September 2004 Kafeel Ahmed arrives in Cambridge to begin his PhD studies at the Anglia Ruskin University. He moved to the city after completing a degree course at Queen's University, Belfast.

Bilal Abdulla also arrives in Cambridge to study, after completing his degree at the University of Baghdad. Abdulla had first arrived in Cambridge in 1999 on his British passport but returned to Iraq in 2000 after failing to get on to a degree course. He also took a holiday in England in 2002.

January 2005 Mohammad Asha arrives in the UK for a short research posting at Addenbrooke's hospital, Cambridge. During this time he is introduced to Abdulla and Ahmed at the city's Abu Bakr Mosque. Dr Asha had previously completed a similar posting at Addenbrooke's in June 2003.

August 7, 2006 Abdulla starts work at the Inverclyde Royal Hospital in Greenock.

December 5 Abdulla's contract at Inverclyde expires and he later begins work as a junior house officer in the medical department at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley.

February 26 In a Yahoo! Internet messenger conversation Ahmed tells Abdulla experiments' will get under way. This is the first recorded message that work on the bomb plot has begun.

April 17 Abdulla views three-bedroom semi-detached house in 6 Neuk Crescent, Houston, near Glasgow, which will become the bomb factory'.

April 28 Abdulla moves in to Neuk Crescent, eight miles away from Paisley's Royal Alexandra Hospital, where he is working.

May 5 Kafeel Ahmed arrives at Heathrow from Bangalore, India, and is collected by Abdulla. The pair then rent a Peugeot.

May 6 Abdulla and Ahmed leave Stoke and head north to the bomb factory in Scotland and return the hire car to Glasgow airport

May 19/20 Abdulla and Ahmed travel down to London in a rented Vauxhall Astra for a reconnaissance'. They stay at the Newham Hotel in Forest Gate, east London. They are caught on CCTV studying intended targets' in the City late at night. Credit card records locate them in the West End near the Haymarket. They also go on a tourist bus trip of prominent landmarks including Buckingham Palace, 10 Downing Street and Parliament.

May 24 Abdulla orders first electrical components for the detonators via the internet from RS Components.

May 25 Electrical equipment worth £77.08 bought from Maplin in Glasgow.

May 29 Ahmed drives to Keighley, West Yorks, and buys tools and a large quantity of nails and screws from B&Q. In Beeston, Leeds, he buys the first patio gas canister and a propane regulator.

June 2 Ahmed buys the G-reg green Mercedes, later used outside Tiger Tiger, for £700 from David Addison in Warrington, Cheshire. Ahmed used the name Dr Gupta. The car had been advertised on the AutoTrader website.

June 3 Ahmed and Abdulla pay £600 for an F-reg white BMW 525 from John Watson in Glasgow. Ahmed again used the name Dr Gupta. The car was later found abandoned in the car park of the Royal Alexandra hospital by police.

June 5 Ahmed, using the name Parveen Kumar, buys a silver K-reg Mercedes 200E from Thomas Comerford in Broad Green, Liverpool. But after paying £650 cash, Ahmed discovers Mr Comerford is a policeman and within 25 minutes dumps the car in the John Lennon Airport long stay car park, where it is retrieved by police.

June 6 Ahmed travels alone to Sheffield to buy a blue K-reg Mercedes, also advertised in AutoTrader, for £900. This was the second bomb car left in Cockspur Street, central London, driven by Ahmed.

June 8 More electrical components bought from the Maplin store in Glasgow

June 13 Abdulla and Ahmed rent a silver Vauxhall Vectra from Glasgow airport on June 13. It is never returned and found abandoned on July 1.

June 15 Abdulla makes a further internet order from RS Components. Two 25-litre water carriers, oil and batteries bought by Ahmed from Halfords in Hermiston Gate Retail Park in Edinburgh. He travels to Halfords in Dunfermline to buy more containers, oil and batteries

June 16 Ahmed and Abdulla buy metallic green Jeep Cherokee, L-registered, from Albert Harrison, in Hartlepool, after the car was advertised in AutoTrader. Ahmed pays £600 in cash and used the name Rao Kameshwara, from Failsworth, Manchester on the registration documents. Both men had driven down in the Vauxhall Vectra.

Third internet order for electrical equipment from RS Components.

June 18 At Halfords in Preston, Ahmed buys two more 10-litre water carriers, mineral oil and putty. Then at B&Q in Blackburn, Lancashire, he buys another patio gas canister and regulator.

June 19 Ahmed buys aprons, wire rope, tubing and a blow lamp from B&Q, Glasgow.

June 20 Abdulla takes two week holiday from Royal Alexandra Hospital.

June 22 Abdulla and Ahmed visit B&Q in Delph Lane, Warrington, after meeting at the train station. They enter and leave the shop separately, but buy a patio gas canister. They travel to B&Q in Preston and buy another canister. Again they enter and leave the shop separately.

June 23 Both men visit Halfords at the Kingsinch Retail Park in Glasgow to buy a 20-litre jerry can and vehicle bulbs. That night they go to Tesco in Kilbirnie to buy duvets and pillows, later used to cover the gas canisters in the back of the bomb cars. Abdulla is caught on CCTV at a Shell garage in Paisley and a BP in Pollockshaws Road, Glasgow, filling jerry cans with petrol.

June 24 The two men travel south from Scotland to the Snipe Retail Park in Ashton Under Lyme to buy a further gas canister and a 20-litre petrol can.

June 25 Abdulla fills a jerry can with petrol at a Tesco in Helensburgh.

June 26 Bombers buy tyre sealant, a car charger for a satellite navigation system and a can of motor oil from Halfords in Rutherglen Road in Glasgow.

June 27 Final purchases for the bomb vehicles. Butane canisters, a volt metre and tyre weld are bought from Halfords in Clydebank, walkie talkie radios bought from Maplin in Great Western Road, Glasgow, propane gas cylinders, gloves bought from B&Q in Strathkelvin Retail Park, Glasgow. Later batteries, oil and adhesive bought from Halfords in Bishopsbriggs, plus butane gas and blu-tack. Motor oil and duvets bought from Asda on same retail park and in Argos two umbrellas paid for. Abdulla books a hotel room for June 29 in the Newham Hotel, Waltham Cross, east London

June 28 Abdulla and Ahmed prepare the two Mercedes bomb cars in the garage of 6 Neuk Crescent. They had called and tested the mobile phones used in the home made detonators in the early hours of the morning.

In afternoon both cars begin the journey to London. They stop at the Annandale Water service station on the M74 to buy umbrellas at 4.20pm. Just after 7pm they stop at the Knutsford Services on the M6 to eat. At 10.57pm there is a brief stop at the Toddington Services on the M1.

June 29 At 12.08am the cars stop at the London Gateway Services at junction three of the M1 and both are filled up with petrol.

At 12.39am the cars are caught on traffic cameras at Marble Arch. They drive along Weymouth Street, Portland Place, Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus, Coventry Street, Panton Street, Haymarket, Pall Mall and Piccadilly Circus for a second time.

At 1.18am Ahmed parks the blue Mercedes in a bus stop in Cockspur Street.

At 1.24am Abdulla parks in Haymarket outside the main entrance to Tiger Tiger. He spends several minutes sat inside the car pouring petrol in the footwells and across the seats and arming the electrical circuit. He is caught on the nightclub's CCTV running across the Haymarket. Both had umbrellas to conceal their faces from cameras.

At 1.40am club staff and paramedics at the scene on an unconnected matter raise the alarm.

At 1.43am the first emergency services staff arrive.

At 1.53am and 1.56am calls are made to the telephone detonators in both Mercedes, but the bombs do not explode.

At 2.05am The two bombers meet up in Edgware Road after taking separate rickshaw rides.

At 2.30am a traffic warden issues a ticket for the blue Mercedes parked in a bus stop in Cockspur Street.

At 2.46am the men walk in to the reception area of the Newham Hotel in Romford Road, Forest Gate.

At 3.14am the car is towed to the Park Lane car pound and is later traced by police where it is disarmed by expert officers.

At 3.30am the bomb is finally made safe

June 30 At 1.34am Ahmed uploads his will and suicide note in to the drafts folder of his Google Mail account.

At 5.29am Abdulla sends an email to his consultant at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, purporting to be from his sister, in which he claims to have been severely injured while on holiday and is unlikely to walk again.

Just after 8am the two men, having packed the Jeep with fuel and shrapnel, drive north from Houston to Loch Lomond where they remain until 2pm. During this time Ahmed sends a text message to his brother explaining how to access the Google Mail documents.

At 3.04pm CCTV cameras at Glasgow airport capture the Jeep arriving.

At 3.13pm Ahmed smashes the Jeep in to the entrance doors of the terminal, impaling the front of the vehicle on a metal post. He tries desperately to free the Jeep but is unable to do so. Abdulla throws petrol bombs from the passenger seats, before Ahmed douses himself in petrol and sets it alight. CCTV from inside the terminal shows hundreds of holidaymakers and passengers running for safety, many abandoning luggage to escape.

The two men are tackled by members of the public and police officers. They are eventually detained and arrested.

At 9pm Asha is arrested as he drives with his wife and son north up the M6. He has been under surveillance since around 11am and has been watched nervously dumping documents linking him to Abdulla in bins at two supermarkets in Stoke. Police begin searches at his home.

July 1 Police begin searches of Neuk Crescent. There is so much material it takes 14 days to complete.

July 6 Abdulla is charged with conspiracy to cause explosions

July 14 Sabeel Ahmed is charged having information which he knew or believed may be of material assistance in preventing the commission by another of an act of terrorism'.

July 19 Asha is charged with conspiracy to cause explosions.

August 2 Ahmed dies from severe burns. He has been in the Royal Alexandra hospital and the Glasgow Royal Infirmary for five weeks.

April 11, 2008 Sabeel Ahmed, 26, Ahmed's brother and a doctor working in Liverpool, was jailed for 18 months at the Old Bailey for failing to disclose information. He followed his brother's instructions and refused to inform police about what he knew of the plot, details of which had been emailed to him. He has since been released and deported to India.

December 16, 2008 Abdulla is convicted of conspiracy to cause murder and explosions. His co-defendant Dr Asha is cleared.