TIMELINE: Financial crisis since December

(Reuters) - European governments offered more help to stricken banks on Wednesday while a bank bailout meant UK public finances are heading for their worst year since records began after World War Two.

Here is a timeline of the financial crisis since December:

December 1 - The U.S. economy slipped into recession in December 2007, says the National Bureau of Economic Research, a prestigious private research group.

December 2 - The Bank of Japan unveils 3 trillion yen ($32 billion) in new measures to ease an acute squeeze in corporate funding.

December 4 - The ECB drops its benchmark rate by 0.75 percentage point to 2.50 percent, the euro zone's biggest cut ever.

-- The Bank of England slashes interest rates by 1 percentage point to two percent, the lowest level since 1951.

December 9 - Canada's central bank cuts its benchmark interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point to 1.5 percent, the lowest since 1958. The bank also says the country is now entering a recession.

-- Japan's Sony Corp says it will cut 16,000 jobs and curb investment to save $1.1 billion a year. The job cuts are the biggest announced by an Asian company so far.

December 11 - Bank of America Corp says it plans to eliminate 30,000 to 35,000 jobs over three years, reflecting its pending purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co and weaker business activity.

December 12 - In Brussels, an EU summit commits to an economic stimulus package worth about 1.5 percent of total EU output or around 200 billion euros ($264 billion).

December 15 - Japanese business sentiment suffers its sharpest fall since the 1970s oil crises, taking the Bank of Japan's tankan survey to its lowest in nearly seven years.

December 19 - The U.S. government throws a $17.4 billion lifeline to Detroit carmakers crippled by the recession.

December 21 - Ireland agrees to inject 5.5 billion euros ($7.7 billion) into its three main banks, taking Anglo Irish Bank under its control.

December 24 - Japan approves an 88.5 trillion yen ($980.6 billion) budget, its biggest ever, to help finance a 12 trillion yen fiscal stimulus program. January 6, 2009 - Alcoa Inc (AA.N) says it will slash more than 15,000 jobs as it reduces aluminum production.

January 7 - The U.S. budget deficit will swell to a record $1.186 trillion in fiscal 2009, congressional forecasters say.

January 8 - The BoE cuts interest rates by half a percentage point to a record low of 1.5 percent. Rates in Britain have never fallen below 2 percent, not even during the 1930s.

January 9 - Data shows that some 2.6 million Americans lose their jobs in 2008, the worst toll since 1945.

January 13 - The U.S. Treasury says it has injected $271.7 billion in 257 banks so far, but it will take time for the capital to make credit more available,

January 15 - Nortel Networks Corp NT.TONT.N, North America's biggest telephone equipment maker, files for bankruptcy.

-- JPMorgan Chase & Co's (JPM.N) fourth-quarter profit plunges 76 percent as it writes down bad loans.

January 15 - The European Central Bank cuts interest rate by a half point to 2 percent the lowest level since the common currency was launched 10 years ago.

January 19 - Britain launches a second bank rescue plan, under which the BoE will set up an asset purchase program to buy private sector assets with an initial fund of 50 billion pounds.

January 20 - Barack Obama takes office as president of the United States. Wall Street greets the new president with its worst inauguration day ever.

-- Stock prices extend losses as the Dow closes down 4 percent, extending its 2009 slump to more than 9 percent, as Obama says that the economy was "badly weakened" by "greed and irresponsibility."

January 21 - Britain says its bank bailouts have dealt a major blow to Britain's public finances as the recapitalization of ailing Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) blows out the deficit to 44.2 billion pounds ($62 billion) last month, its highest on record.

(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit;) Additional writing by Carl Bagh; editing by Stephen Nisbet)