1946    Creation of the ''Central Intelligence Group'', forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.

1947    Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947 into United States law creating the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Department of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the United States National Security Council.

1953    CIA director Allen Dulles launches the mind-control program MKULTRA.

1961    Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of CIA financed and trained Cuban refugees lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.

1968    The CIA's Phoenix Program is officially established.

1972    Watergate Scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman are taped talking about using the Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation's investigation into the Watergate break-ins.

1977    The Central Intelligence Agency releases documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind control experiments.

1981    Iran-Contra Affair: Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), giving the Central Intelligence Agency the authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

1994    Former Central Intelligence Agency counter-intelligence officer and analyst Aldrich Ames pleads guilty to giving U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union and later Russia.

1996    The body of former CIA director William Colby is found washed up on a riverbank in southern Maryland, eight days after he disappeared.