JANUARY

GRAHAM Ellison is given a four-month, later reduced to three, prison sentence after ignoring a court order to tidy his Alvaston garden. Ellison eluded arrest for nearly two months, during which time Derby City Council made the decision to clear his garden.

Darren Talter, 15, and his Royal Marine brother Shaun Wills, 19, die in a road accident near Ashbourne, while two Derbyshire police sergeants, David Redfern and Mark Jennison, are jailed after being caught taking and dealing drugs in an undercover sting.

Rams legendary former manager Brian Clough is said to be doing extremely well after undergoing a life-saving liver transplant.

Teenage girls Charlene Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare are shot dead in Birmingham following a dispute at a party, while television presenter Matthew Kelly is arrested by detectives investigating allegations of sexual abuse against young boys. He is later cleared.

FEBRUARY

REVOLUTIONARY speed cameras, aiming to produce high-quality images to identify speeding drivers, are installed across Derbyshire. David Wadsworth, of Ripley, is jailed for six years after admitting the manslaughter of 16-year-old Luke Richmond, who suffered a fractured skull and died when he was knocked down and kicked in the head. Wadsworth then attacked Benjamin Meakin while out on licence in 2007 and was jailed for three and a half years.

Derbyshire sailor Ellen MacArthur's attempt to break the record for sailing around the world non-stop ends when her boat's mast snaps.

America is stunned by the loss of seven astronauts in the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster and weapons inspector Hans Blix says Iraq was not fully co-operating with a United Nations resolution on disarmament. Dolly the sheep, the first animal to be cloned, is put down.

MARCH

ON March 20, the conflict in Iraq finally begins.

A missile attack is directed at Saddam Hussein and his family. Iraq launches several Scud missiles in reply but none are believed to have hit their target. The next day, the US launches its "shock and awe" bombing campaign with a massive attack on Baghdad.

Derby-born television reporter Terry Lloyd dies when his vehicle is hit by gunfire near Basra. Father-of-two Flight Lieutenant Kevin Main, 35, dies when his Tornado plane is downed by a US Patriot missile over Iraq.

Prince Charles turns up the ball at Ashbourne's Shrovetide football game, while the Telegraph's Save Our Shelter campaign reaches its target of £100,000 for the RSPCA.

APRIL

THE Audit Commission condemns former Erewash Borough Council leader Cyril Stevens for abusing his position.

Trevor Godber is handed a life sentence for the murder of his father Colin, 51, at their home in Merchant Street, Spondon, after plunging an eight-inch knife into his chest.

The Derby Evening Telegraph launches its Home Comforts appeal, urging readers to donate items to be sent to British soldiers serving in Iraq.

MAY

DERBY County manager John Gregory is sacked, seven weeks after being suspended. George Burley is appointed a month later. Meanwhile, former Rams boss Brian Clough is granted honorary freedom of the city.

Nine years of Labour rule at Derby City Council comes to an end. Following the local elections, the Liberal Democrats, Tories and one Independent form an alliance.

Derby-born Omar Khan Sharif tries to carry out a suicide bomb attack on an Israeli bar. His bomb fails but he is found dead on a beach two weeks later.

Tony Blair helps launch London's bid for the 2012 Olympic Games, while Nadine Milroy-Sloan is convicted of perverting the course of justice by falsely accusing Neil and Christine Hamilton of rape. She was later sent to prison for three years.

JUNE

DERBYSHIRE police's mobile speed camera van is caught on film illegally parked in Station Road, Mickleover. Motorists also catch the vehicle doing the same thing on the A6 in Duffield. The police admit it was a fair cop.

Derby County chairman Lionel Pickering announces he is willing to sell the club for £5m, while the family of Corporal Russell Aston, 30, of Newhall, pay tribute to the father-of-one after he is one of six Royal Military Police officers killed in Iraq.

The trial of Denby Poultry Products Ltd begins. Nottingham Crown court hears how condemned poultry was sold into the human food chain from a rat-infested pet food factory in Derby Road.

JULY

AIRLINE BMI Baby causes an outcry after threatening to rename East Midlands Airport as Nottingham (EMA) because it claims foreigners do not know where the East Midlands is. The Derby Evening Telegraph decides to ask locals in Paris where they thought Nottingham was and none of them knew.

Matthew Pickering, son of Derby County chairman Lionel, is jailed for three months for a string of offences, including drink-driving and assaulting a police officer, while retired vicar Robin Everett, of Alvaston, is sentenced to five years in prison for sexually abusing two schoolgirls. He failed in an Appeal Court bid in 2006 to clear his name.

Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, are killed by American soldiers in Iraq, while UK Government defence adviser David Kelly is found dead.

AUGUST

DERBY has its hottest day for 13 years when temperatures reach a sizzling 33.1C (92F). Nationally, the temperature reaches 38.1C (100.6F) in Kent.

It is revealed train-maker Bombardier could shut down operations in Derby if it fails to get a £200m order. The firm eventually did lose out on the Trans Pennine Express contract. But the Derby Evening Telegraph launches its Hands Off Our Trains campaign urging Bombardier to stay and the company decides to close its works on Pride Park but retain its Litchurch Lane site.

Another Telegraph campaign secures enough cash for the Derbyshire Children's Holiday Centre in Skegness to stay open.

A massive power blackout causes commuter chaos in New York and other major America and Canadian cities, while a £1.7bn compensation deal for the Lockerbie disaster victims' families is agreed with Libya.

SEPTEMBER

THE Government announces it is to stop sending asylum seekers to Derby as the National Asylum Support Service calls a temporary halt to its dispersal scheme after Derby City Council lobbied it to stop sending people to the city. It restarted in January, 2006.

Serious questions are raised about security at East Midlands Airport after Telegraph reporter Daniel Bentley manages to breach several airport checks in an experiment, while ex-Rams legend Roy McFarland digs up a time capsule buried at the Baseball Ground in 1992. The contents go on display at the Derby County museum at Pride Park.

Osama Bin Laden appears in a video on the eve of the second anniversary of the September 11 attacks and former boxing champion Frank Bruno is escorted to hospital after being sectioned under the Mental Health Act. He is allowed home after receiving treatment.

OCTOBER

DERBY County is sold to a barrister, a financier and a marketing and communications entrepreneur. John Sleightholme becomes the Rams' new chairman and Jeremy Keith and Steve Harding get places on the board. In November, the Derby Evening Telegraph speculates that a firm called ABC Corporation could be the mystery backers.

Residents in the Boulton area of Alvaston celebrate after work starts on ripping out the last of the controversial speed humps in their area, bringing an end to a three-year battle with Derby City Council, while fears emerge that up to 100 jobs could be lost at ClientLogic, in Great Northern Road, the Derby call centre for National Rail Enquires.

David Blaine emerges from his 44-day stunt without food in a Perspex box suspended next to the River Thames, while Iain Duncan Smith is dumped as Tory leader.

NOVEMBER

THE Queen visits the city to officially open Derby Cathedral's £1.2m visitor centre. Hundreds turn out to welcome the monarch but, due to an audio link-up failure between the cathedral and the centre, those in the cathedral miss the Queen's speech.

Heritage experts discover Derby City Council had secretly decided to sell four publicly-owned items of antique furniture – worth more than £20,000 – at auction. The decision is reversed due to public pressure.

Two surviving Derby County players from the team's 1946 FA Cup triumph, Reg Harrison and Jim Bullions, are invited back into the directors' box after being relegated to the stands by the club, which wanted to sell their box seats to generate revenue.

England win the Rugby World Cup by beating Australia by 20 points to 17 in Sydney, a warrant is issued for the arrest of pop superstar Michael Jackson over multiple child molestation allegations and Michael Howard becomes the new Tory leader.

DECEMBER

IRAQI refugees in Derby celebrate following news that Saddam Hussein has been captured by US forces.

Prince Charles visits the county for the second time in 2003 and tours Royal Crown Derby, in Osmaston Road, and Derby College's Pride Parkway campus, while the £10.6m Alvaston bypass, which joins Raynesway and the A50 Derby southern bypass, opens after being 50 years in the making.

Derby businesses complain of a loss of trade following the first of three Saturday walkouts by bus drivers for Trent Barton, following a dispute over pay. The action by the Transport and General Workers' Union member affects 27 busy routes in Derbyshire.

Rocker Ozzy Osbourne has emergency surgery after a quad bike accident.