CHRONOLOGY: U.S. bank rescues, failures in last century

(Reuters) - The rescue of Wall Street broker Bear Stearns & Co by the Federal Reserve with the help of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co is the latest in a long line of bank bailouts in the last century, starting with intervention by bank founder John Pierpont Morgan himself.

Following is a chronology of major events.

PANIC OF 1907

In October 1907, a run on the Knickerbocker Trust Co after it failed to corner the market in United Copper Co's shares panicked Wall Street. Banks called loans and stock prices plummeted. The calming influence came not from the Fed, which did not exist, but from banker J.P. Morgan, who organized a consortium of bankers to provide funds to banks. They were joined by U.S. Treasury Secretary George Cortelyou, who brought in $35 million in federal funds. The episode led to creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1914 to add stability to the banking system.

GREAT DEPRESSION, 1930s

Some 9,000 U.S. banks failed during the Great Depression of the 1930s as severe restriction of credit and failed loans in the wake of a stock market crash prompted runs on banks by depositors trying to withdraw their money. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first act after his 1933 inauguration was to declare a three-day bank holiday to cool things off. He later signed into law the Glass-Steagall Act, creating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, to restore confidence in banks. Roosevelt also created the Federal Housing Administration to stabilize the housing market and help stem mortgage failures.

COMMONWEALTH BANK OF DETROIT, 1972

Commonwealth Bank of Detroit was the first bank with more than $1 billion in assets to be bailed out. The bank was considered essential to Detroit's inner city, so the FDIC provided $35.5 million in loans. The FDIC was never paid back.

FIRST PENNSYLVANIA, 1980

Established in 1782 as one of the first U.S. private banks, First Penn was among many banks in the 1970s that became vulnerable to high interest rates on deposits while locked into lower-yielding assets. The bank also was considered essential to the urban community. It was the first large scale bailout by the FDIC, which provided a $325 million five-year subordinated note. Along with other loans, the new capital allowed First Penn to sell off low-yielding government securities and reduce its interest drain. The FDIC made its money back, without interest.

CONTINENTAL ILLINOIS, 1984

Once the seventh-largest U.S. bank, the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Co is the largest bank to be rescued by the Fed and FDIC. The Chicago-based bank became insolvent due largely to bad oil and gas exploration loans purchased from the failed Penn Square Bank of Oklahoma, which resulted in criminal fraud charges against lending officers.

Continental Illinois was considered "too big to fail", so the FDIC injected $4.5 billion to rescue the bank and buy bad loans. The federal government held an 80 percent stake in the bank until 1994, when it was sold to Bank of America.

SAVINGS AND LOAN CRISIS, 1980s-90s

From 1986 to 1989, the Federal Savings and Loan Deposit Insurance Corp closed or assisted 296 institutions with assets of $125 billion as many became insolvent because of unsound real estate and commercial loans. More than 740 institutions were later closed or consolidated by the Resolution Trust Corp, a federal agency created to take over and liquidate their assets, often for pennies on the dollar.

The FDIC estimates that resolution of the crisis cost a total of $153 billion, with taxpayers footing $124 billion. Other estimates have been as high as $300 billion.

LONG TERM CAPITAL MANAGMENT, 1998

Massive losses by U.S.-based hedge fund Long Term Capital Management due to Russian government bond defaults in 1998 panicked markets around the world. The Federal Reserve organized a $3.625 billion bailout with funds provided by major creditors. Bear Stearns was among the creditors that declined to participate.

(Reporting by David Lawder, Editing by Toni Reinhold)