Howard, John Winston

1939 - He was born on the 26th of July.

1957 - He studied law at the University of Sydney. Howard joined the Liberal Party.

 
1963 - Acted as campaign manager in his local seat of Parkes for the successful candidacy of Tom Hughes who defeated the 20 year Labor incumbent.

1967 - With the support of party power brokers, John Carrick and Eric Willis, he was endorsed as candidate for the marginal suburban state seat of Drummoyne, held by the ALP. 

1971 - He married fellow Liberal Party member Janette Parker, with whom he now has three children.

1974 - He was elected to the House of Representatives as the Member of Parliament for the Sydney suburban seat of Bennelong at the Federal election in May. 

1975 - Howard was appointed Minister for Business and Consumer Affairs.

1977 - In December, he was appointed Treasurer at the age of 38, for which appointment he became known as "the boy Treasurer". 

1977-1983 - He previously served as Treasurer in Malcolm Fraser's government.

         - In April, he was elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party.

         - He nearly resigned in protest at Fraser's big-spending pre election budget. As Federal Treasurer, John Howard presided over a home lending rate peaking at 13.5% on the 8th of April. 

1985-1989 - He was the leader of the Liberal Party.

         - He tried to remove Howard from the Deputy Leadership position, expecting him to challenge for the Leadership.
 

1994 -  He was again passed over for the leadership, which went to Alexander Downer. Downer failed to dent Keating's dominance.

1995 - He resigned as leader. The party's Deputy Leader, Peter Costello was unwilling to step up to the leadership, and Howard became leader for the second time.

1996 - Howard became the 25th Prime Minister of Australia after defeating incumbent Paul Keating in the election of the 2nd of March.

1998-2004 - Howard's government was subsequently re-elected duting these years.

2001 - Howard ordered the ship be boarded by Australian special forces and spoke strongly of the need for Australia to "decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come".

         - On the 29th of August, he called an election for 9th of October. The Labor opposition, after the resignation of Simon Crean and the election of Mark Latham as leader in December, had established a large lead in some opinion polls by March, and the government entered the election campaign behind Labor in all the published national opinion polls. 

2005 - Howard's government gained control of both houses of the Parliament since July.

2005 - Announced fundamental and wide-ranging changes to industrial relations laws which have since been the subject of a national campaign by community groups, the union movement and state Labor governments.

         - John Howard and his cabinet began discussions of new anti-terror legislation which includes modification to the Crimes Act 1914.

         - On the 22nd of  February, he announced that Australia would increase its military commitment to Iraq with an additional 450 troops, telling John Laws, "I’m openly saying that some small adjustment at the margin might happen".

         - On the 2nd of  November, he held a press conference to announce that he had received information from police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) that indicated an imminent terrorist attack in Australia. 

2006 - On 6the of  June, he announced a task force to conduct the "Uranium Mining, Processing, and Nuclear Energy Review", the terms of reference of which include "the extent to which nuclear energy will make a contribution to the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions". 

         - He announced on the 10th of  December the formation of a Prime Ministerial Task Group on Emissions Trading.

2007 - Citing strong party room support for him as leader, stated that he would remain to contest.