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Iraq: Key dates

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(CNN) -- Some key dates surrounding the Iraq War:

March 19, 2003: The war in Iraq begins with U.S. airstrikes, followed by the invasion.

April 9, 2003: Coalition forces take Baghdad. Celebrating Iraqis -- with help from U.S. Marines -- topple a statue of Saddam Hussein.

May 1, 2003: President Bush addresses the nation from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and declares the end of "major combat operations" in Iraq. He stands below a banner that reads, "Mission Accomplished."

July 22, 2003: U.S. forces kill Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay.

November 6, 2003: President Bush signs an $87 billion spending bill for reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan

December 13, 2003: Saddam Hussein captured in a "spider hole" in Tikrit.

April 27, 2004: The U.S. military announces that six U.S. soldiers have been charged with abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.

May 11, 2004: A video of American Nicholas Berg's beheading is posted on the Internet, the first of several executions to be released in this manner. The masked executioner is believed to be Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

June 28, 2004: U.S. returns sovereignty to Iraq two days ahead of schedule. The Iraqi interim government is sworn in.

January 30, 2005: Millions of Iraqis cast ballots in the nation's first free election in half a century.

October 15, 2005: Iraqi citizens vote in a national referendum for a new draft constitution, which is later ratified.

November 17, 2005: Rep. John Murtha (D-Pennsylvania), calls for an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Murtha is a former Marine who had previously supported the war effort.

November 19, 2005: At least 15 civilians, including women and children, are killed in an incident involving several U.S. Marines, following the death of a Marine by a roadside bomb. The U.S. military launches a criminal investigation into the incident.

December 15, 2005: Millions of Iraqis vote in parliamentary elections.

March 16, 2006: Congress passes a $92 billion emergency spending package that includes $72 billion for the war.

May 20, 2006: The Iraqi Parliament approves Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's choices for the Iraqi national unity government. There are 37 cabinet ministers from all major parties and all major ethnic and secular groups.

June 8, 2006: Abu Musab al Zarqawi is killed.

August 21, 2006: A CNN poll finds that 61 percent of Americans oppose the war in Iraq, the highest number since the war began in March 2003.

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