2006 - Assange co-founds Wikileaks - a web-based "dead-letterbox" for would-be leakers

April 2010 - Wikileaks releases footage of a US helicopter firing on civilians in Iraq

August 2010 - Sweden issues arrest warrant for Assange on two sexual assault allegations - which Assange says are "without basis"

22 October 2010 - Iraq War Logs released 391,000 documents from the US military

December 2010 - Assange is arrested in London and bailed soon after. He begins appealing the international arrest warrant

May 2012 - UK Supreme Court rules he should be extradited to Sweden to face questioning over the allegations

June 2012 - Assange enters the Ecuadorean embassy in London

August 2012 - Assange is granted asylum and, while addressing reporters from the balcony of the embassy, demands that the US drop its "witch-hunt"

February 2016 - A UN panel rules that Assange has been "arbitrarily detained" by UK and Swedish authorities and calls for his freedom

May 2017 - Sweden's director of public prosecutions says sexual assault probe is being dropped

October 2018 - Assange is given house rules by Ecuadorean embassy, the same month it is revealed he is launching legal action against the government of Ecuador for violating his "fundamental rights and freedoms"

April 2019 - The Metropolitan Police enter the embassy - with the Ecuadorean government's permission - and detain Assange for "failing to surrender to the court" over a warrant issued in 2012

May 2019 - Assange is sentenced to 50 weeks in Belmarsh Prison for breaching his bail conditions

May 2019 - Sweden reopens sexual assault investigation and the US reveals its charges against Assange. He begins fighting extradition in the UK courts

November 2019 - Swedish prosecutors discontinue their rape investigation

January 2021 - A British judge rejects a US request to extradite Assange because of the impact on his mental health. In December, the US win their bid to overturn the ruling

June 2022 - The UK government orders the extradition of Assange to the US, but his case continues to be tied up in appeals

February 2024 - Assange's lawyers launch a final legal bid to stop his extradition at the High Court

May 2024 - High Court rules Assange can bring a new appeal against extradition to the US

24 June 2024 - Assange is released from prison on bail and boards a flight to a US territory in the Pacific to formalise a plea deal