Dec 27 (Reuters) - A 26-year-old Egyptian man died of bird flu on Wednesday, the third member of his extended family to die of the virus, the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed on Wednesday.

Here is a brief chronology of some of the major bird flu developments in 2006:

Jan. 18 - International donors pledge $1.9 billion to combat the spread of bird flu at a conference in Beijing.

Feb. 8 - The first African cases of the deadly H5N1 strain are detected in poultry in the northern Nigerian states of Kano, Kaduna and Plateau.

Feb. 11/12 - Italy says six wild swans found in Sicily and on the southern mainland tested positive for H5N1. In Greece, three swans found south of Thessaloniki test positive for H5N1. These are the first known cases of the strain in the EU. Several countries later report outbreaks in wild birds.

Feb. 17 - Egypt finds its first cases of H5N1 in chickens.

Feb. 18 - India announces its first cases of H5N1, finding the virus in poultry in a western state.

Feb. 22 - The EU approves plans by France and the Netherlands to vaccinate millions of hens, ducks and geese against bird flu.

Feb. 25 - France confirms H5N1 at a farm in the east where thousands of turkeys have died. It is the first case of the virus in domestic farm birds in the EU.

May 11 - Djibouti announces its first case of human H5N1, the first confirmed case in a person in the Horn of Africa.

July 26 - Pharmaceuticals group GlaxoSmithKline Plc says a bird flu vaccine for humans that uses only a very low dose of active ingredient has proved effective in clinical tests.

Aug. 8 - China says its first H5N1 human case was in 2003, and not in 2005 as it had originally reported.

Sept. 26 - WHO's new influenza pandemic task force calls on countries to share all virus samples and genetic sequencing data, key to developing a vaccine against a bird flu pandemic.

Sept. 28 - China shares long-sought after samples of H5N1 in what many scientists view as a breakthrough in cooperation.

Oct. 31 - Scientists in Hong Kong and the United States say they have detected a new strain of H5N1 bird flu virus in China and say it may have started another wave of outbreaks in poultry in Southeast Asia and may move deeper into Eurasia. China later rejects the report.

Dec. 8 - Foreign donors pledge an additional $475.9 million for the global fight against the virus at the end of a three-day meeting in Mali.

Dec. 21 - South Korea confirms a fourth case of bird flu in poultry. In November, South Korea had confirmed its first case of H5N1 in about three years.

Dec. 27 - WHO confirms three deaths in Egypt. The global death toll stands at 157.

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