consecutive game.
July 15: Ripken starts at third base for the first time since June 30, 1982, ending his streak of 2,216 consecutive starts at shortstop.
July 18: TWA Flight 800 crashes in Atlantic Ocean, killing all 230 aboard.
July 27: Bomb explodes in Centennial Park during Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Sept. 29: The day after the Orioles clinch a wild-card berth, Ripken leaves after the second inning to rest for the playoffs.
Nov. 5: President Clinton is re-elected.
1997
Feb. 26: Teen country star LeAnn Rimes is named Best New Artist and wins Best Female Country Vocal Performance Grammy for "Blue."
July 20: Ripken is ejected in the second inning against the White Sox for arguing a strikeout call.
Aug. 2: In game No. 2,423 of the streak, Ripken considers leaving in the bottom of the first at Oakland with lower-back pain after the Athletics' Scott Brosius leads off the inning with a single on a swinging roller. Ripken remains in the game, singles in his next at-bat and homers the next day as his back condition steadily improves.
Aug. 31: Diana, Princess of Wales, is killed in car crash in Paris.
1998
Jan. 21: President Clinton denies having sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky.
March 23: "Titanic" named best picture and wins 11 Oscars, a tie with 1959's "Ben-Hur" for the most Oscars won.
Aug. 21: A seventh-inning single to right is Ripken's 2,849th career hit, breaking Brooks Robinson's Orioles career record.
Sept. 19: Last game of Ripken's streak.
Sept. 20: Ripken decides to take himself out of the lineup, ending his consecutive-games streak at 2,632.
Pub Date: 9/27/98