Ralph S. Regula through the years:

1924

• Born in Beach City, Stark County on Dec. 3.

1944 -1946

• Serves in the U.S. Navy.

1948

• B.A. Mount Union College, Alliance, Ohio.

1948 - 1955

• School teacher, administrator, member Stark County Board of Education.

1952

• LL.B. William McKinley School of Law, Canton, Ohio. Is admitted to the Ohio bar and begins a practice in Navarre.

1957

• Selected as ''The Outstanding Young Man of the Year'' by the Canton Junior Chamber of Commerce.

1960-1964

• Member, Ohio State Board of Education.

1965-1966

• Member, Ohio House of Representatives.

1967-1972

Member, Ohio Senate.

• While in the senate is primary sponsor of a bill calling for the establishment of five technical colleges in Ohio, one of them in Stark County.

• Votes for Fair Housing Bill and a bill creating an environmental protection agency. Opposes an income tax bill in favor of a corporation tax-sales tax hike.

1972

• U.S. Rep. Frank T. Bow in his 11th term and ranking Republican member on the House Appropriations Committee, decides not to seek reelection from the 16th District.

• Regula announces he will seek his party's nomination to the vacant seat summarizing himself as ''a conservative on spending, a progressive in programs.'' Local political observers say the party favorite has been standing in line for years, waiting for Bow to step down.

• Regula defeats Democrat Virgil Musser, making his third bid for the seat even though redistricting changed the 16th district from predominantly Republican to Democratic in registration.

1973

• Begins first term as member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

• Appointed minority whip on the subcommittee on National Parks and Recreation of the House Interior Committee. Supports, along with other area congressmen Seiberling and Vanik, legislation to create a 20,000-acre national park in the Cuyahoga Valley.

• Introduces legislation to establish an Ohio and Erie Canal National Historical Park in northeastern Ohio.

• While a supporter of the Nixon administration early in the year, the freshman congressman votes to override the president's veto of a new minimum wage bill and joins in the effort to override Nixon's veto of the war powers bill.

1974

• In spite of potential fallout because of Watergate and the Nixon resignation and pardon, Regula wins re-election to represent the 16th District by a wide margin over Robert Freedom.

• Wins coveted seat on the House Appropriations Committee.

1975

• Regula opposes President Ford's plea for emergency military assistance to South Vietnam and withholds support for the president's energy plan.

• Succeeds in getting more funds for land purchases for the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

• He is one of the most outspoken Republicans against federal aid for fiscally strapped New York City saying, ''Taxpayers of other states shouldn't have to clean up after them.''

1976

• Regula personally delivers petitions bearing the signatures of area residents to the Justice Department urging government to harden policies on criminals. Regula says a bill he is drafting would increase federal penalties for using a firearm, explosive or incendiary device to commit a crime. The actions stem from the deaths of three Massillon firemen in the La Cuisina restaurant fire in November 1975.

• Votes with Democrats and some Republicans to override Ford's veto of a public works jobs bill.

• Receives a watchdog of the treasury award by the National Associated Businessmen Inc. for keeping his eye on spending.

• Re-elected to a third term in Congress. He again defeats Robert Freedom by a wide margin.

1977

• Wins seat on the prestigious House Budget Committee.

• Supports President Carter's balanced budget plans and is one of the first Republican members of the House Budget Committee to support a budget resolution by the Democrat-controlled panel.

1978

• Fights to restore most of the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area's operation and maintenance funding that had been slashed from an Interior Department's appropriations bill.

• Supports President Carter's veto of the public works bill.

• Is re-elected to a fourth term, defeating Owen S. Hand Jr. with nearly 80 percent of the vote.

1980

• Votes to provide funding to register young men for a future military draft. The proposal is strongly supported by President Carter in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

• Regula again comes to the rescue of the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area by persuading the House Interior appropriations subcommittee on which he serves to restore some of the funding which had been cut.

• Attends a Stark County fund-raiser with Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, who mispronounces his last name. The incumbent congressman had supported George Bush before he dropped out.

• Wins re-election for the fifth time, defeating Larry Slagle.

1981

• Regula regards the new president's economic policy of spending restraint, tax reforms, regulatory relief and stable monetary policy a refreshing departure from the past although he is relieved when the White House backs off earlier proposals to change the Social Security program which had generated public opposition.

1982

• A year after the inauguration of President Reagan, Congressman Regula helped get the president's economic program through Congress, but said he was not enamored with ''supply-side economic theories'' and does not ''buy the notion that deficits aren't all that bad.''

• Regula uses his position on the House Appropriations Committee to prevent the renaming of Mount McKinley. He has raged a one-man battle to prevent renaming the mountain since the Alaska Legislature approved changing the name to Denali seven years earlier.

• Wins re-election to the 16th District for the sixth time when he defeats political science professor Jeffrey Orenstein.

1984

• Regula urges the president to impose restrictions on steel imports, saying America's trading partners have ''abused our hospitality.''

• Re-elected for a seventh term by defeating James Gwin.

1985

• Regula becomes ranking Republican on the Interior subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee and plays a role in managing spending bills for national parks.

• Regula joins Rep. Pepper, D-Fla., in introducing legislation aimed at saving Urban Development Action Grants. UDAG funds have assisted such projects as the Goodyear Technical Center in Akron and the Newmarket Project in downtown Canton.

• Ignoring President Ronald Reagan's proposed moratorium on acquiring park land, a House subcommittee approves spending $5 million the following year to buy property for the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area. Regula says he is confident the acquisition and construction money will be retained when the full committee meets after the July 4 recess.

1986

• Regula came down on the President's side on aid to the Nicaraguan rebels, but opponents of the measure prevail. Later, impressed by what he learned on an 11-day trip to three South American democracies, he says he will ask the Reagan administration to try harder at negotiating before providing offensive weapons to Nicaraguan rebels.

• The House Appropriations Committee approves spending $4.5 million for land acquisition and $1.6 million for construction in the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area. The money was shepherded through the committee by Regula.

• Vice President George Bush visits Stark County's Hoover Park to help Regula's campaign for an eighth term in Congress. Regula campaigned for Bush in New Hampshire in 1980 and is backing the vice president again for president in 1988 even though Bush's candidacy is undeclared.

• Regula disagrees with the administration over trade and American jobs, issues and is the chief sponsor of the so-called ''Buy American'' amendment to the spending bill. The White House said it was one of about a dozen amendments that by themselves would guarantee a Reagan veto. The amendment is withdrawn just before the spending bill receives final passage.

• Regula defeats his Democratic challenger, William Kennick, 39, an Alliance city councilman, by a margin of about 3 to 1 to win an eighth term.

1987

• A 73-year-old Soviet citizen is reunited with his son in New York, ending a long effort by Regula on behalf of one of his former constituents.

• More than 26 miles of railroad is the newest addition to the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area when the National Park Service completes a $2.5 million deal with the parent company of Chessie Railroad. Regula is credited for pushing the purchase of the railroad, an effort started by former U.S. Rep. John Seiberling.

1988

• Scientists with the federal Office of Technology Assessment agree to review the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's investigation of the closed Industrial Excess Landfill in Uniontown. The decision follows requests by the Stark County commissioners and Regula for the OTA to take a second look at the way the U.S. EPA investigated contamination at the Uniontown dump.

• Regula is the only Ohio Republican joining House Democrats that approve a plant-closing notification bill.

• Regula, 63, wins a ninth two-year term against Democrat Melvin Gravely of Canton with nearly 80 percent of the vote.

1989

• He introduces legislation to promote the burning of Ohio coal while reducing acid rain.

• Preservationists in Canton are excited that $800,000 in federal funds may be available, under a plan devised by Regula to help purchase the historic Saxton House that was once occupied by President William McKinley.

• The House agrees to allow federally paid abortions for poor women who are victims of rape or incest, reversing nearly a decade of more restrictive votes. Regula votes against the measure.

1990

• An anti-pornography group criticizes Regula for his position on arts funding.

• Ignoring a veto threat, the House approves a $283 billion Pentagon budget for 1991 that kills the B-2 ''stealth'' bomber, cuts in half spending for the Star Wars missile shield and adds nearly $1 billion to pay for the U.S. buildup in the Persian Gulf. Regula votes with the majority.

• Although not receiving the overwhelming vote that he has racked up in the past, Regula defeats Democrat Warner Mendenhall of Canton to win his 10th term.

• A yearlong study to help determine whether a 65-mile stretch of the old Ohio and Erie Canal in Northeast Ohio will become a federally designated historic corridor is begun. The study was quietly tucked into the 1991 federal budget by Regula.

1991

• Regula votes for the resolution which gives President Bush the authority to wage war in the Persian Gulf in accordance with United Nations Resolution 678.

• Nine College of Wooster students and the campus minister are charged with criminal trespass and resisting arrest after they attempt to seize the Belden Village office of Ralph Regula in a war protest. The 10 wanted the congressman to sign a petition to end the gulf war.

• Regula votes with House Democrats when they push through a bill that bars companies from hiring permanent replacements for striking workers.

• Regula introduces a bill barring the renaming of North America's highest peak, Mt. McKinley.

• Regula asks President Bush to add tapered roller bearings made in China to the list of goods that could face stiff tariffs.

1992

• Regula votes no when the House passes a $1.26 trillion Democratic budget intended to cut military spending sharply in favor of shaving the deficit and increasing the financing of domestic programs.

• The Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area gets about $13 million more from the federal government in 1993 than President Bush wants to give it. ''We always take care of Cuyahoga,'' Regula said.

• Regula votes for the balanced-budget amendment.

• Regula says he'd rather visit the Holmes County Fair in Millersburg — not to mention the Carnation Parade in Alliance — than join fellow Republicans in the Astrodome for the party's national convention.

• Regula is re-elected to an 11th term, again defeating Warner Mendenhall Sr.

• The Stark County lawmaker supports Bush just 55 percent of the time in 1992 on votes on which the president took a position, according to Congressional Quarterly.

1993

• NAFTA contains a number of ''egregious problems'' and, at least in the short run, would cause more harm than good to the economic climate of Northeast Ohio, Regula tells the City Club of Cleveland in a speech. He says he will vote against NAFTA in its current form.

• A bill to create the country's fourth historic corridor — this one along the Ohio & Erie Canal — is introduced by Regula and 14 other members of the Ohio delegation.

• Among the nine Ohio Republicans in the House, Regula supports Clinton the most often in 1993, voting with him 58 percent of the time.

1994

• Regula moves a bill through the House that will create a federally designated historic corridor along the 87-mile Ohio & Erie Canal, from the Flats in Cleveland through Akron and Stark County to Zoar. It later gets blocked in the Senate.

• Regula is re-elected to a 12th term by defeating Democrat J. Michael Finn.

• Regula is named chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees spending for the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area.

1995

• The Coalition to Defend America charges that Regula and 23 other Republicans ''abandoned'' the ''Contract with America'' by voting against a proposal to resurrect the ''Star Wars'' missile defense system.

• Regula introduces modified legislation in an effort to win federal designation for a historic corridor from Cleveland through Akron and Canton to Zoar.

1996

• At the now-abolished U.S. Bureau of Mines, an agency whose death Regula helps engineer, angry employees — now ex-employees — make a dartboard out of a photo of Regula. ''Well, I guess it tells the story. I'm doing the job,'' said Regula, whose defaced photo appears in the Washington Post.

• With his party finally in the majority, Regula becomes one of 13 U.S. House ''cardinals,'' heading appropriations subcommittees that determine how billions of federal dollars are spent.

• Regula works as negotiator between Republicans, congressional Democrats and the Clinton administration and gets the House to pass the parks bill, which includes formation of the Ohio & Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor.

• Regula is re-elected to a 13th term, defeating Tom Burkhart of Jelloway in Knox County.

1997

• Regula votes with the majority in the House in favor of a bill to toughen treatment of juveniles charged with crimes.

1998

• The bombing of suspected terrorist sites in Afghanistan and Sudan wins the support of Regula.

• Regula is re-elected to a 14th term by defeating local chiropractor Peter Ferguson.

• Regula is honored in a surprise ceremony at the Boston Store for his continued contributions to the Cuyahoga Valley park and to the establishment and funding provided to the Ohio & Erie Canal National Heritage Corridor.

• Regula joins five other Ohio congressmen who ended weeks of indecision with declarations that they believe President Clinton should be impeached.

1999

• Regula says he remains strongly opposed to government-directed investment in the stock market, a key part of President Clinton's proposal to reform Social Security.

• The Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement, a national coalition of environmental and outdoor groups, honors Regula for his work protecting wildlife refuges.

• Regula, who heads the congressional Steel Caucus, vows to make sure ''that administration officials do not allow any weakening of our trade laws'' when finance ministers from around the globe hold World Trade Organization talks in Seattle. ''I will go to Seattle to ensure that the administration's position does not change on this important issue.''

2000

• Radio ads begin airing in the Canton area praising Ralph Regula for his leadership in protecting the environment. The ads note the role that the congressman played in establishing the Wilderness Center outside Canton, curbing strip mining, preserving the Florida Everglades and recognizing the link between population control and environmental protection.

• Regula supports establishing permanent trade relations with China. ''I voted in favor of this bill after a great deal of thought because it is in the national security interest of the U.S. to keep China engaged in a capitalist and democratic system and because it will benefit the many farmers who rely on trade in Ohio.''

• Regula defeats Democrat William Smith of Canton Township to win a 15th term.

2001

• The National First Ladies' Library in Canton, a project spearheaded by Mary Regula, its founder and president and wife of the congressman, officially becomes a National Historic Site, giving it more access to federal funding. Ralph Regula is instrumental in developing legislation in establishing the library as a national historic site.

• Regula votes for President Bush's $1.35 trillion tax-cut package approved by the House and Senate. The 10-year plan represents the largest tax cuts in two decades.

• Regula announces he will step down as chairman of the Congressional Steel Caucus to spend more time as chairman of the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee.

• Ducks Unlimited, the national environmental group honors, Regula for his longtime contributions to promoting wetlands and waterfowl as chairman of the House Appropriations Interior subcommittee. He has given up that post in the new Congress under term-limit rules for committee heads.

• About 50 union steelworkers and their supporters carry banners and chant, ''Thank you, Ralph,'' in recognition of the congressman's support of House Bill 808, known as the Steel Revitalization Act. The bill would impose quotas and tariffs on ''steel dumping.''

2002

• U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson is the guest speaker at the dedication of the $2.83 million Ralph Regula Conference Center at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine.

• Regula wins a 16th term by defeating Democrat Jim Rice.

2003

• Regula is vice chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education as the new Congress begins.

• A House resolution intended to show Congress' unified support for U.S. troops in Iraq passes overwhelmingly by a vote of 392-11. Regula votes in the majority as he does later when the House approves one of the largest foreign aid and military spending plans in U.S. history, earmarking nearly $87 billion to support U.S. troops abroad and to help rebuild Iraq's shattered infrastructure.

• Regula is among members of Congress who approve a $373 billion spending package that includes provisions to let companies deny overtime to more white-collar workers, allows networks to own more television stations, aids President Bush's plan to let private companies do more federal work and requires the FBI to destroy gun purchase applications after a day.

2004

• Regula defeats political newcomer and peace activist Jeff Seemann of Perry Township to win a 17th term representing the 16th District.

• Regula and the late John Davey, founder of the Kent-based Davey Tree Expert Co., are inducted into the Ohio Natural Resources Hall of Fame in a ceremony at Quail Hollow State Park. The hall, established in 1966, is Ohio's highest honor for conservation.

• Regula celebrates his 80th birthday.

2005

• Regula face a three-way battle to become chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., Harold Rogers of Kentucky and Regula have been waging a fierce behind-the-scenes campaign to replace Rep. C.W. ''Bill'' Young, R-Fla. who has served the maximum six years in the post. Lewis ultimately was picked.

2006

• Regula defeats Thomas Shaw to win an 18th term.

2007

• In October, Regula announces he will retire at the end of his current term.