1978 - 1982 The Unabomber: A Chronology Before the Bombings 1978-1982 1985-1987 1988-1995 1996-1997 The Trial Special Report: A Question of Competency Trial Transcripts The Unabomber: A Chronology Documents from the Case Reports from Court TV & American Lawyer Media The Players The Bombings The Counts Against Kaczynski The Unabomber's Manifesto Building the Unabombs May 25, 1978 A package is found in a parking lot at the University of Illinois in Chicago with a return address of Professor Buckley Crist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. The addressee is E.J. Smith, a professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, who later acknowledges no knowledge of the parcel. As becomes evident to FBI investigators over time, the Unabomber often addresses packages in a manner so that the return addressee is the ultimate recipient. May 26, 1978 Crist is suspicious of the package when it is returned to him and contacts the Department of Public Safety at Northwestern. Public safety officer Terry Marker opens the package, which explodes. Marker sustains minor injuries in the first incident eventually attributed to the Unabomber. June 23, 1978 Kaczynski moves back to the Chicago area and gets a job as a press operator at Foam Cutting Engineers in the Chicago suburb of Addison, Ill. His brother, David, works there as Kaczynski's supervisor. July, 1978 A woman named Ellen Tarmichael, a supervisor at the plant, has dinner with Kaczynski. Two weeks later, they go apple picking and bake an apple pie at his parent's house. During this occasion, she tells Kaczynski that she does not "wish to see him further on a social basis," as she informs several newspapers almost two decades later. Later, suggestive limericks about Tarmichael begin to appear around the plant. August 23, 1978 Kaczynski's brother David fires him from his job at Foam Cutting Enterprises because of the lewd notes Ted leaves around the office. The two brothers get into an argument and Ted is called into Tarmichael's office. Tarmichael explains that David had the authority to fire Ted, and that she supports David's decision. May 9, 1979 A bomb hidden in a Phillies brand cigar box is left on a table in the Technical Building on the Northwestern University campus. The device is left untouched until mid-afternoon, when John G. Harris, a graduate student in the Civil Engineering department, opens the box. The resulting explosion causes him cuts and burns, but not serious injury. November 14, 1979 A parcel with a bomb hidden inside is mailed from a post office in the Chicago area. November 15, 1979 It is routed by the Post Office to Washington, D.C. and put aboard an American Airlines Boeing 727. The bomb, equipped with a barometer to measure altitude, explodes as the plane reaches 34,500 feet. Smoke fills the cabin and the pilots are forced to make an emergency landing at Dulles Airport near Washington. Eighteen passengers are treated on the scene for smoke inhalation and the baggage compartment is damaged by fire resulting from the explosion. The FBI later attributes the bomb to the Unabomber. June 9, 1980 A package arrives at the home of United Airlines president Percy Wood. Several days earlier, Wood had received a letter from an Enoch W. Fischer at his home in Lake Forest, Ill, which said that Fischer would send to Wood, in a separate package, a book of great importance to all business executives. June 10, 1980 Wood opens the package, which contains a copy of the book "Ice Brothers," by Sloan Wilson. When Wood opens the book, a device inside explodes, causing Wood serious cuts on his face and thigh. The initials "FC" are discovered etched into a metal remnant of the bomb, the first time those initials are used. October 8, 1981 A student at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City discovers a large wrapped package in a hallway and brings it to the attention of a staff member, who calls the campus police. The campus police chief believes it is a bomb and brings in a bomb squad, which diffuses the device with a small explosive charge. The device is later found to contain a small metal tag with "FC" stamped on it. May, 1982 Kaczynski files a document in Montana removing his brother David as co-owner of the 1.4 acre plot on which his cabin is built. May 5, 1982 A package is mailed to Professor Patrick C. Fischer at Pennsylvania State University. A secretary at Penn State forwards the package to Vanderbilt University, where Fischer has been teaching for over two years -- though at the time he is in Puerto Rico. Janet Smith, Fischer's secretary, is seriously injured on her face and arms when she opens the package, which explodes. The package was mailed from Provo, Utah with a return address of LeRoy Bearnson, an electrical engineering professor at Brigham Young university, using cancelled stamps, presumably so that the package would be returned to the sender. Bearnson later tells investigators he had no knowledge of the package, and they believe the package may have been intended for him. A small metal tag inside the bomb contains the initials "FC." July 2, 1982 UC-Berkeley engineering professor Diogenes J. Angelakos sees what he believes is a piece of engineering equipment on the floor of a faculty lounge in Cory Hall at Berkeley, where the mathematics and computer science departments are located. Upon lifting the object's handle, it explodes and causes him serious injuries to his hand, arm and face. 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