Berlusconi was born in Milan on September 29, 1936 and raised there in an upper middle-class family. His father Luigi (1908-1989) was a bank employee.
1961: Graduated from the Law Department of Milan University.
1965: Began his business career in construction and real estate.
Mid-1970s: Moved his operations to Italy's information market.
1980s: Owner of a nationwide cable television channel and several leading weeklies and dailies.
1986: Set up a cable television channel in France, but was later forced to leave the French market.
1988: Bought AC Milan, Italy's football champion in the 2003-2004 season.
Owns the Fininvest media group, a leading private corporation in Italy.
January 1994: Announced his decision to enter politics, presenting his own political movement, Forza Italia (Forward Italy).
March 1994: Forward Italy won the parliamentary elections in two separate alliances, one with the post-fascist National Alliance and the other with the Lega Nord (Northern League), getting an absolute majority in the House of Representatives. The government he formed took the oath on May 11, 1994.
December 1994: His government resigned following the withdrawal of the Northern League from the ruling coalition.
1996: Forward Italy lost parliamentary elections to Romano Prodi's centre-left coalition Olive Tree, which subsequently formed a new government.
May 2001: Berlusconi again ran as leader of the centre-right coalition House of Freedoms and won the elections. His government took the oath on June 11, 2001.
May 17, 2006: Left the post following the electoral victory of Romano Prodi's centre-left coalition, The Union, by a very thin majority.
April 13-14, 2008: Berlusconi's new coalition, named The People of Freedom, won the early elections. His government took the oath on May 8, 2008.
Since March 2009: Chairman of the centre-right party The People of Freedom, formed through a merger between Forward Italy and the National Alliance.
Author of several non-fiction books, including a study of Thomas Moore's "Utopia."
Has two children from his first marriage and three from his second marriage, as well as three grandchildren.