JANUARY

US company General Sports and Entertainment announces its £50m takeover of Derby County. The club's new board includes Rams chairman Andy Appleby, club president and chief executive Tom Glick and chairman of football Adam Pearson.

Rolls-Royce plans to ask its Derby workers to take voluntary redundancy after announcing it is to axe 2,300 jobs, while Derby City Council decide to close Mickleover care home Bramblebrook House. The decision sparks a fierce two-year battle.

The burnt body of 18-year-old Katie Sisson is found in a disused outbuilding opposite her home in West Hallam, while a man is injured after a shot is fired into the window of a house in Flamstead Street, Allenton. It is later revealed to be a gang-related incident.

Five men are found guilty of Britain's biggest cash robbery after stealing £53m from the Securitas depot in Kent in 2006, while Sir Edmund Hillary, one of the first men to climb Mount Everest, dies aged 88.

FEBRUARY

THE biggest earthquake to hit Britain in 24 years is felt in Derbyshire. Around 370 calls are made to Derbyshire police in one hour as the tremor, which measured 5.2 on the Richter scale, damages chimneys, walls and lampposts.

Derby Playhouse is forced to close its doors following the final performance of Christmas show Treasure Island as the Arts Council decides not to restore the theatre's funding, while a Derby mother becomes the first in the city to be sent to prison for allowing her child to skip lessons.

Brothers Mark and Steven Forbes are convicted of manslaughter after killing pensioner Bernard Gilbert following an argument over a supermarket car park space, while Derbyshire Cricket Club confirms its commitment to the County Ground by investing heavily in improvements.

Steve Wright, of Ipswich, is found guilty of murdering five prostitutes.

MARCH

DERBY County become the first team in Premier League history to be relegated by March following a 2-2 draw against Fulham at Pride Park. They finish the season with a record low of 11 points. Earlier that month, captain Robbie Savage gave money to charity because he did not believe he had earned his wages.

The walls and roof of Derby's Hippodrome theatre come crashing down as builders attempt to make the former bingo hall safe.

The Environment Agency warns up to £50m is needed to replace failing flood defences in and around Derby, while it is revealed hundreds of Polish people who came to the city looking for work are returning home.

Nine-year-old Shannon Matthews is found alive after being missing for 24 days in a flat about a mile from her home in West Yorkshire, while the battle over MPs' expenses is taken to High Court as the House of Commons attempts to avoid disclosure.

APRIL

DERBY City Council secures an injunction to stop Christopher Anthony, the owner of the Hippodrome, from demolishing more of the building. The matter was settled after the council took it to London's High Court.

Controversial city councillor Wendy Harbon moves to Blackpool after being evicted from her Derby home for failing to pay her rent, while the Arts Council suspends a demand for £1m of funding at Derby Playhouse to be returned.

Rival gangs are believed by police to be responsible for a spate of shootings in Derby since the previous December, while swimmers Ross Davenport and Dean Milwain confirm their places at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing during the British Championships.

The possibility of murder is ruled out in the inquest into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, while an Austrian woman missing since 1984 tells police she was held prisoner in a cellar by her father, with whom she had seven children. Dad Josef Fritzl is locked up for life in 2009.

MAY

THE Liberal Democrats celebrate becoming the largest party on Derby City Council during the local elections. The party takes control of Oakwood, Mackworth, Arboretum, Blagreaves and Abbey, while the Tories make gains in Chaddesden and Chellaston.

The Derby Telegraph discovers a "postcode lottery" meaning more than 1,100 children in Derby are waiting up to three years for dental treatment, while at the same time Derbyshire youngsters are being treated right away, while one-man crimewave Steve Fisher is given five years in jail after breaking into 154 homes, raiding 13 businesses, two car thefts and three other thefts.

Non-league Burton Albion miss their chance to reach the Football League for the first time after a 2-1 play-off defeat to Cambridge United.

Tory MP Boris Johnson is crowned Mayor of London and China suspends the Olympic torch relay a week after an earthquake, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, hits the country.

JUNE

Tax rebel Josephine Rooney's debt of £1,476.17 to Derby City Council is written off because the authority says it could not recover the cash. The pensioner had already been sent to prison twice for failing to pay and had bailiffs visit her home, only to find nothing of value.

Derby City Council leader Hilary Jones says she wants police to investigate allegations of corruption within the authority, while it is decided a by-election will be held in Derby's Darley ward after the position of stay-away councillor Wendy Harbon was formally declared vacant.

A deal is struck with the Arts Council to stop Derby Playhouse going into liquidation.

Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton backs her Democrat rival Barack Obama to be the American leader after he defeated her in the votes for the presidential nomination, while thousands of Spanish lorry drivers begin an indefinite strike over the soaring price of diesel.

JULY

DONINGTON Park is announced as the circuit to host the Formula One British Grand Prix in 2010. A 10-year deal is agreed between Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd, which leases the circuit, and Formula One Management Ltd, the company owned by Formula One rights holder Bernie Ecclestone. A £100m investment plan is revealed by the circuit.

Former Chellaston beauty queen and current Miss Derby Laura Coleman is crowned Miss England when she beats off 20 other stunners to win at a glitzy ceremony in London, while model and television star Katie Price, known as Jordan, signs copies of her book Angel Uncovered at Derby's Westfield centre. She draws a crowd of more than 1,000 fans.

John and Anne Darwin are each jailed for more than six years carrying out a £250,000 fraud by faking his death in a canoeing accident.

AUGUST

VILLAGERS plead with the British National Party not to hold the Red, White and Blue Festival in Denby again after activists clash with riot police during this year's event. More than 30 protesters are arrested and several people injured.

One man dies and more than 30 people are injured when a bus collides with a car and careers into a garden in Alton, near the Alton Towers theme park, while 58-year-old window cleaner Bill Wilson dies after falling from a roof during his weekly round in Ilkeston.

A three-year Derby Telegraph campaign to overturn a £110,000 bill asking Allenton residents to pay for sewer repairs is successful. Derby County lose their opening game against Doncaster Rovers 1-0 on their return to the Championship.

The Olympic Games are held in Beijing and Great Britain emerges with 47 medals, including 19 gold, while war between Georgia and Russia starts on August 7. The conflict lasts five days.

SEPTEMBER:

THE worst flooding to hit Derbyshire in 30 years strikes the county, with Ashbourne, Matlock, Egginton and Mickleover most affected. Derbyshire Fire Service received more than 60 reports of flooding as homes are damaged and vehicles left stranded.

Derby's arts centre Quad is opened as part of the city's three-day Feste celebrations, while 17-year-old Shaun Dykes dies after falling from the top of Derby's Westfield Centre. Police criticise people who were calling out and encouraging him to jump.

Father-of-two Alan Rowley, of Eastwood, scoops £2m on the Lottery only 18 months after being made redundant, while Paul Jewell and Derby County end their 28-match run without a win by beating Sheffield United 2-1.

Lehman Brothers, one of the world's largest investment banks, files for bankruptcy protection as the world's banking crisis continues, while scientists turn on the Large Hadron Collider to re-create the conditions of the big bang.

OCTOBER

ASHBOURNE teenagers Andrew Sellers, 18, and Liam Connell, 16, are killed in a head-on collision on the A52 near Kirk Langley. The crash also claims the life of 12-year-old Alice Greenwood, of West Yorkshire, while her mum Juliette, 45, and sister Clara, six, are also hurt.

The Football Association confirms it is investigating a Derby County and Norwich City game amid claims of "extraordinary betting patterns in the Asian market". Both clubs are cleared in December.

An inquest into the death of 19-year-old student Halimah Ahmed records a verdict of unlawful killing, after it emerges she was suffocated by failed asylum seeker Khalid Peshawan, who then killed himself. The Street Pastors scheme, a team of voluntary churchgoers who keep Derby revellers safe at night, is launched.

Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross are suspended from the BBC after leaving messages on the answering machine of actor Andrew Sachs.

NOVEMBER

A MURDER inquiry begins after 15-year-old Kadeem Blackwood is shot dead at Caxton Street Recreation Ground while walking with a group of friends. It is later revealed his death is gang-related and three are jailed in connection with the case.

Former Murray Park Community School pupil Luke Campbell, 20, is stabbed to death and found in the garden of a house in Bournemouth, while the Derby Telegraph launches its Credit Crunch: Derby Bites Back campaign to help city business struggling in the recession. It receives the backing of Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Ben Stevens, 21, tells the Derby Telegraph how he spent a year sleeping in a bin behind a supermarket after family problems led to him becoming homeless. Derbyshire Housing Aid had since given him a room in a shared house.

Americans living and working in Derbyshire speak of their joy when Barack Obama is voted in as the 44th President of the United States.

DECEMBER

PAUL Jewell quits as manager of Derby County 13 months after replacing Billy Davies. He failed to win any of his 24 league games when the club was in the Premier League and the Rams sit in 18th place in the Championship when he leaves.

A Derby teacher is suspended after making his pupils do press-ups for being late for class at Derby Moor Community Sports College, while staff at Burnaston's Toyota plant begin a four-week lay-off to help the struggling company save money.

Derbyshire-born television star Tom Chambers wins BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, while Derbyshire construction firm Tarmac Topfloor reveals it has axed 94 jobs but pledges another 200 are safe.

Around 815 Woolworths stores begin their closing-down sales after the company called in the administrators, while an open verdict is returned in the inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, who was shot by firearms officers in Stockwell Tube station.