THE YEAR IN BUSINESS : Timeline

Here are some of the business highlights of 1991:

- Jan. 1--Rhode Island’s governor closes 45 banks and credit unions after the private fund that insures their deposits collapsed.

- Jan. 6--The Bank of Boston, the largest bank in New England, collapses amid a severe regional recession.

- Jan. 11--Gov. Pete Wilson declares a state of emergency in 17 freeze-ravaged California counties. Crop damage estimates from the two-week freeze approach $1 billion.

- Jan. 16--U.S. and allied forces launch a gigantic round-the-clock air assault on Iraq in hopes of driving Saddam Hussein’s troops out of Kuwait.

- Jan. 18--Dow soars 114 points and oil prices fall more than $2 on expectations of a short shooting war.

- Jan. 25--Columbia Savings & Loan is seized by government regulators in a collapse that will ultimately cost taxpayers more than $1.2 billion.

- Jan. 25--USAir, a victim of high fuel costs and a bruising West Coast fare war, says it will drop most of its flights within California to stem huge losses.

- Feb. 5--Bush Administration proposes a massive overhaul of the nation’s banking system, the most significant financial reforms put forth since the Great Depression.

- Feb. 11--Carter Hawley Hale, the biggest department store chain in the West, files for Chapter 11 protection. It was a victim of heavy debt and a poor retail climate.

- Feb. 28--Iraq accepts President Bush’s terms for cease-fire talks.

- March 8--Great Western Bank acquires the remains of Lincoln Savings & Loan for $12.1 million. Lincoln’s failure will cost $2.6 billion, making it the costliest S&L; collapse ever.

- March 13--Buffums, a 16-store Southern California department store chain that opened as a dry goods shop 87 years ago, announces it will close its doors forever in May.

- March 18--Texas investor Harold C. Simmons gives up a costly and bitter two-year battle for control of Lockheed Corp.

- March 29--Creditors file bakruptcy liquidation proceedings against MGM/UA Communications, setting up a months-long struggle with Giancarlo Parretti for control of the company

- April 5--Alpha Beta sells 145 stores for $248 million to Yucaipa Cos., the owner of Viva and Boys markets.

- April 11--State regulators seize junk-bond laden Executive Life Insurance Co., the largest failure of a life insurer in U.S. history. Nearly 400,000 policyholders are affected.

- April 12--IBM reports its first-ever quarterly loss, a $1.73-billion deficit it blames on the recession, the Persian Gulf War and a new method of accounting for retiree benefits.

- April 12--McDonnell Douglas says it will lay off 1,000 workers at its Douglas Aircraft unit in Long Beach, one of a series of major job cuts during the year.

- April 17--Companies controlled by Jim Henson’s heirs sue Walt Disney Co. to stop it from allegedly using Muppets at Disney theme parks without a license. Also, the Dow Jones industrial average closes for the first time above the psychologically important 3,000 level.

- April 18--Thrift regulators charge Neil Bush, the President’s son, with conflicts of interest as a director of a defunct Colorado thrift. He later settles by paying a fine.

- April 23--The Air Force picks a team led by Lockheed to produce a top-of-the-line fighter jet. The program, worth a potential $72 billion, is the most lucrative in aerospace history.

- April 30--Brandon Tartikoff resigns as chairman of NBC Entertainment to head Paramount Pictures.

- April 30--With the economy stalled, the Fed lowers the discount rate to 5.5% from 6%. Banks lower the prime.

- May 6--In the biggest takeover of the year, AT&T; says it will buy NCR Corp. in a deal valued at about $7.4 billion. The deal will give AT&T; another shot at the computer business.

- May 15--State insurance regulators seize First Capital Life Insurance Co. after creditors force its parent company into bankruptcy.

- May 30--In a move to expand its Columbia Pictures Entertainment complex, Sony Corp. quietly signs an agreement to buy the historic Culver Studios for $70 million to $75 million.

- June 11--The General Accounting Office says the Resolution Trust Corp. is in such disarray that its books cannot be audited.

- June 18--The Bush Administration dramatically raises its estimate for the cost of the savings and loan bailout to $160 billion.

-June 23--In the wake of a widening scandal, the president of Nomura Securities Co., Japan’s largest, quits. Nomura and another Japanese securities house were found to have covered losses for big investors. The scandal has rocked Japan’s “Big Four” securities companies.

- June 26--NCNB Corp. offers to acquire C&S; Sovran Corp. in a $3.9-billion deal, creating a regional superbank.

- June 27--America West Airlines, pinched by higher fuel costs and the national recession, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It joins Continental, Pan Am and Midway on the list of airlines that have landed in bankruptcy court since the Gulf crisis began.

- July 3--Archrivals IBM Corp. and Apple Computer agree to exchange technologies in a landmark agreement that could change the balance of power in the computer industry.

- July 4--Bank of Credit & Commerce International is seized by regulators in seven countries after an audit discovered that the bank was hiding massive losses.

- July 5--California’s unemployment hits 8.2%, the high for the year and evidence that the state’s recession is deeper than many thought. The U.S. jobless rate hits a yearly high of 7%.

- July 8--In a blow to Southern California’s economy, McDonnell Douglas said it will make major components of the C-17 cargo jet in St. Louis instead of Long Beach.

- July 15--Chemical Banking Corp. and Manufacturers Hanover Corp. announce plans to merge, creating one of the nation’s largest banks. Also, New Jersey regulators take control of Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Co., which was crippled by bad real estate investments. It is the largest life insurer ever to fail, surpassing the earlier collapse of Executive Life.

- July 19--General Motors Corp. says it will close its Van Nuys assembly plant--the last major car factory in Southern California--next summer, eliminating up to 2,600 jobs.

- July 29--BCCI was fined $200 million by the Federal Reserve and indicted by a county grand jury in New York in “the largest bank fraud in world financial history.”

- Aug. 12--BankAmerica Corp. and Security Pacific Corp., in the biggest merger in U.S. banking history, announce a $4-billion combination. The union could save $1 billion annually and result in more than 10,000 job cuts.

- Aug. 12--Delta Air Lines won a bidding contest for most of troubled Pan American World Airways’ assets by offering $1.39 billion. Delta thus gets a much bigger share of the U.S-European market, as well as Pan Am’s Northeast shuttle.

- Aug. 14--Salomon Bros., the nation’s leading trader of government securities, admits that its wrongdoing in Treasury auctions was much wider than previously disclosed. Its top executives resign, and investor Warren Buffett takes charge.

- Aug. 26--Mexico’s dominant brokerage buys the country’s largest bank in a $3.3-billion cash deal that paves the way for increased competition in California’s Latino market.

- Sept. 5--Coca-Cola Co., in perhaps the latest salvo of a long war against Pepsico, signs Hollywood superagent Michael Ovitz and his Creative Artists Agency as media consultants.

- Sept. 11--The Air Force discloses that Northrop’s B-2 Stealth bomber failed recent tests of its ability to operate undetected by enemy radar--bad news for the controversial $64.8-billion program.

- Sept. 12--First Interstate Bancorp, beset by the soft California economy and a slide in real estate, says it is cutting its work force by 3,500.

- Oct. 9--A federal judge approves a controversial settlement whereby Exxon Corp. will pay $1.1 billion to resolve criminal and civil cases arising from the Exxon Valdez disaster off the coast of Alaska, the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

- Oct. 14--The Soviet Union asks Western governments to commit as much as $20 billion to assuring the stability of the ruble--about double what it sought as recently as July.

- Oct. 15--Two U.S. banking giants, Citicorp and Security Pacific, report massive losses of $885 million and $508 million, respectively, in their third quarters.

- Oct. 22--General Motors Corp. says it lost $1.1 billion and Ford Motor Co. says it lost $574 million, both in the third quarter. Big Three losses for the year are expected to top $5 billion.

- Oct. 2--In the latest Japanese foray into U.S. show business, Toshiba Corp. and C. Itoh & Co. say they’ll pay $1 billion for 12.5% of Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. studio and its cable TV operations, including HBO.

- Nov. 5--British publishing mogul Robert Maxwell is found dead off the Canary Islands. His empire collapses in a heap of stunning disclosures about huge family debts and criminal probes into his use of pension funds.

- Nov. 19--McDonnell Douglas announces a preliminary agreement to sell 40% of its commercial aircraft business to investors in Taiwan and create a new international aerospace company.

- Nov. 26--IBM announces a plan to decentralize authority and create dozens of semi-independent operations in an effort to shake up the computer giant’s bureaucracy.

- Nov. 27--Congress approves $70 billion in funding for the bank insurance fund and $25 billion more for the thrift bailout. But it rejects bank reforms pushed by Bush.

- Dec. 4--Former thrift owner Charles H. Keating Jr. is convicted of state securities fraud and faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Also, Pan Am, once a legend around the world, goes out of business after failing to raise badly needed cash to keep flying.

- Dec. 11--Orion Pictures Corp., despite a history of classy films culminating in “Dances With Wolves,” files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

- Dec. 12--Charles H. Keating Jr. and four others are indicted on 77 federal counts of fraud in racketeering. Also, Disney choose Anaheim over Long Beach in announcing plans for a $3-billion, 470-acre resort surrounding Disneyland.

- Dec. 18--GM announces a massive retrenchment that will eliminate 74,000 jobs and close 21 plants by 1995.

- Dec. 19--BCCI pleads guilty to federal racketeering charges and agrees to forfeit a record $550 million to help shore up Independence Bank in Encino and two other banks.

- Dec. 20--The Fed slashes the discount rate a full percentage point to 3.5%, the lowest level in 27 years. Banks quickly lower their prime to 6.5%

- Dec. 26--A state court judge approves the $3.55 billion sale of Executive Life to a French investor group, setting into motion the largest rehabilitation of a U.S. life insurer.

- Dec. 27--The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials climbs 18.56 points to 3,101.52, an all-time closing high.