TIMELINE -- Takata airbag recalls

(Reuters) -- Following are some key events leading to the recall of several million cars fitted with potentially defective airbags made by Japanese supplier Takata Corp.

2008: 

Nov 4 -- Honda Motor recalls 4,000 Accords and Civics (2001 models) globally as Takata airbag inflators may produce excessive internal pressure causing them to rupture and spray metal fragments in the car.

2009: 

May 27 -- Oklahoma teen Ashley Parham dies when the airbag in her 2001 Honda Accord explodes, shooting metal fragments into her neck. Honda and Takata deny fault and settle for an undisclosed sum.

July 29 -- Honda recalls 510,000 Civics, Accords and Acura 3.2 TL cars (2001-02 models) globally for potentially defective Takata airbags.

Dec 24 -- Gurjit Rathore is killed in Virginia when the airbag in a 2001 Honda Accord explodes after a minor accident, severing arteries in her neck, court documents show. Her family sues Honda and Takata for more than $75 million in April 2011, claiming they knew of the airbag problems as early as 2004. Honda and Takata settle in January 2013 for $3 million, according to court documents. 

2010: 

Feb 9 -- Honda recalls 437,000 Acura cars and other vehicles(2001-03 models) globally, expanding earlier recalls, saying there were two processes used to prepare airbag inflator propellant and one "does not provide us with the same confidence." 

2011: 

April 27 -- Honda recalls 896,000 Honda and Acura 2001-03 cars in order to find defective Takata airbag inflators installed as replacement parts.

Dec 1 -- Honda again expands recalls. Globally, it says 304,000 are recalled as a bad inflator may have been installed at the factory, and 613,000 are recalled to find defective inflators installed as replacement parts. 

2013: 

April 11 -- Toyota Motor, Honda, Nissan Motor and Mazda Motor recall 3.4 million vehicles globally due to possibly defective Takata airbags. 

April 18 -- Takata says to book extraordinary loss of $307 million for year to March 2013 for recall-related costs. 

May 7 -- BMW recalls 220,000 vehicles globally, raising the overall recall for the latest Takata-related issue to over 3.6 million.

May 10 -- Takata posts record $212.5 million annual net loss, and names Swiss national Stefan Stocker as president, the first foreigner in the post.

Sept 3 -- Third death linked to Takata airbags. Devin Xu dies in a 2002 Acura TL sedan in a parking lot accident near Los Angeles from "apparent facial trauma due to foreign object inside airbag," according to coroner's report. 

2014:

June 11 -- Toyota expands prior recall to 2.27 million vehicles globally; adding 650,000 previously not recalled in Japan, and 1.62 million overseas for a second time. 

NHTSA opens probe that goes beyond manufacturing glitches Takata and Honda previously identified. NHTSA is examining whether driving in high humidity regions contributes to the risk of Takata airbag explosions. Takata says inflators in the recall were supplied to Honda, Toyota, BMW, Chrysler, Ford, Mazda and Nissan. It says there is nothing to indicate any safety defects in these inflators.

June 23 -- Honda, Nissan and Mazda recall 2.95 million vehicles, expanding the April 2013 recall, bringing the total recall to about 10.5 million vehicles over five years. Later, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, BMW, Chrysler and Ford say they are recalling more vehicles in some U.S. high humidity regions at NHTSA's request to replace Takata airbag inflators.

June 26 -- Takata CEO apologizes to shareholders at AGM.

June 30 -- Takata says some potentially defective inflators were also shipped to Subaru and Mitsubishi Motors . 

July 16 -- BMW recalls about 1.6 million cars worldwide to replace Takata airbags, going beyond the regional U.S. recall. 

July 18 -- Takata says it will book special loss of about 45 billion yen ($440 million) in April-June for recalls. 

Oct 2 -- Fourth death linked to Takata airbags. Orlando woman Hien Thi Tran dies four days after her 2001 Honda Accord is in an accident in which the airbag explodes, shooting out shrapnel, according to the police report. 

Oct 17 -- Reuters, based on a review of internal Takata documents and emails, reports the Japanese supplier struggled to meet its own standards for safety in manufacturing airbag inflators at its plant in Monclova, Mexico.

Oct 20 -- Toyota recalls 247,000 vehicles in the U.S. for Takata airbag problems.

Oct 22 -- NHTSA expands the total number of U.S. vehicles recalled involving Takata airbags to 7.8 million over the past 18 months. 

Oct 27 -- A lawsuit seeking class-action status is filed in Florida, claiming Takata and automakers, including Honda and Toyota, concealed crucial information on potentially defective airbags.

Oct 30 -- NHTSA orders Takata to provide documents and answer questions under oath in airbag probe. On Nov 5, NHTSA orders Honda to do the same. 

Nov 6 -- Takata warns of a bigger full-year loss, and pays no interim dividend for first time since 2006. 

Nov 7 -- New York Times reports Takata ordered technicians to destroy results of tests on some airbags after finding cracks in inflators. Democratic lawmakers call for criminal probe into Takata. A week later, Takata issues a statement calling the story "fundamentally inaccurate." 

Nov 12 -- Takata tells Reuters it has modified the composition of an airbag propellant that contains a volatile chemical at the center of the airbag recalls. Takata did not specify how or when the propellant recipe in the airbag inflators changed, but said ammonium nitrate is still used and the change was part of a process of continual improvement and not a sign of a flaw or defect.

Nov 13 -- Honda says an unnamed woman died in Malaysia in July after being hit by shrapnel from a Takata airbag in her Honda City -- the fifth such fatality and first outside the U.S. Honda later says the woman was pregnant and her fetus died.

Honda recalls another 170,000 cars in Asia and Europe, taking its total Takata-related recalls to nearly 10 million. 

Takata says its U.S. unit has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to produce documents related to airbag defects.

Takata tells Automotive News it is adding two production lines at its plant in Monclova, Mexico, to produce replacement inflators for airbags.

Nov 18 -- NHTSA tells Takata, Honda, Ford, Mazda, BMW and Chrysler to expand nationwide a U.S. regional recall.

Automotive News contributed to this report.