1938

To ease the housing crisis, Fannie Mae is chartered as part of F.D.R.'s New Deal.

1968

Fannie Mae becomes a private corporation with a congressional charter stating that the president appoints five board members and shareholders pick the rest. It also says that the federal government won't bail out Fannie Mae, but markets believe there's an implicit guarantee.

1991

Jim Johnson, Walter Mondale's former campaign manager, becomes head of Fannie Mae. Its stock price soars under his watch, as does its reputation for political clout.

2004

Fannie Mae's regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, alleges widespread accounting errors and the alteration of figures to inflate executive bonuses. The scandal forces C.E.O. Franklin Raines, once Bill Clinton's budget director, to resign.

2006

Federal authorities seek civil damages against Raines, as well as the company's former chief financial officer and its controller. The case is ongoing.

2007

Fannie Mae's stock drops more than 40 percent as the housing slump and credit crunch hurt the company; calls to lift the capital requirements imposed after the 2004 accounting scandal begin to mount.