TUESDAY, JAN. 12 4:53 p.m.: A killer quake of magnitude 7.0 strikes 10 miles west of Port-au-Prince, causing untold deaths, collapsing thousands of buildings, severing roads, putting the city's main seaport out of operation, crippling the city. A tsunami warning is issued, later canceled.
By nightfall: fires dot a landscape darkened by the loss of electricity; local hospitals are damaged, overwhelmed; the injured can be heard screaming in the rubble; residents claw at it with bare hands trying to rescue those trapped.
In Port-au-Prince: The U.N. peacekeepers' headquarters collapses, with hundreds missing; Red Cross, Salvation Army and other aid organizations spend their first hours looking for their own workers.
About 10 p.m.: One final commercial flight from Port-au-Prince arrives at Miami International Airport, with relieved but worried
passengers.
Top storiesHaiti quake new blow for country mired in miseryHaiti quake happened along fault line, experts sayMultimediaGraphic | Previous disasters in Haiti Video | Miami prays for Haiti 
Video | Haitian-American author describes personal grief
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WEDNESDAY, JAN. 13Daybreak: Rescuers claw frantically through rubble; find Port-au-Prince's Catholic Archbishop, Joseph Serge Miot, dead in his office at the cathedral. President René Préval, who escaped collapse of Haitian National Palace, describes stepping over bodies of those killed.
President Barack Obama pledges aid for ``this especially cruel and incomprehensible'' tragedy. He temporarily suspends deporting undocumented Haitians. Thirty-one nations, including China, have aid on its way to Haiti -- including body bags.
U.N. peacekeepers crisscross Port-au-Prince's main Toussaint L'Overture International Airport runway in armored vehicles to keep order.
A team of doctors from the University of Miami/Jackson Hospital arrives to treat injured, part of U.S.-Haiti Operation Medishare; it flies back a few hours later carrying several Haitian residents gravely injured by the quake.
As darkness falls in Port-au-Prince, shantytowns spring up in every open space, including the manicured lawn of the crumbled Haitian National Palace; homeless erect cloth and cardboard shanties on the soccer field at Stadium Sylvio Cator; people afraid of buildings sleep in cars, on open ground.
Top storiesHaiti president describes 'unimaginable' catastrophe; thousands feared deadPresident Obama's remarks about Haitian earthquakeSupplies begin to arrive in Haiti as aftershocks shake stunned nationHaiti's president thankful for incoming aid16 UN personnel killed, 150 missing in HaitiDamage to Haiti's main port complicates rescueMultimediaVideo | Aerial shots of the devastation in Haiti Video | UM medical team helps in Haiti Video | World Editor talks about Miami Herald Staff news from Haiti Photos | Haiti after the earthquake 
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THURSDAY, JAN. 14Daybreak: Aftershocks taper off; government workers start digging mass graves for the estimated 50,000 dead. Morgues overflow, remain without electricity; hospital parking lots are covered with bodies. Hot weather starts decomposition; the stench of death pervades the city. Hospitals run short of bandages, antibiotics, syringes. Crying relatives pick through bodies seeking loved-ones.
President Obama vows Haiti won't be abandoned, promises $100 million in aid.
Later in the day, aid pours in from the world; ships and helicopters from the U.S., search-and-rescue experts from Iceland, doctors and food from France, phone repair help from Ireland, Army engineers from Israel.
U.S. search and rescue teams,with cadaver dogs, arrive to comb the wreckage, rescue some, recover others' bodies.
Top storiesSouth Floridians looking for loved ones in Haiti hope for the best U.S. halts deportations of undocumented Haitians due to earthquakeFloridians rush to donate money, supplies to HaitiWhite House pressed to OK immigration change for Haitians MultimediaAudio | South Florida radio show on Haiti 
Audio | Expert on Caribbean geology explains seismic activity Video | Haitians deal with death and devastation Video | Haitian in Miami gets good news Video | Haiti's first lady explains effects on government Video | Catholic charities explains efforts to help children Photos | Aerial shots of the destruction ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
FRIDAY, JAN. 15Beside the wrecked National Cathedral, volunteers and priests held a makeshift funeral for Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot, killed in the building's collapse.
Offshore, the U.S. Navy's USS Carl Vinson arrived, began helicopter delivery of water to the city's airport, stood ready to airlift in food and other supplies. Nine hundred paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division arrived to guard the supplies.
Aid workers traveling by motorcycle over quake-damaged roads reported outlying Haitian villages in desperate need of help.
The neighboring Dominican Republic braced in expectation of thousands of refugees.
Top storiesWestern Haiti towns ruined, isolated; Dominicans brace for refugeesSouth Floridians respond with vigor to aid HaitiAdvocates plan to airlift Haitian orphans to South FloridaObama administration grants TPS to HaitiansMultimediaVideo | Jacmel: Haitian port city forgotten Video | U.S. citizens land at Homestead base Video | Fire and devastation in the streets Video | A mad scramble for food in Cite Soleil Photos | Miracles from under the rubble Photos | Survivors wait for medical attention Photos | South Florida moves to help
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SATURDAY, JAN. 16The first wave of Haitian children arrived at Jackson Memorial Hospital's trauma center, with many more expected in the coming weeks.
Mobile • The Dominican Institute of Communications says mobile phone service in Haiti was restored after it established a satellite uplink in Port-au-Prince.
The U.N. World Food Program plans to feed 28,000 people in in Port-au-Prince in a single day. The organization is also sending 20.5 metric tons of ready-to-eat meals from El Salvador.
Former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, begin to oversee fundraising efforts on behalf of Haiti. In an address at the White House, the two men urged the American public to visit their new website: www.clintonbushhaitifund.org to donate and research relief agencies.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrives in Port-au-Prince and meets with President René Préval and others on how best to help the recovery effort and Haitian government.
Top storiesAid by air reaches pockets of Port-au-Prince as U.S. troops amassAfter losing all else, Haitians are keeping the faithBillions did little in past -- now a chance to get it rightKrome detention center readies for Haitian influxEpicenter town of Carrefour sees little aid, little hopeShattered and forgotten, the port city of Jacmel waitsMultimediaVideo | Haitians plea for help Photos | Looting and chaos in Haiti Photos | U.S. politicians push aid efforts ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SUNDAY, JAN. 17Search-and-rescue teams pull three people from the rubble of the Caribbean Market, including a 7-year-old girl, a 35-year-old man, and a 15-year-old American citizen. International search-and-rescue teams report saving a total of 62 people.
Around noon: Shooting in a Petionville slum forces a convoy carrying enough food for 40,000 people to turn around at noon, as soon as it left the United Nations base near the Port-au-Prince airport. The U.N.'s World Food Program distributes the high-protein biscuits and other goods at Place Boyer, a Petionville park-turned-tent-city.
Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive confirmed the death toll so far at 70,000, though that figure included only bodies collected in Port-au-Prince and Leogane. 65,000 are just in the city of Port-au-Prince.
The U.S. State Department confirmed that 16 Americans died in the Haiti quake. An estimated 2,000 Americans have been evacuated.
U.N Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visits the collapsed agency headquarters in Port-au-Prince. Ban says the U.N. is feeding 40,000 people, and expects that figure to rise to 2 million within a month.
Top storiesNo chance to give the dead a proper burialU.S. citizens scramble onto evacuation flightsWindow closing for survivors; relief efforts improvingHaitian family stays together amid fear, confusionMultimediaPhotos | Haitians in Miami keep the faith ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MONDAY, JAN. 18European nations pledge more than a half-billion dollars in emergency and long-term aid, on top of at least $100 million promised earlier by the U.S.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asks the Security Council to augment peacekeeping contingent by 1,500 policemen and 2,000 troops, increasing the 9,000-strong UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti.
Former President and now U.N. Special Envoy to Haiti Bill Clinton visits Port-au-Prince, tours hospitals, disaster areas, declares aid will begin moving faster.
Media and humanitarian group report incidents of looting and gunfire, but U.S. military says there is no widespread disorder.
Vice President Joe Biden says during a prayer breakfast in South Florida that the United States is firmly committed over the long term to helping Haiti recover.
World Food Program announces an agreement with the U.S.-run airport in Port-au-Prince to give humanitarian flights priority in landing.
Dutch adoption agencies and the government sent a chartered plane to Haiti on Monday to airlift out more than 100 children who were in the process of being adopted by parents in the Netherlands before the earthquake.
International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva reports that people of Port-au-Prince are struggling to survive, as access to shelter, sanitation, water, food and medical care remains extremely limited.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says U.S. forces in Haiti can defend themselves and innocent Haitians or foreigners if lawlessness boils over. More than 12,000 U.S. forces are expected to be in the region by end of day.
Top storiesScene moves Bill Clinton to tearsDesperation grows as little aid distribution seenAlonzo Mourning, Dwyane Wade raise more than $800,000 for HaitiNapolitano: Humanitarian parole granted to certain Haitian orphansCellphone networks in Haiti are making quick comebackA nation loses part of its heart with demise of the biggest thinkersPassenger planes leaving Haiti with empty seatsText donations have lag timeSchools, shelters prepare for influxSouth Florida lawmaker creates video recordMultimediaGraphic | Setting up a field hospitalPhotos | More aid arrives, chaos continues Video | What organizations should you donate to Video | Bill Clinton cries during interview ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
TUESDAY, JAN. 19Top storyMore U.S. troops arrive to deliver aid, securityMultimediaVideo | Lawlessness in Port-au-Prince
