This is a timeline of Michael Jackson's life and career:

1958: Jackson is born on August 26 in Gary, Indiana.

1963: He gave his first public performance aged five singing Climb Every Mountain.

1964: He joined his brothers in The Jackson Five who sign to Motown Records in 1968.

1979: He released the solo album Off The Wall.

1982: He released Thriller which went on to become the world's best-selling album of all-time.

1985: Jackson paid 47 million US dollars for the publishing rights to the Beatles back catalogue in 1985.

1987: He released Bad and bought the Neverland ranch in California.

1993: A 13-year-old boy named Jordan Chandler claimed Jackson sexually abused him during a visit to the ranch.

1994: He married Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of rock legend Elvis Presley, but the marriage only lasted 19 months and the pair divorced.

1996: He married for the second time to nurse Debbie Rowe in 1996. The couple divorced three years later.

2003: The singer told interviewer Martin Bashir sharing a bed with a young boy is "a beautiful thing".

2005: He was acquitted of sexually molesting 12-year-old Gavin Arvizo.

2009: He died after a heart attack in Los Angeles.

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