The following is a chronology of events related to the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult and its founder, Shoko Asahara, whose real name was Chizuo Matsumoto:

March 2, 1955 — Matsumoto is born in Kumamoto Prefecture.

February 1984 — Asahara forms group Aum Shinsen no Kai.

July 1987 — Aum Shinsen no Kai is renamed Aum Shinrikyo.

November 4, 1989 — Tsutsumi Sakamoto, a lawyer helping people with complaints against Aum, is slain along with his wife and 1-year-old son at their Yokohama home.

February 1990 — Asahara and 24 other members of Aum run in a House of Representatives election. All of them lose.

June 27, 1994 — Aum members release sarin in a residential district of Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, killing eight people and injuring about another 600.

March 20, 1995 — Aum members release sarin on Tokyo subway trains, killing 13 people and injuring more than 6,000.

May 16, 1995 — Asahara is arrested.

April 24, 1996 — The trial of Asahara begins.

February 2000 — Aum renames itself Aleph.

March 13, 2003 — While being questioned for the first time in court, Asahara refuses to speak.

April 24, 2003 — Prosecutors demand Asahara be given the death penalty.

February 27, 2004 — Tokyo District Court sentences Asahara to death.

September 15, 2006 — Supreme Court finalizes Asahara's death sentence.

May 2007 — Former Aum spokesman Fumihiro Joyu launches splinter group Hikari no Wa.

June 2008 — Law enacted to provide Aum victims and relatives with government benefits.

December 31, 2011 — Aum fugitive Makoto Hirata surrenders to police.

June 2012 — Aum fugitives Katsuya Takahashi and Naoko Kikuchi are arrested.

January 18, 2018 — Supreme Court rejects Takahashi's appeal, settling his life sentence and ending all trials related to the cult.

March 14-15, 2018 — Seven of 13 former Aum members on death row are transferred from a Tokyo detention center to other facilities.

July 6, 2018 — Asahara and six other Aum members on death row are executed.

July 26, 2018 — Six remaining former Aum members on death row are executed.