http://www.shroud.com/history.htmOctober 1, 1972: Attempt to set fire to the Shroud on the part of an unknown individual who breaks into the Royal Chapel after climbing over the Palace roof. The Shroud survives due to its asbestos protection within the altar shrine.
August 26, 1978: The Shroud is exhibited at inaugural Mass on the first day of a five-week-long period of expositions commemorating the 400th anniversary of the Shroud in Turin. It is the first public exhibition since 1933. In the very same hour of the inaugural Mass, Cardinal Luciani of Venice is proclaimed Pope in Rome, becoming Pope John Paul I, to live just thirty-three days more. During the five weeks the Shroud is publicly displayed, more than 3.5 million visitors view the cloth.
September 2-3, 1978: In Amston, Connecticut, Dr. John Jackson's group of scientists, at this time calling themselves the United States Conference of Research on the Shroud of Turin, meet to finalize their plans, following Turin having agreed to a twenty-four hour test period on 9 October. This meeting would become known as the "Dry Run" and was the first time that the entire team assembled together. They spend their time reviewing the planned experiments and testing their equipment, including the special table designed to hold the Shroud. They also sign the agreement that formally creates the Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP).
September 28, 1978: Sudden death of Pope John Paul I. While Cardinal of Venice he had planned to visit the Shroud on 21 September and was rumored to have been intending a quiet private visit before the close of the exposition.
September 29, 1978: The STURP team departs the United States for Turin under a cloud of doubt, concerned that the death of the Pope John Paul I the night before might cause the cancellation of their testing.
September 30, 1978: The STURP team arrives in Turin. Some of their luggage is lost and Italian Customs authorities hold all eighty cases of their test equipment, refusing to release any of it. One particularly delicate piece of x-ray equipment needs to be filled with liquid nitrogen or it will be damaged beyond repair. Access is denied.
October 1-5, 1978: The STURP team, originally planning to use the week to set up and test their equipment, spends their time holding planning meetings three times a day and making continued attempts to get the equipment released by Italian Customs.
October 5, 1978: At 2:30 p.m., the truck bearing eighty cases of delicate STURP equipment finally enters the courtyard of the Royal Palace. The team begins the task of unloading the truck and moving the crates of instruments into the Hall of Visiting Princes. They are five days behind schedule.
The first piece of equipment opened by the STURP team is the delicate x-ray device requiring the liquid nitrogen. To everyone's amazement, there is just enough of the cold liquid remaining in the device to keep the delicate tube functioning. It has lasted days beyond its rated capacity.
May 13, 1981: (Wednesday) Dr. John Jackson, Fr. Adam Otterbein and other STURP representatives are in St. Peter's Square awaiting an audience with Pope John Paul II to report to him on the 1978 testing when the Pope is shot by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca.
April 1986: Professor Chagas sends out invitations for the workshop meeting to take place in Turin on 9-11 June. Chagas has revealed this to the British journalist Peter Jennings, who publishes the story, precipitating heated feelings concerning this disclosure.
August 8, 1988: The Oxford laboratory completes its Shroud work.
August 26, 1988: The London Evening Standard carries banner headlines declaring the Shroud to be a fake made in 1350. The source, Cambridge librarian Dr. Stephen Luckett, has no known previous connection with the Shroud, or with the carbon dating work, but in this article declares scientific laboratories 'leaky institutions'. The story is picked up around the world.
September 18, 1988: Without quoting its source, The Sunday Times publishes a front-page story headlined: 'Official: The Turin Shroud is a Fake'. Professor Hall and Dr. Tite firmly deny any responsibility for this story.
October 13, 1988:(Thursday) At a press conference held in Turin, Cardinal Ballestrero, Archbishop of Turin, makes an official announcement that the results of the three laboratories performing the Carbon dating of the Shroud have determined an approximate 1325 date for the cloth. At a similar press conference held at the British Museum, London, it is announced that the Shroud dates between 1260 and 1390 AD. Newspaper headlines immediately brand the Shroud a fake and declare that the Catholic Church has accepted the results.
February 15, 1989: (Wednesday) In a talk at the Logan Hall, Institute of Education, London, Professor Hall lectures to the British Museum Society on 'The Turin Shroud: A Lesson in Self-Persuasion'. He very forcefully declares anyone continuing to regard the Shroud as genuine a 'Flat Earther' and 'onto a loser'.
March 9 to September 2, 1990: London's British Museum holds exhibition entitled 'Fake. The Art of Deception'. This includes a life-size transparency of the Turin Shroud.
May 4, 1990: During celebration of the Feast of the Holy Shroud in the Royal Chapel, Turin (reputedly, shortly after the words 'Ita missa est'), several chunks of stone crash to the floor from the roof ninety-eight feet above. These are due to shifts on the part of exterior sustaining arches. The Chapel is closed and a temporary canopy erected over its altar.
February 24, 1993: (Ash Wednesday) Because of the repairs to the Royal Chapel, the Shroud, without being taken out of its casket, is removed from its normal shrine in the Royal Chapel and transferred to a specially designed but temporary plate glass display case behind the High Altar, in the main body of Turin Cathedral. In poor health, Fr. Peter Rinaldi has flown from the States to be present at this transfer, but collapses and is taken to a Turin hospital.
April 11 & 12, 1997: Shortly after 11 p.m. fire breaks out in Turin's Guarini Chapel, quickly threatening the Shroud's bulletproof display case. Fireman Mario Trematore uses a sledgehammer to break open this case and the Shroud, in its traditional casket, is taken temporarily to Cardinal Saldarini's residence. Signs of arson are found in the Royal Chapel, the walls of which are very badly damaged. Also damaged are the whole High Altar end of the cathedral and the part of the Royal Palace directly adjoining the Chapel.
January 20, 2005: A peer reviewed scientific paper by Raymond N. Rogers, retired Fellow of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, is published in the journal Thermochimica Acta, Volume 425, Issues 1-2, Pages 189-194. Titled "Studies on the radiocarbon sample from the Shroud of Turin," the paper concludes: "As unlikely as it seems, the sample used to test the age of the Shroud of Turin in 1988 was taken from a rewoven area of the Shroud. Pyrolysis-mass spectrometry results from the sample area coupled with microscopic and microchemical observations prove that the radiocarbon sample was not part of the original cloth of the Shroud of Turin. The radiocarbon date was thus not valid for determining the true age of the Shroud."
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