Albert Arnold "Al" Gore born March 31 in Washington DC.
Gore enrols at Harvard. Bored with his English major, he discovers a passion for politics and later graduates with honours in 1969. He also becomes interested in the topic of global warming after taking a course with Professor Roger Revelle, one of the first scientists to measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Gore quits law school in March 1976 to run for the House of Representatives. He wins a Congress seat and is then re-elected three times, in 1978, 1980, and 1982.
Gore holds first congressional hearings on the climate change, and co-sponsors hearings on toxic waste and global warming.
Gore successfully runs for a seat in the United States Senate, where he serves as a senator for Tennessee.
Gore runs for president, but fails to obtain the Democratic nomination. While spending time with his son, who is recovering from a near-fatal car accident, Gore begins to write a book on environmental conservation.
Bill Clinton chooses Gore to be his running mate for the 1992 United States presidential election.
Gore's book, Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit, is published.
After a successful election campaign, Gore is inaugurated as the 45th vice-president of the United States.
As vice-president, he pushes for the implementation of a carbon tax to modify incentives to reduce fossil fuel consumption, which is partially implemented.
On Earth Day, Gore launches the Globe programme, an education and science activity that uses the internet to increase student awareness of their environment.
Clinton and Gore are re-elected for a second term in the 1996 election.
Gore helps broker the Kyoto protocol and pushes for the passage of the treaty, which calls for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. He is opposed by the Senate, which unanimously passes a resolution stating that the US should not be a signatory to any protocol that does not include binding targets and timetables for developing as well as industrialised nations or "would result in serious harm to the economy of the United States".
The refusal to sign is symbolic, as the protocol is non-binding unless it is ratified by the United States.
Gore symbolically signs the Kyoto protocol.
After two terms as vice-president, Gore runs for president, losing controversial election to George Bush. He wins popular vote but loses electoral vote.
Gore announces he will not stand as presidential candidate in 2004 elections. He criticises Bush for the war in Iraq.
Gore returns his focus to the problem of climate change. He edits and adapts a slideshow he had compiled years earlier, and begins to tour it as a multimedia presentation around the US and worldwide.
Gore launches the company Generation Investment Management, which aims to blend traditional equity research with sustainability issues.
After the premiere of the film The Day After Tomorrow in New York, film producers Laurie David and Lawrence Bender see Gore's slideshow presentation. Inspired, they meet with director Davis Guggenheim about the possibility of making the slideshow into a movie. Through sceptical at first, Guggenheim agrees after seeing the presentation.
An Inconvenient Truth is released in May.
In the film, Gore reviews scientific opinion on climate change, discusses the politics and economics of global warming, and describes the consequences of global climate change if the amount of human-generated greenhouse gases is not significantly reduced. Using Antarctic ice core samples, he examines the annual temperature and CO2 levels for the past 650,000 years.
The film includes many segments intended to silence critics who say that global warming is unproven.
Gore states that he will devote 100% of the profits to a new campaign to further spread the message about global warming. The makers of the film, Paramount, commit 5% of their profits for the film to the Alliance for Climate Protection.
On a bank holiday weekend in the United States, the film grosses an average of $91,447 (£45,097) per theatre - the highest amount for any film released that weekend, and a record for a documentary.
Figures released in June 2007 showed that the film had grossed over $24m(£11.8m) in the US and over $49m (£24.1m) worldwide, making it the fourth highest-grossing documentary in America after Fahrenheit 9/11, March of the Penguins and Sicko.
Later that month, the film is screened at the Cannes film festival.
An Inconvenient Truth receives standing ovations at the Sundance film festival in Utah.
An Inconvenient Truth wins the Oscar for best documentary, and the Sir David Attenborough award for excellence in nature filmmaking.
During global warming awareness month, Gore and Virgin boss Richard Branson announce the Virgin Earth challenge, a competition offering a $25m (£12.3m) prize for the first person or organisation to produce a viable design that results in the removal of atmospheric greenhouse gases.
Gore hosts an event in Cambridge for power players from business, media and sport. He makes his slideshow presentation and teaches them how to make the case for action on climate change in their industries.
Gore testifies about global warming during a hearing held by the Congress committee on energy and commerce.
The Scottish executive announces plans to screen Gore's documentary as part of its geography curriculum.
Gore backs campaign to switch off London's lights for one night in mass carbon saving event.
Gore organises Live Earth, a seven-continent, 24-hour sequence of concerts taking place in London, Sydney, Johannesburg, Tokyo, Shanghai, Hamburg and New York to raise global awareness on climate change.
Al Gore wins Nobel peace prize.
An Inconvenient Truth is criticised by a high court judge who highlights what he says are "nine scientific errors" in the film.
Gore speaks at the UN climate conference in Bali, attacking Bush's position and urging ambitious plans despite the US refusal to compromise, saying that the US position will change when a new administration takes over.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) launches an advertising campaign claiming that Al Gore's Tennessee home uses 20 times the energy of the average American household. A spokeswoman for Mr Gore says that this claim is based on old data, prior to major renovations on his home being completed.
Gore, through the Alliance for Climate Protection, launches a three year, $300 million campaign which aims to mobilise millions of Americans to force politicians to implement aggressive reductions in emissions.
La Scala in Milan announces it has commissioned a full-length opera based on An Inconvenient Truth, to be staged in 2011.
Gore endorses Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential candidate.
Gore calls on the US to produce all its energy from zero-carbon sources within 10 years, saying that the future of human civilisation is at stake.
At the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York, Gore calls for direct action, saying he believes 'we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants'.
Speaking at the UN climate change conference in Poznan, Poland, Gore says people have become too obsessed with celebrities such as Paris Hilton, O J Simpson and Anna Nicole Smith, preventing people from focussing on the crisis of climate change.
Gore testifies to the Senate foreign relations committee about the dangers of global warming, two days after President Obama vows to put the US at the forefront of the battle against climate change.
In an interview with the Guardian, Gore says he believes that following the election of Obama a 'political tipping point' has been reached and there is now enough political momentum to tackle the challenge of global warming.