CHRONOLOGY: U.S. bank rescues, failures in last century

(Reuters) - The rescue of Wall Street broker Bear Stearns & Co BSC.N by the Federal Reserve with the help of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) is the latest in a long line of bank bailouts in the last century, starting with intervention by bank founder John Pierpont Morgan himself.

Following is a chronology of major events.

PANIC OF 1907

In October 1907, a run on the Knickerbocker Trust Co after it failed to corner the market in United Copper Co's shares panicked Wall Street. Banks called loans and stock prices plummeted. The calming influence came not from the Fed, which did not exist, but from banker J.P. Morgan, who organized a consortium of bankers to provide funds to banks. They were joined by U.S. Treasury Secretary George Cortelyou, who brought in $35 million in federal funds. The episode led to creation of the Federal Reserve System in 1914 to add stability to the banking system.

GREAT DEPRESSION, 1930s

Some 9,000 U.S. banks failed during the Great Depression of the 1930s as severe restriction of credit and failed loans in the wake of a stock market crash prompted runs on banks by depositors trying to withdraw their money. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first act after his 1933 inauguration was to declare a three-day bank holiday to cool things off. He later signed into law the Glass-Steagall Act, creating the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, to restore confidence in banks. Roosevelt also created the Federal Housing Administration to stabilize the housing market and help stem mortgage failures.

COMMONWEALTH BANK OF DETROIT, 1972

Commonwealth Bank of Detroit was the first bank with more than $1 billion in assets to be bailed out. The bank was considered essential to Detroit's inner city, so the FDIC provided $35.5 million in loans. The FDIC was never paid back.

FIRST PENNSYLVANIA, 1980