1889 --Pennsylvania Steel pours first pig iron at Sparrows Point
1916 --Bethlehem Steel buys the plant and announces $50 million expansion
1940-42 --Bethlehem plant and its adjacent shipyard emerge as largest producers of steel and ships for Allied war effort in World War II
1959 --Steel plant reaches peak employment of 30,920 after major expansion launched in 1957
1978 --"L" Blast Furnace built (predecessors took names A-K). It remains one of the largest in the Western Hemisphere
1997 --Bethlehem shipyard sold
2001 --Bethlehem Steel files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, seeks to reorganize
2003 --Financier Wilbur Ross founds International Steel Group and buys Bethlehem in $1.5 billion deal, creating nation's largest steel producer
2005 --Indian-born billionaire Lakshmi N. Mittal merges his growing steel empire with ISG and forms Mittal Steel Co. NV, the largest steelmaker in the world
2006 --Mittal announces a hostile bid for rival Arcelor SA in January, a $33 billion acquisition that would create a global giant
2006 --The Department of Justice files suit in August to block the sale for anti-trust reasons unless Mittal sells Arcelor's Canadian company Dofasco Inc. But that sale is blocked by a Dutch trust that controls it. Mittal later offers to sell a Weirton, W.Va., facility instead.
2007 --The Justice Department tells Mittal to sell Sparrows Point to maintain competition in the tin-plated steel market in the United States