TIMELINE: A chronology

Aug. 30, 1926: Daryl Francis Gates is born in Glendale.

1949: Gates joins LAPD.

1950: Graduates from USC with bachelor’s degree in public administration.

1950: Chosen to be the driver for then-Police Chief William H. Parker.

1955: Promoted to sergeant.

1959: Promoted to lieutenant.

1963: Promoted to captain.

1965: Promoted to commander.

1968: Promoted to deputy chief.

1969: Promoted to assistant chief.

1969: LAPD’s new SWAT unit, developed by Gates, is tested in shootout with Black Panthers.

1978: Gates is chosen over two other finalists to be Los Angeles’ 49th police chief, succeeding Edward M. Davis.

1983: Gates initiates the Drugs Abuse Resistance Education program, sending LAPD officers into classrooms to educate students about drugs and resisting peer pressure.

1983: Gates introduces a new communications system that shortens police response time.

Sept. 5, 1990: Gates tells a U.S. Senate committee that casual drug users “ought to be taken out and shot.”

March 3, 1991: LAPD officers from the Foothill Division are caught on videotape beating motorist Rodney King.

March 5, 1991: Gates apologizes for the beating of King, but calls it an aberration, saying, “One incident doesn’t indict an entire department.”

April 4, 1991: The Police Commission places Gates on paid 60-day leave. Gates appeals and returns to work after a five-day forced leave of absence.

April 29, 1992: Los Angeles erupts in rioting after the four officers in the King beating are acquitted; 53 people are killed and the city suffers an estimated $1-billion in damage due to the unrest.

May 8, 1992: Responding to criticism of the LAPD’s handling of the riots, Gates denied the force was ill-prepared and blamed a field lieutenant for mistakes at the riot’s flash point, at Florence and Normandie avenues.

June 28, 1992: Gates retires as police chief.

-- Research by Times librarian Kent Coloma