Fourteen people died as a result of the shootings on 30 January 1972

Bloody Sunday timeline: from 1972 killings to charges against soldier

• Sunday 30 January 1972: Parachute Regiment soldiers opened fire on demonstrators at a civil rights march in the Bogside area of Derry. Thirteen men were killed; a 14th man subsequently died of his wounds.

• 1 February 1972: The UK prime minister, Edward Heath, appointed the lord chief justice, Lord Widgery, to produce a report on the events of what became known as Bloody Sunday.

• 22 February 1972: The Official IRA detonated a car bomb at barracks in Aldershot where the Parachute Regiment was headquartered. Seven people, mostly female cleaners, were killed.

• 18 April 1972: Widgery produced his report, called Report of the Tribunal Appointed to Inquire Into the Events on Sunday, 30th January 1972. Many dismissed it as a “whitewash”.

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• 1 January 1973: Col Derek Wilford, who commanded Parachute Regiment soldiers on Bloody Sunday, was awarded the OBE in the new year honours.

• 29 January 1998: The Labour prime minister, Tony Blair, announced there would be a new inquiry into Bloody Sunday following pressure from victims’ relatives .

• 3 April 1998: The Saville inquiry into Bloody Sunday opened. It lasted 12 years and cost hundreds of millions of pounds.

• 15 June 2010: Final report of the Saville inquiry was published. It stated: “We found no instances where it appeared to us that soldiers either were or might have been justified in firing.” The Conservative prime minister, David Cameron, apologised on behalf of the government, describing soldiers’ actions as “both unjustified and unjustifiable”.

• July 2012: The Police Service of Northern Ireland launched a murder investigation into the deaths of the Bloody Sunday victims. It involved 30 detectives.

• December 2016: Files passed to the Public Prosecution Service of Northern Ireland which considered whether or not to prosecute any Parachute Regiment soldiers for their actions.

• 14 March 2019: Prosecutors announced their decision on bringing charges.