These are the major events that happened in the life of Tupac:

September 1968: Tupac's mother, Afeni Shakur, joins the New York Black Panthers party at age 22.

April 1969: Afeni is arrested and charged with conspiracy to bomb several public areas in New York City. While out on bail, Afeni courts two men: Legs, a local hood, and Billy, a member of the party.

February 1971: Afeni pregnant with Tupac, has her bail revoked; she's sent to the Women's House of Detention in Greenwich Village.

June 16, 1971: Shortly after his mom acquitted on bombing charges, Tupac Amaru Shakur is born in New York. Tupac Amaru are Inca words meaning "shining serpent". Shakur is Arabic for "thankful to God".

1975-1983: Tupac's family shuttles between the Bronx and Harlem, at times living in shelters.

1983: Legs comes to live with the Shakur family; Tupac "claims" him as his father. Legs introduces Afeni to crack

September 1983: Afeni enrolls 12 year old Tupac in the 127th Street Ensemble, a Harlem theater group. In his first performance, Tupac plays Travis in A Raisin in the Sun.

June 1986: Shakur's family moves to Baltimore. As MC New York, Tupac writes his first rap.

September 1986: Tupac enrolls at the Baltimore School for the Arts, where he studies ballet and acting.

June 1988: Tupac and his family move to Marin City, California. "Leaving that school affected me so much," he said later. "I see that as the point where I got off track." Shortly after, Tupac moves in with a neighbor and begins selling drugs.

August 1988: Mutulu Shakur, Tupac's stepfather, is sentenced to 60 years in prison for his involvement in a 1981 armorded-car robbery.

1990: Tupac joins Digital Underground as a roadie/dancer/rapper. While on tour, he learns that his mother is using crack.

January 3, 1991: Tupac makes his recording debut on DU's This is an E.P. Release.

November 12, 1991: 2Pacalypse Now is released. Shortly thereafter, Thpac files a $10 million lawsuit against the Oakland poice for alleged brutality following an arrest for jaywalking.

January 17, 1992: Tupac makes his big-screen debut in Ernest Dickerson's Juice, earning praise for his portrayal of Bishop. He is perhaps best remembered for the line "I am crazy. And I don't give a fuck!"

April 11, 1992: Ronald ray Howard, 19, shoots a Texas trooper. Howard's attornay claims 2Pacalypse Now, which was in his client's tapedeck, incited him to kill.

August 22, 1992: Tupac has an altercation with old acquaintances in Marin City. A six year old bystander is shot in the head. Tupac's half brother, Maurice Harding, is arrested but released due to lack of evidence.

September 22, 1992: Tupac is denounced by Vice President Dan Quale, who says 2Pacalypse Now "has no place in our society."

February 1, 1993: Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. is released and eventually goes platinum.

March 13, 1993: Tupac has a fight with a limo driver in Hollywood who accuses him of using drugs in the car. Tupac's arrested, but the charges are dropped.

April 5, 1993: Tupac is arrested in Lansing, Michigan for taking a swing at a local rapper with a baseball bat during a concert. He's sentenced to 10 days in jail.

July 23, 1993: John Singleton's Poetic Justice, starring Tupac and Janet Jackson, is released. Before filming began, Jackson demanded Shakur take an HIV test before she would do any kissing scenes.

October 31, 1993: Tupac is arrested for allegedly shooting two off-duty Atlanta police officers who he says were harassing a black motorist. Charges are eventually dropped.

November 18, 1993: A 19 year old woman, whom Tupac picked up four days earlier in a New York nightclub, is allegedly sodomized and sexually abused by the rapper and three friends.

December 1993: John Singleton is forced by Columbia Pictures to drop the rapper from the cast of his upcoming film, Higher Learning.

March 10, 1994: Tupac is sentenced to 15 days in a Los Angeles jail for punching out director Allen Hughes (Hughes and his brother, Albert, had dropped Tupac from Menace II Society.)

March 23, 1994: Tupac stars as Lucky, a troubled drug dealer in Above the rim. The soundtrack album, featuring the song "Pour out a little liquor,) recorded by Tupac's group, Thug Life, sells two million copies.

September 7, 1994: Two Milwaukee murder a police officer and cite Tupac's "Soulja's Story" as their inspiration.

November 30, 1994: While on trial for sex and weapons charges, Tupac is shot five times and robbed os $40,000 worth of jewelry in the lobby of a Times Square recording studio. Tupac checks himself out of the hospital less than three hours after surgery. The case remains unsolved.

December 1, 1994: Tupac is acquitted of sodomy and weapons charges but is found guilty of sexual abuse.

February 14, 1995: Tupac is sentenced to up to four-and-a-half-years and immediately begins serving his jail time in New York Rikers Island Penitentiary.

April 1, 1995: While he's incarcerated, Tupac's third album, Me Against The World, debuts at No. 1 on billboard's pop chart. Fueled by the single "Dear Mama," the album goes double platinum in seven months.

April 1995: In a VIBE interview from jail, Tupac renounces his "Thug Life" persona and commits himself to positive works. He also implicates Biggie Smalls, Puffy Combs, Andre Harrell, his close friend Stretch, and others in the recording studio ambush.

August 1995: Biggie, Puffy, and Harrell tell VIBE they had no connection to Tupac's shooting.

October 1995: Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight posts $1,4 million bond to release Tupac, who immediately flies to L.A. signs with Death Row, and begins recording All Eyez on Me.

November 30, 1995: Exactly one year after Tupac's shooting. Randy "Stretch" Walker is murdered execution-style in Queens.

February 1996: In VIBE, Tupac suggests he's been sleeping with Biggie's wife Faith Evans. Faith denies the stories.

February 13, 1996: Tupac's Death Row debut, All Eyez on Me -rap's first double CD- is released.

March 29, 1996: Words are exchanged and a gun is pulled when Death Row and Bad Boy employees face off after the Soul Train awards in Los Angeles.

April 25, 1996: All Eyez on Me goes quintuple platinum.

May 1996: Tupac and Snoop releas "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted" In the video, caricatures of Biggie and Puffy are punished for setting up Tupac.

June 4, 1996: Death Row releases Tupac's "Hit 'em up," a brutal diatribe against Biggie, Bad Boy, Mobb Deep and others.

September 4, 1996: Tupac returns to New York for the MTV Music Video Awards and gets into a scuffle.

September 7, 1996: After leaving the Mike Tyson - Bruce Seldon fight in Las Vegas in Suge Knight's car, Shakur is shot four times in the chest by an assailant in a white Cadillac. Knight, who has connections with the bloods, escapes a minor injury. Shakur is rushed to University Medical Center, where he undergoes surgery, including the removal of his right long.

September 11, 1996: An L.A. Crip is shot to death while siting in his car, the first in a series of gangrelated murders. Police begin investigating possible connections to Tupac's shooting.

Friday, September 13, 1996: After six days in critical condition, Tupac Shakur is pronounced dead at 4:03 p.m. His body is later cremated. He was 25.