25-26 April - Safety test takes place at Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Ukraine.
Nothing is wrong.
26 April (1.38 a.m.) - An explosion destroys the fourth reactor.
Nobody here is in pain.
27 April (2.00 p.m.) - Evacuation of Pripyat begins.
What you wrote didn't break her heart.
28 April - Tass announces the accident to the world.
What she said didn't take you apart.
29 April - First news item is published in the Soviet press.
You weren't fighting with somebody you love.
1 May - May Day celebrations take place as planned in Kiev, Minsk, and other cities.
You aren't crying with somebody you love.
2 May - Politburo members Ryzhkov and Ligachev visit Chernobyl. A 30 kilometer zone around the reactor is designated for evacuation.
Soon everything will blow over.
10 May - The fourth reactor is "capped" with sand and boron, and leakages of radiation end.
Soon it will all be forgotten.
May-June - Military reservists brought to Chernobyl to lead the clean-up operation.
Pretend nothing ever happened.
August - The Soviet report on the causes of the accident is presented to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.
Pretend it's not still happening.
December - A concrete roof ("sarcophagus") is completed over the fourth reactor.
Pretend it's all okay.
The Chernobyl timeline was stolen blatantly from http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu21le/uu21le0j.htm#chronology and I saw this node's title in somebody's .sig a long time ago. All of the usage and the words on the right are, however, mine.