Timeline of Charles Taylor in Liberia

_ Jan. 28, 1948: Charles Taylor born in Arthington, Liberia, into a family descended from freed American slaves.

_ 1970s: Lives in the Boston area, earning an economics degree from Bentley College in Waltham, Mass.

_ 1983: Flees Liberia after being accused of embezzling nearly $1 million. He is later detained in the United States on a Liberian arrest warrant.

_ 1985: Escapes from a Massachusetts jail.

_ December 1989: Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia rebel group launches armed uprising in Liberia, sparking a conflict that leaves 200,000 dead.

_ 1991-2002: Sierra Leone civil war.

_ Aug. 2, 1997: Taylor elected Liberia's president following years of civil war.

_ March 3, 2003: Special Court for Sierra Leone indicts Taylor on 17 charges including, murder, rape, sexual slavery, conscripting child soldiers and terrorizing civilians for his support of rebels during Sierra Leone civil war.

_ Aug. 11, 2003: Taylor resigns and flees into exile in Nigeria.

_ March 2006: Taylor disappears after Nigeria agrees, under international pressure, that he should stand trial.

_ March 29, 2006: Taylor taken into custody as he tries to cross border from Nigeria to Cameroon. He is transferred to the special court in Sierra Leone and later sent to the U.N. detention block in The Hague, Netherlands.

_ June 4, 2007: Trial begin without Taylor, who boycotts its opening. The court orders trial to continue.