The main dates in the life of former French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, who died on Wednedsay aged 94. - February 2, 1926: He is born in Koblenz, Germany. - 1944: Enters the Polytechnique school in Paris, graduating in 1951 from the respected National School of Administration (ENA). - 1962-1966: Finance minister in the governments of Georges Pompidou. He is appointed to the same post in governments from 1969 to 1974. - 1966: Establishes the Independent Republicans party which in 1977 becomes the centre-right Republican Party. - May 19, 1974: He is elected president with 50.8 percent of votes against 49.2 percent for Socialist Francois Mitterrand. - 1978: Forms the Union for French Democracy (UDF) made up of disparate democratic and centre-right parties. He is its leader from 1988 to 1996. - May 10, 1981: Loses the presidential election to Mitterrand with 48.2 percent of the vote to 51.7 percent. - 1989-1993: Serves as a European parliamentarian. - 2001: He is selected by European Union leaders to lead work on an EU constitutional treaty. The draft is rejected in 2005 by French and Dutch voters. - 2003: Becomes the first former head of state to be named to the elite French Academy (Academie Francaise). - 2004: Ends his active political career after losing his seat as a parliamentarian but becomes a member of France's Constitutional Council. doc/jmy-wai/lc/sjw