TIMELINE: Police open fire in opposition protests in Iran

(Reuters) - Here is a summary of the main developments since Iran's June 12 presidential election:

June 12, 2009 - Ahmadinejad wins the presidential election defeating challenger Mirhossein Mousavi. Thousands of people protesting against the election result clash with police. Mousavi calls result a "dangerous charade."

June 15 - Seven people are killed on the fringes of a huge march by Mousavi supporters in central Tehran, state media says. Pro-Mousavi demonstrations also take place in the cities of Rasht, Orumiyeh, Zahedan and Tabriz.

June 16 - The Guardian Council says it is ready to carry out a partial recount of ballots, but rules out annulling the poll. Thousands of pro-Mousavi demonstrators march in northern Tehran.

June 18 - Thousands of Mousavi's backers, wearing black, rally in Tehran to mourn those killed in the protests. The Guardian Council says it has invited the three losers to discuss their complaints on June 20.

June 19 - Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says protest leaders will be responsible for any bloodshed if rallies continue over the election, which he says Ahmadinejad won fairly by 11 million votes.

June 20 - Riot police are deployed to disperse groups of several hundred Iranians who gathered across Tehran.

-- State television says 450 people are detained during clashes in Tehran in which 10 people are killed, including Neda Agha-Soltan. Graphic footage of her death is seen around the world on the Internet.

June 23 - U.S. President Barack Obama says the United States is "appalled and outraged" by Iran's crackdown. Britain expels two Iranian diplomats after two of its own are expelled from Iran.

June 26 -- Hardline cleric Ahmad Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts, calls for execution of leading "rioters."

June 28 - Authorities detain several local British embassy staff for involvement in the unrest. Britain calls the arrests "harassment and intimidation" and demands their release.

July 17 - Clashes erupt between police and reformist protesters for the first time in weeks in Tehran after former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani declares Iran in crisis.

July 30 - Clashes erupt after hundreds of Mousavi supporters gather to mourn Neda Agha-Soltan at Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra cemetery but police force Mousavi to leave. Police fire teargas to disperse protesters from nearby streets.

August 1 - Trials begin of prominent moderates, charged with trying to overthrow the clerical establishment.

August 3 - Supreme Leader Khamenei formally approves the second term presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He is sworn in two days later.

August 8 - A court charges a French woman, two Iranians working for the British and French embassies in Tehran and dozens of others with spying and aiding a Western plot to overthrow the system of clerical rule.

August 25 - A prosecutor demands ''maximum punishment" for senior reformer Saeed Hajjarian, accused of acting against national security, in the fourth mass trial of moderates.

November 4 - Police clash with Mousavi supporters in Tehran, when a rally marking the 30th anniversary of the 1979 storming of the U.S. embassy, turns violent.

November 22 - A reformist former vice president, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, who was arrested after the election, has been sentenced to six years in jail, Iranian newspapers report. He is released on bail pending an appeal.

December 19 - Iran's most senior dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, dies, providing a fresh catalyst for renewed demonstrations.

December 23 - Members of an Islamic militia and "plainclothes men" attack the house of a senior pro-reform cleric, Grand Ayatollah Yusuf Sanei, in Qom, a reformist website says.

December 24 - Iran has banned memorial services for Montazeri with the exception of those in his birthplace and Qom.

December 27 - Five people die in Tehran when pro-reform protesters clash with security forces, police say, in the worst outbreak of violence since June's contested presidential election sparked political turmoil.

Opposition websites say eight people killed in Tehran and other cities across Iran when tens of thousands take to streets. Police in Tehran say they were investigating the "suspicious" deaths. Among the dead was opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi's nephew.

(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)