| 4/18/1944 | Robert Philip Hanssen is born in Chicago. |
| 1957 | Hanssen meets Jack Hoschouer; they soon become best friends |
| 1962 | Hanssen graduates from Taft High School and attends Knox College. |
| 1966 | Hanssen graduates from Knox College with a degree in chemistry. He enrolls in Northwestern University's dental school. |
| 8/10/1968 | Hanssen marries Bernadette "Bonnie" Wauck. Soon after, he drops out of dental school and switches his major to accounting. |
| 1971 | Hanssen receives an MBA in Accounting and Information Systems. He gets a job as a junior accountant at Touche Ross, an accounting firm in Chicago. |
| 3/27/1972 | Jane Hanssen, Robert and Bonnie's first child, is born. |
| July 1972 | Hanssen's father, a Chicago cop, retires to Florida with his wife. |
| Oct. 1972 | Hanssen joins the Chicago Police Department as a police officer/forensic accountant in the C-5 Unit (internal affairs). |
| 2/20/1974 | Sue Hanssen, Robert and Bonnie's second child, is born |
| 1/12/1976 | Hanssen, now 32, joins the FBI, GS-10 level. He is assigned to the Indianapolis field office and receives initial top-secret security clearance. |
| May 1976 | Hanssen is assigned to the Gary, Indiana FBI office, Residence Agency Division. |
| 4/12/1977 | Jack Hanssen, first son -- and third child -- of Robert and Bonnie, is born. |
| 8/2/1978 | Hanssen transfers to the New York City FBI Field Office -- WCC Division (white collar crime) -- on accounting matters in Criminal Division. |
| March 1979 | Hanssen is detailed to the field office's Intelligence Division to help establish the FBI's automated counterintelligence database. |
| 1979 | Hanssen is assigned to a squad that monitors the GRU (Soviet military intelligence). He begins spying by sending an anonymous letter to a GRU officer working at the United Nations. The letter offers the name of a GRU officer who was recruited by the FBI in New York. |
| 1979-80 | Hanssen writes another anonymous letter to solicit the GRU but is caught by Bonnie. He confesses to her, and he and Bonnie visit Father Robert P. Bucciarelli, an Opus Dei priest. Hanssen continues his relationship with the GRU for a short period of time. |
| 4/23/1980 | Mark Hanssen, Robert and Bonnie's fourth child, is born. |
| 6/23/1980 | Hanssen signs a nondisclosure agreement for "Sensitive Compartmented Information" (SCI), granting him access to top-secret documents. |
| 1/12/1981 | Hanssen is transferred to FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., as a Supervisory Special Agent in the Intelligence Division. |
| 7/14/1983 | Greg Hanssen, Robert and Bonnie's fifth child, is born. |
| August 1983 | Hanssen is assigned to the Soviet Analytical Unit, CI-3A, in Washington. |
